Recap

  I say “Of Course I'm Fine” and I keep my mask on. A smiling mask of absolute sincerity and trust. Because that's who I need to be right now to make sure my parents and my siblings don't freak out. Even though I am Absolutely Not Fine.

  The Next Day Part 3

  With my mask still in place, I explained my day. I go through everything and I ask about how they survived. My mask is still in place. I need them to trust me. I need them to understand that everything is fine with me. Though in reality, I am not. I've just been through a horrific incident.

  I had to run for my life. I had to fight and kill giant monsters. No one's ever gonna be OK with that. My room was destroyed, one of the places that I thought was safe is gone. People aren't just going to be magically OK with that.

  They're gonna have problems, and I know I have problems. I'm jittery, I think I developed anxiety. I feel like something's about to break down the door and just come in and start a massacre. I feel energetic, full of adrenaline, a slight bit of excitement at how the world changed, but also dread. Realizing the amount of people that have died.

  It's…I…My feelings are complicated. Constrained. I feel….I feel confused. I want to know why?! Why did the sky turn red?! Why are there giant monsters?! Why does it feel like the Mist is empowering me?! Why now? Why here? Why? Was it done by somebody? Was it influenced by something? Is God real?

  I know about the Mist creatures and civilizations that this happened to before now. I know that they survived and have lent a helping hand. I'm thankful for that, but why? Why are they helping? What's in it for them!?

  Whole civilizations exist! We're not alone anymore. We have friends in the stars. Why now though, why did they not contact us before the Mist? They said the Mist just Is. What does that mean? Is it a force of nature, just there and does what it does because of some inherent rules. Or does it think and does what it wants willingly? I….I don't know anymore and I don't care right now. I need to reassure my family first before all the BS.

  While those thoughts sailed through my mind, a bit of jitteriness escaped my control and I felt my hands shake. I stop them and keep my cool as quickly as possible. Even before anyone noticed it is what I hope anyway. Well, first things first, I gotta make sure my family doesn't freak out. They know me. They know me a lot. So I have to keep my calm and keep my mouth smiling. I have to encourage them to tell me about their problems and their issues. And then I can slowly help them as much as I can.

  In the far far future I can tell them about my issues. At least one person needs to be strong right now, and I guess that has to be me. My mothers has lines of worry around her eyes. My fathers stare hardened and contemplative belaying an inner worry. The unnatural excitement from my little brother tinged with anxiety and quite possibly a little bit of fear.

  My sister's happy go lucky attitude, a possible front for a worried and fearful persona inside. All of them are putting on a mask. It might not be as thick as mine, might not hide as much as mine, but its still there, a mask overtop their worries and feelings. I can see their worries right through their masks and I think they can too, through mine, I try not to show anything even under it.

  They care. I know that. They are my family. I know that. I just can't right now. In the future, most likely, not possible right now. The mask is civility. This is a polite society. This is family. So you don't bring it up. At least not for a while. Everyone lets the mask settle. In the future the mask cracks, emotions leaking through and slowly the mask will break off, not now though. For now I want to be the one that they can lean on to ask questions. To make sure that everything can be better.

  Then, my parents will take care of organizing everything and helping lead us to a better future. They did it before. Running from a war back home. They helped us survive this before. Not the apocalypse, but something similar. An apocalyptic event happening in our country. A war unlike any other. Collapsed hospital buildings, millions dead or dying. Hundreds of millions injured. In various states of loss. Food and water scarcity, injuries and hopelessness. We survived. My parents brought all three of us away from there when we were infants. Through nothing but grit and pure stubbornness as well as a whole lot of trickery and sacrifice.

  They are quite frankly, genius level intellects in all things survival. At least that's what the story they tell me implies. So if even a little is true they should be able to plan out our next moves. They should help with figuring out a safe place to stay for now and how to make a large safe area for the safe zone people in a year's time.

  After some discussion we were finally able to come to a consensus on what should be done. We wanted to stay at home, then venture out to find a safe zone. Similar to the ones that I've utilized to fucking run away from the Giga-roaches and the Roid rats but larger, able to cover a house maybe a few blocks or even more. A safe zone that has, from what my little brother Jake read and suggested, stores and other areas of mixed goods to help us.

  We were all pretty skeptical of what Jake said about the possible stores and other things that the apocalypse provides. Jake reasoned out that as safe zones exist what creates those safe zones might be an external power because the Mist doesn't seem to be creating them.

