“Dante, you need to wake up something is outside”, Jill yelled while shaking me awake.

  “Huh?”, I groggily said.

  Jill pulled me out of bed and rushed me downstairs. Hailey was crying and Isaac looked like he was about to pass out while Her boyfriend and the other girl were nowhere to be seen. I could hear Jack and Alice from outside. They sounded panicked and were screaming Norville’s name. I grabbed my bat then rushed outside and what was in front of me caused a shiver to run down my spine. The creature was over seven feet tall, had dark brown fur covering its body with long muscular arms, large sharp teeth, and red piercing eyes.

  “Brahhhh, do you know who that is?”, Norville asked.

  “I don’t fucking know Norville, BIGFOOT.”, I hissed.

  “Nah, brah it’s the Horizon City Monster which is a type of bigfoot.”, Norville said.

  “Bro, I swear to fuc-, never mind. What are you guys doing out.”, I said.

  “Well, I’m like a huge fan hombre, and I wanted to know if I could get a picture.”, he said.

  Resisting the urge to strangle him. I turned my attention back to Bigfoot. It was just standing there menacingly. I looked at everyone who was outside and signaled for them to slowly back up into the house. As we were backing up Norville in his excitement made eye contact. This must’ve struck a nerve. The creature bared its fangs and started charging at Norville. I activated The Zone, and the creature slowed down, but even then, it was too fast. I firmly grasped the handle of my bat and swung at the beast. As soon as it made contact, the bat snapped in half. The ape winced in pain, and I used the opportunity to stab the creature with the remaining half. The beast uttered a bestial roar. Jack then used his machete to slash the Giants neck. It was cut, but not deep enough. The beast swung its massive arms at Jack, he barely had enough time to activate Reinforce. Even with the extra toughness and strength Jack had he was still flung by the beast causing him to hit the side of his SUV.

  I yelled at Jack who was still barely conscious and told him to allocate his Extra points into strength. Simultaneously, I allocated 4 of my points to agility and my last point to strength.

  I reactivated The Zone and was just slightly faster than the giant. I barely dodged each punch. While I was evading bigfoot’s attacks. Jack snuck up on the giant and picked it up. It was like he was blessed with Herculean strength, he picked up the monster and body slammed the beast. He then entered a full mount and started pummeling the ape to the point it was coughing up blood. In a rush of rage, the creature threw Jack off him. I then reactivated The Zone once more and rushed the beast while picking up Jacks machete. While it was getting up, I swung for the wound Jack had previously made, I swung the blade with all of the strength I could muster and cut the beast neck lodging it deep enough to cut its carotid artery. The beast whimpered while attempting to hit me, but it was not fast enough. Each swing it got slower and slower until it collapsed.

  “Adolescent Bigfoot (Elite) has been vanquished”, The announcer said.

  “+ 30 EXP! 60 Karma acquired! Skill gained Berserker (Uncommon).”, The beautiful voice of the system announced.

  I was exhausted, it took all that effort to kill a kid. How powerful would an adult have been? After rounding everyone up and resting for a bit, I confronted Norville.

  “Norville, we need to talk.”, I said.

  “What’s up brah?”, Norville said.

  “You have to be the biggest idiot I have ever met.”, I said

  “Chill out dude, I didn’t think it would freakout like that. Bigfoots are typically like pretty chill.”, Norville said.

  “No, I will not chill out dude. When has anything we’ve encountered been actually friendly. Sometimes if we ignore them, they will leave us alone, but you can’t just run out and interact with these things. They’re not our friends, you could’ve got someone killed. You almost were killed. I get some of these creatures are straight out of fiction or existence have been argued about for years, but at the end of the day it us or them.” I said.

  Norville stayed silent for a while and then said, “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s fine, just get your shit together. We have a big day and need your cooperation.”, I said.

  We went back to bed and rested until 8 in the morning. Once we awoke, we prepared for our exploration of the military base. Thankfully, my uncle is a gun enthusiast, so we raided his questionably legal armory and loaded up as much as we could along with about a week’s worth of water and food. I then went looking for Jill because I had too many questions.

