Adrian ran.The door sealed behind him with a hiss—soft, final.
The corridor ahead blazed with light.It wasn't the cold white of laboratories, nor the orange fire of ruin.It was warm—amber, alive—spilling from walls the color of dry earth.
Square walls. Smooth.Not metal, not stone, not any material he had ever seen.The texture breathed faintly beneath his fingertips—solid yet yielding, like something that remembered life.
Every step sent ripples through the surface, faint as breath in water.The air was moving.He could feel something ahead—vast, ancient, waiting.
It was calling him.That pull seeped into his bones, into the heat rising behind his ribs.Every breath cut sharper.Every stride stretched longer.
Moments ago he could leap barely a meter. Now—six, maybe more.He wasn't just running anymore.He was gliding—drawn forward by an unnamed force, his newly awakened power adjusting faster with each heartbeat.
Whatever this place was, it felt alive.And somehow, it was helping him adapt.
Time blurred. Space thinned.And then—
The corridor ended.
Before him stood a wall that wasn't a wall at all.A seamless surface hovered in midair, translucent and alive.Light rippled through it in slow rhythm—like breath. Like waiting.
Adrian stopped, chest rising fast.His reflection flickered across the surface—silver hair plastered to his temples, gray eyes too bright, too human, and not.
He lifted a trembling hand.The panel responded.Lines of light bloomed under his fingertips, spreading outward like veins of molten silver.
A perfect circle formed, its center pulsing with a single red mark—a small, sharp exclamation.
Then the wall came alive.
Holographic symbols spiraled upward, fractals of light spinning through the air.One symbol drifted closer, flattening into a translucent projection that expanded around him.
A column of light rose from the floor, wrapping him in faint blue.Dozens of golden lines scanned him head to toe, each sweep humming through his bones.
He froze, mouth open in awe.Born into ruin, he had never seen a machine that still breathed, never imagined this kind of beauty could survive the end of the world.
The hologram shifted—blue to white, white to gold.Then, with a final pulse, the circle flared green.
A low, metallic voice spoke from nowhere:"Identification complete."
The barrier dissolved into mist.Light poured through—brighter than the sun.
Adrian stumbled forward, shielding his eyes.When he lowered his arm, the sight stopped him cold.
——To be continued.