Chapter Seven – Of Plagues and Punchlines
1903 Words
You ever wake up knowing the universe has officially added you to its “let’s ruin this one specifically” list?
Yeah. That was me.
I hadn’t even fallen asleep. I’d been staring at the ceiling of a ruined office, listening to Adrian snore like a dying walrus, and watching the System flash ominous updates in the corner of my vision like it was a sadistic Windows 95.
[Genetic Sync: 89.6%]
[Warning: Integration Threshold Approaching]
Every new percentage point felt like a countdown to my own personal apocalypse. I was a science experiment with a ticking clock, and I didn’t even get a cool lab coat.
Adrian woke up with a groan and a very unflattering stretch. “Tell me I dreamt the golden-eyed demon monster.”
I shook my head. “Nope. That actually happened.”
He looked at me like I’d kicked his puppy. “So it’s smart now? Like, uses-contractions smart?”
“It said I’m not ready.”
He blinked. “Well… you aren’t.”
“Wow. Thanks for the motivational speech, Oprah.”
We packed up what little gear we had left a cracked medkit, a flashlight with two moods (flicker or blinding), and a single protein bar that Adrian had named “Sandra.” He insisted it gave him emotional support.
“Where to now?” he asked as we stepped back into the crumbling street. The city was silent, but not the peaceful kind. The “you’re being watched by invisible horrors” kind.
I consulted the System map. A faint pulsing dot blinked northeast some place labeled Project Helix: Vault 09. That sounded suspiciously like either a hidden sanctuary or a mutant murder zoo.
Guess which one we were hoping for?
Rule #47 of Apocalypse Survival: Always Expect a Screaming Sky
The moment we turned down 5th Street, the sky screamed.
No, seriously. The sky. It made this low, guttural howl, like a hurricane was gargling thunder. We both froze.
Above, black clouds churned like they were on fast-forward. Lightning split the heavens and something came through.
It wasn’t a bird. It wasn’t a plane.
It was… a rift.
A jagged tear, like someone had clawed through reality with a cosmic can opener. From it, things began to drop.
Skeletal figures with wings of void. Skinless beasts with neon veins. And worse one of them looked like it had been human once.
“RUN!” I yelled.
Adrian didn’t need a second invitation. We bolted into an alley, narrowly dodging a bolt of purple fire that turned a nearby dumpster into molten pudding.
The System helpfully pinged again.
> [Anomaly Detected: Rift Class - Omega]
[Creatures Identified: Hollowed Aberrants – Tier 3+]
[Suggestion: RUN, YOU i***t]
Thanks, System. Really helpful.
We ducked into a metro tunnel again and barricaded the door with a fallen vending machine.
Adrian collapsed against the wall, panting. “They’re flying now?! What’s next, Hollowed with Wi-Fi?!”
I didn’t answer. Because something was happening to me.
My vision shimmered. My hearing dialed up to eleven. I could feel things in the dark heartbeats, tremors in the concrete, tiny shifts in the airflow.
[Genetic Sync: 91%]
[Integration Phase Triggered – Initiating Subroutine: Echo Vision]
And just like that I could see sound.
Yeah. Like a damn bat. Or Daredevil if he did steroids and drank monster blood.
“Elias?” Adrian asked. “You good, man? You’re staring at the wall like it owes you money.”
“I… I can see them.”
He paled. “What?”
“They’re above us. Four Hollowed. One climbing. One sniffing. One… praying?”
Adrian stared. “You can hear praying?”
“No. I can see the sound it makes. It’s… dark green?”
He opened his mouth, then closed it. “Y’know what? Not even gonna try to logic that.”
We had to move. I led us deeper through the metro, dodging tremors and collapsing beams. I knew where they were before they moved. The Echo Vision was terrifying but also insanely useful.
Then we found it.
A steel door, half-rusted but sealed tight, with an old bio-lock scanner and a faded insignia: Helix Vault 09.
I pressed my hand to the scanner.
Nothing.
Then the System chimed.
[Compatible Genome Detected]
[Override Protocol Accepted]
[Welcome, Subject: Elias Reign]
The door hissed and slid open
Welcome to Vault 09, Population: Probably Dead
The inside was a lot less “shiny science base” and more “haunted subway tunnel with delusions of grandeur.” Flickering lights. Broken terminals. Blood stains that had given up trying to dry.
We explored slowly. Every room we passed had signs of struggle clawed walls, scorched floors, bullet casings. Someone fought hard to keep something out or something in.
Adrian found a half-working terminal and started tapping through logs. I wandered into a side chamber labeled “Genetic Analysis Wing.”
What I found stopped me cold.
A tube. Big enough for a human. Filled with greenish fluid and shattered from the inside. Beside it, etched into the metal wall, a single word:
“REIGN.”
I stumbled back.
This was my pod.
This was where I’d been made.
Or born.
Or grown?
My head spun. I barely noticed the whispering shadows coalescing behind me.
“You still don’t remember.”
I turned and there it was.
The Apex.
No dramatic entrance this time. It was just there, leaning against the wall like a smug prom king from hell.
“You followed me,” I growled.
“I watched,” it corrected. “You led me here.”
Adrian’s voice echoed from the hall. “Elias? You good in there?”