  “Hey Jill, why does your dad have grenades? Aren’t those illegal to own in the U.S.?”, I asked.

  “How am I supposed to know, ever since your parent’s died, he’s been paranoid that thing will come for us.”, she said.

  “Oh, well I would not be surprised at this point. Maybe what I saw really did happen.” I said solemnly.

  “I’m sorry, I know it’s a touchy subject, but if you ever want to talk about it, I’m here for you.”, She said.

  “I appreciate it, maybe later.”, I said.

  After some final preparations the five of us headed off to the base. It took about 15 minutes to get to Fort Bliss, it was odd how empty the city was. There wasn’t even anyone at the gate. The past couple of days the only other people who were alive was Jill and her friends. One would assume that if anywhere had other people it would be here. Where is everyone else, are they hiding? Or are they one of those monsters. After some more contemplation, I pulled out the journal to see if any new information has been added. After flipping threw the book I finally found something interesting.

  In the first round of sequence one it is to be notated that there are significantly less people then would be assumed. This is due to four reasons. The first reason is due to the transformation the unchosen underwent. Those who were unable to integrate into The Chosen’s System were changed into supernatural beasts to pose a challenge towards the Chosen. These beings would later be known as the Unchosen, but that’s not important as of now. The second reason was due to evolution. Some people would undergo a change where they would still be considered as a part of humanity, but no longer human. These individuals were put into a different reality with accelerated time to adjust to their changes. The third reason was for separation. The Archons felt that it would be uninteresting if too many humans were able to unite, so in addition to closing off each individual city, within each city there are multiple subspaces which are interconnected. Depending on the population size each subspace will have anywhere between hundreds to thousands of participants. The final reason is for the transformation of the planet. Once Round one is completed the world will be overwhelmed with Mana. Animals will have drastic changes, beings that have been dormant for eons will be awakened, and the world will return to its natural state. Also, on another note if you are in the correct city, look for the area with the highest population of the Unchosen. Although initially weak the weapons still exude an aura that can help the unchosen evolve, so they will be instinctually drawn to it. Round one typically lasts a month for most places but depending on the population density some places have lasted three months.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  After absorbing the information from my cheat sheet, I divulged what I learned to my group.

  “So, the plan is staying the same then?”, Alice said.

  “Pretty much.”, I responded.

  “Alright well that’s great because I was going to let you look dumb a little longer before I explained that with your cheap equipment, you’d probably have to be relatively close for it pick up anything.”, Jill said.

  “I’m not even going to ask why you know that, but thanks for the heads up.”, I said.

  Jack continued to drive around. Trying to search the entire base even by car took quite some time. Around four in the afternoon we finally found an Unchosen. We decided to pull over and follow it from a distance. After distributing our equipment, we started trailing the Zombie. We followed the Zombie for four hours before we noticed anything unusual. Slowly more and more zombies started to accumulate. It started off as five, twenty, fifty, hundreds, and then thousands. After following them for a little longer the horde of Unchosen came to a halt. They were just shuffling around as if there was something they were searching for but could not reach. It would take days to clear them all out.

  “What should we do? There’s too many of them to charge in there and look for what’s garnering their attention.” Alice said.

  “We are on a military base. I’m pretty sure we can find enough guns and ammunition to manage.” Jill said.

  “Alright perfect, so where are those stored and how do we get in?”, I asked.

  “Uhh, I think my dad called them armories and ammunition supply points, and I don’t have a clue where to find them or how to get into them.”, Jill said.

  “Well, how about this you, Alice, and Norville explore the base and collect whatever you can while Jack and I focus on leveling up.”, I said.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea!”, Alice interjected.

  “We’ll be fine, we won’t do anything that would put us in too much danger.”, I said.

  After going back and forth with Alice, I eventually convinced Alice to explore the military base while Jack and I worked on increasing our strength. However, before they left, we created a camp site that was far enough distance to be considered safe from the horde and would act as a rendezvous point for us when they got back.

