The air felt cold. Too cold. Lukas gasped, his lungs burning as if he had just inhaled liquid nitrogen. He scrambled backward, his spine slamming against the hard wooden floorboards of his bedroom. The damp darkness of the ruined bunker, the smell of rotting concrete, and the sound of his own blood dripping onto the floor were gone.He blinked. The pale morning light filtered through thin curtains, casting long, dusty shadows across his room. His heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird."This isn't real," he rasped, his voice sounding thin and foreign in the quiet.He stared at his hands. They were unscarred. No calluses from months of desperate survival, no jagged bite marks from the infected. He reached out and touched the nightstand. The wood was solid. He stood up, his legs shaking violently, and walked toward the full-length mirror leaning against the wall. A younger version of himself stared back. The hollow eyes and the graying hair of his end-time persona were gone

1"Reincarnate," the creature boomed. "The System wants your head."Lukas felt the hair on his arms stand up. His instincts screamed for him to move. He shoved Serena toward the narrow gap behind the stairwell railing. She tumbled back, gasping, her eyes wide with shock as the armored monster swung its greatsword.The blade smashed into the concrete where Lukas had been standing a second before. Sparks showered the stairwell like hot rain. The impact left a jagged crater in the wall."Move!" Lukas roared at Serena.He didn't wait for her to obey. He lunged forward, ignoring the burning ache in his lungs. He swung the heavy fire extinguisher with everything he had left. It connected with the creature’s armored knee. The metal casing of the extinguisher dented, but the creature barely staggered. It was too dense, too heavy.The beast raised its sword for a downward strike. Lukas threw himself to the side, rolling over the debris of the ruined door. He scrambled up, his heart hammering a

Vell’s hand rested on the leather holster at his hip. His fingers drummed a slow, rhythmic beat against the fabric. The man looked at the pile of crates, then at the glowing orb Lukas had just claimed, and finally at the bloodied mess of the Guardian. His eyes held a predatory calm that sent a chill down Lukas’s spine. Behind Vell stood three men, all of them armed with heavy iron pipes and makeshift knives."You heard the man, Vell," Lukas said, his voice steady despite the adrenaline screaming through his nerves. He slowly stood up, placing himself between Vell and Serena. "We found this. It is ours."Vell chuckled, a low and raspy sound that echoed against the concrete walls. He stepped over the carcass of the Guardian, his boots crunching on broken glass. "Ours? That is a funny word for a scavenger to use. In this new world, things do not belong to the people who find them. They belong to the people who can keep them."Serena shifted behind Lukas. Her hand gripped a sharp piece of

The armored figure tore through the haze of smoke like a wrecking ball. It ignored the guards writhing on the electrified floor, its gaze fixed solely on Lukas. The monster was seven feet of plated iron and malice, its glowing eyes pulsing with an unnatural rhythm that made Lukas’s heart skip a beat. It swung a massive, jagged cleaver that whistled through the air, cleaving a concrete pillar in two as if it were soft clay.Lukas threw himself beneath the swing. He felt the wind of the blade ruffle his hair. He rolled across the floor, his shoulder slamming into a crate of ammunition. He didn't look back. He scrambled to his feet, his lungs searing as he searched for an opening."Sofia!" Lukas shouted, knowing she was likely already in the vents, but hoping to draw the monster's attention. "Get out of here!"The monster didn't care about Sofia. It turned its massive frame, its boots crunching on the shattered tiles, and prepared to charge again. Lukas looked toward the door. Vell was p

The metal screamed again as the warehouse door groaned inward. A massive dent appeared in the center of the iron shutter, shaped exactly like a heavy shoulder. Lukas grabbed a rusted pipe from the floor and wedged it into the barricade, his teeth gritted. The wood and metal stack shuddered under the sheer weight of the creatures outside."They are not going to stop," Serena said, her voice shaking as she backed away from the entrance. She clutched a heavy flashlight with both hands. "There are too many of them, Lukas. We have to find another way out."Lukas scanned the dark interior of the warehouse. He saw the rafters, high above, and the long, dark shadows of the ventilation shafts. "There is a ladder in the back corner. We have to climb. If we stay on the ground floor, we are just waiting to be cornered."A loud crack echoed through the room. The iron shutter finally yielded. The barricade of crates and pallets exploded outward as a wave of pale, spindly creatures poured into the r