Chapter 1: 2037
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The wind was cold against my face.
I stood at the edge of a rocky cliff overlooking the endless mountains below. The first rays of dawn spilled across the horizon, painting the ruined world in shades of gold and ash. Four years. Four years since the world ended. The sunrise was beautiful. It always felt wrong that something so beautiful could still exist in a world like this. I tightened my grip around the worn rifle slung across my shoulder and stared into the distance. The world beneath me was silent. Too silent. And as I watched the sun climb higher, memories surfaced once again. The story of how everything began.
In the year 258 of the Federal Calendar, disaster struck the capital city of Marie on the western coast. Nobody understood what was happening at first. One moment the city was alive with its usual rhythm crowded streets, flashing advertisements, people rushing to work. Then came the infected. Thousands of them. Appearing seemingly overnight. The authorities struggled to contain the chaos while scientists searched desperately for answers. But answers never came fast enough. The disaster swallowed the city whole. What had once been a thriving center of commerce and culture became a nightmare of screams, blood, and panic. Death waited around every corner. Within days, Marie became the first lost city. It would not be the last. But the true beginning of this nightmare started much earlier. Nearly a century before the outbreak.
Federal Calendar Year 164. A scientific expedition made a discovery that would change human history forever. Deep within the volcanic ruins of Aurich Island, researchers uncovered a strange crystalline mineral unlike anything ever seen before. They named it Flare. At first, it seemed like humanity's greatest breakthrough. The element possessed extraordinary energy producing properties. Factories became more efficient. Transportation advanced. Medical technology evolved. Entire industries were transformed. The world entered a new golden age powered by Flare. Scientists celebrated. Governments invested billions. Everyone believed they had discovered the key to humanity's future. No one realized they had also uncovered the seed of its destruction. Because the power hidden inside Flare was far greater than anyone could have imagined. Now the consequences surrounded me everywhere. The infection spread across nations like wildfire. There was no stopping it. Every day brought new reports of settlements falling. New regions disappearing from communication. New swarms emerging from the ruins. The infected traveled in terrifying hordes. Thousands moving together as if guided by some unseen instinct. They consumed everything in their path. Cities fell. Borders vanished. Governments collapsed. Entire populations disappeared. The western continent was hit the hardest. Modern civilization crumbled within months. The survivors fled. They abandoned their homes. Their streets. Their memories. Everything. They escaped into forests, mountains, and wastelands, carrying only what they could hold. And with them came despair. Winter proved almost as deadly as the infected. Those who escaped the lost cities gathered in the Meilz Hills under the protection of the Reestablishment Rescue Squad. They are trying their best to get everything under control and reestablish everything. There, they built crude shelters from scrap metal, fallen timber, and whatever materials remained. I remember hearing stories about those early months. Families huddled together through freezing nights. Children starving. People fighting over scraps of food. Many never survived the cold. Others never survived the infected. As resources dwindled, survivor communities fractured into separate groups. Some formed settlements behind makeshift walls. Others wandered endlessly through the wilderness. Every day became a struggle for survival. Every night became a battle against the darkness. Against the infected.
At least... That's what I think they are.
Nobody truly knows what they've become. Not anymore. The world itself feels sick now. Flare changed more than humanity. It changed everything. The industrial catastrophes that followed the collapse poisoned the environment. Factories burned for months. Chemical facilities exploded. Entire regions became wastelands. The weather became unpredictable. Violent storms appeared without warning. Snow fell in summer. Heatwaves arrived in winter. Nothing followed the old rules anymore. The air itself feels wrong. Heavy. Bitter. Toxic ash drifts endlessly through the atmosphere. Sometimes it falls like black snow. Sometimes it blocks out the sun for days. The world is dying. And we're dying with it. A gust of wind swept across the cliff. I blinked and returned to the present. The sunrise had climbed higher now. Golden light stretched across the valleys below. For a moment, everything looked peaceful. Almost normal. Almost. My eyes drifted toward the horizon. "It's been four years." The words barely escaped my lips. Four years since the outbreak. Four years since I lost everything. My family . The memory came without warning. A flash. My mother's terrified scream . My father's voice was shouting my name. The sound of breaking doors. The pounding of countless footsteps. Then the horde. Endless. Hungry. Inhuman. I remembered being dragged away. Remembered reaching toward them. Remember their faces disappearing beneath a sea of infected. The screams. The blood. The helplessness. The guilt. Even now, those memories followed me wherever I went. Like ghosts. I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, only the sunrise remained. My family was gone. My old life was gone. The world I once knew existed only in fragments. Scattered memories. Broken pieces. Ghosts of a life that no longer belonged to me. Yet I continue moving forward. Day after day. Year after year. Searching. For survivors. For answers. For the truth behind the infection. Behind Flare. Behind everything. Maybe somewhere out there, hidden beneath the ruins of the old world, lies the key to ending this nightmare. Maybe there is still hope. Or maybe hope is simply another illusion. A story we tell ourselves so we can keep walking. I don't know anymore. But until I find the truth...I won't stop searching. The sun finally rose above the mountains. Its light swallowed the darkness. And for a brief moment, I simply stood there, watching. Waiting.
Hoping. Then I blinked. And everything went black.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLI1cFd4USg
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