Elysium's Multiverse

Chapter 1

The wall cracked underneath the weight of the creature, sending splintered wood and paint flying in all directions as a shockwave caused Riven to stumble and fall. His heart pounded, and the screams around him only urged him onwards even more as he picked himself off the hardwood floor of the old house to scramble ahead.

His brown hair was matted down with blood, and a jagged gash across his left shoulder screamed at him with pulsing blasts of pain. His ruined jeans briefly caught on the edge of some furniture when he rushed past, and the words that’d first appeared to every person on Earth half a day ago were still burned into his mind:

[Elysium initializing.]

[Elysium initializing.]

[Elysium initializing.]

[Apocalypse has commenced. Earth to be merged with worlds Zazir and Elhisterii to form the new world of Panu at the end of 72 hours.]

[Worldwide Quest: Escape the First Wave - Your world has been inducted into Elysium’s multiverse. Millions of monsters with a variety of tiers have been unleashed into your realm. All planetary citizens and wildlife must survive the next 72 hours or make it to an Elysium Portal to escape the incoming horde. All Elysium Portals have been highlighted with pillars of light across the world. Reward for surviving: Brief introduction on the multiverse and Elysium’s Administrator.]

Within seconds of those words being displayed on little, holographic, teal-colored screens to every man, woman and child on the planet - all hell had broken loose. Creatures from Riven’s very nightmares had materialized right in front of his eyes in the middle of the street and started ripping people apart by the dozens. They were all sorts of sizes, shapes, and species - but they all had the same bloodlust about them as they wreaked havoc on humanity.

So here he was.

Riven pushed his little sister ahead, nearly throwing her thin body over the couch and towards the back door. The young woman wore a hoodie, skinny jeans and had the same chestnut colored hair that he did - though hers was much longer, and she glanced over her shoulder with frightened hazel eyes before Riven’s best friend - Jose - pulled her to her feet and dragged her out the back.

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Riven vaulted over the couch a second later and kicked the swinging wooden door to fling it open again, feeling the hot breath of the abomination behind him snapping just inches behind his neck.

He landed down the set of stone steps running, ignoring the screams for help from nearby houses and flinching at the sound of gunshots to his right. Whirling around in the dim light of the setting sun - he drew his own pistol out and checked to make sure it was loaded. Then he pointed and aimed at the doorway.

There, struggling to get its large frame out of the back door, was a large black brute of a creature. It had six insectoid legs that were clawing at the wood of the victorian-style house, armor-like chitin plating its body with a bulbous back end and the general frame of a spider. Though it certainly wasn’t a spider, not only because of the missing set of legs but also because its head was more wolf-like - extending out from its hairless body by a couple feet on a plated serpentine neck. Its yellow eyes blazed furiously at him, and its rows of teeth snapped repeatedly in his direction.

His hands shook just slightly due to the adrenaline, but he didn’t hesitate and rapidly fired three times at the opened maw of the creature as it tore off another chunk of wall through brute force. He felt the gun recoil with every shot, and was relieved to see his aim was on point.

Blood sprayed from open wounds in its neck as the bullets cut into the softer parts of the monster’s body, causing it to screech and reel itself back inside the house.

Turning back around and sprinting ahead, he caught up to Allie and Jose in no time. They were waiting for him around the corner of the suburban fence amidst the backdrop of a neighborhood gone to hell, and each were panting heavily after their strenuous run towards their distant destination. Fire blazed along many of the roadways, and there was even a large plumed griffon flying over the embattled streets.

Sweat trickled down Jose’s bald head. The latino young man was Riven’s oldest friend and somewhat of a partner in crime, had a similar background in many ways, and was 26 - the same age as Riven. He wore a flannel shirt, a pair of brown shorts, and tennis shoes. He wasn’t used to this kind of workout, and he held up his hand for just another moment of rest. “Give me a sec…”

“We can’t wait long…” Riven said between huffs as he took another look over the fence - finding solace in the fact that the creature was still rampaging inside the house. However, upon seeing the battle in the nearby street between three shotgun-wielding rednecks and another, even larger squid-like alien-creature - his heart began to sink again. Their screams echoed long after the last of their shotgun blasts penetrated the surrounding area as they were eaten alive, and soon Riven decided the break was long enough. He pointed to the pillar of light towering overhead into the heavens - a bastion of promised sanctuary far out beyond Dallas’ suburbs. This was what they needed to reach before they ended up dead like so many others.

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“Let’s go.”

***

Allie walked with a limp, supporting her weight on her older brother Riven, shakily looking out into the dark forest and finally having a chance to catch their breath. The moon and stars were overhead, and fires still blazed on the eastern Dallas skyline with occasional explosions being seen even from here. There was also the large pillar of light that they were closing in on, making the surrounding forest at least seeable during their trek even despite it being the dead of night.

"Are you ok?" Riven gave the young woman a soft, gentle smile. "You look worn out."

She glared at him incredulously between huffs, but then caught the slightly teasing smile. She let out a groan and let out a barking cough that shook her entire body. "That would be the understatement of the century."

