In A Flash

The sky burned bright white.

It was the last thing Mark saw before everything went black.

A moment ago, he’d been in his cramped apartment, scrolling through news on his phone. Reports of escalating tensions between nations had flooded every feed. Then sirens blared — sharp, urgent — but Mark barely registered them. A blinding light filled the room. Then nothing.

When he opened his eyes, the world had changed.

There was no apartment. No sirens. No sky. Only an endless expanse of pure white — a void stretching infinitely in every direction. Mark blinked, disoriented. The air was unnervingly still, yet he could breathe fine. His hands trembled as he pushed himself to sit.

A soft, metallic voice echoed around him.

“Countdown initialized. Ten minutes remaining.”

Mark’s heart skipped a beat. Ten minutes? Remaining for what?

He stood up, trying to find a landmark, any hint of reality. But the void was flawless, empty. Just white, nothingness. Panic started to rise.

“Where am I?” he whispered.

“Location: unknown. Time loop: active.”

Mark spun around. “Who—? What is this?”

No answer. Just the faint, cold ticking of an unseen clock.

He sank back down to the ground, swallowing the dry lump in his throat. Was this death? Some kind of afterlife? Or a nightmare?

His mind raced. The last thing he remembered — the flash. The explosion.

Then, this. A void. And a countdown.

He tried to stand again, pushing past the growing fear.

“Why ten minutes?” he asked aloud.

“Countdown to reset. Event will repeat unless intervention occurs.”

The voice was calm, robotic.

“Intervention?” Mark repeated, heart pounding.

Suddenly, a memory flashed through his mind. The nuclear war warnings, the panic, the chaos. This was no accident. Something was deliberately resetting the world.

He clenched his fists. He wouldn’t just wait for the world to end again.

He had ten minutes.

Ten minutes to figure out why. Ten minutes to stop it.

And then the countdown ticked on.

END OF CHAPTER