For several weeks after the atomic bomb was dropped, nothing happened in the forest. Only silence filled the area, broken occasionally by the sound of wind passing through new bushes and trees that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
Even though nothing occurred during that time, the world remained in a state of panic. The reason was simple: 17 year old boy, an entire police squad, and a full SWAT team had all disappeared inside what was once considered a small forest. In only three days, that same forest had expanded by 187.2 square kilometers.
For Prime Minister Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton De Wiart, it was a tragedy that many other world leaders struggled to fully understand. Although several countries had announced nationwide emergency alerts, very little real assistance was being provided.
Whenever Adrian asked other leaders for cooperation, they brushed him aside, telling him to wait before taking further action. Adrian knew exactly that they were hesitating, they were scared. Less than twenty four hours earlier, they had all agreed to drop an atomic bomb on the forest, urging immediate action before the situation became worse.
"Prime Minister!"
It was Adrian's secretary, returning after answering an unexpected phone call.
"Japan has agreed to cooperate. They are willing to deploy their military and intelligence forces."
Japan, the only country that did not seem to be led by an old and hesitant leader. Their forces understood the circumstances and the risks involved, yet they were ready to sacrifice themselves for their country and for their allies.
Adrian's sadness quickly turned into relief. At least one nation was willing to help uncover the cause of this madness.
The secretary continued,
"However, Japan has one condition for their assistance."
Since those brave men were most likely going to disappear as well, it only seemed fair to grant them one request. Still, Adrian had a feeling that whatever they were asking for would not be simple.
"What is their request?" he asked.
The secretary hesitated for a moment before answering.
"They want to show the whole world what is happening inside the forest."
The whole world? How would that even be possible?
Seeing the confusion on Adrian's face, the secretary quickly continued his explanation.
"They want their soldiers to carry cameras that will broadcast a live feed, one that the entire world will be able to watch."
After thinking about it, Adrian realized it was not such a bad idea. After all, nobody truly knew what was inside the forest. However, there was also a serious risk. If there really was some kind of monster hiding within it, revealing that to the entire world could easily throw the world into complete chaos.
The decision was far from perfect, but they needed help, and this might be the only way to get it.
In the end, Adrian had no real choice but to accept.
"Very well," he said. "Connect a channel when they arrive."
The secretary hesitated.
"But sir… they are already inside the forest."
"I'm sorry?"
Adrian stared at her in disbelief. They had gone in even before their request had been approved? Did that meant they were ready to go kill themselves even if the request was not granted?
"Well then," Adrian said quickly, "start the feed immediately!"
"Yes, Prime Minister!"
Since they needed to connect twenty six cameras and monitor the vitals of twenty two soldiers, it took nearly an hour to set everything up. Aside from that, everything was ready. The only delay came from a few world leaders who still needed to arrive for the emergency meeting that would give them access to the live cameras and vital signals.
Once the Russian leader finally joined the meeting, the task force began moving deeper into the forest, unaware of the danger surrounding them.
The heart rates of most of the soldiers remained steady, though one was beating slightly faster than the others.
"Are you sure we're not going to die here?"
"We just need to find the cause of the disappearances," the commander replied calmly. "Then we go back home."
"But… is there any chance we die here, chief?"
"I would guess so. Yes."
"Shit!"
People around the world watched the live feed in silence, gripped by fear that something monstrous might suddenly appear on their screens.
"Let's set up camp here. Jikuy told us to remain in position for about twenty four to twenty six hours."
"Chief… I think I just saw something move."
The comment immediately made the task force leader flinch.
"I know… I think I saw it too."
He had noticed something shifting in the dim forest, but he refused to accept the possibility of what it might have been.
"But don't worry," he quickly added. "We're probably just imagining things. How could there be actual monsters here?"
Even as he tried to reassure the others, his own heart refused to calm down. The image of a moving shadow deep in the forest kept flashing through his mind.
His pulse then began to rise uncontrollably.
"Task force chief, this is Jikuy. Is something wrong? Why is your heartbeat above 100? Did you see something?"
"Negative… I'm just scared for my life right now."
It was obviously a lie. He was almost certain that he had seen something moving among the trees. One thing was clear: something else was present in those cursed woods, and it was certainly not human.
There were also four additional cameras dedicated only to monitor the outside of their truck. The reason was simple. The task force had brought a truck carrying highly classified technology.
Because of that, the agents were not allowed to bring their cameras inside the vehicle.
However, a camera had been placed on each side of the truck, and two members of the task force stood on top of it, watching the sky.
Hours passed without any visible movement. The people around the world watching the broadcast grew more tense with every second.
Eventually, one of the soldiers became impatient and asked the chief a question that viewers could barely hear.
"Can I … not long… without…"
The chief responded only with a slight nod of his head. After that, the task force member handed him something before climbing into the truck.
At that moment, the American leader suddenly began shouting at Adrian.
"What are you doing? Switch the camera to the guy inside the damn truck!"
"Unfortunately, we cannot do that," replied calmly Adrian as if he waited for a question like this.
"Are you seriously refusing my demand?"
