Prologue

The soldier knew war. He had lived in it for five years, and every day had etched itself into his bones. He had survived ambushes, artillery barrages, and the chaotic thunder of close combat. He had watched men and women fall around him, their screams fading into the grinding roar of the battlefield. Yet here, crouched behind an overturned car in a city reduced to rubble, he was terrified.

Fear clawed at him, sharper than any knife, coiling through his chest and tightening around his throat. He pressed himself lower, clutching his rifle as if it could somehow shield him from the invisible menace closing in. His ears strained, catching the faintest vibrations - the subtle whisper of air displaced, the shudder of distant explosions - but he could not see the source. The weight of unseen eyes pressed down on him, and his heartbeat roared in his ears, each pulse a traitor threatening to betray his hiding place.

Desperation tore at his mind. He searched the ruined streets for someone - anyone - who could pull him from the approaching shadow. But the city offered nothing but broken buildings, shattered vehicles, and the hushed, menacing hush of something enormous passing overhead.

Then it came.

A strange warble vibrated through the air, low and ominous. The soldier’s teeth chattered as a whistling howl began to swell on the horizon, cutting through the clouded sky and echoing over the jagged ruins. It was a sound that belonged to no animal, no machine, nothing he had ever known. It was hunger made audible, intent made flesh.

He prayed. Whispered prayers, muttered pleas, as he laid his rifle aside and sank to the ground, crossing his legs and bowing his head. His surrender felt futile, yet inevitable. The howl grew louder, filling the city, drowning out even the nearby bursts of gunfire and the distant, uneven clatter of tank treads.

Then it stopped.

A terrifying silence. The soldier counted the seconds. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

He never reached six.

His head separated cleanly from his body, falling silently to the floor. He remained utterly unaware, his final moments consumed by nothing but a fleeting, helpless anticipation, as the world carried on around him.