CHAPTER 2 – Burning Down The House...

CHAPTER 2 – Burning Down The House...

I came to suddenly and violently, swinging my arms like one of those wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men, you know, the tall guys you see out on the side of the road by car dealerships and maintenance garages.

"Wait a minute, that didn’t hurt?" I searched over my body, my pants were trash, the left leg ripped to shreds up to my… Crotchal Region.

Running my hands over my coat I brushed off some glass and noticed it’s missing the right arm and has various rips and tears all over. However, my leg and arm, both not long ago looked like a mix of chicken and bacon stretched out and covered with a can of beefaroni then slammed with a meat tenderizer, yeah those limbs, were somehow all good.

“What the hell?” I murmured to myself, still in a bit of shock as I ran my hands over my healed wounds.

Looking to the ground I saw shattered glass mixed in with the mess of bloody snow.

I realized I wasn’t violently shaking from the frozen water anymore, hell, I wasn’t even cold. I should have severe hypothermia at least. My clothes were still wet and freezing but my body temperature felt fine, sort of like I put the freezing clothes on after leaving a sauna.

I looked up to see Arthur chilling out. Sitting directly in front of me, his tongue hung from his open mouth and he just smiled, always the good boy.

"Did you—? Hmm…" I started talking but stopped myself, the thought too ridiculous.

Arthur barked then bit the air.

It almost looked like he was miming something out.

My dog is smart, he’s a very smart boy, but he's just a dog.

“What the hell are you doing? Are you screwing with me?” I asked, giving myself a chuckle as I spoke with the pup.

He shook his head.

Left, Right.

“What the fuck?” I said under my breath. Did he really just respond?

“Woof!” He barked rolling his head up and down as if he agreed.

“Alright, guess I’m losing it now. Going crazy.” I sat up and found a clean spot out of the mess to relax.

“Woof woof!” Again, he shook his head left then right.

"Can you understand me somehow?" He nod his head up and down.

What in the hell is going on here.

I jumped to my feet, excited but also freaked out at the same time.

I began pacing, “There’s no way you understand… I mean sure, you understands sit, lay down, heel. We have words while playing games, but EVERYTHING I’m saying? Nah, this has to be some fucked up coincidence, or I’ve gone off the deep end.”

“WOOF!” He proclaimed.

I looked down at him, “Bullshit Pup!” I tell myself it’s a coincidence then continue, “If you can understand me, uh, hmm… Bark 3 times, but take a 3 second break before the last bark.”

I’m really losing it, first floating health bars and now I think my dog understands everything I say.

Right...

He stared into my soul, “Woof Woof.”

I counted, one, two, three, four, ughh thank g—.

”Woof.”

“Bullshit, bite the tree behind you then!” I exclaimed, he cocked his head sideways and looked at me like I was losing it, which I actually may be.

He shook his head, Left. Right.

“Okay!.. Okay, sorry Buck, that is a bit much. I believe you,” I said the words but I still thought it had to be some sort of weird fucked up occurrence and that it would eventually end.

After A few seconds of silence I yelled, “BUM BUM BUH BUM BUM!”

“WOOF WOOF!” He finished the melody then his tail wagged ferociously as his tongue fell from his mouth again.

“Well, damn. I had to be sure I wasn’t completely nuts!” I said laughing at myself a bit unhinged.

“So what happened here buddy?” I asked my still non-talking dog. He turned his head to the side scolding me for the dumb question.

I shook my head at my own stupidity then pointed to the glass on the ground, "Right… So, you must have seen the potions? Meaning you were in fact miming a minute ago. You just broke them open with your mouth to heal me?" I was still flabbergasted by the situation.

“Woof.” He nodded again.

Up, Down.

"Holy shit Arthur… Well, good boy?"

I felt sort of odd saying 'good boy' to a dog who apparently understood complete English. Shit, he even found a way to communicate with me, but he soaked up the attention, acting like his old self, barking and beating a tree down with his wagging tail.

“Are you okay from biting it? You didn’t hurt yourself did you?” As I was asking I realized, he bit the glass yes, but if it was a healing potion, it would have just healed him as soon as the liquid broke out of the vial.

He just looked at me like the fool I was.

“Yeah, I got it… Realized it as soon as I said it. Now then, what’s next?” I thought aloud, taking a moment to breathe before continuing.

