> @Sharidi37495

Finished shopping Mar still felt like at any moment she'd have the store manager or the cops chasing her down and throwing her in jail and it would be a serious charge. She'd gone over board once she'd started filling the cart all the way up to the top with quality stuff she'd have passed on till today.

So not having a car or seeing one Mar began pushing the cart up the street ignoring the sidewalk for the smooth pavement. As she made her way she heard a bell sound from a bit away and wondered if she could have heard it with the city filled with people then she stopped dead in her tracks.

It was a temple or shrine bell and some one must have been ringing it or else who or whatever had put her here was playing games with her

So she nearly jumps out of her skin when she hears ”And who the hell might you be?”

Stopping she looks and sees a dark skinned girl

The name is Martha and you are the first person I've seen since I woke. Unless I have slipped into some delirium or this is a dream I have no idea what or where the hell we are



V had stopped pedaling as if her life was in danger as she thought of her situation. ~Why was she here, What were their goals?~ I if they'd had nefarious plans then they'd gone to a great deal of trouble to set this up.

Pandemic was out because she'd seen no dead bodies; war as well so what was this all about?

Stopping her bike she decided this required an extreme test so she parked out front of a beautiful home and went through the gate at first planning to find a rock and put it through a window she decided instead to test the door which she found was unlocked. Next she looked inside to see if it were a façade, an empty shell; it wasn't. Every room had furniture, the closets held clothing and the other things you'd expect to find; hell even the fridge was full as well as the cabinets.

Puzzled she mounted her bike and headed to the shopping district once more and that's when she heard it; a shrine bell and she nearly wrecked.

”Elle. Wherever we are.. whoever put us here sure went through a shit ton of trouble to make it look and feel like a condensed version of home. What part are you from?” Elle’s hand slid out of her jacket, but she was still suspicious of Martha. She had almost gotten accustomed to being the last person alive, with very weird benefits, already planning and thinking, then Martha had to go and wreck it. What are her motives? “And what’s with the food?” Now Elle started to wonder that if her theory was right, then the money she’d stashed away now means nothing. To say she was silently pissed off would be an understatement.

Mari crossed her arms, staring hard at the emo skateboarder kid. She wasn't trying to be rude it's just his voice sounded crazily familiar like how Angel's had. "Hmmm...." She scratched her head. "I know this could be a stretch, but are you MCRocks?? Your voice just sounds really familiar." She pointed towards Angel "He's actually one of my gamer buddies too. We killed hella zombies together." Another secret pleasure of Mari's was zombie survival games.

"I thought he sounded familiar." James said, nodding when MariO said the name. "Oh, I should probably properly introduce myself. James Harrison, I go by 1WingedAngel on PS4" He took a sip of his soda to wash down his burger.

Landon smiled " yeah actually that is my gamertag , real names Landon though."He said and sat by them suddenly as he got the chills. " did you guys hear that bell noise? " he asked as he zipped up his jacket. He then grabbed his meal he had gotten from the mall, a patty melt and fries and began to eat. After eating he wiped his hands with some napkins and held one out for a fist bump " Nice meeting you guys by the way , also what do you think happened to everyone else? "

"Oh right, haha. My name is Mari. Hence my screen name Mari0." She smiled at the two of them before letting out a huge yawn. She was still exhausted from the all nighter that she pulled the night before. She picked up her soda and glugged the whole thing down, afterwards letting out a sigh of relief. It may not be Red Bull, but at least it had caffeine.

Mari went silent and started shifting uncomfortably in her seat. It was weird meeting not just one, but two online friends in the same day. She didn't even know they lived in the same state, let alone close enough to where they could all meet up at the same mall. Not to mention the fact that these guys were the only other people that she'd seen in the city so far today. She wondered if they had the same lingering feeling of dread that she did. That maybe they were the only people left. That something terrible might have happened to their city, or that there were worse things yet to come.

"Yeah, we heard it earlier." James said, finishing his fries. "I don't know what happened to everyone else, it's all really freaky. Hell, until I saw Mari I was afraid I was the last person left on earth. And it's not just that people are gone, but that all trace of other people are gone. No cars in the streets or in parking lots, no trash littered around, just no sign of other life at all, other than this food somehow appearing nice a fresh even though there wasn't anyone to make it. So I don't think it's a zombie apocalypse, otherwise there would still be traces."

