2025-07-05 03:48:38Jonah stood frozen, his legs stiff and his heart pounding like a war drum. What he was seeing didn’t make any sense. It couldn’t be real. It shouldn’t be real.
Right in front of him, Conor had Helen pinned to the floor. His face was twisted in rage. Pale skin stretched tight over his bones, and thick blue veins bulged along his neck like ropes.
“Conor! Stop it!” one of their coworkers shouted.
Two others ran forward and tried to pull him off Helen. But Conor didn’t stop. He didn’t even flinch. He seemed inhuman, his strength too much for the two men to handle. Then, without warning, Conor let go of Helen and turned around, his eyes wild and empty. In one quick motion, he lunged at one of the men and sank his teeth deep into his shoulder.
A scream tore through the air.
Jonah’s thoughts were racing. This isn’t possible... This isn’t happening… Is this a dream? He blinked, hoping the scene would disappear. But it didn’t. It only got worse.
“What the hell is happening to him?” Clara gasped beside him. Her voice trembled as she watched Conor snarl like a wild animal.
Jonah was about to step forward when a loud, high-pitched scream echoed from outside. He turned to the window. Across the street, a woman was being attacked by four men. They weren’t just hitting her, they were biting her.
His heart dropped. “No,” he whispered. “This… This is spreading.”
Then it clicked. Conor wasn’t just acting strange, he was infected. Just like those men outside.
He turned quickly to Clara. “We need to leave. Now.”
“What? Why?” Clara narrowed her eyes. “Conor’s still here, he needs our help. Don’t tell me you’re trying to slack off again.”
“No, Clara, listen to me,” Jonah said quickly, gripping her arm. “It’s not what you think. This isn’t normal. Conor… he’s not sick. He’s turned. Like the others outside. This is something else. Please trust me.”
Clara pulled her arm back. “Turned? What are you even talking about?”
“I don’t have time to explain,” Jonah said, panic rising in his throat.
But before Clara could reply, Helen let out a soft, guttural groan. They both turned.
Helen was shaking. Her eyes rolled back. Her skin began turning white. Her lips trembled, and blood dripped from her nose.
Then she stopped moving… and lifted her head. Her eyes locked on Clara.
“What, Helen?” Clara stepped back.
Jonah felt it in his bones, Helen was no longer human.
“Watch out!” he yelled, and grabbed the nearest chair. Without thinking, he hurled it.
The chair slammed into Helen just as she leapt forward.
She collapsed to the ground.
Clara stared at her, horrified. Her mouth hung open, but no words came out.
“Let’s go!” Jonah grabbed her hand. They ran through the office halls. Around them, people continued typing, unaware of the nightmare creeping in.
Jonah shouted, “Run! Everyone! Get out now! You have to leave!”
But nobody listened. Some laughed. Others frowned. None of them took him seriously.
“We’re on our own,” he muttered, pulling Clara toward the main hallway.
“Jonah, what is going on?” Clara asked breathlessly. “Why did Helen attack me? She, she looked dead…”
“I think…” Jonah took a deep breath. “When Conor went home, something must’ve happened. Maybe it was in the air or something he touched. Whatever it was, it turned him into… that. A monster. And when he bit Helen, ”
She gasped. “You think she got infected?”
“That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“But that’s not possible! You can’t just catch something and turn into a, ” Clara stopped mid-sentence as another horrible sound reached them.
A gurgling noise.
They turned the corner… and stopped.
A man stood in front of the exit. He was hunched over another person, feeding.
Clara screamed.
Jonah pulled her back. “We can’t go that way!”
She trembled. “What are they? Zombies?”
“I think so,” Jonah said. “Or something like them…”
He turned and ran, dragging Clara along. Every hallway they passed held more horrors: coworkers crying, screaming, shaking… and some already turning pale, their eyes growing blank and lifeless.
“Clara, we have to keep moving,” Jonah said. “Please.”
“I, I don’t think I can,” she said, stumbling.
“You have to. I’m not leaving you behind.”
They kept moving. He spotted the red emergency box at the wall up ahead. Inside was a fire axe.
Jonah sprinted toward it, smashed the glass with his elbow, and yanked out the axe. It was heavier than he expected, but he gripped it tightly.
Now he had a weapon.
“We’re on the seventh floor,” he said. “If we can find the emergency stairwell, we can escape.”
Clara nodded weakly.
As they walked quickly toward the fire exit, Jonah tried to distract her. “We’ll be okay. We just need to stay calm, keep quiet, and get out. Once we’re outside, we’ll find help. We’ll figure this out.”
They reached the stairwell door.
Jonah grinned. “Finally…”
Then he heard it. A rush of footsteps behind them.
He turned. Half the office, former coworkers, now looked dead. Their eyes were empty. Their jaws hung open. And they were running fast.
“Clara, go!” Jonah shouted.
They pushed through the door and into the stairwell.
But then, slam.
The door shut behind him. From the other side.
Jonah turned, confused. Clara was inside the stairwell. He was still outside.
“Clara?” he called, banging on the door. “Open the door! What are you doing?!”
Clara’s face appeared in the small window. Tears filled her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Jonah,” she said. “You have the axe. You’re strong. You can make it.”
“No, no, don’t do this. Open the door!”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I won’t make it out alive. I’m not strong like you. I’m scared. I can’t take the chance.”
“Clara, please!”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Please don’t hate me.”
And then she was gone.
The door stayed shut.