  I, on the other hand, completely disagreed with him. I really thought that the Mist might randomly be generating those safe zones because some were large, some were smallish and they were dotted everywhere when I ran home. I knew the big safe zone with everyone was made by someone but they said nothing about making any on Gerna.

  If some greater power was creating those safe zones they probably would make them more uniform. Larger and in areas to help the fighters. I'm pretty sure that the fighters get no help. If the Mist dudes were especially nice, they may have safe-zoned important infrastructure to help keep at least some communication and amenities for survival or at least that's what I reasoned.

  My parents went with a malicious actor, reasoning that: someone triggered the Mist to cause the apocalypse or vice versa. The Mist which is like a hyper evolution type thing is our guess on why the Giga roaches and all the other animals and things that I've seen grew that large. And tieing in is that the huge safe zone was an inherent method by a beneficial actor and the small safe zones are a consequence of the Mist itself.

  In addition with that, they think that the Mist might be conscious, but in a way alien to our understanding. It might be trying to help with the reason being my experience of how I killed the rat the Mist drained from it and what happened next. The Fog filling my Soul and the Pure Source which I have and the Link which is between all of these and my body. These were my parents reasons for their theory.

  My sister had a completely different theory. She thinks that we've all been put to sleep and are currently in a 3D simulation that is letting us play this for someone's amusement. Now with that she also subscribes to the malicious actor, beneficial actor reasoning.

  In addition though Matty (Martha) thinks that instead of suspended animation to preserve us, that they needed to keep our brains healthy. Constant usage is one of the ways and in a simulation we would be healthy. Now that might make more sense than Mist coming in healing me and a weird dude keeping all the noncombatants safe.

  Now, I think she might have been overreaching with how that goes but her reasoning kinda, sorta, made sense. With the Mist and every scenario being survivable in a macabre sort of way. With everybody not really dying when killed in the simulation. Matty or Willa, she goes by both, used my experience with the Giga roaches and the Roid rats and how I survived every single step.

  I got a little hurt here and there but I still survived. I tricked and won against something that should have been able to instantly kill me without even me reacting to it. It was the same with the bugs birds and rats, how I was able to hop and skip my way from my dorm back home like the frog jumping game.

  I was slowly convinced by her frankly inspired arguments as she explained bit by bit. Willa further emphasized how once I came home I was able to run into my family who actually haven't seen all that much danger and weren't sent to the large Safe Zone. Those Roid Rats and Giga roaches should have been formed in the house also.

  We have some bugs in our house and some rats scurry about sometimes. A giant bug or rat should have appeared in our house but nothing like that ever did. Animals and other things from outside the house act like the house doesn't exist. If anyone leaves the house then they might notice and attack though. My family also did some recon through the windows every few hours and they didn't see any giant monsters. Even last night when bugs and rats are more active they haven't seen anything.

  Listening to Willa, she makes some very good points on how that was happening even when I saved the kid. Now that I think back to it, he wasn't injured he was just slowly backing away and that was it. I show up just in the nick of time. I save his bacon and then I get some power from killing the huge rats and bugs. Is that...are we…are we really in a simulation? I feel like my entire existence is a lie? A feeling of walls crumbling and my existential ego is going nuts off the wall with peanut butter made of pies.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Are you ok? You look woozy. Jay?....JAY!?” My mom yells as I fall. “Sister! My two siblings intone almost simultaneously” My mind blanking and my head shaking blocks the rest. I hear a rough voice filled with worry at the end though.

  My head keeps spinning with thoughts and implications of what's happening. Multiple hands grab me, one pair rough and large, another smaller but with iron in them and last two largeish but smoother, softer ones, one pair without much strength the other strong and steady.

  —-----------------------------------------------—

  On the floor of the bunker room, with sofas and chairs, amenities present in other basements, lies a person with four others holding her. Five people, a number not generally seen in basements, with four holding the other one down, a woman by the looks of it, is not common in any basement, except maybe ones owned by some morally disturbed people.

  Voices of concern radiate from the four people with the fifth one on the ground catatonic with muscle spasms. It is a confusing time most definitely noticed by the four other family members, the mother and father doing their best to prop their daughter up, the siblings almost ready to break out into tears looking at their older sister, so powerful and stubborn, on the floor like a shivering babe, powerless.

