Chapter 1: The start of the apocalypse
Astro Vetch had always imagined his 17th birthday would be a quiet one. Maybe a small celebration with his mother, a few friends, and the usual routine of an ordinary life. But ordinary no longer existed.
It began with a tremor. Not an earthquake, but something deeper, something unnatural. The air itself felt heavier, charged with an eerie static that sent shivers down his spine. Birds shrieked in panic, fleeing from the sky as if escaping some unseen predator. The world held its breath. And then—the sky cracked open.
A deep crimson rift tore through the heavens, stretching across the horizon like a festering wound in reality itself. From within its depths, shadows slithered forth, monstrous and unrecognizable, their forms twisting as they emerged into the world of man.
Screams erupted in the streets. Buildings groaned as something vast and unseen pressed down upon them. The sky darkened, not from clouds, but from something far worse—beasts, creatures that had never before existed in this world. Their eyes gleamed with hunger, their roars shaking the earth as they descended upon the city, ripping through concrete and steel like paper.
Astro stood frozen, his heart hammering against his ribs. This couldn't be real. This had to be some kind of nightmare. But the smell of blood and burning flesh told him otherwise.
Then the first monster landed in front of him.
It was a grotesque, hulking creature, its body covered in jagged, black chitin, multiple glowing eyes blinking independently as it studied him. A single twitch of its clawed appendage sent a nearby lamppost crashing to the ground, splitting the pavement beneath it.
Astro's breath hitched. His body screamed at him to run, to do anything but stand there. But his legs felt like they were made of stone.
That was when he heard the first human cry of agony.
He turned—only to witness a man being torn apart, his screams drowned beneath the monster's guttural growl. More creatures were appearing, clawing their way out of the darkness, their eyes alight with the thrill of the hunt. The city was collapsing around him.
The world he had known was gone.
And survival had just become his only reality.