He kicked at some of the larger stones, then shifted a bent and twisted metal beam slightly.  A week ago, he’d never have been able to move the thing.  But he and his father had taken the warnings seriously and worked nearly nonstop to develop their bodies and increase their physical attributes.  His Strength, just a two on day one, had doubled to a four.  Same for his Stamina.  A four in Strength made him, as best they had been able to figure, on par with a chimpanzee when it came to muscle mass.  Which would be roughly double the strength of a normal human male.  Most recently he’d been pushing his body by lifting stacks of tires over and over again.   In most of his games, players started with a uniform ten points in each attribute across the board.  This System was different.  Starting attributes were based on each person’s actual strengths and weaknesses, as compared somehow to the other beings in the system.  Humans were physically weak compared to most sentient beings, so an average male like Allistor began with a Strength stat of two.

Below the beam was a displaced manhole cover.  Allistor’s hopes soared!  If she had managed to find the open manhole in time, it was possible they had survived the passing of the giant.  Another few seconds of searching amid the rubble, and he found the hole.  It was partially collapsed, but still open.  Keeping his head back from the opening, he called out in a hoarse whisper-shout.  “Hello? Are you down there?”

He waited and listened, carefully avoiding sticking his head over the opening to look inside.  That was a lesson learned the hard way on the first day of stabilization.  Creatures had spontaneously appeared across the globe when the three-day countdown hit zero.  Nightmare creatures that should not have existed even in the worst horror vids.  One of them had materialized in his basement.  It proceeded to wreak havoc among the items stored down there, searching for human prey.  His sister had heard the noise the same time as the others, but she had been closer to the basement door.  As Allistor ran to stop her, she opened the door and flicked on the light switch.  A tentacled arm wrapped around her torso and yanked her downward with such force that he’d heard her spine snap, cutting off her scream of terror and pain.

Blinking away the tears caused by that memory, Allistor heard the echo of his voice from below, but no other sound.  His hopes for their survival plummeted.  There hadn’t really been time for them to move out of earshot in the tunnel. Her failure to respond didn’t bode well.   He tried again, “Are you hurt?  I can help you.  The titan has moved on; it’s safe to come out.”  He cringed at that last statement.  There really wasn’t anyplace safe anymore, above or below ground.