System Failure

A/N: from my nightmares to your eyes. 

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I was driving when it happened.

I had just returned from abroad back to my home country of France, in time for Halloween. What should have been a normal vacation trip to Brazil ended up lasting months, thanks to our dear friend Covid-19.

Since it looked like France might quarantine itself again sooon, I had decided to visit my elderly grandparents while I still could. They lived in a southern village called Benesse, a place so lost in the countryside, that an abandoned mill was their main tourist attraction. Only old people and farmers lived there, surrounded by trees, hills, and farm fields. Grandpa lived off the land and his barnyard, almost never leaving home except to bring grandma to the doctor.

In short, Benesse was a place from another time.

As my Honda drove up the hill leading to their house, the sun slowly descending behind the horizon, I listened to the evening news on the radio. I could already predict what they would say, but you never knew.

“With the recent surge in victims, the government is expected to quarantine the country again—”

Again with Corona… it was always pandemic this, US elections that, terrorism that. Non-stop anxiety. My personal life wasn’t any better. I had broken up with my girlfriend, and I was probably about to lose my job in the financial crisis I could see coming from a mile away.

Truly, 2020 was the worst year ever.

“--President Macron will speak to the nation—”

Nobody cared, especially me.

Then, the radio abruptly stopped.

I frowned, trying to change the channel, but… nope. Nothing changed. At the moment, I didn’t think much of it. It was the countryside, the asshole of France; of course coverage wasn’t great. I just drove on the silent road, surrounded by trees. I wasn’t paying attention.

So when a flying blue screen showed up, it blocked my vision at the worst time possible, and my car hit a plane tree.

When I regained consciousness a few minutes later, it was my face against the airbag, a little blood falling from my nose. My vision blurred, but I managed to somehow remove my seat-belt and open the door, walking out. The sad part was, at the moment, I only thought about the car insurance.

When I managed to put my thoughts in order, the flying screen was still there, taunting me.

A blue, phantom message.

System initiated. Planet: Earth.

Please be patient until the transition ends.

I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand anything. I tried to touch the screen, but my hand went through, as if it wasn’t there. I turned my eyes, and it followed my gaze, like an intrusive ad.

Whatever I did, it caused the text to change.

ERROR!

The blue screen turned bloody red.

ERROR!

ERROR!

ERROR!

WARNING: Corruption detected! Corruption detected!

More crimson screens flooded my vision, each carrying a different ‘error’ or ‘warning’ message. Some of the texts were unreadable, corrupted; others didn’t make sense.

WARNING: Extra life system bug detected. Do not die. D0 N0t D16.

W4RN1N8: ENem1e7 are above your p156y level. We recommend y01 to r3tr39t from tH1s plaNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEETTT.

WARNING: You are dead. You will be dead soon. Please be patient. PleAZE BA PAtiznt...

Was I… was I hallucinating? Was I dead, killed in that crash? Or just half-delirious from the blood rushing to my brain? It looked like messages from a computer system, but… but it didn’t make any sense!

WArnINg: We are fac1NG d1f1cultIZ. ThAt 1s a11 y0ur fault. Yo8R F1aulttttt!!!!

The texts collapsed into mindless gibberish.

Whatever the screens were, they looked buggy as hell.

I tried to close my eyes, to gather my thoughts, to mentally focus on excluding the screens from my vision. It seemed to work, and for the first time in minutes, I had no message in front of me; my eyes were free to look around.

My car was destroyed. Out. Dead. Once it would have driven me to rage, but my eyes didn’t stay on the vehicle for long. Instead they looked up, mesmerized by an alien sight above my head.

The skies were red.

Not red as in beautiful, twilight red, but furious crimson. It seemed the heavens had bled as far as the eyes could see, and the sun hadn’t vanished behind the horizon yet.

What the hell was happening?

I looked into my pocket to find my cell phone, to try and call someone, anyone. I had no WiFi nor internet, but that was the countryside for you; nothing unusual. I should be able to call my family though.

“Grandpa?” I tried to call him, but I got no reception. I tried to call my father next, my mother, even my sister.

Nothing.

I had so many questions going through my mind, I took a few seconds to just breathe. I removed the blood from my nose with my pocket handkerchief, and then I tried to think logically. I was probably hallucinating from the crash, but at least I could walk.

The car was done for, and there was nobody out at this hour, so I walked up the hill towards my grandparents’ home. I followed the road, and I was surprised by the silence. I didn’t hear any bird or car in the distance. I knew the area was underpopulated but…

I couldn’t explain it. I had a gut feeling something was utterly wrong.

It didn’t take me long to reach my grandparents’ home. They had built the place in the fifties, on a natural mound, a basement serving as the car garage on the lower floor. My grandfather tended to a large lawn around the house, and if you followed a path north, you could reach the barnyard and vegetable garden.

The only other house for at least a kilometer was another ‘farm’ located west. If I remembered right, the owner had cancer, or Alzheimer.

As I reached the entrance portal outside the lawn, I hit the doorbell, just to warn them I was here. Their dog, Diane, often escaped on the road

When I received no answer, I hit the doorbell twice, then thrice.

Then, I noticed an anomaly. Their dog, Diane, always barked at people when they moved close to the property. Even me, and I raised that animal her whole life.

But as I opened the mortal and walked on the lawn, I was only greeted with silence.

I reached the house’s door and opened. “Hey,” I said out loud. “Grandpa? Grandpa Loulou! Grandma? Diane?”

No answer.

I stepped inside the main room, the table set in front of the TV. The screen was grey, a droning static. Diane didn’t come to welcome me, and I didn’t smell the stuffed chicken I was told we would eat tonight.

