Here's something I've learned about evolution—it doesn't ask for permission. It doesn't give you time to prepare. One moment, you're human. The next, you're something... else.
I was sitting by a cracked window in a building that smelled like moldy socks and death, trying not to think about the monster that smiled at me like it knew my future. Spoiler alert: that kind of smile doesn't usually mean a happy ending.
Adrian was across the room, cleaning his gun like he didn't just see a Hollowed grin like a used car salesman and disappear into thin air. Me? I was trying not to panic.
"You still haven't told me what happened back there," he said, voice low but not accusing. Yet.
I didn't answer right away. How do you explain to your best friend that your brain might've just dialed into an ancient void full of whispering nightmares?
"I saw something," I muttered finally.
Adrian stopped loading his last mag. "Something like what?"
I sighed, rubbing my temple. "A place. Like... not here. All black, no sky, no ground. And these things figures, shadows surrounded me. Watching. Whispering."
Adrian stared like I'd grown a second head. "Whispering? Dude, are you sure this isn't just leftover trauma from the Apex?"
"I'm not hallucinating." I paused. "They said the same thing the Apex did."
His eyes narrowed. "Which was?"
"You're close," I said, my voice low. "But not ready."
Now, Adrian isn't the type to scare easy. He once punched a Hollowed in the face with a steel pipe and didn't blink. But now? Now he looked worried.
"That thing... It talked, Elias. Like, actual words. You realize how messed up that is?"
Yeah. I realized.
Before I could respond, the System chimed in like it had been waiting to drop bad news.
[New Directive Unlocked]
[Primary Objective: Discover the Source of the Hollowed Evolution]
"Oh great," I muttered. "Now it's giving us side quests."
Adrian gave me a flat look. "What does it mean?"
"It means this isn't just about survival anymore," I said, rising to my feet. "We have to find out what's behind all this. The Apex. The Hollowed. The whispers. All of it."
"And how exactly do we do that?" he asked, crossing his arms.
That's when I saw it.
Out the window, several blocks away, a flicker of light. Not firelight. It pulsed steady, rhythmic like a beacon.
Controlled. Intentional.
"Someone's alive out there," I said.
Adrian was on his feet before I finished the sentence. "You think they know something?"
"I think," I said, grabbing my gear, "they're either our salvation or bait."
We moved through the ruined city like shadows, staying low, avoiding open roads. The world was quiet in the wrong way like it was holding its breath. Every corner felt like a trap waiting to spring.
Then we heard it.
Click.
I froze mid-step. Behind me, a gun cocked.
"Don't move."
Of course.
We turned slowly, hands up. A woman stood in the alleyway, rifle aimed right between my eyes. She was young early twenties maybe but her eyes had the kind of death-stare only survivors wore. Hair tied back, gear tight, finger steady on the trigger.
"You were heading toward the beacon," she said, no fear in her voice.
"We saw the light," I replied calmly. "Figured it meant someone was still alive."
She hesitated for half a second, then lowered the gun. "Come with me."
Adrian shot me a sideways glance. "This feels like a horror movie setup."
"I know," I whispered. "Let's follow her anyway."
Because hey, what could possibly go wrong?
She led us through alleys, abandoned buildings, and finally down a stairwell so hidden even a rat might've missed it. At the bottom, a steel door waited. She punched in a code, and it hissed open with a sound like a mechanical exhale.
Inside was a tunnel lit by weak yellow lights that flickered like they hadn't had a maintenance check since the apocalypse. It led into an old underground bunker reinforced steel walls, food supplies, and people.
People.
Maybe thirty in all. Some armed, most hollow-eyed. But when I stepped through the door, every head turned.
Not with fear.
With recognition.
An older man stepped forward. Bald, scarred, and built like a retired tank. His eyes locked on me like I owed him money.
"You're one of them," he said.
I blinked. "One of what?"
He crossed his arms. "You don't even know, do you?"
I was getting real tired of cryptic statements.
"I've had a long day," I said. "Maybe just start with the part where you tell me what you mean."
He studied me, then nodded to the woman who brought us. "Natalie, seal the entrance."
She obeyed without hesitation.
Now I was nervous.
The man finally spoke. "The Hollowed... they aren't evolving by accident. They're following a pattern. A directive."
"Yeah," Adrian said. "We kind of got that from the Apex."
The man's brow furrowed. "You've seen it?"
"Up close and personal," I said. "It smiled at me."
That got a reaction. Whispers rippled through the room like someone had dropped a bomb.
The man turned to a console and brought up a map of the city. Red dots pulsed across it. One in particular blinked like a heartbeat.
"That marker," he said. "It's tracking something alive. Strong. Dangerous. We've been monitoring it for days."
I didn't like where this was going.
"It's moving," he added. "And it's coming this way."
Adrian stepped forward. "What exactly is it tracking?"
The man looked at me.
"You."
The room went dead silent.
Adrian took a step back. "Wait. You mean the Hollowed?"
"They're not just mindless," the man said. "They're searching. Hunting."
"For me?" I asked. "Why?"
He hesitated, then dropped the bomb.
"Because you're one of the Originals."
I blinked. "Come again?"
"The virus that created the Hollowed?" he said. "It didn't come from here. It wasn't natural. It was designed. And in the early days... it bonded with a select few in a very specific way. You're one of them."
I felt like the air had been knocked out of me. The whispers. The visions. The Apex calling me incomplete.
It all made a sick kind of sense.
"But I'm still human," I said weakly.
"For now," the man said. "But you've already changed. Haven't you?"
My silence was the answer.
"You're faster. Stronger. Your senses are amplified. You survived an Apex encounter."
"And you think that makes me... what? A prototype?"
"No," he said. "A bridge."
I didn't like the sound of that.
"They were trying to create something between human and Hollowed," he continued. "Something that could survive what's coming."
"What's coming?" Adrian asked.
The man's gaze darkened. "The next wave."
Before I could ask what that meant, the bunker lights flickered. Then the alarms started blaring.
Red lights.
Shrill sirens.
Natalie ran in from the hall. "They found us."
The man slammed a fist on the console. "Seal the doors!"
"Too late," she said. "They're already inside."
Something crashed in the corridor.
Screams followed.
Adrian pulled his gun. "You've got to be kidding me!"
The man turned to me, eyes burning. "You want answers, Elias? Survive this. Then we'll talk."
More screams. More gunfire.
Then something slammed against the steel blast doors, denting them inward.
Boom.
Boom.
I looked at Adrian.
He nodded. "Threshold of no return, huh?"
The door exploded inward.
And something stepped through.
It wasn't the Apex.
It was worse.
The creature was massive eight feet tall, muscle corded like armor, eyes glowing with unnatural intelligence.
And when it looked at me it bowed.
Then it spoke.
"You are ready."