Prologue

The end of the world finally came.

It came in a blink of an eye.

In reality, it was just the end of an anomaly that started 13.772 billion years ago and finally was resolved.

1 - Awakening

Having a nightmare that he is drowning, wasn't anything new to Myke Zifroff. Waking up bathed in sweat with his heart beating like crazy. Grasping for air desperately and scared to death. Scared enough to have this deeply engraved in his brain and recalling it now and then before fully awake.

Now was such a time. Slowly awaking the feeling of drowning grew stronger and stronger making him feel terrified. Feeling scared and powerless he instinctively gasped for air.

Intense burning pain struck his lungs.

‘There is no air’ – he screamed in his head.

Turning his head around was hard in the thick fluid. Even though his eyes were wide open, he still couldn’t see anything.

‘Where the hell am I?’

Breathing in instinctively brought him even more burning pain.

‘How am I even still alive in this situation?’

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He spread his arms trying at least to feel the place around.

He touched the walls almost immediately and his hands sank in a little bit. He felt a pulsating sensation as if the walls were alive.

‘I’m in some sort of a bubble, maybe there is some air on top of me’

Pushing with his legs, he tried to search for air, but this was in vain

The bubble was perfectly sealed.

‘There is no air to breathe’ – finally realizing this Myke felt the panic growing.

Ignoring the burning pain in his lungs he started kicking and screaming and pushing against the walls with all his strength.

‘I don’t want to die! Please someone, anyone, get me out of here. I want to breathe, I want to live.’ – screaming in his head he was kicking and punching around.

Fighting for his life the pain didn’t matter anymore. The fear didn’t matter anymore. Only the survival counted now.

With popped out veins and fast-beating heart, he pushed even stronger against the wall.

‘I will break out; I will not die here.’

Slowly he was able to see a dim red light emitting from the walls.

He pushed the walls even harder. The soft sensation was gone.

Seeing his hands as blurred black shadows on a dim red canvas he pushed more and more.

‘This is my chance. I can break the walls. Sure, I can break them, just a little bit more pushing.’

With his back on the wall, he got both of his legs in front of him and pushed the wall with all his remaining strength.

‘I can break it. I have to break it. I will survive.’

Hurt from the intense light Myke closed his eyes slightly. He saw a web of black pulsating lines covering the walls.

‘Are those veins? Is this thing alive?’

The wall underneath his feet felt suddenly hard like concrete.

He pushed once more with all the strength he can gather, and the wall finally gave up.

“Crack” – a loud shell breaking sound.

With a cracking sound, a spiderweb centered underneath his feet started growing in all directions.

‘I can do it!’

The new hope gave him more power and he pushed with even more strength. The cracks started growing faster and faster covering the whole wall.

One final push and the wall bursting open flushed Myke out.

Lying on the floor, totally exhausted, but finally free.

‘I need air’

Pushing with both of his hands his upper torso off the ground he inhaled some air and immediately started coughing and throwing up.

Screaming in pain he felled back in spasms to the floor.

Trying to breathe again bought just more pain, spasms, and coughing.

With popped out veins he screamed. The coughing didn’t seem to be ending soon.

He coughed out the fluid with a face twisted with pain.

Bit by bit the coughing and the spasms got weaker and Myke breathing started to normalize. The pain was unbearable, but it didn't matter. All he wanted was to breathe.

‘I need more air. I want to live.’

After a while, his lungs were finally free, and all that was left for him was to breathe.

‘I am alive.’

That was the only thing that mattered now.

Myke's eyelids became heavy and slowly the darkness claimed him.