Abduction Chronicles GENESIS: Book 1

by Peter John

    We slowly pushed the raft to the water's edge. Sarah using her sticks, cleared the way and encourage the alligators to back off. They didn’t seem to mind, opting to wait with their larger brethren in the deeper waters to observe our raft monstrosity from a safer distance. Faced with the tricky part and hoping the threads we had platted together would hold, we mounted the raft, which promptly sank with our weight. I could feel something anchoring it in the mud and figured the water we were in was too shallow. I didn’t really know if the raft would support us, but hoped that the physics of this simulation were as real as possible. Thus, the volume displaced by the wooden base and hull would be equal to what we could safely float above it.

    “Sarah, you climb into the crow's nest and I will push us into deeper waters.”

    “But what about your leg? You won’t be able to get on and fight off the alligators.”

    “Just do it,” I said, “I will be okay.” Actually, I was feeling nauseous and ill, my body had been experiencing fits of sweating and nausea at more regular intervals, but I reasoned I had been in worse scraps so I would just have to push on through. I placed my feet in the mud and with a huge effort of will as much as strength I heaved and lifted and thrust forward. It hardly budged. It moved a little though, so with tremendous willpower I tried again. And again. My face bulged in a rictus of effort, as muscles bunched and my body strained. Eventually, with a sucking slurp it broke free of the clinging mud.

    At last my salvation bobbed invitingly, just out of reach. I dived forward, my hands grabbed the twine and I heaved myself onboard. This seemed to be a signal for all the alligators, which surged forward as one. All of them determined to make me into their next menu item.

    Kicking frantically, I continued to clamber on, swearing the whole way. It was the only way I could keep my focus. Nausea clutched at my belly and despite several mock-charges, I got myself into the middle of the raft, clasping to the mainmast.

    The few alligators that had arrived also scuttled on, but they were small, the biggest about half a meter. I kicked out at them and convinced them not to trifle with me. I had to get up into the crow's nest. We were drifting in the right direction, but it was also the pathway into deep waters full of much bigger predators. I felt like we had jumped out of the pot and into the fire.

    Sarah was using a long branch with a flattened edge to paddle us in a direct line. Her rowing was uneven though, and she turned us every which way. I really had to get into the netting to balance out our unstable craft. Feeling faint as I hauled myself up, another bought of nausea hit me, causing me to double over. I desperately held it in.

    Not willing to give an inch. I clawed my aching, sweating body up and eventually found my position in the net. Sarah’s hands reached down at the end and grabbed my hair at one point. It wasn’t pretty, but with a growing feeling of elation, I clambered into my hammock. I realized we had done it. We weren’t on the island yet, but we were closer and we were making progress. It was then that the raft tilted precariously. Both of us gasped aloud and looked to see what had caused the tilt.

    Right on the aft deck, starboard side, almost exactly where I had scrambled my way on, a huge and menacing alligator was attempting to board our raft. Sarah swung her makeshift oar to thunk it on the snout. Whether this had any damaging effect I couldn’t tell, but what it did do, was annoy the huge beast, which promptly snapped at her branch. The raft began to tilt and the many logs and sticks that made up the base all shifted. Its foreleg slipped in-between the logs and when it tried to pull the leg back, it jammed solid. The large and disturbingly strong beast began to panic.

    Thrashing menacingly, with incredible strength it attempted to get free. The ensuing pandemonium rocked the raft relentlessly. Our hard work of weaving and platting ropes to hold the logs together was coming apart at the seams. Stuck in the crow's nest, we swung around mercilessly.

    I had no plan, no ideas left, I just clung on for dear life. Sarah had lost her oar, and the one I was supposed to use was also about to fly off. This carried on for a while and I couldn’t hold back anymore, and began to vomit. The water I had drunk earlier shot out with projectile ease. Sarah’s subsequent swearing told me I was vomiting into the wind. We both lost all sense of direction and purpose, and clung on for all we were worth.

    The makeshift nets we were in did a lot to keep us safe in our position, but we didn’t feel safe and if one of the threads broke we would be flung into the lake only to be eaten at their leisure. The alligator’s thrashing continued, its agitated state making it swish its tail, tilting the raft this way and that. At one stage I felt wind and water spray from the speed it was forcing us through the water.

    My sickness and nausea from the snakebite were all that I could think about though, when suddenly with a final jolt, the raft came free of the alligator and I had time to gather my bearings.

    With trepidation, I realized that the alligator had propelled us towards the shore. Its thrashing tail pushing us to within a few meters of land. I looked for the beacon and realized that this was the island.

    This was it. It had propelled us directly to our destination before it got free. At last, something was coming right for us. Sarah was still wiping my puke from her face, making lots of retching sounds herself.

    “Quickly, get that last oar and see if we can get to the island.” I shouted.

