2025-03-07 00:36:38The rhythmic tapping of rain against the kitchen window was oddly soothing as Ben Carter rinsed the last plate from his dinner. Life had been strange since the train explosion—a disaster he still couldn’t fully wrap his head around.
How he survived such a ghastly accident still didn't make sense to him. A miracle, one would say, but that ' miracle' had come with consequences - more weird things he could not understand. His hearing had become unnaturally sharp. Sometimes, if he focused too hard, he’d hear strange vibrations in the air, almost like a pulse only he could feel. Ben set the plate on the drying rack and leaned against the counter, wiping his damp hands on a dish towel. The rain outside intensified, thunder rumbling faintly in the distance. He reached for his coffee mug when something caught his attention—a faint noise from upstairs. It wasn’t the normal creaks of an aging house settling. No, this sound was deliberate, almost rhythmic. Like footsteps. He froze, the mug halfway to his lips, straining his ears. Nothing. Maybe it was his imagination. Or maybe not. Ben gently set the mug down and grabbed a flashlight from a drawer. He switched it on. The beam of light cut through the dimly lit house as he made his way toward the stairs. Each step creaked under his weight, the sound amplified in the otherwise silent home. At the top of the stairs, he paused, his heart beginning to race. The hallway stretched before him, lined with doors leading to the bedroom, bathroom, and storage closet. The noise came again, this time from his bedroom. A low, scraping sound, like nails dragging against wood. “Hello?” he called, his voice tentative. There was no answer. Ben’s grip tightened on the flashlight as he approached the door. It was slightly ajar, swaying gently as if disturbed by a draft. “Who’s there?” he asked, his voice firmer now, though fear crept into his tone. He pushed the door open with his foot, the hinges groaning. The flashlight beam swept across the room, illuminating the bed, the dresser, and the closet. Everything seemed in place, but the sense of wrongness lingered, settling over him like a heavy fog. Then he heard it—a guttural growl, low and menacing. Ben's heart skipped a beat. He turned sharply toward the corner of the room with the flashlight trembling in his hand. Something moved in the shadows, its outline barely visible. At first, he thought it might be a dog, but as it shifted closer, he realized how wrong he was. The thing was crouched low, its elongated limbs ending in jagged claws that glinted in the light. Its body was a grotesque combination of muscle and sinew, and its eyes burned a sickly yellow, locking onto him with an unnatural intensity. Ben stumbled back, his breath catching in his throat. “What the hell…” The creature lunged forward without warning, moving faster than anything he’d ever seen. Its claws raked across his arm as he threw himself to the side, crashing into the dresser. Pain shot through him, hot and sharp, as blood began to seep from the gash. The flashlight clattered to the floor, its beam casting wild, disorienting shadows. Ben scrambled to his feet, clutching his injured arm. The creature turned, its movements unnaturally fluid, and let out a snarl that rattled in his chest. It charged again, and he barely dodged, its claws narrowly missing his face. The ringing in his ears started, louder and more intense than ever before. His vision blurred slightly as the sound grew, resonating through his skull. He clutched his head, trying to drown it out, but the vibrations began to ripple outward, distorting the air around him. The creature hesitated, its glowing eyes narrowing as it tilted its head, confused by the strange phenomenon. Ben didn’t understand it either, but he seized the moment, raising his uninjured hand instinctively. A wave of sound burst from him, a force so powerful that it knocked the creature back into the wall. The drywall cracked under the impact, and the creature let out a piercing shriek. Ben stared at his trembling hand, disbelief washing over him. He didn’t have time to process what had happened before the creature recovered, its snarl deeper and more guttural. It lunged at him again, faster this time, and Ben’s second blast of sonic energy was weaker, unfocused. The creature shrugged it off and slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. The air left his lungs as the weight of the monster pinned him down. He struggled, thrashing beneath the creature as its claws tore into his shoulder. The pain was excruciating, white-hot and unrelenting. His hands trembled, trying to summon another burst of power, but his strength was fading fast. Ben kicked out with his legs, managing to knock the creature off balance for a split second. He rolled away, grabbing the overturned flashlight. The beam illuminated the creature’s grotesque face, its yellow eyes glaring with primal fury. Ben swung the flashlight with all his might, striking the creature’s head. The impact stunned it briefly, and Ben scrambled to his feet, clutching his bleeding arm. He backed toward the door, his breathing ragged, his mind racing. The vibrations in his head grew stronger again with the sound building to an almost unbearable crescendo. Desperation took over. He closed his eyes and focused, channeling all his energy into one final blast. The sonic wave erupted from him, shaking the walls and shattering the bedroom window. The creature was thrown backward, crashing into the closet door. For a moment, it lay still, and Ben dared to hope it was over. But the creature stirred, its movements slow and deliberate. It rose to its feet, its claws scraping against the floor as it let out a guttural growl. Ben’s legs gave out, and he collapsed against the doorframe, his vision swimming. The creature stalked toward him with its eyes glowing brighter, and its movements predatory. Ben’s strength was gone, his powers drained. He tried to crawl away, but his limbs refused to cooperate. Blood pooled beneath him, his breaths shallow and labored. The creature loomed over him, its jagged claws raised for the final blow. Ben’s vision blurred, as the world around him faded away.
