The distant sound was growing closer. Claire felt her pulse quicken as the echoes reverberated through the fractured cityscape. Footsteps. Deliberate. Not hurried, but purposeful.
Daniel motioned for everyone to stay low as they crouched behind a half-collapsed car. The air around them still shimmered with instability, the fabric of reality twisting in unnatural ways. The entity had vanished, but its presence still lingered, like an afterimage burned into the world.
"Who is that?" Riley whispered, his voice barely audible.
Elena peered through the wreckage. "Whoever they are, they're not hiding. That’s either really brave or really stupid."
The figure emerged from the shifting mist, stepping through the distorted streets as though they belonged there. A man—dressed in tattered but oddly clean clothing, his face partially obscured by a hood. He moved with an eerie confidence, untouched by the instability surrounding him.
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Claire’s breath hitched. "That’s not possible."
The man stopped a few feet away, tilting his head as if listening to something only he could hear. Then, his gaze locked onto them.
"You're not supposed to be here," he said, his voice calm, almost regretful.
Daniel tightened his grip on his makeshift weapon. "Yeah? Neither are you. Who are you?"
The man exhaled slowly. "A survivor. Just like you. But not for long."
Before anyone could react, the city convulsed again. A wave of distortion rippled outward, buildings shifting, streets melting into an incomprehensible void. The man didn’t flinch, but his expression darkened.
"They're coming back," he muttered. "You need to move. Now."
A new sound tore through the air—deep, mechanical, and wrong. The sky above cracked, bleeding light, and from the rift, new horrors descended. Shadows given form. Entities that defied understanding.
"Run!" the man barked, his calm facade finally breaking.
Claire didn’t hesitate. She grabbed Riley and bolted, Daniel and Elena right behind them. The city was dissolving around them, reality fragmenting into jagged shards. The horrors in pursuit were unlike anything they had faced before—faster, hungrier, relentless.
And they weren’t going to stop until everything was gone.