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

the room, leaving Ian to go sit down on a rolling office chair and put his head in his hands.

“Still think I can just walk away?” Jacob asked, folding his legs beneath him. He felt naked wearing nothing but a pair of thick woolen socks, a shirt, and a pair of sweats. Not that they did anything to ward off the perpetual chill in the air.

There was something wrong about the world and it only truly dawned on him how wrong it was after experiencing life before the Collapse. The change came on slowly but no matter how much hot air they forced through the vents, no matter how close he stood to a roaring fire, there was a perpetual chill in his bones.

Kimberly had said it best. It was like the world’s fire was snuffed out. Though the more Jacob thought about it, the more he felt it was more internal than that. It wasn’t the world, it was them.

As ridiculous as it seemed, it was like each person’s soul had grown cold and dark. Not in the metaphorical evil way but physically. Any heat he felt was on the surface.

Ian looked up. “We could leave again, find another place,” he offered weakly.

Jacob chuckled and repeated an old phrase among the survivors. “‘Run far and hide in deep holes’?” That didn’t help anybody.

The doctor merely shrugged his shoulders. For once at a loss. Not that Jacob blamed him. Eventually, even this recent safety would be found and they would be overrun.

Many people would die in the exodus and their numbers were already lower than they had ever been before.

What used to be hundreds of able-bodied survivors was reduced to double digits. Most of which were so essential – or weak – that they couldn’t defend themselves, much less anybody else.

They had more armor and weapons than they had bodies to use them. And each month there were more deaths. It had been nearly a year since Jacob saw any other soul beyond his group.

The world was so empty.

“Jacob!” Alec said, rushing over to him and burying him in a brotherly hug, mindful of his IV. He pulled him out to arm’s length. “Man, I’m so glad you’re okay! Alice told me all about it, you know you don’t have to go back in if you don’t want to, right?”

Jacob returned the hug with a single arm and nodded. “I know, but it’s not like you guys can get another person to do it, can you?”

“Well….”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. So, I can be selfish as hell… or I can suck it up and do my duty. Not much different than raiding a Spiderwasp nest for their medicinal silk, is it?”

A shudder coursed through each of the four people standing there. One of the most horrific mutations to come from the Collapse. But their silk, when wrapped around a wound could dramatically speed up healing as well as ridding the body of any infection or toxins.

“You made your point.” Alec shook his head, found a seat, and pulled up the chair right beside Jacob’s bed. “Kat’s going to join us when dinner is ready, if you don’t mind?”

Jacob could only shrug.

“Good,” Alice said. She looked over at Ian. “He is in proper health?”

“As far as I could tell,” he agreed. “But you will recall, we thought that an hour or so ago too after the first episode.”

“Last episode?” Jacob asked.

“You had a mild seizure the first time we brought you back,” Alice said, waving away the concern with a slim hand. “Nothing like this. Perhaps it is based on the length of time… the first time we pulled you out, you were in the middle of something, yes?”

“Fighting,” Jacob answered.

“And this time?”

“We just finished clearing up a group of Gekks.”

“Aw man, those were horrible,” Alec said with a groan. “Though, if they drop some Gekk Blood you can use it to recover from their poison.”

Jacob nodded. “I learned that from Camilla, would have been good to know going in.”

Alec raised his palms in surrender. “Sorry man. I know it sounds like a cop-out but that was over a decade ago. Small details like that are hard to remember but if you can tell us where you are in the game and where you’re going it could probably jog my memory some. Are you still in the Steps of Penance?”

“No, I’m out.”

The door opened, Kat came in with a large tray of food and a bright smiling face. “Dinnertime!” She was forcing that happiness so hard Jacob worried she might burst a blood vessel.

Alec dragged over a table and they had an impromptu dinner together, just the five of them. Kat hopped up on the bed next to Jacob, nudging him in the ribs and prompting him to tell her more of his adventures in Pyresouls.

She wasn’t the only one hanging onto his every word. Alec and Alice were taking down notes, it would be their job to compare the events that Jacob knew to the ones that occurred in their timeline.

Any mismatch meant Jacob had affected things, however slight, and would prove their theory. The problem was, Jacob was still in the beginning stages of the game.

For most people, the undead village of Hollow Dreams was the mid-way point of the game. It marked a sharp increase in difficulty that many people couldn’t get over.

In his original timeline, it was just after Hollow Dreams, in the Defiled Cistern that he gave up and left the game. Hardly an accomplishment.

Any changes Jacob was likely to enact would be at that point or later. Or so he thought.

While they were discussing the events of the last few days, Alec said something that startled him with his spoon of canned soup halfway to his mouth. “Who?” he asked.

“Matilda, you know her,” Alec said. “You, Matilda, and Kat here disobeyed a direct order and went to meet Caleb as soon as you heard the report instead of defending the bunker. You saved Caleb’s life.”

“He’s