Standing outside her front door, Sunny looked up and shivered.
The sky was wrong. Swirling black veins pulsed through the clouds like poison in a bloodstream. It was scary. It felt like the sky was physically pressing down on her chest.
She took a deep, shaky breath. The air even tasted like ash.
You got this, Sunny.
She gripped her keys tight and climbed into the driver’s seat of her Tank. The leather seat was cold. She fired up the ignition and the engine roared to life, a deep, aggressive rumble that vibrated right up through her boots. She pulled out of her driveway and headed downtown.
The drive was a sickening contrast. The world was literally about to end, but Koria was busy living its normal, boring Tuesday life.
Sunny gripped the steering wheel, her knuckles turning white. She watched a young couple holding hands outside a corner cafe, laughing over iced coffees.
A few blocks down, a bride in a stunning white dress posed for pictures on the steps of a cathedral. The groom was smiling, adjusting his tie while the photographer checked the lighting.
People were grabbing lunch, complaining about traffic, kissing on street corners, and arguing on their phones.
You guys have no idea. This is so sad.
She bit her bottom lip. A strange, hollow ache settled in her chest. They were so oblivious. They thought this was just a weird storm system moving in from the coast. They didn’t know their lives were measured in minutes now.
Then, the sky shattered.
A deafening crack split the air. It sounded like the universe itself just snapped in half. The sheer force of the sound shattered glass in the nearby skyscrapers. Thousands of windows rained down like crystal confetti.
People screamed. They dropped their coffee cups. They covered their ears and fell to the pavement.
Right above the towering glass spire of Fallon Industries, a swirling purple-black hole ripped open. It was a literal wound in the sky.
Monsters poured out of the rift like foul rain. Huge, twisted beasts with razor claws, jagged rock skin, and dead eyes dropped onto the streets.
A creature the size of a dump truck slammed onto the hood of a taxi right in front of her. The metal crumpled like tin foil. The beast roared, tearing the car door off its hinges.
Cars crashed into each other trying to flee. Fire hydrants burst, shooting geysers of water into the air. Pure chaos erupted in seconds.
"Shit," Sunny cursed.
She slammed her foot on the gas. The red Tank surged forward, crushing the wreckage of the taxi under its giant off-road tires. She evaded the swarming beasts at high speed, her heart hammering against her ribs as she aimed the truck straight for Fallon Industries.
Elias had just stepped out of the Fallon Industries lobby. He was holding a fresh cup of coffee, ready to take a ten-minute break.
Then the crack happened. He dropped the cup. He looked up and saw a huge creature rip a steel streetlamp right out of the concrete like it was a toothpick. The beast tossed it into a fleeing crowd.
Elias didn’t run away. He turned around and sprinted right back inside, ignoring the screaming security guards and the panicking crowds flooding the lobby. He took the emergency stairs. His lungs burned as he took them three at a time, running all the way back up to the office.
He burst into the room, out of breath, his tie askew.
"Don!" Elias shouted.
He froze. Donovan was not sitting behind his desk. The wooden wall paneling behind his bookshelf was wide open, revealing a hidden steel compartment.
Donovan stood there in his tailored suit. He was calmly strapping a holster over his broad shoulders. He slotted a matte-black handgun into the leather, adjusting the fit.
Elias blinked, his jaw practically hitting the floor.
"Did you know this was going to happen?" Elias demanded, pointing a shaking finger toward the window where monsters were falling from the clouds.
Donovan picked up a spare magazine and slammed it into a rifle. He didn’t even flinch at the screams echoing from the streets below. He turned to look at his friend. His gray eyes were cold, sharp, and entirely focused.
"Nope," Donovan said smoothly. "I just had a hunch the world is going to end."
Since someone keeps stealing my survival gear, I decided to keep my personal stash very close, he thought to himself.
Elias stood there uselessly. He couldn’t form a coherent sentence.
Donovan reached into the hidden compartment and tossed a rifle straight at him.
Elias fumbled, almost dropping it, but managed to catch the cold metal against his chest.
"We are leaving," Donovan ordered.
They rushed out of the office and sprinted down the stairs, bursting into the chaotic lower levels. The employees were a mess. They were running in circles, screaming, crying, and hiding under their desks that offered zero protection.
"Listen to me!" Donovan shouted.
His voice cut through the panic like a sharp blade. It was a voice used to commanding boardrooms and closing billion-dollar deals. The employees stopped and looked at their CEO, their faces pale with terror.
"Stay close together," Donovan commanded, pointing toward the emergency stairwell. "Do not break the line. Follow me out through the back door. We are going to the company buses."
They trusted him. He was Donovan Fallon. He built this empire from the ground up, and he never failed them. They formed a tight, shivering group and followed him through the winding corridors of the ground floor.
Donovan reached the back exit. He gripped the handle and pushed the solid metal door open into the alleyway.
A literal monster locked down on them.
It was waiting right outside. It crouched on four muscular legs, its skin resembling jagged concrete. It had teeth the size of kitchen knives and eyes that burned with a sick, yellow light. It roared, spraying foul saliva across the pavement, and lunged straight at Donovan.
Donovan didn’t hesitate. He didn’t waste a single second calculating the odds.
He shot down the beast.
That didn’t work, so he rushed for it, driving it away from his people and slamming it into a brick wall.
He fired his weapon point-blank into its thick hide. The beast shrieked, slashing a vicious claw across Donovan’s shoulder, but he was able to kill it.
His suit jacket ripped, blood staining the white fabric beneath, but he didn’t stop. He kicked its legs out, clearing a narrow path to the parked buses.
"Go! Move!" Donovan roared.
The employees scrambled past him, crying and clinging to each other as they rushed into the safety of the company bus.
Donovan had never seen anything like this. Monsters falling from a torn sky defied every logical rule he knew. His brain was scrambling to make sense of the blood, the claws, the impossible nightmare unfolding in front of him.
He was panicking. His pulse was a terrifying drum in his ears. He felt the cold grip of absolute dread tightening around his chest.
But nobody saw it. To the employees, he was an invincible shield. He was their fearless leader.
Elias was the only one who noticed. Elias saw the slight tremble in Donovan’s hands as he gripped his rifle. He saw the tight, desperate flex of his jaw, and the frantic dart of his gray eyes.
Elias raised his own weapon, laying down cover fire as the last employee got on the bus.
"We need to go, Don!" Elias yelled, stepping backward toward the remaining bus.
Then, a shadow dropped from the fire escape above.
A second beast landed right behind Elias. It opened its giant, foul jaws and gnawed down.
Donovan’s heart shot straight into his throat. He saw the razor-sharp teeth clamp down on his best friend’s shoulder. The wet crunch of bone echoed in the narrow alley. The sound of Elias screaming tore the breath right out of Donovan’s lungs.
Time seemed to stop. His vision tunneled on his friend’s agonizing face.
Right at that exact second, the deafening roar of a V8 engine drowned out the chaos.
A giant, army-blood red armored truck rammed into the clearing. It smashed through the alleyway barricades, sending brick and metal debris flying everywhere. It hit the beast holding Elias with brutal, crushing force.
The monster went flying under the giant off-road tires with a sickening crunch.
The red Tank slammed on the brakes, skidding to a halt right in front of Donovan. Dust and smoke swirled around the armored hood.
The tinted driver’s side window rolled down.
Sunny leaned out. Her violet eyes were blazing with pure adrenaline, and her fiery red hair whipped wildly in the wind.
She looked at her fictional husband, bloodied and stunned in the alleyway.
"Get in the car, Donnie!"