Apocalypse Base Novels & Stories

When he spotted me, he started toward me immediately. I stepped back. "Don't." He stopped. His eyes were full of something wretched. "Nora, it's me. The apocalypse is over. Whatever happened between us, can't we just put it behind us and start again?" I let out a slow breath. "No. And if you don't leave, I'm calling security." His lips trembled. A tear slid down the side of his face. "I was wrong, I know that. Just give me one more chance. Anna is dead. She didn't make it out of Level Three. There's no one left to come between us."

After returning to Camp Arthor, I settled all of Sasha's paperwork and placed her at the hospital while Leo stayed by my side and followed me around. "You know that you don't have to keep following me around, don't you? I'm just a regular researcher now," I said with a sigh. After arriving at this base camp, the water crisis had been temporarily resolved for now. But there was an even greater challenge on the way, and it required more attention. Every researcher was desperately trying to find a way to end the apocalypse.

[SYSTEM MESSAGE: APEX CORE EXPOSED.] [WARNING: LETHAL DAMAGE IMMINENT. INITIATING SERVER-WIDE WIPE PROTOCOL IN 00:00:04...] The digital battlefield of Aegis Online was a chaotic, hyper-saturated symphony of shattered code and screaming metal.

I picked up the journal on the table, turned to a pristine new page, and wrote the first line. [Apocalypse Year One, Day One. Weather: Clear. [I await the fading of crises and chaos, when all things wake to a rebirth.]

Ben Carter, standing a few paces behind Jack, instantly gasped, his vampiric fangs extending as his Financial Truth Sight went into overdrive. "Boss!" Ben screamed, his fingers blurring across his holographic tablet as he desperately tried to read the collapsing data streams. "It's a Poison Pill Protocol! They’ve hardwired a self destruct clause into the Apex Citadel's foundation! They are deliberately crashing the value of this entire dimension! If that green light reaches the edge of the platform, the Citadel, the universe's edge, and everyone standing here will be permanently deleted from the cosmic registry!" The marble floor began to crack, the radioactive green code eating through the

"She'll have to accept the new reality sooner or later." I had no idea how long the apocalypse would last. Besides, the casualty rate of children was extremely high during the apocalypse. I would never stop Joyce from finding out how cruel this world had become. Once Joyce finally calmed down, Emmett and I began checking the doors and windows. Then, we started counting the supplies we had. When we heard the sounds of a car screeching to a halt outside the villa, Emmett quickly grabbed a rifle and moved to stand behind a window. I picked up a gun as well before joining him nervously.

That was the ringtone for my alarm. I hurriedly grabbed my phone with shaky hands as I glanced at the date and I audibly gasped in shock. The date was staring right at me, unblinking and I had to rub my eyes to be sure I wasn't hallucinating. It was indeed June 19th, 2665. The apocalypse happened July 19th. One month from today. I refused to believe that this was real. There was no way that I woke up one month before the city of Sloradath was reduced to ruins. But I knew everything that happened was too real to be a dream.

Handwriting from twelve years ago — the strokes heavier than they were now, the flourishes drawn wide and loose, like someone who wasn't afraid of wasting paper. I turned to page twelve. A layout diagram of the bunker. Seven bunks, one incubation unit, the storeroom at the end of the hallway, the concrete-sealed door nearly two feet thick. In the bottom right corner of the diagram, a note in my own handwriting: "The apocalypse has to feel real. Push the heat up, make the water filthy — let the audience practically smell it. Rotate the insiders every season, keep one genuinely unwitting participant — protects the ratings." After "genuinely unwitting," there was a note in parentheses. Just one

I asked, glancing at Leo, and he nodded for me to take it anyway. On the screen, APHROXIS lit up with an arrow flashing beneath it. TAP TO RECEIVE ORDER “What is it?” Leo asked impatiently. “Well, looks like we still have to play the game during our date,” I chuckled, tapping RECEIVE ORDER. The tablet chimed. [SYSTEM] — Welcome, players, to APHROXIS Exclusive Edition. The words typed out slowly. [SYSTEM] — Congratulations. You have received a special voucher to get a third companion.