LOGINThe massive steel gates of Zelios emerged from the darkness just as the eastern horizon began to pale. Hidden beneath the ruins of what had once been a sprawling underground transit terminal, the fortress remained invisible to anyone who didn't know where to look. Layers of reinforced steel, blast doors, and concrete swallowed the entire facility beneath the city. Above it, the apocalypse raged unchecked.Below... Humanity endured.Floodlights swept across the returning convoy as armored guards stepped from elevated watchtowers."Squad Seven returning," Captain Mira announced through the checkpoint intercom."State casualties.""Four injured. Two deceased."A heavy silence followed.The massive gates slowly groaned open. The convoy entered. The doors sealed immediately behind them with a thunderous clang. Only then did Sera finally allow herself to breathe. Home or at least. The closest thing the apocalypse still had.No one was allowed inside the living quarters immediately. The prot
The rooftop erupted into chaos. The first creature crossed the distance in a single leap. "Contact!" Captain Mira shouted. Ultraviolet rounds shattered the silence. Brilliant violet flashes illuminated the rooftop as Helios hunters opened fire in disciplined bursts. One creature tumbled backward off the building, disappearing into the darkness below. Three more landed immediately behind it. "They're everywhere!" one hunter yelled. Sera didn't wait. She met the nearest creature head-on. It swung a jagged claw toward her face. She ducked beneath it, silver dagger carving across its ribs before driving upward beneath its jaw. Black blood sprayed across the snow. The creature shrieked. Instead of falling, it slammed its shoulder into Sera's injured side. Pain exploded through her cracked ribs. She stumbled backward. The monster lunged again. Before it reached her, A blur of black crashed into it. Husen. He caught the creature by its throat and threw it across the rooftop. It smashe
The night wind howled across the rooftop. Snow drifted over cracked concrete and rusted ventilation units, disappearing into the darkness beyond the building's edge. Nearly twenty stories below, the ruined city stretched in every direction, abandoned streets, frozen vehicles, and skeletal towers swallowed by endless winter. Sera stood near the center of the roof, wrists no longer bound. Her shoulders ached where the restraints had held her. Every breath reminded her of the cracked ribs Husen had pointed out earlier. She hated that he'd noticed. She hated even more that he'd been right. Several steps away, Husen stood with his back to the ledge, his coat snapping in the wind. His crimson-gold eyes scanned the surrounding rooftops rather than watching her directly. "You can stop looking for an escape," he said without turning around. "I wasn't looking." "Yeah?" "I was calculating." He smirked a laugh. "That's somehow worse." Sera's hand slowly drifted toward the hidden
The rendezvous point was exactly where Helios had marked it.An abandoned metro maintenance yard buried beneath layers of snow and rusting steel, hidden between the skeletons of two collapsed skyscrapers. One by one, armored hunters emerged from the darkness.Eight.Then twelve.Finally sixteen.Every one of them wore Zelios insignia beneath heavy winter cloaks, silver weapons glinting beneath portable floodlamps.Jonas counted them automatically. "That's it?""The Commander couldn't spare more," Captain Mira answered, removing her hood. "We were told this is an extraction."Jonas gave a humorless laugh. "It stopped being an extraction the second Sera found him."Murmurs spread through the squad."The Crimson One...""The ancient...""Is it really him?"Jonas answered by placing Sera's report onto a folding table. "He survived silver."Silence."He survived ultraviolet rounds."More silence."He fought over thirty ferals before we even joined the fight."Nobody spoke after that.Capta
Silence settled over the ruined pharmacy like a heavy blanket. It wasn't peaceful. It was the kind of silence that came after too much blood had been spilled, when everyone left standing knew more violence was only a matter of time. The scratching outside had finally stopped. The Wilds had either wandered away or found something else to hunt. Neither possibility comforted Sera. The emergency lantern sitting on the counter cast a dim amber glow across the storage room, throwing long shadows over overturned shelves and broken crates. Dust drifted lazily through the air, disturbed only by the occasional groan of the aging building. Jonas slept against the wall nearest the barricaded entrance. His rifle rested across his lap, one hand still wrapped around the sling as though even asleep he refused to let go of it. His breathing was slow and heavy, exhaustion finally winning after the endless fighting. Sera almost envied him. Almost. She sat cross-legged on an overturned crate, meth
The screaming followed them through the streets. Wilds. Dozens of them. Maybe more. Sera sprinted beside Jonas through the frozen ruins above the subway station, boots slamming hard against snow-covered asphalt while icy wind tore through abandoned buildings around them Behind them, the station entrance exploded. Concrete burst outward into the street. A body flew through the cloud of debris and crashed against an overturned bus hard enough to bend metal. Husen, still alive. Of course. The ancient vampire rolled once across the snow before rising immediately, blood dripping from his mouth, and silver burns still smoking faintly along his throat. Three wilds launched after him seconds later. Husen moved instantly. One lost its head. Another smashed through a car windshield. The third he caught by the jaw and slammed face-first into the pavement hard enough to crack ice beneath it. Sera kept running. Not her problem. Jonas grabbed her arm sharply. “Faster!” The wilds behind Hu







