Caleb Stray's boots crunched over broken glass as the world split open.
The rupture came between one heartbeat and the next. He had been at the shooting range just outside town, his final magazine emptied into the rusted dummy's center mass. Then the sky bled.
Not blood, something else. Red light pulsed above the clouds, and as the heavens tore apart, it was as if a second sun had opened its eye and begun watching.
The ground beneath his feet turned violent. Deep tremors rolled through the earth like something massive and living. Trees groaned and snapped in the distance. Roots tore free from soil. Dust exploded upward in thick, choking clouds. The vibrations grew sharper, angrier, as if the Earth itself was screaming a warning that something colossal moved beneath the surface.
Then he saw it. A tower, black and impossibly tall, rising from the earth like a needle threading the sky.
Everything stopped. The wind held its breath. The world spoke.
A voice, flat and mechanical, carved itself inside his skull.
"All able-bodied individuals between the ages of sixteen and sixty have been selected. Clearance begins now."
Caleb's vision blurred. His hands twitched. He had heard voices before in comms chatter, screams, commands but this wasn't sound. Whatever had spoken seemed etched into his brain, part of him now. His head spun. His ears felt like they might bleed.
The ground vanished.
Everything went black.
When consciousness returned, the air was cold and metallic. Too cold for late spring. Caleb's boots touched solid glass, smooth and black as obsidian. Around him, dozens of others stood blinking in shock. People in gym clothes, business suits, work uniforms. Some teenagers, some older.
They were in a vast space beneath a clear white sky. Massive letters hung in that false heaven, and before them loomed a giant black door bearing the same inscription.
FLOOR ZERO
A woman near Caleb started sobbing. Another man screamed, asking if anyone knew what was happening. Some of the braver souls moved toward the door.
Caleb was one of them.
"Hey, wait." A man in a hoodie, no older than twenty. "You know what's happening?"
Caleb glanced back. "No." He kept walking.
The massive door grew larger as he approached. Text flickered in the air before him:
Welcome, Caleb Stray.
Designation: Participant
Status: Healthy
Objective: Ascend
Then, smaller:
Warning: Death in the Tower is permanent. Exit is unavailable. Time till Floor Collapse: 10:00
The timer started ticking.
Ten minutes.
Caleb stepped back and studied the crowd. Panic was setting in hard. People yelled at the air. Some dropped to their knees. A few tried to run, only to slam into an invisible barrier that flung them back like dolls.
No way out.
He had seen this before not this exact situation, but the panic. The kind that grips people when all control vanishes. In the field, they had a name for moments like this: the Threshold. The second when everything normal dies.
He raised his voice, sharp and commanding.
"Anyone with military or emergency response experience, form up now."
Some stared at him like he was insane. Others actually moved. Three men, two women. None looked familiar, but Caleb didn't care.
"Names."
The woman in scrubs answered first. Thirties, toned arms, steady hands. "Dina. EMT. Eleven years."
The tall man beside her: "Soren. Former Coast Guard."
The others followed. Private security. Firefighter. Ex-survivalist. Good enough.
Caleb nodded. "We don't know what's happening, but everyone's already in full panic. Civilians don't need comfort. They need instructions."
He turned back to the crowd and raised his voice again.
"We have nine minutes. That door will open. If you're not ready when it does, you die here."
That got their attention.
A girl, barely sixteen and shaking like a leaf, called out: "What if we don't go in?"
Caleb looked her straight in the eye. "Then the floor collapses and you die anyway."
He didn't lie. He didn't sugarcoat. Truth kept people alive more than reassurance ever did.
The door creaked.
Massive gears turned somewhere beyond the black surface. The sound was slow and deep, like a dying beast drawing breath. The glowing letters above the door flashed.
ENTER
A second timer appeared.
00:09:58
Caleb took point and crossed the threshold.
FLOOR ZERO CLEARED
Reward: Mind Clearance
The voice returned, honeyed and warm, as if they had just checked into a luxury resort. Their minds felt clearer, relaxed.
"What the hell was that?"
"Feels… good."
They didn't have time for questions. The space beyond the door was silent. The air smelled of stone and static. The floor was black glass. The walls pressed close while the ceiling stretched impossibly high.
The voice returned.
Floor Zero Objective: Eliminate all hostiles.
Reward: All injuries and ailments healed.
Soren raised a hand. "Hostiles? What kind of—"
They appeared.
Figures melted from the walls. Humanoid shapes with gray skin and featureless faces. They made sounds like crying babies. Almost human.
Almost.
Text flickered across everyone's vision:
[Tower Database – Entity Analysis]
Name: Greyy
Type: Aberrant Beast
Threat Level: Low
Classification: Organic – Tier 1
Vital Metrics:
• HP: 100%
• Stamina: 100%
• Armor: None
• Weak Spot: Larynx
Attributes:
• Strength: 7
• Agility: 10
• Endurance: 8
• Perception: 3
Skills:
• Gnashing Lunge – Reckless forward pounce
• Pack Frenzy – +2 Agility and Strength per nearby ally
Drop Items: None
Despite the odd window, transparent but clearly visible, Caleb didn't hesitate. He reached for the knife in his boot. Gone. Everything was gone.
"Formation. Spread out. Control your breathing."
The first creature charged. Caleb dropped low and swept its legs. It hit the floor hard. He followed with a boot to the back of its skull, then another, then another.
The thing dissolved into dust.
Blood covered his boots. One down. He moved immediately, tackling another creature and twisting its neck with a sharp rotation. It crumbled.
He counted fourteen targets total.
The others fought clumsily, driven by panic. One girl screamed and fell, immediately swarmed. Dina tried to drag her back, only to be bitten. Soren kicked the creature away from Dina, but the girl was already gone.
Caleb kept moving.
When the final gray dissolved, the walls peeled away like old paint. A spiral stairwell carved from stone stretched upward.
Above it: FLOOR ONE
As their injuries healed, cuts sealing, bruises fading, the previous room began to vanish behind them. No time to rest. No time to bury the dead. No time to process what had just happened.
Six people injured. Nine dead.
Not ideal.
But they were alive, and the Tower was waiting.