[“Into the pits of hell I go….”]

Pulling on the entrance of the library, it didn’t open.

[“uhggg, must be close- someone just hit me“]

In an attempt to use Return to Life on the library door, it did nothing. Jimmy felt mana pulled and the door come to life, but something else was locking the door in place.

[“Guess a little mischief won’t do much harm, all things considered”]

Spinning up a mana ball, Jimmy places it against the glass of the door.

[“That is… not what I expected. Where did it go?”]

In place of where the mana ball was spinning, was just a gap in the glass- it did not shatter or break into a piece or two… Just, disappeared.

Spinning back up another mana ball, Jimmy cuts out the glass so that he can enter in.

Walking inside, the place is dark and empty- not a person to be found.

[“Was it a weekend when things started?”]

Looking around, Jimmy found a map of the library- it was too dark to see.

Pulling out another mana ball on instinct, Jimmy figures out that he can create more light that didn’t exist before.

[“Maps… map… ATLAS! Yes, that is what I need”]

Looking through the library map, Jimmy finds the atlases, and looks for Yellowstone in relation to him

[“Wow… According to this, I have to easily travel at least… 400 miles just to reach it, gah wow. According to this book, there is at least 3,000 square miles to search through for this one possibly small building…. GAhhhh. Why can’t things just be easyyyyy??”]

Packing away the U.S. Atlas of 2018 into his backpack, Jimmy decides to leave the place.

[“It is too dark here… Too dark, and creepy”]

Walking around back outside, Jimmy decides he needs to figure out another mode of transportation.

[“Walking, will take like years to just reach Yellowstone.”]

Attempting to just use Return to Life on the first car in reach, an old truck, had zero results. The door would open, but the keys left in ignition would not even turn.

Continuing walking around, Jimmy looks for something smaller and more basic for now. A bike. They are simple, require no fuel besides eating and energy, and hopefully would work.

Walking back down his neighborhood, Jimmy remembers that a neighbor had a child, and often took it strolling through the city in some back seat that maybe could be used for storage.

[“Yes! It is still there.”]

Walking up to it, Jimmy sighs in relief as neither the mother nor child were in the bike. Jimmy knew he could not just pick either out of the bike.

Putting his backpack in the back seat of the carriage, thankfully with a nice zipper, was surprisingly spacey.

Continuing with riding through the city, Jimmy continues collecting more. A sleeping bag, a blanket, 2 gallons of water, some fire starter, and other little trinkets to keep some entertainment through the boring times.

Back seat full, Jimmy decides it is time. Nothing else is left in town that he could find; he heads back home for his goodbyes.

Ripping a piece of paper out of his notebook, Jimmy leaves the note slid in his mother’s hand- in case they unfreeze somehow.

[“It is, going to be hard. Everything is frozen, I miss you guys, and I honestly do not know what to do. I have a small lead, but I could be gone for years- though maybe for you, it will not even be a second… Goodbye…”]

Tears running down his face, Jimmy gets on his bike, and head out to Yellowstone- the first time in his life he has ever even left Watertown, South Dakota.

Biking down the road, and an incredibly slow pace than originally thought, Jimmy starts to already feel hot and sweaty- pulling probably near 50lb’s of necessities, under the direct non-stop sun, thankfully the roads were at least moderately clear.

[“Why can’t I at least listen to some music, has it been hours already of this constant biking? It doesn’t even look like I have gone anywhere. Boop da doop. Doop. Deedadeeedaaaaadedeeddadaaa”]

[*head music continues*]

[“Tired. Done. Need, break”]

Sweaty and tired, Jimmy decides it is time to call it a day. He cannot just sleep under the sun so easily, so he stops at the next house he found down the road.

Just off the side of the highway, a small neighborhood of several houses lay. Pulling into the first one, the door was already open. It was not Returned to Life, but things did not seam all that good as the place look like a tornado ran through it.

Wandering around a couple more rooms, Jimmy comes across the first person of the neighborhood he thought- at first. Standing still, at a probably tall 6.5 feet tall, a man is holding one arm up high holding something in his hand. Going around the corner a bit more, he can see the man’s face, a deep-set anger, blood shot eyes, face red as a tomato.

Looking up, a knife stained in red, several liquid drops floating just below, as his eyes avert down quickly to see a woman scared and in pain, a blood red spot just below her chest with a deep hole.

Turning back in disgust, thoughts running all over the place, Jimmy vomits up his last meal- being small now, his mouth and throat burn up at the mainly stomach acid coming up. Throwing up several more times on his way out of the house, he sees a picture next to a set of chairs in the living room the man and woman holding each other in their arms lovingly.

[“How could anyone do such a-“]

Gagging a couple more times from the sight, nothing more will come up.

[“Why do I feel like I will see more things like that…”]

Sitting next to his bike, Jimmy swishes some water around his mouth, gargles, and spits it out- trying to get rid of the taste out of his mouth. Finishing off with an energy bar and a drink of water, Jimmy continues onto the next house.

[“Thank you, it seams this one is empty already.”]

Wandering around the second house, it seams like the owners have already gone away somewhere- probably escaped to a safe distance from the Yellowstone explosions if any happened.

Jimmy finds some gummy snacks in a cupboard, eats them, and preps his sleeping bag and blanket to sleep. Grabbing some extra clothe and blankets from around the house to use as a soft make-shift mattress, Jimmy heads off to sleep for the night, hoping to have an easier day tomorrow.

*Drip, drip, drip*, something drips onto his face. Slowly his eyes open, using two fingers to feel the liquid that feel onto his face, and holding it out far enough to see. Eyes slowly adjusting, he notices his fingers now covered in scarlet red.

