Escape

... I was going to need to transform myself from the gawky nerd I was, into some semblance of a leader.

This was going to be one hell of a ride.

The three of us quickly walked out of my apartment front door and into the hallway. I was on the third, and highest floor of the building, and so we would have to go down a flight of stairs and then make our way out front and to the street. The building was your traditional triple-decker New England house or apartment building. I never entirely knew for sure since it seemed like a mix of both. The building had two apartments per floor, usually adjacent to one another. Surprisingly enough, there were actually already a number of my neighbors in the stairwell of the triple-decker, mostly some of them were just talking to each other.

Kevin, Rachel, and I looked at each other and I just nodded and began making my way forward, to where just a few feet away we would move down the stairwell that will lead us down to the main floor of the triple-decker. Just as we began making our way, however, I heard a familiar voice yell out from the door right next to my own apartments, "Thomas, where are you guys going? It looks like you're practically carrying your entire apartment out with you!", as I turned around, I spared a glance at the odd assortment that made up the three of us. Kevin was standing there, carrying his own backpack, likely with his own personal items, as well as a large duffel bag ladened much of the food supplies we were going to need to be relying on for the next several days. Then there was Rachel hefting her own backpack, then myself literally carrying a freaking sword. It did look fairly strange, so no wonder someone would stop us and ask questions, despite everything going on, it was still downright bizarre.

I looked towards the man who had called out to us. The man had a literal afro capping his head, and his dark skin definitely complimented it. "Jackson! We were uh.. Just leaving, we were just planning to get out of dodge before anything you know... Bad happens." I quickly stammered out. Honestly, I likely could have considered a much better excuse, but time was running short, and my mind was in too many places at once to even begin considering what sort of plausible lie I could tell. So, the easiest thing to do? Tell part of the truth!

"What? You think whatever's out there and has been happening is bad?" Jackson raised a brow at me quizzically.

I nodded, "Look, Jackson. I'll be straight with you; I am leaving right now. If you're smart, you'd consider leaving now as well. I'd give us twenty minutes before things start going downhill, and fast." I finished as I turned and began walking away.

"Uhm!..." Jackson just about yelled out before he reigned himself back in and turned back towards his own apartment.

Jackson slowly turned around and walked back into his apartment. "Okay... That was weird." Jackson stammered out. "He's a fetching lunatic I'd tell ya." He softly whispered to himself.

One thing kept bugging him though. Thomas isn't a lunatic... He's one of the smartest guys I know. So, if Thomas said something bad was going to happen, it was likely better to be safe rather than sorry. "Jesus, this is so stupid" he mumbled to himself once again. However, even as he said so, he slowly made his way to his own bags and began stuffing things in them. "Ya... Better safe than sorry..." he once again told himself.

We quickly began making our way down the stairwell, this time without any further distractions. The remaining residents simply stepped out of the way for us as I consistently had to say, "excuse us!" and "sorry!"

As we made our way down the rest of the stairwell, we quickly entered onto the main floor, eventually leaving my own apartment building. We passed several people that either looked dazed, likely still exploring whatever information their [status] screens displayed, or others talking to one another either about the rifts themselves or once again referring to the [status] screens. Reminding me once again how real our situation had just become, further grounding my sense of reality.

As we exited onto the street, Kevin quickly asked, "So uh, is now a good time to ask where the hell exactly are we going? I imagine we can't exactly stay in the city."

"Right," I said a bit distracted as I looked down the street towards the direction of the Rifts. There were several police vehicles and officers already closing down the street and access to the area immediately under the barrier. Probably for the best... At least if people aren't right under it, then it might give them at least a few seconds to find some cover once the invasion begins. Though, all of it is probably for naught, as I noticed the crowd of dozens questioning the officers had already begun to swell into the hundreds. The once quiet ambiance of the street was slowly giving away to the frantic yelling of dozens of individuals as the Rifts continued to swell. Fascination and awe were beginning to give way to the less controlled tendencies of people.

