Chapter 1 - Solitude

Plum’s house was old, even when her dad first bought the place 30 years ago it seemed old and when she inherited it, let’s just say it didn’t get any younger. There were cobwebs growing on the walls and wardrobes were filled with clothes that even Plum’s dad had no idea where they came from. The basement was probably the most untidy part with the washroom still filled with garbage bags of stuff that even the garbage men didn’t want to take. It was more than just the smell, whatever was in them would sit in a landfill longer than the land under the dump itself. The garbage bags had been hidden in the place when Plum’s dad first got it but Plum put them front and center when they got the place so that they’d have a reason to take them out but when the garbage men and women refused the offer; Plum had no idea what to do with them.

Plum looked out the window, it was raining quite heavily, odd for the middle of winter but not unheard of. The top floor had 3 rooms with only one of them in regular use with the other 2 simply being Plum’s dad hoarding useless items. Plum inherited a bit of their dad’s reluctance to throw stuff out but wanted to get better about it, something which Plum’s dad never really did. With all these thoughts of Plum’s dad, Plum decided to see if their dad wanted to call or video chat. So they opened up their phone only to be promptly greeted with Amber Alerts, natural disaster warnings and news stories about the explosion Plum had heard the previous day. It occured to Plum that getting such a depressing news app was most likely a mistake and promptly deleted it. Going over to their dad’s section in contacts they began to ring up.

With no response, Plum’s dad began their classic voicemail where they made a pun about snails which was fun the first 10 times, but had long since lost it’s humor for Plum. The failure of response made Plum realize that they should have planned out something to say. They hadn’t talked to their dad in over a year after all. Maybe a walk would help Plum plan for the inevitable call back. They needed some fresh air no matter what, they hadn’t been outside since yesterday morning. So they put on their boots, raincoat and mittens to begin stepping out onto the rainy snow. But, as soon as they opened their door they knew something was different as their nearby fast food restaurant had a gaping hole in it. Plum could barely recognize the place if it weren’t for the hot dog and donut materials scattered around the floor.

“Finally, another human,” commented a young man with hiker gear and a floppy sun hat. They were sitting down in the corner of the fast food joint and were eating the buns leftover from the evident wreckage. Plum felt safe in this transformed world with this man, so she got some ingredients from behind the counter, made herself a sandwich and sat down with him.

“What happened?” Plum asked feeling scared and uncertain.

“There was some kind of big purple explosion and everyone started turning into these creatures. Absolutely terrifying, they ravaged these lands,” The hiker responded, taking a drink from their flask. Their flask had the look of a toy grenade, dark green with black lines across it but without any texture that would make it out to be a real grenade.

“How come we weren’t affected, y’know turned into monsters and all that,” Plum responded, still worried but also intrigued. The Hiker got back up and threw their leftovers into the black garbage can that swung the top inward when his hand approached it. The Hiker had to think for a while until responding again.

“If we get too hung up on that, we’ll be stuck in the past. Honestly, I have no idea!” As the hiker told Plum this they almost started to laugh. It’s just the human way, the world gets attacked by a humans who have transformed into new monsters and those unaffected care more about the science of it then their own safety. But, The Hiker was right they need to get out of there as soon as possible. Right on cue, the monster who had attacked the hot dog restaurant originally came bursting right through the wall.

It looked like a cross between a centipede, scorpion and a worm with tough scaly skin and fierce glowing eyes. They came rampaging through the wall and went straight through, sending a shutter through the building. Plum and The Hiker started to try and run out but the monster was sending so much ground up from their burrowing that neither of them could walk out. The monster had been making so many holes underground it had created an earthquake from the final bash through the wall. The tunneled ground couldn’t take all the pressure and began to cave in. All of a sudden, before Plum’s eyes the world went black.

The ceiling fell on top of Plum and the hiker and they became trapped under the former fast food location. The scorpion monster scurried off and The Hiker tried to push the scaffolding above them. Luckily enough it had stopped short of crushing them but if they couldn’t get out soon then they wouldn’t be so lucky. Plum tried to help out The Hiker but it was just too much Rubble; there was nothing they could do. Luckily enough though, they weren’t the only one in the restaurant at that time. Geoffrey was hiding under the counter playing games on their console. Hearing the crash, they knew that it was their time to help.

Using the metal on their fingertips they created a magnetic attraction, allowing Plum and The Hiker to escape from the disaster. Plum was shocked seeing a monster help them out, after what the centipede monster had just done; but they knew it was better to accept these things than deny them.

“Thank you so much, I thought that was the end for us!” The hiker and Plum both told Geoffrey but he was already heading back to play more games with his headphones on. But, in secrecy even though Geoffrey’s face was turned away and his headphones on he had a giant smile on.

Chapter 2 - Under Earth

The pain had built up in his shoulder over the long walk down the cavern, Martin wasn’t sure how long he could keep going, especially with the books in his school backpack. Marissa emails teachers in advance to find out when they need books so their bag was practically clean besides a lightweight binder and a few pencils. Most classes had extra papers they could take if they needed them for assignments although most were done on computers. Just thinking about Martin’s old life put him at ease. But, that ease wouldn’t last for long.

“We’ve arrived at the subway station. I guess we should part ways now. Stay safe,” Marissa told Martin as if it was any ordinary day. Martin wanted to scream to tell her that it wasn’t an ordinary day, that the world had completely changed; that they had completely changed. Alas, he didn’t have the heart to do it. Martin went up the stairs on the left of the terminal and Marissa went up the stairs on the right. Most of the other passengers on the subway had went into some of the early subway stations, so it had just been Martin and Marissa walking through the last few. Now being alone though felt very different for Martin. He may not have been spectacularly close with Marissa but their voice reminded him of his old life.