“Hey?” I called as I walked forward, before almost slipping on something.

I looked down.

There was blood on the floor.

I felt my heart skip a beat, as my eyes silently followed the trail of blood towards the door next to the kitchen, leading down to the basement. It looked like someone had trailed a bloody corpse down below.

I think… I think most people would have panicked, or screamed. But I didn’t.

I was naturally cold-blooded, enough to work in finance. I had been robbed twice in my life before, so, I wouldn’t say I was used to tense situations, but I could keep my emotions in check better than most.

Grandpa was a hunter, with an official permit. He kept a rifle in his bedroom.

Without making any sound, I moved away from the basement’s door, keeping it in sight, and towards grandpa’s bedroom. I kept my ears open to any sound, but I seemed to be alone on that floor.

I entered the empty bedroom, and looked under the bed. Grandpa and grandma slept separately for years, so he always put his weapon under the mattress, just in case. I always called him paranoid, but maybe he had a point in the end.

I quickly found it. A hunting rifle, four shots. Three reloads.

It felt so light in my hand, yet so deadly.

I had followed my grandpa on pheasant and boar hunting when I was a child, so I knew how to use the weapon. But…  who else could it be than a robber, attacking old people who couldn’t defend themselves? What would I do if I met a hooded killer, standing over my grandpa’s corpse?

Much to my horror, I had the feeling I was about to find out.

I tiptoed towards the basement’s door, finding it half opened. Wielding the weapon with my right arm, I pointed the cannon’s tip towards the door, then slowly opened it with my left.

I faced the stairway leading downward, the faint, fading daylight behind me, the darkness below. I couldn’t see anything, but I heard and I smelled. I heard chewing noises, like a vicious beast feeding, and I smelled the putrescent scent of raw meat.

And then… then I saw a glimpse of it, barely. At the bottom of the stairs. Something crawling in the dark.

I pointed the rifle at that dark shape, and then I switched on the light.

I immediately regretted it.

[MaDNEeZs] reSIZtEd.

The crimson screen flashed a second in front of my eyes before vanishing, but the horror below remained.

I… I had never seen something like this. It wasn’t a robber. It wasn’t even human, nor an animal.

It was a monster.

A flayed humanoid of festering, crimson flesh; it lacked any skin, nails, or veins, leaving only pulsating meat. The misshapen creature played with its food thanks to elongated arms, bleeding through every orifice of its horrific body. As a final insult to humankind, that abomination wore blue dungarees, pustulent tumors growing through the clothing.

And it was busy eating the she-dog. Eating Diane.

Only the labrador’s legs remained, the face and belly eaten, blood splattered everywhere. Her blood.

And the… the thing now looked up at me, lacking a nose or eyes or ears. It was just crimson, bloody flesh and lipless human teeth. A screen briefly flashed above its head, as it stuck its elongated tongue at me.

1nfect8D M333T

L3v3l: 6

Type: You. That is y0u. THAT IS Y000000!!!!!

I shot the monster in the head before it could react.

My body had moved on its own, taken over by a human instinct as old as my entire species. A flight-or-fight response. My aim was true, somehow, a bloody hole opening on that creature’s skull; crimson-purple brain matter poured from the wound, and the creature collapsed to the side.

My hands trembled, almost dropping the rifle. I couldn’t move, my eyes unable to look away from the atrocious scene. One lump of flesh, next to a half-devoured dog corpse.

Then I heard a screech from below, and another humanoid appeared at the angle, noticing me immediately.

It was larger, fatter than the one I just shot, a horrific, human-shaped blob of flesh. But it started climbing the stairs with speed rivaling a cat, its enormous mouth spilling guts on the steps. Unlike its kindred, whose corpse it crushed during the ascent, it had an additional arm sticking out of its maw, the hand flailing in my direction.

I was reminded of my first hunt, when I found myself with a boar rushing at me. I thought I was gonna die back then, but like today, my reflexes saved me.

I shot the monster, the bullet piercing its chest and losing itself in the pulsating meat.

It kept going.

It fucking kept going!

I shot the monster again, this time in the leg, and it collapsed on its face, its momentum briefly broken. The arms flailed around as it failed to get back-up, and then it started trying to crawl in my direction.

It wasn’t dead yet.

I frantically shot that thing with my last bullet, targeting the head this time.

It finally stopped moving.

I, euh… I collapsed after that. I just collapsed. I felt nauseous, and I had eaten, I would have probably vomited everything on the stairs. I breathed long and hard; a panic attack. A goddamn panic attack.

And then that fucking screen showed up again.

You have committed FAm1l1 m0rd3r! You w1lL b3 rewaardeed w1th the [Kinslayer] p3rson9l perk!

Pl3aze, Kiiiillllll again.

K1ll again HUm9N.

PLEASE KILL AGAIN

I didn’t understand. Perk? What the hell, what did that mean? Was this a video game? Was I trapped in a video game? Had I gone insane? What were these fucking things?

What were...

…

I reread the screen message, right before it vanished from my sight. My eyes glanced at the monsters I just killed, my gaze hollow and empty.

A horrible doubt crossed my mind, as I reloaded the rifle. I slowly, very slowly, climbed down the stairs, to take a better look at the dead things. I approached the biggest one, keeping the firearm pointed at it. For all I knew, it could be playing dead.

Below the flesh, I noticed robes. Blue robes with a green shirt. The same dress she always wore since like, forever.

These…

…

These were grandma’s clothes.

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So yes, In case you want to know…

My name is Sébastien Lenoir, or ‘Seb.’

I’m human.

I’m twenty-three.

And I’m in Hell.

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A/N: happy Halloween folks! I hope you enjoyed this LitRPG Apocalypse one-shot.