The digital clock on the bottom corner of the monitor flickered to two in the afternoon.
Ethan Miller leaned back in his ergonomic office chair and stretched his arms above his head. His spine cracked with a satisfying pop that echoed slightly in the quiet hum of the twenty-seventh floor. Around him the open plan office of Helios Solutions was trapped in the post-lunch lull. Keyboards clattered in a rhythmic and drowsy tempo while the air conditioner hummed its artificial breeze.
It was a perfectly mundane scene. It was boring. It was repetitive. It was exactly the kind of life Ethan cherished.
He picked up a framed photograph from his desk. In the picture an older couple stood on either side of a younger Ethan during his university graduation. Robert and Susan Miller smiled with eyes that disappeared into crescents of pure joy. They looked nothing like the foster parents and orphanage directors of his previous life on Earth. These were his blood. They were the people who had raised him in this second life on Elyndor.
Twenty-seven years had passed since he had died in that fire on Earth. The memories of his first life were like an old movie reel that had been left out in the sun. The edges were blurry and the colors were faded. He could barely remember the name of the street where he used to live or the face of his first crush. But the fire remained vivid. He could still feel the searing heat against his skin and the weight of the burning beam that had crushed his legs after he shoved that baby and the elderly man out the window.
He had died in agony but he had died without regrets.
The universe had rewarded that sacrifice. It gave him Elyndor. It gave him parents who called him every Sunday to ask if he was eating enough. It gave him a stable job in the bustling district of Riverside. It gave him a quiet apartment in Brookside where the neighbors actually greeted each other.
"Ethan."
He looked up. Claire Wilson stood by his desk holding a stack of marketing reports. She was a striking woman with sharp eyes and an even sharper professional demeanor. Her blouse was crisp and not a single hair was out of place.
"The quarterly projections," she said and placed the folder on his desk. "Henderson wants them reviewed before the three o'clock meeting."
"Thanks," Ethan said with a polite smile. "You look tired Claire. Rough morning?"
Claire sighed and allowed her professional mask to slip for a fraction of a second. "The traffic coming into Riverside was a nightmare. I swear the fog was starting to build up even then. Some asshole nearly sideswiped me on the bridge. Visibility is getting terrible out there."
"Fog?" Ethan glanced toward the floor to ceiling windows that lined the far wall of the office.
Usually the view from the twenty-seventh floor offered a panoramic spectacle of the Riverside metro area. Skyscrapers of glass and steel pierced the sky and the great river that gave the district its name coiled through the city like a silver serpent.
But today the view was wrong.
Ethan frowned and stood up. He walked past Claire and approached the glass.
"What is that?" someone else asked. The murmur spread through the office like a ripple in a pond.
A wall of white was consuming the world.
It was not normal weather. It did not drift or dissipate like natural clouds. It was a solid and opaque mass that swallowed buildings whole. It moved with a terrifying and silent speed. The skyscrapers in the distance simply vanished. The suspension bridge over the river was gone.
"Is it pollution?" a junior intern named Kevin asked with a tremor in his voice. "A chemical leak?"
Ethan felt a cold prickle of instinct dance down his spine. The caution that had defined his second life roared to the surface. This was not right. This felt dangerous.
"Check the news," Ethan said sharply. "Someone check the weather reports."
"My phone has no signal," Claire said from behind him. Her voice was tight. "Zero bars."
"Mine neither," another colleague shouted. "Internet is down on the desktop too! What is going on?"
The white wall hit the Helios building.
There was no sound of impact. The light in the office simply died. The bright afternoon sun was instantly choked out and replaced by a diffuse and sickly grey luminescence. It was as if the entire building had been submerged in diluted milk. Ethan pressed his hand against the glass. He could not see the street below. He could not see the building across the road.
Visibility had been reduced to less than ten meters. Beyond that distance there was only the void.
Then the sounds began.
They were muffled at first but they grew in intensity. Screams. The screech of tires. The sickening crunch of metal colliding with metal. The noise drifted up from the invisible streets below. It sounded like the city itself was screaming in pain.
"Everyone stay calm!" The department manager Mr. Henderson stepped out of his office. He was a portly man who sweated when he was nervous. He was sweating now. "It is just a freak weather system. The power is still on. Everyone return to your desks."
"Return to our desks?" Kevin the intern was hysterical. "Listen to outside! People are screaming out there!"
Ethan ignored the manager. He grabbed his smartphone. No bars. Emergency calls only. He tried to dial emergency services but the line just clicked and buzzed with static.
His parents.
He needed to call his parents.
He rushed back to his desk and grabbed the landline receiver. The tone was faint and crackling but it was there. He dialed the familiar number for his parents' house in the suburbs with trembling fingers.
