RED MOON RISING

8:17 PM. Brisbane Radio Tower, Roof.

The wind was screaming.

Red light painted everything. The sky, the walls, their faces. Above them the moon wasn’t black anymore. It was red. Like a wound in the sky.

Ethan could feel it in his chest. A drumbeat that wasn’t his.

In front of him, 3 people.

The woman with knives. She twirled two curved blades, smiling like this was a game.

The man with the staff. Tall. Bald. His staff was black wood and it pulsed with the same red light as the moon.

And the old man with no eyes. Bandages over his sockets. But he turned his head like he could see them perfectly.

Between them, on a stone pedestal, the Red Shard.

It was alive. It grew an inch every few seconds. Veins of light crawled up it and into the sky.

Lily was behind Ethan. Her hand on his back. Bro...

"I got you." Ethan didn’t look back. "Stay behind me."

The old man tilted his head. "You smell like Melbourne. Like broken glass and failure."

The woman laughed. "And blood. Lots of blood."

The man with the staff slammed it down. _BOOM_

The whole roof shook. "Enough talk. The Moon is hungry."

They moved.

---

*THE FIGHT*

The woman came first. Fast.

Her knives flashed. Ethan caught one wrist, twisted. She spun and kicked him in the ribs. He flew back and hit the edge of the roof.

Selena was already on the man with the staff.

He swung. She ducked. The staff hit stone and cracked it.

She slashed. He blocked with the staff. Sparks.

They circled. Blade against wood. Neither gaining ground.

Ethan got up. Blood in his mouth. "You okay?"

Selena nodded once. "Him. You take the knives."

The woman was coming again. This time both knives aimed for his throat.

Ethan dropped low and drove his knife up. It caught her arm. She hissed and jumped back.

"You’re slow." She said. "The Moon makes us faster."

"Good." Ethan said. "I like a challenge."

He rushed her.

They became a blur. Steel on steel.

She was faster than Mara. Faster than Winged Boy.

But Ethan had something she didn’t.

He wasn’t fighting for power. He was fighting for the kid behind him.

He took a cut to the shoulder to get inside her guard. His knife went into her side.

She screamed and fell back, clutching the wound.

Across the roof, Selena was bleeding too. The staff had caught her ribs. But she wasn’t stopping.

The man with the staff brought it down again. Selena caught it with both hands. Pushed back.

Muscle against muscle.

"You’re strong." He said. "For a woman."

Selena smiled, bloody. "For a human."

She headbutted him. He staggered. She drove her blade into his thigh. He went down.

That left the old man.

He hadn’t moved. He just stood there, hands raised to the Red Shard.

"The Moon rises." He said softly. "Whether you live or die."

Ethan looked up. The red circle in the sky was bigger now. The light was hurting his eyes.

"We’ll see about that." He said.

He ran at the old man.

The old man didn’t move. Didn’t dodge.

Ethan’s knife stopped an inch from his chest.

Because the air in front of him had gone solid. Like glass.

The old man smiled. "You can’t touch me, boy. Not until the Moon is full."

He lowered his hands. And the Red Shard pulsed.

A wave of red light shot out.

Ethan threw himself over Selena and Lily. The light passed over them. Hot. It burned.

When he looked up, the woman and the staff man were gone. Dust on the roof.

The old man was standing on the edge of the pedestal now. His feet in the red light.

"You killed them." He said, almost proud. "Good. Their job is done. Mine begins."

He put both hands on the Red Shard.

It screamed.

Not a sound. A feeling. In everyone’s head.

Lily clutched her ears. "Make it stop!"

The Red Shard cracked. And from the crack, something poured out.

Smoke. But red. Thick. It rolled off the roof and into the city.

Wherever it touched, lights came on. Infected stopped walking. They turned their heads up. To the Moon.

"They hear it now." The old man said. "The call."

Ethan got up. His legs shook. "Then we break it."

He ran.

The air was solid again. He hit it and bounced back.

Selena was next to him. "Together."

They hit it at the same time. This time it cracked.

One more hit and it would break.

The old man turned his head to them. "Too late."

The Red Shard pulsed one last time.

And the roof beneath them split.

---

They fell.

Ethan grabbed Lily mid-air. Selena grabbed his arm.

They crashed through 2 floors and landed hard on floor 48.

Dust everywhere. Ethan coughed. "Everyone okay?"

Selena nodded. Lily was crying but not hurt.

Above them, the red light was getting brighter. The chanting had started again. Hundreds of voices. From the city below.

The old man’s voice echoed down the stairwell. "Come. Watch the new world be born."

Ethan stood. "We’re not done."

They climbed.

Floor 49. Empty.

Floor 50. The door was gone. Blown out.

The roof was worse now. Half of it was gone. The Red Shard was 3 meters tall. It touched the clouds.

And the old man was inside it. Up to his waist. The Shard had him.

He was smiling. "It’s almost time. One more minute."

Ethan didn’t think. He ran.

This time the air wasn’t solid.

He jumped. And drove his knife into the base of the Red Shard.

The crack that had started in Melbourne spread.

Selena was next to him. Her broken blade in both hands. She brought it down.

_CRACK_

The Red Shard split down the middle.

The old man screamed. Not in pain. In rage.

The red light flickered. Died.

The Shard collapsed in on itself and turned to dust.

Silence.

For 3 seconds, nothing.

Then the wind stopped.

The red moon in the sky flickered. And began to shrink. Just like the black one had.

The old man fell to the roof. Old. Human. No power.

He looked at Ethan. "You... you don’t know what you’ve done. Without the Moon, they’ll—"

He didn’t finish. His eyes closed.

Ethan stood there, breathing hard. His knife was gone. Lost in the dust.

Selena walked to him. Put her hand on his shoulder. "It’s over."

Below them, the chanting stopped.

Ethan looked over the edge. The Infected in the streets had stopped too. They were standing still. Confused.

One by one, they started to fall. Like puppets with cut strings.

Lily came to them. "Did we win?"

Ethan picked her up. "Yeah, Lil. We did."

---

*11:40 PM. Brisbane, Street Level.*

The city was quiet.

Soldiers were moving in. Medics. Same as Melbourne.

Ethan, Selena, and Lily sat on the steps of the tower. Watching.

The red moon was almost gone now. Just a faint pink smear.

"You think it’ll come back?" Selena asked.

Ethan shook his head. "Not if we stop the others."

"Adelaide. Perth." Selena listed them. "Two left."

"Two left." Ethan repeated.

He was exhausted. Every muscle hurt. But he felt something he hadn’t felt in days.

Calm.

Lily fell asleep on his lap. Selena leaned against him.

No one said anything for a while.

Then Selena spoke. "When this is all over... what do you want to do?"

Ethan thought about it. "Sleep. For a week. Eat real food. Maybe find a place with blue sky."

Selena smiled. "Sounds good."

A soldier came over. "Evac train leaves in an hour. For survivors. You three should be on it."

Ethan nodded. "We will."

The soldier left.

Ethan looked at the sky. The stars were coming out. The first real stars he’d seen in days.

He thought about Melbourne. About the sewer. About the fights.

Then he thought about tomorrow. And the day after.

It wasn’t over. But they were still here.

And that mattered.

"Let’s go home." Selena said quietly.

"Yeah." Ethan stood, holding Lily. "Let’s go home."

They walked down the steps. Into the dark city.

Behind them, the tower stood empty. The dust of the Red Shard blowing away in the wind.

Ahead, the train whistle blew.

Time to move again.