Jonah stood there, heartbroken, the axe heavy in his hands… and the monsters closing in behind him.
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Chapter 249. The Reborn Serra
The first signs appeared at the edge of New Crest’s main plaza. Jonah was walking along the light-threaded boulevard, cane tapping against stone that glimmered faintly with the breath of the city. The hybrids moved in synchronized streams around him, their skin flashing muted amber and violet bands. He paused at the intersection of the luminous avenues when the crowd parted, not with force, not with awareness, but as if they recognized something beyond perception.A figure stood there, framed by the rising sun reflecting off the crystalline spires. She was serene, hands clasped lightly at her waist. The crowd immediately slowed, their steps measured. Jonah’s cane struck the ground once, twice, and he waited. Something about the figure’s stance, the subtle tilt of her head, felt familiar.She stepped forward. Her movement was precise, calculated, yet effortless. Every hybrid nearby pulsed in gentle alignment, a chorus of warmth and light. Machines ceased minor processes mid-task. D
Chapter 248. Dreamers of Light
The first report came in just before midnight. A perimeter drone over the southern fields adjusted its angle and slowed its sweep. Its sensors flagged movement where there should have been none. The land beyond New Crest had been empty for months. No roads. No settlements. Only soil, stone, and old growth.The drone recorded a lone figure walking barefoot through the grass. The person did not carry light. The ground beneath their feet glowed faintly with each step. The drone zoomed closer. The glow did not burn. It spread slowly, like frost forming in reverse.The figure stopped. They knelt. The drone feed cut for three seconds. When it returned, the soil beneath the figure had changed. Crystalline veins ran through the dirt. They pulsed once, then went still. The figure remained kneeling. Their head tilted back. Their eyes glowed faint gold.In New Crest, the alert passed through systems without urgency. No alarms sounded. No emergency protocols engaged. The Comfort smoothed the
Chapter 247. Kevin’s Confession
The door to the upper archive closed with a soft seal. No lock engaged. No guard waited outside.Jonah stood near the window, his back to the room. The city stretched below him in layered light. The Comfort drifted through the air like a low pressure change. It did not hum. It did not pulse. It simply existed, smooth and even.Footsteps crossed the floor behind him. They stopped three paces back. Kevin did not speak. Jonah waited.The silence lengthened. The city lights below shifted in slow waves, matching one another without lag. A flock of delivery drones altered course at the same instant, as if sharing a single thought.Jonah kept his hands on the stone ledge. His fingers pressed until the skin paled. Kevin cleared his throat once. He did not try again. Jonah said nothing.Kevin moved to the table at the center of the room. He set something down. Metal tapped stone. The sound echoed too sharply.Jonah turned. Kevin stood with his shoulders slumped forward. Dark rings marked the
Chapter 246. Council of Unease
The council chamber was silent before it even began. The domed ceiling reflected muted light from the hybrid resonators along the walls. Jonah stepped through the entryway, the stone floor cold beneath his boots. The hum of the city outside seemed distant here, absorbed into the polished surfaces and the quiet hum of the machines stationed in corners.At the front, representatives had already gathered. Humans sat stiffly on benches carved from bio-luminescent stone, their hands clasped or resting on knees. Breath-Born interfaces hovered in stilled patterns above their nodes, awaiting input. Hybrids, standing on raised platforms, pulsed faint streams of light across their skin, synchronizing in patterns that conveyed collective attention. Jonah felt the subtle pressure behind his eyes as he entered, the shared presence of a network that had grown far beyond what he had ever imagined.He counted faces. Some humans were familiar, leaders from distant settlements and emissaries from c
Chapter 245. The Eden Frequency
Jonah sat alone in the monitoring room, the glow of the city beneath him muted by the late-night haze. Screens lined the walls, each one alive with feeds from across New Crest, and beyond. He ran his fingers over the control panel, checking signal strength, adjusting filters, running analyses he had long since memorized. Then the first anomaly appeared.A soft spike on the neural-sensor array. Not sound. Not vibration. A pressure felt behind the eyes, like the hollow of a hand pressing lightly against a skull. Jonah paused. The graph jumped again, slight, precise, almost imperceptible to anyone not looking for it.He toggled the filter. The spike synchronized with another feed, halfway across the hemisphere. Hospitals. Trauma wards. Emergency response centers. Jonah watched footage from one ward: a child convulsed, a nurse leaning over, panic in every motion, and then it stopped. Mid-motion, the child froze, limbs still. The nurse blinked. Her hands lifted, trembling, and then lo
Chapter 244. Jonah’s Dream of Silence
Jonah woke before the sun, gasping. The bed beneath him had not moved, yet the air felt heavy, as though it carried a memory he could not place. His hands gripped the edge of the mattress, knuckles whitening. Outside, the towers loomed like sentinels, their usual hum fractured. He could hear it immediately: the pulse was off, skipping beats, a stutter in the rhythm that had guided the city for decades.He swung his legs over the side, boots hitting the cold floor with deliberate weight. The wind through the open window cut across his face, sharp, stirring papers that lay stacked on the workbench. Instruments blinked in a half-sleeping rhythm, lights cycling slower, colors blurred, gauges rising and falling without pattern. The hum from the hybrid grids outside was erratic, and even the low-frequency vibrations that ran through the stone foundations of New Crest shivered with uncertainty.Jonah stepped to the window, hands pressed against the cool glass. Below, the city seemed wron
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