The world didn't end with an explosion.
It ended with a boar trying to kill her.
One heartbeat, Talia was staring at a mountain that felt wrong.
The next, a corrupted creature was ramming her ranger tower with enough force to shake the bolts loose.
By the time she stabbed it through the skull, the real nightmare had already started.
Because killing the boar wasn't the strange part.
The strange part was when her mind snapped into her brother's body—
and she felt him get attacked miles away.
A vision. A warning.
Something was happening to the world, and whatever it was…
it wasn't stopping at one monster.
The mountain was wrong.
Talia didn't know how else to phrase it. She stood on the narrow balcony of her ranger tower, one hand braced on the railing, eyes narrowed at the slopes below. The morning wind should've been crisp, clean, carrying the scent of wet bark and eucalyptus. Instead, it felt heavy—like the air had weight now, pressing against her skin.
Then the animals came.
At first one fox shot out of the undergrowth like it was being paid per metre it sprinted. Then three wallabies bounded past in the opposite direction, not even glancing at her tower. Birds burst from the canopy in panicked flocks, a swirling storm of wings. A pair of dingoes sprinted downhill after them—and then abruptly veered right when they spotted a deer bolting past.
Predator and prey. Running together.
"…Nope," Talia muttered. "That's not normal. That's horror-movie behaviour."
She straightened. Her long black ponytail swung with the movement, brushing the collar of her ranger vest. The forest below churned with fleeing shapes—furred bodies, feathered bodies, bodies that should've been hiding from each other, not stampeding side-by-side like they'd formed a temporary union called We Don't Want to Die Today.
A low vibration ran through the railing under her hand.
Talia blinked. "Earthquake—?"
The planks beneath her boots hummed softly. The air… thickened. No, shifted. Like the mountain itself inhaled.
Then a blinding white pulse erupted across the sky, sweeping over the tower and the entire ridge like a tidal wave of light.
Every hair on Talia's arms stood on end. The ground shuddered. The railing rattled. The tower swayed sharply, groaning on its supports.
"What the —?!"
Her shout cut off as something slammed into the tower from below.
The impact jolted her so hard she nearly toppled over the railing. She grabbed the ladder, slid down the first few rungs, then dropped the rest of the way, boots thudding onto dirt.
A boar stood there.
Or… what used to be a boar.
Its eyes were no longer eyes—just pits of black, swallowing all light. Its jaw hung slightly askew, foam dripping in long strings. Its muscles twitched in erratic spasms, as if puppeteered by someone who'd never seen a boar before.
"Fantastic," Talia breathed. "A demon pig."
The boar snapped its head toward her in a jerky, unnatural motion. For a half-second she felt the wrongness of it—like a pressure in her skull, a cold prickle on her neck—
—and then a wave of sensation slammed into her mind.
Her vision flipped.
She wasn't in the forest anymore. She was watching Cael.
Her older brother's breath hitched through his throat. She saw his reflection in a shattered shop window as he sprinted down a smoke-filled street in his police uniform—crew-cut black hair, cheeky green eyes, his stupid confident half-grin wiped clean from his face. Sirens blared somewhere behind him. Civilians screamed. A pregnant woman stumbled in front of him.
"Ma'am, keep moving—" he barked as he steadied her—
—and something lunged from behind him.
Talia felt the impact through his ribs. Felt the breath punch out of his lungs. Felt his panic clamp down.
She screamed—
—and the world snapped back.
The boar was already mid-charge.
Talia stumbled, disoriented, vision swimming.
The boar roared and lunged.
Instinct saved her. Sensing danger, her body's muscle memory went into her motion, she sidestepped, dropped low, slashed behind its front leg.
The hamstring cut made the beast bellow and collapse sideways. Before it could thrash, she planted her boot behind its ear and drove her ranger knife down, straight through the skull base.
The boar spasmed once, then stilled.
The boar spasmed, dissolved into grey ash, and scattered.
Talia sucked in a sharp breath. "Okay. That's— What the f*ck is going on?"
A cold metallic TING rang through her skull. Text flickered in the corner of her vision like someone had installed a floating HUD behind her retina.
[Corrupted Beast Defeated → +1 Shard]
[Kill Count: 1]
[Reward #5 → Survival System Activation]
She stared at the floating letters.
"…I'm hallucinating," she decided. "Or concussed. Possibly both."
The forest answered her with more movement.
Growls. Snorts. A rush of wings. Branches shaking violently.
"Oh, COME ON."
She backed into the tower doorway, forcing the narrow frame to become a choke point.
A wild dog burst from the trees first—black-eyed, foam-mouthed. She stabbed once, twice, kicked it free. A second dog slammed into the doorframe; she pivoted around it and cut deep.
