20 Years into the Apocalypse
The city of Serena lay in ruins, its skeletal skyscrapers clawing at a blood-red sky. Twin liches—their bodies reduced to sinew and bone, cloaks billowing like funeral shrouds—rode a two-headed dragon across the horizon. Below, in the carcass of a half-collapsed office tower, two siblings huddled on the seventh floor.
Clevence, 14, pressed his back against a splintered desk, his threadbare hoodie damp with sweat. Sara, 17, gripped his arm, her knuckles white. "Shhhh*" she breathed, her voice frayed at the edges. "Not a sound. Not one."
Outside, the air vibrated with guttural snarls and the leathery snap of demon wings. Clevence's stomach growled, loud and treasonous. Sara shot him a glare—shut up, shut up—but it was too late. A wet, echoing fart erupted from him, ricocheting off the walls.
Silence.
Then—screeching.
"Run!" Sara screamed as the glass exploded inward. A winged demon, all serrated teeth and hooked talons, lunged. Clevence froze, his legs leaden. Sara kicked him—hard, under the jaw—and he stumbled backward, tasting blood.
"Wh-what about you?!" he choked.
"Just go!" she roared.
He ran.
Behind him, glass shattered. Sara's scream cut short with a wet crunch. Clevence glanced back—and saw.
Sara's body dangled from a demon's jaws, her legs still kicking. Beyond the gaping hole in the wall, the twin liches stared down from their dragon, their hollow eye sockets blazing with violet fire. One raised a skeletal finger, pointing directly at him.
"Run, you idiot!" Sara's voice—alive, somehow—shrieked in his head.
He bolted.
The elevator doors groaned open. Clevence slammed the "▼" button, fists pounding the panel as demons surged down the corridor. The doors sealed just as talons scraped the metal.
Clang.
The elevator plummeted, cables screaming. Clevence's stomach lurched. He braced—
Crunch.
The impact shattered his legs. He lay crumpled, blood pooling beneath him, his vision tunneling. The doors creaked open, revealing a lobby choked with dust.
A figure stepped into view: a woman in a pristine lab coat, untouched by the apocalypse. Silver hair, eyes like frozen mercury. She knelt, a syringe glinting in her hand.
"Hello, Clevence," she said, tilting his chin. "I've been watching. Such rage in you… like a dying star." Her thumb brushed his tear-streaked cheek. "Want to burn the world for what it took from you?"
His lips moved soundlessly. Yes.
She smiled. "Good."