apocalypse runner system

*BRRRRING* *BRRRRRING*

"UGH, not school, let me stay in bed for another day." Jason moaned at the alarm going off to the side of him in an endeavor he knew was pointless since he would get up anyway.

"Good morning player"

"Good morni- WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?" The shock of a stranger's voice caused Jason to fall out of bed onto the hard, oak wooded floor below.

*THUMP*

"I'm your new and handy runner-terminal, but you can call me anything you like." The thing that introduced itself was a bright white light of little features.

"Owie owie owie" Jason clutched the back of his head which felt like it had been whacked with a heavy brick.

"That looked bad, would you like some help?" The floating orb asked with a friendly tone.

"If you could that'd be great, but looking at you and your lack of appendages, I can't imagine there being much you could do to help." His words came out as annoyed and held a certain degree of anger behind them even though they were spoken softly so as to not wake Jason's parents up.

"There is no need for hostility against me, if you must be annoyed be annoyed at yourself for falling out of bed." The orb's tone remained unchanged, but a shift in attitude was felt by Jason.

"I guess, but I can still be annoyed at you, I'm not giving in that easily." He felt a need to cement his authority in this situation.

`I must be in a half-dazed dream, most likely I'm seeing things because I went to sleep too late.` Jason tried to make sense of the situation to himself while the orb remained silent.

...

"Well, whatever, I've always thought that it would be cool to have a buddy that only I could see, even if it was only in my head." After he said that to himself Jason started to get ready for school.

Opening his closet Jason picked out the clothes that his mum had left for him the night before and quickly got changed, but when he went back he noticed that his bag had been moved to the top shelf of his closet. He reached out for it trying to hopefully grab one of the straps on the back so he could pull it down.

"It's...just...out...of...reach *hrmmm* WHOAH!!" 

*Thump* 

For the second time, Jason fell onto the floor this time hitting his forehead on a box in his closet, all he had managed to accomplish was pushing his bag further away from his grasp.

`Goddamn sister, of course she hides my bag just out of reach I should have expected it though.`

His annoyance started to give him a headache as he headed downstairs to grab a chair that he could use to give him the reach to grab his bag at the far reaches of his closet's top drawer.

When he came back the orb had disappeared from view and his bag was lying on the ground ready for him to pick up.

`Sis must have felt bad about me hitting my head after falling down, and the orb must have been an illusion akin to sleep paralysis.` With his hypothesis secured Jason grabbed his bag and set off back downstairs, chair still in tow.

It would be at least 20 minutes before breakfast was made, but that didn't mean that there was nothing to do, Jason had small chores such as letting the dog outside and cleaning the kitchen counter as a sort of payment for the food.

These took up most of his time and before he knew it, it was time to sit down and wait for the streaky bacon his mum was cooking to be served on the homemade bread buns that had been baking since yesterday.

Jason had a slight hope that his sister would come down so he could have a go at her for the joke of putting his bag out of reach, but she failed to make an appearance at all.

`Lucky her, she must have a lecture later on in the day today.` He thought with a hint of envy present.

"What have you got today?" His mum asked while he had a mouth full of bacon, bread, and ketchup.

He held up a finger and then pointed to his full mouth which he emptied a quickly as he could causing food to go down the wrong hole.

*Cough, cough, Gack*

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah mu-*Cough* mum, I'm fine wen-t down the wrong hole is all."

"I've told you so many times before to not eat your food too quickly, and look where not listening has gotten you."

Jason braced for a lecture but thankfully his mother seemed to be in a non-lecturing mood, a rarity that only happened once in a blue moon.

"Now then, tell me what you have today!" She was stern, but it was mainly Jason's fault for forgetting his class materials one too many times so she liked to know what he had as a reminder for what he needed to take to school.

"Double maths, so if you don't see me again you know why, Chemistry, RE and career counselling which takes up last period." He was happy that his last period was taken by what would most likely be talking to a bunch of random people for an hour but that was boring in its own way.

