I stumbled through the ruined battlefield, a red system notification flashing just outside my dented visor.

  Warning: Health Critical

  The ground was wet, soaked through in blood. I suffered a glance over my shoulder, half expecting the others to be limping along behind me.

  But I was alone.

  Warning: You are about to die

  Really? I never would have guessed. My right hand tightened against my stomach, my guts glistening through broken fingers.

  We’d rushed the final boss too early, just like Michael had warned. But what choice did we have? The timer only had a few hours left. We were screwed no matter what. Maybe it was better this way—go out in a gore-drenched blaze of glory, fighting to the last.

  And Roland’s speech had been pretty badass. I smirked, remembering how hopeful the survivors were last night. We’d danced, drank, and promised to meet each other back on Earth when this was over.

  It’d all been for nothing.

  I coughed, lungs beginning to fail. My wounds were bad. I could probably heal, but what would be the point? We’d made it through the boss’ army, but we never reached him. He was in the tower up ahead, probably laughing at us or something. Alone and drained, I wouldn’t stand a chance.

  But I wasn’t going to give up. Not ever.

  “Bastards,” I half groaned, coming to a stop.

  Then I opened my inventory.

  The pulsating orb within glittered with all the colors of the night sky. It was also gross as shit. It squirmed and squished as I grabbed it. Felt like I was trying to fist a Jello cake. Then it blobbed around my hand, the skin below my armor tingling.

  As soon as I pulled it out, the world flashed white, and time stopped. Even my breathing halted, labored air caught in my chest.

  Player (Arthur Addleton), the action you are attempting to perform is not advised.

  Response?

  My lips and tongue stayed put, but I pushed about every insult, jab, and explicit string of words I could through my head in an instant.

  Foul language detected. Response blocked.

  How about this? Response: Fuck you. I mentally activated the blob.

  Please stop. The AI sounded concerned.

  Good.

  The “artifact” had the ability to store system essence. Things like items couldn’t be placed inside it, but skills? Experience points? Those it could gobble up and then some. Me and the others had placed some weak skills into it to test it out. But now, here at the end, I would give it everything I had.

  Tampering with the fabric of space and time will have unforeseen consequences. This action is not recommended.

  I pushed all the energy I had left into the artifact. In it I also placed all our hopes. Because the artifact, whatever it really was, could travel backwards through time. It would find me again, and it would deliver to me ultimate power.

  Or maybe that crazed AI God had lied, and this thing would just nuke me. But it was too late to turn back now.

  As the last of my life was sucked away, I saw glimpses of my past self, of the day we arrived in this hellish world.

  Damn was I an asshole back then.

  But that asshole? He would be a Goddamn hero. He had to be.

  “Get the fuck out of my way!” I pressed my fist into the center of my steering wheel so hard my knuckles popped. But it seemed no amount of honking was going to save me.

  “Fuck my life,” I muttered, sagging back.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  I glanced at the time. 9:30 AM. Might as well have said YOU’RE SCREWED. It’d taken months to land this position and now I was half an hour late on my first day.

  I honked again.

  My truck was stuck behind a withered white Nissan. A car probably driven by somebody’s grandma who should have lost her license two centuries ago. Because the light was green.

  “If you don’t go, I swear to God…” But then the car slowly, agonizingly, flashed a blinker and turned.

  I hit the gas so hard I nearly rammed into their bumper, but I was not about to let the light turn red.

  Then it did.

  Something like the roar of an angry bear escaped my throat as I slammed on the gas even harder. Traffic on either side of the intersection must have realized I’d lost my mind, because they stayed put.

  Just a little further. I started coming up with a hundred different excuses for my boss. Truth was, I’d stayed up late building a damned desk for Avery, then slept through my alarm. She was with Grandma now, but she’d be back this afternoon. It and the laptop were supposed to be a big surprise. If I lost this job, I’d have to send the laptop back.

  I wasn’t going to let that happen.

  My truck’s engine roared, the old girl pushed to her limit. But something was off. Was this intersection always this big? Then I blinked, thinking I was seeing things. Then I wished I had been.

  The edges of the road, the street signs, the people and their cars, all bled into the infinite distance, stretched along my vision like streaks of wet paint. My stomach dropped, and I started falling.