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Chapter 21
The air was colder in the lower levels of NovaTech labs. Alisha Carr descended the final steel staircase without a word, the echo of her footsteps swallowed by the thick concrete walls and layers of electromagnetic shielding that blocked all forms of external tracking.This was a place built to be invisible. No lights marked its entrance, no signs pointed the way. Only she knew this path, and only one person waited at the end of it.A heavy pressure door slid open with a hydraulic hiss, revealing a dimly lit chamber filled with slow-blinking monitors and pulsating interface lights. At the center of the room stood a large pod, glass-fronted and cylindrical, framed by steel support arms and biometric stabilizers. Inside, suspended in a pale blue fluid, was a humanoid figure. He was tall and slender, his skin faintly luminous with a soft silver tint. His eyes were closed, his features peaceful, though the faintest furrow remained between his brows.
Chapter 20
The museum’s shadow stretched long across the empty street as Dan leaned against his motorcycle, the engine cold between his legs. He had been waiting for hours, his back pressed against the brick wall of a closed café, watching the entrance through the scope of a pair of stolen binoculars. The night air was thick with the scent of rain-soaked pavement and distant exhaust. He shouldn’t have been here. He should have been back at the hideout, helping Riley decrypt more files, or with Felix, tracking the other survivors. But something about Rico Vega had gnawed at him—the way the man had lied so smoothly, the way his fingers had twitched when Dan mentioned ‘things that don’t make sense’. So he followed him. Now, as the minutes turned into hours, doubt crept in. ‘What if I’m wrong?’ The thought was like a splinter under his skin. He exhaled, rubbing his hands together to ward off the chill. His gloves were fraying at the
Chapter 19
The hideout’s single bulb flickered as Felix slammed the newspaper onto the table, its brittle pages splayed open like a wound. Riley looked up from her monitors, Viktor from his weapon cleaning. The air smelled of burnt coffee and gun oil. "Explain," Viktor said, not looking at the headline yet. Felix’s hands shook. He had been holding the paper since the subway ride over, since he saw the date change. His reflection in the train window had looked like a ghost’s. Riley reached for it first. ARMAGEDDON AS ALIEN INVASION ROCKS SEAL CITY.The same words. The same photos of crumbling skyscrapers, of bodies in the streets. But the date— "November ninth," she whispered. Viktor’s chair screeched as he stood. "That’s—" "Three weeks sooner, yeah." Felix pulled out the piece of paper where he had written the initial date and showed it to them, ‘November thirtieth,’ a different date. The silence that followe
Chapter 18
The North End apartments were quiet in the late afternoon, the kind of place where people kept to themselves. Dan pulled his hood down as he approached Rico’s unit, the weight of the future pressing against his ribs. He glanced over his shoulder, scanning the empty parking lot, the curtained windows of neighboring units. No black vans. No figures lurking in the shadows. Just the hum of a distant television and the occasional bark of a dog down the street. He knocked twice, firm but not urgent. Footsteps approached from inside—slow, cautious. The peephole darkened for a second before the door cracked open, held in place by a chain. A pair of sharp brown eyes studied him. "Yeah?" Dan kept his hands visible. "Rico Vega?" The door didn’t open wider. "Who’s asking?" "Dan Foster." He hesitated, then went with the simplest truth. "We were on the same train. The NovaTech one that crashed." There was a pau
Chapter 17
The alien’s corpse still lay in the corner of the hideout, its obsidian carapace now dulled in death. Viktor had thrown a tarp over it—not out of respect, but because the smell of its blackened blood was making Felix gag. Three days had passed since the attack, and the air still carried the acrid tang of burnt wiring and spilled antiseptic. Riley hadn’t slept. She sat hunched over the decrypted NovaTech drive, her fingers tracing the same lines of code over and over, as if they might rearrange themselves into answers. The footage of Alisha Carr’s cold-eyed orders played on a loop in her mind: *The passengers will serve as test subjects.* Viktor emerged from the back room, his face freshly bandaged. He tossed a protein bar at Riley. It landed with a thud beside her keyboard. “Eat. You’re no use to anyone like this.” She caught it but didn’t open it. “We’re running out of time.” Across the room, Dan leaned against the wall, arms crossed. The
Chapter 16
The tunnels smelled of rust and damp concrete. Felix leaned heavily against Dan, his breath ragged from the gunshot wound in his side. Riley led the way, her flashlight cutting through the darkness as they navigated the labyrinth of forgotten maintenance shafts. "Almost there," she muttered, more to herself than to themThey reached a rusted grate tucked behind a collapsed service corridor. Riley knocked twice, paused, then knocked again—an old rhythm she had picked up from a dead forum thread months ago.There was silence.Dan adjusted his grip on Felix, whose face was pale with pain and said, “ he's not gonna shoot us on sight right? " It worked.The grate hissed open. A man in a patched jacket and rebreather mask gestured them inside. The room beyond was dimly lit, cluttered with soldered tech, cables, monitors blinking with scrambled static. One of the Collective’s hideouts.The man pulled off his mask—mid-fortie
