The afternoon sun shining high above the city center. It cast long and sharp shadows against the glass facades of the skyscrapers.
It was a Tuesday. A mundane and suffocatingly ordinary Tuesday.
Alvian adjusted the strap of his backpack. His eyes scanned the crowd with a habitual wariness.
Beside him, Flora was humming a tune. Her steps were light and bouncing.
She was sixteen. Two years younger than him. But she still possessed a vibrancy that Alvian felt he had lost years ago.
"Alvian, look! The bubble tea shop has a queue. We should grab some."
Flora pointed. Her eyes curved into crescents as she smiled.
Alvian sighed. He feigned annoyance, though his gaze softened when he looked at her.
"We have food at home, Flo. Don't waste money."
"You're such an old man," she teased. She grabbed his sleeve and tugged him slightly. "Just one? Please? I'll do the dishes for a week."
Alvian opened his mouth to reply. He would probably give in as he always did.
But the words never left his throat.
A sound ripped through the atmosphere. It sounded like the tearing of a colossal sheet of canvas.
It wasn't a boom or an explosion. It was the sickening and high-pitched screech of reality being forcibly separated.
The bustling noise of the city vanished instantly. The honking cars, the chatter of pedestrians, the hum of the electronic billboards. All replaced by a heavy and oppressive silence.
Alvian looked up.
The sky had broken.
A jagged and purple-black rift stretched across the azure dome. It bled into the atmosphere. It pulsed like a fresh wound.
From within that abyssal tear, droplets began to fall.
They weren't clear like water. They were viscous and glowing with a sickly neon hue. Some green, some violet.
They fell in slow motion and defied the laws of physics. Then they accelerated toward the ground.
(What is that?)
Alvian's mind stuttered.
(Is this a movie shoot? A hologram?)
"Alvian?"
Flora's voice trembled. Her grip on his sleeve tightened until her knuckles turned white.
"Don't move," Alvian whispered. His instinct screamed at him.
Splat.
A single drop of the glowing liquid landed on the hood of a taxi stopped at the red light just ten meters away.
Hiss.
The metal didn't just melt. It bubbled. It groaned. The yellow paint shifted and turned into something organic. Something resembling flesh.
Then, the rain began in earnest. The Genesis Rain.
It didn't just fall. It bombarded the city.
High above, a commercial airliner was descending toward the city airport. Alvian watched, frozen, as the rain cloud engulfed the plane.
There was no explosion at first. Instead, the engines made a choking sound. Like a beast drowning in its own blood. The metal wings seemed to spasm.
BOOM!
The fuselage twisted violently. Mutated birds smashed into the cockpit and turbines. Massive, bulbous things that had been struck by the rain mid-flight.
The plane lost all lift. It didn't glide. It plummeted like a stone.
It smashed into the side of the Zenith Tower, a forty-story glass obelisk.
The impact was deafening.
Tons of concrete, burning jet fuel, and shattered glass rained down onto the streets three blocks away.
The shockwave knocked Alvian and Flora off their feet.
"Get up!" Alvian roared.
The spell of confusion broke. He scrambled to his feet and ignored the ringing in his ears. He grabbed Flora's hand.
"We need to find cover! Now!"
The intersection before them had turned into a slaughterhouse.
The drivers inside their cars. They weren't screaming in fear. They were screaming in transformation.
Alvian saw a city bus driver. The windshield of the bus had shattered. It allowed the Genesis Rain to soak the man inside.
The driver's body convulsed. His arms were still gripping the steering wheel. They began to elongate. His skin split open, revealing raw and red muscle that pulsed and expanded rapidly.
Crack!
The sound of bones breaking was audible even over the chaos.
The driver's jaw unhinged. It split vertically down his neck. His arms fused with the steering wheel. Flesh merged with plastic and metal.
"Roar!"
The thing that used to be a driver slammed its foot down. The bus lurched forward and plowed through a crowded pedestrian crosswalk.
