Total darkness.
A breath—short, ragged, shredded.
Kael lay curled in the frozen shadows of the storage room,
his heart pounding like some distant war drum—
a dull, muffled rhythm,
each beat detonating inside his skull,
each pulse crushing his ribs with brutal insistence.
The night pressed down.
Heavy.
Suffocating.
Alive.
Nothing.
Nothing… except waiting.
And waiting—oh God—was worse than anything.
Then—
A sound.
Tiny.
Muffled.
Barely born.
A knock… against the door?
No.
Not a knock.
A scratch.
Soft. Subtle. Almost tender—
like nails caressing metal, savoring the anticipation of tearing it apart.
Then louder.
Heavier.
Hungrier.
The handle turned.
Slowly.
As if something on the other side tasted each second,
stretching time until it thinned, cracked, broke.
Kael jolted upright.
A violent shiver ripped down his spine.
His teeth clattered uncontrollably.
He clamped a trembling hand over his mouth,
smothering the scream burning at the back of his throat.
The darkness clung to his skin like tar.
His breath rasped too loudly in the cramped air,
each inhale clawing through his chest like broken glass.
His fingers groped through the debris.
They found an object.
A screwdriver.
Rusted. Sticky-handled.
Useless.
Still, he held it like a weapon—
like prayer, like salvation, like the last thin thread tying him to life.
"No… no no no… please, God, please…"
Silence shattered—
CRACK.
Kael screamed—
yet the scream never reached his ears, swallowed by shock.
The door shook.
A bulge pressed outward—
wood swelling like bone about to split.
"Fuck… no… no no no… I have to get out…"
His eyes swept the room.
Faster. Faster.
But nothing.
Collapsed shelves.
Tangled cables.
Dead metal.
Dust.
Rust.
No exit.
He staggered backward.
His hand struck something—
a panel.
A lever.
A button.
Controls.
…Wait.
Controls?
His breath hitched.
Eyes widened.
Shutters.
He lunged forward.
"Yes. YES. FUCKING YES!"
He smashed the button.
Once—twice—three times.
A metallic screech tore through the room—
long, piercing, splitting the air like glass dragged across nerves.
The shutters crawled upward,
millimeter by merciless millimeter,
every click a countdown to either salvation or slaughter.
A blade of light cut across the floor.
Thin.
Timid.
Far too slow.
Behind him—
A breath.
A wet rasp.
A smell.
Rot. Warm rot. Heavy rot.
Death exhaling through the crack.
Then—
BANG!
The door buckled.
Kael stumbled back.
BANG!
The hinges screamed.
BANG!
A shriek—
inhuman, shape-shattering, piercing like rusted metal scraping bone.
Not an animal.
Not a voice.
But a nightmare
learning how to breathe.
"Come on… come on… COME ON, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"
The window—almost open.
Not wide enough.
But rising.
Higher.
Higher.
Light spilled over his face—
cold, white, surgical.
BANG!
The door exploded.
Wood splintered.
Metal bent.
And then the screams.
A wave poured into the room—
bodies too many, too twisted, too wrong:
limbs disproportionate,
eyes red and weeping blood,
maws stretched wide,
teeth gleaming like broken gravestones.
The floor trembled beneath their arrival.
Kael lunged for the window.
Gripped the frame with everything he had.
His legs slipped.
Arms faltered.
But he pulled—
again, and again, and again.
A frozen breath brushed his ankle.
A claw grazed his calf.
A growl unfurled—
right behind his ear.
He heaved himself through.
CLANG.
His shoulders scraped past.
Shutters tore into skin.
Metal screamed against bone.
Then—
Void.
Air.
Wind.
A heartbeat held between heaven and hell.
And impact—
BOOM.
A container buckled beneath him,
metal crumpling like tin.
Pain detonated through his body.
His ankle wailed—
but held.
He gasped.
Alive.
Still alive.
No time.
A roar split the air—
raw, ravenous, ruinous.
Kael froze.
His eyes swept the courtyard—
And he saw—
Hell.
The university had become a slaughter pit.
Car wrecks burning.
Flames clawing at the night.
Shadows raging across the ruins.
Monsters.
Everywhere.
Some already tearing into humans—
screaming silhouettes ripped apart piece by piece,
an arm flung aside,
a skull shattered against concrete.
"HELP ME!"
A man staggered forward—
soaked in blood, hands reaching.
"Please—!"
A monstrous mass struck him down.
Crushed him.
Tore him open.
His voice dissolved into a wet, choking gargle.
Kael pressed himself deeper into the wreckage,
teeth chattering so hard they might shatter,
eyes burning with tears he couldn't stop.
"Fuck… fuck no…"
Then—
A howl behind him.
The window—
shattered.
Twisted figures forced themselves through the broken frame,
jamming, writhing, spilling through.
They were coming.
Following.
Leaping.
One by one.
CRACK!
The first landed—legs snapping, bending—
then straightened anyway, jaw drooling blood.
BOOM!
Another—bigger—
fell onto a corpse, crushing it flat.
Kael screamed silently.
Move.
Move Kael—MOVE.
He staggered from cover, limping.
Every step set fire to his broken ankle.
Around him—
massacre.
Monsters shredded each other apart—
fangs against fangs,
claws against claws.
Some shrieked.
Others laughed—
a cracked, corpse-dry laughter
from throats no longer shaped for joy.
In the middle—
humans.
Still standing.
Barely.
A woman swung a metal bar.
"BACK OFF, YOU FUCKER!"
She struck—
once, twice, thrice.
Until a massive hand tore her face away
in a single, horrific swipe.
Kael recoiled.
Nearly vomited.
Nearly fell.
The pursuers surged forward—
diving into the carnage,
adding madness to madness.
The butchery swelled—
a banquet of screams and blood.
Kael staggered back.
He clutched the screwdriver,
knuckles bone-white.
"I have to… I have to… move… survive…"
But where?
Where?
The world was a maze of murder—
every step a trap,
every breath a threat.
And in the center of the chaos—
a symbol.
Floating.
Glowing.
Cruel.
[ 82%... ]
Kael froze.
Vertigo crashed over him.
His heart detonated inside his chest.
"No… not that… not now…"
And he understood—
with a quiet, crushing certainty:
This wasn't the end.
It was only the beginning.
The game hadn't even started yet.