Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/11310270.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Rape/Non-Con,
      Underage
  Category:
      F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
  Fandom:
      Original_Work, The_Game_at_the_End_of_the_World
  Character:
      Jason_Matthews_(TGEW)
  Additional Tags:
      Horror, Psychological_Horror, Violence, Gore, End_of_the_World, Game
      Shows, Steampunk, Male_Protagonist
  Stats:
      Published: 2017-06-26 Chapters: 1/? Words: 1338
****** The Game at the End of the World ******
by DesktopFiles
Summary
     Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! Anyone who does not fit into
     the binary! Creatures from all over the multiverse! Prepare yourself
     for the greatest gameshow of all time!
     After the horrible incident that resulted in the destruction of
     several universes, we have decided to take it upon ourselves to give
     these people the chance to regain their world back - at a price!
     We have taken twelve people from twelve of the destroyed universes
     and dimensions, and those twelve people will have to complete 100
     challenges, all heavily varied. All contestants can win, but all can
     also lose. The winners we will help to rebuild their home world, and
     the losers... well, I guess they'll learn what the afterlife's like,
     eh?
     So step right up, as this game will have thrills, violence, action,
     and a high possibility of on-screen death! Stay tuned, and as we like
     to say here at The Game...
     Keep your head high, and your heart higher!
It was first reported as a rare, but perfectly normal, phenomenon. Then the
reports became more common. It wasn't long before people started dying. The
whole country was worried about what this meant.
Yet Jason Matthews didn't care.
Only 20 or so people had actually been killed, and that was in the whole world
- only about 3 three had been killed in the USA. So why should he be worried?
It had only been reported in the countryside down south, in the hot deserts.
New York City was hardly a desert.
The phenomenon in question was a collection of firestorms - firestorms that
seemed to literally come from the sky. Scientists couldn't explain it, and the
velocity of these storms was too powerful to get close enough for proper
research. Apparently an entire forest had been burnt to the ground in an hour.
Jason exited his house, smiling to his neighbour as he headed to his place of
work, which was thankfully within relative walking distance. It would have
taken far longer by car, anyway, judging from how bad New York's traffic
usually was.
As a programmer for one of the world's biggest technological companies, Jason
was vastly different to many of the other black families in his neighbourhood,
who unfortunately didn't have the luck to get such a high education job. It was
a friendly neighbourhood, however, one that Jason had grown up in. Why would he
leave to a richer neighbourhood full of white people who thought that starving
meant you had had only had three meals that day, rather than the usual five or
six? No, he was much happier living among people whose situation he had once
been in, helping them however he could to get their lives on track and food in
their cupboards.
Jason stopped, the traffic lights flickering red as cars slowly moved past.
From the looks of it, he wasn't going to cross the street for probably a couple
minutes. Typical.
He tapped his feet patiently, the other men and women around him checking their
watches or fiddling with their clothes with as much - or not as much - patience
as him. In this city, patience was a brilliant thing to have - without it, you
would probably spend your whole day just getting increasingly annoyed at all
the stops and starts.
The traffic seemed to have stopped. Yet, the lights hadn't changed. Odd, as
that meant that there were cars right on the crossing. Sirens went off in the
distance, which for the most part wasn't uncommon, but this was lots of them.
Lats time Jason had heard that many, a man had tried to shoot up a family.
Hopefully there wasn't another maniac on the loose - the sirens sounded awfully
close.
Wait... those were firetruck sirens. And ambulance. And police. And maybe even
one he didn't recognise. What the hell was going on?
It was then that the screams started.
They were quite at first, almost impossible to hear, but they soon got closer
and louder. Jason started to notice people running, terrified. Was there a
terror attack or something? Jason hadn't, and couldn't hear anythi-
There was an almighty crash, the sound of brick, mortar and steel collapsing
and crushing and breaking apart. The people around Jason started to look
worried, trying to find the source of the noise. Suddenly, a man that ran past
Jason screamed what sounded like "The sky's on fire!". But that couldn't be
right. How...?
Jason noticed, among the increasing panic, that the sky seemed to be red,
almost like a sunset.
A sunset. At 8:34 in the morning.
The crowd around Jason was started to thicken, people running, getting out of
their cars, some people even just driving right through the crowds in a
desperate attempt to escape. Escape from what, though?
At first, Jason thought that it was the clouds forming weird shapes, but he
realised it was something else. Something he had only seen in videos. Something
that was currently going viral across the internet.
A firestorm.
His initial thought was what the hell is that doing up so far North? but that
was quickly forgotten as he realised the twister-like flames were heading in
his direction.
He turned and ran, ducking as the sky above exploded into fire. The sound from
the explosion was enough to smash the windows on the street, and several of the
taller skyscrapers burst into flames at the top. Debris rained from many of
them, a couple unfortunate people getting crushed under the steel and mortar.
This wasn't normal. This wasn't meant to happen. Just yesterday, these storms
had only been reported to have killed a few people. Now, probably hundreds,
maybe thousands, were dying.
The sky bloomed orange once more, as the flames increased in the their attack,
buildings closer to the ground now burning. The stampede of people running,
screaming, didn't seem to have a direction other than get the hell out of the
city, although Jason wasn't too sure if that would work. This storm looked like
it went on past the city limits...
The building, a clothes shop, next to Jason exploded, glass and brick hitting
into him hard as he was sent crashing to the ground. His right arm flared up in
pain, his face cut from the glass. He stumbled to get up, trying not to get
crushed by the crowd, amazed he had survived the blast at all. He touched the
cuts on his face with his good hand, coming away sticky with blood.
Continuing onward, trying to get anyway but here, Jason discovered he had also
broken his leg, limping as fast as he could. He stepped over a body, although
he couldn't tell if they were unconscious or dead.
The entire city seemed to be on fire. In the distance, a skyscraper collapsed,
the resulting groan and crashing sound clearly obvious even over here. Rocks
were falling around Jason, and he looked up, noticing another, smaller
skyscraper much closer, red with flame. Hopefully that one didn't fall, or that
would be that for Jason.
Jason stopped his movements in surprise as he stepped on something soft.
Looking down, he almost through up.
His foot was currently in the bloody, gory remains of a slightly burnt corpse,
mangled to the point that he couldn't tell its sex. He shuddered and gritted
his teeth, pulling his foot out with a sickening squelch from the blood and
guts, and looking around he saw a sight that made his blood run cold, despite
the searing heat.
The dead were everywhere.
A bus, a school bus, had upturned, and had been crushed by a large piece of
debris, ripping the bus open more than it already had been. The sight inside
was almost too much to bear, small corpses mangled beyond recognition, some
even starting to burn black form the flames, others ripped open and apart by
the shrapnel of the bus.
Jason froze, bile tainting the back of his throat. This couldn't be real. Right
now, what looked exactly like Armageddon was happening around him, as people,
men, women, children, all died. The storm was increasing in severity, too. The
streets were on fire. Buildings had collapsed. This was literal Hell on Earth.
It was then that Jason heard a loud, ominous groaning noise from beside him,
and he looked up, a shadow falling onto his body. A shadow that belonged to the
burning skyscraper beside him.
The skyscraper that was currently splitting in half.
Jason couldn't move. He couldn't think. The horror of what was happening was
haunting. Traumatising. At this point, Jason didn't care how - he just wanted
it to be over.
And as the burning spear of steel and mortar fell towards him, the screeching
of metal piercing his ears, Jason thought he heard a laugh. A laugh of someone
who sounded like they knew this would happen, like they had orchestrated it
from the start.
The flaming metal tomb hit the ground, and Jason with it.
Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed
their work!