People didn't have time to run. The sound of metal crushing bone was wet and sickening.
The bus smashed into a storefront and buried itself in debris. But the engine kept revving. The mutated driver thrashed against its mechanical prison.
"Oh my god, oh my god."
Flora was hyperventilating. Tears streamed down her face.
"Don't look at it!"
Alvian pulled her. He dragged her toward the entrance of a subway station.
"Underground! We need to go underground!"
(The rain is the catalyst. Don't let it touch you.)
Alvian pulled his jacket over his head. He shielded Flora as best as he could.
They ran past a woman walking her dog. A golden retriever.
The dog was whining and pawing at its snout. A drop of the neon rain had landed on its nose.
"Buddy? What's wrong?" the woman asked. Her voice trembled.
The dog stopped whining. It looked up.
Its eyes had multiplied. Four, then six, then eight red orbs crowded its skull.
Its golden fur fell out in clumps. It revealed gray and scaly skin underneath. Its snout elongated and rows of serrated teeth erupted from its gums.
Snap!
In one fluid motion, the mutated beast lunged. It didn't bark. It made a chittering sound like an insect.
It clamped its jaws around the woman's throat.
Blood sprayed across the pavement. It was hot and bright red.
Flora screamed.
Alvian didn't hesitate. He didn't try to save the woman. He shoved Flora forward and forced her to run faster.
(Predator. Prey. That thing is a predator now.)
The thought was cold and alien. But it kept his legs moving.
Above them, the sky darkened further.
A cloud descended. Not of rain, but of wings. Pigeons. Thousands of them.
But they were wrong. Their beaks were like steel needles. Their wings comprised of razor-sharp bone shards.
They descended on a group of fleeing civilians like a dark blanket.
"Help! Get them off!"
"My eyes! Ahhh!"
The swarm stripped the flesh from the people in seconds. Only bloodied skeletons collapsed onto the asphalt.
"Here! In here!"
Alvian kicked open the door to a convenience store. He shoved Flora inside.
It wasn't the subway, but the street was a death trap.
He slammed the glass door shut and locked it. A futile gesture, he knew. But it felt necessary.
The ground beneath them shuddered.
Rumble...
"Is it an earthquake?"
Flora huddled against a shelf of potato chips. Her body shook uncontrollably.
"No," Alvian said. His face was pale. "It's the sewers."
The bio-matter had seeped into the storm drains. Down in the dark, millions of rats, cockroaches, and bacterial colonies were feasting on the cosmic energy.
BANG!
A manhole cover in the middle of the street shot into the air like an artillery shell.
Green and noxious fumes vented from the opening. A nearby runner inhaled the gas.
He choked and clutched his throat. His lungs seemingly melted from the inside out. He collapsed and foamed at the mouth with pink froth.
Then, the rats came out.
They were the size of dogs. Their fur was matted with slime. Their incisors were long enough to pierce a car tire.
They poured out of the cracked asphalt. A tidal wave of vermin.
"We can't stay here," Alvian realized. He looked at the thin glass door. "The back exit. We need to find a solid building."
Just then, the power grid died.
A falling piece of debris crushed the nearby substation. Maybe a part of the plane, maybe a meteor.
Sparks showered the wet street. Live high-voltage cables whipped through the air like angry snakes. They landed in the puddles formed by the Genesis Rain.
Zap!
Dozens of people running through the water stiffened. Their bodies smoked as thousands of volts cooked them instantly.
The smell of ozone mixed with the stench of burnt hair and copper blood filled the air.
"Police! Get down!"
A siren wailed nearby. Two police cruisers screeched to a halt at the intersection. They drifted through the wet slime.
"Thank god," Flora sobbed. "Alvian, the police are here!"
Alvian looked through the glass. Hope flared in his chest. Hot and desperate.
(They have guns. They can stop this.)
Four officers stepped out. Weapons drawn. They aimed at the woman-eating dog and the giant rats.