>@Sharidi37495

Mar heard an edge in Elle's tone and smiled thinking how it was refreshing that she was acting as one might expect in this situation

"I'm from Shibuya not that it matters anymore in our current setting because from what I see around me this isn't Kansas any more to quote Dorthy. I would love to compare such things as how our two memories of the lay out and how it compares to the distances and azimuths radially as I believe it would reveal the detail of our keepers or benefactors plans." Her grasp of the language she's speaking is excellent but slightly colored with an Irish burr.

She reaches into the seat area of the cart and grabs her drink taking a sip then continues before Elle can respond. "The food is because it is better to have and not need than need and not have. I am of course sure the food will continue to be available because other wise or keepers slash benefactors would be poor at their duties.

Oh and now that I have met you and heard the Bell I am happy to say that we are not alone; wouldn't make sense to make such a large city for one person after all we need at least 700 people of no direct relation to have a sustainable genetic breeding pool though I would pad it to around 1,600 because of the personal choices many have as what would make a good mate."

Believing she's supplied enough food for thought Mar takes a long sip from her juice box and studies Elle's physical build and facial expression along with her body language.



Yumi was tucked low on the bike actually feeling safe due to her speed which she thought might about 40 kph as the store fronts began flashing by. Everything was as strange as she thought then there it was; a bright yellow VW so she came to a screeching halt out on the road as every survival manga and anime warned her in such situations not everyone was friendly.

>@Azure Flame@Bria The Human@Jasper19

Yumi's voice the only sound in the shrine as she chants the lotus 9 times as tradition manages at that time of day then once finished she becomes aware of the sun breaking the overcast as a beam like a golden spot light strikes the Shrine hill bathing everything in it's glow making her smile and feel a tingle pass through her giving her a delightful sensation as she steps out from under the overhanging roof.

She still smiles as she looks through the gate in the clouds but it is a smile of wonderment because she see's another world resting on the edge of the clouds that is slowly revealed as the concealing mists display that she does not see another world but she's she is in another world. Stunned she steps back feeling so alone atop the hill she has called home since she came here as a child.

So she begins chanting the Lotus sutra once more and feels a wash of relief as she feels the "Hito no kokoro" or Spirit of people around her spread over the city and it makes her giggle thinking how strange it is that the Hito no kokoro used in the practice of blind seeing should now come to her so strongly.

”Hmph.” Elle chuckled softly, and her stance was casually confident. Her hands were on her hips with her weight comfortably shifted to one foot. She stood over her bike; she is an average height for a woman, 5 feet and a half. Her build is athletic and she has feminine curves, but she is stocky and muscular for a woman. ”Are you a scientific nerd, or have you thought about this for a while?” Her tone had a lightly playful, but also curious tone. “And you were talking about distance. I’m not sure if it’s a continuous dilation, but I did notice that my daily trip took a quarter of what it usually does, but I wasn’t speeding. Although my little speed experiment I did with the existence of law officials and the lack of other factors such as traffic and red lights,” she reaches a hand out, seeming to sense for something, ”and natural external factors such as wind might contribute to it, or in this case the lack there of. What are your thoughts?”

>@Sharidi37495

Mar laughed softly before answering "I suppose a bit of both; I dislike questions without answers and for as long as I can remember part of my mind has always come up with questions on every subject you could imagine and another part committed to finding the answers."

Mar motions to her cart "I too engaged in a test of boundaries, I stole all this to see if I would be arrested and because food and feminine products take on great value when they are in limited supply. My next project was to head to the hotel" points to a posh 12 story hotel up the road "and take advantage of my situation and enjoy one of the penthouse suites; I hope they have at least a hot tub with a view as well if not a pool"

"And I am an Otaku Goddess not a Nerd, those would be my Fanboys at con"

Landon nodded " yeah it's weird I can't think of any other type of apocalypse this could be" he said. Landon then suddenly heard the ringing from before again " I'm going to go find the source of this ringing" he told James and Mari. Scooting out of the booth landon walked until he was clear of tables then began to skate out of the mall. Once he got out of the mall Landon ollied over the curb and was skating until he saw a girl on a bike. [color=violet] " hey! " he called out and skated over to the girl.

@RumikoOhara

Mari heard the strange, distant bell ring yet again making every hair on her body stand up. "I'm way too tired for all of this." She put her hand on her forehead as though she had a headache. She watched as Landon headed outside to investigate the noise, leaving just her and James sitting at the table with her half eaten tray. "I think I'm gonna go follow after him, do you wanna come?" She didn't really want to leave her food behind, but something told her that they all needed to stick together if they were going to make it through this.

