Day Before Departure - Father’s Visit
4:00 PM - Private eting Room, Yamashiro Institute
My father looked older. Two weeks had aged him two years. His suit was spotless but his eyes were haunted.
"The transport will arrive at 06:00 tomorrow," he said without even greeting . "You’ll have one hour to reach the departure point."
"Where?"
"Vault Terminus. It’s been built beneath Mount Fuji. Deepest, most secure facility on Earth. You’ll be in the cryo-wing with fourteen other candidates."
"Why so few?"
"Because you’re not ant to maintain the vault. The 50,000 regular inhabitants will do that. You’re ant to sleep through the catastrophe and wake when the world needs rebuilding." He t my eyes. "You’re humanity’s genetic lottery tickets."
"That’s freaky."
He pulled out a small device. "Your equipnt requests were approved. They’ll be waiting in your cryo-pod."
I’d asked for twin short swords, Norse-style but modernized. A mono-molecular blade with Tsurugi clan markings I’d found in the historical database. Various tactical equipnt that wouldn’t degrade over ti.
"Dad," I said quietly, my voice barely above a whisper. "What about you?"
"I have a bunker in Greenland. Parliantary continuation of governnt protocols." His smile was sad. "We both know it’s not gonna work, but we have to try."
"Will I ever see you again?"
He pulled into a hug—the first in years. "I don’t know. But if humanity survives, it will be because of people like you. Your mother would be so proud."
"Co with . The vault—"
"They don’t has room for old politicians. Besides, soone needs to maintain the order that everything’s fine until the very end. Give people a few more days of hope."
He pulled back, composed himself. "There’s sothing with the Sunflare event—it’s not just solar radiation. Our satellites detected biological markers in the corona discharge."
"What?"
"We don’t know. But so scientists think it’s not random. That sothing is coming with the flare.."
---
Day of Departure
5:30 AM - Yamashiro Institute Gates
I stood with my sling bag, watching the sun rise over Tokyo for what might be the last ti. The city was waking up—salary n heading to work, students to school, everything normal.
The transport was subtle—a black van with governnt plates. The driver said nothing, just checked my ID and nodded toward the back.
We drove through the city as it ca alive. Street vendors setting up. Children in uniforms walking to school. An old couple feeding pigeons in a park.
We were three blocks from the vault entrance when it happened.
The ground shook. People scread as cracks appeared in the pavent, spreading like veins. A woman nearby fell, her leg snapping at an unnatural angle, bone protruding through bloody flesh.
"Drive faster!" I ordered, my hand instinctively going to the knife I kept hidden.
The driver accelerated just as the first one erged.
It had been human once—maybe an hour ago. But now it moved on all fours, its limbs elongated and wrong. Its skin was pale, almost translucent, showing black veins pulsating beneath. Its eyes were white and pupilless, but sohow tracking movent with horrifying precision. Most disturbing was its chest—where a human’s sternum should be, there was instead a secondary mouth lined with rows of needle-like teeth, already dripping with viscous black fluid.
A monster.
It launched itself at our van, claws screeching against reinforced tal. The driver swerved, clipping it, but three more erged from a building that had just collapsed. One of them still wore the tattered remains of a school uniform, its jaw hanging at an impossible angle, multiple rows of teeth visible in the distorted opening.
"The infection," the driver gasped, his face pale with terror. "It’s already starting. The flare isn’t supposed to hit for—"
"Just drive!"
We zap through streets suddenly filled with chaos. So people were transforming—their bones cracking and reshaping with sickening pops and tears. A businessman dropped to all fours, his spine elongating as his suit ripped apart. Others ran screaming, their blood spattering the pavent as they were cut down by the newly-turned. The smart ones headed underground, but many were already too late.
Two blocks from the vault entrance, the van died. EMP pulse—the first wave of the Sunflare had arrived early.
"Run!" I grabbed my bag and kicked open the door.
The entrance was a concealed access point in a subway station. I could see other figures running toward it, their faces twisted in terror. One woman slipped in a pool of blood and viscera, her leg torn open below the knee, exposing white bone and shredded muscle.
A Crawler dropped from above, landing between and the entrance. Fresh-turned, still wearing a business suit. Its hands had elongated into claws, and its jaw had split vertically, creating a grotesque double-mouth lined with rotating teeth. It cocked its head at , as if rembering sothing.
"Please," it wheezed, the last word it would ever speak, black drool dripping from its multiple mouths.
Then it lunged.
My training took over. I rolled under its leap, my movents fluid and practiced. I ca up running, my bag slung over my shoulder. Behind , I heard gunfire—security forces trying to hold them back. Ahead, the vault door was starting to close.
"Wait!" I scread, pushing myself faster.
Soone grabbed my arm, pulling through just as the massive steel door sealed with a bone-deep thud. I turned to see a Crawler’s claws scraping against the door, leaving deep gouges in the tal before it was cut in half by automated defense systems. Black blood sprayed across the corridor, coating the walls in a thick, viscous layer.
"Welco to Vault Terminus," a voice said over the intercom. "Please proceed to decontamination."
---
[PRESENT DAY - Vault Terminus]
Scarlett blinked, returning from the mory as she stood outside Shūi’s quarters. That day felt like yesterday and a lifeti ago simultaneously. She’d made it to the vault, gone into cryo-sleep, and woke up to find the world exactly as gone as predicted.
The corridor around her bore the scars of their daily struggle—scorch marks from energy weapons, dried bloodstains that the cleaning bots never quite managed to remove entirely.
But at least now she wasn’t alone. She had a team, a purpose, and—she thought of Jin’s deteriorating condition.
Save him from whatever was consuming him from within.
Even if it ant going through his devoted "cousin" to do it.
Her hand tightened around her mother’s silver ring, a silent promise to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. Jin needed her now, whether he knew it or not. And Scarlett Kendrick never abandoned those in her care.
As she walked down the corridor, her fingers brushed the Nordic rune tattoos hidden beneath her shirt—a reminder of the warrior heritage that flowed through her veins. The Valkyrie would not fail. Not again.
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