Job Application (Jumpscare)

Shortly, all the snacks were gone, and the three of them sat content.

Merrit broke the silence first, chewing thoughtfully.

“Now I don’t even want to go back to work tommorow…”

“Oh… you won’t have to worry about that anymore-We uh… all got fired.”

“What?!”

“I forgot you’ve been asleep for a few days-Well, you see… in all that commotion, we forgot to actually make the delivery. I’ve been on thin ice for a while, and that was the final straw.”

“Yeah, you should’ve seen the manager when we came back. If a flying metal box could’ve shown emotion, it would’ve been shaking and turning red… it was almost kind of cute!”

“Says you. That was before it sicced the murder drones on us.”

“This keeps getting worse and worse… what even happened?”

“Well… when we got back, It told me that I had a ridiculous amount of money to pay, and that I wouldn’t be able to make it up anymore. I said I didn’t have enough money… then it started asking about passing the debt to my next of kin… and then when I said I didn’t have any, it said my life,organs and all my possessions would be forfeit…then I ran… then they sent the murder drones after me… so now I’m hiding out here.”

Merrit was astonished. His entire life, he had dreamed of entering the capital city, a safe and secure utopia, surrounded by technological marvels he could never have imagined.

“I thought the capital city was supposed to be so much better than the Red Zone… is this what it’s really like? I thought your workplace was a little unfair, but this is something I never imagined.”

“Well, your apartment is in a nice area. Where I live, you can’t even see the sky from all the smog... I guess you didn’t experience working here for too long either. In the end, it’s not much better than the outside, unless you have the money to pay for everything, like our High Priest here…”

Alice looked away sheepishly.

“How do you even get money then? Surely there have to be better jobs around here than what you did, right? How were you even paid? It didn’t say in the job description…”

“We don’t get paid at all. You make money off tips, where people give you some charity based on your service quality.”

With a personality like that, Merrit now realized why Ren was so poor.

“Can we just apply for a better job?”

“You can try. You have a phone now, take a look.”

Merrit opened a browser on his phone-

“Let’s see… entry level jobs…”

“There’s not that many… there’s where you worked… there’s a machinery operator job- Oh, this one pays you! But it says there’s a high risk of loss of limb- and you’re only contracted for a week… How about this one… Hey, this one pays pretty well-”

His eyes brushed over the position title eagerly.

‘Capital Punishment Execution Device Test Subject (Intern)’-

“-Oh. Well, how about ‘Sanitation Worker’?”

“I tried that one. They have you dig through sewers, volcanoes, and warzones for spare parts and valuables. They only pay you because humans are cheaper than replacing the robots. I barely made it out of my first run… Feel free to keep looking.”

“Well, this one looks safe and is paid- there’s ‘Software Engineer-Entry Level’... but it requires 50 years of experience… and a degree.”

“Well, you get the idea.”

“This is horrible… is it like this where you live too, Alice?”

“No… it’s pretty nice. I didn’t expect things to be like this here, either.”

“Well… that’s what we get for losing. Although I admit, I expected tyrannical rule by someone called the ‘Demon King’ to be a little more violent.”, said Ren, sardonically.

“Actually… Ren, can you explain all of this Demon King stuff to me? I’ve never heard of him. Maybe a short history lesson…?”

“It’s a long story… Can’t you just look it up?”

“I did. It matches what Alice’s books say-that horrible monsters started invading out of a neighboring kingdom we were at war with, and then you went to their leader’s homeland and won. It’s surprisingly scant on detail…”

“Well… that’s about all I know. Except for the fact that we didn’t win, at all. Near the end, our ruling body of mages called the High Court gave us the first prototype of that serum you almost used… and then everything went downhill after we used it.”

Alice interrupted-

“Do you think that the High Court was aiming to sabotage you? Maybe the Demon King promised them power, or something cliche like that?”

“It’s likely. Maybe they made a mistake, maybe they were in league with the enemy, it doesn’t matter in the end. All I know is that I see that serum all over the place now, and in the last town we were in, I saw their logo all over the corpses under that giant summoning circle.”

“That reminds me… before the Demon Lord was summoned in Erma, I saw one of those too. Ren, you’ve encountered them before right? From how you reacted? ”

“Yeah… I’ve seen those circles in the past. Every time one appears, a Demon Lord is born.”

Merrit and Alice suddenly became more enthusiastic, rapidly bouncing ideas off of each other.

“So that means they’ve been behind all this… creating Demon Lords…”

“If they’ve been creating Demon Lords… that raises the question of what demons even are… Do either of you know? All I know is that they’re indistinct black blobs with bunches of eyes where they shouldn’t be, and bullets basically don’t do anything…”

Alice was deep in thought, and questioned Ren-

“You said they just showed up from a neighboring kingdom out of nowhere? Otherwise we have no idea what they are or where they came from. It’s all so strange… wounds taken from them cause Necrosis, but Necrosis also creates them… and this serum seems to cause Necrosis…”

“I think there’s more… I met the Goddess once- She said that overuse of magic will cause Necrosis. So anyone that overuses magic beyond their capacity will eventually turn into a demon, you and I included. Since the serum seems to increase your magical ability-I think it just jumpstarts that process.”

