Chicago looked normal from the highway.
Cars. Buildings. People living their normal lives. They had no idea that something from another world had just broken through reality fifteen minutes ago.
"Target is in the industrial area," Eli said from his laptop, typing fast. "Warehouse section near the water. The rift opened inside an old meat factory. One Rifter came through before the rift closed."
"Any civilians?" Elena asked from the front seat.
"Three workers were inside when it happened. None of them answered emergency calls."
Dead. He meant they were dead.
Marcus turned down a side street, away from traffic, heading toward the water. Buildings got older. Empty. The kind of place where no one would hear you scream.
"Listen carefully," Elena said, turning to look at me and Jin in the back seat. "Rifters don't feel pain. They don't get tired. They don't stop until you destroy them completely."
"What does 'completely' mean?" I asked.
"Cut them apart or blow them up. Anything less and they keep fighting." She checked her weapon—a strange shotgun with blue glowing parts. "Rift rounds mess up their body structure. Makes them easier to kill. But you still need to hit important spots."
"What are the important spots?"
"We're still learning. Head usually works. Sometimes the chest. We figure it out as we go."
"That's not good."
"It's not supposed to be good." Marcus stopped the van in an alley three blocks away from the target. "Everyone out. Eli stays here with the computer. Everyone else, weapons ready. Stay close to each other. Watch each other's backs. And Kane?" He looked at me in the mirror. "Don't freeze up. Freezing will get you killed."
We got out into the cold air.
The meat factory was ahead—four floors of old metal and broken windows. The kind of building that should have been torn down years ago.
"I'm reading the signal," Eli said in our earpieces. "Second floor, back corner. It's not moving much. Might be eating."
My stomach twisted. "Eating what?"
"The workers," Elena said simply. "Let's go. We go in quiet. Look at the situation first. Only attack when we have a clean shot."
We moved together. Elena in front, Marcus watching behind us, Jin and me in the middle. The building's side door was ripped off—not just opened, but torn completely off, the metal bent like paper.
Inside, the factory was full of hanging chains, old hooks, and a smell of old blood mixed with something else. Something that made my eyes hurt.
"Second floor," Elena whispered. "Stairs up ahead."
We climbed slowly. Every step felt too loud. My heart was beating so fast I thought the Rifter might hear it.
Then I heard a sound.
Wet. Crunching. Like someone chewing with their mouth open, but much worse.
Elena raised her fist. We stopped.
She looked around the corner, then pulled back fast. Her face had gone pale.
"Three bodies," she whispered. "The Rifter is eating. Kane, Jin—go left and right. Marcus, shoot when I give the signal. We kill it fast."
I moved left, holding my rifle up. My hands were shaking. Through the doorway I could see into a big room with old equipment and—
The Rifter was bent over something I didn't want to look at.
It was huge. Seven feet tall, bent down, its back to us. Gray skin pulled tight over long bones. Arms with hands that had too many fingers. Its head looked almost human but wrong—like someone drew a person from memory and messed up the details.
It was making happy sounds while it ate.
Elena's voice came softly through the earpiece: "On three. One... two..."
The Rifter's head jerked up.
It turned toward us impossibly fast.
I saw its face.
No eyes. Just smooth skin where eyes should be. A mouth that opened way too wide, full of teeth that were all different shapes and sizes.
It screamed.
The sound hit me like a punch. My earpiece filled with noise. My vision went blurry. My legs almost gave out.
"SHOOT!" Elena yelled.
Marcus fired his shotgun. The Rifter's shoulder exploded. Gray liquid sprayed out. It stumbled but didn't fall.
Jin fired three times. Holes opened in the Rifter's chest. It still didn't fall.
Then it ran at us.
So fast. One second it was far away. Next second it was on Marcus.
He blocked with his shotgun. The hit sent him flying into a concrete wall. I heard bones crack.
"MARCUS!" Elena fired. The Rifter's arm came off at the elbow. It kept coming.
Jin rolled to the side, came up shooting. The Rifter's knee exploded. It fell for half a second, then jumped at Jin using just one leg.
I watched in horror as those long fingers reached for Jin's throat.
Then something clicked in my brain.
My new skill—Combat Awareness—kicked in. The world slowed down. I saw the Rifter's movement pattern. Saw the opening.
I fired.
The rift round hit the Rifter in the side of the head. Its skull cracked open like an egg.
It collapsed mid-jump and hit the floor hard.
For three seconds, nobody moved.
Then the Rifter's body started smoking. The gray flesh turned black, crumbling like ash. Within ten seconds, nothing was left but a dark stain on the concrete floor.
"Kane," Elena said, breathing hard. "You killed it."
I stared at my rifle. At my hands still shaking. "I killed it."
"First kill," Jin said, checking Marcus. "Welcome to the war."
Marcus groaned, holding his ribs. "Kid's got good aim. I'll give him that."
My phone buzzed:
COMBAT COMPLETE
FIRST RIFTER ELIMINATED
+5,000 CREDITS
+3 STRENGTH
+2 AGILITY
LEVEL UP! YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 6
NEW ACHIEVEMENT: RIFTER HUNTER
TITLE EARNED: "DIMENSIONAL KILLER"
I looked at the ash stain. At the three bodies the Rifter had been eating. At Marcus holding his broken ribs. At Jin's face, which showed no emotion at all.
This was my life now.
Hunting monsters. Saving people who would never know. Dying in secret.
"More incoming," Eli's voice crackled through the damaged earpiece. "Two rifts just opened. One in Detroit. One in Miami. We need to move."
Elena looked at me. "Can you do this again?"
I thought about the red dots spreading across that map. About six months until full invasion. About my mom thinking I was just studying hard for finals.
"Yeah," I said. "I can do this."
We left the bodies for cleanup teams and ran back to the van.
The war had just begun.