Raj Patel wiped the sweat from his brow, squinting against the glare of the afternoon sun as he hunched over a set of malfunctioning seismic instruments. The equipment wasn’t supposed to fail this often—certainly not during one of the most critical measurements of his career. Yet, for weeks now, everything had been unreliable.

The ground beneath his feet had been grumbling. Not in the way fault lines typically do, but with an unnatural, rhythmic pulse that had been recorded in locations worldwide—especially in areas with no significant tectonic activity. He’d been tracking anomalies for two months, but San Diego, of all places, wasn’t where he expected to find something new.

Beside him, one of his colleagues—Dr. Elena Orlov, an expert in geothermal activity—frowned at her own set of instruments. “This can’t be right,” she muttered, tapping the screen of her tablet as it flickered in and out of functionality. “The readings are spiking again, and then… nothing.”

Patel glanced at her, knowing exactly what she meant. The data wasn’t consistent. The earth wasn’t behaving like it should. The instruments gave them spikes—geological shifts that should’ve indicated an imminent earthquake—but there was no seismic event. There was only this strange, underlying hum.

“It’s like something is building up,” Patel said quietly, checking the tremor data again. “But there’s no epicenter, no warning signs. Nothing natural.”

Orlov looked at him, concern etched in her features. “You think this is related to the other global anomalies?”

Patel didn’t answer immediately. He had been avoiding that conclusion for weeks, preferring to think that each event—the unseasonal storms, the power grid fluctuations, the magnetic disturbances—was just coincidence. But with each passing day, it became harder to believe that this was anything other than connected.

He sighed. “It has to be. Everything we’ve seen—the shifts, the energy readings—none of it makes sense.”

Their equipment buzzed to life briefly, throwing up another spike before the signal died again. Orlov cursed under her breath and knelt to check the wiring, her hands trembling slightly as she tried to fix the malfunction.

Patel’s phone buzzed, drawing his attention. He glanced at the notification. UN Task Force Briefing on Global Anomalies – Status Request.

The UN had been circling scientists like him for weeks now, gathering data, but they hadn’t done anything concrete yet

“I’ll send them the report later,” Patel muttered, pocketing the phone. “We need more consistent data.”

The quiet hum Patel had become used to abruptly changed. There was a sharp crack, like the earth itself was fracturing, and the instruments on both sides flared violently to life.

“What the hell?” Orlov gasped as her tablet spiked, showing seismic activity off the charts. “Raj, this is—”

Patel didn’t need her to finish. He could feel it. The ground wasn’t shaking in a typical earthquake pattern; it was… shifting. The pulse was stronger now, a rhythmic beat that reverberated through his bones.

He looked up toward the city skyline, noticing that the air itself seemed to distort. The sunlight bent unnaturally at the horizon, and a strange glow began to form just above the surface of the road.

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Patel’s heart skipped. This wasn’t geological. This wasn’t anything he could explain.

“Elena, pack up the equipment,” he said hurriedly, his voice trembling. “Something’s coming.”

But before they could react, the sky above them seemed to tear open. A deafening crack split the air, like the fabric of reality itself had ripped apart. Patel shielded his eyes as the light grew brighter, his breath caught in his throat. The air buzzed with a strange energy—something unnatural, something wrong.

A rift, jagged and glowing with pulsating energy, hovered just above the road ahead, suspended in mid-air like an open wound. Patel’s equipment went dead, every monitor shutting down, overwhelmed by the sudden surge. He tried to blink away the dizziness, but his head swam as the ground seemed to pulse in time with the rift.

“Raj!” Orlov shouted, her voice panicked. “What the hell is that?!”

“I don’t know,” Patel whispered, his mind racing as he struggled to process what he was seeing. “This… this isn’t possible.”

And yet, it was.

The moment the rift stabilized, the wind around them began to shift violently. Papers and dust whipped through the air as Patel grabbed onto a nearby railing to keep himself steady. Orlov struggled to shield herself from the debris, but the two of them were transfixed by the rift.

Then came the sound—low at first, but growing louder. It was a guttural, inhuman growl, and it was coming from within the rift.

Patel’s blood ran cold as he saw movement inside the tear. Something—no, several somethings—were emerging. He blinked, trying to focus on the shapes as they stepped through, but their forms were distorted, shimmering like heat waves.

The first creature was large, its body sleek and predatory. It moved like a wolf, but its eyeless face was smooth, featureless, and unsettling. It sniffed the air, as if hunting, its body surrounded by a haze that made it difficult to track.

Then another. And another.

“They’re coming out of it,” Orlov said, her voice trembling. “Raj, we have to get out of here!”

Patel’s legs felt like lead as he forced himself to move. His mind was reeling—this couldn’t be happening. The rift had opened, and now these things were stepping into the world.

“Go,” Patel ordered, grabbing Orlov’s arm and pulling her toward their vehicle. “We need to contact the military—now!”

As they scrambled to get their equipment into the truck, the creatures moved swiftly through the chaos. People were screaming in the distance as the creatures spread into the city, and cars swerved off the road, colliding in violent crashes. The creatures moved like shadows, fast and fluid, their heat-haze bodies making it impossible to focus on them for long.

The rift continued to pulse, and more creatures poured out. Patel felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead. There was no end to it.

He slammed the door of the truck and pulled out his satellite phone, dialing the emergency military contact he’d been given weeks ago for anomalies. His fingers trembled as the line connected.

“Colonel Hayes,” Patel gasped, his voice hoarse. “This is Raj Patel. We’ve got a situation. Something… something is coming through.”

Patel’s voice was drowned out by the chaos, but Colonel Hayes listened intently on the other end of the line. “Patel, are you saying there’s a breach? A breach of what?”

“The air,” Patel stammered, watching as the rift expanded before his eyes. "There’s a tear in the sky. Things—creatures—they’re coming through. We need help, fast."

Colonel Hayes didn’t pause. “I’m dispatching units to your location. Hold tight.”

As Patel hung up, he turned to Orlov. Her face was pale, her eyes wide with fear. “What do we do, Raj?”

He looked at the rift again, feeling the weight of the moment crash over him. The world had changed in an instant, and there was no going back.

“We survive,” he said quietly, his voice barely audible over the roar of the creatures. “For now, we survive and get out of here.”