Chapter 1: Sudden Change
Richmond Benzamin rubbed his eyes as the alarm buzzed faintly.
"Six forty-five already…" he muttered, stretching his arms wide before dragging himself out of bed.
He moved through his usual morning routine — brushing, dressing, packing his worn satchel. The apartment was quiet, just the way he liked it during breaks from university. No deadlines, no roommates, just the occasional hum of the fridge.
At 7:09, he dropped onto the sofa and grabbed the TV remote. A flick. Then another. Nothing.
"Huh?" He frowned and hit the power button again. Still nothing.
"What is going on… I just paid for the electricity." He slapped the remote against his palm. "And now the TV won't work— tch, god dammit. I'm going to file a complaint to those useless people, spoiling my morning mood."
He sighed, tossed the remote onto the couch, and checked his watch. "Great. Now I'm late."
Without giving it a second thought, he grabbed his keys and headed for the door.
---
The street outside was quieter than usual. Normally, this part of town buzzed with early commuters — honking, chatter, distant music from shops. Today… silence. A strange, thick silence.
Richmond adjusted his backpack and muttered, "Is it a holiday or something?"
He passed by a small café. The lights were on inside, but there was no one behind the counter. Steam still rose from a half-filled coffee pot.
"Hello?" he called, poking his head in. No answer. He waited a few seconds, then shrugged uneasily. "Weird."
Further down the street, a car sat in the middle of the road with its door wide open. The engine was off, the radio light blinking faintly. Richmond slowed down, his brows furrowing.
"Hey! Anyone there?" His voice echoed faintly down the street.
Nothing. Just the wind brushing past.
---
He pulled out his phone. No signal. No network. Just "Emergency Calls Only" flashing at the top.
"This is getting ridiculous…" he muttered. He tapped a map app — it wouldn't load. The clock on his phone was still ticking, but everything else felt frozen.
Then, a low rumble passed beneath his feet. Subtle at first. Then a second one, a bit stronger. The streetlight above him flickered twice.
"What the—?" Richmond staggered a little, gripping the nearest pole for balance.
It stopped as quickly as it started, leaving the silence behind like nothing happened. He glanced around — still no one. Not a single moving person.
"…This isn't funny anymore."
---
He turned back toward his apartment, instinct telling him to check the news. Inside, the TV was still dead. He flipped the light switch — nothing. The fridge was silent now too.
He tried the radio from his shelf. A burst of static came through, then a broken voice looped:
> "—core readings unstable— magnetic anomalies spreading— if you can hear this, stay indoors— repeat— core readings unstable—"
The message repeated again, fragmented but clear enough.
"Core readings?" Richmond whispered. His geography classes flashed through his mind. "Earth's core…? Is this some kind of drill?"
The rumble returned — deeper, heavier. The floorboards groaned. The windows rattled slightly. Somewhere in the distance, a car alarm wailed for three seconds, then died mid-sound.
Richmond stood in the center of his living room, pulse racing.
"…Okay. Definitely not a prank."
---
Outside, the sky had taken on a faint greenish tint, barely noticeable unless you stared. Birds were circling in chaotic loops, crashing into windows and fluttering wildly.
Richmond watched through the window, his throat dry.
"What the hell happened while I was sleeping?"
The rumble faded again, but the silence that followed wasn't normal anymore. It was alive.
And for the first time, Richmond realized —
He hadn't seen a single human all morning.
Richmond stepped out onto the balcony, scanning the quiet streets again. The greenish hue in the sky had deepened, like a faint aurora smeared across the clouds.
"Okay… this is seriously bad," he muttered. He reached for his phone again — still no service.
Then the ground lurched.
"Whoa—!" He stumbled, gripping the balcony rail as the entire building began to shake. The low rumble returned, louder this time, growing into a deep, rolling quake. Windows shattered across the street. Streetlamps bent like soft metal.
"This isn't a normal earthquake!"
A sudden burst of light erupted from the horizon — not like an explosion, more like a wave of shimmering energy washing through the atmosphere. It raced across the sky, twisting the air in its path, and swept over the city in seconds. Richmond felt it pass through him — a strange warmth in his bones, a heavy pressure in his chest.
He gasped and staggered backward. "What… was that?"
---
When the shaking stopped, everything looked different.
Vines crawled up walls like time had accelerated. Grass pushed through cracks in the pavement at visible speed, spilling onto sidewalks. Trees twisted and thickened, their branches spreading unnaturally wide.
Richmond ran down the stairs and out to the street, jaw slack. In less than a minute, the neat cityscape had turned into something wild. Moss blanketed cars, bushes grew through doors, and even street signs bent under the weight of creeping ivy.
"It's like… decades just passed in seconds," he whispered.
He touched a wall — the moss was warm, pulsing faintly, almost alive.
---
Then came the sound.
A deafening roar tore through the air. Not from any animal he'd ever heard — it was layered, echoing, primal. One roar answered another from somewhere far off, like the city itself was awakening.
Richmond froze.
"What the hell was that…?"
Another quake followed, but this time it wasn't just shaking — it felt like the earth was breathing, exhaling waves of invisible force. His chest tightened as the air thickened.
He looked up.
The sky was no longer blue. It had shifted into a tri-colored swirl — deep crimson, shimmering gold, and stormy teal, blending like oil on water. Light streaks crackled between the colors, faint but visible, as if the atmosphere had been infused with energy.
---
Across the horizon, Richmond saw something even stranger.
In several distant spots, the landscape bulged upward, like invisible hands were molding the terrain. Hills rose where none had been. Rivers glowed faintly as if infused with starlight. A massive pillar of light erupted miles away, stabbing the tricolor sky.
"What's… happening to the world?" Richmond whispered.
He could feel it now — a hum under his feet, steady, powerful, resonating through the air. It wasn't just an earthquake. It was like the planet itself had awakened, releasing something ancient from its core.
The silence that followed was different now. Not empty. Alive.
And Richmond stood alone in the middle of the street, surrounded by a world that had evolved in minutes.