Chapter 2: Earth is Floor 1

There are times when you look back over your shoulder in a dark alley or look in your rearview mirror.  Of course, there’s nothing there.  Still, it feels like you just missed catching something in the act.  Maybe a pair of eyes, too wide to be human and too raw to be real.  Maybe you just can’t shake off the feeling that something is in the room with you, just watching and waiting.

This was one of those times.  The screen flashed with words that gave off wrongness.

[Hello Earth! Welcome to the Tower!]

[Earth is now Floor 1!]

Just what did that mean?

“Mr. Serynak, I think something’s happening.”  Dr. Erste had his hand outstretched, seemingly tracing something unseen in the invisible air.

I understood why, because I was doing the same thing.

The space before me was filled with a white box and white letters –somewhat see through but not really.  The type you see in video games.  Growing up in a Temple and Carnival meant that I wasn’t too familiar with videogames, but the imagery before me couldn’t be anything but a videogame box.  I reached out and my hand went straight through.

Regardless of our bewilderment, the box continued.  The letters disappeared and the screen changed from text to video: a white room filled with toys.  A rocking horse, some colored blocks and other various childhood toys littered the floor.  Two figures walked in from the side.

“I’m sure you are all confused.”  The first speaker was a little girl, right at home with the toys.  She was probably just old enough to be in kindergarten.  She wore a pink dinosaur onesie, the jaws opening up to form the hood around her face. 

She wagged her finger at the camera.  “But you should take the time to listen, else you’ll end up dead!  For real!”

The second speaker was a boy, almost identical in everything except that he wore a blue dinosaur onesie.  “Long story short, Earth has been integrated into the Tower.  What is the Tower you ask?”  He walked up close to the camera, flashing teeth too sharp to be human.  “Why, it’s the greatest thing in the universe!”

The pink-dinosaur onesie girl shoved him out of view, taking up the camera space.  “The Tower is the place of dreams.  Place of wishes! Place of stars and suns!”

The Camera panned out.  The boy rocking on the horse, giggling.  “Well, considering that Earth is the first floor; it’s probably too early for that.  Let’s just give them the run down, Sis!”

“Have I been drugged?”  Dr. Erste mummured.

“Since Earth has been integrated into the Tower System, you are all now inhabitants of the Tower.  Consider this a Beta test.”  The girl started playing with the blocks, building a tower.  “You should now all be able to access your own Status Windows.  All you have to do is think about it, and it’ll pop up!”  Then the girl puffed out her cheeks, pointed her index fingers on her head and pretended to think real hard.

“But don’t do it now! That’s just the beginning!”  The boy waddled up to the camera again, “Although Earth is Floor 1, that’s not permanent.  It’s on a temporary basis!”

“That’s right! What my brother said!  Just a beta!”

“In 100 days of your time, Earth will be tested to see if it truly deserves to be part of the Tower as its own floor.”  The boy closed his eyes and folded his arms, looking all important.  “Oh yes, The Tower can’t just take anyone!”

“So you, that’s right, you!”  The pink-dinosaur onesie had been completely zipped up, leaving a comically stubby pink dinosaur in the girl’s place.  “You have 100 days to get strong enough to make sure Earth passes!”

“What happens if you don’t pass the test?”  The video abruptly changed to a swimming pool.  The blue-dinosaur boy was floating on a tube, sipping from a straw in a coconut.  “Well, that’s up to the inhabitants of Floor 2!”

“Brother! That was a secret!”

“Oopsies!”

“Well, since we spoiled it anyways,”  The camera panned to the girl, who started a tidy campfire.  The fire grew, casting long shadows.  “Last time a potential Floor 1 failed a test, the people of that world were… what’s the word? Extinct-ticized.”  She shrugged, shaking her head.  “The time before that, slavery-cized!”  

“But it’s not like it’s Earth’s first time doing this!”  The blue dinosaur boy appeared again.  “I do hope you guys can avoid ex… extin… extermination, this time!”

“Bro! We’re running out of time!”

“Oh no! I didn’t even explain the level-up system yet!”

