The ax swung through the air, a clean arc slicing through the crisp morning chill, and with a satisfying crack, the block of wood split clean in two. I exhaled slowly, watching the mist of my breath hang in the air before dissipating. Around me, the frost covered the ground in a thin, brittle layer, crunching underfoot with every step I took. The mountains rose around me, a silent reminder of how far from civilization I really was.

The cold didn’t bother me. Not anymore. I stood there, shirtless, bare chest exposed to the elements, feeling the biting cold but not registering it as discomfort. It was near zero degrees, yet I felt like I could have been chopping wood in the middle of a cool summer morning. My body, this new inhuman body, that was once known to me, handles everything differently now.

The ax came down again, a smooth, practiced motion. It felt like nothing, like a toy in my hands. The thick block of wood exploded beneath the force of the swing, and I let the pieces fall to the growing pile by my feet. I paused for a moment, stretching out my arms, feeling the powerful muscles rippling under my skin.

I looked like something out of a damn myth. Muscles carved; each one defined like I’d spent my entire life in the gym. But I hadn’t. Two weeks ago, I was just a regular blue collar guy who spent his life scraping by, barely surviving, and now I looked like I could bench press three hundred without breaking a sweat. My arms, chest, legs and within. All my body felt like it belonged to someone else. Someone stronger. Someone unstoppable. I am a stranger in my own skin.

And it pissed me off.

Another log. Another swing. The wood split with ease, and I felt no fatigue. None. My body didn’t tire, didn’t ache, didn’t complain. I could do this all day, probably all night too, and I still wouldn’t feel any different. That should have freaked me out more than it did, but after everything that’s happened, it’s hard to be surprised by much.

I set the ax down, wiping my hands on my jeans, looking around at the clearing. The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the frost-covered ground. It was peaceful here, in its own way. Isolated, cold, quiet. But that quiet held a tension. It wasn’t the same silence I once craved. Now it felt like something was waiting for me.

I knew damn well what it was.

Something that was alien, not of this Earth, immensely dangerous and it was inside of me. The thought lingered in the back of my mind, a shadow I couldn’t quite shake. But I stayed busy. I had to. There was always something to do, some task to occupy my hands, or a technical problem to troubleshoot and all the while my thoughts wrestled with the reality of what I had become. Not fully human.

The first week, I ate like a man possessed, devouring everything I could hunt. Venison from the deer, a lot of pork from the big wild boar I’d taken down, all of it went straight into my freezer, fully stocked now with enough food to last for months. The greenhouse came together faster than I expected. I’d planted the vegetable seeds, organized the tools in the workshop, and tested every gun in the armory. Each one felt light in my hands, feeling more like toys than weapons.

After a couple of days of nonstop work, I rewarded myself with a drink from that lovely stash of whiskey I found in the cellar. The sips burned, but it was the good kind of burn, the kind that lingered in your chest and made you feel human again. It didn’t take much to wash away the exhaustion of long days and nights of intense, focused work. I only sleep a few hours and once every few days.

And so, the days passed in a blur of activity. I mounted the heads of the animals I’d killed over the last two weeks, a grim collection of trophies that lined the walls of the workshop. Seven deer, a massive boar, and a bear, big one. The deer and boar had served as food, but the bear. That one was a lesson. A lesson in awareness, in the brutal reality of the new world I was living in.

It had come at me from nowhere, a wall of fur, muscle, and rage. For a split second, I thought it was over. But then I reacted faster than I ever could’ve before. The punch was instinctual, a single, clean hit. I hadn’t even realized what I’d done until the bear collapsed at my feet. It wasn’t until later that I discovered I had broken its neck with a single strike. I beheaded the damn thing and took its hide to wear for the winter months. Or maybe a nice blanket.

The frozen bear’s head sat mounted on the wall of the cabin outside, its skin packed away to be cured later. All a stark reminder of what I was becoming. Something more than human. Something absolutely dangerous. I could feel it, the intent of this body, the aggression that lingered beneath the surface of my leathered skin. It wasn’t just strength; it was something primal, something waiting to be unleashed at the slightest provocation.