As I turned the other way and began walking at a brisk pace, I finished my response to Kevin, "We're heading for Shrewsbury. I'm sure you noticed but I was able to get a call through to my brother, Alex. At least there we can have a place to settle for a bit. I imagine that right now, Boston will be the worse place we can possibly be in."

"Makes sense," Kevin replied. "We meet up with your family then. That should be what, forty miles west of here?" Kevin asked.

"Yep!" I responded, as we neared the end of the street, quickly dodging around people that were making their way to where the Police had set up their roadblock, likely looking for whatever source of authority they could find to pester them with questions about the situation. Foreseeable, but at the very least it distracted people from our strange assortment of baggage and tools.

"Well, closer to about thirty-five miles west. If we're able to be quick about it, then I think we'd likely make it there by tomorrow. Granted..." I said as I looked around, "With everything going on, it may very well take longer than that. Once those Rifts open there is going to be chaos, and people are going to go hysterical."

I mentally began processing the plan though. "Okay, so here is the plan, we're in Cambridge just a bit to the south of Harvard. If we begin moving our way to the West, we should be able to make it to at the very least West Cambridge, and hopefully East Watertown once those rifts open. So, we should probably move along the Charles River until we can hit the Mt. Auburn Cemetery." I stated.

Kevin simply nodded, "Sound as good enough of a plan for me! Honestly, though, we should probably start running. We are still wayyy too close to the epicenter of this thing." Kevin said matter-of-factly. Rachel simply nodded in reply. I knew she wasn't all that familiar with the area, so I didn't expect her to know much about the best way to get out of here anyhow.

"You're right," I replied to Kevin and started out in a jog, which, just saying, isn't the most pleasant experience when the New England heat and humidity were in full force. None of us could complain, however, despite the copious amount of supplies we happened to be carrying. Kevin and I both could agree that getting out of here as soon as possible would be the best course of action.

As we made our way down the street, we jogged through the JFK Memorial Park and continued down Memorial Drive along the Charles River. As we jogged, I continued to check my watch.

2:53 pm.

As we passed the intersection in front of the Mt. Auburn Hospital, I looked down again.

2:57 pm.

It was nerve-wracking, to say the least. Watching the minutes tick by on what could surely be the last day of your life. I could hope, however. Obviously, the advent of the System and my apparent [status] changes had to mean something. If I believed I had some sort of purpose in the events about to occur, then the System's influence on my [status] surely bore an obvious marker on what I believed would be a power that would allow me to change the world for the better, and honestly, if things truly turn for the worse, then perhaps I can save what would remain of humanity.

A Demon Lord's power was no joke, and Kevin and I both had agreed that the Rift's opening up above Boston had born a very stark resemblance to the Rift's that had appeared over Falinwood in Holy Arc Online. When Demonlord Cairn invaded Falinwood, we were one of the few players who had actually responded to that dynamic turn of events. It had been our first time facing a Demonlord, and we had to watch as half the town was burned to the ground before we had even been able to reach the Demonlord. It had been surreal, and honestly quite frustrating when we saw just how outclassed we had been in that fight. It had pissed us off when we had blamed the Game's creators once again, along with hundreds of other times, the difficulty by which they had made the MMO. It was addicting, however, and ultimately Kevin and I had beaten Demonlord Cairn, despite the numerous losses we endured.

It was that memory that triggered my fear of the Rift now appearing above Boston. In the game, we had already been Tier 4 and in the upper 90's as far as our levels went. It had taken the better part of a year to get even that far in that torturous world of Holy Arc Online. Even then we had only barely won against that Demonlord, the victory bore bittersweet emotions however as dozens of other players died, forcing them back to ground zero, and the town never fully recovered after that battle. The game was incredibly realistic in that sense at least. Death had its own level of permanency. Those NPC's we had met in Falinwood well before the battle, we had never seen again.