I didn’t answer.
The Apex stepped closer. “You felt the Rift open, didn’t you? Your body responds now. You’re almost complete.”
I clenched my fists. “What do you want?!”
It smiled. “To finish what we started.”
Then it lunged.
My brain barely registered the motion. The Apex moved like a thought instant, invisible, already there by the time I reacted. But this time, I wasn’t some newbie Hollowed Lite model with training wheels.
This time I moved too.
My body snapped backward, twisting midair in a motion that felt rehearsed by something inside me that wasn’t… me. I hit the ground, rolled, and came up in a crouch. My bones felt like springs, my skin humming with static.
[Combat Instinct Triggered]
[Subroutine: Reflex Override Enabled]
The Apex grinned. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
He blurred forward again. I dove under his swing, my hand skimming the floor and a pipe came up with me like I’d always known it was there. I slammed it into his ribs. The clang of metal-on-armor rattled my fingers, but the Apex staggered a step.
“You’ve improved,” he admitted. “But you’re still not ready.”
“Stop saying that like it’s a prophecy!”
He spun, claws slashing through the air like scythes. I jumped backward, narrowly avoiding a face rearrangement. Behind him, Adrian stumbled into the room, gun raised. “Elias!”
The Apex turned, and Adrian fired three rounds.
They didn’t hit.
The bullets stopped midair hovering like they’d been caught by invisible fingers.
The Apex glanced at them, unimpressed, then flicked his hand. The bullets reversed course and slammed into the ceiling, sparking.
“Okay,” Adrian muttered. “So bullets are canceled.”
The Apex faced me again. “Your evolution is accelerating. The Rift drew it out. It’s only a matter of time before you remember.”
I stepped forward, the pipe gripped like a sword. “Remember what?”
He tilted his head. “Who you were. What you are. Why you were made.”
The air around us thickened. I felt pressure building like we were inside a bottle of soda being shaken violently. The Apex took one more step toward me.
“We’ll meet again, Elias Reign. Soon.”
Then just like before he vanished.
No portal. No puff of smoke. Just gone.
Adrian exhaled like he’d been holding his breath for hours. “I'm starting to hate that guy.”
“Starting? I said, lowering the pipe.
“Okay, fine. Continuing.”
I turned back to the shattered pod. My name still glowed faintly beneath the dust. I reached out, touched the engraved letters and a surge of static hit me like a defibrillator made of nightmares.
[Memory Echo Unlocked]
[Subject: Elias Reign]
[Project: Hollow Genesis – Phase Zero]
[Designation: Seed Catalyst]
I stumbled back. Flashes....blinding, broken flashes lit up behind my eyes. Scientists in white coats. My body, younger, strapped to a chair. Screaming. Needles. Lights. Then darkness.
A woman’s voice echoed in my head. Familiar. Cold.
“He’s the key. The system was always meant to evolve through him.
Back in the main chamber, Adrian found something I hadn’t expected.
A kid.
No older than ten. Curled up in a storage locker, hugging a backpack like it was a teddy bear. Her eyes were too big for her face. Way too calm.
“How long has she been here?” I asked.
Adrian whispered, “I don’t know. She says her name’s Mira. That her parents brought her here when the city fell. Said something about… the voices protecting her.”
My stomach dropped. “The voices?”
Mira looked at me. Her eyes flicked gold for a second, like a candle had caught light behind them. “You hear them too.”
That was not comforting.
The System chimed again.
[Proximity Alert: Aberrant Hive Signature Detected]
[Estimated Arrival: 00:14:37]
I blinked. “We’ve got incoming. Something big.”
Adrian glanced at Mira. “We can’t fight with her here.”
I nodded. “We’ll lead it out.”
He looked like I’d asked him to juggle chainsaws. “Elias. You want to bait a Hive?”
“It’s either that, or it finds this place with her inside. You in?”
He sighed. “I was really hoping today would be boring.”
We positioned ourselves two blocks from the Vault entrance, inside a collapsed church that smelled like mildew and shattered faith. The System’s timer counted down like it was giddy for blood.
[ETA: 00:01:12]
“Any idea what we’re fighting?” Adrian asked, double-checking his weapon like it would suddenly turn into a lightsaber.
“Nope,” I said. “But the System called it a ‘Hive.’ So probably something with a nest. And friends.”
Right on cue, the earth rumbled.
Cracks spread across the street like spiderwebs. Then something erupted from the concrete.
Not one thing. Hundreds.
Insectoid creatures black, glossy, and the size of golden retrievers poured out like living tar. But behind them…
Oh no.
Behind them was Mama Insect.
The Hive Queen.
She was easily twenty feet tall, her body a nightmare cocktail of spider legs, beetle plating, and what looked like human faces embedded in her thorax.
Adrian blinked. “Okay. Now I am out. Goodbye.”
“Adrian—”
Too late. The Queen let out a screech that shattered the nearby windows and sent a pulse of dread through my skull.
Then they charged.
One-Man Bug Zapper
I let go.
That part of me I was afraid of the raw, primal surge beneath my skin I stopped holding it back.
[Integration: 92.7%]
[Combat Subroutine: Void Pulse Unlocked
- Writer