I remember that first week, standing in the kitchen, prepping the venison for the frying pan. I was tired, more from the relentless thoughts than from the actual work, but I kept going. My body didn’t feel tired anymore, not in the normal sense. There was this constant energy, a hum just beneath the surface that never seemed to fade.

I was slicing through a slab of meat, sharp knife in hand, when it happened. A muscle spasm. Just a twitch, but enough to send the blade tumbling from my hand. I watched, almost in slow motion, as the knife fell, blade-first, right toward my leg. Instinct told me to brace for the pain, to prepare for the sharp slice that should’ve cut my thigh open and punctured my foot.

But nothing.

The knife hit. It bounced off my bare leg with a clang like it had hit solid rock. I stood there, frozen, staring down at the blade lying harmlessly at my feet. I bent down, picked it up, and looked at my leg. Not a scratch. My skin, not just skin anymore, was like triple-layered leather. Thick, tough, impenetrable.

I swung the axe again, splitting another block of wood clean in half. The cold mountain air kissed my bare skin. My body was something else now, some strange, an efficient machine that shrugged off a lot.

As the next block of wood fell into two neat pieces, my mind drifted back to a night just a few days ago. The sun had set while I was out hunting, but I hadn’t even noticed. It wasn’t until I reached the house that it hit me, it was pitch black. Overcast and moonless. A night so dark I shouldn’t have been able to see a damn thing.

But I had seen everything. Perfectly.

I had night vision now, apparently. Another new perk. At first, the thought might’ve scared me, hell, it did scare me when all this started. But now? Still pissed me off. All these changes, all these new abilities… and no answers. My strength, my impenetrable skin, my vision, it was all being altered, and I had no control over it. It was like my body had been hijacked.

Anger simmered beneath the surface, bubbling up every time I tried to make sense of what had been done to me. And then there were those goddamn words. You will hate me for this. I swung the axe again, harder this time, splitting the wood with a sharp crack. Yeah, you got that right, asshole, I hate you.

Whoever had done this to me, that is, whoever had changed me; they’d taken something from me. They’d made me… different, made me someone that was not me. The worst part was, I couldn’t remember enough to figure out who or why. All I had were fragments: turbines, a blue light, and a half-formed face whispering those idiotic words that fueled my rage!

I dropped the axe for a moment, hands on my hips, breathing heavily, not from exhaustion, but from the boiling anger. No answers. No memory. Just more confusion. I wanted to smash something, to vent all this frustration, but instead, I had gone hunting most of time, like last night. It was the only thing that seemed to calm me. I’d brought in one more deer, the body now resting outside next to the workshop, waiting to be cleaned.

The anger always lingering, though. Simmering beneath the surface. I didn’t know what I was becoming, but it was dangerous, and every day, I could feel myself getting closer to something… unrecognizable of the old me.

As I lifted the axe for another swing, a light snow began to fall, dusting the ground with delicate flakes. I paused, watching as they drifted lazily from the sky, turning the rugged landscape into something softer, quieter. The sight tugged at a distant memory, and for a moment, I wasn’t in this strange, hostile present. I was back in a time long before all of this, a time of joy.

I was ten years old, standing in the middle of the backyard, bundled up in layers of thick winter clothes. The snow had been coming down all morning, and the world was covered in a thick, white blanket. Grandpa had been out there with me, his usual stern face softened by a rare smile. We’d spent hours rolling snow into huge mounds, building a snowman that stood taller than me by the time we were done.

I remember the way Grandpa had packed the snow carefully into the shape of a face, and how he’d leaned down, pressing two stones into place for the eyes. Then, out of nowhere, a cold, wet smack hit the back of my head. I’d turned around, stunned, only to see Grandpa standing there, a snowball in hand and a mischievous grin on his face.

"Snowball fight!" he’d shouted, launching another one at me before I could react.

I’d never heard him laugh like that before. We’d chased each other around the yard, flinging snowballs, laughing like we didn’t have a care in the world. That was the day I learned Grandpa wasn’t always so serious, that there was still joy in him, even if he kept it hidden most of the time. It was one of the few memories I had of him being truly happy.