"You may have noticed that the soldier handed something to the chief before entering the truck."
"Yes, and what about it?"
"He handed over his camera. Whatever is inside that truck is highly confidential. It is not something the entire world should see."
"You dare say that I shouldn't-"
A loud alert suddenly echoed through the room, immediately silencing the arrogant leader.
It was the vital monitor of the soldier who had just entered the truck. His heart rate had spiked to 178.
"Jikuy! Tell the task force chief to check the problem immediately!"
"Yes, sir… just give me a moment. There seems to be some interference in the forest."
Out in the woods, every soldier stood frozen, their weapons ready, expecting something to leap out of a bush or a tree at any moment.
But nothing came.
Only a crushing silence and an overwhelming sense of pressure.
Then suddenly, a scream burst from inside the truck.
It was not a scream of pain.
It was pure terror.
Even though every member of the task force had accepted the possibility of dying for this mission, none of them wanted to die in this place.
Not like this.
The chief hesitated to enter the truck. He feared what he might find inside. He did not want to see the lifeless body of his comrade.
But before he could even make a decision, the soldier suddenly burst out of the truck and ran straight toward him.
"Chief!"
"For Susanoo's sake, what happened?" the chief asked, startled.
"They're everywhere!"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Come see for yourself!"
At that moment, the chief no longer cared about the confidentiality of the technology inside the truck. He only cared about staying alive.
In his haste, he forgot to remove his camera before entering. Under normal circumstances, that mistake alone could have earned him a life sentence once the mission ended and that only if he survived long enough to face it.
When he stepped inside the truck, the soldier pointed directly at the radar.
Normally, a radar detects other forms of technology. This one however, had been designed to detect movement from any living organism. Every time something moved, a small circle would flash on the screen.
"So… how many of them did you see?"
"…I don't know."
The chief frowned. He didn't know? How could that be? All he had to do was count.
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"Look for yourself."
When the chief turned to the radar, he froze.
At first glance, it was impossible to distinguish any circles at all. The entire screen was flashing nonstop.
For the first time, the entire world watching the broadcast saw exactly what the chief was seeing. Many people didn't even understand what the machine was at first, only that it was blinking wildly without stopping.
The chief began to tremble. He grabbed his walkie talkie, preparing to report the situation to Jikuy.
But before he could say a single word, a loud bang echoed from the roof of the truck.
The chief looked up.
What was happening up there?
Why were the two soldiers on the roof making so much noise?
If they kept that up, they would surely attract whatever was out there.
The chief rushed outside as fast as he could and began shouting.
"Stop making noise, you dumbasses!"
But the sound continued, which only made him angrier.
"You idiots, Shinde iki nasai!"
Finally, the noise stopped.
A moment later, two rocks were suddenly trowed from the roof of the truck and struck the chief on the head.
"What the hell is wrong with you two?!"
Annoyed, he bent down to try and grab the rock, ready to throw them back up at the soldiers.
But then he froze. They were not rocks, they were heads. They were the severed heads of the two soldiers who had been guarding the roof.
Everyone watching the stream, the soldiers in the forest, the world leaders in the conference room, and even the chief himself froze as the horrifying realization sank in.
Two of the twenty-two soldiers were dead.
Yet no one had heard a single scream.
The chief slowly turned his head and looked behind him. In the darkness of the forest, he could see thousands… hundreds of thousands of small white circles staring back at him.
His breathing became uneven as he quickly began counting the soldiers around him.
"2… 4… 6… 8… 10… 12… 14… 15… guys… weren't we 22? Why are we 15?"
The remaining soldiers hurriedly looked around.
Five more had vanished just like that.
Then it started.
Phantoms burst out from their hiding places and lunged at the soldiers standing along the outer edges of the group. Chaos erupted instantly.
The chief turned and ran as fast as he could, abandoning the others behind him. He rushed toward the truck, hoping to escape.
But when he reached it, he stopped. It was already too late.
Phantoms were already inside the truck, tearing apart and devouring whatever remained of the soldier who had entered earlier.
Before the chief even had time to react, a phantom suddenly leapt at him. By sheer luck, the creature landed directly on his rifle. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger.
"What the fuck is happening, why is this happening?"
The gunshot echoed through the forest.
The phantom collapsed instantly, its body falling limp at the chief's feet.
Without even stopping to look at it, the chief kept running.
His lungs burned and his legs trembled, but terror pushed him forward. As he ran, he glanced back over his shoulder.
That was when he saw it.
In the distance, towering above the other phantoms stood a creature that could only be described as their king.
It was nearly six and a half meters tall. A massive sword rested in its hand, large enough to cleave a truck in half. A thick scarf was wrapped around its mouth, yet it failed to hide the monstrous rows of jagged teeth stretching beneath it.
The chief's camera was still attached to his uniform. Which meant the entire world saw it too.
Millions... no billions of people watched the nightmare unfold in real time.
As the chief continued running, the forest suddenly grew darker. Not like nightfall. Like a shadow spreading across reality itself.