"We need to get back to the house. I need to get some new clothes because I'm starting to freeze up again. Then, I don’t know... I guess I’ll call the police to let them know what happened so they can look into what the hell those things were. We can check the news while we wait on them, and you my friend, deserve a really big treat."

I was unsure why I felt the need to explain my plans to my dog but it seemed right. Plus, it’s not like I didn’t talk to him before all of this. He just didn’t understand me before. Or maybe he did? Who knows.

We returned to the house, finding it in ruins.

All of the windows were shattered, some of the walls were blown apart, especially the areas where I had my TV’s mounted.

It looked like every electronic I owned was filled with C-4 then detonated, blowing everything straight to hell. Everything from the fridge and oven, to my poor gaming computer.

Boom.

All gone.

I had a lot of electronics so most of my house was just gone.

I went into my room checking for clothes, half of my bed was blown apart with springs poking out every which way. I'm assuming that was due to the old school alarm clock I never used.

My dresser was no more. Clothes burned to nothingness. I stored my laptop in the bottom drawer.

I went to the kitchen to grab my cell phone so I could call for help, the sheet metal sink was peeled back like a banana showing the piping below.

My thick handmade butcher block counter top that I installed two years ago, also splintered and fragmented from the blast and of course the phone was nowhere to be seen, most likely in some other dimension from the massive explosions.

I felt woozy and grew more upset the further I walked through the ruins of my life.

Keep Moving.

Checking the basement totes I got lucky and found a few old hoodies that I tossed on and an old pair of sweat pants.

Better than nothing but I wish I had some long johns handy.

I took a seat on a spare tote.

My home is gone.

The quiet life I've built for myself over the past 5 years is just fucking gone, in the blink of an eye. Now I'm seeing things, like I'm in some sort of fucked up open world game, and apparently I have a dog who is a few level ups away from Scooby-Doo.

Fuckin’ hell...

I took a few minutes to compose myself and get over it, what felt like minutes could have been hours for all I knew, but it was time to move.

Can’t be stagnant.

Returning upstairs I saw Arthur roaming about, his treats took some damage, as well as the dog food scattered throughout the kitchen, along with all of my food.

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"Well Dukester, we need a plan. And supplies. We need to go to town…” I looked through the shattered window as an oddly warm breeze brushed my cheek, “But... The truck is on fire aaand it’s pitch black. So, want to go for a walk in the morning?" I grabbed everything that was still in one piece and loaded it onto a sled that I used to drag loads of groceries from my garage to the house below.

I didn’t find much, a few cans of those baked beans dad got me hooked on as a kid when we would go camping, a few pieces of loose bread and one everything bagel that I managed to clean off, although it was more of a ‘Not-Everything’ bagel now. I also found an extra set of clothes and a blanket that wasn’t fully destroyed. I figured I should drag the sled in the case I find anything else that would be helpful on the way to town.

For now, we need to find a spot to lay down for the night.

Arthur hated the basement all of his life, I could never get him to go down there. We had a small staircase that led to a bulkhead behind the house. I always wanted to use it as a way to let him go in and out of the house in the summer time but I couldn’t even get him down those few steps unless I was an asshole and dragged him down, but I'm not an asshole, at least I try not to be.

I had a small work bench in the basement that I used a lot in the winter time to make all sorts of shit when I got bored or wanted to learn a new trade. Whether it was sewing, wood working, or learning how to make a wooden shield for the hell of it.

Anyways, I always wanted Arthur to just hangout with me while I worked down there. He enjoyed chilling with me when I worked in the garage during the warmer months, but he just never went for the basement.

"Arthur, let’s go bud," He looked at me with his head cocked sideways as to say, come again?

"Basement. Bed time. Come on. Yip.” I slapped my hip urging him to follow.

He didn’t move an inch, still looking at me the same way, “I know you can understand me now, At least I’m pretty damn sure. It’s not safe up here if there’s more of those things around. Plus, it will be a bit warmer down there come middle of the night."

He shook his head.

Left, then right.

"No? Really… Why not?" I asked, quickly realizing just because he understands my language, doesn’t mean that I understand his.

"Rrrruff!" His snippy bark was followed by a whine.

"I know it’s scary, but once you're down there I promise, you'll see there’s nothing going on. Only tools and what was once our washer and dryer on the far side. If it was the furnace kicking on and off that was scaring you then you have no worries because it’s blown to shit."