"Fire!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The gunshots rang out. Rhythmic and loud.
The bullets hit the mutated dog.
Ping. Ping.
They sparked.
The bullets didn't penetrate. They bounced off the gray and chitinous armor that had replaced the dog's skin.
The creature didn't even flinch. It turned its multi-eyed gaze toward the officers.
The officers froze.
"It... it didn't work," one officer stammered.
From the rift in the sky, something massive dropped. It landed on top of the lead police cruiser. The roof was crushed flat.
It was a Xenid Scavenger.
A bipedal nightmare. It stood three meters tall. It looked like a cross between a praying mantis and a knight in jagged armor.
Its forelimbs were scythes of bone. Dripping with green ichor.
The creature shrieked. A sound that vibrated in Alvian's teeth.
The Scavenger lunged. It moved faster than the human eye could follow.
Slash.
The lead officer was severed at the waist. His top half slid off his bottom half with a wet thud.
The other officers panicked. They fired wildly.
The Scavenger didn't care. It swatted them aside like flies. Its bladed limbs tore through Kevlar vests and flesh alike.
"They're dead," Alvian whispered. "They're all dead."
(There is no rescue. There is no help.)
Wait.
A paramedic ambulance had stopped near the rubble. A heroic medic was trying to drag a civilian into the back of the van. The civilian's skin was turning purple.
"Stay with me!" the paramedic shouted.
The civilian's chest heaved.
"Run away!" Alvian shouted. He pounded on the glass, though they couldn't hear him. "He's infected!"
The civilian's chest burst open. Not a heart attack. A mutation rejection.
Ribs sharpened into spikes exploded outward. They impaled the paramedic through the neck.
The medic gurgled. He fell on top of the patient who had just killed him.
"Alvian..." Flora's voice was barely a whisper. "Look."
Alvian turned.
The glass door of the convenience store shattered.
Not from the outside. But from the pressure of the Xenid Scavenger stepping through the frame.
It had seen them.
Alvian's heart stopped.
The creature was massive. Up close, it smelled of ammonia and rotting meat. Its compound eyes twitched. It focused on the two trembling teenagers.
"Run to the back!" Alvian screamed.
He grabbed a metal rack of canned soup and threw it at the monster.
The rack hit the creature's carapace and clattered uselessly to the floor. The monster didn't even blink.
It raised a scythe-arm.
Alvian didn't think. He didn't calculate.
He just moved.
He threw himself in front of Flora and spread his arms.
"Go! Flora, GO!"
But Flora was frozen. Fear had severed the connection between her brain and her legs. She stood there crying. Looking at the monster.
"No..."
The Xenid Scavenger struck.
It wasn't aimed at Alvian. The creature simply backhanded Alvian. A lazy swat to remove an annoyance.
The force was like being hit by a truck.
Alvian flew across the store. He smashed into the refrigerated drinks section. Glass exploded.
Pain erupted in his chest. White-hot and blinding. He slumped to the floor and gasped for air that wouldn't come.
His ribs were shattered. He could feel blood filling his lungs.
Through the haze of pain, he looked up.
"Flora..."
The monster stood over his sister.
Flora looked at Alvian. Her eyes were wide and filled with a terrified plea. "Big brother?"
Thwack.
The sound was dull. Final.
The Xenid Scavenger's scythe pierced Flora's chest. It lifted her off the ground effortlessly. Like a doll on a skewer.
Alvian's world went silent.
The chaos outside, the sirens, the screams. It all vanished.
All he saw was the red stain spreading on Flora's white shirt. The light fading from her eyes. The bubble tea keychain on her backpack dangling and swinging back and forth.
"NOOOOO!"
The scream tore from Alvian's throat. Ragged and bloody.
Adrenaline flooded his dying body. Toxic and overwhelming.
He ignored his shattered ribs. He ignored the crushed organs.
He lunged.
