1 Chapter 1: The New World

MC's POV

I woke up and heard yelling.

'What are people doing yelling this early in the morning?'

*This isn't your world, remember?*

I sat up, startled, looking for the source of the voice.

'Who are you? Why am I in a forest?'

*Do you not remember us?*

Oh, right. Them, 'Sorry, just a lapse in memory.'

"You can't stop dragging us down can you!" A male voice rang out. A slap could be heard throughout the forest, followed by a child's muffled cries, "Oh, for fuck's sake, quiet down! We'll ditch you here otherwise!"

I approached the source of the noise and saw three people over the shrubbery. Two adults, most likely, but hopefully not, the parents and a young girl, probably no older than 7. The parents didn't see, concerned about their child, rather, they looked annoyed about the fact that they had to take the girl with them. The girl on the other hand... there was something about her... she had a look in her eyes... she wanted to run... to getaway...

*The surroundings... look.*

I looked around, what did they mean by... a slide? What was a slide doing in the middle of a jungle? No, an entire park. We were in the middle of a park. I continued looking around, searching for any signs of civilization.

I walked around through the forest, reaching the edge, the curb blocking out the plants from breaking out... at least to a certain extent, at least for the larger ones. The smaller plants flourished breaking out through the cracks in the asphalt and sidewalk, not covering the ground like a mat, but present in thick patches.

The world looked desolate, leaving me with a feeling of isolation.

"Excuse me, sir," I heard a sing-song voice behind me, "I was hoping you could help us."

I turned to see a man, the same man I saw a while back.

He was smiling as if nothing had happened just a few minutes ago, a customer service smile on his face. His wife was behind him with a customer service smile to match her husband. Their child was hiding behind the wife.

"I'm Denver. This is my wife Charlotte and this," he points to his kid, to which the girl instinctively shifts away from the hand... only it looked kinda deliberate.

'This isn't the first time that we just saw. Is she asking for help?'

Denver had a look of pure rage that passes over his face for a split second but then he regained his composure, "is my daughter, Helen. We're looking for people who can help us."

"I don't see why not," I put out my hand, 'though I may *have* a reason to go with you and your family', I thought. I can't act before knowing what's going on here for sure, "I'm Jonathan, by the way," I mean, I saw no reason to tell them my real name. The last thing I wanted was people to come knocking when I get back for things that take place here... if I get back.

"Good job surviving the culling at the start, the fucker probably doesn't want survives so we probably need to help each other," I said with a smile. I crouched and looked over to the kid who peeked out to see me, "Hey there Helen, how are you?"

She parted from her mother almost immediately, putting out her hand almost immediately to shake mine, "Hewo mista. Mai name is Hewen."

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Tessa's POV

I woke up on a bed. It was rough.

'Where was I?'

I sat up. And took a look around the area. This was a room, but it looked run down,

'Where is he?'

I got up and started to walk around and made my way to the door.

'What am I doing here?'

I grabbed the door by the handle and pushed.

Someone pushed the door against me, knocking me down on my back. I crawled back as soon as I hit the floor groping around the floor for anything I could use as a weapon. I grabbed hold of a loose plank and ripping it off of the floor and pointing it to the door.

"Calm down, miss," A man walked in through the door, his hands up as if he was surrendering, 'We don't mean you any harm. Just calm down lady," He paused for a second, then smiling, he said, "That plank is a dangerous weapon, after all, it's killed hundreds in battle,"

He chuckled to himself.

'That,' I thought to myself, 'was a crappy joke.'

"I'm sorry, that was a crappy joke, I know," he replied.

'So he knows that it sucks.'

I kept the plank pointed towards him, "Where am I? What is this place?"

"We... we're asking the same question, actually. We have no clue how we got here after the whole God fiasco," He shifted just a bit closer, "Our best guess would be that it's an alternate timeline or something. So, um, would you mind putting down the plank? That would be nice."

I point the plank to the floor, not letting it go. "What do you want?"

"We're a settlement, foraging for resources, maintaining a home base, and keeping the demons away," He walked to the window and motioned me to come over and look outside with him. The people here were already organizing. Men were working building a fence around the settlement while the women and kids were foraging. "What we want, is to survive," he said, answering my question.

Then I saw something over in the distance.

He saw it too.

We both left the room and began to walk to the outskirts, marked by a line where there would soon be a fence. On the way, I realized that we're in the middle of what looked like a city, like the ones we see in movies with a post-apocalyptic setting, only the structures were more intact than said movies. Desolate and in a state of disrepair, but all in all, everyone looked like they're doing good.