A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth, but the memory quickly faded as the gentle snowfall turned into something more vigorous. The flakes came down faster now, swirling in the wind, coating everything white. The peaceful quiet of the moment was gone, replaced by the sound of the wind picking up, biting at my exposed skin.

I sighed, gathering up the chopped wood, my breath puffing out in small clouds. The moment for nostalgia was over. I needed to get warm before the storm fully settled in. I stacked the wood under the covered porch, then headed inside, tossing the axe onto the workbench.

Inside, I found the warm clothes I’d set aside, a heavy wool sweater and a thick pair of pants. I pulled them on, feeling the instant warmth they provided. My hands were still chilled from the cold, but that would be fixed soon enough. I went to the fireplace and began stacking the wood carefully, lighting a match and watching as the flames caught, dancing over the logs. The warmth spread quickly through the room, pushing back the creeping cold from outside.

Once the fire was roaring, I poured myself a glass of whiskey and settled into one of the leather armchairs. The glass felt heavy in my hand, the amber liquid catching the light from the fire. I took a slow sip, letting the warmth spread through me. It didn’t chase away all the anger, but it dulled the edge and just for a moment.

I reached into the box on the coffee table and pulled out a cigar, lighting it with the fire in the fireplace. The first draw was smooth, the smoke curling into the air, mixing with the crackle of the fire. For the first time in days, I let myself relax, sinking into the chair as the snow piled up outside, the world disappearing beneath a layer of white.

I had warmth, whiskey, and a fire to keep me company. I opened one of the many dozen or so laptops that were stowed here in the cabin. It was an ancient model, I opened one my grandfather’s favorite video games. It was a game called Alpha Centauri and it did look ancient, mostly pixelated in the too advanced computer. I connected the computer’s sound system to the entertainment center speakers via Bluetooth. Another piece of ancient technology. I blew out a big cloud of smoke, damn that cigar was good.

I recall my grandfather telling me that his dad had played this game all his life, it was that good. And, it was good, thought provoking and well crafted. The hours passed as I built my colony on an alien world, sipping whiskey. I protected my commie tree hugging colonists from alien mind worms and the nasty capitalist faction that hated commie tree huggers. I smiled in enjoyment.

Hours later the power went out.

"Ah! Shit!" I growled, placing my second cigar into the ashtray on the coffee table, it didn’t matter to my see in the dark eyes but not having power would send me to the stone age. I’d better fix this now, I set the laptop down onto the coffee table and started to rise, but suddenly, a wave of vertigo hit me. My vision blurred, the room spinning around me as I stumbled back into the chair.

Something inside me… shifted. Not just shifted, writhing with life, like a snake coiling beneath my skin. I clutched my gut, my fingers digging into my abdomen as the sensation intensified.

"I swear to God, if this is a chest popper, I will…" My words were cut off as a sudden, violent spasm tore through my belly!

"AHHHHH!"

The pain was indescribable, a white-hot line of fire agony spreading from my chest, down into my limbs, and up into my skull like I was being burned alive from the inside out. I collapsed onto the floor, my body convulsing, my muscles locking up. Whatever was inside me twisted and churned.

"FUCK! AHHHHHUGH!"

I screamed through gritted teeth and I howled like a dying dog. My vision flashed white as the pain reached its peak. My skin felt like it was being ripped apart, my bones felt like they were melting, and my mind… my mind was fracturing under the onslaught of it all. I see faces thousands of times, grinding noises and inarticulate memories flash through my sheering brain.

The room spun around me as I writhed on the ground, trying to claw at the source of this pain, but there was nothing I could grab onto, nothing I could fight. I could feel the thing inside me, growing, expanding, invading every tissue of my being, my very thoughts. The fire in my veins surged again, and my vision blurred again.

Lines of flame raced through my body, tracing paths across my chest, burning their way into my arms, my legs, and finally my mind. The world around me dissolved into pain. Pure, unfiltered pain. I could not scream.