A hawk screeched and dive-bombed her head.
No aerial demons today," she snapped, blocking it with her forearm and slamming it into the wall.
Then came the goat—ramming the frame like a furry battering ram. The whole tower shook. She dodged aside, let it stumble in, grabbed a handful of its coat, and swung it straight into the opposite beam, finishing it off.
Two more dogs lunged together. One snagged her vest, teeth barely missing skin; the other went for her legs. She twisted, stabbed downward, wrenched free, pivoted, and slammed her elbow into the first one's skull before finishing it.
By the time the last beast dissolved into ash, Talia braced the door shut with her full weight and slid down it, chest heaving.
Silence fell—
—then another vision yanked her mind sideways.
Grandpa Arlen's hands shook as he shoved a first-aid kit into his old canvas bag.
Brielle's voice quivered: "Mum's greenhouse is empty—she's not home."
Mum's scribbled note on the kitchen bench:
Going to get Mum and the kids. Stay put. We'll come back. — Love, M.
Talia's heart seized.
When the vision faded, she was already halfway standing.
"No no no no—stay home, you stubborn idiots."
"DAMN IT!" A moment of rage passed. Then she exhaled sharply, the emotion cut clean.
"I need to get home."
The HUD pulsed again.
[Kill Count: 6]
[Reward #5 Pending → Space Pocket]
Her hand trembled slightly. —annoyingly. She forced it steady and opened the reward list.
Scanning the text.
Space Pocket — 2m² unlocked
Her brows shot up. "Space? Storage space?
The system projected a series of choices:
Select Accessory to Bind Space:
• Earring
• Ring
•…..
• Hair Pin
• Loose Gemstone
• Other…
A flash of bright green came to mind—an emerald she'd seen once in a jeweller's window as a teenager. Ridiculously expensive. Completely impractical. Beautiful.
She muttered, "Loose gemstone," without thinking.
The interface shifted.
Select Final Form:
• Earring
• Ring
• ...
• Hair Pin
• Other…
"Earrings," she murmured without thinking. "Studs please."
A pulse of light appeared in her palm, and an emerald split into two tiny, perfect studs.
She blinked. "Okay. That's… actually pretty."
She tugged out her plain gold studs she'd worn for years and swapped them, she caught her reflection in the tower window—pony-tail messy, dirt streaked on her cheekbones, bright green eyes far too awake.
"…They do match my eyes." It was the smallest moment of vanity, and she allowed herself exactly one second of it.
Talia cupped her gold earrings in one hand. "Store," she said, testing. They vanished.
Her heart jumped. "Holy—"
She touched one emerald stud.
The world dimmed—revealing a clean black void the size of a walk-in closet. Her gold earrings lay on the "floor," glinting softly. A 2m × 2m personal pocket dimension. A portable, private storage space.
Her shoulders loosened, tension bleeding out. For the first time since the white pulse, something felt… manageable. Useful.
"Okay," she exhaled. "Okay. I can work with this."
Imagining herself suddenly dropping a stone above a beast and crushing it.
Then the system blinked again with her blindbox rewards.
She flipped through them, reading aloud:
"Tackle set. Okay. Folding saw. Good. Water bottle—finally. Hard biscuits—bless you. Rope. Very useful. And…"
She paused, curious about the novels, half expecting survival manuals..
Surviving the Apocalypse with my Superman Grandpa…
Me and my trusty Blue Heeler take on the End of Days…
Last Light in the Last Days? Not me and my Lantern Fish companion!
She stared, then snorted. "You've got to be kidding me."
A laugh forced its way out, sharp and a little wild. It faded quickly, leaving an ache behind her ribs.
Three books. All about someone surviving the end of the world with a partner—grandpa, loyal dog, weird glowing fish. Partners. Companions.
Cael's pained grunt echoed in her memory. Grandpa's shaking hands. Mara's scribbled note.
"Is this… a hint?" she whispered
Her humour faded.
The system wasn't hinting at comedy. It was hinting at apocalypse and companions.
Her mind whispered: Partners. Family.
Footsteps thundered. Outside, the forest moved again.
Talia's skin prickled. She moved back to the narrow window slit and peered out.
Four shapes emerged at the edge of the clearing.
The tower's outer boards creaked under the pressure of something very large pacing just beyond sight.
Talia grabbed her knife, squared her shoulders, and stepped out.
A fox, a wolf, a feral cat, and a boar twice the size of the first stood at the edge of the clearing—wrong-eyed, wrong-muscled, wrong-silent.
Talia whispered, "I need to get home."
They charged.
She met them head-on.