Merrit interrupted, his head in his hands.

“Wait, hold on… you two are losing me. So are all demons just created from humans, then? Just humans that have overused their magic, or got wounded from demons? Then they just change, and that’s it?”

Ren shook his head.

“I don’t know. That doesn’t rule out the possibility that some just existed first, from who knows where. The fact of the matter is, with all of this we don’t have enough info to make any definitive conclusions. The serum, the High Court, Necrosis… the Demon King… It’s all probably linked, but that’s all we can say for sure. If you manage to crack open that laptop, you’d probably be able to find out more.”

“I’ve already managed to crack the login security, but there’s a few password protected files lying around, and I need to figure out how to get into their SQUIRREL database-”

“You seriously already managed that?”

“Well, there’s not much to do in the Red Zone besides farm and get killed. I didn’t want to inject myself with that serum, so I didn’t become a mercenary-I had a lot of time to learn how tech worked. ”

“Wait! Maybe that serum is the clue!”- Alice exclaimed.

“True… Merrit, what do you know about the serum? I've only seen Red Zone mercenaries carry vials of it, and you were about to inject yourself with some.”

Merrit looked up from fiddling with his phone and the laptop, and stared at the wall thoughtfully for a few seconds.

“There’s a black market that sells arms and materials to mercenaries so they can take jobs in the Red Zone. I’ve never actually met any of them, though, this is just what I’ve heard from mercenaries that I met. I made friends with some of them and taught them techy things, and in return they’d teach me how to shoot.”

“So you don’t know where the serum comes from? Or what it does?”

“I don’t know who supplies it… but I know that it’ll give you Necrosis. The lucky ones get a few uses out of it, but everyone gets it in the end. Otherwise it’ll boost your strength, speed, endurance… but I haven’t seen anyone throwing fireballs around or shooting beams like you have.”

Alice interrupted, surprised.

“That’s because the Goddess is gone… I think without Her, there aren’t any Blessings. So nobody gets to use magic, and physical enhancements are all you get. But… why do people even use this serum if they know they’ll die?”

Merrit stopped fiddling entirely, and his face became more serious.

“In the Red Zone, either you stay a farmer where you grew up and get killed in a raid, or become a hired mercenary defending a town and get killed in a raid there instead. So here in the Capital, or out there… I guess life is all the same.”

Agitated-he looked meaningfully at the two of them.

“We have to change this. We might be the only ones who know… and we have the strength to change it! We’re the only ones that can do this!”

Ren was silent. He knew words like that were dangerous. Alice, in turn, was more proactive.

Gently, she reassured him, putting a hand on Merrit’s shoulder.

“I know… I want to see things change too. But we don’t have many clues here. We have to chase what we know first, and I think resurrecting the Goddess will give some answers.”

“Ok… alright! When do we start?” After his conversation with Ren, and all the answers he had gained, he felt he could take on anything.

Ren and Alice looked at each other solemnly.

“Alice and I are leaving for the Church tomorrow. You’re going to stay here.”

Alice punched Ren under the table, accompanied by a loud cracking sound. As Ren jumped up, swearing in pain, Alice spoke to Merrit in the same gentle tone.

“Merrit… you can’t walk right now. I know it’s not good to hear, but we can’t take you… we don’t know what’ll happen. We’re going to transfer you to a hospital, but time is extremely important right now. When this is all over-we’ll see each other again, for sure. Ok?”

“But… I-”

He gave up, and silently nodded in agreement.

He felt a sudden rush of shame. Just because Ren had said those nice things to him earlier, because he was with them answering these questions, he felt he was on equal terms with them? Even if he had come with them, what could he do?

Had Ren just said all those nice things to him to soften the blow? Were they in on it together, discussing while he was asleep? What if-

He caught himself. Spiraling, blaming his friends, could he get even more pathetic? Even these thoughts themselves… But he couldn’t help it-they were like demigods, and he was just-

He stopped, as he realized Ren had a hand on his shoulder. Grimacing in pain as Alice was healing his broken rib, he spoke.

“Look…Merrit- I know you… uh… probably don’t feel so good about that. Staying behind, I mean.”

Alice rolled her eyes.

Giving Alice a glare, he turned back to face Merrit.

“Sorry. I’m not a tactful person, so all I can do is be honest. We can’t take you with us-but you have your own set of skills. You’re good with tech, and I’m trusting you to figure out what’s on that laptop, ok? I know that doesn’t sound grand, but it’s the only lead we have. Once you do, if we’re not back, I need you to look around, and see what leads you can find here. There has to be something in this city. We’ll check in with you.”

Merrit took a deep breath, and sighed with an exasperated smile.

Alice exclaimed-

“Hey! So you do have it in you! Do stuff like that more often.”

She slapped Ren on the back, causing another loud crack.

As the two of them started yelling at each other, Merrit started to laugh. Seeing them like this, maybe they weren’t so different from him after all.