The sky cracked under jagged bolts of lightning, ripping across the silence. Mist slithered from the broken earth, curling like living things. Daniel moved through fractured asphalt veiled in ash, his weapon drawn, heart tense. The air had changed—it was heavier now, like each breath carried something invisible.
Then came the tremor.
Not an earthquake. But rhythm. Heavy. Measured.
Footsteps.
He crouched behind the rusted carcass of a melted-out vehicle. Breath held. Pulse accelerating like it was trying to escape his chest.
In the distance, a figure emerged. Human? No. The legs were too long, the neck too thin. It hovered just above the ground—no sound with each motion, yet the leaves scattered away from it, as if unwilling to touch whatever it was.
It stopped.
Its neck rotated, far too slowly. Then… turned toward where Daniel was hiding.
Even though it had no eyes.
Daniel closed his.
Don't move. Don't breathe.
CRACK!
His boot slipped just slightly on a piece of rubble.
Enough.
The figure vanished.
Not ran—vanished.
Then appeared—right in front of the car. A meter away. The air grew cold. Still. The world held its breath. Even Daniel's heartbeat felt muffled.
He didn't wait.
In one motion, he grabbed a sound grenade from his belt and threw it.
BOOM! A blast of high-pitched noise exploded, accompanied by a flash of white. The creature flinched—its body twitching like shadows being torn from reality.
But it didn't die.
Daniel ran.
He dashed down a ruined path, slipping between two collapsed buildings. His breath grew ragged. The world around him shifted—shadows moving ahead of him, leaves rustling without wind, mimicking his movements.
A distorted silhouette moved along the wall beside him—his shadow… but not his.
He didn't look back again.
He sprinted until he reached a tower—old, decaying, like a lighthouse without an ocean. Waiting for someone who should've never come.
A rusted metal door swung half-open. Inside—an ancient elevator with a dim red light still flickering.
The control panel had only one button:
"Lower Level: Zone Zero."
He pressed it.
The door sealed. The lift jerked downward.
Groaning, shrieking metal surrounded him like whispers from a grave. Then came…the voices.
But they weren't from the speakers.
They were inside his mind.
"You've opened a door that can't be closed."
"Your voice woke them. You invited them."
"They hear your heartbeat louder than I can scream."
Daniel squeezed his temples, but it didn't stop. A mantra echoed in his head.
"This isn't real. This isn't real. This is stress hallucination..."
The elevator stopped.
Doors slid open.
Darkness. Not absence of light—but absence of space. Like walking into a void that had never been touched by day.
He activated his ultraviolet flashlight. Blue light swept the stone walls.
Symbols. Alien. Scratched, clawed. Some… written in blood.
"Don't speak. They live in the echoes."
"Your steps are enough."
"This place is not a prison. It's a gate."
Tiny footsteps echoed ahead.
Daniel froze. His light flickered.
And then it appeared.
Not walking.
Unfolding—from the wall itself.
A figure imitating human shape, but with a mouth far too large—like a snake unhinging its jaw. And from within, it didn't scream.
It echoed.
His own voice.
"Zone Zero..."
"...they don't hunt sound...
"...they are BORN from it."
Daniel fired his weapon—custom rounds filled with compressed sonar pulses. The creature exploded into a mist—
But the mist twitched.
It writhed like something alive. It began to **re-form.**
He stumbled back.
At the end of the hallway, he saw a massive steel door. On it, a cracked emblem: a world torn in two.
Above it, blinking lights spelled out:
"NEXUS LABORATORY: The Sound Gate."
The door opened on its own.
Inside—flickering monitors, shattered glass, and **empty tanks.** Containment units. Whatever was in them…
Either gone.
Or still here.
In the center of the room, an audio recording clicked on:
"Subject Delta-9 is uncontrollable. They consume echoes. They thrive in silent gaps. Final protocol: silence. All personnel—remain silent."
"Do not leave traces. Because once they find you… THEY DO NOT LEAVE."
Behind him, footsteps.
Not one. Dozens.
Marching together.
Daniel turned toward the other door. Empty. A trap.
Shadows crept along the walls. Emerging from cracks. From air.
He knew now—
This wasn't about survival anymore.
This was about sealing the doorway that never should've been opened.
And if that meant stepping into the heart of silence himself...
Then he would take that step.
Alone.
Soundless.
With nothing but fear at his back.
To be continued....