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

a small instrument, a set of thin needles that held the ember aloft. A large magnifying glass slid down in front of it so she could examine it in greater detail. She ran a hand through her long red hair. “You found this, yes Jacob?”

“Technically, it was on Caleb’s body,” Jacob said.

As if she just remembered, the Doc turned around and furrowed her brow. “Poor Caleb.” She turned her hazel eyes to Alec. “I am so sorry for your loss. I know you two were not very close but I know how much you wished that was not so. Things will be different this time, you will see.”

What is she talking about? The way she spoke to Alec was remarkably familiar. Was there something going on between them that Jacob missed?

“Thanks, Alice,” Alec said, crossing his arms. “Is that it then? Are you done?” There was a hint of hope in his voice.

“It is the last piece,” she agreed.

Jacob threw up his arms. “If nobody’s going to bother to explain what is going on, I’m just going to get something to eat because you both are having an entirely different conversation than I am.”

Doctor Jasieux looked from Alec to Jacob. “I am sorry, you are right. Jacob, come over here please.” She motioned him beside her. When he stood next to her, she stepped behind him, put her delicate hands on his shoulders, and turned him toward the FIVR pod.

It looked familiar, but then again they all did. “What am I looking at, precisely?” he asked.

He knew what it was but he didn’t understand the significance. Even if they had a cluster of servers to run a program to dive into, what was the point? They didn’t need an escape from reality. They needed to save it.

“You know what that is.” Her voice was too close to his ear for comfort. He could feel her warm breath on the back of his neck.

“It’s a FIVR pod. We used them to play games and stuff.”

“Correct. When was the last time you entered one?”

“When I joined the competition for Pyresouls Online.” Jacob motioned to Alec to his left. “We both did. What’s your point?”

“My point, Jacob, is that this is not your normal FIVR. I have spent every day since the Collapse looking for some way to undo it. There is no way we can rebuild humanity from this point going forward. The population… it is too small. We underestimated the Vacant’s strength. Do you remember the Day of the Dead?”

Jacob shivered as if she dripped ice cold water down his shirt. He remembered all right. Anybody alive remembered it.

The so-called First Wave was when the reality of Pyresouls became the reality on Earth. The dead did not stay dead in Pyresouls, it was a recurring theme with the game.

That was fine for a game but on Earth, the dead outnumbered the living by many orders of magnitude. When the graveyards began to stir with activity nobody knew what to make of it. By the time people understood the threat, it was too late.

It wasn’t a typical zombie outbreak, the dead didn’t turn another person. Unless you counted their fervent desire to kill all living creatures. But there was no mutated infection. If you died, you turned. Unless your brain or head was damaged significantly.

Bites from the undead were still dangerous, but they were hardly a death sentence if you had medicine.

However, the Vacant were driven and monstrous in a way nobody was prepared for. Shooting them with a gun didn’t do much. They were ridiculously resilient.

Like all of the creatures from Pyresouls, modern armaments were useless against them.

The largest cities fell almost overnight. Every death only added to the horde of monsters. The lucky ones were out camping or trying to “unplug” when it all went down. Like Jacob was at the time.

“I do,” he said finally. “Why?”

“And the Red Plague?” she asked without answering.

Jacob spun on her and took a step back, trying to understand where the Doc was going with this. “I remember all the horrible shit that happened. Yes, I remember the Red Plague.

“I also remember the Lowing, the Vile Kingdom’s poisoned promise of safety, the Shadowrend, the Hellgates, and every other horrible thing that’s happened since the Collapse. I still don’t know how I managed to survive it all. Why, what’s the point of asking me?”

Dressed in a loose-fitting lab coat, Doctor Alice Jasieux plucked the [Ember of Probability] and sauntered to the FIVR pod. She slid back a tiny panel on its side. It was a high-end model, a soft white bed encased in a cylinder with the upper half made of glass.

She tapped out a sequence on the panel. When she was done, a small receptacle to the side extended out from the pod.

Unlike every other part of the machine, this looked out of place. Jacob had seen people modding their FIVR pods for illegal dives or to experience things out of spec. The twisted wires and silver traceries that dipped into the hole the size of Jacob’s thumb reminded him of that, except professionally done.

This was no kid trying to bypass his parent’s sexual content filter with a foil wrapper and some chewing gum.

She slid the ember into the slot as if it was always meant for it. The silver traces shimmered with light and the machine began to hum with power. The lights in the room dimmed as she slid the panel closed. The receptacle for the ember retracted and vanished from sight.

The Doc turned around. “What if I told you, all of this could be undone?” She waved her arms with a flourish to indicate the entire world and all its many horrors.

Jacob chuckled. He’d heard that before.

There was no shortage of groups claiming they could provide safety or absolution from all the horrors around. At first, it was the typical religious fanatics that thought they were being punished. When it became obvious things weren’t changing for the better, things took a