She entered his messy apartment and found a seat on the lumpy couch, closest to the cat-tree where Garath's cat, Tarzan, had been sleeping soundlessly. When the old bird plopped down, Tarzan spilled off the cat-tree and into her geriatric lap.
Entering after Sharon came Mark. Mark was a banker of some kind or another that lived down the hall. The portly banker flashed Garath a nervous greeting, smiling awkwardly as he side-stepped past the Necrologist and scuttled into the living room. Warrion loped through the doorway after Mark. Warrion wasn’t his real name of course, that was his gamertag. Garath knew that because they had talked about the games they were playing on the elevator from time to time, but it was also the name displayed over his head, above his Health and Mana bars . For some reason, Garath couldn't remember his neighbors given name. Warrion slipped him an awkward high five before taking his seat next to Sharon and scratching Tarzan on the head. Lastly, Sarah entered. She was the neighbor Garath always smiled at, but never talked to. She was in her mid-twenties, gorgeous, and unapproachable. And now she was standing awkwardly in his apartment. His very, very messy apartment that probably smelled like a cannabis dispensary.
‘I really wish I wasn't this stoned…’ he thought for the fourteenth time since his neighbors had entered his apartment, or was it the fifteenth?
"So, I take it you guys got the same message I did?" he asked his neighbors while leaning against the kitchen counter, across the dark room from his lumpy, currently overpopulated couch. The light from the stars and moon was repressed by the blanket of dark clouds and obscured further by the heavy precipitation, he could barely make out the forms of his uninvited company.
"Yes," Sharon confirmed bitterly. "What the shit is this all about, young man?" she accused, her voice shaking under the strain of simply being old.
"What in THE hell makes you think I would know, grandma?"
"It’s just that,” offered Sarah, “we were all talking in the hall and this looks kind of like a game. Aren’t you..."
"A total nerd?" he finished for her.
"I wasn't going to say it like that..."
"It's fine, I'm good with it. But I'm just as in the dark about this as the rest of you. Anyone know what time it is? I stopped wearing a watch, because I have a cell phone... that doesn't work now."
"The UI has an internal clock," Warrion told him. "Just open your MENU, top right."
Garath focused on the word MENU again and the panels appeared, hovering in a semi-transparent half-circle in front of him. Sure enough, there was a digital clock displayed in a boxy font in the top right corner of his vision. "8:43PM. Did you guys see the second message about a new age starting at 3AM?"
"Yeah, and if this is anything like the games I've played..." Warrion started.
"Then monsters," Garath finished for him.
"Then monsters," Warrion agreed.
Sharon, still stroking the purring Tarzan in her lap choked on her cough drop. "What do you mean monsters?"
"Monsters, like... I dunno. Maybe zombies or demons or something that will attack you on sight," Garath offered helpfully.
"They'd better not," Sharon said threateningly.
Mark, who had been standing next to Garath silently walked across the room and sank into the couch beside Warrion, then sighed heavily. He was so close to getting a promotion... The sad, pudgy man just stared into space through rimless glasses, desperately hoping to wake up from this nightmare.
"Are you going to tell us why your eyes are all glow-y?" Sarah asked.
Garath thought for a second, he remembered his little panel avatar and how its eyes began to glow after choosing Necrologist but his eyes didn’t feel any different so he had just assumed that was part of the avatar. "I'm not positive, but I think when I chose my class it made some real changes to my body. Here look at this," he said, then pulled his Profile page up and turned to show everyone. "Can you see this?" he asked with his pointer finger touching his avatar.
Warrion leaned closer and reached toward the open air Garath was gesturing to. "Your panels are right there?"
"Hey! Don't touch my panels." Garath pulled away defensively.
"We can't even see… whatever it is you're pointing at," said Sarah from the love seat, folding her arms and releasing an exasperated sigh.
There was so much more to learn about this UI, about the skills available. Testing to do, abilities to try - ideally BEFORE this new 'age of Earth' started. Garath temporarily lost his patience. He was hoping to get answers from his neighbors but instead they were overwhelming him with questions.
"Listen, you guys are welcome to hang out here and debate the why's and how's or whatever, but if we're right," he gestured to Warrion, "and monsters are going to start appearing at four, then I want to be prepared. So I'm going to go hang out in my room and see if I can learn a thing or two about how to deal with them. There's beers in the fridge, but I wouldn't have too many... We may be in for a very interesting morning."
Without awaiting a response, the Necrologist turned and left the unwanted company sitting in his living room. Just before he made it around the corner, a thought occurred to him and he turned back to face his neighbors again.
"Sharon, don't pick your Class yet. Let me do a little research and I'll help you with it okay?"
Before she could answer he turned around again, stopping at the bathroom on his way to his bedroom. He fumbled around in complete darkness, quickly throwing the dirty laundry that was sprawled across the floor into the empty hamper then sprayed a can
