AFTERSHOCK

“DAAAMN IT!!!” Luo sprinted through the remains of an abandoned city block, his boots pounding against cracked concrete. His bag bounced violently against his back with every step, threatening to fly off entirely. Behind him came barking. A lot of barking. Luo glanced over his shoulder. One. Two. Three... He looked again. “...Four.” One of the creatures suddenly accelerated. Luo's eyes widened. “...Okay. Four.” The pack of dog-like Genomorphs tore through the ruins behind him, their claws scraping against broken pavement. Their bodies were vaguely canine, but only vaguely. Radiation had done things to them that nature never intended. One leapt over a fallen car. Another squeezed between two collapsed walls. The third was gaining on him. Luo looked forward again. “Why are they so fast?” He immediately shook his head. Wrong question. Why were he so slow? No. Also wrong. There was no point blaming himself right now. He needed a solution. Luo's mind raced. The Genomorphs were faster than him on open ground. Fighting them would waste too much energy, and there were four of them. Four was already three too many. He needed somewhere they couldn't easily follow. Preferably somewhere high. Preferably somewhere with a door. Preferably somewhere that wasn't currently falling apart. Luo spotted a partially destroyed building ahead. He almost laughed. It had cracked walls, missing windows and half a roof. The entire left side looked like it had been punched by a giant. Perfect. “Please don't be too far...” Luo pulled his right arm forward. Wrapped around his hand was a strange fingerless glove of metal and dark components. Stormbreaker. His invention. A kinetic-energy converter capable of turning his movement into electrical energy, then using that energy to generate powerful electromagnetic forces. It was clever. It was efficient. It was also occasionally a complete pain to work with. Luo reached into his bag and pulled out a small metallic plate. He aimed. “Come on...” He fired. CLANG! The plate shot across the street and embedded itself into the exposed metal framework of the building. Luo grinned. “Gotcha.” He activated Stormbreaker. The glove instantly magnetized toward the plate. So did the rest of him. “WHOA—!” Luo shot forward. The ground disappeared beneath his feet. For approximately three beautiful seconds, everything went exactly according to plan. The wind slapped his face. The building rushed toward him. The Genomorphs fell behind. Luo smiled. See? Genius. Then Stormbreaker sputtered. Luo's smile disappeared. “...Don't.” The glove flickered. “Don't you dare.” KRRR— The electromagnetic pull vanished. Luo dropped. “AAAAAAAH!” The street rushed toward him. “STORMBREAKER!” The glove suddenly whirred back to life. VMMMM! Luo was yanked forward again with enough force to make his stomach turn. “OH, NOW YOU WORK?!” He shot through a broken window. His shoulder clipped the frame. His bag flew over his head. And Luo himself landed directly on an old couch. THUD. Silence. A small cloud of dust drifted through the room. Luo remained face-down on the couch. One second passed. Two. “...Ow.” He slowly rolled onto the floor. Outside, the Genomorphs barked furiously. Luo's eyes snapped open. “Okay.” He pushed himself up. “Ow later.” He grabbed his bag and hurried deeper into the building. --- The inside of the structure was even worse. What had once been an apartment complex had become little more than a collection of broken rooms. Furniture lay overturned. Chunks of concrete covered the floor. The walls were stained with years of dust and grime. Luo kept moving until the sounds outside became faint. Finally, he found a small room near the back of the building. He leaned against the wall and slid down. His chest rose and fell rapidly. “Haaah...” He closed his eyes. For a few moments, there was nothing but his breathing. Then— “Stupid Rai...” Luo looked down at Stormbreaker. “If I ever see him again, I'm gonna—” He stopped. His expression changed. “...Actually, I'm probably gonna thank him.” He rubbed his face. “Technically, this thing saved me.” A pause. “After trying to kill me.” Luo wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that. He reached into his bag and pulled out his communicator. The device was scratched. He pressed the power button. Nothing. He pressed it again. Still nothing. Luo stared at it. He shook it. Nothing. He smacked it lightly against his palm. Nothing. He stared at it again. “...You have got to be kidding me.” He turned it over. A c***k ran straight across the screen. Luo looked toward the couch in the other room. “Yeah.” He nodded solemnly. “That was definitely the couch.” He shoved the communicator back into his bag. There was no point worrying about it now. He needed rest. But before that... Luo stood and walked toward a large hole in the wall. He looked outside. And for a moment, he forgot about the Genomorphs. The world stretched before him. Or what remained of it. Buildings stood like broken skeletons against a grey sky. Some leaned against one another, held together by nothing but rust and stubbornness. Roads had cracked apart, allowing dead vegetation to creep through the concrete. There were no cars moving. No voices. No signs. Just ruins. In the distance, an enormous