They split up the weapons and supplies as they prepared to leave.
Rashon took two handguns, Maya took a handgun and the shotgun, and Jose took the ninjato in addition to the baton from earlier. He had his new skill to fall back on, and sharp edges simply felt more reliable than bullets in his hands.
They moved like a well-oiled machine, purposeful and quiet.
Each of them wrestled with the same unspoken thought: what if their loved ones were already gone? The terror they'd witnessed fueled a silent, steel-hard resolve—they had to get moving.
"Alright, I'm pretty sure it's still mid-morning, so if we get to that pharmacy you mentioned, we should still have time to get a good distance from here by the time it starts getting dark," said Jose looking at the position of the sun outside.
"It's just the next building over," Rashon replied, hesitant. "But… that dog monster went that way."
"We have no choice. You said the entrance to the highway is in the same direction, and I, at least, have to go south to reach my family," added Maya as Jose nodded.
"…Right," Rashon sighed. "My family's south too. And leaving without any kind of medical supplies would be stupid."
***
They reached the pharmacy without incident. Quietly, they packed first-aid kits, food, and anything made of cloth to muffle their movement.
Jose was the only one heading north, while the other two were heading south. Considering the entrances to the highway were in two completely different directions, they were forced to split up outside of the pharmacy.
"Be safe," Jose said, hugging them both. "Watch each other's backs."
"Thanks for saving us when we first met," said Rashon, acknowledging that had it not been for Jose's quick thinking, the first group of Tainted might have killed them.
"And for being a decent person," added Maya. "I know too many men that would devolve into beasts in such circumstances."
***
At the highway entrance, Jose paused. The others would be safer together, at least for now.
The scene before him was chilling. Cars were bumper-to-bumper, frozen in a permanent traffic jam. Whatever had triggered this "blackout," as they'd started calling it, had hit during rush hour.
Wide, open areas meant visibility. But also vulnerability.
No sooner did he have this thought that a situation happened to drive it home.
He edged toward the shoulder, keeping a wary eye on the cars. Just as he relaxed, movement flashed at the edge of his vision. A Tainted erupted from a nearby passenger seat, smashed through the window, and grabbed his arm.
"Shit!"
Panic surged. He struck wildly before regaining control, then drove his ninjato straight through its skull.
[You have leveled up.]
He fell to his knees and retched—again, the same black sludge.
"What the hell is up with the vomiting?" he muttered, clutching his bleeding arm. Deep gashes oozed blood where the creature's grip had torn through him.
"Stupid," he growled. "Fucking careless."
Killing them still rattled him, a visceral reminder that caution alone wouldn't be enough in this new world.
This was no longer the safe utopia of the 21st century, it was now a do-or-die world with no mercy or remorse.
Not that it had any of those things before, but now monsters walked the land, and there would be no police, first responders, or laws to keep people safe from the monsters and one another.
"Fuck me," he whispered as he removed his duffle bag and pulled out a bottled water and first aid kit.
"That fucker got me good." It had torn gashes open at the back of his bicep and, likely, bruised the bones as well.
He washed the gashes out with water before covering them with some dressing and tying it up with gauze.
After cleaning and bandaging the arm, he began the arduous trip up the highway.
Sharp pain radiated from his bruised arm every step he took, but he endured.
He kept to the breakdown lane, avoiding the traffic jam. A few hundred feet later, rustling in the bushes set him on edge.
A Tainted lunged from the overgrown bushes.
He'd been ready for it this time holding his sword as the monster ran in ready to tackle him.
Jose jumped back and swung the sword down on its head. The blow left his arm numb but it sunk in deep enough to get the job done.
The monster, however, hadn't come alone.
Another Tainted came from behind and tackled him to the ground. They tumbled and tussled in the dirt by the side of the road.
The impact had knocked the sword from his hands and now both his arms were occupied holding the monster's teeth at bay as it tried to bite his face off while he struggled for position.
He finally got his waist under him and bucked the monster off. As afraid as he was of becoming its next meal, he was angry.
Angry that the monster had gotten the jump on him, angry at the fear he felt, angry at how his life had been going before the blackout, angry at how his life was going now, but most of all, he was angry at himself.
How had he allowed himself to become this? To be defeated by life, by his anxieties and depression? How had he gotten so out of shape, barely able to swing a short sword?
It pissed him off that it'd happened. It pissed him off that he felt weak, afraid, and alone. It pissed him off that these Tainted saw him as prey.
Jose sprang to his feet and slammed into the Tainted, driving it back to the ground with raw fury. He mounted its chest, fists hammering down with wild, unrelenting rage.
"I am not weak!"
Crack.
"I am not scared!"
Crunch.
"I fucking hate you!"
Smash.
He struck with every ounce of pain and fury that had built inside him for years—until his knuckles were bloody, and the monster's head crumbled beneath the final shout:
"Strike!"
