The sky was grey and eerily quiet, heavy clouds drifting overhead like an endless funeral procession. For a brief moment, the ruined world below seemed almost peaceful.
But that peacefulness was soon shattered by the humming sound of engines.
Scores of dropships flew over in an organized formation heading north.
Inside one of those dropships, Jason sat amongst dozens of other players all strapped in a parachute.
"Damn, I've never skydived before. Will this be okay?" One of them said.
"You'll be fine, just follow the GEC device's instructions when the time comes. Also, don't forget to turn down your pain sensitivity just in case." Another replied.
Jason, on the other hand, had his mind on something else entirely.
'If someone's not careful, they can easily mistake this place with reality.' Jason couldn't help but marvel.
Pinching the back of his hand, his skin stretched, the dull sting lingering even after he let go felt disturbingly real.
'No... This isn't just good graphics anymore.'
"You don't seem nervous bro?" Someone suddenly tapped Jason, drawing his attention.
Looking at the young man beside him, Jason just shook his head and replied in his slightly deep voice.
"No."
"Ohh! You ever gone skydiving before?" The player asked again, probably trying to make a conversation.
"No." Jason gave another one word answer.
'His nervous.'
Jason eyes scanned the young man and went on to observe the other players.
Some were excited, some were nervous while others were quiet, mentally preparing themselves.
'They all lack the solemness of soldiers going into a battle. To them, it's all a game where you can start over again.'
"Alright listen up."
The voice of the base commander suddenly resounded in the dropship, quietening the players.
"You are currently twenty thousand feet above the city. The airspace ahead is blocked by the swarm of mutated locust responsible for the crash of our Supply and reinforcement fleet, so we can't take you through."
"There is no LZ in the city below, so you will be deploying from the air. Stick to the path marked on the device and you should be fine. Extraction leaves in 72 hours so I'd try to be on time if I were you cause believe me you don't wanna miss it." He said making many people gulp.
"Finally, try to make as little noise as possible, they're very sensitive to sound. And should you encounter a battle, aim for the head. Good luck."
As soon as he finished speaking, the hatch began to open. The players stood up and went towards the opening hatch.
But Jason remained seated with eyes closed.
'In this cruel world ruled by cruel fate. Dear lord, do not let me die tonight. But If I die before I wake, I accept my fate. Hell yeah.'
After which he stood up, checked his straps, pulled his goggles over his eyes and ran towards the already opened hatch.
While the other players were hesitating, waiting for the first person to go. He just came to the front, bounced lightly and jumped off.
"What the!"
"Who's that!"
"It's the guy from the base, the one who left for the hanger first!"
The crowd were shocked by his actions causing some exclamations. Then one by one the players began to follow suit.
Jason spread his limbs like a starfish, turning his fall into a glide. That was when he properly got a good look at the city below.
Collapsed building, ruins of skyscraper, damaged roads and cars, all shrouded in a slight mist. Every part of the city screamed of ruin and devastation.
'Well they definitely weren't joking when they called it a dead city." Jason glanced up and saw the other players scatter, with most of them heading towards the city center.
He on the other hand locked onto a location towards the city outskirts and closed his limbs, increasing his diving speed.
With the altimeter on the GEC device keeping him updated on his altitude, Jason descended towards the location like a falling meteor.
10,000 feet
5,000 feet
4,000 feet
3,500 feet
3,200 feet
3,000 feet
At three thousand feet, Jason immediately reached for the deployment handle and yanked hard.
WHUMP!
The parachutes burst open above him, the violent deceleration jerking him upright as the canopy blossomed against the grey sky.
Grabbing the controlling handles, Jason masterfully weaved through the air, dropping down beside a two story building where he'd marked earlier.
THUD!
WHOOSH!
He'd just landed with a thud, when a blur burst from his front.
It was already upon him even before the parachute had finished collapsing.
Reacting purely on instinct and muscle memory, Jason narrowly sidestepped avoiding it.
Whatever it was flew straight into the descending parachutes and immediately got tangled up.
The force of impact pulled on Jason still strapped to the chutes. Yet before it could pull him down, he hurriedly undid the straps and slipped out of the parachute bag.
GROWL!
The thing wasted no time in tearing the parachute apart, but Jason was already upon it.
Moving with speed and precision, Jason's left hand swiftly pulled his knife with a reverse grip and drove it through its eye socket while knocking it down with his body and rolling away in one fluid motion.
Shooting back to his feet, he pulled his pistol and aimed at it about to pull the trigger but then stopped.
It lay there twitching violently before going still.
Jason approached cautiously, pistol still aimed at it and finally got a good look at what attacked him.
It was a young woman, disheveled black hair and tattered clothes covered in blood. Skin a sickening grey color with writhing worm-like veins all over them.
Her opened bloodied mouth revealed long sharp teeth and her fingers were akin to claws.
Her right eye had a knife stabbed through all the way to the handle and her lightless left eye just stared upward.
Jason hurriedly pulled out his knife, took cover beside the building and scanned his environment.
He'd landed in the backyard of a dilapidated house. After confirming the absence of other living beings, Jason holstered his pistol and turned to his GEC device.
He'd already discovered in the dropship that the device was connected to his brain through the nerves in his wrist and so could also be controlled mentally.
With a mental command, a tablet-sized holographic screen with a timer appeared above the device. Synching the timer for 72 hours, he proceeded to pull up the device map.
'Seventy kilometers to extraction point. Tough but doable.' His eyes quickly scanning the projected route on the map.
'Following this route, I should get to the extraction main route in about five minutes.' Deactivating the device, he pulled his pistol again with a goal in mind.
Hugging the wall, Jason cautiously advanced towards the front exit. Peeking through any window for signs of danger, he reached the exit and peeked outside.
A silent apocalyptic residential street greeted him.
'if my guess is correct, most of the mutants should be around the city center.' Jason thought as he saw the clear street.
Using abandoned cars and shattered walls to conceal himself, Jason cautiously advance, soon reaching the turn into the main route without any problem.
However peeking through the corner, his blood suddenly ran cold.
'Damn.'
The main route was actually crowded with mutants standing all over the place, all so still and silent that one could mistake them for mannequins. But the slight movement of their chest would suggest otherwise.
'Well this doesn't look good.' However at that moment, he felt a gaze fall on him.
Instincts kicked in and he immediately took cover.
'Someone's watching me.' His grip tightened on his weapons.
Peeking over again, the feeling returned. Glancing past the motionless mutants close by, he quickly spotted the culprit some distance away.
'Is... Is that a horse?'
Straining his eyes, Jason could only conclude that it was a quadrupedal creature.
But he was sure that whatever it was, was staring straight at him.
BOOM!
Before Jason could look further, the ground suddenly shook along with the thundering of an explosion in the distance.
Startled by the dust cloud in the distance, Jason looked towards the creature again only to discover that it was gone.
'Damn it.'