He threw himself at the monster and grabbed its scaly leg with his bare hands.
He bit down. He punched. He clawed.
"Let her go! LET HER GO!"
The Xenid Scavenger looked down at the human clinging to its leg. It seemed amused.
It chittered.
Then, it struck Alvian.
The tip of its other scythe drove straight into Alvian's chest. Piercing his heart.
Squelch.
Cold.
Ice cold fluid was injected into him. Necrotic alien venom.
The monster shook its leg and flung Alvian's limp body against the wall.
Alvian slid down. He left a smear of bright red blood.
He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. His heart had a hole in it.
The venom was spreading. Burning his veins like acid.
He lay there. His head lolled to the side.
He watched.
He watched the monster lower Flora's lifeless body to its mandibles.
He watched it tear.
He watched it eat.
(I failed.)
(I promised mom. I promised I'd protect her.)
(She's dead.)
(I'm dead.)
Grief should have been the last thing he felt. Sorrow. Despair.
But as the venom reached his brain, something else happened.
The Apex Anomaly hidden in his DNA woke up. A dormant sequence waiting for this exact frequency of cosmic energy.
A sound chimed in the depths of his consciousness. Not a sound from the outside world, but a digital, crisp notification ringing in his soul.
[Ding!]
[System Initializing...]
[Detection: Fatal Trauma to Cardiac Organ.]
[Detection: Hostile Necrotic Venom entering bloodstream.]
[Apex Anomaly Activated.]
[Booting Subconscious Biological Supercomputer...]
Alvian's vision was fading to black. But the text burned bright blue in the darkness.
[Directive: SURVIVE.]
[Analyzing Threat: Venom is comprised of high-grade bio-degradation enzymes.]
[Counter-Measure: Cannibalize.]
[Action: Repurposing Venom for Cellular Fuel.]
The burning in his veins changed. It stopped being pain and became energy.
Alvian's body convulsed.
His cells didn't die. They got angry. They aggressively attacked the alien venom. Stripping it of its genetic data and using the raw energy to knit his body back together.
His heart pierced and bleeding began to stitch itself shut. Not with scar tissue, but with something denser. Something stronger.
[Mutation Acquired: Lesser Venom Resistance]
[Mutation Acquired: Cellular Regeneration Level 1]
Alvian gasped. His lungs sucked in air with a ragged and wet sound.
His ribs, shattered moments ago, ground against each other.
Crack. Snap. Fuse.
The bones didn't just heal. They thickened. They fused together into a solid plate to protect the vital organs.
[Mutation Acquired: Rigid Bone Marrow]
The healing wasn't gentle. It was violent. It was agonizing. It was a forced evolution compressed into seconds.
Alvian's fingers scraped against the linoleum floor. His nails cracked and bled, then regrew harder.
The tears on his face dried up.
He looked at the monster. It was still eating.
A moment ago, Alvian wanted to cry. He wanted to scream in mourning.
But now?
The grief was there, but it was being shoved into a box. A heavy and iron box deep in his mind.
The System suppressed the emotion. His new biological imperative.
Grief was inefficient. Grief wasted calories. Tears were merely water loss.
(Flora is gone.)
The thought was factual. Cold.
(Only the strong get to keep breathing.)
Alvian's eyes opened fully. The warmth was gone from them. The brotherly love was gone.
What replaced it was the cold and vertical pupil of a predator.
He slowly pushed himself up from the pool of his own blood. His chest felt heavy. Armored by his own mutated bones.
He looked at the Xenid Scavenger.
He didn't see a monster anymore.
He saw biomass. He saw fuel.
[Target Identified: Xenid Scavenger.]
[Analysis: High concentration of Biomass.]
[Hunger Levels: Critical.]
Alvian stood up.
"Hey," he whispered. His voice was raspy and distorted.
The monster stopped chewing. It turned around. Seemingly confused that the small human was standing again.
Alvian cracked his neck.
"You're not finished yet."