A second glance just lower a pair of muddy brown shoes leading up to the man from yesterday- swiftly as he sees his face, a shiny bright knife comes rushing down to Jimmy.

Stuck in a sleeping bag and not able to move, he squirms only slightly away- but the knife was faster.

[“Yaaaaarrgg!”]

A pain in his stomach can be felt- instinctively he throws his hand out and uses a mana ball- but nothing happens, and the man’s face looms in close to Jimmy’s, going to a second stab-

[“Wahhh!”]

[“What, uhg”]

There is no man around. Looking down at his stomach, everything is fine, no knife marks or stabs- except a hole now resides in his sleeping bag, presumably where he used a mana ball.

[“That, was a hell of a dream. And wow, I could have seriously hurt myself…”]

A bit traumatized from yesterday and his dream, Jimmy forces down a couple drinks of water and another energy bar.

[“My legs are already sore from yesterday, fffff. Guess I’ll take a bit of a break to scavenge for some more things”]

Walking out of the house, Jimmy feels a bit weird. Not too long ago, he had always been a small-town folk, but now he is walking out of a stranger’s house hoping for the fresh outdoor air- to just continue more days of utter silence, hills of frozen everything, and a sun that never sets.

The rest of the houses were thankfully normal or empty households. Some food and drinks here and there, a couple downtime books, another notebook just in case.

Rummaging had not felt like it took much time, so Jimmy began his meditations again, maybe to find something new in hopes deep down. His mind calms down, his body full of mana, nothing really changes but a bit of extra rest and time passing on.

[“Lets move on. There is nothing else left for me here”]

Getting back on his bike, Jimmy continues his journey to the west, to hopefully maybe save the world.

Going on for days, Jimmy could feel the same tiredness daily- however, it was noticeable that his legs were getting stronger and more well-toned.

[“I am not one for exercise, or strengthening, but I can tell that only my legs getting better is not good- at least gotta make an effort in the rest of my weak body”]

His schedule of biking, meditating, eating and sleeping extended now to include some basic exercises he saw on tv- sit-ups, pushups, lunges, sit-ups, lunges; yeah, the basics.

But Jimmy remembered he also had a sword, so why not pay around a bit with it too. Practicing swings that just “felt good”, Jimmy would pretend to fight against the wooden powerline poles.

As the days seam to pass, Jimmy was growing, physically. His arms became more noticeably toned, but his stomach also showed signs of one set of rolls going away for another better one to take its place.

Looking at his map, Jimmy had hoped to have already been at least halfway there by now, but biking ended up being far slower than he ever thought- Still 300 miles at least to reach Yellowstone.

Jimmy was not the best with maps, but he could at least eventually find road names in his at least, as he penned in his route.

His daily schedule continued, though he feels like his mentality may not. The silence of the road was always too silent. Only his own voice in his head to keep him company.

[“We need to keep going, the music may suck in here, but it is all we have”]

[“But it is so boring, my legs hurt every day, and food feels like it will constantly run out quickly”]

[“You are doing great, you have never been this strong, you pretty much have superpowers, and will save the world”]

[“No. We are just normal people. I got some extra muscle, and can somewhat survive, but that’s all”]

[“Laaaa tadeeda, dadadeedaaa, the world, will soon, come to realize. It, has left behind, all its people. With just be alone, to save it all”]

[“Stop with the music, come on! Bad lyrics, bad harmony, but at least always a perfect voice- I wonder if I can go on one of those talent shows with my singing”]

[“Bah, like mental music will be a top hit ever”]

[“Alright, let us just get to sleep.”]

Getting through the awake times was vastly easier than falling and staying asleep. Sometimes, his best place to sleep, was right where others were watching. It felt incredibly creepy- and then the times when he remembers that couple, the man stabbing his wife, was when Jimmy freaked out the most.

Eventually he found that just placing a sheet over the people would make it a step easy, but he quickly noticed that for some reason, the blanket would get frozen stuck to the people they covered after a period of time, and that was when sparked flew in his mind.

[“So. We put mana into things to make them come back with Return to Life. But, what if, we can also remove the mana again to make them freeze again. Hear me out, we might be able to stop food from rotting while we rest, and it may make paper out greatest tool”]

[“I think I gotcha. Since things frozen, so far appear to just be flat out invulnerable, we could just freeze a piece of paper in the air- and bam! We got floating stairs to get anywhere we need.”]

[“EXACTLY! Gaps and locked doors are no longer our enemy. And we could even use it as a shield should, somehow some person live, but not be very nice or good.”]

[“I mean, where there are super powers, there is always a villain. Every good thing, someone will always use it for evil- whether they see it in their eyes or not”]

Focusing on a wrapper from his energy bar, the mana dissipates from it into the air. Letting go, it sits there. He tries to step up onto the wrapper- but it is clearly too small for one foot, so he falls face first- but it was a success.

[Ability 3- Steal Life: Remove mana from an object, and it becomes frozen again.]

With it being time to sleep, Jimmy uses this to turn one of this blankets into a tent like structure to sleep outside- from inside, holding up each end with a leg, and using his arms to push out and widen the base. By pure accident, Jimmy discovers something else he can do- by putting mana into only a part of the clothe, and not the whole of the clothe, he could simply mold it to shape.

[Ability 4- Frozen Mana Molding: A frozen object can be partially brought back to life while the rest stays in place]

With a grand day of two new enjoyable discoveries, Jimmy heads of to sleep in the middle of the road for the first time.