Three weeks had passed since the notification first appeared.
Three weeks of testing, documenting, trying to understand what was happening to me. I'd learned some things. The system responded to genuine effort and discovery. Cognition had reached Level 3 through careful observation and problem-solving. I'd gained a bit more understanding of patterns, noticed details I might have missed before.
But mostly, life had been normal. Work, home, sleep, repeat. The system was strange, impossible even, but it hadn't changed my daily routine.
Until today.
I was walking home from the office, later than usual. A server migration had run long and it was nearly 7 PM by the time I left. The sun was setting, painting the sky in shades of orange and red.
Then the colors started to shift.
Not sunset colors. Wrong colors. The orange bled into a sickly green. The red took on a purple tinge that hurt to look at. The clouds twisted in on themselves, forming patterns that made my eyes water.
I stopped walking. Around me, other people on the street stopped too.
"What the hell is that?" someone said.
My phone buzzed. Emergency alert.
EMERGENCY ALERT
ATMOSPHERIC ANOMALY DETECTED
SHELTER IN PLACE
AVOID OUTDOOR EXPOSURE
AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS
The air tasted metallic. Like licking a battery.
A pressure built in my chest, like the atmosphere had gotten heavier. Wrong. Changed.
[Cognition Level Up! Level 3 → Level 4]
The notification appeared and with it, understanding. Not complete understanding, but enough. Something had changed in the air itself. Something fundamental.
Then I heard the screaming.
Half a block down, a woman was backing away from her dog. A golden retriever, thrashing against its leash. As I watched, the dog's fur darkened, thickened. Its jaw extended with audible cracks. Teeth pushed through its gums, too many teeth, the wrong kind of teeth.
The woman let go of the leash and ran.
The thing that had been a dog looked around with eyes that had gone completely black.
Then it saw people.
It charged at a man trying to help the woman. He didn't even have time to turn around.
I ran.
Not toward them. Not toward the chaos. Away. Down the side street, away from the main road. Every instinct screaming at me to get somewhere safe, somewhere enclosed.
Behind me, more screaming. Not all of it sounded human.
***
I made it two blocks before I had to stop, lungs burning.
The residential street was quieter but not silent. I could hear crashes from inside houses. Car alarms. Distant screaming. And underneath it all, sounds that didn't belong. Growls. Snarls. Things moving.
I ducked behind a parked car and tried to think.
Home was still four blocks away. The main roads were chaos. I needed to stay on side streets, stay hidden, find a weapon.
A house across the street had a detached garage. The side door hung open on broken hinges.
I watched for movement. Saw none.
Crossed quickly and slipped inside.
The garage was dim. Tools on a workbench. Lawn mower. Bicycles on the wall. And there, on the bench, a hammer. Claw hammer with a fiberglass handle.
I grabbed it. The weight felt solid in my hand. Real.
[Skill Learned: Stealth - Level 1]
The notification appeared. I'd been moving quietly without realizing it. Survival instinct.
Movement outside made me freeze.
Through the open door, I could see into the driveway.
Something was there.
A dog. German Shepherd, or it had been. Now it was massive, easily twice its normal size. Its fur had darkened and coarsened, and along its spine ran a ridge of what looked like bone spurs. Its muzzle was longer, wrong, and when it opened its mouth I could see teeth that belonged in a nightmare.
It was eating something in the driveway. I didn't look too closely at what.
The thing lifted its head. Blood dripped from its muzzle.
Then it turned and looked directly at the garage. Directly at me.
My heart stopped.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then the dog dropped what it had been eating and took a step toward the garage.
I backed up. My legs hit the workbench. The garage had no back exit. Just the one door. The one the dog was now blocking.
The thing entered slowly, head low, a growl rumbling in its chest that I could feel in my bones.
We stared at each other.
This was real. This was actually happening. That thing was going to kill me.
Unless I killed it first.
The thought came unbidden and with it, a cold clarity. There was no running. No hiding. Just me and this thing in a cramped garage.
The dog took another step forward.
I gripped the hammer with both hands.
Then it lunged.
I threw myself sideways. The dog crashed into the workbench where I'd been standing. Tools scattered across the concrete with a clatter.
