Volume 3 Bonus Content

It’s over.

Really.

You want more? Fine.

Jord threw his last bomb at the giant Gorilla in front of him.

Stopping a giant monster before it destroyed a city was not what he thought he’d ever be doing as a job in the past. When the Mist originally fell, the world had ended in Jord’s eyes. There was nothing left. Humanity had no chance left to survive and rebuild. He was lucky to survive, but he honestly didn’t care about surviving in a world like this where he would have to live in discomfort and could die at any time. When he joined the Defence Militia, he thought that he could have some fun fighting. If the worst fate came at him, and he died in service, at least he wouldn’t have to see the collapse of Rencia. Humanity was not in an Ark, but clinging onto a teetering pole surrounded by floods below; it would clearly fall sometime soon. Jord wanted to ‘live’ as much as possible before that.

When he met Drake, he saw that Drake, too, had a laid-back attitude like him, apart from his Mayhem-killing craze. Both of them knew that everything was pointless now, and took life lightly. They’d often joke around and be very casual. It was due to this similarity that they were so close.

But now, while Rencia’s doom was visibly making its way to its target—Jord’s home and the last home for humanity, Jord’s body showed signs of anxiousness. He was sweating, and not because of the heat, and trembling a bit. He shouldn’t be. He had already mentally prepared himself to see Rencia’s destruction; it was inevitable. His survival instincts told him he should fly away with his blessing of a jetpack and find somewhere safe nearby, perhaps shelter in a nearby town. Yet here he was, putting all his effort into fighting the monster. His body’s actions eluded logic. Did he actually think they could defeat this thing? Of course, they can’t. All weapons have failed up till now, and the Mayhem was only a few miles away from the Walls. Yet he wanted to try to fight.

He watched the Gorilla move its arms and legs, dragging itself forward slowly. It was not sentient, so there was no reason for him to hate it. And no one did; the only one in the Militia who did hate Mayhems was Drake. Jord viewed the things more of as calamities he had to watch out for. The Gorilla grunted and moved its hand to its face, bending its back down so that it could reach. This behavior was not something it showed before. Was it a slight semblance of intelligence that it had invented a way to reach its face? Maybe. Primates were quite smart, so if that aspect of the creature carried over to the mutated form…

“All soldiers, fall back,” General Arthur shouted. He was cautious. That was good.

Commander Rein and Eric’s team returned now. They had lured the smaller Mayhems away and turned back to re-join the group. They joined with the rest of the Militia at a safe distance away from the enemy.

Jord squinted at the Mayhem’s ugly black face. What is the hand reaching for?

Then he saw it. Hacking away at its eye with a sword was Drake! He must have somehow hurt it to a point it was actually bothered! He didn’t seem to have heard the General’s command.

Jord said what he noticed aloud. Others looked and saw it also. Jord and the others started yelling for Drake to hear.

“Drake! Drake! Behind you!”

Jord started flying toward the monster. Commander Rein followed.

The hand captured Drake. Jord heard cries of pain. He measured the distance between him and the hand. They weren’t going to make it in time. The Gorilla’s mouth opened. Jord’s friend was going to be devoured. He saw Drake turn around once at glance at him and the others. After a failed attempt to kill the Gorilla with a bomb, Drake then fell into the Mayhem’s mouth. It swallowed and continued its journey, not satisfied. Never satisfied.

Jord stopped in the air. His body felt numb and his senses dulled. Watching people die was to be expected. He was in the Defence Militia and in the middle of an Apocalypse. He always had a relaxed attitude about everything and thought emotions didn’t affect him the way they did for others. Yet, right now, he felt despair. He looked at the passing hungry, mutated animal with hate for the first time. Jord should have flown away when he had the chance. He shouldn’t have anger towards this creature which was a part of nature and fate. But he did.

The rest of the Militia caught up to Jord and Rein.

Jord felt a serious grudge for the first time in his life. He wanted to kill the Gorilla, no matter what. He was about to fly to it, when Rein caught his arm.

“Wait,” he said, “We’re going to strategize and work together.”

“I don’t care about General Arthur’s strategies!” Jord said, “His thinking will just waste time. The monster is only a mile away from the Walls, and this is what you’re doing? I don’t care about you all in the Militia. I never did, but now, I see what losers you all are! I’m going to go and actually fight.”

He realized he was starting to think like Drake, and quietened his mind.

“You’re partly right. We are wasting time we can be using attacking, but we can’t save everyone at this point. We need to think of how to defeat it properly even at the cost of a few lives. Just plainly attacking it is clearly not working.”

Jord thought about those words and calmed himself. Behind him, he heard an explosion. He turned around to see the Gorilla collapsing onto the ground on its side with a big thud. It was dead.

“What?!?”

The Militia approached it. Smoke came out of its mouth. There were tears in its flesh around its chest and there was soot mixed in fluids coming out from within its body. Everyone wondered what happened. Jord realized who caused it to happen, and that there was a possibility they survived the explosion. He flew straight at its chest, hoping he could find and save them. The odds were not good, but as long as there was a chance, he would try.

Commander Rein stopped him.

“Out of my way,” Jord said.

“Hold on, Jord. It’s dangerous in there; it's hot from the explosions, and the stomach acids could pour out. You’re not going to fly in, are you?”

