Rayn Kael was dead.
He remembered the impact. A horn. A truck. Then darkness.
No pain. No light.
Just a voice in his head, cold and robotic.
> "You have died."
"Initializing Rebirth Protocol: [Survivor Seed]…"
"World: Class-X Collapse Zone."
"Survival...Chance 0.002"
Then his eyes opened.
And everything was wrong.
The sky was purple — split with glowing cracks like broken glass. Half a building floated in the air, upside-down. Black ash rained from the sky like snow. The air smelled like burnt metal and rotten meat.
Rayn sat up, heart racing.
> "This isn't Earth…"
The ground beneath him was cracked and steaming. A street lay nearby — or what was left of it. Twisted cars. Burnt trees. And in the distance, a long, low screech… not human.
He looked down at his hands. Same body. No wounds.
But this wasn't his world.
And this wasn't a dream.
---
Rayn moved fast. Years of binge-watching apocalypse series kicked in. He checked his surroundings, looked for shelter, and avoided the road.
He found a broken store with half the wall torn open. Inside: silence. No bodies. Just dust, shelves, and a shattered mirror.
Then he heard it.
> Slap… slap… slap…
Footsteps. Wet. Wrong.
He ducked behind the counter and peeked out.
A man limped into the store.
But something was off.
His arms were too long. His jaw hung loose, broken. His eyes were pure white.
Rayn held his breath.
The thing stopped, sniffed the air… then walked past the mirror.
Its reflection didn't match.
In the glass, the face was twisted. Smiling. Watching.
> "It's not human," Rayn whispered. "It's copying one."
A mimic.
Something from his favorite survival series — but this wasn't fiction anymore.
This thing pretended to be human… then killed.
---
Rayn stayed hidden until it left.
Then he ran.
Through streets covered in ash. Past collapsed towers. Over a broken highway.
No one else was around.
Until he saw her.
A woman — real, human — holding a child and stumbling down the road.
Relief hit him.
> "Hey!" he shouted.
She turned.
And smiled.
A little too wide.
Too… perfect.
The child looked up. Its eyes were white.
> They're mimics too.
Rayn backed away, heart pounding.
They just kept walking.
> "Nope. I'm not dying on day one."
He turned and ran.
---
By nightfall, Rayn found an old basement beneath a ruined café. He blocked the door with a table, then sat in the dark.
Alone. Breathing hard.
> "I died… and woke up in a nightmare."
He checked his pockets. Found something he didn't have before — a small black notebook. Blank.
Until words began to appear on the first page:
> Welcome to the Collapse.
This world has no heroes. Only survivors.
Use your knowledge. Stay alive. The world is watching.
Rayn stared at the page.
Then he smiled — just a little.
> "Alright then… let's play."
Rayn didn't sleep.
The moment he closed his eyes, he heard them.
Not voices. Not whispers.
Breathing.
Soft. Wet. Wrong.
Like something with lungs full of mud just outside the door.
So he sat in the dark, gripping a broken chair leg like a bat, staring at the basement door. The table he'd shoved in front of it rattled every so often, just slightly — like the building itself was alive.
He wasn't going to die. Not now. Not after everything.
> "You watched every apocalypse series ever made," he muttered. "Now prove it wasn't a waste of time."
---
At dawn — or whatever passed for morning in this twisted world — the sky turned pale red.
Rayn crept out of the basement.
The street was quiet. Too quiet. The wind carried that same burnt, metal stink. But no Mimics. No monsters.
Yet.
He checked nearby shops. Most were picked clean, but inside an old gas station, he found what he needed: a half-filled lighter, a rusted pocketknife, and a roll of duct tape.
> "Rule #1," he said aloud, "everything's a weapon."
He wrapped the tape around the base of the chair leg, turned it into a proper grip. Improvised weapon — check.
Then he opened the black notebook again.
New text had appeared on the next page.
> Survivor's Log: Day 1
Time Remaining Before Zone Shift: 23:14:17
Current Region: Bloomfall Sector
Status: Active Mimic Presence
Objective: Reach Shelter Point Alpha
Below that, a crude hand-drawn map faded into view.
It showed buildings. Streets. And a blinking red dot labeled: YOU.
> "This thing's tracking me?"
Was it magic? Technology? Something in between?
He didn't know.
But it was helpful. And anything helpful in a hell-world like this was worth trusting — cautiously.
> "Rule #2: trust nothing fully. Not even the good stuff."
---
He moved fast, keeping low, sticking to shadows. Every time he crossed an open space, he scanned for movement, reflections, anything strange.
He passed a burned school bus. The side was clawed open from the inside.
Farther down, a pile of bodies lay at the edge of a collapsed tunnel. Half melted. Not eaten — absorbed. Their skin stretched thin, pulled toward something buried in the rubble.
Rayn didn't stop to look.
> "Rule #3: curiosity kills."
---
Half an hour later, he reached a parking garage.
The map said the shelter was beneath it.
Inside, everything was still.
Too still.
The elevator was dead, but the stairs weren't blocked. He crept down slowly, gripping the chair-leg weapon.
Then he heard it.
Laughter.
A child's laughter.
High, sweet… echoing from the walls like a recording.
> "Nope."
Rayn backed up.
But the voice spoke again.
> "Hello, Rayn."
He froze.
How did it know his name?
> "Do you want to survive?" the voice asked. "Or just pretend?"
A door creaked open below.
Rayn's grip tightened.
The voice continued.
> "Come inside. See what the world remembers."
---
He stepped through.
The hallway beyond was cold. Clean. Almost too clean.
At the end, a metal vault door stood open. Inside: an old military-style bunker. Flickering lights. Cots. Shelves. Empty — except for one thing.
A console in the corner. Still active. One word blinking on the screen:
> RECORDING: Survivor Seed_001
He stepped closer.
The screen flickered.
Then a video began to play.
And on it — was him.
Same face. Same voice.
But older.
Dirtier.
And he was screaming.
> "If you're watching this," the video-Rayn said, "it means I failed again. Dammit. Dammit, I thought I had it this time—"
> "This world isn't random. It's a loop. A test. They're watching us. Changing the rules every time."
> "Rayn — you need to find the Core. The real one. Not the fake one they'll show you. Don't trust the voices. Don't trust anything that bleeds backwards."
The screen glitched. Sparks flew.
Then it died.
Rayn stepped back, heart racing.
> "What the hell was that?"
Himself. Talking from a past run?
A failed life?
Was he… stuck in a loop?
He sat down, the notebook heavy in his hand.
New words appeared:
> Welcome, Rayn Kael. Loop Attempt: 12
Memory Retention: [Partial]
Mission Progress: 0%
---
Outside, the sky darkened again.
Screams echoed across the streets.
And far above the cracked clouds, something massive moved — just out of sight.
Watching.
Waiting.
Rayn didn't look up.
> "Rule #4: keep going. Even when it doesn't make sense."
He closed the notebook, stood, and checked his map.
Shelter was safe. For now.
But tomorrow?
He'd need a team.
And a plan.
Because something was hunting him.
And he'd already failed eleven times.
[End of Chapter 1