Aurora didn't mean to come this way. It had been a red zone—burnt, bombed, left to rot. She remembered because she had died there in her last life. Broken bones, blood in her lungs, betrayal echoing in her ears.
But that had been five days from now.
In this timeline?
It was still breathing.
Barely.
And it reeked of death.
They walked through cracked hospital signs, splintered fences wrapped in rusting barbed wire. Tents torn open like flayed skin. Blood dried in wide, dark pools.
"This place… it's supposed to be gone," Aurora whispered, more to herself than to Jace.
"You've been here?" he asked, eyeing the scattered bones with caution.
She didn't answer.
Because it wasn't the bones that worried her.
It was the silence.
No birds. No flies. No moans. Just a heavy, unnatural stillness. The kind that made your gut crawl before your brain caught up.
She crouched beside a crushed ambulance. Pressed two fingers to the pavement.
Warm.
Not sun-warm. Blood-warm.
Still fresh.
Jace didn't notice.
He was poking at a dented ID badge near a shattered stretcher. "Dr. Elira Voss. Biogenetics Division… Wait—this place was doing experiments?"
She yanked him back before he could finish the sentence.
"Run."
"What—?"
Then the scream tore through the air like a siren made of bones.
Not human.
Not infected.
Worse.
---
It came out of the collapsed ER like a nightmare stitched together from old regrets.
Seven feet tall. Pale, glistening skin like peeled wax. Arms too long. Mouth split too wide. Eyes—none.
It moved like it remembered how to be human but chose not to.
Jace froze. "What the f—"
"Move!" Aurora shoved him, dodging as the creature lunged.
The Variant hit the ground where they stood seconds ago, shattering concrete like cardboard.
"Go north, find a sewer entrance!" she shouted.
"I'm not leaving you!"
"I'm not asking you!"
She turned and ran the other way.
Because she remembered this thing.
She remembered what it had done to her. It had smiled when it tore her spine in two.
---
Aurora vaulted over a wrecked gurney and ducked behind an overturned SUV. Her breath came fast, sharp.
> [Alert: Danger-Class Entity Detected]
[Variant-Type Infected: Class Delta-1]
[Evolution Boost: +2%]
[Skill Unlocked – Death Reflex]
— Your body remembers how to survive death. Reaction speed increased by 60% in fatal threat zones.
Her veins lit up with a heat that wasn't hers. Her fingers twitched, tightening around the crowbar.
She waited.
Waited until she heard the scraping sound of claws on metal, until the smell of rotting chemicals hit her like a punch.
Then she moved.
Rolled.
Swung.
The crowbar hit its side—and bounced.
Useless.
The Variant hissed.
Then turned.
---
It grabbed her mid-air.
Fast.
Too fast.
It slammed her into a wall hard enough to crack stone. The wind left her lungs in a rush. Her head spun.
It opened its mouth. Rows of teeth. Too many.
She spat blood in its face.
"You killed me once," she whispered. "But I got better."
Her hand slipped into her boot.
Pulled the knife.
Buried it in the side of its throat.
It howled.
Black blood sprayed.
It staggered.
Not dead—but bleeding.
That was enough.
---
Jace found her fifteen minutes later, limping, covered in gore, dragging the knife behind her like it owed her money.
He ran to her, eyes wide.
"You're—how the hell—what was that thing?!"
Aurora didn't answer.
She dropped to her knees.
Pulled up her status screen, fingers trembling.
> [Kill Confirmed: Class Delta-1 Variant]
[Kill Count: 3]
[Evolution Progress: 9% → 17%]
[Trait Mutation: 1 Active]
[Warning: Mutation Threshold Approaching. Personality Shifts Possible.]
Aurora stared at the screen.
Then at her hands.
They weren't shaking anymore.
They didn't even feel tired.
She was breathing just fine, like she hadn't fought something that could snap steel like twigs.
Jace sat beside her, watching her silently.
"You're not like the others," he said, finally.
She looked at him.
And for the first time since her rebirth… she smiled.
But it wasn't a kind smile.
It was something darker