Given the current situation, my perspective of Holy Arc Online was beginning to change. Obviously, it hadn't been a simple game, there was something different about it. I intended to find out, but that was going to have to wait until after we got out of our current circumstances.

3:03 pm

We were finally nearing the end of the Mt. Auburn Cemetery, but we were out of breath. Rachel was mostly fine. She was fairly athletic after all, and held a lighter load. Kevin on the other hand bore the brunt of the run. He had a stouter build, not exactly made for running very long distances, especially in the sweltering heat. No doubt we needed to take a break, and we were far enough away from Boston that I could feel at least somewhat comfortable. If I could guess, we had run close to two miles. Which was an impressive feat all things considered.

"Guys," I gasped between breaths. "Let's stop here for a second."

Kevin looked extremely grateful for the much-needed rest. Rachel on the other hand just nonchalantly shrugged. She did not particularly need to rest, but out of consideration for the two of us agreed. We stopped under the shade of a massive tree at the entrance of the Mt. Auburn Cemetery. As we entered the shade, I could feel the heat abate slightly. It was still omnipresent, the humidity made sure of that. Even the slight respite though helped.

"Alright, just two minutes guys, then we seriously need to keep moving," I announced. As we rested there and the seconds ticked by, I noticed a figure in the distance, coming from the direction that we had just come from. The figure was moving quickly too, much quicker than the pace we had been going at.

Just as he neared us and I finally made him out, I heard a soft rumbling that grew exponentially louder coming from the Northwest, and as I looked up I clearly saw two F-22 Fighter Jets zooming above us, and with an incredibly loud vwwwoooooosshhh, they passed overhead, moving straight towards Boston. Judging by the direction of the jets, I could only assume that the airforce command, likely the ones based at the Hanscom Air Field were beginning to scramble jets in the skies over Boston.

They might be able to do something though... I shrugged.

The man who had been approaching, finally stopped in front of us, and hardly lacking any breath said, "Ey there Thomas! I finally caught up to you guys!" the man yelled as his large afro he was sporting began bobbling up and down. "Didn't know whether I'd actually be able to find ya, but looks like you really were going straight out to the West." He finished.

"Uh, Jackson, why the hell did you just run two miles from the apartment just to catch us?" I asked, though, I already figured why. Jackson was clever. He usually picked up on a lot more things than one would probably think. He was definitely much smarter than most people gave him credit for.

"Well, Thomas, at first I thought you had just gone bat-shit crazy, but then, I got to thinking, you know, Thomas. That guy does not go bat-shit crazy. So, I figured might as well grab a few things and run after ya! I mean, what's the worse that could possibly happen? The day is weird enough as it is!" Jackson chuckled.

I facepalmed as I noticed Jackson was sporting a backpack of his own. Granted, it was a smaller camel pack, the same exact one he usually uses as he goes out on his morning jogs, I observed as Jackson took a sip out of the tube that likely originated from the water container on his back.

"Jackson, I'd explain everything that I believe is going on, but I am sure you're bound to find out soon enough anyway," I said, as I looked down at my watch. 3:07pm.

"You think it would have something to do with them jets that just flew over us Thomas?" Jackson astutely inquired.

As I began getting everybody up and moving out West again, I nodded, "Very likely Jackson."

KA-BOOM

Just then, however, we all heard a massive explosion, and all of us ducked our heads at once.

The F-22's that had literally just flown above our heads had just fired a missile straight at the Rift that now appeared to be double the size of a football field over the skyline of Boston.

"What in the hell..!" Kevin exclaimed. "They actually fired a missile at the Rift!"

We watched on as the remnants of the explosion dissipated over the Boston skyline, the Rift showed no visible difference after the explosion. However, in just a few moments it began slowly pulsating, it would dim, and then brighten. The invasion was imminent.

"Let's just hope we are far enough away when the invasion starts," I muttered under my breath.

"Uh," Jackson said, "What do you mean invasion?"

In response, I just pointed towards the Rift.