I did not remember how long I had slept.
All I knew was that when the final stream of liquid nitrogen hissed into silence, when my body slowly thawed and the first trace of warmth from the outside world seeped into my skin, I managed to pry open my heavy eyelids and draw in a breath.
My chest burned sharply. I could not tell whether it was because I had forgotten how to breathe, or because the air was so thick with fine dust that it scraped against my lungs. Perhaps it was both.
The first coherent thought that surfaced once my mind began moving again was simple: I had been saved.
Science must have advanced. My malignant cancer must now have a cure. That would be why they woke me from the endless sleep they had promised would preserve me.
But the world that greeted me was not a team of scientists in white coats. It was not the familiar hum of machinery or the sterile light of cutting-edge equipment.
The laboratory had collapsed into a heap of debris. Darkness swallowed everything. The machines lay silent, lifeless. The only light that seeped into this fragile, half-buried space came from a jagged crack in the ceiling of the underground chamber. Murky drops of water leaked through the fissure and fell onto the concrete with cold, hollow ticks that echoed in the stillness.
The sky above that crack was a dull, ashen grey, carrying the faint metallic stench of rust. It drifted into my newly awakened senses as I inhaled again. I winced, furrowing my brows and wrinkling my nose at the acrid scent.
Why was this place so devastated? Had we been attacked?
This laboratory had been buried beneath the outskirts of the city, concealed deep underground. Before I was put into hibernation, we had been working on a biological weapon for the government.
It was not impossible that hostile forces had discovered us.
But first, I needed to get out of here.
I pushed myself upright, forcing my rigid muscles to obey, and stepped out of the cryo-chamber. The movement was clumsy; my body was stiff and numb. Only the cocktail of injections administered before the procedure had kept my muscles from wasting away entirely.
As I glanced at the faint gouges along the chamber's reinforced surface, I frowned. They resembled claw marks. The capsule was made of material stronger than bulletproof glass; it was the only reason I was still alive.
But these marks were bigger than anything a tiger or wolf could make.
This place is no longer safe, I thought. I need to get back to the city as soon as possible.
With no electricity left, the elevator was useless. I had no choice but to climb the emergency stairwell, dragging my heavy feet upward while clinging to cracked walls coated with moss and dampness. My palms slipped more than once, nearly sending me tumbling down the steps.
A knot of unease tightened in my chest. Why had they abandoned me here? Even if there had been an attack, the government should have returned to retrieve critical data, and I was their most valuable asset.
I was their genius scientist. It was they who proposed cryo-preserving my body when my cancer reached stage three. They promised they would awaken me once medicine had advanced, so I could be cured and continue contributing to their empire.
So why was I abandoned like this? Had they forgotten me? Or had the world progressed so far that even my genius had become obsolete, replaced by artificial intelligence?
Questions swirled through my fog-laden thoughts. Yet when I pushed open the final door and stepped out of the underground chamber, I felt my answers waiting in the open air.
It was not only the lab that had collapsed. Everything around me had rotted into ruin.
Buildings lay toppled. Vehicles were shattered and abandoned across the streets. Dust and sand whipped through the air in choking gusts, hissing against my ears until my nerves stung.
The land was barren. Not a person in sight. Not even an animal. The only life left was the vegetation strangling every fallen wall, every cracked road. Massive trees had broken through concrete, clawing their way upward as if they now ruled this world.
My confusion deepened. A throbbing ache gathered between my brows. What had happened to my country? Had a war broken out?
No. Even war could not cause this.
This looked as if the entire human civilization had been wiped away.
I needed to find someone. Anyone. To ask what had happened.
I bent down and picked up a thick branch, using it as a staff to support my unsteady body. I followed the remains of the highway, eyes darting constantly, afraid of predators yet hoping desperately to find another human being.
Anyone, as long as they were human.
My bare feet bled as they stepped on shattered debris scattered across the cracked pavement. The pain cleared my mind further, sharpening the realization that I was alive. Only… no longer in the world I had known.
Rustle.
Through the howl of the wind, a faint sound brushed my left ear. I flinched, whipping my head around. I caught the flash of a figure retreating behind a collapsed wall.
My heart, which had been quiet for years, lurched violently into motion, pounding against my ribs. Fear and hope warred inside me. Beast or human?
"W–who…"
My voice cracked, thin and unsteady, as if I had forgotten how to speak. I cleared my throat several times before forcing sound out again.
"Who's there?" I raised my makeshift staff defensively, afraid whatever hid there would leap at me.
The shadow peeked out again. Under the harsh noon sun, I managed to glimpse part of its silhouette.
A human.
Relief surged through me so suddenly that my knees weakened. I stepped forward, emboldened, not caring whether they were friend or foe. All I wanted was another person, proof that I was not the only survivor of this desolation.
"Hello?"
As I approached, the figure recoiled, retreating deeper into the shadows. I hurriedly spoke. "It's alright, I won't hurt you."
I stopped moving, let the branch fall from my hand, and raised both palms to show I meant no harm.
"I only want to ask a few questions. If you can… could you come out?" I kept my voice as gentle as possible.
Silence pressed between us. Dust drifted through the wind and into my nose. I waited patiently.
After a moment, as if realizing I was not a threat, the figure slowly crawled out from its hiding place.
I smiled in relief and took a small step forward without thinking.
"Do you know—"
The rest of my words died in my dry throat as the person stepped fully into the sunlight, and I instinctively backed away.
He was human, yes, a man, perhaps in his thirties.
But he wore nothing. His vacant expression tilted toward me with a mixture of curiosity and something far more unsettling.
HHe did not stand upright. He crawled across the ground like an animal. He advanced toward me in slow, deliberate movements, his gaze growing sharper, hungrier, as if assessing prey. A low growl rumbled from his throat, nothing remotely human.
What horrified me most, however, was the swollen, swaying length hanging between his legs.
Every instinct in my body screamed a warning.
Something was terribly wrong with the world I had awakened into.
***