Ring. Ring. Ri
"Hello?" His mother's voice was confused. "Ethan? Is that you? The TV just went static and there is fog everywhere."
"Mom!" Ethan gripped the phone so hard his knuckles turned white. "Listen to me. Lock the doors. Do not go outside. Do not open the door for anyone."
"What? Why? Your father is in the garden checking the fence."
"Get him inside!" Ethan shouted. "Get Dad inside now and lock everything! I am coming to get you. Do you understand? I am coming to—"
The line went dead.
Ethan slammed the receiver down. "Dammit!"
The office was in chaos now. People were crowding the windows or trying to force the elevator buttons. The fear was palpable. It tasted like copper in the air.
"Ethan," Claire was beside him again. She looked pale. "What do we do? The elevators are not working."
"Stairs," Ethan said. He scanned the room and looked for anything useful. "We need to get to the ground floor but we need to be careful. Those sounds outside are not just car accidents."
Before they could move toward the emergency exit the double doors at the main entrance of the office shattered inward.
Glass sprayed across the reception carpet. A man stumbled in. He was wearing the uniform of a security guard from the lobby but his uniform was torn and stained with dark wet patches.
"Help," the guard rasped. He took two steps and collapsed onto his knees. "Help me."
"Jesus Christ!" The receptionist a young girl named Jessica rushed out from behind her desk. "Sir! Are you okay? Did you get hit by a car?"
Several other employees rushed forward to assist. Henderson was waving his arms. "Someone get the first aid kit! Kevin call an ambulance!"
Ethan stood frozen near his desk. He watched the guard on the floor.
The man was convulsing. His skin was a sickly grey color that looked like old ash. Veins on his neck were bulging and turning black right before their eyes.
This wasn't a car accident.
Ethan's eyes darted to the guard's arm. There was a chunk missing. A bite mark. Human teeth.
"Jessica get back!" Ethan shouted.
It was too late.
The guard's head snapped up. His eyes were entirely white. There were no pupils and no irises. Just void.
He lunged.
Ethan moved before his conscious mind could process the decision. He sprinted across the short distance between his desk and the reception area.
"Jessica move!"
The receptionist turned her head toward him confusion written all over her face. She did not see the guard lunging upward from the floor. She did not see the mouth opening wide or the teeth stained with black blood.
Ethan collided with her.
He hit her with the full force of his momentum. It was not a gentle rescue. It was a tackle. They crashed onto the carpet together just as the guard's jaws snapped shut on the empty air where Jessica's throat had been a fraction of a second before.
"Ethan what the hell!" Henderson shouted from the sidelines. "Are you crazy?"
Ethan ignored him. He scrambled to his knees and dragged the stunned girl backward.
"Get back!" Ethan roared.
The guard was already moving again. He did not groan in pain from missing his target. He did not pause to recover his balance. He moved with a jerky and unnatural speed. He twisted his body on the floor and looked at Ethan with those empty white eyes.
A low hiss escaped the guard's throat. It was the sound of a predator spotting prey.
"Sir please stay down!" Kevin the intern stepped forward trembling hands raised in a placating gesture. "We called an ambulance. Help is coming."
The guard ignored the words. He launched himself off the floor.
He bypassed Ethan and Jessica. He slammed into Kevin.
The impact was sickening. Kevin was thrown backward into a filing cabinet with a loud metallic crash. The guard was on him instantly.
"No! Get off!" Kevin screamed thrashing wildly.
The guard buried his face in Kevin's neck.
A spray of bright red blood erupted like a geyser. It splattered across the white cabinet and the beige carpet. Kevin's scream turned into a wet gurgle.
The office froze. The mundane reality of deadlines and spreadsheets shattered in an instant.
"Oh my god," Claire whispered from behind her desk.
Ethan did not freeze. The adrenaline in his veins turned ice cold. He looked around desperately for a weapon. He was unarmed.
He saw a heavy crystal award sitting on the reception desk. Employee of the Month.
He grabbed it. It was solid glass heavy and sharp edged.
The guard raised his head from Kevin's ruin of a neck. He chewed on a strip of flesh. He turned his gaze back to Jessica who was sobbing on the floor behind Ethan.
He snarled and charged.
Ethan stepped in to meet him.
"You sick bastard," Ethan grunted.
He swung the crystal trophy with everything he had.
Crack.
The heavy glass struck the guard on the temple. It was a blow that would have knocked a normal man unconscious. It should have ended the fight.
The guard didn't even blink.
The force of the blow turned his head to the side but he snapped it back instantly. He lunged his bloody hands clawing at Ethan's shirt.
Ethan stumbled back. He realized with dawning horror that pain was not a factor here. This thing felt no pain. It had no fear. It was just a biological machine driven by hunger.
The guard tackled him. They hit the floor hard. The smell of rot and copper filled Ethan's nose. The guard's teeth snapped inches from his face.