"Well buck up. We're going to make it." He gave her an encouraging nudge, then bent down to carry her on his back without another word when her ragged breathing became heavier.

She smiled graciously, then hopped on - and they were off again. "Thanks Riven."

Stepping over a half-eaten human body, they came along the corpse of another one of those squid-creatures that’d been torn apart by a hail of bullets. Long, thick tentacles with serrated spines along its suckers and smooth, brown skin were testimonies to how deadly this thing was. It was also far larger than any of the three of them - probably weighing as much as a rhinoceros or maybe even an elephant. Its ugly, green eyes lay dilated in death, and the trio took a moment to stare at it before they kept on going.

Leaves crunched underfoot and the hoot of an owl sounded out from above. Their nerves were on edge, and Riven palmed the cold steel of the single gun they had in their group. He only had one magazine left, and they were only 9mm bullets… not nearly enough to kill any of the bigger creatures they’d seen thus far - but maybe enough to kill the smaller ones. A couple of the monsters they’d seen were as small as household pets, but they were still very dangerous as some of them spit acid or shot fireballs out of their little clawed hands.

“What the hell is going on?” Jose muttered under his breath, grimacing as he clutched at a wound he’d sustained while running earlier that day. “The apocalypse? This is un-fucking-believable.”

Riven snorted, still carrying Allie and comfortingly squeezing the hand that latched onto his shirt. Straightening to his full height of around 6 feet while adjusting his posture, and readjusting Allie's weight, he felt his back crack with the stretch and sighed. “I’ve never been the religious type… but this certainly does seem like the apocalypse to me.”

“It said something about an administrator and multiverse…” Allie mumbled from behind, her skinny legs wrapping around his waist while still nervously looking around. “I don’t know what that means, but I’m scared. This is scary, Riven.”

Riven gave her another squeeze of reassurance. She was so frail… and she was the one person in the world Riven would do anything for. The one remaining family member he had, and he loved her more than anything. He’d be damned if he let anything happen to her. “I’ll make sure you’re safe. We’ll be fine.”

Her voice was on the verge of tears. “Promise?”

He smiled and tried not to chuckle at how childish the question was, but now was not the time to tease her about something like that. “I promise.”

Putting the gun in its holster and brushing his hands through his hair with an exasperated sigh, Riven trudged onwards with Jose just slightly ahead. He never in a million years would have guessed that today would have been the day that the world ended, but how or why didn’t really matter anymore.

He pulled out his phone, trying to get an idea of what was going on in the world. It only had 6% battery left, as he’d forgotten to charge it the night before - but he was still able to access the internet. The major news networks were mostly down with the exception of one or two - but there were a lot of major online social networks or forums that were still ablaze with chatter. All of them said the same basic thing: this event was indeed worldwide.

Riven called his friend over to watch what he was seeing, and their jaws dropped in conjunction with one another after seeing the video that’d been posted displaying the fall of the White House. It was overrun with giant carnivorous beetles that shrugged off most small arms fire, and the president’s corpse was being dragged across the lawn on what had been a live recording earlier that day via helicopter.

The news reporter in the recording was in a state of shock, her voice sounded like it was on the verge of tears as she screamed over the winding blades just overhead and into the mic. “THE PRESIDENT HAS BEEN KILLED! OH MY GOD! THE PRESIDENT HAS BEEN KILLED! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?! WHERE DID THESE CREATURES COME FROM AND WHY ARE THEY ATTACKING US!? THE ARMY IS STILL TRYING TO SAVE OTHER VIP’S FROM THE CAPITAL, BUT THESE ALIENS ARE LITERALLY EVERYWHERE AND THE SITUATION IS LOOKING BLEAK!”

From there her words were lost in static, and Riven moved on to the next video. And then the next, and the next. Carnage, burning buildings, mass death and an exodus of people from the cities towards the randomly scattered beacons of light that numbered in the tens of thousands or even more across all the countries of the world - this is what they saw until Riven’s phone died with a beep.

Neither Allie nor Jose had their phones on them in the mad scramble they’d taken out of the apartment they all shared earlier that day, but none of them wanted to look anymore after that anyways. It was depressing, realizing that everything around them was being destroyed. All of civilization’s accomplishments and creations, just being obliterated almost overnight by a wave of alien creatures that came in all shapes and sizes.

The pillar of light in the distance pulsed with a white, warm light, radiating power out towards them that the trio all felt across their skin as a pleasant embrace. It was a promise of safety, one that they could only take on the word of the strange notifications that’d appeared as holograms in front of them right before everything had gone to hell.

“It seems to be expanding.” Riven stated calmly, turning to the other two and nodding his head in the direction of the pillar of light. He gave a comforting smile to both of them. “Come on then. We probably have another hour to go… Hopefully it really is safe there like the message said.”

Jose snorted in dissatisfaction, but trudged onwards after looking back at the corpse of the monster nearby. “Let’s just hope we aren’t eaten along the way, I really don’t want to become octopus food anytime soon.”

Riven gave Allie a wink and pulled her along. “I think we can all agree with that notion.”

***

[Worldwide Quest: Escape the First Wave - Complete.]