The girl appeared, chasing him around in a circle with a plush sword and shield.  “It’s simple! Sl…Slayerize the monsters! Gain EXP! And Level up!”

“Don’t worry though! You’re not on your own!”  The girl continued.  “The Tower will provide ways to get stronger faster! In the form of quests!”

“It’s all included in the Player’s Handbook!”  The blue-dinosaur onesie boy ducked, clearly enjoying the chase.  “That’s all for today!”

“See you all next time!”  The two said in unison.

Then the screen died out, flickering out of existence.

My brain couldn’t wrap itself around what just transpired.  What was that?  A videogame screen in my vision?  Two kids explaining that Earth was now at war? There were too much information there for me to digest.  I sat there, not knowing what to do.

And like all people do when they’re not sure of what to do, I looked to someone else; to see what someone else was doing.

Mr. Erste was standing there, awestruck.

But that wasn’t all I saw.

Around him –no, surrounding him– was this red aura.  There’s no other way to describe it.  That’s what it was.  Like a thick mass of gas that surrounded him, flickering with the color of noxious crimson blood.  It gave me a real bad feeling.  The type of feeling you get before you throw up.  That feeling you get when you hide under your covers, too afraid to look out the space between your curtains and the window.  That same noxious feeling in your stomach when you don’t want to look under the bed, or look into the mirror when the light is off.

“Mr. Serynak, did you just see what I saw?”

“Dr. Erste? Are you alright?”  I said, reaching out to touch the aura, thinking better of it and pulling my hand back.

What the hell was this?

A mass-group poisoning?  I absently retraced my steps.  Had I drunk water from this building?  Yes, I had.  Did that mean this entire building was now drunk on the Kool-aid of some sick videogame hallucinogen?

“I-I think I’m not well.”  Dr. Erste reached for his phone.  “I think I need to call 911.”

No sooner than I reached for my phone to call for 911 myself, there was a subtle change.  The red miasma moved, roiling like some living mist.  They came together above his head, creating a skull.

I got goosebumps up and down my arms, spine, legs and my brain. So I froze.

It saved my life.

The window behind the Doctor exploded, splintering off into shards of glass bullets as a beak the size a small humvee slammed into the office.  It opened once, its gaping maw giving me a view of a throat edged with hundreds upon thousands of razor-sharp teeth; then it snapped shut –with Dr. Erste caught in between.

“AHHHHHHH!”  Someone screamed.  “HOLY FUCK!”

Dr. Erste didn’t even have a chance to scream.  Blood drooled out from his mouth as he hung there, suspended in the beak.  The beak made some kind of grinding sound and the poor Doctor's body kind of jerked –like a fish before being filleted into sushi.

And in one wrenching movement, it swallowed the Doctor whole.

“Oh holy fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,”  I belatedly realize I was the one who screamed hysterically.

The beak disappeared, exiting out the newly created hole in the wall.

The rational part of my mind wondered if insurance covered ‘Monster Attacks’.  The irrational part of my mind was still screaming ‘AHHHHHHHHH’.  Or maybe it was the other way around.

But another part of my mind, buried deep long ago that humans never have to use it again, emerged.  It urged my hands to cover my mouth because at this point, the screaming wasn’t going to stop.  Right now, this strange new part of my mind urged, we needed silence.

In the newly created hole appeared an eye.

It made me sick.

This mind that was concerned with things like survival and staying calm under pressure was still new to me.  It didn’t take much for it to be overwhelmed.

“Oh Jesus, FUCK!”  I turned tail and ran.

There was the sound of glass breaking and stone being thrown about.  The corner of my eye picked up bits of debris flying past me from behind.  I caught sight of what looked like a giant red feathered winged appendage sweeping the area behind me, knocking down priceless artifacts, painting and display cases alike.

Was I drugged?  Had I gone crazy?

My panicked hands remembered how to work the modern invention called a doorknob; I escaped and shut the door behind me.  Great big coughs wracked my body, my lungs simultaneously trying to suck in oxygen.  I felt lightheaded.

Something with a lot of legs skittered by.

“Shit!”

