Shattering Humanity (Surviving For Humanity Book 1) Read online

  Shattering Humanity

  Surviving For Humanity Book 1

  Kip Nelson

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Prologue

  The night was like any other in The Game Changer, the gaming store owned and operated by Tillman Torres. Tillman was sitting at the storefront wearing a virtual reality headset. One of the perks of owning the store was he could use all the products whenever he wanted, and customers who saw these things in action always were more likely to buy them. Not that there were many customers in the store on this particular day.

  “I can't believe you made us come in today,” Penelope said. The orange-haired young woman scowled at Tillman, which he saw when he took off the headset. He was annoyed because Penelope's complaints had broken the immersion. He sighed as he set down the headset and rose from his seat.

  “I wouldn't be surprised. Frankly I'm amazed that anyone is buying this at all,” Greg said. He was standing at the counter, leaning forward on his elbows. “The whole idea that there's going to be a sun flare is just absolutely ridiculous. People need to stop believing everything they read and wake up. News is not news anymore. The only things we can trust are our own eyes. This is just another way to increase hysteria and get people all panicked. Seriously, you'd think that one day we'd realize that we don't have to get so distracted by all these stories. We need to look at what really matters.”

  “You can't be serious. Did you not see the weather warnings? The reports? It's happening, Greg, we just don't know how serious it is. But I didn't think I'd have to work at the end of the world,” Penelope said, throwing her hands up in the air. As she did so her sleeves fell down her arms, revealing a spider web tattoo that ran across her flesh. Tillman tried not to stare. Part of him was tempted to remain silent and let the two of them bicker as they often did, but today wasn't the day for that. Penelope gave him a challenging look.

  “Well, why do we have to work today?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips. Tillman sighed again.

  “Because we shouldn't let these warnings interfere with the way we live our lives. I prefer to think positively. There's no sense in us losing our heads and surrendering everything we know and love for fear that the world is going to end. I highly doubt it's possible. I've seen all the same reports as you and I've noticed that the chances for anything bad happening are small. The likeliest outcome is people are going to go about their business as usual and nothing is going to change, just like it usually does with these things. This hasn’t been the first apocalyptic scare, and it won't be the last. All we need to do is stay calm and wait for this to blow over, but I'm not going to close the store out of fear. We have to show other people that we're not going to be fazed by this.”

  “Good man,” Greg said, and clapped his hands together. Penelope rolled her eyes.

  “But what if it is the end? Don't you want to be with your loved ones to say goodbye?”

  “I don't have any loved ones,” Tillman said.

  Silence hung around the store. He said it as a matter of fact, but it was clear that Greg and Penelope didn't know what to say. This is why most of the time Tillman preferred the company of virtual people. In a world that was created with lines of code the outcomes could be predicted and controlled. It was a world that could be mastered with enough time and dedication. Such a thing was not true of the offline world. Tillman had spent most of his life trying to figure out the mysteries, but he now was entering his 40s and nothing was clearer to him. The truth was that he did have a family, but he had been estranged from them for a long time, and he wasn't sure how to reconnect with them even if he wanted to do so.

  “I'm going to head into the office to do some work, keep positive out here and if anyone comes in, I don't want to hear any scaremongering. Keep to the products,” Tillman said, pointing a finger at the both of them. He shook his head as he walked away, and as he turned his back on them he smiled. Penelope and Greg both were good workers, but they often let their passions get the better of them. He couldn't ask for more loyal staff, though.

  Tillman left the storefront and returned to the refuge of his office. Entering it always filled him with a sense of relief as it was isolated from the rest of the store, and thus other people. He was tempted to have a quick blast on a game, but realized he had a lot of work to get through. As well as owning the store, Tillman produced online content, offering his expert opinion on all things gaming-related. He was something of a legend in the community, consistently attending conventions and competitions, and usually placing highly in them.

  His performances had suffered of late, though, and there had been speculation he was going to retire. He didn't have any plans to do so, but his lackluster performances did trouble him. The big 4-0 hit him like a juggernaut. His reflexes were a little slower, and his brain had to make a couple more leaps before it flew into action. These split-second deficiencies added up to a lot of lost time when he was competing with people half his age. At least his body still was fairly trim, though. Unlike a lot of his brethren he made physical fitness a high priority, not wanting to end up with a rounded stomach and fat fingers like so many others who shared the hobby. His hard work and success as an entrepreneur led to a great deal of autonomy, which he used to travel to various conferences and survival weekends.