Jose kneeled on top of the ashes the monster had become, breathing hard and shaking.
Once, he'd been able to face the world without flinching, withoug regard to what others thouht of him. He would find that strength again—he'd have to. Because in this world, weakness meant death.
He sluggishly stood on wobbly legs as he dragged in wheezing breaths. He was exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
But he had to move, being brave was not the same as being stupid, and standing around exhausted and in the open in such a dangerous world was the epitome of stupid.
***
Two miles later, overturned and crushed vehicles lined the highway, as if blasted outward by an unseen force. At the center of the chaos was a crater, and in it, something…
'Whatever this is, it clearly fell from a great height,' he thought, standing in a large crater several hundred feet in diameter. In the center hovered a crystal the size of his fist.
It whispered to him—not in words, but in feeling. It called to something inside him. A promise of power.
He knew he should walk away. But he also knew that in this world, risk would be the only path to power.
He reached out.
[You have acquired an Echo Shard.]
Upon grabbing it, the crystal took on a blinding aura. It quickly became a dull, pulsing blue light.
Every pulse sent plasma running up his arm and onto his chest, where it drilled into his body.
Startled, he attempted to drop the crystal, but his hand wouldn't listen—it remained closed in a death grip.
The plasma moved faster and faster into his body as he attempted to let go.
An intense jolt of pain and heat radiated from everywhere the plasma struck. He began feeling hotter and hotter as it continued, till it felt like he was cooking in his own skin.
He was now stuck in place, unable to let the crystal go, unable to move, and unable to release the painful scream that died in his throat.
'Endure!' He screamed in his head, 'You have to endure! Endure and grow strong in this new world!'
Time lost meaning in his agony—even so, he endured as he repeated the word in his head like a mantra.
The moment the last of the plasma left the crystal it crumbled under his grip, turned to dust, and floated away on the wind.
Finally able to move, he let out a horrifying scream as he fell to the floor.
Darkness began creeping in on him as he lay there, crippled by the pain. Finally, the darkness took him.
***
He opened his eyes groggy and disoriented.
He was in space somehow, he attempted to move his extremities and found he couldn't feel his arms or legs. Looking at himself he found no body, no breath, no gravity.
Just… Awareness.
Stars burned in the distance.
A massive blue giant pulsed far off.
A planet, blue and ringed like a hybrid of Earth and Jupiter, spun slowly nearby.
Between them floated two beings—one male, one female.
They began releasing massively dense auras, which grew rapidly until they crashed against each other and began vying for supremacy.
The clash gave birth to powerful shockwaves that began spreading out at a rapid tempo, increasing in size, power, and speed every few seconds.
The waves of power reached him and swept him away into darkness once again.
***
He gasped awake in the crater, coughing blood. The ground beneath him was soaked in black sludge.
His body felt stronger and lighter than it had for a long time, and he realized what the black sludge must be.
"Impurities? Is that what becoming a galvanized means? That more and more impurities begin leaving your body as you grow stronger?"
His interface lay open.
[Health: 220/220 Ether: 24/24
Level: 3
Soul: Ancient
Race: Sapient
Genus: None
Species: None
Strength: 5
Constitution: 6
Endurance: 8
Agility: 8
Dexterity: 8
Awareness: 10
Wisdom: 7
Capacity: 12
Free Points: 12
Skills: Strike, Orb]
Looking down at himself, he noticed that not only had he lost some weight and gained some new muscle, but also his arm had been fully healed.
If not for the fact that he could no longer tell the time of day or how long he'd been lying there he would have felt some relief.
His thoughts drifted to the vision. The beings. The crystal.
'What the hell was with that strange dream?' It was vivid in a way he hadn't experienced before, 'and what was an Echo Shard? Isn't that what the system called the crystal?'
'Did that shard show me some sort of memory or vision of godly beings? Is that what happened here on Earth? Did some sort of catastrophe befall us due to godly beings fighting out in space?'
Whatever was happening, whatever that dream or vision was, they had sparked many more questions and emotions within him.
It was becoming clear to him that this was the end of the world as people knew it. But on some level, it was also a new beginning.
Some part of him was excited at the prospect of living a life where one was responsible for one's own day-to-day survival; where money and politics meant nothing; where strength and power didn't mean you had wealth but real power; where one didn't slave away all day at a job they didn't want just to pay bills.
But the other part of him knew that power such as this was likely unbiased. That people who were unstable and evil would also acquire power.
Monsters already walked the land, and he knew that should some of the unhinged people of the world get this type of power, they would become monsters of another kind.
The thought sparked a new sense of urgency in him and he couldn't wait to begin finding his family members.
Putting away his questions and worries, he sinched up his belt and began jogging up the highway again.
He would put this newfound strength to the test and make haste to his loved ones.