“Hey, where do you think your going?” a pale light green humanoid yelled at the passing child. The creature’s skin was bubbling like a witch’s cauldron and his eyes were covered by dark shades that were big enough to also cover the person’s eyebrows. They grabbed Martin’s volcanic armor and pulled him aside.

“I’m just trying to get-” Martin began, trying to explain the situation to the threatening figure in front of him.

“There’s no rush, I can assure you!” the figure laughed to himself. That’s when Martin realized for the first time, that he wasn’t the same person from earlier that day. Martin punched the chest of the creature in front of him sending plumes of heat flying at their face. This also sent them flying against the subway terminal wall. Martin looked at his flaming hand and grinned, thinking to himself ‘this really is a new world’.

But, Martin’s opponent wasn’t going to back down so easily. They jumped over him and elbowed his ribs, knocking the wind out of Martin and sending him to the ground. Martin had overestimated their abilities and were paying the price for it. The mugger got out a gun and requested money in the least polite manner possible. Martin’s head was buried in the subway passageway deep enough that he couldn’t have responded even if he wanted to give the money. Luckily Marissa had heard the noise.

Marissa used their hair on the criminal and pulled them to the side, before helping Martin with a hand to get out of the ground. At first Martin wanted to question why Marissa had come back for him but thought about it and realized it was better to just be happy for the moment. The mugger shot a bullet from their gun at Marissa’s face but using their wings they were able to fling it away. Holding hands they walked up and out of the subway terminal. But, above ground did not look anything like they remembered. Buildings had holes through them. The air had a green tint to it and gas was everywhere. Street signs had fallen over and the sky looked like the clouds were moving faster than usual. Martin had just stepped out on to the streets of apocalypse.

“As soon as I stepped out, I knew that I’d need somebody familiar to face this new world with,” Marissa told Martin standing on the sidewalk overlooking the wreckage.

“I’m happy you came when you did,” Martin replied.

“Me too,”

Martin began to walk home but as soon as he saw what had happened to the street he knew that might not be the best idea. There were trucks stacked on top of eachother and the grey octopus creature from earlier blocking off the area. But, whatever they were going to do next; getting food and water was a top priority. In this world though, it wouldn’t be as simple as ordering food online.

Chapter 3 - The Botanist’s Club

“So, what’s your name hiker man?” Plum asked the hiker. They had been walking with Geoffrey through the city for the past 10 minutes just processing what had happened. There were holes through buildings, buildings had fallen over, trees had been uprooted and shops were empty asides from shoplifters. The sky had turned a dark musky purple and the clouds had seemed to slowly drift over to the center of the city. By this point, the sky had become clear as Plum already had in mind exactly where to go.

“My name’s Timothy, sorry for not introducing myself earlier,” The hiker responded with his beard muffling his voice. At this point they had abandoned their sun hat. Timothy was the shortest one in the group with a light raincoat a short stature and awful posture along with a short but obnoxious brown beard. If not for their numerous supplies and rations Plum would have thought they were in poverty off of how they dressed, but they were simply unconcerned about fashion. At a time like this, Plum and Geoffrey could hardly blame him for the soot and and dirt sprinkled all over his pants. They were more concerned about what to do now.

“So how come you two didn’t undergo a transformation but I did?” Geoffrey asked feeling puzzled and a little bit cheated. Their transformation added bits of metal unevenly throughout their body giving them a magnetic attraction to things they could control. Geoffrey always thought the idea of becoming a cyborg or getting robotic enhancements would be cool but just having metal scattered throughout his body was not his ideal scenario and occasionally painful.

“I brushed it off earlier but I think I have a theory now.” Timothy proposed

“Go on,” Plum encouraged.

“Well, I was inside that fast food joint since I live in a small apartment above it. Meanwhile Plum seems to have spent the past couple days inside. My theory is that the transformations were triggered from being outside,” The hiker concluded, feeling proud of their discovery. Geoffrey and Plum pondered it and feeling unable to come up with anything better settled for the simple theory.

“Where are we going anyways?”

“To the Botanist’s club,” Plum announced with a spring in her step just thinking about them made the current state of things all the more unreal. Neither Geoffrey nor Timothy seemed to have quite the same reaction though as neither of them seemed to know of the group, even the most basic of details. Plum stopped on the shredded concrete to turn around and elaborate as their puzzled expressions weren’t going to get them anywhere. “There were a group of people a year ago who locked themselves underground in a bunker filled with plants vegetation and an experimental new form of power. They swore an oath that they would come back up if the new power source failed or started running low. But, they’ve done nothing of the sort.”

“Why would they let us down there with them though; there must be a whole town of people down there pleading to be let in,” Geoffrey counter-blasted hating the idea of getting trapped underground for any long stretch of time. That was a fear of theirs after all. The hiker didn’t particularly like the idea of this either, but they were curious enough not to intervene.

“There may be; but none with the keycard to get into the bunker,” Plum commented proudly, holding up their keycard with a “Botanist’s Club” logo. Geoffrey took a large sigh and continued walking in silence. It seemed Plum had made up her mind and they didn’t have any better ideas. ‘At least they’ll most likely have some food down there’ Geoffrey thought.

Suddenly they came to a towering building. Far enough out from everything and on a dead end street making it nearly unaffected by the disaster if not for the nearby uprooted trees and vegetation. Likely caused by one of the burrowing worm creatures from earlier, Plum still found it baffling that they had once been humans. The group entered and they descended down a pitch black elevator to basement 3. The lighting was spontaneous and unreliable whether it was on or off. Eventually the elevator grinded to a halt and the sliding doors opened. There seemed to be nobody else in the government owned building strangely enough. Plum used their keycard and the bunker doors opened…