"You've got to warn someone. You've got to call the army. Something. Or we're all gonna die. We're about to get attacked!" T'balt exclaimed.
"Listen, kid," the police officer said behind his desk. "Are you a spy or something?"
"No."
"Then how do you know we're about to get attacked?"
T'balt swallowed, remembering Chosa's reaction to his crazed ramblings. He couldn't go the same route. He had to get people to believe him. He had to.
"I.. uhh.. I just... I saw them, okay. Something's going to bomb the city at noon. We need to get as many people out of the city as possible."
"Mm." The police officer nodded.
T'balt spent the rest of the morning in a county jail. He was stuffed between two non-functioning alcoholics as they slept off a rough night. The officer promised to release him once he came down from whatever he had taken.
His face was flushed red, and he couldn't help but feel like an actual loon. But he had to figure out what was happening here. The one good thing about being locked up was that he had nothing to do but think.
"Say, kid, what are you in for?" one of the alcoholics belched.
"I think I got it. I'm trapped in a time loop. Every time I die, I rewind back to midnight. I'm not seeing the future. I'm traveling back in time," he epiphinated.
The drunk man tried to follow, but it seemed to be hurting his brain. "And how do you do that?"
"I don't know. But maybe it has something to do with those alien creatures that show up."
"Aliens? Like real-life aliens?"
"Yeah. They're freakishly scary, but everything is always fine until noon. Then the earthquake happens, and everything goes to hell."
"Well, we gotta be able to stop it somehow."
"I know, but how? No one would believe a crazy story like that."
"I… buu.. believe you."
"Really?"
The drunk man blew through his lips, choking on his own laughter. Then the others in the jail all started after him. Eventually, the police officers did, too.
"Listen, you've got to let me out of here," T'balt pleaded. "If I'm locked up when everything happens, I'm gonna die here. We all are."
"Fat chance, time traveler," the cop laughed. "You're locked up for your own good. Can't have you altering the timeline when you get out of here. You wait here till we can get you a doctor."
"How long will that be?"
"It's a busy day. May not be till the afternoon."
"No. That's too long. This is ridiculous. I need to go."
"Relax. Wise guy. Besides, shouldn't you have seen this coming?" the cop said to more jeers.
T'balt bowed his head in defeat and then stared at the clock until noon came.
The earthquake hit. Everyone panicked. The roof collapsed on itself, squashing many of the people inside. But the cell only became a bigger trap.
T'balt sat suffering within the cries for help and panicked whimpers. Then the beasts came. This one looked like a giant black cat, its fur twitching with static electricity. It bent the metal bars like plastic straws and T'balt became electric cat food.
"Listen. I think we lock up here. Board the windows. Hide in the basement. And let everything pass," T'balt explained to Chosa in the kitchen.
"Uh huh." Chosa wasn't convinced. But noon came, and the deer monster burst through their home and burned T'balt alive.
"I'm just saying, last time we went this way, I got eaten. Let's try a different direction," he yelled at Chosa, driving full speed down a crowded freeway. T'balt's side of the car got crushed by falling debris.
"You died," the game read.
"Screw it. I'm gonna fight it."
"Fight what?" Chosa said.
T'balt took a flaming sword to the stomach.
"You died."
"Sir, our policy requires me to ask. Is there a reason you're buying this bulletproof vest?"
"Yes."
"You died."
"We can't stay locked in the basement forever," Chosa said. "We're gonna run out of food."
"You died."
T'balt got hit by an unmanned vehicle.
"You died."
T'balt was eaten by an alien gorilla.
"You died."
T'Balt tried to craft a homemade bomb.
"You died."
"I can't anymore, Chosa. It just hurts so much." He sobbed on the phone, remembering what it felt like to burn alive. It was a few minutes after midnight. Chosa was at some event with her classmates. He could hear people in the background and muffled music.
"Just calm down. Do what you always do. Just grind it out until you figure out a way," she said.
"But it's too hard."
"Hey… I've never known you to give up on any game before."
"Yeah. You're right." T'balt perked up. "This time, I'll figure it out. I'm gonna survive the apocalypse."
"You died."
He buried his face in his hands. "Why couldn't I just stay dead the first time?"
"You don't look like you're getting a lot of sleep lately," Chosa pointed out that morning.