Back on the outskirts, the specks became clearer. Four people were en route to this settlement. The guy with me, Nathan, he told me as we were getting to the outskirts, was visibly worried. He muttered something along the lines of "She knows what to do, just trust her. She's a good person. She's gonna lead us outta here,"

"Are you ok?" I asked.

No reply. He just stood there shaking.

The figures grew, coming closer to us. One of them looked oddly... familiar.

Nathan pulled out a revolver, almost dropping it immediately. He was adjusting his grip often, panicking.

In a minute, the figures grew to a point where we could see the details. He almost looked like...

He looked surprised to see me here and called out, "Hey! How're you doing? What's up with the revolver guy?"

Nathan tensed up even more. He was probably thinking something along the lines of, 'How did he know?' not realizing his gun was pretty much exposed for the world to see.

"I know that guy. You don't have to take out your gun. He's a friend." I said immediately.

"I'm not gonna kill them, just gotta bring them to the boss. The boss can tell if they're demons."

I turned to the incoming group and yelled out, "Don't worry, just listen to this guy and everything'll be fine."

"She's done it before. She's already sentenced a demon to the stake." He was shaking even more than he was before. "She was crying out that she was innocent, she even said that the test was wrong. Her tests are never wrong. Never."

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MC's POV

We all stood in front of the Leader's office.

Apparently, according to Tessa, we were going to be tested if we were demons, but no one knew how that's supposed to work. Maybe that asshole gave some individuals the ability to detect demons... or maybe, hopefully, this guy's just a nobody with no such power and she's just using the situation to off anyone who stands in her way.

All we had to do was make sure she didn't see us as a threat.

We opened the door to the room called "The Test" by the rest of the inhabitants of the settlement.

The door opened up to a little old woman, almost a comical caricature of the stereotyped grandmother, sitting in front of a desk kinda reminding me of a parent-teacher meeting. Only difference was that for this one, our lives hung in the balance and all we had to protect ourselves was our ability to talk. A death sentence for someone as antisocial as me.

We all took a seat waiting to be called.

First, she called Tessa.

It was just small talk. Things like "They found you on the side of the river in the park," and "Did you know you were out for 3 hours after we found you and got you here. We would've expected it to be nightfall by now but I suppose that God has a plan for us,"

'What! How long have we been here?' I asked Inheritance, alarmed by the sheer amount of time that she said passed while we were

*17 hours... your trip was quite long. You do know that this place has 48 hour days right?*

I breathe out, slightly panicked, 'Are you serious? So we're basically stuck here for two weeks...'

As my thoughts raced, the small talk went on and on, "The Leader" barraging her with a flurry of questions about her life before. On and on and on and on, she talked about everything under the sun. It seemed like she wanted to know everything about her. Everything.

After what seemed like hours, Denver and his family were called, and hours continued to pass.

'How long now?' I ask them

*21 hours, 4 hours since you last asked*

'Gotta hand it to the lady, she's able to keep a conversation going for this long after all. Any way that she could know?'

*That you're a demon? We've never heard of anything of the sort, unless though that would be for the worse as we would have no methods to counteract or predict the usage of any methods to detect us*

'So, no clue'

*Unfortunately*

'Anything on the woman? Anything you can infer, that is?'

*Nothing, she's- What! She's... like a black hole...*

'What do you mean by that?! Hey! What do you mean?!'

*We must disappear for now. We need to check for any information on such a phenomenon.*

'At least tell me what you mean by the fact that she's a black hole!'

Silence. For the first time since I got here, my head was completely silent. Not a stray thought appeared. I was as if I was in a barren wasteland, not in my head.

Then I hear them call me. Denver's family had just left, now I was the only one left. I walk up to the old woman, and I felt it... there was something behind that... facade. There was a demon there, behind her smile, one more dangerous than any other demon let loose into this game.

I pull the chair, sit down and pull the chair towards the table, knowing there were two eyes peering right into me, right there in front of me.

I opened my mouth to introduce myself knowing my every word would be dragged onto the autopsy table, kicking and screaming, and then dissected, heart still beating, still breathing.

"My name is Jona-"

"I know who you are Joseph," her old voice, hoarse with age interrupts.

My heart stops, frozen over by the ice-cold grip of fear 'How did she know?'

She continues, satisfied with having shaken me to my very core, "you can't hide behind a name like that so easily, can you dearie. Especially when you're talking to me, do let's start this up again, right from the top..."