"Woof woof!" he proclaimed! At the same time moving his head left and right.

"Come on man, please? I'll worry about you all night if you don’t come down. Tell ya what, if ya do then we can stop to see Mrs. Rowen and visit your friend before walking to town," My last shot, I figured I’d try to bargain. Maybe if he won't reason with this new intelligence, he can at least be bribed.

He lowered his head making a defeated and weak cry, but he gave in and hesitantly followed me down the stairs. I showed him around pointing to where everything use to be then we got comfortable on the floor.

With my big furry foot warmer in place, I made my first attempt at sleep.

My mind raced.

Our neighbor, Mrs. Rowen or Bell, is a sweet old lady who lived in the next house up the mountain, which is about 2 miles uphill.

She lost her husband to cancer years ago, long before I moved in and she hasn't seen her son in years because she stopped enabling his addiction with money and that’s all he seemed to care about. Somehow though, she still sees the best in people and seems to enjoy life and everything it brings her way.

She came to meet us the week we moved into the house. She actually brought a homemade pie, using fruit that she grows in her own yard, it was like one of those movies or TV shows. I didn’t know people actually did that kind of shit in real life but it was actually a very sweet surprise, that works in 2 ways. The pie was absolutely divine.

After meeting her I would walk Arthur to her house every now and then between spring and fall, we would talk and let the crazy animals play.

Bell has a cat named Lily, who Arthur loves to play with.

It’s actually kind of weird to see my big silly dog befriend a crazy cat.

Lily would hunker down in place and swat at Arthur’s nose as he ran in circles around the cat, sticking his face in and out trying to dodge paw swipes, mostly unsuccessfully.

Once Arthur was finished running out all of his energy, he would lay down next to the lawn chairs and Lily would always sidle up next to him and they shared a nice warm sun bath.

As the dynamic duo started to relax, I would normally be cleaning up after an early lunch that Bell would have waiting for us upon arrival. We would hang around for an hour or so just chatting until it was time to head back home.

I had so much shit to worry about, why was I thinking about this nonsense?

We should head straight to town to find help and report the mutant dogs that just about killed me earlier. Then figure out where we’re going to live and what I'm going to do about, everything. We shouldn’t be taking a trip to hangout with the neighbor.

"She’s probably fine." I told myself, trying to calm my mind and come up with a solid plan, "I guess I can use her phone since mine was blown to shit, and maybe she'll be able to give us a ride to town."

What about that gaming shit though?

Was it just from the blast, maybe something knocked my head silly?

I haven’t seen anything since the river.

"Maybe it’s over?" I try to convince myself, "but Arthur changed... That is still evident since he's in the basement laying on my feet right now."

Maybe it’s my brain trying to cope with this whole situation. Who knows...

After hours of this constant back and forth playing out in my mind, some of it spoken out loud to nobody, I decided to try something new to convince myself one way or the other.

I opened my eyes and stared into the darkness, "Status."

Name: Rick Weston

Race: Human

Level: 1

Class: LOCKED—Available classes generate upon reaching Level 10.

Titles:

Bring It: +15% Strength +15% Vitality at Critical (Triggers at or below 15% Life)—While facing death, instead of succumbing to fate, you instead rebel. You won't go down easy.

For The Family: Aura Triggers below 30% Life, User and All Party Members Within 30 Yards Gain +5 to all stats, +15% Health Regeneration Per Second, +15% Mana Regeneration Per Second—You put the lives of your loved ones before your own well being without thought or care.

True Slayer: Passive Effect, +3 Stat Points Per Level Up—First Human on Earth to slay a system generated monstrosity.

Base Stats:

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 7

Endurance: 8

Vitality: 10

Will: 8

Intelligence: 7

Unallocated Stat Points: 0

"Holy shit," I whispered.

No goddamn way...

"I suppose I could be suffering from a complete mental breakdown, but this seems too real. It feels too real. This is wild." I reached my hand through the dimmed character screen display floating in the air directly front of me.

I've been hit in the head plenty of times throughout my life. I never started seeing detailed translucent boxes hovering in the middle of my vision.

Or giant man eating pug-things.

If the video game logic is what my brain is using to cope with the stress of my house blowing up then I suppose there’s nothing else to do but go with it and figure out how it works.

Control it.

"Menu?" Nothing.

"Help," Still nothing.

