Rewind: A Grimdark LitRPG Series (Pyresouls Apocalypse, Book 1) by James Callum (reading tree .txt) 📕

chopping firewood. Recovering his Stamina, Jacob made his way back one plodding step at a time.

The last remaining Gekk opened its maw wide at her. Jacob knew from personal experience that those dozens of teeth were filled with a poison that continued to deal damage long after the initial painful bite was finished.

Her eyes flickered up to Jacob’s. He nodded and positioned the flat of his [Longsword] across his body, a signal to her that she was to stall the creature.

Over short distances, a Gekk could outpace either of them with ease. Provided it was running in the direction it was facing. So backpedaling was useless, and Camilla had to know that because she came forward suddenly raising the meat cleaver, bracing the flat of the rusted blood-soaked blade with her free hand.

Predictably, the Gekk surged to meet her with its maw snapping at her. She managed to fit the cleaver into the thing’s mouth, blocking a more potent bite. From the grimace of pain Jacob saw on her face, she still felt the sting of at least a few teeth and the poison that coated them.

Jacob was there, reversing his grip on the [Longsword] and driving it down into the creature’s body. Planting the Flag pinned it to the stone like a gigantic kebab and dealt a mortal blow all at once.

Freed from the creature’s sudden thrashing, Camilla backed up and with one sure swing of her cleaver severed the thing’s head. It was a few moments before the body of the creature – now dousing Camilla in yellow blood like a loose garden hose – stilled and fell to the ground.

For their trouble, they received 1,200 Souls and several vials of [Gekk Blood]. Camilla wasted no time in taking out one such vial. Before Jacob could stop her, she put it to her lips and drank. A brief flash of yellow-green light rippled down her body.

At Jacob’s incredulous stare, she stepped forward onto the corpse of the creature and pointed at the bite wound on her forearm. The oozing virulent green poison was being pushed out of the wound.

The blood, when imbibed, counteracted any poison or toxin in the body making it a valuable item to have.

Jacob had heard of such items before, Pyresouls Online wasn’t particularly specific about their antidotes. If one item cured poison, it cured all types of poison regardless of the source.

Jacob marked that information down. If the Pyre wasn’t too far, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to come back here and farm for some [Gekk Blood]. The Corpse Garden he would need to go through was particularly toxic, as was the Defiled Cistern where the water itself was poisonous.

As they turned to continue, Jacob started to taste blue raspberries. Fear shot through him like a lightning bolt and he turned back to Camilla, trying to explain what was about to happen.

The look of fear that mirrored on her face reminded him that the enchantment of silence was still active. He must have looked terrified, quickly moving his lips to explain something she would never hear.

Even as he did, his limbs filled with static and he felt that familiar tug at his navel, pulling him back with a violent tug into the darkness.

May 7th, 2045 – 10 Years Post-Collapse.

Darkness still held dominion even as his other senses returned. His body ached and he soon realized he was making a painfully tight fist with each hand. In fact, as awareness continued to assault him, he came to realize it wasn’t just his hands. Every muscle in his body was flexed in a painful spasm that wracked his whole body.

“I told you it wasn’t safe!” That was Ian. Jacob had never heard him so angry.

“You have the levetiracetam, do you not?” Alice’s tone was clipped and slightly accented.

“Yes, but it will only stop the symptoms-”

“Give it to him!”

The darkness pulled back by inches. His body began to relax but the pain seemed to climb higher.

Everything hurt. Worse, it was so cold. He felt like those nights he was on watch duty in the winter when they weren’t able to light a fire for fear of being spotted.

He was beyond shivering. The cold was bone-deep and it hurt. The fierce ache of his muscles was nothing compared to the pain in his entire skeleton. He tried to open his eyes but a cold hand reached up from the depths and grabbed him.

Everything turned so very cold. His breath caught in his chest and it felt like his heart might explode. Jacob cried out as the pain reached a crescendo and then fell off a cliff into nothingness. The icy grip relaxed and he felt like he was falling into a dark abyss.

“Jacob?” Kim called, nudging Jacob in the ribs. “C’mon man, no sleeping on the job. That’s soldier duty 101.” The lithe form of Kimberly O'Neill sat next to him.

Looking around, Jacob noticed they were sitting on a familiar rooftop on the outskirts of some town in Virginia. He remembered that safehouse. Almost a full year they had been safe and secure. Long enough to start a rooftop garden on top of the old school building.

At first, he thought something went terribly, terribly wrong. But the lack of the blue raspberry flavor that usually coated his tongue, and the dream-like sensation of this place felt more like a memory than anything to do with erroneous time travel.

“Kim?” he asked, incredulously.

Kim was dead. He watched the light leave her eyes. He had helped her pass on himself, making sure she would never turn Vacant. It was the least he could do when she had given her life to save his.

Jacob fought back the moisture gathering at the edges of his eyes and turned away from her to look at the blood-red sky.

“I miss the blue skies,” she said, leaning back on her palms. “Do you remember them? The way the shades of blue would differ throughout the day? The white cottony clouds drifting lazily