The question stayed in front of me.
«[WHO WOKE YOU?]»
I stared at it for several seconds before looking at Nyelle. She was staring at the same message, her face pale beneath the rain, as though the words had reached somewhere inside her that even the recovered memory hadn’t touched. When she finally spoke, her voice was barely audible.
"I don’t understand."
"Neither do I."
The stranger stepped closer and looked at the System. His eyes moved across the words, and for the first time since we’d met, genuine confusion replaced the guarded expression he usually wore.
"That isn’t a System command."
I frowned.
"You recognize it?"
"No."
"Then how do you know?"
"Because the System doesn’t ask questions like that."
The man beside him looked toward the street.
"It might now."
The stranger turned toward him.
"What does that mean?"
"I don’t know."
I almost sighed.
"At least we’re all improving."
Nobody smiled.
The ground trembled again.
This time, it wasn’t the deep heartbeat that had followed us through the underground structure. The vibration was smaller, closer, and more concentrated, passing beneath my shoes before stopping directly beneath me. I looked down at the cracked pavement, but nothing moved.
Then my right hand burned.
I pulled it toward my chest as silver light moved beneath my skin. Instead of spreading up my arm, the strange energy gathered toward my palm as though something beneath the street had pulled on it.
The System appeared.
«[ORIGIN RESPONSE: STABLE.]»
I watched the words.
Another message followed.
«[EXTERNAL INFLUENCE: WITHDRAWING.]»
I looked toward the place where the seven figures had disappeared.
"So whatever was here is leaving."
The stranger shook his head.
"Not leaving."
His eyes remained fixed on the blackened street.
"Pulling back."
"What’s the difference?"
"If something leaves, it goes somewhere else."
His expression hardened.
"If something pulls back, it may still be watching."
A faint vibration came from my pocket.
The old phone.
I pulled it out, but the screen was completely black. Then a single word appeared in pale letters.
«RUN.»
I didn’t move.
Nyelle leaned closer and looked over my shoulder.
"Why?"
Another word appeared.
«NOW.»
The stranger saw it.
"Move!"
He grabbed Nyelle and pulled her away from me just as the pavement beneath my feet split open. I jumped backward, barely clearing the narrow crack as it tore through the street and exposed a flash of silver light underneath.
Then the crack closed.
I stood frozen, staring at the pavement.
Nothing remained except broken concrete.
"What was that?"
The stranger released Nyelle and looked down.
"I don’t know."
The man beside us crouched near the damaged section. He ran his fingers over the pavement without actually touching the crack, studying the faint residue left behind.
"It wasn’t an attack."
I looked at him.
"Then what was it?"
He stood slowly.
"Something tested the surface."
"Something?"
He nodded.
"Something underneath."
A chill moved through me.
The heartbeat returned.
Thump.
This time, it came from directly beneath my feet.
Nyelle stepped closer.
"Veyric."
"I know."
Another heartbeat followed.
Thump.
The silver lines suddenly reappeared across the street, but they no longer stretched toward the black doorway or the distant tower. Instead, they curved inward and formed a perfect circle around me.
I looked down.
The pattern was different from the three-circle symbol we’d seen before. There were no branching pathways and no visible route leading anywhere, only a single ring surrounding my feet.
The System appeared.
«[LOCAL STRUCTURE RESPONSE DETECTED.]»
Another message followed.
«[USER POSITION: CONFIRMED.]»
I frowned.
"Confirmed for what?"
No answer appeared.
I waited, but the System remained silent.
Then the ring beneath me began sinking into the pavement.
Not physically.
The light itself descended.
I watched the silver circle disappear beneath the street until there was nothing left.
The heartbeat stopped.
Silence returned.
Nyelle looked at me.
"What just happened?"
"I don’t know."
The stranger stepped closer.
"Don’t move."
I looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because whatever just happened was centered on you."
"I noticed."
He glanced toward the surrounding buildings.
"We need to leave this area."
"Where?"
"Somewhere the pathways aren’t active."
The other man shook his head.
"There may not be anywhere like that anymore."
The stranger turned toward him.
"You keep saying things like that."
"Because the city is changing."
He pointed toward the street.
"Look."
We followed his gaze.
The silver lines had begun disappearing from the roads. They weren’t fading or breaking apart; they were moving, retreating toward the surrounding buildings and slipping beneath concrete walls as though being pulled into the foundations.
One after another, the pathways vanished.
The city became dark again.
Then the buildings began making sounds.