structure had been twisted around itself, its metal frame warped into something almost unrecognizable. Luo stared at it. This was normal now. At least, it was normal for him. The world had been broken for decades. People had given the aftermath a name. The Aftershock. Nobody completely understood what had happened. Humanity had already been fighting its greatest war when an unidentified nuclear weapon was detonated. Who launched it? Nobody knew. Why? Nobody knew. Where did it come from? That was another question nobody could answer. And what came afterward was far stranger than a simple nuclear disaster. The atmosphere changed. Some regions lost oxygen almost entirely. Gravity became unstable in certain parts of the world. In fact, This catastrophe affectted the earths rotation and a day became 32 hours. He sighed. The temperature of the planet seemed to divide itself into three permanent zones—one locked in freezing cold, another trapped beneath unbearable heat, and a final region where the environment remained almost perfectly stable. Radiation triggered abnormal chemical reactions. Animals changed. Humans changed. Some mutations killed their victims. Others created something else. Creatures with extreme physical mutations became known as Genomorphs. Humans who retained their sanity despite their mutations became known as Genomes. Civilization didn't exactly end. It simply became something uglier. Survivors gathered together. Scavenger groups searched through the ruins for food, technology and anything else worth keeping. Criminal factions claimed territory and called it theirs. Old governments disappeared. New powers took their place. Everyone had their own rules. Everyone had their own reasons. And almost everyone was convinced they were the ones doing what was necessary. Luo rested his forehead against the broken wall. Then there was the rumor. The one that refused to disappear. The Top Zone. A place supposedly untouched by the Aftershock. A region where the atmosphere remained healthy. Where the soil was fertile. Where the temperature was normal. Where the world was supposedly still the way it had been before everything went wrong. Some people called it a myth. Others called it humanity's last hope. Luo had spent enough time searching to know that hope was usually just another word for something you hadn't found yet. He stared at the horizon. “Maybe it really doesn't exist...” He paused. Then frowned. “...But then why did she tell me about it?” His hand slipped into his bag. He pulled out a small photograph. The picture was old and slightly damaged. Luo looked at it. His expression softened. There was a girl in the photograph. Dark red hair. A familiar face. Someone he had been searching for longer than he wanted to admit. Airi. Luo's eyes lingered on the photograph. “Still nothing.” He checked the communicator again. Dead. He looked at the date. July 23rd, 2401. No messages. No signals. No clues. No Airi. Luo slowly returned the photograph to his bag. “Tomorrow.” His voice was quieter this time. “I'll keep looking tomorrow.” --- Night eventually settled over the ruins. The grey sky darkened until it became almost black. Luo opened one of the cans of beans he'd scavenged earlier. He stared at it. “Dinner.” He took a bite. He chewed. His face remained completely expressionless. “...I've eaten worse.” Another bite. “Probably.” The building creaked around him. Somewhere outside, a Genomorph howled. Luo ignored it. He finished the beans, tossed the empty can aside and stretched out on the battered couch. For the first time that day, he was completely still. He stared at the ceiling. A small hole above him revealed a sliver of the night sky. “Rai better still be alive.” He yawned. “If that i***t got himself eaten, I'm taking his stuff.” A pause. “...Actually, I'll take his stuff either way.” Luo closed his eyes. Exhaustion took over quickly. Within minutes, he was asleep. --- Something touched his face. A faint breeze. Luo's eyebrows twitched. His eyes slowly opened. For a moment, he didn't move. Something felt wrong. The room was dark. Too dark. Luo slowly raised himself from the couch. “...Huh?” He looked around. Nothing. The broken furniture was exactly where he'd left it. The walls were silent. The wind whispered through the hole in the building. Luo frowned. Then he heard it. Breathing. Deep. Heavy. Close. Very close. Luo's body went completely still. His eyes slowly lifted. A massive shadow stood over the couch. Two enormous eyes stared down at him. Luo froze. The creature was almost a meter away. It was shaped vaguely like a gorilla, but calling it a gorilla would have been generous. Its body was enormous. Its muscles bulged unnaturally beneath thick, mutated skin. Its fingers were long enough to wrap around Luo's head. The Genomorph stared at him. Luo stared back. Neither moved. One second passed. Then another. Luo's expression slowly collapsed. “...You have got to be kidding me.” The gorilla opened its mouth. Its roar shook the entire room. ROOOOOAAARRR! Luo's eyes widened. “Okay.” He reached slowly toward Stormbreaker. “Let's think about this.” The creature raised one massive fist. Luo looked at the fist. Then at the creature. Then back at the fist. “...Thinking time is over.” The fist came down. BOOM!