“You never realize how much of your sanity belongs to strangers until there is no one left”

Chapter 1

What happens when the world is abandoned?

Most people imagine nature reclaiming it. They picture vines strangling skyscrapers, forests swallowing highways, and green life blooming where humanity once stood.

They are wrong.

The world does not become beautiful.

It becomes empty.

And there is a difference.

A lone figure walked through the corpse of a city.

His appearance was hidden beneath worn clothing stained by dust and years of travel. His footsteps echoed through streets that had once been crowded with thousands. Rusted cars sat abandoned where they had died. Their windows were shattered. Their metal frames had been stripped bare by desperate hands long ago.

Every building carried scars.

Broken glass littered the roads like frozen rain. Storefronts had been smashed open. Apartments stood hollow, their dark windows staring down at the streets like empty eye sockets. Time had gnawed at everything. Concrete cracked. Steel rusted. Entire sections of buildings had collapsed under the weight of decades without maintenance.

The man walked through it all without hesitation.

As if this wasn’t strange.

As if this was normal.

Perhaps it was.

His gaze drifted toward a shopping mall rising from the ruins.

Or what remained of one.

A faint smile touched his lips.

Malls are the best.

Even after all these years.

Even after countless scavengers.

Even after the end.

A mall was too large for anyone to completely strip clean. There was always something left behind.

Food.

Tools.

Medicine.

Hope.

The man stepped through the shattered entrance.

Glass crunched beneath his boots.

Dust hung in the air like fog.

Broken display cases lined the halls. Store signs dangled from rusted chains. Escalators stood frozen in place, monuments to a world that no longer existed.

Silence ruled everything.

An abandoned world wasn’t green.

It wasn’t peaceful.

And it certainly wasn’t beautiful.

The smell hit first.

Rot.

Decay.

Death.

The scents intertwined into something foul enough to make the stomach twist.

Then came the feeling.

The loneliness.

That was always the worst part.

Once, billions of people had lived on this planet.

You couldn’t walk down a street without seeing another face.

Couldn’t enter a store without hearing a voice.

Couldn’t exist without evidence that someone else existed too.

Now?

Nothing.

You could walk for weeks and never see another human being.

Months.

Years.

The realization hollowed people out from the inside.

Humans liked to believe they were independent creatures.

They weren’t.

Most never realized how much of their sanity depended on strangers.

A cashier they would never remember.

A pedestrian crossing the road.

The man sitting three rows ahead on a train.

Proof.

Tiny pieces of proof that humanity still existed.

Take those away…

And the silence started talking back.

The traveler moved deeper into the darkness.

Then he heard it.

A scream.

His body froze.

The sound ripped through the mall like a knife.

Raw.

Terrified.

Human.

The man’s expression immediately darkened.

“That’s not good.”

A scream was not good.

A scream meant they were here.

And if they weren’t here already—

They would be soon.

For a moment, the traveler did the smart thing.

He turned and ran the opposite direction.

Survival in this world was simple. Ignore the screams. Ignore the cries for help. Ignore the guilt.

The dead couldn’t drag you down if you left them behind.

His boots pounded against the cracked tile floor.

One step.

Two.

Three.

Then he stopped.

“Damn it.”

The curse escaped through clenched teeth.

Something inside him refused to let it go.

Maybe it was stupidity.

Maybe it was guilt.

Maybe it was a memory he couldn’t kill no matter how hard he tried.

Whatever it was, it turned him around.

The traveler sprinted toward the scream.

The sound grew louder as he rushed through the abandoned corridors.

Then he found her.

A woman stood surrounded.

Short crimson hair framed a face covered in dirt and sweat. Ragged clothing hung from her frame, and a weathered satchel rested against her hip. She was taller than him by several inches.

Most striking of all were her eyes.

Crimson.

The same color as her hair.

The same color as blood.

Around her, the creatures closed in.

Revenants.

Misshapen things twisted into mockeries of humanity. Their limbs bent in impossible directions. Their skin stretched tight over malformed bodies.

Hungry.

Always hungry.

The woman backed away slowly, searching for an escape that didn’t exist.

The traveler’s eyes darted around the room.

Then he spotted it.

A glass vase.

Without hesitation, he snatched it from a nearby shelf and hurled it as hard as he could.

The vase flew through the air.

Then shattered against a distant wall.

CRASH.

Both revenants snapped toward the sound.

The distraction lasted less than a second.

It was enough.

The traveler rushed forward, grabbed the woman’s wrist, and pulled.

“Move.”

His voice was cold.

Sharp.

The kind of voice that expected obedience.

Fortunately, being eaten alive sounded significantly worse than following a stranger.

The woman didn’t argue.

They ran.

Behind them came a shriek.

The revenants had realized the trick.

“Dammit,” the traveler growled. “You better keep up.”

The pair exploded through the mall corridors.

The revenants followed.

Tier One: Revenants.

Among the weakest monsters in existence.

That didn’t make them harmless.

They could reach fifty miles per hour.

The catch was acceleration.

Each burst of speed required several seconds to build momentum.

