We left before 9 am in our small convoy of three SUVs, with the middle one pulling a trailer. I was nervous about when my cell phone signal would come back. Would cellular networks still be operational? Had the invaders done their homework on us? Would everyone already be dead? We had split ourselves up differently from how we arrived at the cabin. Chris would drive the first vehicle with Joe in the passenger seat. Joe had a good eye for spotting stuff. The hope is that some of his outdoorsman skills would come into play and hopefully spot a problem before it gets us. We had Frank and Billy in the back. Frank is the most capable of us, and if anyone had to protect our rear, he seemed like the best bet. This left Nora and me in the middle pulling the loaded-down trailer. All the passengers had experience shooting rifles. This way, none of us was completely defenseless.

  Nothing looked different as we pulled out of the driveway onto the back road. Trees were still in full bloom. Flowers still looked the same. The road was still empty, save for us. The roads were just as winding as they were yesterday. Right as we got onto the road, Nora asked, “Do you feel ready for this?”

  Without thinking, “No.”

  “Is that it? Just, No?”

  “Can anybody be ready for this. It sounds like an apocalypse: a fucked up apocalypse. No space aliens, no massive earthquakes, and no asteroids are getting us. Sounds like hell decided to open all its doors on us and invade. This shit sounds downright biblical. Hell is going to try to consume us all at once. I feel almost comfortable using Revelations as my doomsday guide.”

  “But you never struck me as very faithful before today.”

  “I wasn’t. I stopped believing at twelve. Visiting a children’s hospital for months on end to watch my twin sister lose a battle to cancer for no damn reason will do that to you.” I smiled at the thought of my sister. She lucked out compared to this bullshit. Her positivity was too good for this world. She saw the world as it could be. I always envied her for that.

  “But you believe now?”

  “I believe that very clearly the supernatural exists. The alternative is that we are just some stupid video game simulation. Since I think I exist, or at least I hope I do, I will go with the supernatural exists. Evidence does seem to point in that direction.” I smiled over to Nora. She reminded me of my sister's intelligence and inherent goodness.

  “Look at you working through shit philosophically. Oh, have you by any chance tried your ability yet?”

  I paused. “Fuck!” I felt dumbstruck at the realization that in the 3 hours since we got fucking magical abilities I had yet to even attempt mine. “I should probably try it on you. Unfortunately, I think I will hold off so we can try it if we run across anything dangerous.”

  “Do you even know its range?”

  “That’s a good question. It didn’t show up in the initial information, but maybe there is a way to drill down.” I mentally brought up the ability description. I concentrated on additional details and it gave me range of 15 meters plus an extra meter for each effect level. “16 meters due to everyone having at least 1 effect level to their abilities. So, just over 50 feet. That doesn't seem like a good range.”

  “52.5 feet rounding up, actually.” She said off-handedly, like the human computer she is. “While that range is weak now, it sounds like it gains range at every effect level. People gain 1 of those for every level they gain, with humans going up to 100. I guess this means it has a range of 115 meters at effect level 100. That is slightly under 380 feet. So, it will be longer range than a football field's length end to end, including the end zones." She paused to let all that sink in with me. I wasn't dumb, but she was so analytical it was, at times, a bit unnerving. She spoke up again, "So what’s the duration?”

  “Looks to be instantaneous. So, once I know it, I can’t unknow it, I guess. I am not sure what that will really mean. What happens when they level up? Oh, and before you ask, the activation time is 10 seconds.”

  “Good job anticipating my next question. So if it takes 10 seconds to activate the ability, then you really need to use it before or after combat. A lot can happen in 10 seconds in a gun fight.”

  “Fair point. Oh, we are about to be back in cell phone range.” And like clockwork, both our phones started pinging and buzzing with notifications. I only had one bar of service, but I hoped I could get a call out. First things first, call Dad. He just needs to know I’m okay. I went to his name in the contacts and hit send, hoping not to get pushed to voicemail. He answered on the second ring. That was extremely fast for him.

  “Hey Dad, its me. Just checking in before the apocalypse hits.” I was trying to play it cool.

  “Son. Your grandfather said you were at the cabin. You need to stay there. I can have army troops pick you up and escort you over to Colorado. The Government is relocating there, and I am in line to get on a plane full of congresspeople.”

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  “What? Is it really that bad that we are moving our entire government into the middle of the country?”

  “Yes, Son. India and China are completely overrun. Europe is faring slightly better. We lost track of Australia and Japan, but they might still emerge out the other side of initial attacks. It all happened so fast. Every hour starting at noon yesterday in New Zealand, the invasions started. Each time zone unlocked one after another. We have less than 2 hours until portals open up in the Eastern Time Zone, and an hour after that, the entire Central Time Zone will open. We may have had the most time to prepare of any major nation, but even we will probably suffer major casualties in the first 48 hours. I think over half the world’s population has already been killed.”

  “How exactly are we being invaded? I haven’t had access to any information, and you are the first call I made.”