    This seemed to get her attention and seeing her wretched expression change to one of elation was one of my highlights from this whole experience. Small mercies. The bump on the back of the raft showed that another two alligators were about to clamber on the strange craft that had distressed their comrade so. The tattered remains of the rear binding floating shredded and useless behind us. It was at this point that the raft bumped against the island’s muddy bank. We were still about five meters from the shore.

    Climbing down from the nets, bruised, beaten and weary, we dived shallowly forward into the water, our only objective to get onto the land as soon as humanly possible. Again luck played its part. The splayed aft section of our raft hindered the beasts and gave us the chance to land safely.

    So frustrated by our escape, one of the alligators followed us right out of the water, but Sarah too had had enough. Her angry shouting form bashed at it with my trusty staff. It promptly changed its mind and raced back to the safety of the water.

    We in turn made our way higher onto the island and towards the beacon that had guided us to this point and place in time. Cresting the immediate rise we stared in vain for something that would show our journey was at an end. However, if there was something, a wall of vegetation blocked it.

    I was glad to note that the island was compact and not swampy. It made my shuffling limping more productive. I was beyond the point of no return, perhaps even hallucinating. Especially when Sarah gripped my arm in response to a group of people who broke from cover and hurried over to help us. They moved like wraiths. Appearing from the foliage like specters. Both Sarah and I just stopped and stared, mouth agape. We were in total shock. I couldn’t form coherent thought and needed a moment for the excitement and adrenaline to slow so I could process this new situation. I was nauseous again and began dry retching as human arms grabbed me and dragged me into the thicket. They were strong men, five of them.

    The first man, a burly hairy fellow with a gruff voice and a Scottish accent said “It’s going to be okay laddie, you are safe now” He held a gourd to my lips, and I gulped in what I could. The bitter taste was refreshing and almost immediately I felt a cool sensation on my leg that seemed to quench the fires of the snake venom. Within minutes it had subsided to a dull ache and my shivering, fevered, and nauseous body began to relax as this new reality took hold. I read the prompt that popped up in my vision.

  You have drunk from an all-purpose health potion. Your ailments are a thing of the past.

  Health is
restored

  Stamina is rejuvenated

  Mana pool replenished

  What the hell had just happened?

  CHAPTER 6

  The Way of the Prodigy

   “Welcome,” said the man who had fed me the potion. “I’m Stone McGee.”

    “How does that leg feel? It looked a pretty nasty bite. One of the viper critters get ye?”

    “What? Oh, the snake bite? Yes, a viper, the poison has a real kick to it.” I answered wryly. “The drink you gave me, how did you get it?”

    “Long story mate, can’t tell you right now and more important things are afoot, first things first, you and the lass here need to touch the beacon, and if I’m not mistaken, you will be the last of the new recruits to arrive, so when you get back, we will welcome you to the unit” He showed a large rock in the center of a clearing.

    It seemed to hum to me in sync with the blinking beacon light. I stumbled forward, adjusting to my newfound health and reached out to touch the rock. As I did it, a lot of things happened.

    First thing I noticed was my vision went dark and looking around I found myself in a large hall. The second thing I noticed was that before me in a long line were effigies of myself. Each differed slightly in their garb and items they were holding. They were all highlighted by an inner radiance, making them stand out in the dark. I looked around for the group I had been with just seconds before, but it was as if they did not exist. I was all alone.

    In front of me was a small pillar. It throbbed seductively, a pulsing light source coercing me to touch it. I deliberately resisted the impulse. Instead, I went towards the first effigy and above the statue a name appeared identifying it. Below it, a scrolling text box appeared in the air before me, so I bent my will to read it.

  RANGER

  A ranger has a wide array of skills aligned with survival in different worlds. The ranger needs to further develop skills in agility, stamina, strength, intelligence, and wisdom. A Ranger’s hit points are legendary, and with the agility buffs, can survive trying circumstances as the need arises. A ranger’s true versatility comes to the fore when teams are on the move through unfamiliar terrain.

    I stepped back and thought to myself how little the words actually told me. I was more than convinced that I was taking part in an RPG or Role-playing computer game of sorts. I was being afforded the option to choose a “Class” that would define my lifestyle and abilities within these simulations. Ranger definitely appealed to me. It was one of my favorite classes when playing RPG’s. Sure I was in my early fifties and had spent a lot of time in the military, but with 5 years of retirement under my belt, I had had a lot of time to catch up with all the iconic games.

    This was way more enjoyable territory than the swamp or desert scenes I had just experienced. Despite my circumstances, despite my internal struggle with being a captive, this fed some deep inner desire to define myself better, to know that fixed actions had fixed consequences defined by fixed laws.

    The scenarios I had been in though, were anything but fixed and seemed to be as real as if I was back on Earth, thrust into weird places and asked to survive for some reward at the end of the trial. I stepped to the next statue of myself. This one appeared more buff, more muscled than what I knew myself to be. I read the title.