"Who can sleep at a time like this!? People are dying! I'm dying!"
"I think you need to get out of the house."
"No, I'm just gonna sit here… in this exact spot."
"Are you sure?"
"I am sure, Chosa."
"Okay… well, I'll be back in a couple hours. Don't forget to pay the electric bill."
The entire time Chosa was gone, T'balt calculated his options in his head. "Yes, but I could… but then that would kill me. But if I moved that there, it would give me a cushion. And then I could… But wouldn't that…" It was like playing a game of chess, which he was never entirely good at. There were too many rules and too many things to keep track of. But if he could reset all of his mistakes, then he imagined chess would be a rather easy game.
But this wasn't chess. Some things were just impossible. But so was time travel.
Chosa returned from wherever she had gone, and T'balt was in the same spot, staring at the door. The entire house around him had transformed. It looked like a child's wonderland. Mattresses on the walls. Dishes stacked in places where dishes didn't go. An assortment of knives splayed out on the counter.
She couldn't bring herself to utter a single word.
"Don't worry," T'balt reassured. "I just got the idea to film something. It's a new hobby I'm picking up. I was actually thinking you could help me."
"Oh. I guess that makes sense. You'll have to run the script by me first, though. I'm not entirely sure this stuff is safe."
"Yeah, of course. I have some camera equipment down in the basement. I'll finish setting up here if you could grab them for me."
Chosa nodded and headed to the basement. Once she was on the stairs, the door shut behind her. "What the hell?" she called.
"Just give me a moment." T'balt braced himself with a bicycle helmet, a bulletproof vest that didn't fit, and his grandfather's revolver. He stepped outside, hearing Chosa furiously banging on the wrong side of the basement door.
"Hey, buddy!" he called out to the man running in front of the house. The man took out his earbuds. "I think there's like a gas leak ahead. The smell is getting kind of tough around here. In fact, I think you should get inside as soon as possible. Not really safe around here."
The runner nodded and, like nothing was amiss, he turned and started running home.
"Okay."
Then he went inside and shouted for Chosa to hold on to something. "There's an earthquake happening! Get off the stairs!" he shouted.
He heard Chosa running down the stairs and then bracing for cover. About a minute later, the rumbling actually began. T'balt braced underneath his bed as the house roared around him. The bed was always the safest place to be. It avoided any random deaths by falling debris or accidental crushing. When the shaking stopped, he went back to the kitchen and waited.
The deer beast was a hunter, craving human flesh. It didn't simply pass by when it didn't hear Chosa's screams. No, it had a taste for human fear and blood. It came to the house in every iteration. It came searching to kill.
The walls of the house flew open, and the first boss battle appeared. In his head, T'balt gave it a fun gimmicky nickname. The Crimson Deer King. It seemed to fit. And it had killed T'balt so many times that it needed a name other than "demon."
The deer king roared and flashed its ugly teeth and flaming sword.
"Shut up already," T'balt moaned. He fired three shots right into the Deer King's chest. It hurt it, but not enough to slow it down. That was a mistake he made before.
It charged him, blocking its head with its arms. It hit him, and he was flung across the room… right into a mattress leaned against the wall. Minimal damage.
He bounced to his feet and started flinging plates like frisbees. Surprisingly good weapons. And they were a floor hazard when they broke. Drawing blood from the demon's weird feet things. After the third or so plate, the sword started smacking them out of the air. But one of the plates broke into tiny pieces, right into the thing's eyes.
T'balt grabbed two knives. Chef's knives. And sprinted at the disoriented beast. He buried one into its knee. Blood sprayed, but this time it wasn't his. He was too focused to celebrate small victories, though. The other knife went into the thing's abdomen. It swung its sword on instinct. But decapitation didn't feel good the first time. T'balt ducked passing between the Deer King's legs. He kicked the revolver up from the floor, perfectly where he dropped it. One well-placed shot to the spine dropped the beast to its knees.
T'Balt was feeling cocky now, walking towards his prey with a well-earned swagger. "That's over thirty times now you killed me. Thirty! This is going to feel good."
He kicked the beast in its back and stomped on its antlers as it fell face-first to the floor. T'balt aimed, point-blank, and two deadly booms later, the beast was finally dead. And it felt every bit as good as he thought it would.