The Day Civilization Ended

Hello everyone! I hope you guys like this kind of story and like my writing style (not that I will change either if you don't). I also wanted to ask you to please drop a comment if you feel like saying anything about either the story, a character, abilities, whatever. See you next chapter!

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"Uhm... so... why did you accept hanging out with us, Cain?" Jenna asked, still a bit shy around him. Cain, hearing her question, just smiled and had a thoughtful look on his face.

"Well, firstly because of curiosity." Cain answered while taking a short pause before continuing –a pause that Jenna felt was too long. "But mostly because of you."

"Huh?" Jenna squeaked, looking like a headless chicken and madly blushing.

"What I said, mostly because of you." Cain said once again. Seeing how Jenna was unable to form a proper sentence, he went on to explain his reasons. "You see, I noticed you way back, like, around one and a half years ago. I was just starting to try and force myself to try and talk to people, but I had made little to no progress. One day, I saw you in this same park, helping an elementary school kid who had scraped his knee while playing with his friends. The kid was crying and he was very rude to you actually, but you were still very kind and cleaned his knee without complaining or lashing out at him."

"I-I..." Jenna tried to talk but, unfortunately –or fortunately–, couldn't. Luckily, Cain still had more to say, so the situation didn't turn awkward.

"When I saw the kind of person you were, I really wanted to talk to you." Cain joyfully said, a big smile on his face. "So, you were a huge motivation for me to push myself forwards. Thank you, Jenna, even if you don't feel like you did much for me."

"N-Not at all! I don't think you should thank me, that is true, but I feel like I should thank you too!" Jenna stuttered a bit before regaining control of herself for the first time since they had left school. "Back then, I was very lost."

"I... didn't know who I was really. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life and... I honestly didn't know if I was truly capable of achieving anything." Jenna spoke hesitantly, as if she didn't really want to confess what she was saying but still couldn't stop herself. "Then I saw you. I saw how you pushed yourself to face your fears, and I saw how you improved day by day. You inspired me to push myself forwards too..."

Hearing her words, Cain couldn't help but chuckle lightly. Jenna, already having overcome most of her bashfulness puffed her cheeks in mock anger. Once he stopped, Cain smiled and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Guess we're settled then, right?" He confidently said, only to see Jenna smile back at him and nod her head joyfully.

"Well, we should head ba... what is going on?!" Cain exclaimed while looking at the sky. Then the lightning fell.

"What is that horn?! We need to get to Dwight and Viola!" Jenna yelled in a panick and ran towards her friends. Cain, not wanting to leave her alone, began running right after her.

Upon reaching them, Cain and Dwight wordlessly shielded the girls, a cold sweat running down their backs. This natural phenomenon felt anything but natural. Clouds didn't form in an instant, and lightning didn't fall as soon as the clouds formed.

It was jarring, how nature could behave like that. And then there was that horn. That ominous, thundering horn that resounded throughout the entire place. Paying more attention to it, Cain felt like he could recognize the sound a lot more clearly. It wasn't a horn, nor was it a thunder. It was more like...

"It's a trumpet." He almost whispered, spending all the air in his lungs to say those three words. That was when they finally paid attention back to the place around them and not to the sky. They were still in the same park and still... eveything looked different.

The trees were suddenly taller, with fungi and moss growing on them. The vegetation had now taken over the entire place, making the park look like a forest, rather than a man-made thing. And still, remnants of the structures still reimained, like the skate park, which was now flooded and full of plants, but one could still see some of the ramps. But everything looked... older. As if a lot of time had passed and the park had been abandoned, allowing nature to work its magic.

Before they could even process what had happened, the clouds in the sky parted, showing a sight that neither of them was ready to see. The usually sky-blue spanse they saw was now teal-ish, turning purple-ish in what they assumed was the evening's setting sun. The clouds, once pure white, now had a very light, reddish tone to them. It was a if they were in the exact same place, but in a different planet Earth.

"W-What is going on?! What the fuck is this shit?!" Jenna desperately yelled, only to be lightly slapped by Cain. Everyone stared at him dumbfoundedly, but had now put their attention on something else.

"Sorry, but I needed to calm her down somehow... and grab your attention too." Cain explained while looking extremely sorry. "We have to gather our thoughts and check our surround..."