  “Mom, is Jay alright?.... she's..she's..she's shivering like this… I've never seen her like this before. I..I..”a shiver enters the other girl's throat, voice reduced to a mumble “is she going to be okay mom, can I help? How is she mom…is she okay…is she alright? Is she dying! Please tell me she's not dying!”

  A voice of tightly wound control answers the desperate pleas of her daughter “Calm down Willa, I've been checking Jay and she's fine—her pulse is a bit fast but she's okay, blood pressure is also good, I moved her to her side so she's not in any danger of choking on her vomit and I checked her eyes they're rolled back but responsive. It's okay, I think she's just passed out from all the stress.”

  A gruff and controlled voice continues the conversation—you can hear worry and tightly held anger in his tone. “ I'm sure she's doing fine, your mother knows what she's doing with her. We don't want you to pass out also so you need to calm down” with with a hand outstretched and placed on his daughter “ Deep breaths Willa deep breaths you know your sister, she's a stubborn girl, always was. She'll get through this, you know she will.”

  Even with everything happening and all the conversation, one figure was eerily still—Jake looked calm with barely a breath every few seconds, eyes staring at his sister.

  The father looked at his son and observed all the signs. ‘My son looks calm but that is nowhere near true. The slight shaking of his hands, the twitching of his eyes, the shivering behind his neck. My boy is frozen in panic. I can't snap him out of it. Not yet. Leian will know what to do, she always does.’ His thoughts mused as he continued observing the situation. ‘Jake is still young and he really doesn't know how to handle this situation, he will need to learn and as a father I need to teach him how to act and not panic. Leian is better at this than me and I would love for her to teach him but she has a few tendencies that I don't want my son to have.’

  Vincent shivered a little, a memory flitting through his head, causing gooseflesh to rise along his spine and extremities. ‘Leian is scary, she really is. The kids know she is the epitome of motherhood, they don't know what I know though. She can be and was a monster, she had to be for our safety and for the kids. She still has nightmares sometimes. A bit of snuggles help her through though, it's cute.’

  While the father was absent minded the son frozen in a panic, the daughter crying her eyes out, with a feeling of impotence and powerlessness, the mother kept a careful eye on her daughter—Leitane noticed the tiny drops of blood leaking from her daughter's ears while the rest couldn't, occupied as they were.

  “Quiet!! I need your help.” that caused everyone to step out of their thoughts focusing their entire attention on Jay and her mother. “ Look at this!” She shows a drop of blood, blackened with green streaks throughout. “ I have never seen blood look like this. It's thickly coagulated, leaking from her ear and a little bit from the pores around her head. I don't know what to do. I…I can try… I can use what I know to help her…but I don't know if Jay, my little dear Jay will survive.” A sob breaks out of the mature woman, tears leaking from clenched eyes. Sorrow and frustration a mask upon her brow.

  The children, both who thought their mother was the strongest being there ever was, felt devastation and desperation looking upon her current visage and understanding her words tinged with sorrow. They both lost themselves to the world, one unfocused—panic and dread re-emerging, the other tears streaming down her face, eyes unfocused, dreadful scenarios of the future crashing through her mind.

  A gentle hand rests on the worried woman's shoulders, providing comfort though those hands also shake. They show fear and worry, filled with an inner strength to support another even while suffering themselves. The hands helped, visibly reducing the shaking of those held and the tears slowed.

  “Focus, everyone! Eyes on me!” Vincent had six eyes on him, all moistened and tinted red, looking at him for support for answers for anything to help make them feel even a bit better. “We can't cry right now, we can be scared but we have to focus” his arm twitches and shivers run through him “ we have to try and save Jay first and then once she is okay we can break down and cry all we want. We need to act first, look at Jay!”

  The yell echoed through the sealed room and with it, it seemed as if the atmosphere was cleared of gloom and doom, a little remained but was of no consequence to the newly energetic and focused beings.

  “What do I do mom? Should I go and grab the med kit and all the drugs we got? I'll just bring them here!” Moving with a goal the boy ran to work gathering possibly life saving drugs and tools.

  “Willa I need you to help me undress Jay, I need to see what is going on with the blood from her pores!” A newly focused mother came into being, ordering her youngest to strip the eldest. The youngest followed without complaint, seemingly quite eager to strip the eldest. (Willa seems waay too enthusiastic at stripping her elder sister. Does she have a complex?)

