Chapter 1: Chapter 01: New Hope

A bloody hand emerged from under the rubble, and a man in a prison jumpsuit pulled himself up.

'F*** I almost died ' he looked around him no one was there ' look like I was the only survivor, I'm so lucky to be unscathed, knowing he didn't have much time to waste, he made a hasty run toward the nearby forest, in fear of being apprehended by the army.

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After a whole day of running, he eventually managed to reach civilization, he ventured deeper into the city, looking for a place to take shelter in.

'Why are the streets empty?'.

He went inside a housing apartment and started knocking on doors, but no one answered, he was sure that no one was inside these houses, so he picked one randomly, and kicked the door open, as expected the house was empty, it was obvious from the dust build-up, that whoever lived here, left a while ago, perhaps a few weeks or months, the electricity was out, so was the water, after searching the apartment, he managed to find some clothes, and sneakers that fit him, he went to the kitchen and opened the fridge, but immediately closed it, everything had rotten inside without power, he checked around and managed to find some canned food, and a box of breakfast serial, and a case of bottled water.

' I have not eaten decently in a while '. Fletcher ravished the food.

ROARRRR WRRRR.

'What was that noise, don't tell me it's one of those monsters' he looked out of the window three zombies were passing by the building.

'There are even zombies now, the world has gone to shit'.

Fletcher locked himself inside the apartment and spent the night.

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in the middle of the night, Fletcher heard a commotion outside, through the window, he could see a group of people, running away from a group of zombies, one of them locked eyes with him, 'shit ' Fletcher ducked down, but he was sure the man saw him.

A bearded man in his 40's, was leading the group, he shouted to his companions " enter the building to the right, Tommy do your thing " another skinny guy at the back of the group, slowed down his running, till he was a few feet away from the zombies, who went crazy trying to grab hold of him, but strangely he kept the same distance at all time like he was taunting them, he successfully got their attention, and led them far away from the others, they made their way inside and carefully searched the building, awhile later, Fletcher heard knocking on the door, he headed to the door and looked through the peephole, he could see the man he made eye contact with earlier "excuse me, sir, can you open, I just want to talk, we mean no harm ".

Fletcher stuffed a kitchen knife in his pants and headed to the door ‘there is no point in hiding, now he saw me earlier' he opened the door, and in front of him was a tall bearded man with a hardened face, he extended his hand toward him for a handshake.

"Hi, my name is James, sorry for disturbing you".

Fletcher did not shake the man's hand and just stared at him.

"What do you want ".

James did not take offense to Fletcher's rudeness " I just wanted to introduce myself and apologize for the intrusion, don't worry we won't be here for

Long".

"Okay, where are you heading, if you don't mind me asking?"

"the west base, you are welcome to join us, after all, traveling alone is dangerous" James surveyed the apartment and didn't see anyone else.

"I appreciate the offer, but I have other plans"

"well it's a shame, by the way, we found some supplies in the building, I hope you don't mind sharing some with us ".

"go ahead, they aren't mine, I just got here too ".

"Well thank you anyway, listen tonight will be having dinner, if you want you can join us, and I'll introduce you to the

Others ".

" I will think about it ".

After James left, Fletcher closed the door 'they don't look like bad people, should I join them tonight, that's not a bad idea, right now I need information since I have been in prison this whole time, I am completely oblivious to what happened in the outside world'.

James and his group were huddled in a room together, eating canned food, and talking about this and that, when they heard a knock " Mr. James, I'm the guy from upstairs, you invited me earlier" Fletcher said from behind the door, they opened the door, and he joined them.

"Hi I'm Fletcher" he introduced himself to the group, and also apologized to James "sorry I was rude to you earlier I have been traveling alone for a while now ".

" no worries," said James with a welcoming smile.

The group consisted of nine people, seven men, and two women, Fletcher's eyes darted around the room, checking everyone, his gaze especially lingered on the women, both of them were mid to late twenties in age, they were beautiful with slim figures, ' control yourself Fletcher you horny dog, this is not the time ' there was one younger guy around the women's age, and the rest of the men were on the older side, around James age 'from the way they are sitting, the women and the young guy are close, the other group of men is positioned near each other, except for James, who looked to be occupying a corner of the room by himself.

Fletcher decided to probe, and learn more about these people "how did you guys meet ?".

James answered first "well I met Tommy, Jess, and Monica two weeks ago at a gas station, we met these gentlemen a few days later, heading the same direction as us ".

"Did you meet anyone else on your way here? ".

"Yes a few, here and there, we even met the army yesterday, we thought we were finally safe, but weirdly they wouldn't have stopped for us, if I didn't identify myself as an ex-military, we asked them to take us with them to the shelter, but they refused they said they had an important mission to run, and left just like that, I mean what is more important than saving civilians,".

You are reading story Fletcher (a LitRPG Apocalypse) at novel35.com

Fletcher was flustered, after hearing about the military, but he managed to control his emotions "do you know which direction they were heading ".

"I think south of here, but the weird thing there is nothing there, except the mountains," said James looking puzzled

Fletcher knew that they were heading for the prison 'those fuckers, I need to leave here as soon as possible, they could be looking for survivors '.

"So Fletcher how did you end up here, where are you from ?" said James.

"I got separated from my brother and I have been looking for him ever since... " before coming here he thought

Of a lie to tell, in case they asked, he proceeded to weave a made-up sob story about him looking for his lost brother.

