New World Order (TNE) [Original]

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.