Solo Apocalypse - Chapter 10

The increase in my Wisdom wasn’t something immediately tangible. Over the course of the day, however, I became grounded in myself. An acceptance of this reality, my place in the chaos, and finally how to proceed.

I thought it was fairly likely I was just one among countless others whisked away by this apocalypse. A part of the university had been teleported into some unknown wilderness. It stood to reason, across the world, similar happenings occurred.

Wisdom was understanding, judgment, and experience. A certain self-awareness of myself and the world. It allowed me to calm down, as much as one could expect to.

Enough to question what exactly was happening. Despite that, there were few answers forthcoming. This apocalypse came without warning, without preamble.

I found myself with ample time to ponder it.

The forest was a swampy expanse. A place where life lurked under the waters, where howls broke the silent nights, and the rush of splashing waters was a sign of nature running its course. The forest breathed and I was nothing but a speck of dust.

Four specks of dust.

There was Second, Third, and Fourth now. I covered a lot of ground, avoided many dangers. I had caught sight of those wolves in the daylight. One of the clones had seen it.

A dark-furred creature that swam just as fast as it bounded across the roots, four-legged and many-teethed. It was a different, less horrifying sight in broad daylight. Mainly because it was herding around its young. Puppies, no taller than my knee at that.

The sight was sobering. We’d been dropped into a foreign ecosystem and been immediately identified as prey. The bottom of a pyramid we humans used to stand at the top of.

I kept away from the mother and its cubs.

The water bottles I’d filled up from the building were barely dented considering the amount I’d scavenged. Still, my thoughts drifted to when my supplies of freshwater would run out.

One of the clones had climbed to a higher vantage after seeing more of those green humanoids. They were gibbering at each other, ugly and knobby. Goblins, I reminded myself. The term was perfect for them. They seemed to be arguing.

It was a group of five again, a number I wondered was significant or not. It was the same amount that I had encountered back at the campus. The same number I’d—I shook the thoughts away.

There was a clear debate going on. I had posted a clone to shadow them. I wasn’t sure exactly what was possible in this world but [Low Profile] at least, would curb those unknown variables and allow me to stay hidden. I wanted to see what the creatures did for food and water, seeing as they were the most likened to a human, if only just.

My original body was far from the potential danger, protected by three clones of myself acting as a safety net. I slept under the watchful, careful eye of none other than myself, and moved with just as much caution.

The problem was that I had no idea how to get out of this forest. Or if it was even possible. It could be kilometers of hiking until I found other terrains. Let alone other survivors. That could mean months of isolation, weeks if I was lucky.

I hadn’t expected to find another building. Expectations were just another thing to be broken in this reality. The goblins led me there. A building I didn’t recognize from my university or city. It was a different style, more modern.

A library of all things. Its windows were shattered, curved architecture reduced to rubble in places. It looked like it had landed here, cracks over every surface.

My clone, Fourth, paused as it came into view. It was being investigated by the goblins, prodded at with complete ignorance, as if they were unsure the walls would bite. It was a caution that I didn’t ridicule them for, it was necessary.

The building was larger than the science building. A true library. A collection of knowledge, and I hoped, people. I perched for long minutes, hoping to see any sign, even bodies hinted at possible survivors.

I found nothing of the sort.

The place was abandoned, empty. The front entrance was collapsed but the second story had a balcony. I found a root path that led to the correct elevation and climbed inside. The inside was almost impossibly untouched. Dirt, rubble, moss, bugs, plantlife, but nothing damaging enough to ruin a bookshelf.

Some of them, however, were taken apart. Windows were boarded, doorways barricaded, there had been people here. Hope surged in my chest like a butterfly quickly preyed upon by the bird of reality.

The one thing I could rely on was myself. I doubted that was healthy thinking and it didn’t help that it was the truth. Still, I continued to explore.

Eventually, I found the clue I’d been looking for. Where had everyone gone? The answer stared a me. A note, lying on an empty receptionist desk in the middle of the library weighed down by a paperweight.

To any survivors,

None of us know what happened. Some of us are talking about biblical apocalypses, a reckoning of sorts. The end of the world. No one wants to die, though. If you see this, we left the library because no one felt safe here. We lost people to the wolves, to those green things, alligator-things in the water. We headed north, to try to get out of this damn swamp.

– Jonathan, 6th day of apocalypse

And that was it. In this place, the library was no less than a castle. It was safe. I wasn’t sure if they understood what a treasure that was. Yet, I could understand just wanting to leave. In this swamp, humans were prey just like anything else.

Jonathan had dated the note. The 6th day. How long had it been? A little over a week, I guessed. They’d left… two days ago?

Without a single word said, three of my clones and the original adjusted their bearing. North it is.