Normalcy (Part 2)

The familiar golden letters flashed across my face as the main screen loaded up. I clicked continue and found myself in a beautiful world with many vibrant trees as the birds sang their songs, and as a gentle breeze swept through the land. I immediately pushed up on my right controller's thumbstick to move forward as I inspected every small detail of the game's scenery.

I ended up finding a few places where the textures were bugged or non-existent, but there were no game-breaking faults, so I took the helmet off and told my team what they needed to work on. Even though I was the youngest, I had the most experience with the job so our boss made me the team leader, which ended up being a pain in my ass. I was a coder, not a leader.

Everyone got to work on fixing the textures while I grabbed the remote to the T.V. mounted on the wall and turned it on. The T.V. lit up and the news popped up. "-ore cases of disappearances have popped up across the globe and, sometimes, the beams of light can be seen from miles away, suggesting that, maybe, the eye-witnesses were right all along."

I sighed and mumbled "Great, now we have aliens abducting the entire Human population." Before I even knew it, it was time for us to go home. We had finished everything we needed to in preparation for Testing Day, so we were free to go home. I waited for everyone else to get their things and leave before unplugging the coffee machine, mini-fridge, and turning the T.V. off.

I grabbed my keys and walked out of the door after turning the lights off and locked it before turning to walk toward the elevators when I noticed Emily standing in front of me with a smile. I jumped back and tensed the muscles in my legs, ready to sprint past her if I needed to. "Hey, I was wondering if you were still up for hanging out today. My boss said I was able to go home since everyone up here was finished with their projects."

I wanted to say no, but I already injured the man who tried to kill me pretty badly, so i really had nothing to worry about. However, I was too paranoid to even think about that. "Look, I don't know if I should or not. A random guy I didn't even know tried to shoot me because he saw me talking to you earlier today. Sorry, but I just don't want anymore trouble..."

I walked past her and continued on toward the elevator before pressing the button to the bottom floor and closing my eyes. I waited to hear the elevator ding before opening my eyes once more. I walked out and into the plaza. I continued to walk down the sidewalk absentmindedly as many more thoughts began to ravage my brain.

I stopped and leaned against the side of a building as my headache began to get worse and worse, almost to the point that I was unable to think properly. It had never gotten this bad before. Never. "Report. One survivor says that, before the light enveloped him, he had massive migraines for a whole week before it happened. More updates will come out soon."

I slowly turned my head over and saw a big screen with the new channel on it, my face contorted into a mixture of confusion and horror. 'D-Did it just say...headaches...?' I thought as I remembered that I've been having these horrible headaches 24/7 for the past...week...

I was never a believer of aliens and the paranormal, but these things were adding up too nicely to be a coincidence. I began to hyperventilate and panic as I tried thinking of how to rid this headache. Suddenly, a warm hand landed on my shoulder and I spun around into a stance before seeing that it was Emily, who was looking at me with a concerned expression.

"You look horrible...what happened, are you sick?" She attempted to put her palm over my forehead, most likely to check if I was burning up, but I quickly pulled back and said "No, I'm fine." before turning back and stumbling away. I wanted nothing to do with her, not after I almost got fucking shot. I was in no condition to survive something like that again.

"Hey, I can help you if you're not feeling well. I used to be a nurse and I know a few tricks." I grit my teeth and turned my head before saying "Go away! I don't want another person to come after me because of you! What do you not understand about leave me alone?" A sudden pain gripped my heart and I fell to my knees gasping for breath.

I began to cough uncontrollably and a few specks of blood dotted the sidewalk under my mouth. The pain eventually subsided and I could now walk again, so I began to shamble on back to my apartment. I saw the stupidly tall building in the distance, and it looked like it was unreachable from where I was, even though I walked the distance multiple times a day every day.

Emily walked over to me and put my arm over her shoulder before putting hers around my back to help me walk, making me snarl and say "I told you to fuc-" Suddenly, a voice yelled out in anger from ahead of us. "What the hell are you doing with my girl you bastard!? I told you to fuck off!"

I lifted my head with a wry smile as I saw the same bulky, spiky orange-haired man that tried to shoot me earlier, except he now had a cast on his right arm and had a pretty nasty limp. He walked up to us and got in my face and was about to spit on me when he suddenly froze and slowly turned toward Emily.

He gulped audibly before taking a shaky step backwards and falling on his ass, making me wonder just what the hell this woman did to make this guy literally piss himself. Emily looked over at me with a smile as she said "C'mon, let's go. He won't be bothering you anymore..." I nodded my head slowly as we began to walk back to my apartment.

"Hey...don't you also live in the same building I do?" I asked as I put my hand over the side of my head. Emily nodded and responded. "Yes, I do. Doesn't take much of a genius to figure that out since I was in the elevator..." I laughed awkwardly before falling silent as we neared the apartment building.

We entered and walked straight toward the elevators before, surprisingly, going to the 8th floor, not the 10th, where my apartment was. "Uh, why are we going to the 8th floor...?" I asked as my headache began to worsen. Emily glanced at me and said "I told you I knew a few things to help you out, and all of my medicine and stuff is in my apartment, so it's kind of obvious as to why we're going to the 8th floor."

I stayed silent and didn't respond. The doors slid open and we took a right in the hall before going all the way down to the very end. Emily took out her keys and opened her apartment door before guiding me inside and setting me down on the couch before going of somewhere to get what I hoped was medicine, not a gun or something.

A cold, piercing pain assaulted my legs before moving up my spine and into my head, making me cry out in pain as I fell to my side and grasped my head with both of my hands. Emily walked out into the living room, with a pair of see-through lingerie on, and strut toward me with a slight smile on her face. She looked like a Demon in disguise if I was to be honest.

She sat down on the edge of the couch next to me and leaned over my still screaming form before pressing a finger to my lips. The pain immediately disappeared and I was left feeling empty and hollow on the inside, which made me panic even worse. I've never felt so...desolate before. It was beyond scary.

Emily moved closer and our faces were inches apart, and I wanted to push her away, but I didn't even have the strength to blink let alone move my arms. Her lips moved to my ear and she whispered "I'm sorry, Ash, but you were chosen...I can't do anything about it...I'm so sorry..." before pressing her forehead against mine.

A bright, blinding light erupted from my body and it felt like my skin was being melted off as my body slowly floated upwards. A splitting pain racked my brain as Emily's body broke into billions of blue pieces before forming a straight line and diving into my head. The pain was so unbelievably unbearable, but my body refused to pass out as I continued to climb higher and higher through the light.

In an instant, my body began to break apart as my consciousness faded, and a single, familiar voice rang out in my head.

"Welcome to the ARK, Survivor. We expect great things from you..."