  My tires hit dirt and I was rocketing down a steep hill, gnarled black trees on either side of me. The sky was red and streaked with black clouds, the clap of thunder barely audible over the sound of my busted suspension.

  The street and everything else had vanished. It was just me, my truck, and the fast-approaching wilderness.

  I hit the brakes, but they didn’t give a shit. I kept barreling down, and my heart seemed to squeeze in on itself. Then the ground leveled out and I jerked the wheel to the side.

  That’s when I started flipping.

  I rolled and rolled, eyes squeezed shut in terror. Glass shattered, stabbing my face, and then I hit something hard and my head bashed against the door. There was darkness for a while, then my eyes opened, everything too bright.

  First thing I noticed was the blood. It ran down my chest, my white button-up stained a deep red. I reached my right hand toward my head but stopped halfway, shoulder crying out. It was dislocated.

  “Someone!” I called, voice weak. “Is anyone there?”

  I unbuckled with my left hand and pushed the door open. Grunting in agony, I managed to slide myself out. But I was dizzy and fell face-first to the ground.

  The truck had managed to land upright after smashing sideways into a tree. A good stroke of luck, because if it’d landed on its side, my fat ass would still be stuck.

  With my back resting on my bent front tire, I looked around.

  My first guess was that I’d hit my head so hard I was seeing things. But this weird stuff had popped up before that. Maybe I just scrambled my brain so hard that memory was fake too?

  The sky was a mass of dull red that seemed to go on forever. A few flashes of purple and crimson lightning came down in the distance, the flashes bleak against the expanse of red sand and black trees that stretched out in all directions. Whole thing looked like a heavy metal album cover.

  Blood was still spurting from my head. Felt like I’d been chopped by an axe. But I needed to get up, find out what was going on. I shifted, whole body begging me to stop. I didn’t listen. I got up to one bruised knee before I saw it.

  A scraggly bush at the base of the hill rustled, and a huge snake-like thing skittered out. Its head was long and pointed, two silver eyes on either side of its narrow face. Its scales were dark, almost black, but its legs were the weirdest part. They ran along either side of its body, segmented and dull orange in color. It looked like an eel someone had grafted on top of a centipede.

  “This isn’t real,” I told myself, vision blurry, head throbbing with each frantic heartbeat.

  The eel thing noticed me, then raised its head and made some kind of high-pitched hiss. After that it approached, cautious, curiosity in its slitted eyes.

  “Stay back!” I said, raising my good fist. The thing could tell I was helpless though, it came forward suddenly, needle toothed maw open.

  A second mouth came from inside its throat and latched around my shoe. Its small teeth punched right through the fake leather, my foot a pincushion. Then it jerked, hard, my ankle threatening to tear right off. I tried shaking it loose, but that only sent a jolt of pain up my ruined leg.

  It tugged and I was on my back. I reached out desperately, my good hand finding the edge of a fist-sized rock. With a grunt, I sat up and tried bashing the creature over the head with it, but I had never been limber on the best of days.

  With no other options, I reared back and threw the rock as hard as I could. I used to be a pitcher in high school, but that was long before the accident. Still, my aim hadn’t decayed like the rest of me. The rock bashed the eel thing right between the eyes, stunning it enough for me to pull my foot free.

  I scooted back in a hurry, ignoring the pain. By the time I collided with my smashed truck, the monster was back on the advance. Then, only a few feet from me, it stopped. For a second I thought I’d taught the beast a lesson, but the sound of skittering all around informed me I was very, very wrong.

  Two more of the creatures emerged from the blackened forest to my right. They nipped at each other as they joined their comrade, then they slowly moved forward, their dozens of insect-like appendages stabbing the ground in flowing unison.

  There was a hiss above me, and I craned my bruised neck to see another one of the monsters perched above, its serpentine head glaring at me from atop my truck’s hood.

  With four of them now circling me, what little hope I had vanished and I made a grim realization.

  I was going to die.

  “Alright then,” I said, voice dry and raspy. “Come at me.”

  If I was going to die, then I was going to try and take at least one of them with me.

  The three in front rushed me in unison, each cruel mouth open for a chomp. The one above me reared back, but I paid it no mind. I raised my arms, ready to bash and bite as long as I could.

  Then the world flashed white, and everything froze.