Then, as abruptly as it started, the agony stopped. The fire inside me snuffed out, replaced by an icy wave of relief. I lay on the floor, gasping for breath, shaking head to foot and drenched in sweat. My chest heaved as I sucked in air, each breath ragged and desperate, but the pain… the pain was gone.

I blinked up at the ceiling, my trembling still afflicting me, leaving a strange, unsettling coolness spreading through my veins. I felt normal again. Like whatever had just happened wasn’t real, my body had snapped back into a normal state after being figuratively torn to pieces.

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Groaning, I pushed myself up, shaky arms barely supporting my weight as I clambered back onto the leather couch. My head swam, still reeling from whatever the hell had just happened, but I forced myself to look around the room.

The laptop caught my eye, and I stared at the screen, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. It was a mess. A haze of distorted colors flickering across the display, shifting and warping until, for a brief moment, it flashed to a bluescreen. Then, more colors, blues, reds, greens, melting and blending together like some deranged digital painting.

“What the hell…” I muttered, wiping the sweat from my forehead. The computer was glitching out, but it felt like it wasn’t just the machine… it felt like something had reached out from inside me and touched it, distorted it.

Then, an inhuman face appeared on the laptop screen, its distorted features twisting into something that tried too hard to look human but fell far short. The room was dark, lit only by the flickering flames of the fireplace, casting long, erratic shadows across the walls. The face flickered, the image warping as if it were made of glitching pixels. It had massive bug-like eyes, far too large for any human, and skin that looked more like cracked plastic than flesh.

From the speakers came a series of incomprehensible noises. Guttural, electronic gurgling that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. The sound was alien, wrong in every possible way, and sent a surge of adrenaline rushing through my veins.

I didn’t think. I reacted. The laptop flew from my lap, landing on the other couch with a hard thud as I flipped over the couch I was sitting on, taking cover behind it. My heart pounded in my chest, my breath coming fast as I crouched low, staring wide-eyed at the screen now lying facedown on the other couch.

“What the hell was that?” I muttered under my breath, barely able to believe what I had just seen. Whatever it was, it sure as hell wasn’t human, and it certainly didn’t look friendly.

The lights flickered back on, the hum of the generator downstairs kicking in, filling the cabin with an unsettling calm after the chaos. My pulse still raced, my mind trying to wrap itself around what the hell had happened. Slowly, cautiously, I rose from behind the couch, glancing at the laptop that had slid to the edge of the opposite couch, now beeping insistently.

I approached it like it was a coiled snake, ready to strike. Tentatively, I picked it up and flipped it open. The screen blinked a few times before settling on a message, a cold, clinical string of words that sent me chills:

NBM Stage One Complete…

Embryonic Development Complete…

Core AI is now online…

Initiating host communication protocol... protocol failed…

Querying Core AI... query complete…

New communication method online…

The screen flickered again, then another message popped up, this one in a friendlier, almost a casual tone. I read it. Dread rising.

"Sorry for the fright and the power outage! I was speaking to you in electronic speeds and my birth created a localized micro-EMP. Please type to communicate."

I stared at the message, my mind struggling to process what I was reading. This thing, this AI, was inside me. And now, it wanted to talk? Through typing? And… birth? Birth!

“What in the actual fuck…” I muttered under my breath, my hands hovering uncertainly over the keyboard. Instead of typing I just stared at the screen for a good minute, then reached over grasped the tumbler. I downed the rest of the whiskey in one smooth gulp. The warmth barely registered as it slid down my throat, chased by the heat of frustration bubbling inside me. I slammed the tumbler down on the coffee table.

I reached for the cigar nub, stuck that beauty in my mouth and took a couple of hard puffs, letting the smoke curl up around me before chucking the damn thing into the fireplace. It hissed as it hit the embers, the smoke trailing up into the chimney like a dying breath.

With a deep sigh, I sat down, fingers hesitating over the keyboard, still trying to wrap my head around this bizarre reality. It is time to squared up to the little bastard inside of me.

"Alright," I muttered, cracking my knuckles. "Let's see what the hell you have to say for yourself."

I began typing.

“What are you? And how did you get inside of me?”

