Considering my next steps I decided to prioritize my time, first I moved into my living room and turned on the tv.

  What I saw both horrified me and answered some of my questions. every channel was playing the same stream, the first thing that stuck out to me was the animals and plants, despite the caption claiming that I was seeing a stream at the space needle it was completely unrecognizable. the needle itself more resembled a tree than the industrial futuristic look it sported previously, vines covered every inch of it and were spreading further upward at an alarming pace.

  all manner of birds and bugs (far larger than they should be) divebombed fleeing nightlife tourists and bar staff, dazed I started to listen more closely to the caster.

  "This video is from the Seattle Space Needle in Seattle where witnesses are reporting a portal of sorts has opened under the structure, these portals have been reported in several other areas of high population adding on to the mystery of the blue screens being seen by everyone in the country and as far as we can tell the world, I'm sorry to say folks but this will likely be the last story I ever have the morbid pleasure of reporting to you, stay safe."

  the station then went to dead static.

  At this point, more and more stuff started to make sense. I was suddenly extremely glad my inner reader was so enthralled with apocalypse novels. the method of gaining more life-force was now pretty clear to me. like every other novel I had ever read you more than likely acquired life-force from killing other monstrous creatures.

  After seeing the broadcast my priorities had once again completely flipped on their head. My house was in Mill Creek Washington only about 20 miles from the space needle, I needed to make distance between me and the likely closest epicenter of this disaster.

  grabbing my bag I slowly peeled back the curtains from the window at the front of my house, looking out onto the street I saw nothing. it was eerily quiet, no panic, no people running around like lunatics. looking closer I could see a man a couple of houses down shoving stuff speedily into his truck but other than him there was nothing. glancing down at my watch I answered my own un-asked question, it was 4:00 A.M. no sane person is up watching the news at 4:00.

  with the coast clear, I was almost ready to leave my house but one thing remained as a higher priority than relocation.

  "Status" I whispered with much less enthusiasm than the first time I had said it.

  Looking at my stat sheet a few things caught my eye, first was my abilities, notably Discoverers Mind and Astral Empowerment, mentally hitting the expand button next to them opened up two new windows.

  Looking at the description of my abilities I felt a little pride and excitement swell up from within me. these were the abilities of someone who could survive in this changing world.

  some questions still remained in my head, for example, Ambient life-Force remained unexplained but with the lack of any sort of mana bar and mentions of magic, I reasoned that it likely had to do with that. another question I had was why I already had two empowerments. the description said I could get one every 12 hours and the ability needed to be activated, so I failed to understand how I could already have two of them.

  the idea of magic excited me greatly but I felt I had already spent too much time discovering my abilities and as much as I felt they were powerful I was sorely lacking in offensive and defensive power, I had no doubt that if I encountered even one of the horrors I saw on the TV I would be dead meat.

  quietly opening my door I walked out just in time to see the man who was packing his car previously taking off down the street. thinking mentally where I was I started to consider my options.

  eventually, I settled on a general course towards the Canadian border. Canada had a small population compared to the united states and if those portals popped up in densely populated areas Canada was my best bet. looking up at the stars I felt like a mental map opened in my head and I instinctively knew which direction to travel to head towards my destination.

  so ducking between bushes I started on my journey.