  “Yo Dante, what crazy thing are you going to get me into this time?”, Jack questioned with a smirk.

  “Nothing as crazy as the things I convinced you to do in high school bud.”, I said.

  “Yeah, I doubt that. Breaking and entering and the consumption of illegal substances definitely feel like a walk in the park compared to what we’ve been doing the past couple of day.” Jack said.

  “Technically were trespassing on a military installation, so all we’re missing is the illegal substances, and last time I checked you’re the one who threw the parties there. I preferred smaller group activities unlike you.” I said.

  “Point taken.”, Jack said.

  “Well as long as we’re on the same page, you know what a hit-and-run tactic is right?”, I said.

  “Yeah, basically you attack and then retreat. It’s in the name man, I’m not that dumb.”, Jack said.

  “My bad, I know you’re not THAT dumb.”, I said

  “Haha, very funny.” Jack said sarcastically.

  “Anyways, we obviously can’t take on thousands of zombies by ourselves, but we can use it to get stronger. After fighting baby bigfoot, I realized that if the kids are that strong, what about the parents. Also, what if all cryptids and paranormal creatures are real. What are we going to do against one that’s immensely more powerful. If we want to survive, we must take risks.”, I said.

  “Well, what are we waiting for?”, Jack said.

  I explained to Jack before we started, we need to figure out how far they will chase us. Our camp is about five miles away from the Horde. Hopefully, whatever is drawing them to that source is more interesting than us.

  “Alright, well since I am faster, I’ll be the one to test how long they will follow us for. In the meantime, I need you to gather some supplies”, I said.

  After telling Jack the supplies we needed, and recommending he find a box truck, I began to gather some rocks then made my way to the horde. After about 15 minutes of running in a sun covered desert, I made it to the horde. I got one of the rocks and chucked it at one of the stragglers. The zombie looked confused; after enjoying its stupidity for a couple of seconds I threw another rock. This time I got its attention. It began to sprint after me once it got within 10 yards of me, I began running. At first, I was worried. Its pursuit was relentless. Even after activating The Zone and creating a sizeable gap it still followed me. However, at the 3.5-mile mark it stopped. The creature in a state of confusion looked as if it couldn’t decide whether or not to chase me or to go back to the horde. After a couple of minutes of deliberation, it let out a roar and turned around. After waiting 10 minutes. I began to gather rocks to mark where the zombie stopped. Once I was finished, I waited for Jack to come back. After waiting a full day, I found

  “Hey man, you found a box truck!”, I said.

  “Yeah, I did it’s nice to see you relaxing, while I was out there putting myself in danger.” Jack said.

  “Yeah, I’m not going to lie I forgot how much walking you’d have to do, but if it’s anything I’ll be doing the hard part.” I replied.

  “No, you’re not every time we do something that involves labor YOU start complaining, and I start feeling bad and end up helping you.”, Jack said.

  “If you want to help me you can, but I still need you to get two more things. When we entered the base do you remember that construction site we saw while exploring the base?”, I said.

  “Yes, I do why?” Jack said.

  “Well, I want you to see if you can bring it here, and as much fuel as you can.”, I said.

  “How deep of a hole are you going to dig man?”, Jack said.

  “Deep enough”, I said.

  “Alright, but I get to drive it.”, Jack said dejected.

  “Alright, then I’ll see you when you get back and leave the truck. We might need it later.” I said.

  After Jack left once again, I unloaded the hundreds of bamboo sticks and started sharpening them. Surprisingly, it was a lot easier than I thought. With my increased strength and agility, I was able to sharpen each stick in three minutes, but at this rate it would probably take three to five days to finish. Jack was right, at this rate he’ll need to help me. I spent probably eight hours and only was about 1/10 of the way done. My hand was cramping and blistering, I’ve never worked this hard in my entire life, but it had to be done. Even if making this pit would only kill 100 of these monsters the amount of experience I would gain would be enough for me to level up to a point where I would feel comfortable. I have no idea what will be lurking around the artifact, so I have to go on. I can’t let anyone down.