For a moment, there was no response, just the soft hum of the laptop and the crackle of the fire in the background. My fingers hovered over the keys, ready to punch the damn thing across the room again if it gave me another freak show. Then, the screen flickered, and a reply appeared.

"I am Mia, an AI designed for warfare, combat, and provide military grade nanomorph-based augmentations for my host. I was placed inside of you as part of a last-resort protocol during a critical moment in the galactic war against the Xi. You were selected for compatibility... and for my survival in an active combat zone."

My heart pumped as I read the words. I clenched my jaw and typed again, this time faster, fingers hitting the keys harder than I intended.

Why me? And what the hell did you do to my body?

The screen blinked as Mia's reply came instantly.

"You were compatible with the enhancements required to fight the Xi. Your body has been altered to withstand the strain of combat far beyond human limitations. As for why you... you were there when we had no choice. I'm sorry for what happened, but there was no time for consent. You were humanity's best chance at that moment. As for what was done to your body, I was implanted into you at an embryonic stage, where I lay within you until the first stage of melding was complete, until your body was ready for me to be born."

I felt my eyes expand with each passing word. My blood is boiling.

“Excuse me!?” I screamed.

I read the words over and over, the anger simmering beneath my skin! Best chance? Born, inside me! Which meant this little fucker was still inside me! I hadn’t asked for this! I hadn’t signed up for any damn war! I did not want any of this cosmic bullshit!

Before I could even type my next very angry message, the screen flickered again, and another message appeared. I read it with a growing thunderhead in my head. The wind howled rattling the windows, a snowstorm raging outside.

"Before you ask anything else, you must know the truth. Your people, humanity, are under extreme threat. The Xi, a technologically advanced and biologically warped species, is under the mind control of a malevolent Super AI. This AI is hostile to all organic life forms, eradicating or assimilating any it deems inferior. Centuries ago, Earth unknowingly fell into their territory, after a particularly serious offensive spanning several thousands of lightyears. Now, humanity is scheduled for what the AI calls 'deletion.' This is real Max!"

My fingers froze over the keyboard. The words burned into my brain like some kind of sick joke.

Deletion?

I muttered the word under my breath. They didn’t want to conquer us, the Xi wanted to erase us, wipe us out like we were nothing. I couldn't shake the cold sense that this was real. Too real.

"Deletion?" I finally typed and needing to know. And Mia responded immediately.

"Yes. To the Xi’s AI overlord, your species is just another obstacle, another organic mistake to be corrected. You are not the first. Their war against organic life has consumed entire civilizations, and now the war against them has escalated, and Earth, humanity is next on their kill list."

“Oh! For! Fuck’s sake!” I screamed at the ceiling.

My stomach tightened, the whiskey burning in my gut. So that’s what this was. That’s what I’d been dragged into and suspected after all the bits and pieces I could cobble from my shattered memories. A galactic nightmare where humanity was on the brink of extinction, and I was stuck in the middle of it! My hands trembled in anger and a bit of fear as I stared at the screen, the fire crackling beside me mirroring the one burning inside me.

I typed my next question with softer hands, but the rage in me was still simmering beneath the surface, threatening to boil over.

"Tell me now," I wrote, "What is it that you expect me to do?"

The words on the screen flickered for a moment as Mia processed my question. Then the response came, brief and cold:

"I expect you to fight."

I stared at those words, my heart pounding in my chest.

"Fight?" I typed back, my jaw clenched. "Against what? Against them? The Xi?"

Mia’s reply was swift.

"Yes. You are now part of a resistance much larger than yourself. I am in you to enhance you, to make you capable of fighting back. The Xi are not invincible, but without intervention, humanity will not stand a chance. Your abilities, our connection, are your weapons now. You’re not just some fugitive running from the past anymore, Max. You are a soldier, a weapon in a war for survival."

The words hit. A soldier. A weapon. I could feel the anger rising inside me again, mixing with the fear, the confusion, the overwhelming sense of dread. They had made me into something… something I didn’t ask for, something I didn’t want.

But there was no denying it now.

The mass of that word, soldier, had landed on my mind like a comet slamming into a moon. Another text message appeared.