Metal groaned somewhere above us. Stone shifted inside one of the damaged structures, followed by the sharp crack of breaking glass, while a distant tower leaned several degrees before slowly settling back into place.
Nyelle looked around.
"It feels like everything is moving."
"It is," the man said.
I watched the streets.
"No."
He looked at me.
I pointed downward.
"It’s not everything."
The silver lines weren’t reacting to the buildings themselves.
They were reacting to something beneath them.
Every remaining line disappeared in the same direction.
Down.
The stranger understood a moment later.
"They’re withdrawing underground."
"Why?"
Nobody answered.
I looked at the phone in my hand.
The screen had gone blank again.
I pressed the power button.
Nothing.
I tried again.
Still nothing.
Then the screen suddenly came alive.
Not with a message.
With a map.
I stared at it.
The city appeared from above, reduced to dark streets and scattered structures. Most of the map was black, but several faint silver lines remained, converging around a single blinking point.
I recognized the location immediately.
Nyelle’s building.
My old apartment.
I looked at the stranger.
"It wants us back."
He shook his head.
"No."
The man beside him studied the map.
"It isn’t asking you to return."
I waited.
He pointed at the blinking location.
"Something is waiting there."
Nyelle’s face tightened.
"Something from the beginning?"
"Possibly."
I stared at the map as old memories came rushing back.
The blackout.
The first creature.
The dead phone.
The building.
The elevator.
The message.
The underground structure.
The pathways.
Everything had seemed to begin there.
But now I understood something that bothered me more than the possibility that the apartment contained another doorway.
Maybe the apartment wasn’t simply where the apocalypse had reached me.
Maybe it was where something had first noticed me.
I looked at Nyelle.
"We’re going back."
The stranger immediately shook his head.
"No."
"I wasn’t asking."
His expression hardened.
"You don’t understand what you’re walking toward."
"Neither do you."
"That doesn’t make it safe."
"I know."
I slipped the phone into my pocket.
"But if something has been waiting there since the beginning, I need to know why."
Nyelle stepped beside me.
"I’m coming."
The stranger looked at her.
"You shouldn’t."
She met his eyes without hesitation.
"You’ve told me that several times."
"And you’re still alive because you listened once."
"No."
She took my hand.
"I’m alive because he came for me."
The stranger fell silent.
I looked at Nyelle.
She squeezed my hand.
This time, I didn’t try to convince her to stay.
We started walking.
The man followed us almost immediately, while the stranger remained behind for several seconds as though deciding whether following us was a worse choice than letting us go alone. Eventually, he swore quietly and started after us.
I glanced back.
"You coming?"
He lowered his weapon.
"Someone has to stop you from doing something stupid."
I looked ahead.
"That job is becoming crowded."
We walked through the ruined streets.
The city remained unnaturally quiet, stripped of the creatures and voices that had filled it earlier. No silver pathways remained on the surface, and even the rain seemed quieter now, leaving only the sound of our footsteps against wet concrete.
Then, halfway to the apartment, my right hand suddenly went cold.
Not cool.
Cold enough to hurt.
I stopped.
Nyelle turned toward me.
"What happened?"
I opened my palm.
A single silver line had appeared beneath my skin.
It wasn’t moving toward my arm.
It was pointing.
Straight ahead.
Toward the apartment.
The System appeared.
«[ORIGIN RESPONSE: APPROACHING.]»
I stared at the message.
Then another appeared.
«[DISTANCE: 1.7 KILOMETERS.]»
I swallowed.
The number changed.
1.6.
1.5.
1.4.
We weren’t moving.
Something was.
Nyelle saw the numbers changing and her expression tightened.
"Veyric..."
I raised my head.
At the far end of the street, something stepped out from between two abandoned buildings.
It was human-shaped, but too tall and too still. Pale blue eyes reflected the rain, and its body remained unnaturally motionless as it watched us from the distance.
The System appeared.
«[IDENTITY: UNKNOWN.]»
The figure took one step forward.
Every creature hiding inside the surrounding buildings answered with the same sound.
A low, synchronized growl rolled through the street.
The stranger raised his weapon.
The man beside us stepped backward.
Nyelle moved closer until her shoulder touched mine.
I tightened my grip around the pipe and stared at the figure.
It tilted its head.
Then it spoke.
"Veyric."
My blood went cold.
I knew that voice.
I had heard it inside the ancient structure.
I had heard it inside Nyelle’s memory.
I had heard it calling from places where my mother could not possibly have been.
It was my mother’s voice.
But this time, she wasn’t calling me.
She was warning me.
"Don’t come home."