Everything around him began to change. Trees, ground, even the air itself seemed to dissolve into shifting darkness. The world lost its depth, becoming something flat and unnatural.
Then the ground beneath him moved. Shadowy hands suddenly burst out from the darkness below.
Shadow phantoms clawed upward from the ground itself, grabbing at the chief's legs and arms, trying to drag him down into the black ground.
Trying to pull him into the shadows.
Desperate, the chief pulled out his gun and fired again and again.
The shots rang through the darkened forest.
But this time, the bullets passed straight through the shadow phantoms as if they were nothing more than mist. At best, the impact slowed them for barely half a second.
Still, that half second was enough. He tore himself free from their grasp and continued running.
But the moment he took another step, something emerged from the darkness. A gigantic sword suddenly burst upward from the ground.
Before the chief could even react, the blade pierced straight through his torso. The impact lifted him slightly off the ground before leaving him hanging there, impaled.
His life ended instantly.
The camera on his uniform continued broadcasting for a few more seconds, capturing the lifeless body suspended on the blade before the feed finally went still.
Far away, inside the emergency conference room, the world leaders stared at the screens in complete silence.
No one spoke, no one moved.
The Japan leader looked at the camera feed and the flatline on the chief's vital monitor, completely speechless.
22 elite soldiers, trained for the most dangerous missions imaginable, had been exterminated in mere minutes.
Then the Korean leader slowly broke the silence.
"The whole world just witnessed what we did… didn't they?"
Adrian did not respond immediately.
Not because he was hesitating.
But because he knew that whatever he said next would not change anything. There were no reassuring words left, no strategy that could undo what the entire world had just witnessed.
When he finally spoke, his voice carried a quiet desperation.
"Did they? Or did they not?"
He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of the other leaders.
"In any case… this is clearly the end of the world, isn't it?"
No one answered. They did not need to.
Every person in that room already understood the truth. No matter where they hid, no matter how powerful their countries were, people like them, ordinary humans could never survive the creatures they had just seen on those screens.
The silence was finally broken when the doors suddenly opened. A man rushed into the room, breathing heavily.
"Sir!"
Everyone turned toward him.
"Tectonic plates all around the world… they're moving."
He swallowed before finishing his report.
"They're moving on their own."
"..."
"I beg... your pardon?" Adrian said slowly.
"The tectonic plates around the—"
Adrian immediately raised his hand to cut him off.
"Yes, I heard that part," he said, disbelief written across his face. "But I didn't hear how."
"Ah… yes, sir." The man quickly gathered himself. "The tectonic plates are moving in a way that suggests that the Earth's map will be reforming itself."
The room fell silent again.
"…What?"
Several of the leaders exchanged uneasy glances. Adrian stared at the man, trying to process what he had just heard.
"But how?" he demanded. "Is it natural or artificial? Give me more information."
"At the moment, we believe it is natural."
The man hesitated for a moment before adding something else.
"…Just like the crack."
Adrian's expression hardened.
"…What crack?"
The man swallowed nervously under the weight of every leader's gaze in the room.
"Didn't you all come here to talk about that?" the man asked nervously.
Before anyone else could answer, the American leader slammed his hand against the table.
"Can you get out if you can't even explain things properly?!" he shouted in anger.
"I'm terribly sorry, sir!" the man stammered. "Just give me one second. I'll show you right away."
He hurried across the room towards the large windows. With shaking hands, he grabbed the blinds and pulled them open.
The room was suddenly filled with pale daylight.
Then everyone saw it.
High in the sky, stretching across the heavens, was a gigantic crack. It looked as if the sky itself had been fractured like broken glass. The tear spread across the clouds, glowing faintly as though something behind it was pushing to break through.
But it had not fully shattered yet.
The leaders stared upward in stunned silence.
"…What is this?" Adrian finally asked.
The man standing by the window swallowed.
"We honestly have no idea, sir."
His voice trembled as he continued.
"It has never happened or recorded in our human history."
The European leader, who had remained silent since arriving, finally spoke. His voice was calm, but the tension behind it was impossible to miss.
He had many questions.
Questions no one in the room seemed capable of answering.
"When will this new 'map' be completed?" he asked.
The man hesitated.
"I… I don't kn—"
"When will these things be stopped?" the European leader interrupted.
"I don—"
"When will we be able to return to our countries?"
The man opened his mouth again. But this time, no sound came out.
He simply stood there, unable to answer a single one of those questions because the truth was painfully obvious to everyone in the room.
No one knew.
Of course, no one in that room knew what would happen next. At that moment, even praying felt meaningless.
But the answers to the European leader's questions did exist.
The new map of the world would be completed in less than a month. During that time, the phantoms would eventually realize that they were no longer bound to their forests. Once that happens, they would begin hunting freely across the world.
Humanity would collapse in less than 2 month and a half. By the end of it, less than 0.1% of the global population would still be alive.
But this is not the story of how a random world was destroyed. This is the story of how people managed to survive in that hell.
Of course, even if one group managed to survive…That does not mean everyone in that group lived long enough to tell the tale.
Doesn't it?