  To him, success meant treating the world as if it were a game, and to do so you had to understand the rules, and then develop skills to be better than other people. He always had had a knack for finding the weakness in the world, which had led him to be a success in business. His personal life hadn't been so easy to hack, but he was wise enough to realize that a man couldn't have everything. For a simple boy who used to like spending entire days at the arcade, Tillman decided he'd done alright for himself, and that his mother would be proud, even though she wouldn't let him know it because she'd always tried to stop him from wasting his time on those coin-eating machines.

  Thinking of his mom made him smile sadly. It had been a long time since he had seen them. His family was quite small, so it was as though he had nobody left. He often spared a thought for his sister, Morelle, and his niece, Jessica, but his parents had made it clear how they felt about him and the career he had pursued. Their disapproval had pushed him away.

  Usually it was easy to lose himself in his business because he had a lot of it, but there were times when he wished he had someone else around, someone to come home to and share his inner thoughts with. At least there were always games. No matter what happened, he always could count on them to offer companionship and escape.

  He fired up his computer and looked at the schedule for the upcoming month. There was a Pac-Man tournament two weeks away, which was always fun. There had been a scandal recently when the current record holder had been accused of cheating and using an emulator rather than playing on the real thing. It was sure to be the talk of the convention, and Tillman was sure everyone would have their theory. After that was a trip to a survival camp. Tillman would have to check with Penelope if she was able to cover him for that weekend. Scrolling down further, Tillman looked at all the dates
that already were filled up, and then stopped when he reached the following year, his next birthday.

  He leaned back in his chair and stroked his chin. Looking at the calendar mapped out like this was entirely depressing, for it seemed as though the rest of his life had been planned out. Where was the spontaneity? Where was the adventure? It didn't seem as though there were any surprises in store, but perhaps that was a good thing. Youth was a time to be surprised, and as loathe as he was to admit it, Tillman had to accept that he was a youth no longer. While journeying through his 30s he often pretended that he was still young, still telling himself that he was closer to his twenties than his fifties. But time kept slipping away and he finally had to admit he was one of the elder statesmen of the gaming community.

  Given the boom of the last ten or twenty years, the community was populated mostly by the younger generation, which only made Tillman feel older. He tried his best to not seem like the old guy in gaming, but the more he hung around the more he was afraid he would overstay his welcome. The only problem was he didn't have anything else in his life other than gaming.

  Deciding that it would do no good to wallow in his misery, Tillman pushed himself off his seat and packed a quick bag. He walked out to the front of the store and asked Penelope if she was able to take care of the store. Greg made a little noise of protest, which Tillman ignored.

  “Sure thing, boss, but where are you going? I thought you wanted to treat today like any other day?” Penelope asked.

  “I do, but that doesn't mean any other day has to be lacking adventure. I'm going to take a trip, don't ask me where because I don't know yet. I want to see some place new. I'll be back in a couple of days,” he said.

  With that he left the store and got in his car, driving to the airport. The roads were far more deserted than usual, and when he flicked on the radio he was surprised to hear the DJ talking as though it was the end of the world. He was asking for any last requests and telling people to make their final preparations. Tillman only listened to it for a few moments before he turned off the radio. In some ways Greg was right, people were too quick to panic. Tillman was certain something was going to happen, but he was sure it wasn't going to be half as bad as what people were thinking.

  Since the roads were clear it took him much less time to get to the airport than usual. The evening just was beginning to set in, and he imagined Greg and Penelope would be closing up the store soon. He smiled as he thought of the two of them in that store, bickering away.

  Tillman thought about the way Greg had seemed betrayed when Tillman had asked Penelope to take care of the store. His heart went out to Greg, but Greg hadn't done himself any favors in recent years. His belly had expanded, his hair had receded, and his mood had darkened. Greg always had felt as if life owed him something, and never could get over the idea that he had a responsibility for his own well-being. In many ways Greg was the epitome of the industry stereotype. Entitled people lacking in social skills who acted as though they had a divine right to be taken care of, when in fact they were just like anyone else. The saddest thing was that Greg was running out of time to make a change. Tillman had tried fighting against the stereotype as best he could, but even he wasn't able to escape it fully. After all, he had plenty of personal difficulties in his own life. There were so many times when he thought about reconnecting with his parents, but every time he considered it he turned away from the idea.

  It was Morelle he missed the most, though, and almost resented his parents for the fact that he couldn't see her again. The young girl would have grown into a woman now. Tillman wondered if she remembered him the way he remembered her. No, it wouldn't do any good for him to get emotional now. The past was past, and there was no sense feeling remorse about it.

  As Tillman pulled into the airport he started thinking about where he should go. It would be fun to visit a place he knew well, or he might go somewhere he never had been before. The entire country was open to him, and he looked forward to considering his options. But as he parked his car he was surprised, again, at the lack of people around. The airport usually was buzzing. He walked inside and looked at the board showing the list of departures, but everything was canceled.