  With deft hands the clothes were removed, the underclothes left for now to preserve some dignity. Meanwhile Vincent was standing up and away from everybody acting like a pillar of support, a… slightly shivering pillar...He was shivering and filled with gooseflesh over the entirety of his body. His eyes are glassy and his mind empty without a brain cell.

  After his rousing speech he seemed to have used up all his courage. It makes sense though, a father braved his fear to bring to action others to save the daughter he had no hope of saving and in the process got paralyzed himself through panic and ‘what ifs?’ a tale of courage and winning over fear. A temporary but significant victory.

  With blood beading on her skin Jay looked like a black paint covered human with streaks of brilliant green, a muddy, shivering, spasming forest floor of a human. It was a sticky slippery feeling based on the dual disgusted faces of the mother and daughter working their best to save dear Jay here on the floor.

  Back with the meds and tools Jake asked a pertinent if concerning question “Uhh….how?...why?.... What are we going to do about the black stuff on her?! I don't want to jab her with meds and have the black stuff get in her blood!! Can it be washed away with something like water or alcohol or something cuz yeah….What do we do?” worried rambling aside, he seemed to make a good point, would the blood and black stuff and green streaks go away with water or alcohol? Would it even work, it seemed supernatural, would it help or hurt?

  “Let's test it, I have experience with things that cause blood issues. The best thing to do is see if a small portion is soluble in water or alcohol. It will tell us a lot about the makeup of the tox…the stuff.” A calm voice of a mother cut through the crazy of the kids.

  On the other hand she had quite scary thoughts in the background. ‘I should store some of this, see if it can help us survive later, always good to have a bit of poison on hand.’

  With a plan in place Leitane and Willa got to work scooping some of the quite frankly disgusting substance into a glass bowl with a glass rod and getting things set up for testing with Jake working as an assistant grabbing things as needed, quick as a duck with its tail feathers on fire, a funny sight if anyone paid any attention.

  ‘I'm actually helping my sister! She's sooo stubborn, never relying on me more than asking me to grab stuff and small things. I wanted to take care of her, help her, reduce some of her pain from the injury—she never let me do more than what's normal. Let's get her healthy and then I can get my hugs and kisses aaahh! She can also P.pppp..Praise me for taking care of her!!!’ A momentary swoon later and she got back to work, acting like she hadn't been thinking things likely to get someone labeled a siscon.

  With blood in the last bowl Willa and Leitane, with nervous expressions, steadily poured a slight amount of drinking water into one of the glass bowls, with a small bit of the blood goop.

  Drip..Drip…Drip…. “The watersjust sitting on the goop…should…should I mix it or something?”

  “Yes, mix it.” As Willa goes to mix the water and goop concoction a hand snakes out and grabs her wrist, startling her, tightening her grip on the glass rod. “With a clean glass rod Willa, we don't want to add more goop or add an extra variable, we're already searcing for a needle in a haystack, adding more will be like finding a needle in a haystack with added lit firecrackers and a bottle of gasoline. With that warning the snake like grasp weakened letting the understanding daughter go, to fulfill her task ‘with a clean glass rod…right…’ with some mental sass tinged with caution. She still understood the lesson and was grateful to her mother. The less issues the faster she may be able to save her sister after all.

  Goop, blood a black substance with green streaks was being mixed with water by a hopeful daughter hoping this would tell them more about the substance and how to help her sister, who by the way is still slightly writhing on the floor not more than a fifth of a hour, since she fell and is slowly relaxing and going limp.

  “Uggh” a groaning sound escaped the prone woman and with a surprising speed the mother was next to her, checking her pulse, blood pressure and pupilary response. “High blood pressure…..not too far from normal….hah…good….pulse is steady and strong…pupils… are non responsive…still passed out but is stable for now…she is fighting whatever this is! Shes doing well but everyone can always use more help! Willa how is the goop and water, anything happening? Is it mixing, bubbling, smoke or vapor..color, and what is the…”

  “Mom, calm down…she is stable right?! Just come over here and look! I can't explain everything… it looks weird…” Leitane checked Jay over and the scooted over a slight amount to peer at the glass bow, shockingly containing a green fluid, that once contained a mix of disgusting goop and water.

  “Wha….what is that… what happend to the muck and blood?!”

  “It became green after a bit of time passed, the water mixed in and it….it just turned green…don't ask me anything else…I don't know!”

  “Okay…okay… fine… one last question though… WHY IS IT GLOWING?!!!”