Chapter 3: Start of the road - Part-I

26.4.19

Ten days into the game.

Thomas' day was relatively normal. No riots by the Anarchists guild today. No journalists getting shot in the face. No weird supernatural creature calling himself god in his dreams. But he had a feeling that he couldn't put a finger on. As if he was...empty, almost hollow.

Lying on his couch, he recalled all the new additions to the game, or "Updates", as called by 'God'. Now players could register their guilds in the terminal and create their own hierarchy for the same, with the position of a member decided by the percentage share of points they get from the guild's activities. And the worst of all - monsters.

A new feature, "World ExP" got added. When a person gains points, the same number of points would be added to the World Exp, and when it gets high enough, the "World level" would go up and a monster would spawn at a random place.

With the World halfway through level 0, the first monster would probably appear this month.

"Any idea about your power?", asked his father, interrupting his thinking spree. He shook his head. It had become routine now.That and his father had learned to fly with his large eagle wings. He was a little jealous.

The T.V. roared loudly, with yet another reporter talking about Arthur Walsh being at the top of the leaderboard. Meanwhile a man from another guild , " The Hunters", tore down an entire building in the background.

Mr. Alinac opened his terminal and went to the leaderboard section.

" The Anarchists have reached a million members already? Damn, this guy has some serious talent in convincing people.", he exclaimed.

Thomas sat up. "I think that "talent" is giving people the choice to either die or join the Anarchists", he humored.

"Yeah..you're right, everyone in the neighbourhood has moved to UGARP protected areas. We're the only pro-government family left."

His mother came out of the kitchen with a face that showed terror and confusion at the same time. "We're almost out of food. It won't last another day.", she said.

" Calm down. I'll salvage the supermarket, it's abandoned anyway.", her husband reassured.

"Wait, I'll go. You guard the house.", said Thomas.

"You sure?", asked his father.

"Yeah".

A few minutes later, Thomas found himself walking to the abandoned supermarket. Before everyone evacuated the area, it was used to provide food to the public. Now it was just a storehouse of food, waiting to be salvaged.

The road was empty; not a soul in sight. His father has told him to hide if he saw anyone approaching, but seeing how desolate the road was, he wouldn't need to. He had a large bag, to stuff whatever he could find in it. After that comes the hard part; carrying that bag home.

Thomas was lost in his thoughts, as he had been quite a few times since the Game began. He was observing everything around him with curiosity. The café he usually went to had been torn down, it's windows reflecting the afternoon sun. There were a few cars parked or crashed her and there, almost all burnt as consequence of the Anarchist riots. The road was covered with ash and burnt rubber. It all looked like something out of a Zombie Apocalypse themed Movie.

The supermarket's sign came into view. It looked dead without the lights, almost ghastly. Thomas was daydreaming about the time when those lights still worked, when he saw something he definitely didn't expect -- the silhouette of a man, about half a kilometer away.

He half-expected himself to panic, but instead his mind worked quickly and precisely. He looked around and spotted an alleyway to his left. Without a moment's hesitation, he moved into it.

'Shit ! Not now! Not now goddamnit!'

He peeked out of the wall to see where the man was headed. To his dismay, the man was headed towards him. The man looked familiar to Thomas.

'Has he seen me? No, I have to assume he has seen me, there's no other option. Think! Think! I can probably take him in a fight, but I don't know what Power he has.'

His mind was running at a speed he previously thought impossible. He didn't dare peek again, as the man must have gotten pretty close.

'The best course of action would be to hide'.

But before he could hide, the man was in front of the alleyway. He immediately noticed Thomas, and as he turned to face him, all worry vanished from Thomas' face. The man -- or boy, as Thomas now realised -- was Robert, one of his high school friends.

The locked eyes for a moment, and then Robert spoke.

"Well well, if it isn't Thomas! What the heck are you hiding in an alleyway for?", he spoke cheerfully.

Thomas didn't even care to listen. He leaned against the wall and let out a huge sigh of relief. His heart rate and breathing were so high it felt like he ran a mile at 9 km per hour without prior training.

" Oh.... Hey Robert. Thank God it's you. Damn...you really riled me up.", said Thomas.

" Why? What did I do?"

' Nothing. I just....I was just going to the supermarket to get some food and-", Thomas stopped to catch his breath.

"And?"

"And I then a saw a man and thought that it was some Anarchist fascist who's willing to butcher me at sight. But it was just you."

"Hmm. Wait, I don't understand. Why would an Anarchist want to kill you?"

' Because I'm pro-government dumbass! ' , Thomas wanted to say, but he didn't, because he realized where this conversation was headed; and that realization hit him like a boulder. His relaxed countenance disappeared, and it was replaced by a mixed look of horror and disappointment.

" No...no. No. No. No. No.....", said Thomas, shaking his head in disbelief.

"What "No"? Thomas say something.", said Robert, perplexed by what was happening.

" Robert. Please don't tell me you're an Anarchist."

" Well, I am an Anarchist, so congratulations, right answer. But so what? I'm just a man with a belief."

Thomas said nothing. He stood with his back straight, his eyes determined. He knew what members of the Anarchists guild were. They weren't just men with beliefs. They were ruthless fascists. They were people who killed without mercy, just for their twisted beliefs.

" How many points do you have?". questioned Thomas.

"What? Why should I tell you?", replied Robert.

" I know for a FACT that the criteria for joining the Anarchists is having more than a hundred points. Tell me RIGHT NOW !"

"All right, All right. It's 672."

At that moment, Robert felt like his eyes were deceiving him, because he saw very vividly, Thomas's iris pulsating; shrinking into nothing, and then expanding into it's normal shape, all in the fraction of a second; like a heartbeat, contracting and expanding. But that wasn't what disturbed Robert. What disturbed him was that Thomas's iris had changed colour. His hazel eyes were now blood red. In the shadows of the alleyway, it looked like they were glowing .

" 200 points per person killed. Plus, points stolen from a person after killing them. " Thomas mumbled to himself.

"Thomas?" Robert asked, frightened by the sudden change in Thomas.

" You bastard.....you killed three people.", said Thomas , shaking his head, his expression twisted with rage.

"Thomas, they were killed in guild confl-"

"YOU KILLED THREE PEOPLE!!", Thomas shouted as he leaped towards Robert.

Thomas punched with all his might. His fist connected with Robert's cheek, throwing him to the ground. Thomas was on top of him.

" Get off me!", grunted Robert.

Thomas pulled his fist, ready to break Robert's nose, but suddenly, from the wall to his left, a metal pipe dislodged itself from its position and came flying towards Thomas, hitting him in the head, and throwing him off of Robert.

Before Thomas could stand up correctly, two more pipes tore themselves from the right wall and hit him, one on his left arm and one on his back.

'What the heck is that?', he thought. And answered his own question in his head.

'Must be his power.'

He had just regained his balance, with one hand on the right wall, and on at the back of his head, where he had previously been hit, when he saw Robert rushing at him with the same pipe that had hit Thomas in the head. Thomas readied himself. As Robert swung the pipe at Thomas, he barely dodged it. The speed at which Robert went from being confused to being ready to kill Thomas was astounding.

Robert swung the pipe again, this time sure that it will hit Thomas. But then Thomas did something that took even Thomas himself some effort to understand. When the pipe was just a foot away from his face, a tentacle-like thing, made up of a black substance, emerged out of thin air, and caught the pipe in it's tracks.

'What the heck is that?', he thought, and then, answering his own question again , he said out loud, "This must be MY power."