Ethan jammed his forearm against the guard's throat pushing the snapping jaws away. His muscles burned. The guard was impossibly strong.
"Get off him!" Claire screamed. She threw a stapler. It bounced harmlessly off the guard's back.
Ethan felt his strength failing. The guard was heavier. Stronger.
Think. Think!
Ethan looked at the guard's face. The white eyes. The lack of pupil response. The brain. It was the only vital organ left.
Ethan released his grip on the crystal trophy which was useless at this range. He groped blindly on the floor with his free hand. His fingers brushed against something metal.
The letter opener.
It had fallen from the reception desk during the struggle. It was a cheap brass tool but the tip was pointed.
Ethan grabbed it.
He roared a sound of pure primal effort and drove the brass blade upward.
He aimed for the eye.
The metal sank into the soft tissue. It slid through the eye socket and punched into the brain.
The guard stiffened. He seized violently his limbs locking up.
Ethan didn't stop. He twisted the blade.
The guard went limp. He collapsed onto Ethan dead weight pressing him into the blood stained carpet.
Ethan shoved the body off and scrambled backward until his back hit the reception desk. He gasped for air his chest heaving.
Then he heard it.
It was not a sound from the room. It was a cold mechanical voice that bypassed his ears and resonated directly in his brain.
[AETHER CORE DETECTED]
[USER INTERFACE BOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED]
Ethan winced and clutched his head. Lines of neon blue text began to cascade rapidly across his vision overlaying the terrified faces of his colleagues.
[Scanning host biology... OK]
[Integrating neural link... OK]
[Compiling stat matrix... OK]
[Loading core modules: RES STR VIT INT AGI LUCK... OK]
[Generating HUD overlay... 34%... 67%... 89%... 100%]
The world seemed to sharpen. A sleek interface materialized in the air invisible to everyone but him.
[Aether System v1.0 - ONLINE]
[Welcome, User.]
[First kill registered. +3 XP added.]
[Tutorial module loaded.]
Text began to scroll rapidly down the blue screen.
[ Aether Status ]───────────────────────────────
Player: Ethan Miller
Level: 1 XP: 3 / 300
❤️ RES: 4 (Health Regen: +0.6/sec)
⚔️ STR: 6 (Melee DMG: +12%)
🛡️ VIT: 7 (Max HP: 170 / 170 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥)
✨ INT: 5 (Max MP: 110 Regen: +0.9/sec)
💨 AGI: 7 (Move Speed: 92%)
🍀 LUK: 4 (Crit Chance: 3.2% Dodge: 2.0%)
Skills:
• None
Inventory (20 slots):
• Worn Office Shirt
• Cheap Slacks
• Old Sneakers
• Wallet (5,780 Crowns)
• Brass Letter Opener (Durability: 5/10)
• Empty slots ×15
─────────────────────────────── [ Aether ]
Ethan blinked. He rubbed his eyes but the screen remained. He looked at the corpse on the floor. A faint white light seemed to hover over the dead creature's head.
"Ethan?" Claire took a hesitant step toward him. "Are you okay?"
Ethan realized he was staring at empty air. He quickly focused on her.
"I am fine," he rasped. He stood up his legs shaking.
"Fine?" Henderson stepped forward his face pale. "You just stabbed a man in the eye! We need to call the police. We need to lock you up!"
"Look at him Henderson!" Ethan pointed at the guard. "Look at the blood. It is black. Look at Kevin!"
They turned to look at the intern.
Kevin stopped twitching.
Slowly jerkily Kevin pushed himself up. His head hung at an odd angle. The massive wound in his neck had stopped bleeding but the veins around it were black.
Kevin raised his head. His eyes were white.
"Kevin?" Jessica whimpered from the floor.
Kevin hissed.
"Run," Ethan said softly. Then he shouted. "RUN!"
Kevin lunged at the nearest person a sales associate named Mike. He tackled him to the ground and tore into his shoulder.
The office exploded into chaos. The screaming started again louder this time. Henderson squealed and ran for his office slamming the door and locking it. Others bolted for the main exit only to find more figures entering through the shattered doors.
"Claire!" Ethan grabbed her arm. She was frozen staring at Kevin eating Mike. "We have to go!"
"What are they?" Claire sobbed as he dragged her toward the back of the office. "Ethan what are they?"
Ethan pulled her behind a row of cubicles ducking low. The world had ended in twenty minutes.
"I don't know," Ethan said, his voice trembling. He felt the cold weight of the letter opener in his hand. "But they don't stop unless you kill the brain. We have to move."
He looked around. The main exit was blocked. The elevators were dead. They were trapped on the twenty-seventh floor with a growing army of the dead.
[New Quest Available]
[Escape the 27th Floor]