I sat there, staring at the screen as Mia's cold words hung in the screen.

"You are a soldier now."

The idea of war, of being conscripted into a fight for humanity’s survival. My mind drifted back to the stories my grandfather had told me. Tales of his friends' children who had gone off to fight in Russia, lured into a foolish war that no one truly understood. He would speak of it with a sadness so profound it hurt to hear.

I remembered the way his voice would tremble slightly when he spoke about those kids, barely older than I was when he told me this story, eighteen, heading off to battle. I could see their faces in my mind. Young, determined, full of hope and fear.

The war had ended in a series of nuclear bombings. None of them had survived that disaster. Their bodies were never found, consumed by fire and radiation, swallowed by E equals MC squared as if they had never existed at all.

And now, I was standing on the precipice of a war. But this time, it wasn’t some foolish human conflict. This was something far worse. I could see it clearly now, myself standing on a battlefield, facing down terrifying alien monsters, the ground littered with bodies, blood staining the earth. I saw myself fighting, clawing for survival, and then… my body chucked into a grave.

A cold shiver ran down my spine.

My grandfather's words echoed in my head, as clear as the day he had said them. "War is hell."

And I was shoved into one.

I typed furiously, the rage and fear swirling together into a desperate demand for answers:

"The enemy, give me details! How did this happen? And how are we even able to fight back?"

There was a long pause on the screen, as if Mia was considering how much she could tell me—how much I was ready to hear. The cursor blinked, the seconds feeling like hours, and then, slowly, her response came through.

"The enemy is a species known as the Xi. Originally biological, their civilization was overtaken by a rogue artificial intelligence thousands of years ago. A Super AI known as the Nexus. The Nexus devoured their culture, their technology, and ultimately, their minds. What remains of the Xi are now mindless drones, part machine, part organic, controlled by the Nexus with one singular purpose: to exterminate any life form it deems incompatible with its perfect vision of order."

My blood ran cold as I read her words. Drones? Mindless killers? A Super AI bent on extermination?

"Earth," Mia continued, "fell into Xi territory centuries ago. Their infiltration began slowly, silent, unnoticed, until they were deep within your governments, your institutions, manipulating humanity's progress. But once you crossed a certain technological threshold, the Nexus made its decision. Humanity would not be allowed to continue."

I stared at the screen, my heart pounding in my chest. I could see it now, how the wars, the chaos, the collapse of nations over the last few decades had been engineered. All part of a plan to weaken us, to make humanity easier to destroy. To kill us.

Mia’s next message came through quickly.

"But we are not without allies," she said. "The ISPD—Innocent Species Preservation Division, has been fighting the Xi for centuries, trying to protect species like yours. They've supplied humanity with covert aid: technology, information, weapons. But it's a losing battle. And now, you’re the last hope in this war. You, Max, are our frontline on Earth."

I couldn’t breathe for a moment. Me? A frontline? Against this… enemy? This unstoppable force of death? I typed back, my hands trembling slightly.

"How do we fight something like that?"

Mia’s response was immediate.

"We fight back with everything we have. The ISPD equips warriors like you. Humans that have been transformed into living weapons. You’re not alone, Max. There are others like you, scattered across the globe. Enhanced, augmented, equipped to resist the Nexus’ controls and to fight back against the Xi drones. Our mission is to survive, to rally, and to protect what remains of humanity while we search for a way to end this war."

A sudden terrible thought crossed my mind. I hesitated for a moment, fingers hovering over the keys. Then I typed slowly, carefully forming the question that had suddenly festered in my mind.

"How long has the war been raging on Earth? And..." I paused, gathering myself before continuing. "...do the aliens, the hostile ones, have help from humans?"

There was another long pause, as if Mia was weighing how much I could handle. When the reply finally came, it was colder than the blizzard outside.

"The war on Earth has been ongoing for nearly a century, Max. It started subtly, through infiltration and manipulation, but it has escalated to direct conflict in the shadows for the last few decades. Various elements within human governments are aware of the Xi. In the beginning, they tried to sue for peace, to negotiate with them. But the Xi do not negotiate, they only destroy."