  WARRIOR

  A warrior’s lot is to fight and protect his companions. The warrior needs to further develop skills in strength, agility, and stamina. At certain levels, a wise or intelligent warrior gets to broaden his horizons into other disciplines. Warriors need to be stubborn, protective, arrogant and brutish. They need to dominate their foes in every way. A person who gets the job done will thrive as a warrior class.

  Moving away, I went to the next statue in line. There were four more figures, and I wanted to see all that was on offer before I committed to any one of them. The next statue was an imposing effigy of me. It had a distinguished dark robe and a staff not dissimilar to the one I had been using regularly through these last simulations.

  MAGE

  A mage is a wise choice for an intelligent and experienced participant. Skills required for a mage to be successful include wisdom, intelligence, and stamina. The level of control and abilities can be combined with further options, provided the correct attributes are acquired. A mage is a powerful force that has as much to do with formulating team strategy as they do with implementing that strategy through the use of magic. The magical arts are wide and varied, and further specialization is required before a master magician title can be achieved. Remember, a well-placed spell at the right time can change the course of a battle.

    Rubbing my chin in thought, I wondered what the magical arts entailed? Did it have the fireball stuff of legends and games or was it more esoteric, using psychic energies to manipulate minds and perceptions? I also wondered if it encompassed healing. Moving on to the next effigy, I saw the appearance was almost the same as the mage, except that the robe was more rustic, like a bathrobe from a cheap hotel. Course and utilitarian. The hairstyle was almost monkish in nature.

  HEALER

  A healer requires agility, stamina, and intelligence. The healing of wounded comrades at crucial times can make all the difference when facing adversity. Reaching those fallen comrades safely is equally important. Challenges are impossible without the support and dedication of a healer. If you are the type of person who loves to be needed, who craves deference and respect. The type of person who does things for others simply to help them, then the Medicinal Arcanum is for you.

    This choice seemed appealing. Knowing how to heal others and yourself is crucial in any battle. I knew that first-hand. The summary hinted at arcane arts so probably this included magical abilities. I wondered how much crossover there was and if it was possible to develop offensive capabilities beyond the obvious supportive role. I knew in the modern military that medics in the Special Forces were some of the coolest customers in a pinch. They kept their cool when everything around them was going to hell. They usually had to do it while under fire. Moving on, I found the next class, which immediately caught my interest. With all the hints that these Sims would include battle, challenges and so on, I thought to myself that this would probably be the one that had the most benefits for both myself and any team.

  ASSASSIN

  The Assassin class is both a blessing and a boon. Skills required include agility, stamina, and intelligence. Further skill trees required include stealth and alchemy. The assassin infiltrates areas using stealth and guile. As the name suggests, their main purpose is to kill. Assassins are experts in hand-to-hand combat as well as armed combat. They can adapt to use anything as a weapon. This class will be available only if you have the required innate basic skill-set. Can your conscience combine with an assassin’s duties?

    Arriving at the last statue, I noticed it was the most obscure. It was an ever-changing cascade of different styles, body shapes and poses. Different handheld weapons appeared and disappeared. It seemed to be fluid with even the physique of the effigy swelling and diminishing as the figure changed from a wiry build to bulked. I read the highlighted text.

  PRODIGY

  A prodigy is a well-rounded individual with a broad range of skills extending across all the main classes. A prodigy class requires a prodigy intellect and a desire to be the best of the best at everything. A prodigy defines how their respective skills and attributes are used to best effect. This class will be available only if you have the required innate basic Abilities. Are you such a talented individual?

    I paused in thought. This was the one I REALLY wanted. It left me a lot of room to grow into my natural abilities, but it worried me because it seemed to hint that my abilities would need to be well rounded throughout. Thinking about my past military lifestyle and how it had prepared me for just such a class, It may have been lacking in some aspects of skill craft though, so I would probably have to grind those particular skills to mak
e up for the shortfall in those areas. Without the direct list of abilities listed under each class however, gave me no clue as to what I was getting myself into.

    As exciting as the option was, I was also a little intimidated by it. I walked back to the small pillar where I had started. Grabbing the recess in the top of the pillar, and my hand melded with it as if made for it.

    Before me, more text appeared along with a voice prompt.

  Congratulations! You have achieved level 1.

  You have 2 points to distribute.

  Congratulations! You have achieved level 2.

  You have 2 points to distribute.

  Congratulations! You have achieved level 3.

  You have 2 points to distribute.

  Congratulations! You have achieved level 4.

  You have 2 points to distribute.

  Congratulations! You have achieved level 5.

  You have 3 points to distribute.

  Additional 6 bonus points to distribute.

  Total Ability points: 17

  Would you like to edit your Character sheet?