"BBBBAAAAAAMMMMM...."
A loud, ear-splitting bang, accompanied by a fairly large earthquake, made me stumble and fall.
A few moments later, I was woken up by the officer. All the lights and electronics suddenly went out, and he turned on his flashlight.
But through the curtained window, I could see a bright reddish-yellow silhouette. Another officer, slept in one of my rooms, immediately came over and asked what was happening. But neither the officer nor I knew anything.
One of the officers went to the window, but before he reached it, I suddenly heard the sound of people screaming loudly. The policeman opened the curtain, and what I saw outside was truly even more horrifying than the incident at the restaurant the day before.
My city was surrounded in great fires. The flames engulfed buildings, vehicles, and everything else around it. But that wasn't what made me shudder.
There were hordes of terrifying, demonic creatures chasing and attacking civilians. I stared in shock, unable to believe what I was seeing.
Those… those creatures… were the monsters from the game The Mayhem.
I had clearly witnessed they were brutally murdering countless innocent people with my own eyes. Mutilated bodies, dismembered internal organs, and I even watched some of the monsters voraciously devour dying people who were begging for help.
One of the police officers beside me grabbed his portable radio and tried to find a signal. "Hello… hello… what's happening?!?! Please answer…!!!" Suddenly, a signal came through, but it was intermittent.
I could hear it was another officer but background sound of roaring gunfires. "GET AWAY... FROM HERE... FIND A PLACE TO HIDE NOW.... AAARRGGHHHH....". Suddenly, I heard a loud growl that probably came from the monster, and the signal immediately cut off.
"Damn, what's going on? What should we do??" said one of the police officers.
Unexpectedly, one of the monsters flew very fast before our eyes and broke through front window and chased the officer near it until he stumbled down.
The monster, resembling a humanoid but with glowing red eyes, immediately ripped the officer's face apart brutally with it's sharp teeth. The other officer immediately shot the monster with his taser. The two officers on duty were supposedly didn't carry firearms in my monitorings.
Unfortunately, the monster was completely unaffected. Instead, the officer stunned as he tried to fight back, ultimately died brutally.
Before I could react, I heard the loud sound of shattering glass behind me. Before I could even see what was behind me, I suddenly saw a similar monster from behind, stabbing the officer beside me with its long, sharp claws, piercing his chest. I fell to the ground, watching the monster pick up the poor officer, then slam him to the floor, and then repeatedly pound him with its claws. Blood splattered everywhere.
In those moment of such horror, strange thing happened to me that I immediately glanced at the back window in the kitchen, where the glass had been shattered.
Reflexively, I got up, sprinted up to the dining table, and jumped through the window. Luckily, my apartment was on the first floor, so I didn't fall too hard. I was able to quickly get up and run back.
I ran down a small alley, still hearing the monster's growl, but from a considerable distance. I deliberately ran in a winding path, hoping to get out of the predator's sight. But the longer I heard the growl, the clearer it became, indicating it was getting closer.
When I reached a large sewers, I immediately slid down and dove inside. I ran for a while until I found a dark, cubicle-like place. Without thinking, I entered, sat down, and hid.
All of these horrific and sadistic events happened in the blink of an eye.
I suddenly remembered something: In the lore of The Mayhem, almost all monsters can sense human traces through their breath. If I were still breathing heavily, they would quickly find me.
I quickly controlled my breathing to become calmer and quieter. Then, I heard the monster's growl from outside the cubicle. I remained calm, holding my breath as long as I could. Soon, The monster heard running away from me.
Once the sound was gone, I slowly looked around to make sure the monster was no longer around. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing I could survived the monster's ferocity for the first time. Thank goodness I was able to remember the game's lore in this dire situation.
I suddenly noticed something. My right hand was still holding the knife I'd used to end my life. I realized after the loud bang that the policeman hadn't noticed I was holding the knife. Of course, I couldn't fight the monster with my kitchen knife.
I wondered again: why did this apocalypse happen right when I was about to do it? I still didn't know the answer.
