It's almost time to go, I think I can leave early today, but if I don't finish this q2 report by the end of the day, I'll probably be fired.
"Hello Kaleb are you still working, today's the boss's wife birthday party, we can leave early today, isn't nice"
"Hi Sara, I wish I could leave, but I have to finish this report today"
When Sara leaned in to look at my screen, I could smell how nice her hair was.
"Woah are you supposed to finish a report on the entire company predictive model for the q2 by yourself"
"Yes and conduct an analysis and comparison with the previous years"
"Are you serious, this is the work load of an entire division, why would the boss make you do it alone, did you piss him off or do anything wrong?"
"I don't know" I shrugged my shoulders and said casually even though that was a lie the boss and most of my coworkers never liked me for many trivial reasons, I was smarter, more qualified and I kept to myself, and for one or all of the reasons above I was quickly oustrsized and all the workload was pushed on me.
I started working here 7 months ago, Sara is a new recruit here like me, but she is more outgoing and has a loveable personality, that's why she jells well with the rest of them.
I opened the door to my small studio, and put the keys on the counter, I put my premade food in the microwave, and went inside for a shower and a change of clothes.
I usually spend an hour mindlessly browsing the internet while eating my bland meal in silence.
As always I'm walking the same road back to my house, eating the same food, and doing the same thing over and over, I hate my life how many times have I said this lately, I can't remember, and I don't really care, maybe it would have been different if things happened differently back then.
As I was going to bed for some reason I uttered loudly "How nice would it be to die in my sleep, what a relief that would be"
***********
"Where am I ? What is this place ?
I can't see anything around me, its all white walls,floors and sealing, wait what is that are those number floating in the air, look like a countdown.
1:57
Why do I have a feeling that I don't wanna know what's going to happen when it hit zero, I'll walk around and see if I can get out of here
0:15
F*** I have walked and ran all this time and I can't reach the edge of this place
0:00 " Welcome to the void trials congratulation you have been chosen to go through a series of tests succeed and you'll receive powers beyond your comprehension fail and you will die " a deep voice uttered unemotionally.
"Wait what void what !! Die !!! Who are you I don't want to participate in this, hell no "
"Once the trials began they can't stop we urge you to try your best to complete them your life depends on it "
A stone tablet materialized in the air
"This is the tablet of origin inside of it are various abilities and blessings as a new trial taker you will be given one ability depending on your luck put your hand on the stone tablet to begin "
'This is all so crazy whatever I'll just have to play along until I can get out of here '
Kaleb extended he's right hand and touched the tablet and it started glowing and suddenly it turned completely black
"Snatcher [Rank (black)] : kill your enemies and get one of there abilities"
"A dark type ability and a black rank its been thousands of years since one of these showed up you have a powerful ability, so use it wisely "
Kaleb eyes were wide open, he could feel something inside him change, somehow it feels like he's a different person now
"Your first trial starts now "
**********
Kaleb surrounding started to change and then out of nowhere, he was looking at a huge cross in front of him, he looked around him ' this looks like a church ' he also noticed other people close by.
A fat guy standing beside him looked to be as confused as Kaleb was " what the hell is this place ? " said the fat guy
Shout's of similar words were coming from all over
"Attention all, your first trial will begin now, its called the undead invasion, in order to pass the trial you have to find a key, there is a limited amount of them, only halve of you can pass, these keys are randomly scattered in the town outside, you will have to find them, but be careful as there are undead creatures roaming around the town, the church is the only safe place from the undead, but the holy aura protecting it is depleting rabidly, and it will only last through the night, before the undead will swarm inside " the voice said and disappeared
"Fuck is this for real " skinny guy shouted
"Hey everyone does anyone know what's going on ?" A middle aged women said looking around her.
"If this is real I think its best if we listen to that voice instructions we should work together " said a tall middle age man.
It took a while for everyone to calm down, but I could see some smart individual, started gathering people around them.
Kaleb was standing around looking at other people when a guy approached him
"Hey bro I'm Mark do you wanna join together to look for the keys " Mark said with a welcoming smile on his face.
"Sure Buddy I'm Kaleb nice to meet you " Mark said.
"So what do u think we should do ?"
"recruite more people for protection, because we need to explore outside this church " Mark replied with confidence.
"Safety in numbers hmm I agree with u "
"OKAY let's split and try to invite as many people we can " Mark said.
After 30 minutes we both returned with one person each two young male similar to our age Justin and Philip.
" few groups have already left we can't delay any longer the voice said there is only few keys available "
We headed out of the church and found ourselves in small rundown town it looked like its been abounded for a while
"Look like all the houses nearby have been searched by others let's head deeper in town and try our luck there but be careful and stay vigilante " mark said he seems like a natural leader type
Eventually we stumbled upon a few houses but we couldn't find anything resembles a key look like other people also didn't find anything everyone started getting nervous as time was ticking almost 2 hours gone by
AHHHHRHHHHH
A loud scream resounded when everyone turned toward the sound they saw a two meter rotting zombies holding a women in the air and biting chunks of flesh off her the scene was so horrific that some people dropped to their knees and some spilled their guts this poor women was trying her best to get away and screaming her lungs out but the zombies long sharp claws were firmly deep inside her flesh before anyone could process what's happening zombies started running toward them
" RUN " screamed mark we started running back toward the Church instinctively without thinking these zombies were all huge strong and very fast the only reason we made it back to the church was the unfortunate souls that were left behind and served as a distracting meal for the zombies
Inside the church people who made it back looked pale and disoriented before today they never saw humans being ripped apart like that no one was willing to get out of the church anymore
" what the fuck are we supposed to do this trail is not fair we have to look for keys that we don't know what they look like and on top of that aren't zombies supposed to be weak and slow what in the living hell are those outside they might as well be Black bears " a bald man screamed but to no avail
"Excuse everyone but didn't we all get an ability when we woke up in the white room maybe if we work together we can fight these zombies my ability is light protection" a middle aged man named brad pointed his palm in front of him and a spherical bubble formed around with him in the middle, it had a circumference of 3 meters
"I can double its size but it will be halve as strong also I can't move while its active I can maintain it for 10 minutes before I need a rest if you have an attacking ability join me I will protect you from zombies and you just have to focus on killing them "
'He's ability pretty good defensively but its useless if you can't move you can't attack you will just be a setting duck waiting to be slaughtered that's why you disclosed your ability you need others to fight for you now that he took the initiative he can have his pick of people with the best attacking ability' Kaleb could understand the situation and analyze it calmly.
'I'm sure there are other people with similar defensive abilities I can't risk them forming a team before me early bird take the worm ' Brad thought impatiently.
A women raised her hand " I have an attack ability can I join you " she pointed her finger toward a chair in the corner of the room and what look like a compressed ball of air shot and bore a hole through the chair splinters flow everywhere upon impact
Some people were impressed and some were indifferent
"Yes anyone else "
Once that team formed soon the others followed but of course not everyone was fortunate to have a strong ability and some didn't want to disclose their abilities
I was one of these people my former teammates left they joined other teams
All the team that formed left one by one
7 people remained in the church including me.