I swung the hammer at its head as it passed. Connected with its shoulder instead. The impact jarred my arms but the dog barely seemed to notice.
It spun toward me, faster than something that size should move. Its jaws snapped at my face.
I got my arm up. Teeth closed on my forearm and pain exploded through me, white-hot and blinding. I screamed.
[Desperate Strike Learned]
The notification flashed and instinct took over. I brought the hammer down on the dog's skull with everything I had.
The crack was audible. Horrible.
The dog's jaw loosened enough for me to rip my arm free. Flesh tore. Blood poured down my arm, hot and slick.
The dog staggered back, shaking its head. Blood ran from the wound on its skull but it wasn't down. It wasn't dead.
It turned back toward me and I saw murder in those black eyes.
It lunged again.
This time I sidestepped and swung at the back of its head as it passed. Direct hit. The dog went down hard, crashing into the lawn mower.
But it was already trying to get back up.
I didn't let it.
I brought the hammer down. Again. The dog thrashed, tried to bite, tried to crawl away.
I kept hitting it.
Each impact made a sound I'd never forget. Wet. Crunching. Wrong.
Again.
Again.
My arm was screaming. My whole body was shaking. But I couldn't stop. If it got back up, I was dead.
Again.
The dog stopped moving.
I stood there, gasping, hammer raised, waiting.
It didn't move.
Blood covered everything. My hands, my arms, my shirt. The concrete floor. Some of it was mine. Most of it wasn't.
I'd killed it.
I'd actually killed it.
My stomach lurched and I turned away, fighting the urge to vomit. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. The hammer slipped from my grip and clattered to the floor.
But underneath the horror was something else. Something I didn't want to acknowledge but couldn't ignore.
Relief. Exhilaration, even.
I was alive.
It had tried to kill me and I'd killed it first and I was alive.
A notification appeared.
[Enemy Defeated: Mutated Canine]
[XP Gained: 25]
[XP: 25/20]
[LEVEL UP!]
[Level 1 → Level 2]
[XP: 5/50]
[Stat Points Available: 2]
I stared at the words, then at my shaking, bloody hands, then at the body.
As I watched, something strange happened. The body began to collapse in on itself, flesh turning gray, bones cracking and folding. Within seconds, all that remained was a pile of ash and something small and dark that glinted in the dim light.
I crouched down, picked it up. A tooth. One of the dog's teeth, about two inches long, black as obsidian and still sharp.
I pocketed it without knowing why.
My arm throbbed. I looked at the wound. Deep, bleeding badly, the torn flesh visible through the blood.
Another notification appeared.
[Natural Regeneration Increased]
[Minor wounds will heal faster]
I felt it immediately. The pain was immense. But the bleeding slowed. The torn edges of the wound began to knit together, slowly enough to see if I watched carefully. The pain dulled from sharp agony to a deep ache.
I stared at my arm, watching flesh slowly mend itself.
This was real. All of it was real.
I picked up the hammer and walked to the garage door, looked out.
The street outside was quiet. Dying light painted everything in shades of orange and shadow.
Home was still two and a half blocks away.
I quickly stepped back into the garage and set myself down against one of the walls.
My legs gave out the moment I sat. The adrenaline was fading, leaving behind exhaustion and trembling muscles. I put my head in my hands and just breathed.
In. Out. In. Out.
The metallic taste was still in the air. That wrong pressure still pressed against my chest. Whatever had changed the world, it was still happening.
I looked at the pile of ash where the dog had been. At the blood on the floor. At my hands, still shaking, still covered in red.
I'd killed something today. Beaten it to death with a hammer.
The thought should have horrified me more than it did.
But I was alive. And out there, in those streets, were more of those things. Bigger ones, maybe. Worse ones.
I needed to get home. Needed to find my parents. Make sure they were safe.
But first, I needed a minute. Just one minute to pull myself together.
I sat in that garage as the light outside continued to die, and tried to remember what normal had felt like.
***
End Chapter 2
Current Status:
Level: 2
XP: 5/50
Skills: Cognition - Level 4, Stealth - Level 1, Desperate Strike - Level 1