  “Excuse me, I wonder if you could tell me what's going on?” he asked a woman at the counter. Her makeup was smudged. It looked as though she had been crying.

  “What's happening? Are you kidding me? What's happening is that I have to sit here and wait to talk to people like you instead of being home with my kid. The world is going to end and I won't even get to say goodbye,” she said, bursting into tears again.

  “I don't understand,” Tillman said, but he didn't get any further explanation. The woman cursed and kicked the desk, then walked away. Her heels clacked against the shiny floor. Tillman was entirely confused and walked around the airport until he found another man who looked just as confused as he did. Tillman approached him and asked him what was going on.

  “I'm glad I've found someone else here. It's crazy, isn't it? I was trying to get a flight home, but it looks as though they've all been canceled,” the man said. He looked to be around Tillman’s age, although had a comfortable belly and rounded shoulders; the look of a man who had had the same job since high school.

  “But why?”

  “Well, the solar flare, of course,” the man said. He continued speaking when it was clear from Tillman's facial expression that he didn't grasp the gravity of the situation. “Have you not heard the latest news? There was a weather warning sent out. They think it's going to be more intense than they anticipated. I was hoping life would still go on, but they're taking it seriously. I guess we really should be worried,” the man said.

  Tillman stroked his jaw.

  “You really didn't know?” the man said.

  Tillman shook his head. “I guess that's what I get for not paying attention to the world around me. So… what? They've just grounded every flight?”

  “Yeah, there's a massive crowd around the back there, people demanding to get home, but nobody is budging. I thought I'd try seeing if I could catch a train or a bus or something, not that it'll be worth it if it really is the end. It's a hell of a thing to think about, though. Anyway, I need to be on my way. I wouldn't stay around here for too long. I have a feeling that mob isn't going to be happy when they realize there's no chance of getting home to their loved ones. Good luck to you,” he said, and then briskly walked away, beginning to jog as he got farther from Tillman.

  Tillman stayed standing where he was for a few moments. The entire thing seemed bizarre, but he decided he hadn't been paying attention to anything while he was in the store. They didn't have a radio on, and only music played from the internet. He looked wistfully up at the departure board again, almost expecting it to show a range of flights, but it remained blank.

  It didn't seem possible that this actually was happening. It was probably just a precaution, Tillman told himself, and as soon as the flare passed everything would be back to normal. Still, it was quite inconvenient given that it interfered with his plans to be spontaneous. Maybe there was something about being forty where the world just conspired against you and wouldn't let you do anything out of the ordinary. Tillman sighed, spun on his heels, and walked back to his car.

  While he did so he started imagining he was in a game, playing a spy, with enemies all around the barren airport. He walked slowly, peering around corners, looking for hidden terrorists. It was something he often did whenever he was in an unfamiliar place, using the skills he'd learned on the various training camps he had been to. As yet he never had had cause to use the skills he'd developed, but it was always better to have them just in case.

  He thought about the way he would subdue an attacker if they came toward him. They'd be confident and brash, but he'd be aware of their movements. He'd anticipate them and block their blows, then use their momentum against them. He'd disarm them and swiftly send them to the floor, making them regret they ever had decided to attack
him.

  It was a simple fantasy, but one that Tillman long had harbored, going back to his childhood. The insecurities of youth still were strong in his mind, even though his boyhood years were far behind him. Gaming gave him power, but only in a virtual world, the real power was in the real world, and Tillman wanted to make sure he was prepared for anything. He listened quietly for anyone approaching him. The stars up above twinkled like the eyes of wolves, hunting him. The air was still, silent. The only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat.

  Then, he yelled as he spun around, holding his hands out in front of him, ready to strike. There was nobody there. His shout echoed through the cavernous parking lot, fading into nothingness.

  Darkness had fallen quickly. Tillman spared a thought for the people who were still in the airport, angry and frustrated that they couldn't get home. It wouldn't do them any good to get worked up about it, though. That was the mistake too many people made in stressful situations, getting panicked and angry at things that were out of their control. The only thing you really could control was your own response to things. That was something Tillman had learned at his first training camp, and something that always had remained close to his heart, something he never would forget.

  He pressed his lips together and got back in his car, deciding to leave before the mob left the airport. There was nothing more dangerous than a group of angry, scared people, because they no longer had any inhibitions and were entirely unpredictable. Tillman figured the authorities were doing what they thought was best for the general population, but surely this was overkill?

  He revved the engine and drove out of the parking lot, deciding he was just going to drive around for a little while. Since the roads were emptier than usual he might as well take advantage of them and enjoy a nice stress-free drive.