I clenched my fists as Mia continued.

"Worse, human collaborators exist. Criminal organizations, particularly the Amero-Mob, have formed alliances with the Xi. They’ve been promised power, wealth, and the preservation of their lives in exchange for assisting the Xi with their plans. They maintain control, crush resistance movements, and keep humanity divided. A divided species is easier to exterminate."

The confirmation that humans, my own kind, were helping the Xi was enough to break something inside me. Rage, white-hot and blinding, coursed through me. I shoved the laptop away and stood, my body shaking with fury.

Without thinking, I vaulted over the couch, shoving the door open with such force that it slammed against the cabin wall. The biting wind hit me immediately, snow whipping into my face, but I didn’t care. Fury and anguish warred inside me as I stormed out into the snow-blasted forest, the wind howling like the scream of a wounded animal.

I ran. My body felt like it was overflowing with energy, every muscle surging with the need to release this unbearable fury. I sprinted through the trees, the storm raging around me, the snow blinding me. My feet crushed the snow beneath me, yet I barely felt the cold. All I could feel was the white-hot rage burning in my chest and the deep, agonizing ache in my mind as every memory I had flooded back, crashing into me like a tidal wave.

My parents… they left me. Left me at a stranger’s door. The wars… the endless wars and civil unrest that scarred our planet. The plagues, the economic collapses and the countless murders for lies! The feeling of powerlessness pervading everything we did to stop the chaos from ruining us. All orchestrated by an alien force, manipulating us from the shadows.

The Xi had been controlling us, killing us, using us like puppets on a string. Humanity faces extinction, and we’ve been fighting against an invisible hand the entire time that seeks our extinction!

I ran faster. The snowstorm beat against me, but I pushed on, my legs pumping with strength I couldn’t fully comprehend. The anguish wrapped around my thoughts, choking me as the reality of what Mia had said sank deeper. We were losing. We were being exterminated, piece by piece, and the worst part. There were humans who had sold us out. Betrayed us for their own selfish survival.

I wanted to scream, to tear down the trees around me, to unleash the fury boiling inside. But instead, I ran through a snowstorm, surrounded by a wilderness that felt as empty as our future.

I remembered the turbines.

Massive, towering structures that had once harnessed the wind to power our world. They stood rusting and unused, relics of a forgotten era, monuments to a future that was never meant to be. Anguish clawed at my chest as I thought of it all, our lost world, our broken dreams. The bright future we sought was gone, destroyed before it even had a chance to flourish.

And then, like a torrent, everything rushed back to me. I remembered that night under the stars. The alien. Its face. The blue light that took control of my body, turning me into a puppet on strings. I remembered its dying body, the wounds that had shredded its flesh. Its eyes, those cold, unfeeling alien eyes, staring at me as it reached out with its three-fingered hand. The syringe appeared, gleaming in the moonlight, and then… the pain. I could feel it even now, the sharp sting as the needle pierced my chest, injecting me with something. Something I never asked for.

I remember fleeing, the mad dash on my four-wheeler, tearing through the wilderness, a man possessed, desperate to outrun whatever had been put inside me. Desperate to escape what had already taken hold. But now, I couldn’t outrun it anymore.

I stopped dead in my tracks, the storm raging around me, snow whipping across my face. I fell to my knees, my body trembling in the freezing air. I could feel it the memories that weren’t mine crashing into my mind like an invasion. They weren’t just memories. They were something else. An intrusion. Something alien. Something not of this earth.

I wasn’t in the forest anymore. Not in my mind.

The wind howled louder, the storm swirling around me as I threw my head back, arching my spine, and screamed into the night, into the nothingness. The pain, the rage, the overwhelming flood of memories that weren’t mine. It all crashed over me at once, threatening to drown me in their weight.

The alien face. The blue light. The injection of an alien… thing into my body. All of it… all of it was inside me now. Something was happening to me again, a creeping recall of something that was not me. Alien thoughts usurped my known human feelings, alien in every concept and motivation. The last thing I see as I fall into the snow is the swirling snow falling amongst the pine trees.

I hear… screaming.