"Tutorial?" Shit, Nope.

Well it doesn't seem like it's one of those type of games that walks you through everything. Which I guess is cool, in games. Just, not so much real life.

"Show Heads Up Display?"

BOOM!

As soon as I finished saying the last syllable, it appeared.

At the bottom of my periphery, a red bar on the left, and a blue circle to the right. Life, and Mana? Magic power? I don't have any skills or magic, Maybe when I gain a class? That means I have to go level up, which of course means, kill more monsters.

I'm not going to lie, that scared the shit out of me.

If I ran into a full pack of those mutated mutts I would be ripped to shreds within seconds.

Me and Arthur.

I'll figure something out, or maybe when I wake up, this nightmare will be over.

I really didn't like how the HUD was set up. I closed my eyes and thought of a more familiar set up. I kept the picture in my mind, and focused my intent on my health bar and felt something.

An odd connection, almost like it was a part of me.

As I kept my focus, I felt my entire body tingle, like I was lying in a way that cut off circulation to every part of it.

Ignoring the numbness, I kept my focus and controlled my breaths.

In slowly, keep going... Hold. One, Two, Three, Four.

Out, half-time.

After a while of repeating the breathing technique that I conjured up on the spot and holding the picture in my mind, and maybe with a little help from Manifesting 101... I opened my eyes and mentally triggered my HUD back on.

My life bar was at the top left of my peripheral vision.

I repeated the process for the Mana, but first I imagined the circle flattening in on itself, pushing wider and wider, I sharpened the corners up at the end of my pancake a bit and pictured the blue rectangle below the red bar.

I opened my eyes.

"It worked!" I shouted.

"ROOOWOWOWW!" I scared the hell out of Arthur who jumped up and started a sleepy howl bark as vicious and intimidating as he could muster.

I sat up, quickly lighting the one candle I had.

"Whoa, I'm sorry Duker! I got excited messing with my display." I swear he rolled his eyes at me, the dog rolled his damn eyes. Then he cocked his head sideways as to say ‘what now?’

"I wonder if it would work for you... You've seen the television when I play my games right? The little health bars and what not? That my furry little bro is called a HUD, or heads up display. Just think of the 3 words I said in your head, focus on them, Heads Up Display." A second later I could tell he saw them as he started pawing at the air while moving his head in circles trying to get a sniff at everything.

I continued, "That red bar, that’s your life energy or health, whatever this system calls it. If that red bar goes all the way down. Shit, you're color blind, or are you still? Regardless, the bar on the left," I said as I point to his left. "If it empties, you will be dead."

I froze after saying that.

It felt wrong to speak so nonchalantly about this. The thought of losing him made me feel empty and cold inside.

"I—I'm sorry pup, I never want that to happen... No. I will not allow that to happen, fuck that. If we get into anymore scraps like we were today, I want you to know when to leave.”

Looking straight into his eyes I told him, “Do NOT die for me. You, are special Bucky. If that red bar gets too low, we'll say, half way down. I want you to bark twice, and run as fast as you can until you find somewhere safe. When I get free I will find you afterwards. Deal?" He whined as if to disagree then put his head down.

"Bud you have to promise me this so I don't have to worry about you. So I can focus on whatever dangerous situation we may end up in. Okay?"

“Woof,” he barked, nodding his head. Up, Down.

"Thanks buddy, Love ya."

After taking a moment to breathe out the heaviness, I continued, "The circle is Mana or magic power, we'll call it Mana. That's basically how many spells you can use and." He turned his head to the side and his tail wagged faster, knocking over random tools and such from the bottom shelf next to us.

I laughed, "Yeah, magic powers. The more spells you use, the more Mana you lose cowpoke. Just like the games I played, but I don't think you have any spells yet, but you never know, maybe someday you'll be like Krypto, flying around shooting lasers from your eyes at the bad guys! It'll take some time and training though." He shook his head, Up, Down. Tail still wagging, knocking various items around in the dark.

"Last thing. You should be able to shut it off as well if you command it to, just focus on what you want, and POOF!" I explained.

It’s really cute watching your dog crank his head back and forth over and over like he's trying really hard to understand something, I couldn’t help but laugh and give him some scratches behind the ear.

After petting Arthur and having a long one way conversation with him in the dark, I think he managed to turn the display off, either that or he finally stopped trying to destroy it and we decided that was enough for the night.