  “Huge portals, son. Anywhere there is a massive concentration of population. Stay away from heavily populated areas.”

  “Good to know. When do you touchdown in Colorado?”

  “In about four and a half hours. Stay safe, son. Your mother has already left on an earlier flight. One of us will call you later today if cell phone networks are still operational. We will get through this.”

  “Thanks, Dad. Gonna call Grandpa and check in on him.” With that, the call ended. I wasn’t sure at that point if I would ever talk to or see my dad again.

  Nora jumped in as soon as I was off the phone. “So whats happening out there with this invasion? How bad?”

  “Really Bad, India and China are pretty much gone. We have probably lost well over half the world’s population. The invasions are happening through giant portals in densely populated areas. New portals open up in each time zone as it reaches noon. It started in New Zealand and has been moving steadily west.” I took a deep breath after that statement. My hearing it wasn’t what made it real; Me saying it made it real.

  Nora started humming something quietly. I let it go on for a minute while I checked texts from family members. Apparently, half my cousins were coming out to the cabin and wanted me not to touch the armory. Oh well, too late. I really didn’t feel bad about that. If roles were reversed, they would have done what I did, so I ignored the texts. I’ll text them much later with an ‘oops’. They will be pissed, but I left plenty of weapons, ammo, and food. They will be able to live there for a significant time, especially if they have access to the underground shelter.

  I tried to ignore Nora as we continued carefully down the road. Thick trees were covering both sides of the road just beyond the asphalt and gravel. The only break was on two long driveways branching off to our right as we headed east. These were on the opposite side of the road from the family cabin. The view was monotonous, and it should have distracted me. Yet Nora was still humming something. “Nora. What are you thinking about?”

  “Just using some gaming logic. What they are talking about is something of the equivalent of a gate spell. It makes me wonder if it is a ton of high-level wizards, a ritual, or even a magic item. We know that something of that power requires a lot of mana, regardless of our paltry understanding of this new system. This means that at some point, the gates will close. They can’t be sustained indefinitely.”

  “How do we know that? What principles are you using? Because we seem to be a bit out of our depth here. It isn’t like we can ask the system questions.” I could tell my voice was rising slightly. I was getting agitated by her assumptions.

  “Because mana is like air, seemingly infinite, yet still finite to some degree. Everything we have ever considered about a magical world through video games, RPGs, books, and movies has to have something that limits what a spell can do, how much a single power can draw from the universe. Demons from the actual Abyss sound powerful; Massive armies and roving bands of demons, abyssal pets, and abyssal cannon fodder. According to all game lore, from every game we have ever played, Hell or the Abyss is rather infinite. So, there are a lot of them, but they can’t be all-powerful or they would have done this ages ago. They would have crushed us before we had any level of technology that could even somewhat fight back. That logic is why I don’t think they are as all-powerful as people will probably ascribe to them. Figuring out the system more thoroughly and discovering more abilities that further our understanding is what will give us a real chance.”

  I sat there in stunned silence. She was right. Why invade now instead of a century or two earlier? Also, why invade on time zone shifts and not all at once? It meant that it took time for them to be able to cast such spells again, or time to recharge a powerful artifact. We have no idea what their actual limitations are. “Well damn! You’re right. There are limitations, but we don’t seem to know what they are. How do we even answer those questions?”

  “For now, we don’t. It is enough to know that such limitations exist. Until I have an ability that uses arcane, it is going to be hard to really explore mana and abilities.” She seemed focused on getting an ability. She wasn’t wrong. We all need more abilities, and we need to figure out how to get more mana. These are the first baby steps in trying to fight back against literal demons.

  Next up was calling grandpa, and fortunately, he picked up on the first ring, “Hi Congressman, sir, we have left the cabin and want to know where you are?”

  His voice crackled a bit, “Neal my boy. I’m back at the house in Fenton. We are trying to get people out of the area in an orderly fashion, but it’s all a mess.”

  “Grandpa, have you been documenting people’s abilities. We can probably figure out ways to have different abilities come in handy depending on the situation.”

  “That’s my smart grandson. Things have been chaotic here. Everyone thinks they are in charge.”

  “What has the Governor decided?”

  “All law enforcement agencies are to coordinate with the state government. I am trying to get the furthest out portions of my district organized, but it is very chaotic. We have less than 3 hours before the first portals open. You should stay at the cabin.”

  “Nah, Gramps. We already left the cabin and brought a ton of supplies in our SUVs, as well as a trailer full of essentials to rough it. Oh, and can you help get my friend Frank Dunn assigned to your protection? This way we don’t all get separated.”

  “I think I can arrange that. If you come to me, then be careful. I know you aren’t much more than an hour and change away, but I don’t know how difficult it will be to get here.”

  “Thanks, Grandpa. I’ll let you know if we run into any difficulties.” I hit end on the phone screen. I hoped we could make it there in decent time.

  My thoughts were interrupted by gunshots.