After breakfast, Jason slipped his shoes on and left his house to walk to his school which was only a short distance up the road.

`My bag feels a bit heavier... I'll check it out when I get to school.` 

"Ey'up Arsehole" The familiar voice of his good friend Eric that seemed to resonate around wherever it spoke no matter the volume called out from behind Jason. 

"Shut it piss boy before I reveal to the girl you like that you pissed your pants in lesson yesterday." 

"You wouldn't" Replied Eric with a horrified expression.

"'Course I wouldn't, if you don't annoy me that is." Jason gave a cocky smile to Eric who continued looking at him with disbelief.

"Hahaha, god I can't keep that up for long." Eric was the first one to crack in his facade which set Jason off as well, the laughing fit remained active until they got into their classroom which was such a depressive place that it immediately dulled both their moods as they sat down.

Eric went to sleep on his desk while Jason opened his bag to see what had been weighing it down.

"BOO"

"AAAAH, YOU BASTARD." After the words left his mouth Jason looked around to see several weird looks being given to him.

"Did you like my prank player? I for one find it quite humorous." It was the orb from earlier in the morning.

"It's not funny when it happens to me, that's something you may want to learn." 

The orb replied nonchalantly, "It did happen to you and it was extremely funny, so you're wrong on both fronts."

"Anyway enough of this, I'm here to tell you about the game that you have been entered into, I would have done it when you were at home but you seemed to be in a hurry, in hindsight you weren't but that doesn't matter." The orb spoke almost too quickly for Jason to understand.

"A game? What game? I don't remember signing up for anything online." Jason would have liked to say more but the orb spoke up before he could get more words in.

"I have already told you the game, Apocalypse Runner, tell you what, to make explaining easier I would like you to press me with your finger." 

...

"What are you waiting for press me!" Jason hesitated, he already seemed like he had lost his marbles long ago so doing something like this was not going to help his case with his fellow classmates.

"Just press me"

"Fine" He relented, if the orb wasn't going to shut up before he did what it asked he might as well, even if he looked like a slight nutjob to everyone else.

Name: Jason Smith

Strength: 4

Stamina: 5

Intellect: 4

Mana: 0

Inventory:

When he pressed down on the floating light it transformed into a transparent white screen that displayed information like that out of an RPG, not only that but it displayed a separate section that was counting down from 10.

`Wait a minute, what's it counting down t-.` Before Jason could even finish his thought he felt himself becoming extremely drowsy and laid his head down on his desk.

Immediately he opened his eyes to a large, open street with no traffic on either the road or the pavement. The air took a turn from slightly polluted to a rotten tinge floating around infesting his nose and causing him to gag for a few seconds before he started to get used to it.

The buildings around felt cold and lifeless, little if any light escaped from the windows, and even at the dawn of dusk no light emanated out from any sort of external source like the streetlights that dotted the residential area he found himself in.

In the distance, Jason could see very little because of the lack of light forcing him to take his steps slowly and carefully, the only thing he understood was that this world was not his own, and if the name of the game was anything to go off of it was certainly not safe for human habitation.

`Slow and steady, that's how people live in this kind of situation right?` Jason's only experience of survival without a guide was through movies and he had no idea if movie knowledge would be able to help.

"You know that you can go into the houses right? I would recommend it since that's how you find nice things." The orb materialised itself yet again nearly causing Jason's fight or flight to activate.

"Yeah, I'll listen to the thing that most likely just wants to see me die, that'll go just swell for me." 

"But if you don't you'll die anyway, so you might as well listen." The orb spoke as if it were a philosophical mastermind who was imparting wisdom on those he saw as inferior intellectually.

"That's... a good point actually, but.. screw it, might as well." 

As Jason approached the door to the nearest house he felt a stone form in his gut, his mind telling him not to go further, his legs screaming to run, yet he gripped the door handle tightly and pulled down revealing the house's secrets to the world.