Chapter One: Death

“Where the hell am I?” I spoke these words as I started to examine my position. I hissed and massage my temples, as I felt my head splitting. I walked over towards a tree and sat down.

Where am I? The last thing I can remember was going unconscious…The particle accelerator! Did it explode? I failed to press enter…No! My parents…No. If I’m alive then it means that they’re alive too. In any case, how did I get here? Did someone take me here? Why here? 

Snap!

I heard movements from behind me, which I turned my head and looked at whatever was there. As I did, I turned back my head and my eyes widened. My body started to violently shake, my breathing started getting heavy. 

What I saw there was a wolf. No, wolfs aren’t that big nor as monstrous as the one I saw just now. I covered my mouth, trying to stop myself from screaming. It seemed to be moving towards me, albeit slowly.

I wasn’t sure what to do. If I were to run, it would undoubtedly catch me and kill me. If I were to do nothing, it would still kill me. What do I do? Think! Think! Then, that’s where I thought of a plan. Although the chance of it failing were high, however it was better than doing nothing. Unfortunately, fighting it was impossible. No matter the way I look at it, that thing, that monster is too dangerous for me to take on. It’ll kill me in seconds. The only way to survive is by distracting it and escaping.

Quietly, I grabbed a rock that was laying beside the tree. Then, I threw it directly towards a tree that was towards my right side. I made sure to throw it hard enough that it could bounce off and go a bit farther. 

Suddenly, the wolf-like monster dashed with extraordinary speed and chased after the rock. Seeing this opportunity, I started running forward as fast as I’ve even run before. Everywhere I looked were trees, abundant of them. Wherever I was definitely far from a city. 

I wasn’t sure for how long I’ve run but I think it was enough that the wolf-like monster wouldn’t find me. However before I could rest, a pack of the wolf-like creatures were in front of me. It was wrong for me to think that there aren’t other wolfs-like monsters in the forest. That was a mistake I would never forget.

“Ah!” Before I knew it, I was being eaten. The pain was unbearable. All I was able to see was blood gushing out in every portion of my body and being devour. In less than a second, I lost the strength to scream or cry, and that’s when I knew, I died…

…

My eyes snapped open as I heavily panted and started to again look at my surroundings. Didn’t I die? Didn’t I get eaten by those wolf-like creatures?! As I thought this, I patted my body. Seeing that all of my flesh was still intact, I sighed in relief. However a few questions remain, why am I still alive? Why do I still have my clothes, I was sure they were ripped through shreds. So how is it that not only I’m alive but also have my clothing.

I’m not the type of person to speculate things without prove to back it up, however, me being conscious of this is prove enough. Whatever happened at the particle accelerator somehow affected me. There is a possibility that the radiation caused me to be immortal. No, being immortal would mean that I wouldn’t have died by those wolf-like creatures. Then if it’s not immortality that I gained, then what was it? Perhaps I timed traveled. That would explain why I still have my clothes and in the same location I was in when I first woke up here. 

How does this work? It only activated when I died, then am I right to assume that I could only travel back in time before I died? Like a game. A restart.

But this should be practically impossible, right?! This doesn’t make sense. The only logical explanation is that this is nothing but a dream, yes a lucid dream. All I have to do is wake up, right?! No, the pain feels to real to be a dream…Just what exactly happened during the day of the particle accelerator? It exploded…yes this might have caused a change to all life forms. This could explain the mutation of the wolfs…but what about the humans? What happened to them?

“Grggg!”

My head immediately snapped towards the direction of the beastly growl. Before I could even utter a word, the wolf-like creature had scratched me.

“Ahh!” I cried in pain as I stumble to the floor. The wolf-like creature seemed to be crawling towards be, slowly. 

Not again! I could feel blood pouring down my face. The immense pain caused me to let out tears. 

I knew I would die here. There was also the chance of me reappearing here as soon as I died. The chance to restart.

Soon, the wolf-like creature jumped towards me, and before I could even blink, I was dead again.

As I had thought, I was in the same position. Considering what had happened last time, I quickly moved my direction towards a different route I hadn’t gone before. I ran and I ran! However the same thing happened the last time I ran, and again I died.

As I reappeared again, I tried going towards a different directions. But once again, I died. I died! I died! I died! and I died!

If anyone were to see me, they would think that what I was doing was the definition of insanity: doing things repeatedly expecting a different result. I wasn’t sure how many times I died, but I had noticed a difference. I was able to run faster. I also noticed the speed of those monsters seemed to be decreasing. The feeling of being eaten, the pain, as well felt different. I was able to endure it long enough until I had died. At least I knew my efforts weren’t in vain, my body somehow is conditioning itself. As I realized this, I had thought of a different approach. Killing it.

The first time I saw those wolf-like creatures I had counted it as impossible, which would be true, however if I could get faster, then could I also be able to get stronger? If this were a game, it would be the exact thing as gaining EXP. 

Now the only problem would be how to kill it. I didn’t have a gun or a knife to use, so killing it with just my bare fist would be extremely difficult…but not impossible. First, I’ll test the durability of the wolf-like monster. 

I backed away from the tree I was hiding to recollect my thoughts and waited for the wolf-like monster to appear. It didn’t take long for the wolf monster to come since it had always taken this long to come. 

I gulped nervously as I clenched my fist and dashed towards it, which the wolf-like monster did the same. Right as it was about to pummel on me, I swerved my body to the right and punched heavily at its face. 

Pum!

“Gah!” 

I hissed in pain as my knuckles were deeply bruised by the punch I had thrown. The wolf-like monster was only pushed back before gaining its stability and jumping towards me again. 

As I have done before, I swerved my body to the left and punched with my left hand this time.

Pum!

 

“Grrr!!”

The wolf-like creature growled as it got pushed back once again. The wolf-like creature enraged, immediately threw a scratch, catching me off guard. It was able to scratch my left arm as I was trying to cover my face.

“Kuh!” I gritted my teeth as I used this opportunity to throw a punch with my right arm. 

Pum!

As I did, I could hear a snap. It didn’t take a guess what had happened, the bones in my hand broke.

“Ah!” 

The wolf-like monster yelped before biting into my arm. I endure the pain from my right arm being bitten and the pain from my broken hand, and with my left hand, I continued to throw blows at its nose. 

The wolf-like monster whimpered in pain as it let go out of my arm. I stumbled to the ground and in my left hand, I could see bones sticking out of it with blood pouring out. I cringed in pain as I knew that this was all I could do.

The wolf-like monster growled in anger as it rushed towards me and bit into my neck, instantly killing me.