Chapter 1: Thirteen Seconds"Ethan, listen to me. Don't hang up. Whatever happens, don't hang up.""Lena, it's midnight. What's wrong?""I can't explain. Just stay on the—"The phone went black in his hand.So did the lamp, the fridge, the whole city. Ethan stood in the dark with his sister's voice still in his ear."Lena? Lena!"Nothing. He counted because he had to do something. *One. Two. Three.* Horns erupted below. At *nine*, a woman screamed. At *thirteen*, the phone lit up in his palm.Her name on the screen. NO SERVICE.He called again. Again. Again."Pick up. Please, pick up."Outside, people stood frozen in the road, faces tilted skyward. Ethan looked up too.Something black covered the stars. No edges. No sound. Something *built*, hanging over Meridian City like a lid.Then it vanished, and a blue window opened inches from his face.**[NAME: ETHAN VALE]****[CLASS: UNAWAKENED]****[SURVIVAL TIME: 100 DAYS]****[NOTICE: THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN.]**Beneath it, numbers ran. 9

Chapter 3: Vanishing Point"Don't answer it," Marcus said. "Ethan. Step away from the phone."Ethan's hand hovered over the receiver. It had been ringing on the abandoned desk for ninety seconds, long past the point where a machine should have stopped."Someone's calling," he said. "Someone's *alive* out there.""Or someone's listening for who picks up." Marcus caught his wrist. "Last night you told me they hunt by sound. You want to test whether that includes phones?"The ringing cut off mid-note.Neither of them moved.Behind them, the survivors stood in the gray morning light that smoke had turned the color of ash. Five people. One toddler. One clerk with a bandaged shoulder who hadn't stopped shaking since the alley. The mother, Dana, had given her name an hour ago. Nobody had asked for it. She'd just needed someone to know it."Fourteenth floor," Marcus said quietly. "Every desk looks the same. Coffee still warm on that one. Lunch half eaten on that one. Nobody packed. Nobody ran

Chapter 5: Dead Weight"Leave him."Pete said it flat, like he was reading a price.Dana pulled her son closer. "Excuse me?""Eli can't run. He bleeds through every bandage." Pete jabbed a finger at the clerk, who sat gray-faced against the wall. "One man slows us down, we all die. Do the math.""I'm right here," Eli whispered."I know. I'm sorry.""You're not sorry," Ethan said. "You're scared.""Damn right I'm scared! Four cans of beans. Half a bottle of water. Tomorrow we're empty." Pete turned on Marcus. "You've done triage. You know I'm right.""Triage decides who gets treated first," Marcus said. "Not who gets thrown away.""Same thing out there.""Not in my group.""It's not your group." Pete's eyes slid to Ethan. "And it's sure as hell not his. Nobody made him boss."It landed, because it was true. Ethan had no title, no training, and no right to decide whether a man lived."Nobody's being left," he said anyway."Then tell me how we eat."Ethan slapped the map on the floor. "

Chapter 7: Borrowed Time*Click.*It came from under the rubble, soft and patient."It's alive," Pete breathed. "Marcus, it's still alive.""Back up. Everyone, back up."Ethan didn't move. Blue text had split the dust in front of his eyes.**[EVOLVED CARRION BEAST DEFEATED.]**The slab near the bottom stopped shifting.The clicking came again, but from a rooftop across the street. A different creature, a different voice. Whatever lay under the concrete was silent."Ethan." Marcus gripped his arm. "Your face. What are you looking at?"*Nothing.* The word was already in his mouth. He swallowed it.**[APOCALYPSE TIME ACQUIRED: 17 MINUTES.]**Ethan stopped breathing.The numbers in the corner of his vision had been falling for seven days, steady as a heartbeat. He had learned to feel them without looking, the way a prisoner learns the shape of a cell.They had just gone *up.***[93 DAYS, 1 HOUR, 41 MINUTES]**He read it again. Then again. His hands began to shake."Is it dead?" Dana whis

Chapter 9: Burning Proof"Don't shoot! I'm not one of them!"The man stumbled through the pharmacy's side door with both hands raised, soot on his face, one sleeve burned to the elbow. Pete's pipe came up. Marcus's crowbar came up faster."Stop right there," Marcus said. "Name.""Cole. Cole Brandt. I walked four miles to find you." He swallowed. "Your fire's visible from the overpass. Someone's cooking.""We're not cooking," Dana said. "We haven't lit anything since Tuesday."Cole glanced at the dead candle on the shelf. Then at Pete's pipe. Then at the toddler."Everybody's wrong about what's out there," he said. "It's not just monsters. I can show you.""Show us what?" Pete snapped. "You're a liar or a corpse."Cole lifted his right hand, palm up.A flame bloomed above it. No lighter. No fuel. It simply *was*, bright and orange, bending the shadows across the shelves.Nobody breathed."That's a trick," Pete whispered. "That's a trick."The fire grew to the size of a fist. Dana's so