Jord explained that his friend could be in there. He didn’t care about the risk. He always thought that he didn’t care about this world, but he did. He cared about Rencia and his friends like Drake. And he wanted to keep them. If the chance that his friend was alive existed, he was fine with going into the dangerous corpse to rescue them. With caution, of course.

“I see…” Rein pondered.

“Are you going to help me or stop me? Make up your mind, Commander. I’ve made up mine and I can’t wait.”

Rein told Jord to stay where he was in the air afar. He would go search for Drake’s body. Rein flew into the gorge in the body of a gorger. Jord watched, stupefied. The Commander himself was risking his life for the possibility that one of his soldiers was alive. Jord didn’t know that he also cared about Drake.

A few minutes later, Rein came out of the corpse, covered in purple fluids, and holding a body in his arms. Jord recognized it.

“Is he alive?” he asked.

The body was charred and Jord could see broken bones and red fluid on white body parts which he couldn’t distinguish as flesh, muscles, or bones. It was grotesque and nauseating to look at.

“Yes. He’s breathing, but barely,” the Commander replied.

“Thank goodness.”

Others joined and cheered at the news. The monster was dead and Drake was alive. They had also gotten fond of him, even though he didn’t talk to them much.

You’re really lucky, Drake. Jord thought. Not only did you survive, but you have a lot of people that care about you. Notice that, and cherish it, now that you have another chance to. I know that I will do so to the friends and home I realize I care about. Now that my eyes have opened about my true feelings for this world, I will take my life more seriously here on.

This section contains information not related to the story, such as fun facts about things mentioned in the story—like an appendix.

Square-Cube Law:

· The Square-Cube law is a basic mathematical principle that shows that, as an object grows in size, its volume increases at a rate much faster than its surface area does. This is because area is proportional to the square of dimensional length whereas the volume of an object is proportional to the cube of dimensional length. This means that as the length of any dimension (directional growth) increases, the volume of the object increases at a faster rate than the area of a cross-section.

· The subject is important in many scientific fields including those of biology and zoology, where it is called Allometry and deals with the body shape and structure of animals. It is also important in mechanical engineering as it puts limits on how large a mechanical component or product can be while remaining functional.

· Examples: you don’t find mammals larger than elephants (Whales are larger because they live underwater and the pressure helps them). Buildings and airplanes can only become so large.

Achilles’ heel:

· Achilles was a Greek warrior who fought in the Trojan War. According to mythology, as an infant, he was prophesized to die young. In an effort to try to prevent this, his mother dipped his body in the River Styx (that runs through the Hades’ underworld) to give him protection from harm. However, she did not submerge his heel, which she held onto as she dipped him. Later, Achilles would become a great warrior subject to legends. He met his death, according to later legends, by an arrow that, according to some, pierced his heel, the one place that was unprotected, fulfilling the prophecy.

· Achilles’ heel now refers to a weakness or the tendon in the back of one’s heel.

Trinitroglycerin:

· TNG is a chemical that explodes upon the slightest agitation or physical contact. It is known for being very sensitive as well as producing large explosive reactions.

· It is primarily used in dynamite, but is also used in medicine.

· Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, invented dynamite, which mainly uses TNG, and he researched ways to handle it safely.

Chemical Clock:

· It refers to a chemical reaction whose observable results begin after a certain amount of time. One way to think of this is like how you observe popcorn begin to pop after some time heating it.

Peristalsis:

· Peristalsis is the series of muscle movements that move food along the digestive tract. The muscles contract behind the food repeatedly, pushing it forward. In this story, we see Drake force these movements in the upper portion of the oesophagus of the Gorilla Mayhem to create a ‘shield’ of muscle for himself.

Look at diagrams of peristalsis. Also, look into the functioning of a larynx.

Dreams:

· Dreams cannot create new human faces. Faces are too difficult to create. Instead, our brain inserts faces of real people you’ve seen before.

Degree Burns:

· Skin burns are divided into three categories, from first-degree to third-degree, based on intensity and depth in the skin.

Traction:

· Traction is the practice of healing broken bones, setting them straight, relieving pressure, and fixing other orthopedic problems.

· Recently, Intramedullary rods are being used as a support for a bone by nailing it in. This prevents the bone from moving so the wearer can continue with activities while their bone heals naturally.

Alphabet Agencies:

· Alphabet Agencies are the U.S government agencies that are abbreviated as letters of the alphabet, usually three letters long. Notable examples include the CIA and the FBI. They are in charge of varying tasks for the government of the nation. For example, the CIA is in charge of gathering intel on other nations, the FBI is in charge of gathering intel on intranational affairs, and the NSA is in charge of gathering and processing data for intelligence agencies.

· Some of these organizations are disliked by some for interfering in the nation’s governance and citizen privacy.

Imperial system:

· The Fahrenheit scale was created in the 1720s. The way the scale was chosen has conflicting stories but according to Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit’s original paper, it was based on taking zero degrees as the freezing point of a certain mixture of brine. The scale has changed since, however, and that temperature would now be about 4 degrees.

· The Imperial system is only still used in about three countries: the USA, Myanmar, and Liberia. The US had many attempts to phase out its use and replace it with the metric system, but the plans failed due to the inconvenience it caused.

· There are many imperial units that we no longer use, such as the barleycorn (1/3”), hand (4”), chain (22 yards), furlong, fathom, cable, perch (area), rood, gill (5 oz), stone (14 lb), and slug.