My Hollow System

Chapter Eight – Hunters in the Dark

If there’s one thing I’ve learned since the world went to garbage, it’s this: when a giant glowing red dot starts moving toward you on a screen, it’s never bringing cookies.

The bunker’s monitor pulsed like a heartbeat, the red marker inching closer. Each blink practically screamed, “Hey! Guess who’s about to crash your slumber party?” Spoiler: it wasn’t Santa Claus.

I clenched my fists. My skin tingled. Every instinct screamed that something was coming something worse than the Apex Hollowed. Worse than what I’d fought before.

Adrian squinted at the screen like he could will it to stop. “How much time?”

Royce, our newly acquainted grizzled war vet and accidental doom-prophet, looked like he’d just swallowed a grenade. “Fifteen minutes. Maybe.”

I glanced around the underground bunker. The place looked like someone tried to mix a shelter with a school cafeteria and forgot to finish either. There were barely two dozen survivors men, women, kids huddled in corners. Armed, sure. But prepared? Not even close.

And the worst part? That monster wasn’t here for them.

It was here for me.

Royce turned toward me like he could see straight through my soul. “You still don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?” I asked, already bracing myself for another twist to the horror show that was now my life.

Royce’s jaw tightened. “You think the Hollowed are an accident? That this... virus just popped out of a test tube one day and decided to ruin civilization?”

“That wasn’t on my top ten theories,” I muttered.

“They were designed,” he said grimly. “Created to be something better than us.”

Adrian raised an eyebrow. “Define ‘better.’ ‘Cause the ones I’ve met were more ‘rip your face off’ than ‘socially evolved.’”

Royce didn’t laugh. He didn’t even blink. “They were meant to be soldiers. Controlled evolution. Perfect weapons.”

“And me?” I asked.

He jabbed a finger at me. “You’re a mistake.”

Ouch. I mean, I’ve been called worse. But usually not by military-grade doomsayers.

Royce continued. “You’re not like them. Not exactly. You’ve retained control. That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“So I’m a bug in the system,” I said. “Cool.”

“More like a glitch in the apocalypse,” Adrian added.

I looked at the screen again. The red dot had stopped just outside the bunker.

“Why are they looking for me?”

Royce hesitated, and in that pause, I knew whatever he was about to say would be terrible.

“Because you might be the only one who can control them.”

I actually laughed. “Control the Hollowed? You mean the people-eating monsters that screech like death and break buildings like Legos?”

Royce’s voice was low. “They think you’re the key.”

I didn’t get a chance to argue because that’s when the bunker started to shake.

Boom.

Dust trickled from the ceiling.

Boom.

I swear I could hear breathing. Not mine. Not anyone human.

Boom.

The steel door crumpled inward like it owed the monster money.

And then it stepped inside.

It had the body of a human who’d made some really questionable protein shake choices—over seven feet tall, limbs too long, skin like charred obsidian laced with glowing red veins. But its face...

Its face was almost human.

Almost.

And its eyes?

Golden. Like mine.

The creature tilted its head, studying us like it had walked into a store and found its favorite flavor.

Then it smiled.

Gunfire erupted. Mira and the others unloaded bullets into the thing like it was a carnival game. The bullets hit. They just didn’t do much.

It moved like smoke sliding between people, dodging attacks with graceful murdery precision.

One second Mira was shouting. The next, she was a crumpled heap of blood and regret.

Royce blasted it point-blank with a shotgun.

The monster caught the barrel.

Crushed it.

And smiled wider.

Adrian swore. Loudly. “Elias!”

Too late.

The creature lunged.

But for the first time since all this madness began, I didn’t freeze. My body moved on its own, reacting before my brain could catch up.

I sidestepped the strike, twisted, and punched. Hard.

My fist slammed into its ribs.

The impact echoed.

And the monster stumbled back.

It actually looked... surprised.

So was I.

“You’re almost ready,” it whispered.

Its voice wasn’t just sound. It was inside my head—like psychic radio static.

Then it vanished.

Not metaphorically. Literally.

One second it was in front of me. The next, behind.

Its claws wrapped around my throat.

It lifted me off the ground like I weighed nothing. My vision darkened at the edges, pain flaring through my neck.

“You will join us soon.”

Then it hurled me like I was a frisbee and someone had said “Fetch.”

I flew through a wall. A concrete wall.

When I came to, the bunker was chaos.

The creature was gone.

Mira was dead. Half the survivors were injured. Royce was cursing over a body. Adrian limped toward me, dragging a bent rifle.

“That thing,” he gasped, “was holding back.”

I didn’t argue.

Because he was right.

The monster could’ve slaughtered everyone.

It hadn’t.

That wasn’t an attack.

That was a test.

We spent the next hour patching wounds and salvaging what supplies we could. The survivors looked at me like I had a glowing target painted on my forehead.

Which, metaphorically speaking, I did.

Royce limped over, one arm in a sling. “This place isn’t safe anymore. We’re relocating.”

“Good call,” Adrian muttered. “Next time, maybe we hide in a bakery or something. I always wanted to die surrounded by croissants.”

I wasn’t listening.

Something was pulling at me.

Not physically. Not even mentally.

Spiritually.

Like something just behind reality was calling me,drawing me toward it.

The same way gravity pulls everything to the center.

I stepped outside the bunker.

The night was cold and empty.

The city, still broken and haunted.

But out there, in the distance deep in the heart of the Hollowed domain something waited.

I didn’t know what.

Answers.

Monsters,Maybe both.

I didn’t care.I was done hiding.

As Elias stood staring into the distance, the ground beneath him vibrated soft at first, like distant thunder.

Then louder.

A rhythmic thump. Like footsteps.

But not from behind.

From beneath.

The street cracked.

A hand punched through the pavement long, taloned fingers coated in molten red.

Adrian’s voice rang out behind him, “Uh… Elias? You might wanna move”

Too late.

The ground exploded upward.

And something something new emerged from the earth.

Its face was familiar.

Terrifyingly familiar.

Because it was his.

Or rather...

A distorted, twisted version of him.

It grinned.

And spoke in his exact voice.

“Time to meet your replacement.”