Apocalypse: Generic System by Macronomicon (shoe dog free ebook TXT) 📕

Surrender immediately or we will have no choice but to use lethal force.”

“I’ll show you lethal fo-“

Jeb grabbed Jess’s shoulder lightly.

“What happens to us if we surrender? Prison?”

They hadn’t actually killed any of their people, so if they locked him up for a misdemeanor, then let him go a few months later, that was still a technical victory over the Impossible tutorial’s lethal consequences.

“You will be returned to your designated zone.” The leading soldier spoke with ironclad confidence.

“Well, that’s unacceptable,” Jeb said, channeling his Myst into two planes of force that ran through the center of the hall.

He moved the two planes of force to either side, parting the troops like Moses, grinding them against the stone walls.

“Unf…Guh,” The leader was only able to speak in guttural grunts as Jeb’s team passed through the hall.

Jeb took a moment to put a Myst trigger on each of them. He didn’t want to kill anyone, but he also didn’t want to leave these guys alive to come back and bite him in the ass.

“I’m going to be watching you,” Jeb said, nice and loud, so everyone could hear.

“If your body leaves contact with this wall, I’ll explode your head,” Jeb said. “I’m sure one or two of your bravest, or perhaps stupidest co-workers, are going to do you a favor and prove that this is a real threat, so my advice to you: Don’t be that guy.”

They passed through and made their way to the control room. Jeb released the planes of force once they were past, and cocked his head, listening.

Pop! Squish! The distinctive sounds of a head exploding and a body slumping to the ground sounded from around the corner.

“Can’t save ‘em all buddy,” Smartass said, patting Jeb’s head as he hustled to catch up with the rest of them.

Jeb was expecting something like holograms in the Control room, but it looked a lot more like a switchboard operator’s setup from the nineteen twenties.

The optic cables he’d seen that relayed Myst were being switched in and out of little holes in a honkin’ big box that dominated most of the room. The thing was probably chock full of lenses and Myst generators.

Jeb’s mouth was watering before he caught himself. There was no time to crack the box open and study it. They had a job to do: Find a way to get out alive.

“Good afternoon!” Jeb said upon regaining his sanity. “We’re commandeering this room until such a time as we can all safely leave the premises.”

His voice was drowned out by the sound of the klaxon.

“Shut off that fucking alarm!” Jeb shouted.

One of the switchboard operators blanched and pulled a plug, plunging the room into silence.

“Thank you.” Jeb said, clomping forward so he could see every operator. So they could see him.

“Here’s how this is going to go. I’ve got three rules. Rule number one: Anything we ask you, you answer immediately. Two, anything we tell you to do, you do immediately. Three, don’t do a single goddamn thing we didn’t tell you to do. You follow these simple rules, and we’ll be out of your hair in minutes, and you’ll be none the worse for wear. Break them and we’ll snuff you like a candle.”

“Is that understood!?” Jeb demanded, adopting his sarge voice.

The operators nodded enthusiastically.

“Alright, first question. Can we get to Earth from here?” Jeb asked.

The operators glanced at each other hesitantly, staying silent.

“Are you breaking rule number one already!?” Jeb demanded.

“Well, it’s just…Earth as you knew it…doesn’t exactly exist anymore,” one of the operators said, cowering.

Jeb’s heart sank into his stomach.

“Explain.”

Chapter 22: The Nick of Time

The long and short of it: Earth’s landmass got quilted onto another planet. It had been torn into bite size chunks, and placed wherever the ‘gods’ deemed appropriate.

Meaning the U.S. and every other major human government had just been broken into pieces and redistributed.

Even if they wanted to launch the nukes, the people upstairs would have to find them first. That and no satellites had made the transition, so comms were down across the globe, even if some genius hacker could map the new planet.

There was no possible way Jeb’s country could tolerate being torn apart like that. Just like that, Jeb saw the inevitable death of the U.S. on the horizon, seizing his stomach in an icy fist.

The second piece of great news: The fuzz was already on the way since the klaxon went off, and there was no escaping them. The control center for Jeb’s Tutorial was in a piece of pinched off spacetime, and there was no leaving until the shift was complete.

As much as it felt like it, the lack of exits wasn’t simply to make things harder for Jeb, it was so that the controllers could cover six weeks worth of tutorial in about eight man-hours. To these people, the tutorial started about six hours ago, and they had only two hours until they automatically clocked off.

There were some time shenanigans going on here.

The ‘fixers’ were men and women approaching demigod status, and it was entirely up to luck whether the one you got was a reasonable fellow, or a crazy bastard that pulled the wings off of flies.

There were more of the latter.

Reasonable people don’t obsessively accumulate power their entire lives.

“Here’s a very important question,” Jeb said, sitting across from the head operator.

“If I were to destroy this console,” Jeb said, patting the massive switchboard. “Would it shut the Tutorial down?”

The man shook his head. “The console is just for us to interact with the System’s bells and whistles. Nonessential stuff. Prizes and naming artifacts are mortal Keegan inventions to help inductees, but the test itself…that’s a higher power.”

“Huh. And how long do we have until your fixer joins