Surviving the Apocalypse by Evolving (Goddess of Victory NIKKE SI/OC)

[Stimpak Medic]

Prologue: Cheating Death

The wind was a torrent of darkness whistling through the shells of long-burnt-out buildings and barely alive trees. It whistled and whipped against anything it touched on the cold winter night, and the white snow fell. It froze the blood that stained the white ground, while the wind howled and whistled, devouring the sound of gunfire and the screams and howls of pain that rose and fell every few minutes.

An execution was replaying in the cold winter night over and over. A life was being extinguished, rekindled, then extinguished again.

Flashes of gunfire broke through the darkness under the faint light of the ghostly galleon that was the moon.

Lying upon the snow, coated in blood and shivering from the cold, was a young man, barely alive and riddled with holes from being repeatedly and constantly slaughtered by the mechanical menaces that followed his long trail of blood and death. In the darkness, he sobbed and cried as blood spurted out of his mouth and flowed from the holes in his face.

His body twitched weakly and then fell still on the snow.

Silently, around him, stood and hovered strange robotic creatures, their forms shadowed in the dark, but their red glowing eyes and vicious silhouettes did nothing to hide their savage forms and powerful weapons.

They stayed silent, as if waiting for something, as if anticipating more fun.

"AAAAAAAAH HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" A scream tore through the blistering wind and falling snow. A scream of terror, of pain, of regret. The body that was full of holes sealed closed in moments, and the young man began breathing again, though he was so covered in blood, there was no making out anything about him other than his shape.

He desperately tried to jump to his feet, only to be riddled with holes by the violent and gleeful monsters of the night that surrounded him.

The flashes of gunfire, the sizzling beams of lasers, and the explosions that occurred shortly after were a scene that repeated many times before and would for many more after.

The young man's scream was cut off once again. Blood soaked the virgin snow he fell upon.

The wind whistled and whipped again, howling and hissing as the stillness returned.

Moments later, quicker than before, the wounds sealed, and the young man rose again.

Rolling over, he put his arms up.

"Wait! I-" His words were cut off by a barrage of gunfire and lasers, tearing his body apart. It hurt. It hurt so much. But strangely, it was beginning to feel normal to him, as if the pain was acceptable and survivable.

His jaw was blown to bits as a projectile tore through it and through his neck.

He died again.

When the gunfire died down and the lasers stopped coming, his body nigh instantly began reforming.

"Wai-" His death came again. Blown to bits, his form scattered in the wind like a hazy mist.

Faster, his body reassembled, and the pieces of him that were too far away stayed motionless as the body began growing the missing pieces back. Exploded arms formed back from the stumps at the mended shoulders. A head and skull popped back into being from the headless neck like a grisly balloon inflating from its stump.

"Stop!" The young man shouted, but was cut off by another execution of flashing lights and lasers, tearing him apart.

Strangely, no blood fell from his body this time as the chunks of flesh exploded across the snow.

Even faster this time, the chunks flew back together, forming the bloody man. This time, something was different. His chest did not rise and fall, nor did he breathe. He just lay there, alive somehow, but certainly not breathing.

The projectiles and lasers rushed towards him, and this time, something felt different, like a whispered word in the wind. The young man did not try to run; he rose and stepped towards the closest monster.

His body exploded seconds after, but the pain was dulled. Lesser, almost as if he had been injected with a powerful painkiller.

It didn't even take several seconds as his body knitted itself back together, it's components flying together. Of course, there was no blood to be seen, nor any organs, strangely, just flesh, not even bone.

"I said stop!" He shouted upon reforming. Jumping forward, he was showered with lasers and small rockets, and his body was blown apart, but it felt little more than a pinprick this time.

"Stop!" He shouted again, jumping forward wildly, pulling his arm back as if to punch the monsters. However, he was blown to bits again.

The body parts didn't even reach the ground before they flew back together.

"I said Stop!" He shouted, his voice exploding out now many times louder than a normal human's. As the projectiles and lasers shot towards him, time seemed to slow from his perspective, and he thought for just a moment that he could see the projectiles and their path towards him.

His body burst into a fleshy explosion, but the explosion didn't even get a foot wide when it reformed the body.

The bloody young man leapt forward, and this time the lasers and projectiles bounced harmlessly off his skin, and he pulled his arm back amidst the torrent and slammed it against the nearest monster over and over, for no effect whatsoever. It was like punching a great steel wall. He was struck again and again by the lasers, shells, and rockets, but they were rendered harmless.

"No.." The young man fell back to the ground as he was struck by three rockets. The explosions didn't even feel like anything more than a soft gust.

"Nooo!" He shouted, furious that he couldn't harm the monsters no matter what he tried to do.

Lasers, shells, and rockets hit him, but could not harm him in any meaningful way.

"Damnit.." He grumbled before turning around and jumping.

He cleared seven feet in his first jump, being battered forward by the lasers midair, rolling to the ground before being hit by a rocket, and sending him rolling across the snowy ground.

He got up again, taking a rocket to the face, of which he didn't even flinch.

Crouching down, he jumped again.

Fifty feet high and almost three hundred long this time.

The monsters chased him, but as he landed in a snowy street, he jumped again.

He soared into the sky this time, almost reaching the clouds, and landed with a loud boom, leaving a deep crater where he had landed many miles away. More of these monsters appeared where he landed.

Rockets and lasers slammed into him, but he barely paid them any mind.

Bringing back his right arm, he punched in the direction of the monsters, and there was an explosive shockwave that ripped through the monsters within seventy meters of him, exploding them in piles of scrap and strange black flesh.

"What is happening to me?"

His question went unanswered as he jumped again, tearing through the clouds into the winter night sky, and looking up at the bright moon from his height far above the clouds.

It was beautiful. It's white surface above him and the cloud tops below. It was like a world he had all to his own, then he went down.

Slamming into the ground like a missile, several nearby husks of buildings toppled around him as a spiderweb crater many meters wide and thick dug into the ground where he landed.

"What is this? How?" He said, raising his hands in front of him, looking at them in shocked awe. Even some unrestrained terror was in his voice.

Only then did he realize that he was in the nude. All of his clothes had been blown to bits after his repeated executions by those monsters. As if a light bulb had gone off in his head, he looked around for the first time.

All around him was destruction. Buildings untouched by him were covered in deep snowfall and torn apart. They were of the kind he was used to being a 20-year-old in the early 2000's, but it had looked like they had gone through a war, a particularly brutal one at that.

First things first, find a river and wash the blood off. Second, find clothes and other humans. Find a safe part of the world.

And so, he set out on his first objective other than surviving ever since he woke up in this strange world.