My sword cut through the bones of the undead that now surrounded us, I could hear in my back, the screeches of the revenant demon as the sharp links of Alex’s chains went through its skin, she caught it before it had the chance to strike. With a mighty pull she leapt in the air and pulled herself upwards until she had gone past the fowl creature. She retracted her chains and as soon as they were back into position, she sprung them again, now on its back and pulled down towards it. In an instant, she was on top of the creature which now flapped its wings trying to desperately shake her off. In a furious movement her chains entered the creatures back and came out through its chest, a muffled growl followed by blood came out of its beak as it plummeted down vanquished by her.
The second revenant demon dove straight at me with the sharp bones that made the nails of its feet pointed down and aiming to take me down. The hundreds of undead that now surrounded me were biting rabidly at my armor trying to get a taste of my warm flesh. In the distraction between the demon diving in for the kill and me freeing my sword from an undead skull two more managed to grab my hands and briefly overpower me. Suddenly as I struggled to get their gory hands of my sword, I felt a sharp pain in my back that with a million small electric impulses that traveled across my body alerted my brain that my body had just been critically damaged. I was violently pinned to the grown and a second later I started lifting, soon I was at least 100 meters in the air. The revenant demon screeched loudly as it proudly carried my impaled body victoriously.
Twenty seventh of April 2032, woke up in the small warehouse that doubled as work and an apartment. I had decided to spend all my money in my game coding company which I proudly called “Insomniac Dog”. Took a shower and ate some cereal as I waited for the rest of my crew, two of my best friends from college, to continue programming an open world fantasy game which in our heads would rival the Final Fantasy Saga. I turned on the TV in the small lobby behind the front desk and the news were on, a new virus had been wreaking havoc in Europe but it had been for the past six months, so I decided to turn it off and play the classic gory Dead Space that had become one of my favorite games, it scared me shitless often so I could only play a few hours at a time.
Joanna and Mike got in around 8:30 and we got immersed in the job immediately, we had been working on the code draft for the final level on which the half elf half demon Rictirious had to fight its father, the reigning demon Draknaknaiwek to free the inhabitants of the sister planets Maria and Rose. We had designed and programmed a helmet, gloves and chest suit, based on some 2020’s military gear we had bought online and refined the code so the complete suit allowed you to interact with the game and materialize and wield weapons and other tools by only thinking about them. This new code simplified the process of connecting mind to character and almost always, if you had the right materials stored, allowed you to materialize the weapon of your choice. It still had its flaws, but we had made enormous progress in the past four months.
We were so excited by our results and the progress we had made, that we didn’t even stop for a meal that day. We fed off of cold pizza, Doritos and the ancient sacred gamer beverage Mountain Dew, that fueled us forward. Around five in the afternoon our alarm clock, which depicted Rictirious wielding an axe started screaming in a loud profound voice “¡Tactical advantage is mine, onward to victory!, which meant working hours had just finished. As we did every day we sat down on the sofa with a beer and talked a bit about our breakthroughs of the day, suggestions, problems and errors. At first we all proactively pointed out flaws, errors and focused on the job done that day, but the conversation always seemed to veer into a discussion about a new character, its abilities and story.
After a good half hour I managed to defuse a nasty argument between Joanna and Mike on Allyccia, sister to Rictirious, which we had decided to add as a main characters a few days before. They were furiously arguing which was the best way to level her stats at the start of the game, she wanted more magic and he wanted more damage. I made them toast to a beer and told them we would work together on the character the next day. They sipped on their beer before bursting out laughing and having a friendly hug. We enjoyed the remainder of our beer while remembered school and some old times. Around an hour later they left for home, fuck, if I had known it would be the last time I’d say goodbye to them…
I saw them on their way and locked the front door to call it a day, picked the remaining beers and took the small metal stairs that headed from the office to a hatch that allowed me to go onto the roof. While I sat on the edge of the metal roof and opened a beer, I could see a few people walking home from their jobs and soon it would be almost deserted. The sundown was particularly beautiful that day, the sun setting behind the mountains to the west created a palette of colors you would have to see to believe, it made me somehow feel alive. I was opening my third beer when suddenly, ¡BLAAAAAAAM! The sound of a massive explosion got me standing in an instant, followed closely by the shockwave that slightly moved me and made the floor shiver. The explosion came from maybe 1 kilometer, maybe a bit more away and I was still able to feel the heat of the flames that now rose to the sky.
I instantly picked up my phone and tried calling the emergency services, which depicted a strange message in a woman’s voice that said “please remain calm, all lines are busy momentarily, we will get back to you as soon as we can”. I could hear screams coming from the direction of the fire and I could see people running. I tried the emergency service three more times, busy, busy, busy, fuck! I have to do something. I leapt down the metal stairs grabbed my keys and headed out to see if there was something I could do to help. As I drove in the direction of the flames I could see a small group of fleeing people, some covered in blood, I assumed they came from the factory that had just gone up in flames. In one of the dumbest ideas I’ve had I decided to keep going forward, as I turned onto the road leading to the factory I heard loud screams and screeching tires, in an instant everything went completely dark.
The Doomsday Couple 
Leave a comment