The silence came first.
Marcus felt it as a sudden absence, a void where sound should have been. One moment, the city was alive with its usual symphony of noise—cars honking, birds singing, people laughing. The next, there was nothing. Only silence. Deep, absolute, unnatural.
He stood in the clock tower, his senses stretched to their limit. The threads of connection were still there, pulsing with their steady light, but something was wrong. Something was pressing against them, trying to muffle them, to silence them.
Anna rushed up the stairs, her face pale. "What's happening? The whole city has gone quiet."
Marcus shook his head slowly. "I don't know. But I know where to find out."
They descended into the tunnels beneath the hospital.
The silence followed them, pressing against their