[Welcome to the tutorial dungeon!]

That was the straw that broke the camels back. It felt like they were being subjected to a sickly, psychopathical joke. One that wasn't funny in the slightest bit. Natural phenomena like never seen before, an ominous trumpet, Earth changing as if a hundred years had gome by in a second and then a prompt from a video game appeared in frot of their eyes? It was too much.

"Just what... do you all see it?" Dwight asked hesitantly, his voiced laced with uncertainty and a bit of fear. "I'm not hallucinating am I?"

"Unfortunately Dwight... I think you are not..." Cain replied in a somber tone, before managing to pull a joke to try and lighten the mood. "That or we all are having the same nightmare."

"A joke now? Really?" Viola dead-panned at Cain as if it wasn't funny, but the forced smile on her face showed she understood his meaning.

"Thanks, Cain." Jenna said after a few seconds of silence. "Loosing my cool like that would just make things worse."

Before they could continue talking, a new prompt appeared.

[When the Trumpeteer makes his call, all that is known to man shall cease to exist. There will be no rich and no poor, there will just be. For the Trumpeteer's call... is that of the Apocalypse.]

That confirmed Cain's previous words about the "horn" actually being a trumpet. But the message was not encouraging at all. It was ominous. It was predicting death.

[Mankind shalt be given a chance. A chance to show they can change. Fight. Bare thy fangs to the unknown! Grow, Consume, EVOLVE!]

That... was the first encouraging message they had gotten. It meant that they had a chance of surviving... but that it was a slim chance. Cain understood more or less what was happening, as he had read about this in a few stories he dropped before going past the fourth chapter because of how bad they were. But understanding and accepting or believing were two different things. And even though he didn't want to believe what he was seeing... he didn't have a choice but to accept it as real.

[Pick an ability:

-Icy Fist

-Bash

-Electrify

-Dash

-Backstab

-Summon Pixie

...]

An infinite list of skills appeared in front of Cain's eyes, and by the look of the others, in front of them too. Before anyone could even think of doing something with it, Cain spoke rushedly.

"Nobody touch anything!" He exclaimed, earning the surprised and now wary looks of his group. "If this is what I think it is, we better think about it carefully."

"What do you mean by that, Cain?" Jenna asked, still tightly gripping the back of Cain's jacket. "What is this?"

"It is... a video game feature, isn't it?" Dwight asked Cain, clearly confused at what he was seeing.

"Not just any... it looks like the kind of thing you would see in a Roguelike game..." Cain explained slowly, almost dreadfuly. "And those are the games were you die the most."

After calming down for a bit, they decided to ignore the screen in front of them for the time being. Instead of worrying about that, they decided to explore their surroundings. After all, even if they were in the exact same park, it certainly looked nothing like it. They didn't have to walk long, though, before they realized that there was one thing that remained unchanged. The vending machine.

"Just... how come this thing is in such a good state?" Viola wondered while Dwight and Cain checked the machine.

"Oh it is exactly because this is a vending machine." Cain's answer came almost instantly. Seeing the surprised looks on their faces, he decided to explain it a bit further. "Dwight will confirm my words but... this is literally a vending machine, functioning as a shop does in a video game. The problem is that it is blocked... perhaps because we are in the Tutorial stage."

"He is right... this is all so damn stupid and at the same time downright terrifying." Dwight reaffirmed Cain's words while adding his own comment on top. And nobody called him out on it. They undertstood. It was all just too much to take.

"I guess we should stay put for a while... and see what happens..." Jenna began voicing her own idea, probably thinking about someone coming to rescue them... but things don't usually go people's way during an apocalypse, right?

[Players have 20 minutes to choose an ability. Players that haven't chosen an ability will be erased.]

"We are so fucked." Cain couldn't help muttering.

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The abilities shown are not all the abilities, and I am willing to take readers opinions into account for any character that isn't Cain. He is already designed. So long as they are BASIC ASS abilities, nothing overpowered. Something along the lines of "Double Slash" or "Fireball", those kinds of skills. After all, IT IS their FIRST skill. If your idea has no coherence and doesn't allow for teamwork, then please don't get mad if I don't use it.