Dust: A Romantic Apocalyptic LitRPG Novel

Alf: Swarmed

Alf tried to wipe the grit out of his eyes, but broken glass was everywhere. His hair, his clothes, his arms... Everything was covered with it. Blinking against a haze of tear-streaked light, he cast one more glance at the approaching storm and headed for the door.

But something didn't feel right. An unsettling silence had settled over the building. The acrid scent of burned metal filled the air. That pulse of light... Fifty-nine possibilities popped into his brain, but one in particular stood out. Could it have been an EMP?

He skidded to a stop and looked back into the room. Sure enough, the girl wasn't moving. She leaned over the wheelchair controls, wrenching the joystick back and forth as the wall of advancing darkness filled the horizon.

"Hey!" He ran back toward the window. "I..."

Her head snapped up, her eyes wide and unfocused.

"Need any help?" He crouched down and went to work on the seatbelt fastened around her waist. "Sorry. I..." He reached out to grab her under the arms and froze. "Do you mind if I...?"

"Thanks..." She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into a trembling half-hug. "Don't worry. Grab hold anywhere. I'm tougher than I look."

He leaned in closer, but the scars covering the left side of her body looked so painful. He didn't want to... "Sorry..." Gritting his teeth, he wrapped her gently in his arms and hoisted her out of the chair.

And almost fell over backward.

He wasn't anything close to an athlete, but she was stupid light. She twisted and wriggled and tightened her legs around his waist as he staggered across the room.

"Are you okay?" He hesitated at the door.

"God, yes," she whispered into his neck. "Thanks for the lift."

Alf pulled the door open and stumbled into the dark hallway. Muffled shouts and the distant rumble of footsteps sounded off to the right. He felt his way cautiously through the darkness. If he tripped and fell, he could hurt her bad.

"Welcome to Berkeley," she murmured into his ear.

"Seriously?" He hitched her up and tried to readjust his grip, but the glass covering his arms stabbed into his wrist. "I'm sorry. Am I hurting you? I could—"

"Stop!" She sounded angry.

He really was hurting her. He looked around for a place to put her down. But broken glass crunched beneath his feet. It was everywhere. He had to find—

"I said I'm fine," she sounded anything but fine. "Ask me again, and I'll show you hurting. My legs might not be very long, but they're long enough to kick a field goal. Right between the uprights."

"Sorry." Alf followed the echoing voices. The emergency lights, the exit signs, everything electronic was down. Everything pointed to an electromagnetic pulse, but that was so... ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as a dust storm in the middle of a city. He stopped outside the stairwell and bit his lip.

"Hold on." Hitching her higher, he wrapped an arm under her legs and opened the door to the stairs.

Shouts and pounding feet echoed up from the lower levels. He had six flights of steps to get to the basement, and his arms were already burning.

"Think we're under attack?" The girl's voice was oddly calm. "That blast might have been an EMP—as in a pulse from a nuke. Which would explain the dust cloud. And the lack of electricity."

Alf inched his way over to a handrail. "I've been thinking the same thing," he shouted. "But that cloud wasn't dust from an explosion."

"Nuclear fallout maybe?"

Alf nodded, amazed at how calm he was. Talk about messed up. He was okay with a nuclear Holocaust, but freaked out at a simple introduction? He felt his way down the stairs, fighting to quiet his rasping breath.

"It's okay. Calm down." The girl's breath tickled at his ear.

"I am calm." His words came out way harsher than he'd intended. He sounded like he was angry, which he wasn't, but she had no way of knowing that, unless, of course, he told her, but that would be lame because a normal person wouldn't care about that stuff, what with the possibly radioactive cloud and EMP and stuff. "Sorry, I didn't mean it to come out like that. It's just..."

Something soft and warm trailed up his neck. He froze as her lips pressed to his cheek. One, maybe two seconds of warmth, and then she pulled away. "No offense taken." Her voice danced with barely suppressed laughter.

Was she making fun of him? What was that? Holy crap! He hit a landing unexpectedly and almost face-planted them both into oblivion. What was happening? Everything seemed to be spinning. He braced his back to the railing and hoisted her up to get both arms under her. "Um..." Alf didn't know what else to say. He hitched her up again. For all he knew, the cloud could have already reached the building. He had to get his head in the game.

He pushed off the wall and inched his way forward, tapping with his toe to locate the next step.

And then the darkness crashed over him, pressing into his skin, crawling and biting and stinging like a swarm of irate bees. He screamed as it stabbed into his arms and legs, forced its way up his veins like ice cold steel. Then it flooded into his throat and lungs. He was drowning in it, slowly freezing to death from the inside out.

Flickering light filled his brain. He was falling. Deeper and deeper into the darkness.

He grabbed at a tendril of green light, but it was too slick and insubstantial to hold his weight. Darkness rushed up at him, blowing through him, ripping his mind to shreds. The lights were burrowing into his brain, digging deeper and deeper, stealing away every last vestige of control.

They felt so familiar. Like wires or the traces of an integrated circuity. Or neurons.

Billions of neurons, making tens of billions of synaptic connections.

He threw himself at the tendrils, wrapped himself around each strand, pushed his way inside, grabbing, swallowing, forcing connection after connection after connection until he was a tangled mass of darkness and light.

And then... nothing.