Dawn broke in muted tones, the sky bruised with the remnants of a world unraveling. The city stretched before them like a wounded beast, its once-familiar skyline warped beyond recognition. The air crackled with unseen energy, distorting shadows, twisting light.
Claire adjusted the straps of her backpack, exhaustion clawing at the edges of her mind. They had survived another night, but survival was no longer enough. Answers lay ahead, somewhere beyond the ruins, and with each passing moment, the city’s grip on reality loosened. They had to move. Now.
"Let’s go," Daniel murmured, leading the way through the shattered entrance. The streets beyond were eerily silent. No wind. No distant sirens. Only the occasional flicker of existence itself, as buildings glitched and reformed like corrupted data.
Riley trailed close behind, eyes darting toward the shifting skyline. "What if the city just… disappears? What if we disappear with it?"
Elena pulled her jacket tighter around herself. "Then we keep moving until we find something that doesn’t."
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The group moved cautiously, each footstep a reminder of how little remained beneath them. Pavement occasionally gave way to stretches of abyss, entire blocks swallowed by the anomalies. They had to rely on instinct, their own fragile understanding of a world that no longer played by its old rules.
A faint hum filled the air. Claire froze, motioning for the others to stop. The sound grew louder, a rhythmic pulsing, like the heartbeat of something massive and unseen.
"We need cover," she hissed.
They ducked into the skeletal remains of an office building, crouching behind an overturned desk. Through the cracked windows, they saw it.
A massive figure moved through the fractured streets. Not human. Not machine. It shimmered, its form flickering between states of existence. The air around it bent and warped, as if it were dragging reality along with it.
"Is that—?" Riley whispered, but Daniel silenced him with a sharp glance.
The entity paused, as though listening. Then, with a jarring shift, it vanished. A wave of distortion rippled outward, shaking the very ground beneath them.
Claire exhaled, tension easing only slightly. "We need to move faster. Whatever that was, it’s not the only one."
They pressed on, the city shifting around them, reality thinning with every step. The answers they sought were waiting. But so were the horrors lurking in the unraveling fabric of their world.