Ashes slowly fell to the ground, like gray snow. The city behind him had long been dead—only the steel skeletons of buildings and black, charred bones remained, a reminder that people once lived here.
Trey Cortland stood on the roof of a ruined hospital, gazing at the crimson sunset. Half of his chest was torn open, mutated flesh pulsing red through the muscle. He felt no pain—the virus that was once meant to kill him now lived within him.
"Ten years of war... and all for the sake of being alone," he whispered, clutching a fragment of old dog tags in his fist.
Below, in the alleys, creatures prowled. Once—people. Now—a mixture of rot, screams, and bloodlust. But they no longer touched Trey. They were afraid. They sensed that he was something different.
He was going to leave—where, he didn't know himself. There was nowhere left to go in this world. But at the moment he stepped into the darkness—the air in front of him trembled. Space seemed to swell, distort, and... explode in a flash of white light.
Trey opened his eyes.
Grass. Sun. A clear blue sky.
He sat up abruptly, gasping for air, instinctively reaching for a weapon—it wasn't there. No assault rifles, no body armor. Only torn black clothes and scars on his body. He was... alive. But not in that world.
In the distance—a village. Stone houses, wooden roofs. People walking the streets—ordinary people. Children laughing. Women washing laundry. Someone grilling fish over coals.
He turned around. A girl stood before him. About twenty years old. Fair hair, dark eyes, a sword on her back. There was no fear in her gaze—only a strange, heavy attention, as if she sensed something in him... or around him.
"You... you shouldn't have come here," she whispered. "There's no place for the infected here."
Trey frowned, clenching his fist.
"I'm not infected."
The girl didn't answer. She took a step back, her gaze fixed on his chest. At that moment, he noticed—on his skin, right above his heart, a glowing symbol was slowly appearing. Red. Unfamiliar. Alive.
A symbol that hadn't been there before.
Suddenly, the sky above their heads seemed to crackle. An instant—and a ball of black energy appeared in the air. Darkness dripped from it. The locals screamed, dropping their belongings and fleeing.
The girl drew her sword.
"They found you."
Trey looked back. Something crawled out of the crack in the sky. Too thin, too tall. With eyes full of hunger. It let out a sharp, terrifying scream—and the world around them shuddered.
He instinctively stepped forward.
"You know how to fight, don't you?" she asked.
He smirked.
"No. I only know how to survive."