While I was still confused, I also noticed something strange in the corner of my vision: an image of what looked like an six-part item slot. Then I quickly remembered that this was the weapon slot interface used by Hellraider in the better game installment.
I was completely confused as to why something like this was happening to me.
I wanted to try it out by pointing my knife at the icon. Suddenly, my knife disappeared, as if eroded by a white light very quickly. Then, I saw an icon depicting a knife appear in one of the slots. I was so speechless.
"Noo... there's no way I'm the new Hellraider. I'm too weak and useless to even take on the role..."
My thoughts were interrupted when I heard footsteps running into the sewer. Then, I heard each other's breathing ragged.
One of the men said, "At last... We're here first... We're all exhausted... from running away... from that monster..." he replied, panting. I glanced around to make sure they were all human.
After confirming they were, I slowly walked out of the cubicle. I saw four people, one of them a middle-aged woman. When one of them saw me walking out, he gasped in surprise.
I immediately stopped and raised my hands. "Don't worry, I'm human too. I hid to avoid them." The four of them immediately approached me, grateful that someone had survived. They also said they never expected this horror incident to happen so intense and unpredictable.
Then one of the men said, "I don't mean to joke about situations like this. But you have to believe me, these monsters are from a popular action game from its time called The Mayhem. I used to be a fan."
Suddenly, I saw the other men fall silent and become very shocked. They began to speak up and remember they ever played that game. I, too, reacted in a similar way to validate their reaction.
"What should we do now? We can't just stay here. Sooner or later, we'll be discovered by that monsters," one of the men said.
"If the monsters from The Mayhem exist, a Hellraider character should appear here too. But who knows where he is now, or maybe he's not there at all." the other men replied.
I intervened, "It's true, we can't just stay here and hope a Hellraider comes to our rescue. We have to move around carefully without being noticed by the monsters. We need to find temporary shelter. I suggest we head to the nearest military base immediately". Everyone immediately agreed with my opinion.
"I know where the nearest military base is. I used to work there as an administrator. It's quite far and dangerous to walk. We need to find a car immediately," replied the woman, who turned out to be a former army herself.
We quickly made our way out of the drain, cautiously, keeping a close eye on our surroundings.
As we walked, I kept a lookout for weapon slot interface. It seemed they didn't have them and couldn't see mine. I was growing increasingly worried that I might be chosen as a Hellraider. But, being realistic, I figured this would probably be resolved later.
After a while, we walked out of the sewer. We saw a parked jeep. One of the men approached it. He inspected the inside first, then grabbed a piece of metal wire surround it. He shaped the wire into a key, then tried to pry open the door lock near the steering wheel, finally unlocking it.
We were briefly impressed by the man's skills. "Okay, let's get in and go. I'll drive. Ma'am, please give me directions to the nearest route to the military base," the man said.
On the way, we got to know each other. There were Navel[1], Robbin[2], Larry[3], and Lucy[4]. Robbin was the driver and the one who had just successfully pryed open the car door was named Larry.
"When I was young man, I was sent to prison for two months for trying to open someone else's car with a piece of wire. This car was an older model, so I thought I could break it in," Larry explained. The others seemed to laugh at Larry's story.
But something odd occurred to me. I told them my name, but why didn't anyone seem suddenly surprised that I was involved in a recent crime? I thought perhaps this unfathomable disaster had made these people forget the news. I didn't tell my group about myself in detail.
We started driving into the city center.
I told the driver, "Mr. Robbin, if we see that monster, immediately accelerate at maximum speed and get as far away as possible. If the monster manages to reach our car, it will easily tear the body apart with its sharp claws," I said.
Navel agreed with my statement. He said the monster could run almost twice the speed of the fastest human on Earth. Mr. Robbin nodded and accepted my suggestion. I was glad someone still knew the details of The Mayhem lore.
[1] Tall, fair-skinned, brown short hair combed to left side with black eyes.
[2] Tall, brown-skinned man with curly short hair
[3] Medium height man with short cut black hair trimmed on top, brown-black eyes, have piercings in both ears, nose and chin
[4] Middle-aged woman with white long hair and green eyes.