Sid twisted his body midair, throwing all his weight to keep his right knee out of harm’s way. His left leg took the brunt instead, his body crashing onto the rooftop with a bone-rattling slam.
Pain exploded across his side, ribs screaming, lungs driven empty. The world spun around him as the parachute collapsed, draping over the rooftop like a dead flag.
He lay there groaning, clutching his side, his teeth grinding through the pain.
"Still alive... still alive... but god, that hurt."
The roof creaked under him, but it held. He had landed. Barely.
Sid groaned as he pushed himself up to his feet, brushing the dust from his shirt. His legs wobbled, every bone in his body aching from the crash, but he was still standing. Sohow, against all odds, he had survived.
Then the blue screen flickered back into existence before his eyes. That sa calm female voice, smooth and emotionless, filled the air.
[CONGRATULATIONS. SUCCESSFUL LANDING ACHIEVED.]
Tip: Landing without critical injury increases survival odds by 22%.
Sid drew out a bitter laugh, clutching his ribs.
"Oh yeah? Tell that to my spine."
The blue glow spread wider, filling his vision. Before he could blink, the rooftop dissolved around him, swallowed by the screen. Sid felt his stomach twist as the world changed into sothing else, as if a cutscene had hijacked his eyes. He could not move, could not speak, only watch.
[In the beginning, the world was alive... The cities burned with light. The streets overflowed with voices. Humanity stood tall.]
The vision painted a vibrant city. Buildings stretched high into the sky, houses packed close together, and the streets overflowed with cars and chatter. Families laughed in parks, vendors called out on corners, and soldiers marched proudly beneath fluttering banners.
t was a world untouched, unaware of what was coming.
But in a blink, the vision twisted. Bright towers dissolved into ash and blood. The crowd’s joy turned to screams as shadows poured from the alleys. The announcer’s voice carried on, unshaken, even as Sid watched the chaos unfold.
[And to surprise, the dead turned to us living.]
The shadows lurched forward, skin peeling, eyes clouded white. They fell upon the crowds in waves, dragging people to the ground. Sid saw a child stumble, only to be buried under gnashing teeth. Streets once full of life beca rivers of red, bodies thrashing as they were devoured.
[They chase us so we ran. They eat us so we fought. First, we reunite to fight back but... With zombies rising, everything is limited. And with that the next day we clawed at each other for scraps.]
The scene shifted to barricades built from cars and broken walls. Survivors clung to rifles, swinging bats, firing into the masses. At first, they held together, neighbors defending neighborsbut soon the faces hardened.
Soldiers abandoned their posts. Families robbed strangers at gunpoint. Smoke rose from burning districts as humans turned their weapons not just on the dead, but on each other.
[With humans turning against each other and zombies were too many. In just two years no one survive...]
The vision grew darker. Empty cities stretched to the horizon, skyscrapers hollowed into tombs. Roads cracked and split, stained with old blood. In the silence, only the dead road, shuffling through ruins that no longer echoed with voices.
Sid watched a single street, littered with bones and torn clothes, until even that image faded into black. Then the vision ended, and rooftop snapped back into focus.
Sid staggered, his head spinning, the afterimage burned into his brain. His legs wobbled, and for a mont he thought he might vomit. He grabbed his side, trying to steady his breath, but the unease lingered deep in his chest.
"This... this was the intro. When you opened the ga, this opening animation would play. The animators did a good job making it look dramatic, and I’ve seen it a hundred tis before, but... never like that. Not real. Not in my head. It’s too much. That, that was showing inside my head like I was there. I can’t... I can’t—"
The voice fell silent, leaving Sid alone with the weight of the vision. His ragged breaths filled the air, and for a brief mont it almost felt like the world itself had paused, giving him space to process what he had just seen.
A mont later, the voice returned.
[As the chosen player, your mission is simple... revive the Dead World.]
"Revive? No, no, that’s not right. In the ga it was survive. It was always SURVIVE THE DEAD WORLD. Why the hell did that change?"
The voice ignored him, continuing without pause.
[You have been sent here with purpose. Look around you. The world is broken, the cities are hollow, the people are gone. The living cannot fight anymore. We need you.]
"Why ? Why the hell would you send here?"
But the voice never wavered, pressing on like he hadn’t spoken at all.
[You are our last chance. The only chance. If you fail, this world will never rise again.]
The words cut deeper than Sid wanted to admit. His anger gave way to sothing else, a heaviness that pressed down on his chest. He swallowed hard, his throat tight, the weight of responsibility pulling at him. For a brief mont, he almost felt like crying.
"No other humans. Just ."
[You are the last survivor. The world rests in your hands.]
Sid dragged his sleeve across his eyes, forcing the sting back. He refused to break down here, not in this broken world, not when a machine voice was watching him like so invisible audience. He took a shaky breath, trying to stand taller.
The silence stretched for a heartbeat before the voice returned.
[Because you died... and in so unknown occurrence, you were transported into this world. Your previous life status has been registered as your status here.]
"Died... right. I... I know that. I just—"
He pressed a trembling hand to his chest, searching for the weight of a heartbeat, the proof of sothing human still left in him. The mory slamd back: the seizure on stream, his body locking up, the horror on millions of faces as he collapsed, and that zombie bride.
The one he was supposed to kill to end the controversy, to prove himself. Instead, she was the last thing he saw.
"So that was it? That mont... when everything cut out... I really... died?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)