The Goatman

He frowned a bit at the new information, and saw that he had a new tab inside of his system.

He looks at the name of it, then back down at the dead one at his feet.

It was called a Goatman, and when he looked at it, he could understand why. It's forelimbs we're changing shape, starting to take on the shape of human arms.

Where it's hooves should be, fingers were starting to emerge. Even on the things face, it was starting to have a human resemblance.

When looking this close, he could see that the bullet which put it down had went into its forehead.

[Goatman (incomplete): A mixture between a human and a goat. They eat other animals, humans, and other creatures they can get their hands on. They prefer to stay in the wilderness, and usually only show themselves at night. (Special methods to kill: none)]

"Special methods?" He muttered to himself.

It was something he would have to worry about later.

Aros looked towards the fence of the pasture, and saw the other goats inside it. He wasn't sure if he should keep them, or let them go.

If he butchered them, then where would he store the meat?

At this point, he didn't want to leave them trapped there in case another monster tried to kill them, so he left the gate broken.

He turned towards the dead Goatman on the ground, "Well, I won't leave you laying around." He said.

He tied a robe to its feet and dragged it off aways from his home. Piling wood around it, and lighting it on fire to get rid of its body.

Aros didn't want to have the smell of a dead animal near him, and definitely didn't want to get ill from it either.

He walked back over to the pasture, and only saw bones left of the two goats that it ate.

Aros let out another sigh and went back to his home, and reloaded his gun.

He looked at his stats, and saw his unused points.

[+2 STR, +1 DEX, +2 VIT, +3 INT, and +2 Faith]

[Name: Aros Mercer (22)

Race: Human

Title: None

Level: 3

STR: 10

DEX: 10

VIT: 10

INT: 15

FAITH: 5

Unused Stat Points: 0]

[SKILLS: Parallel Thought Lv 2, Shooting Lv 1]

He wanted to even out his stats a bit, but it was also because it just looked nice. He wasn't sure what the 2 points in Faith did, but he hoped they would come in handy.

...

Another two days had gone by, and it was now October 6th.

Aros has eaten a decent amount of the food that would spoil easily, and had already categorized his food. Cans, bags, jars, all of it. Fruits, vegetables, meats, bread, wheat, noodles, anything he would need.

There was no way he wanted to get scurvy.

Each day of silence and preparation had become his daily life. He knew that in the future, things would be different.

Aros has gone outside again, moving whatever things that could be considered valuable and moved them into his truck, along with a large duffel bag of canned food, just in case.

The sky had become dreary and grey. It was Autumn, so weather like this was possible this time of year, but he didn't think that was the only reason.

There had been small earthquakes every now and again, which was quite rare in this area. He frowned a bit, and watched as some specks of dust started falling to the ground.

He caught a couple in his hand, and looked at it closer.

It was actually ash.

Aros frowned for a few moments before glancing towards the west, where it was a bit darker.

Ash like this wasn't something one could usually see, and it wasn't the same as the ash that would come from forest fires.

He did have one idea in mind. Towards the west, beyond where he could see, was Mount St. Helens.

It was an active volcano that last erupted in 1980. At that time, he covered this whole area in ash. He was sure that somewhere on this property was a jar or two of ash that his parents had collected at the time.

Aros knew how bad this could be. Ash could clog up cars radiators, making them overheat. It could even get to a couple inches deep, making things hard to grow, and animals struggle to live.

Then there was also less sunlight, which reduces temperatures, and some cars could even get stuck if the ash was deep enough.

This doesn't even consider what would happen if someone breathed lots in.

Aros quickly headed back inside, and shutting the door.

He found the face masks which he had due to the requirement of wearing them in town due to Covid-19, and now they would help much more.

Back in the basement, Aros sat down. He had been trying to get other skills which could help him survive all that was going on.

In one corner of the room, was an area filled with scrap, screws, wires, capacitors, and other small items. He had disassembled a couple items, and was trying to put them back together, seeing if he could get something better, or if just the repeated actions would help.

He started putting a clock back together, and finished screwing in the last bit.

[Skills gained: Disassembly/Assembly Lv1, Basic Engineering Lv1]

Aros frowned a little at that. Seeing that it had the term 'basic' in it didn't give him much joy, but he knew it would be handy.

The odd thing about gaining the skill, was that he could now fully picture the inner workings of the clock he just put back together, and could understand how they all fit and functioned together.

Or perhaps that had to do with the other skill. The act of taking something apart, and the act of putting it back together, were combined.

Aros shrugged a bit, unsure of its purpose, but was still glad to have it. He now felt that it would be much easier to take the clock apart.

...

The next morning, Aros looked outside once again. There was about an inch of ash on the ground, and it was still coming down.

He had been getting worried about staying here, and seeing how bad things were getting, he knew that he would need to move now. His supplies could only last so long, and if the ash gets worse, or other things happen, he won't survive.

His .22 rifle was okay for small things, but it still struggled against the Goatman.

Aros went back inside and began to pack his bags, taking everything he could with him.

He did one last check of his phone, and saw that there still wasn't signal, before slowly pulling out of his driveway, and heading towards the town.

His plan to stop at a couple homes on the way, and see if there was more stuff he could get, or meet people to talk to. The first place he went to was about a mile down the road. It was the home of an old couple.

Aros hopped out of the driver seat with the rifle in hand, and walked towards the front of the pickup, and popped the hood. The radiator was already coated in ash.

Aros quickly wiped down what he could, before heading towards the front door.

There was no animals around, and no sign of people yet. He knocked on the door, and waited for an answer.

He didn't hear anything, and moved to the window, and tried to look through.

After standing there for a moment, an arm shot out of the window, shattering the glass as it aimed for his face.

Aros quickly took a couple steps back to avoid the arm, and raised his gun.

He could see that the arm was old and wrinkled, and the fingertips looked bloodied, as if scratching at a wall for a long time.

He looked closer and saw it was the old man. His pupils were white and had a blank look, and his white sclera had burst blood vessels.

He was making growls as he kept trying to reach for Aros.

"Damn it old man... what happened to you?" Aros muttered. He looked behind the old man, and saw the old woman slowly shambling her way towards the window as well, with the same look and eyes that the man had.

Aros raised his gun and pointed it at their heads, but they didn't even react. That was how Aros knew for sure that they lost their minds. Everybody would react at least a bit when a gun was aiming at them.

Aros let out a shuddering breath before pulling the trigger, dropping the old man.

After that, the old woman began to reach out through the window in his place.

Aros fires, dropping her too.

He let out a sigh as looked down at the two corpses, which almost seemed peaceful now.

"Is this how the world is going to be?"