The morning came slow and pale, spilling gray light through the ruined forest. Smoke still drifted between the trees. Ash floated in the air like snow. The ground was cracked, steaming in thin white lines that hissed quietly as they cooled.Lisa stood at the edge of what had once been their camp. The clearing was nothing but a scorched pit now, burned black from the night before. The smell of earth and metal filled the air.She rubbed her hands together, eyes red from no sleep. Kevin sat on a log behind her, silent, staring at the smoke. Derek’s rifle leaned against a rock nearby, the last trace of the man who hadn’t made it through the night.Around them, only four other survivors had returned from the forest, tired, trembling, faces marked with soot.They looked at Lisa the way people looked at someone they weren’t sure was still sane. No one spoke for a while. The world was too quiet. Even the birds had stopped. Finally, Kevin broke the silence. “He’s not dead.”Lisa turned. “Kev

Lisa woke to silence. Her head throbbed, her mouth dry as dust. When she tried to move, her arm brushed against stone, slick and warm. For a long moment she lay still, afraid to open her eyes. The air was heavy and thick with the smell of rust.Then she remembered the fall. The ground splitting, the light, Jonah’s hand reaching for hers, then nothing. Her eyes snapped open.Above her stretched a ceiling so vast she could not see where it ended. It shimmered faintly with a red glow, the same hue that had haunted them since the forest. Strange shapes hung from it, roots or wires, glowing like veins. She realized she was lying in a shallow pool of water that glowed faintly from below. “Lisa?”The voice came from somewhere close. She pushed herself up quickly. Kevin was kneeling nearby, holding his flashlight.The beam cut across the space, flashing against twisted metal and broken walls. “Are you okay?” she asked.He nodded shakily. “I think so. My leg hurts, but I can move it.”Lisa’s

Jonah floated in the dark. There was no ground, no air, no sound of breathing. Only a vast red sky turning slowly above him, and a city hanging upside down in the distance. The buildings were broken, hanging by threads of light. He reached out, but his hand passed through them like smoke. The Hive had no shape, but it had a memory, his memory.Every step he took, the ground formed under his feet: burning streets, shattered windows, the old city he once knew. He walked through it in silence, the world flickering like fire seen through water. The more he walked, the more the city changed. Faces appeared in the smoke, Lisa’s, Kevin’s, the people he failed to save. Their eyes watched him, unblinking. “Jonah,” they whispered.He turned toward the sound. A voice rose from the mist, soft, warm, familiar. “You did this for them,” it said. “You wanted to protect. You wanted peace.”Jonah clenched his fists. “No. You’re not her.”The mist thickened, forming into Lisa’s shape. Her smile was g

Everyone froze, catching their breath. Kevin clung to Lisa, crying quietly. Rae lowered her gun, her hands shaking. “What the hell was that?”Ellis wiped sweat from his face. “Hive spawn. But… it looked like it was burning inside.”Lisa looked at the pile of glowing ash. “Because Jonah’s fire is still in them. He’s fighting through them.”Rae stared at her. “You don’t know that.”Lisa met her eyes. “Yes, I do.”The creature’s ashes still glowed on the floor when the silence fell again. No one spoke for a long moment. The faint hum of the tunnels seemed louder now, like a heartbeat coming from under the ground.Rae checked her rifle and exhaled shakily. “That thing wasn’t just Hive,” she muttered. “It moved like it was alive, but its body. ”“Was burning from the inside,” Lisa finished quietly. She stared at the fading ash. “Jonah’s still fighting them. He’s inside the Hive somehow, turning its own things against it.”Ellis crouched near the remains, eyes half-narrowed. “Then maybe ev

The wind rose without warning. One moment the night was still, and the next it was roaring like a living thing.Lisa woke first. She sat up inside the overturned truck, heart racing. The air hummed like electricity. Outside, the red fog had thickened, swirling across the ground in heavy waves. Each gust carried tiny sparks that glowed when they touched metal. “Rae,” Lisa whispered. “Wake up.”Rae stirred, then frowned. “It’s starting again, isn’t it?”Lisa nodded. Kevin was already awake, his small face lit faintly by the glow outside. He was staring out the window. “Lisa… it’s calling.”The words chilled her. “What’s calling, Kevin?”He didn’t blink. “The fire.”Before she could ask more, the ground began to shake. The metal shell of the truck groaned. Ellis hit his head trying to sit up. “What the hell?”The red storm hit them like a wave. Lightning slammed into the street, carving long, glowing lines through the concrete. The sky split open with light so bright it turned everythi