"Yeah, I don't want to be left alone." James said, following after her. He composed himself and said "I mean, *clears throat* What kind of man would I be if I let a lady like yourself go off on her own in this odd situation? I would feel bad if something happened to you."

>@Jasper19

"Hey!" shouts a skate board boy coming towards her.

Venus steps off the bike getting a firm grip on her handlebars prepared to swing the bike at his legs till she realized that could warp a rim so she relaxed a bit and shifted her stance so she could leap back aboard and pedal off at top speed.

"Yes, what do you want?" she answered back not in a shout but in a strong and projecting tone.

Landon waved awkwardly as he stepped off his board and kicked it up into his hand. [color=violet] " I was surprised to see more people I thought me and a couple of online friends were the only ones. " Landon said then heard the ringing again and frowned. " Ok I need to find the source of some ringing that has been happening " he said when threw his board down then pushed off. " See ya! " he called out as he skated away. Soon be followed the ringing sound to a shrine somewhere in the town.

>@Jasper19

"I was surprised to see more people I thought me and a couple of online friends were the only ones." he said to her confirming what she'd been dealing with; a feeling that here she'd find people

"As am I and that bell had an echo so I'd say it came from the Nakashimi Inari Shrine, the ōgane there is a large one and it lays at the base of the mountain ridges giving it an echo" she said as she felt a tingel pass through her that screamed she was right that if they went there they'd find some monk... no no wait a miko. How she knew that it was a miko she couldn't say but she was so sure she mounted her bike and said Follow me."

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“Seriously!?” There were no new updates since 11:58pm when he had last checked before nearly passing out on the couch.
Damien now lay half naked and tangled in his bed sheets, still half asleep even though morning had long since started, he swiped up on his phone again as he had already done at least five times over in the last thirty seconds and still, again, the screen loaded its data and produced the same old tired images he was trying to escape.
“Why is there nothing new?”

It was the same across all his apps. He punched in a comment questioning and complaining about the phenomenon and posted it. It went through. Weird.
He spent a couple more minutes (maybe hours) falling down the rabbit hole, flicking through images and videos which started innocently enough with his interests but eventually just degraded into shameless perving.

He puffed on the last drags of the spliff he had rummaged from his top draw, messaged his supplier for a meetup and finally began undergoing some slow slobbish semblance of a (late) morning ritual.

His latest house in a long line of houses was a fancy two story one, as usual it was empty, nothing new or surprising there. His parents away again. So with his music blaring he made use of the lap pool and the still half-packed gym room. He had a cone with his cereal and washed it all down with a protein shake. He showered and got ready for the day.

Checking his phone again, still no reply, still no social media updates. Transferring his music to wireless earbuds, he grabbed his skateboard and headed out into the streets. He wasn’t even sure where he was going, just that he was going.

Somewhere subconsciously he felt it, a part of him noticed it, the eerily still streets. The lack of cars. The lack of rubbish. Everything was too clean, too still, too similar but different. It crawled over his skin like dread infused goosebumps. He tried to ignore it, to deny it, but the longer he went on the louder the silent scream became. Until somewhere from the near distance a bell chime cut through the air.

The noise had pierced his music and somehow taken that external feeling of dread and sunk it deep into his bones. Now he was starting to freak out. Something was so very wrong but he couldn’t figure out exactly what or why. Actually so many things were wrong.

He picked up his pace, with long heavy strides he pushed his skateboard faster and faster, sweeping wide back and forth over the whole street as he no longer feared the cars that weren’t there. He raced to the busiest place he knew. The mall.

Mari smiled at James. She felt comfortable around him for some reason. Probably because they'd spent a lot of time together online. She laughed at his remark about leaving her to fend for herself. "Aww, you're my hero." She played, walking ahead of him towards the sliding doors. As she walked outside she immediately spotted Landon next to her yellow bug, talking to a very attractive Japanese girl.
"Wow, she's cute." She blurted upon seeing her. She remembered James was right behind her and cleared her throat awkwardly. "Or I mean, look there's another person!" She picked up her pace, eager to meet the pretty stranger.

"Follow me."She heard her say to Landon just as she arrived to them.

Mari looked at them in confusion. "Wait where are you guys going?"

James blushed at her hero comment and followed behind her, blushing again when she mentioned how cute the Japanese girl was. He thought she was pretty cute too, but wasn't about to mention that in front of Mari. "Yeah, where are you going?" he asked, right behind Mari.