It was just another Tuesday. Another manic morning of chasing trains, of people cursing to themselves as they sprinted towards the office, late again.
The clock ticked past eight, and in the gleaming high-rises, office workers were already settling into their keyboards and morning coffee.
One of them stood by the window on the twenty-fifth floor, chatting with a colleague, the city's brilliant glass towers reflecting the morning sun. He glanced down at the paper cup in his hand. The coffee inside was rippling.
"What the heck..." he mumbled.
His colleague shrugged, taking a sip from his own cup. "Probably just a heavy truck passing by. You know how vibrations travel, bro," he said, completely unbothered.
He was about to argue when a much stronger jolt shook the entire building. The ripple in his cup became a slosh, splashing hot coffee over his fingers.
Across the office, monitors rattled and pens rolled off desks. Then the shaking intensified, growing from a tremor into a violent shudder that sent people screaming and scrambling for cover under their desks.
"Earthquake! It's an earthquake!"
"Oh my God…"
But this wasn't like any earthquake they knew. It didn't stop. It just grew stronger, longer, more violent. Bookshelves toppled, glass shattered, and outside, the symphony of car alarms began. The smooth asphalt roads cracked and buckled, thrusting upwards like broken bones. The city was coming apart.
Down on the streets, chaos erupted as people poured out of buildings, running for open spaces, away from anything that could fall and crush them.
On the edge of the city, an old scavenger froze, his jaw hanging open as he watched the city's border split open. The ground he stood on began to rise, lifted as if by a colossal, unseen hand scooping a fistful of earth from the world.
A woman who'd been knocked down in the stampede sat in the middle of a fractured road outside the city border, staring in disbelief as the city seemed to fly away from her. Where a bustling metropolis once stood, there was now only a gaping, empty crater. The entire city, along with everyone still inside it, was airborne, accelerating into the distant sky.
***
Devon's heart hammered against his ribs. He ran, pushing his legs harder than he ever had, ignoring the screaming chaos around him. He'd only been walking for five minutes when the world started to break.
'Raline. I have to get to Raline.'
"RALINE!!!!!" he roared, his voice raw with panic as he reached their small, rented house.
A faint, scared voice answered from inside. "Devon?"
"Shit." He fumbled with the key, his hands shaking so badly he could barely fit it in the lock. The ground bucked again, and as the door finally swung open, he was thrown forward, crashing hard onto the floor.
"Dammit!" he cursed, scrambling to look at his sister.
Raline was staring at him from her bed, her eyes wide with fear and worry. She was already weak with a fever; she was supposed to be resting today.
"I'm scared…" she whispered.
"... Me too..." Devon tried to stand, but the house was swaying so violently it was like being on a ship in a hurricane.
He gave up and crawled across the floor, his hands scraping against the rough wood, his entire focus on reaching her. He finally grasped her hand, pulling her into a tight hug just as the world seemed to plummet.
For a terrifying second, they were weightless, floating above the mattress.
Then gravity slammed them back down with brutal force.
"AAAAAAAAAHHH!" they screamed in unison.
Devon took the brunt of the impact, with Raline landing on top of him. The air was forced from his lungs, his chest felt like it had been crushed by a sledgehammer, and for a few long moments, he couldn't breathe.
And then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped. The shaking ended. The world went still, the silence broken only by the distant wail of car alarms.
"Devon…" Raline whispered, slowly pushing herself off his chest. "I think… I think it's over".
"Yeah… I think so," he wheezed, clutching his aching ribs. He pushed himself into a sitting position. For a few minutes, they just sat there, side-by-side, waiting to see if the world would try to kill them again.
When nothing happened, Devon finally stood, his legs shaky. "It's over," he confirmed, looking around.
Their small home was a wreck. The cheap cabinets had toppled over, their contents scattered across the floor and mixed with the things from their tiny kitchen. The roof had partially collapsed in a corner, and cracks spiderwebbed across the walls.
But the house was still standing. They were alive.
"Thank God…" Raline said, moving to get up and help clean.
Devon immediately put a hand on her shoulder, gently pushing her back down. "Nope. You stay put. I'll handle this. You're still sick, remember?" he said, picking up the blanket from the floor.
"But…"
"No 'buts.' You're sick," he said, draping the blanket over her. Raline relented, lying back down and watching her brother begin the impossible task of putting their broken home back together.
She reached for her phone, hoping to find some news about what the hell had just happened. But the screen was blank. No signal. No internet.
She shook it a few times. Still nothing.
"Why's there no signal?"
"Probably the quake," Devon grunted, sweeping a pile of plaster into a corner. "Happens all the time. The internet will probably be back in half an hour".
"Oh…" Raline gave up and set the phone aside, staring at the ceiling.
That's when she heard it. Faint at first, then closer. The sound of people screaming. Not the panicked shouts from the earthquake, but shrieks of pure terror.
"Devon... Someone's screaming out there. It sounds… bad".
He stopped sweeping and listened. She was right. The screams were multiplying, getting louder, closer. A cold knot of dread formed in his stomach. This wasn't right.
"Stay here," he ordered, and walked out the door. He spotted a nearby electrical pole, and without a second thought, he started climbing, using the maintenance pegs as handholds until he was near the top.
From his new vantage point, he could see the source of the screams. Groups of people were running, scattering in every direction, trying to escape… something. He squinted, trying to make out what was chasing them.
'They look like people… but not.' He thought. 'Super skinny, no clothes. And they're… white? All white, from head to toe. They're carrying swords… and shields…'
His brain struggled to process the impossible sight. Then, it clicked. A wave of ice-cold dread washed over him.
'Skeletons. Holy shit. They're actual skeletons.'
Living skeletons, moving with a jerky, unnatural agility, were hunting people down in the streets. They leaped and charged, stabbing with rusted swords at anyone who wasn't fast enough.
"You have got to be kidding me…" he whispered.
A series of gunshots cracked through the air. A few police officers had appeared, firing their pistols at the skeletal creatures.
The bullets hit, knocking the skeletons back a step or two, but they did no real damage. They just got back up and resumed their relentless chase, now targeting the police officers themselves.
Devon's face went pale. He knew, with absolute certainty, that they had to get away. Now.
He scrambled down the pole, landing hard, and burst back into the house. He grabbed his backpack and started shoving their most important belongings inside—a few changes of clothes, Raline's medicine, and the last few packs of instant noodles they owned.
Raline watched him, her expression a mixture of confusion and growing alarm. "What is it? What's going on?"
"We have to go. Now," he muttered, not looking at her, his movements frantic and efficient.
"But… why? What are those screams?" Raline pressed, needing an answer.
Devon zipped the bag shut, slung it over his shoulder, and finally met her gaze. He grabbed her hand. "You need to be able to run, Raline."
Without waiting for a reply, he pulled her out of the house, forcing her into a stumbling run. He peeked left, then right. The street was empty for now.
He picked a direction opposite from where the skeletons were and started running, dragging his sister along. She struggled to keep up with his desperate pace.
"Devon! Slow down! What is it?!"
He risked a glance back, his voice tight with terror. "Skeletons… There are living skeletons out there. They're killing people down by the town square".
Raline's eyes widened in disbelief, then narrowed as she stared at her brother's back. If anyone else had said something so insane, she would have laughed.
But this was Devon. And she knew, better than anyone, that he would never lie, especially not when their lives were on the line.