I grew up reading a lot of books.  The classics, the sword and sorcery stuff.  Lord of the Rings, the Arthurian Legends, Greek and Norse Myths.  Those things.  But I also read a lot of Eastern Folklore too; the ones that are written in ancient Chinese or kept in scrolls –the kind that don’t make it on the textbooks.  

What can I say?  The Monks and self-proclaimed Gypsy Psychics had an effect on me.

But as much as I lamented my off-the-rails childhood, I thanked Buddha, Jesus and all the Dark Powers for it.  Because I recognized the thing that skittered by me.

“No fucking way…”  I swore for the umpteenth time that day.

An orange insect-looking creature about the size of my leg; they skittered on legs as few as six or as many as… Well, they had a lot.  Their back was covered in this spiny carapace but what really drew my eyes were the large blade-pincers on their jaws.  Plus the tuning-fork looking appendage that served as a tail, gleaming wickedly.

“Tsutsugamushi?...”  I whispered.

An insect-type Japanese Yokai known to spread disease.

The one that skittered by me leapt straight over the desk and into the arms of the receptionist.

I hadn’t even noticed her; only a few seconds had gone by since I left the office.  The momentum of the Tsutsugamushi caused the chair to swivel, facing me.  The receptionist was covered from head to toe in Tsutsugamushi.  The sound of pincers puncturing flesh sang in my ears.

She was long dead.

Another skittering noise, followed by a shrill shriek that came from behind me, from the other side of the hallway.

I turned slowly.

Another Tsutsugamushi.

Then another.  

Then another... and more.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art had nice wide marble hallways.  All meant for people to browse and take their time; hopefully without bumping elbows.

The swarm of Tsutsugamushi blotted out the marble flooring, walls and the ceilings.

There were hundreds of them.

I ran.

It was like one of those scenes, where you know before you even run that you’re going to be chased.  I was right.  Right before I turned, the corner of my eye caught sight of the Tsutsugamushi horde (Horde? Pack? SWARM!) surge towards me like a living, breathing ocean tide.  They began shrieking, making these click-clack noises all at once.

In case you haven’t been, the MET is huge.  I recommend a visit sometime.

I ran down the hallways feeling that the horde was about to get on me.  Imagery of the Tsutsugamushi puncturing my skin, sucking out my blood and tearing into my flesh while I was still alive was a nightmare.  They tell stories about how when people are faced with certain death outside of their control, people kill themselves.  For a sense of control, like 9/11 or Hitler.

Should I stop?  Obviously something was happening outside of my understanding.  Was it better to be eaten alive by Tsutsugamushi or by a big bird creature?

But that was my brain talking.  My legs and all survival instinct in charge of fight-or-flight screamed ‘RUN! RUN! RUN!’

Still, I wasn’t an olympic runner.  I wasn’t some hero in those classic books who can stay calm under pressure.  I was just a phony Psychic stuck in NYC without a job; and I just knew I would die a side-character’s death.

But luck was on my side, because I spotted a door.

I ran like hell or high water, actually feeling a pincer wrap around my ankle.  “FUCK OFF!”  I kicked back and lost my balance, falling.  But I still scrabbled to the door, opened it and shut it closed behind me.

Adrenaline running high, I looked at the Nightmare Scene from Heaven.

A girl –no, a woman– stood there, studying me.

She had long dirty wavy blonde hair that reached the middle of her back and dressed like a biker gang member –white crop-top t-shirt with the words 'Metallica', a mid-riff leather jacket and tight faded blue jeans complete with the signature black leather boots. The toned abs, the sun-kissed skin, a high nose and bright pink lips. Young enough to be wicked, old enough to know better. The complete package.

She saw me staring and gave me a smile that belonged on the cover of ‘Sexy Biker Girls’...

Except for the huge Bastard Sword she held in her hands.

And the fact that she was covered head to toe in what looked like greenish-brown ichor.

She smiled at me, the ichor dripping off of her face.  She wiped it on her sleeve, not caring about messing up the leather.

“Irina Kristoff.”  She said in a heavy russian accent.  “Pleasure.”

Then she swung the sword at me.