But once they reached top speed—

Nothing short of a wall could stop them.

The travelers zigzagged through the mall.

Left.

Right.

Through a collapsed storefront.

Down a hallway.

Never in a straight line.

Never giving the creatures enough distance to accelerate.

A deafening crash echoed behind them.

One revenant smashed through a display stand.

The second slammed into a support pillar hard enough to crack concrete.

The chase continued for another minute.

Then another.

Finally, the sounds faded.

The revenants had lost them.

The traveler slowed to a stop near the shattered entrance of the mall.

The woman bent forward slightly, catching her breath.

For the first time since meeting, silence settled between them.

Then the ground trembled.

Once.

Twice.

A shadow swallowed the sunlight pouring through the entrance.

The woman slowly looked up.

Something stood outside.

Something enormous.

A Tier One: Abomination.

The creature resembled a giant sculpted from rotting flesh and broken bone. Every step caused the pavement beneath it to fracture. Muscles the size of vehicles shifted beneath pale skin.

Its head tilted.

Then it screamed.

The sound shook the surrounding buildings.

Dust rained from the ceiling.

The traveler stared at it for a long moment.

Then sighed.

“Of course.”

The woman blinked.

“This is exactly what I get for saving a woman.”

The red-haired survivor stared at him.

Then rolled her eyes.

“Wonderful.”

Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

“I got saved by a misogynist.”

The traveler looked genuinely indifferent.

“Misogynist is a strong word.”

The Abomination took another step.

The ground exploded beneath its foot.

Neither of them looked away from it.

The woman folded her arms.

“You literally blamed me for the giant flesh monster.”

“I blamed fate.”

“While looking directly at me.”

“Details.”

The Abomination roared.

A nearby building shook violently.

The traveler immediately turned and started running.

“Come on.”

The woman followed.

Behind them, the monster began to move.

Slow.

Relentless.

Only ten miles per hour.

But speed wasn’t the problem.

Its fists were.

A single punch carried enough force to bring down a skyscraper.

And judging by the roar echoing through the ruined city—

It was eager to demonstrate.

The traveler grabbed the woman’s wrist.

“Come on.”

The Abomination roared behind them.

Concrete exploded beneath its feet as it lumbered forward.

Slow.

Unstoppable.

The traveler didn’t hesitate.

Instead of running through the streets, he pulled her toward a maintenance door hidden near the rear of the mall.

The door slammed open.

A staircase greeted them.

Up.

They ran.

Flight after flight.

The distant roar of the Abomination echoed through the building.

Metal railings rattled.

Dust drifted from the ceiling.

The woman nearly tripped halfway up.

The traveler kept moving.

“Keep going.”

They climbed.

And climbed.

And climbed.

Until finally—

The rooftop door burst open.

Cold wind rushed over them.

The pair stumbled onto the roof.

For several seconds neither of them spoke.

The traveler walked to the edge and glanced down.

The Abomination wandered below.

Searching.

Confused.

Unable to reach them.

After a moment he nodded.

“We should be safe here.”

The woman dropped onto a nearby ventilation unit.

She stared at him.

Then rolled her eyes.

“I just want you to know.”

The traveler began unpacking supplies from his satchel.

“I’m choosing the bear.”

The wind carried the words across the rooftop.

The traveler didn’t even look up.

“Saving you was optional.”

The woman clicked her tongue.

“Whatever.”

She crossed her arms.

“What’s your name?”

The traveler pulled a bottle of water from his bag.

“Shouldn’t you tell me yours first?”

The woman rolled her eyes again.

For someone who had nearly become monster food fifteen minutes ago, she seemed remarkably comfortable being annoying.

“My name is Iris.”

The traveler nodded.

The name settled between them.

Then silence returned.

The city stretched endlessly around them.

Broken roads.

Collapsed buildings.

The skeletal remains of humanity’s final monument.

Beautiful in the same way a graveyard could be beautiful.

The traveler opened his mouth.

Ready to answer.

Ready to finally give his name.

And somehow—

It felt as if the world itself paused.

The sun was setting.

The horizon burned gold and crimson.

For a brief moment, both the moon and the sun occupied the sky together.

Day and night sharing the same throne.

The ruined city was caught between them.

Half illuminated by dying sunlight.

Half consumed by approaching darkness.

The wind swept across the rooftop.

It stirred the traveler’s hair.

Pearlescent strands danced in the fading light.

Not silver.

Not white.

Something else.

Something almost unreal.

His eyes reflected the same color.

Pale.

Luminous.

Ancient.

Looking at him now, standing against the backdrop of a dying world, it became difficult to think of him as human.

There was something different about him.

Something wrong.

Or perhaps something greater.

Iris found herself staring.

For the first time since meeting him, she had no sarcastic remark.

No joke.

No response at all.

The traveler looked toward the horizon.

Toward the endless ruins.

Toward the world that had forgotten itself.

Then he spoke.

“My name is Licht.”

The wind carried the words across the rooftop.

And somewhere beyond the city—

Something heard them.

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