" I'm sorry to hear about all that, what does he look like? maybe we run into him ".

Fletcher described someone he knew, from prison to them, and obviously, they did not know him.

"I think your best option is to come with us, to the shelter maybe he's there, also all shelters have lists of all survivors, that you can check".

" I will think about it, thank you for the suggestion ".

"No problem" the conversation continued, and eventually some people started to tell their story, Fletcher who was oblivious to what happened in the outside world, finally got some answers apparently twelve months ago, scientists have confirmed the existence of infinite dimensions, not only that they announced they found a way to open portals to these dimensions, they were going to launch the first expedition in human history, and stream it live on television, something like the first landing on the moon, the whole world was excited about this, and eight months ago, they opened the portal, and when it was time to send the expedition team inside, the portal became unstable, a huge explosion happened at the site, hundreds of people died at the site, and since that incident, portals started appearing all over the world, and monsters and all kind of beings started coming out of them, wreaking havoc all around the globe,on top of that even dead people started turning into zombies, but the most shocking change, is the emergence of humans with abilities, at the beginning the governments around the world did their best to contain this disaster, but they all failed miserably, now the best they can do is hide their civilians in underground shelters, most people who didn't go to these shelters are surviving on the outside on their own, he also found out that Tommy was an awakened, he's ability increased he's speed significantly, he can reach a top speed of 90 km/h which is insane to think about, he was the reason behind this group ability to survive all this time, he helped by luring zombies away from them.

Later one of the men named Joe pulled out a radio from his bag and turned it on.

"Static noise shssshhh this emergen shshhh Chanel number 96.0 to all survivors in the Maton city and nearby areas the 49 west base is now ready to receive more people please be safe in your way here...".

Fletcher was listening as well, but He's mind was occupied at the moment, he was starring at Jess, she had a pretty face, with a sizable chest, she was his type, as someone who's been in prison for a long time, being in close proximity to such a beauty, he couldn't help but stare at her with a burning gaze.

Jess noticed Fletcher and frowned 'what’s wrong with this creepy guy, he's been staring at me, the whole time ' she grabbed a blanket and wrapped herself, she was used to men sneaking stares at her now and then, but this time, she felt uncomfortable, this Fletcher made her feel uneasy.

After a while, it was late and everyone was tired, so Fletcher left and went back to his apartment.

Jess usually slept next to Monica, when they were about to tuck in for the night, Jess couldn't help but look at Monica and tell her about the weird vibes she sensed earlier, and to her surprise, Monica had the same feelings as her.

Early the next morning James and his group left, meanwhile, Fletcher was looking at them from the window, his gaze lingered on Jess's back, enjoying the view' what a shame if I weren't in a hurry, I would have had some fun with you '.

Fletcher continued his traveling, he went north, planning to put some distance between him and this place, as far as possible from the military, he continued traveling on foot, following the advice of James, who warned him that cars are zombies and monster magnets.

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Two days later, Fletcher managed to safely leave Flandas city, and now he's in a small town, called Rover hill,as he drew closer, he heard gun shots, and loud explosions coming from afar, out of curiosity he decided to check it out, he found a spot on the top of a hill, overlooking the town, he could see soldiers and tanks fighting a black silhouette, ' what the hell is that ' he got closer to the action, they were fighting a huge monster with a height of 5 meters, the monster's body resembled a gorilla, but it had no eyes, nose or ears, only a huge mouth full of sharp teeth's, and its whole body was covered by a tar like substance, this strange black liquid substance, acted as a part of its body, it could harden like a metal shield for defense, or turn into sharp skewers to impale the unsuspecting soldiers, or even turn into tentacles to grab things around it, Fletcher attention was also peaked, by a man wearing a strange type of armor, he's hands were on fire, and he was throwing huge fire balls the size of basketball at the monster, the fireballs would explode on impact, the fight continued for fifteen minutes or so, and the monster was overwhelming the soldiers, even after all they threw at, the creature was unscathed, on the other hand the soldiers were hanging by a thread, more than half of them died to the monster attack, and they were running out of ammunition, and the awakened man was in an even more terrible condition, he looked exhausted, and was no longer able to throw those fire balls, the soldiers decided to retreat, but the monster was not going to let them go, eventually Fletcher watched, as it hunted and killed everyone, for some reason the monster didn't touch any of the dead bodies, except for the awakened man's body, it chomped his head clean off his body, and it left just like that.

Fletcher kept an eye on the black silhouette, running out of town until it disappeared out of sight.

Look like the monster was heading somewhere in a hurry.

He went down there, and started checking the soldiers, for anything useful that he can loot, he didn't want their guns, they were useless anyway, and only an idiot would fire one with all these Terrifying monsters out there, he found some military rations and medical supplies, he also pocketed a nice military grade combat knife, after that he went toward a headless corps, he was interested in the armor the awakened man was wearing, it looked like it was made from a leather like material, but it was as hard as steel, Fletcher decided to take it for himself, he got a vest two long sleeved gloves, after taking the gloves off him he noticed a weird bracelet on his wrist, with strange lines and geometric shapes, as soon as he touched it, it opened and fell of the hand of the corps, he picked it up and checked it thoroughly, then he put it on his hand when it locked on his wrist, he felt a sharp needles penetrate his skin, but as soon as he touched it, intending to take it off, a screen appeared in front him, Fletcher fell backward on he's bum ' what the hell is this, its like a game are those my stats.

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