Chapter 1: The Beginning

Ebony City, College of Technology.

The day had just started with the sun rising and the campus was bustling with the students getting to their destination.

Alex frowned and covered his eyes with his hands when the sun shone onto his face through the window.

He shifted his body to the side and he tried to get back to sleep.

But when he did so, he heard loud noises coming from the windows.

"What the hell? Can’t you keep it down? It’s early morning..." Alex cursed and covered his ears with his pillow.

Thud.

However, the loud noise didn’t go away and it continued with the thuds getting louder and louder.

Exasperated, he sat up from his bed and glanced at the window of his dorm.

Alex opened his eyes wide with what he saw.

There were numerous dark spots left on the window of his dorm room.

It was a hailstorm, but the hail was in a dark color.

He got out of his bed and walked towards the window.

Everyone down below was running into cover, some held their bags or laptops over their heads to stay safe from the strange hailstorm.

"What is happening? Is it pollution or something else?" Alex pondered on what the hailstorm was and the cause of it.

He had no idea, and he quickly washed up in the bathroom.

Maybe his friends would have an idea, he thought.

When he was done and got out of the bathroom, he heard a loud bang inside his dorm room.

Thud.

The loud bang continued a few times repeatedly.

It was coming from above this time and Alex lifted his head to see what was happening.

The air-con duct cover rattled and it became dented with every bang.

Then, it stopped.

He could hear something scurrying away in the air-con ducts.

With what was going on, Alex frowned and glanced around for something to protect himself.

He wished that he was a firearm fanatic like his friend Riley, in moments like this.

Or maybe not, Alex thought to himself silently when he thought about all the conspiracies that Riley believed in.

Everything was a secret plan by the hidden forces controlling the government to wipe out everyone to Riley.

And it could be annoying sometimes when Riley droned on with his theories.

There wasn’t much inside Alex’s dorm room that was useful to defend himself, except for a pair of scissors, a knife for cutting fruit, and a baseball bat.

He would have to settle for them.

When he picked up the baseball bat from the corner of the dorm room, he heard a commotion outside the window.

This time, it was the screams of the other students.

Birds were swooping down from the air at them non-stop and streaks of blood could be seen on the ground.

"Help me! No...."

One of the students screamed and Alex was horrified when he saw the eye of the student was being pecked by a crow.

Blood and fluid from the eye splattered into the surroundings as the student tried to swat the crow away with her hands.

But it was to no avail.

More birds joined in the foray and they pecked at the student in a frenzy.

Other students who were nearby froze when they saw what was happening.

It was something that they’ve never witnessed before and they didn’t know how to respond to the shock.

Alex opened his window and shouted at them, "Don’t just stand there, do something! Light your jacket on fire to drive them away!"

He wasn’t sure if these birds which seemed to have gone mad would still instinctively be afraid of fire, but it was the best he could think of at that moment.

His shouts brought the other students back to their senses.

Luckily, some of them were smokers and they had lighters with them.

They began to take off their jackets and lit it on fire with their lighters.

Others set their books on fire.

With their jackets and books lit on flames, they started to swat at the birds with them and it worked for a moment.

The birds avoided the fire and the other students took the opportunity to drag the student that was seriously wounded away.

Alex closed his window and quickly drew the curtains.

He inhaled a deep breath slowly.

Things were becoming stranger and it was not in a good way.

First, it was the strange hailstorm, then it was the sounds from the air-con duct and now this.

Maybe Riley wasn’t so crazy after all. He thought and he decided to gather his friends.

It would be safer in numbers.

Alex picked up his mobile phone and it was already buzzing with messages.

"Have you seen it!"

"Damn. I saw a dog mauling one of the students and it was gruesome."

"Hell, man. I’m telling you that this is God’s wrath at all the sins we committed, and it’s time for all of us to go."

The group chat was going crazy with all sorts of revelations on what was happening.

Someone even attached a video on one of the attacks he had seen.

The poor student was being bitten to death by a rabid dog and cats joining it.

Alex scrolled to his private group with his friends.

He tapped into it and typed his message.

[Alex: Where the hell are you guys?]

[Brian: Terry is in my room, but I’m not sure where Riley is.]

[Alex: Stay there, wait for me, and keep yourselves safe.]

Brian and Terry were his two other good friends.

He picked up his backpack, opened it and stuffed it with whatever food and water he had in his dorm room.

Who knows how long this would last and it was best for him to be prepared with the essentials.

After he was done, he held the baseball bat in one hand.

He also kept the knife and scissors in his pocket before he left his dorm room.

And when he did so, an unfamiliar sound erupted in his mind.

[Ding!]

[Congratulations to Host for binding with the Apocalypse Survival System.]

[To help you survive the Apocalypse, you will awaken random SSS Abilities every few days.]

[The first SSS Ability granted to you is...]