Chapter 5

Carys POV

The red system warning blinded me. The words flashed in my vision rapidly.

[Immediate death of the Host.]

My breath caught in my throat. If Evander pulled that trigger and killed Kaelen right now, I would die instantly. The system was desperate to keep its awful story intact. The plot needed its main villain alive. I had to defuse this situation fast, but I couldn't break the specific character traits the system demanded from me.

I stepped quickly between Evander and Kaelen. I gently placed my hand over Evander's heavy weapon and pushed the steel barrel down.

"Stop," I said loudly. I made sure my voice carried a heavy mixture of pity and superiority. "He isn't worth a single bullet."

Evander frowned. He kept his dark eyes locked on Kaelen. "He put his hands on you, Carys. He doesn't get to walk away from that."

"And he will be dead in a few days anyway," I replied coldly. I looked Kaelen up and down with pure disgust. "Look at him. We shouldn't waste our valuable time or ammo on trash. Let the streets handle him."

The glowing screen flickered in the air. It registered my action as "Heroine's Mercy" and vanished instantly. The heavy weight in my chest lifted. I could breathe again.

Evander lowered the gun fully. He understood my silent command to leave. Kaelen stood frozen in the dirty loading bay. He was trembling, fuming, and deeply humiliated. His face was pale with fear, but his eyes burned with anger. Selah still cowered behind their fancy SUV, too scared to even speak a word in his defense. We got into the armored truck and drove away, leaving them standing in the dust.

The drive back was tense. We passed through city blocks that already felt different. Sirens wailed in the distance. People rushed out of grocery stores carrying heavy bags. Panic was slowly setting in across the city.

We made it back to Evander's fortified compound just as the sun began to set. The thick steel gates locked loudly behind us, sealing us inside a massive concrete bunker. The space was filled with high tech monitors, loud air filtration units, and tall pallets of food. The environment felt grim, cold, and strictly functional. It was a giant concrete box.

While Evander worked on connecting the new solar generators to the main power grid, I unpacked my things. I opened a small cardboard box I brought from my apartment. I pulled out a long string of delicate LED butterfly lights and several artificial ivy vines. I grabbed some tape and started hanging them across the harsh concrete wall right above our tactical mapping table.

Evander stopped working and wiped thick black grease from his hands. He watched me with a highly confused expression.

"What exactly are you doing?" he asked, pointing at the plastic vines. "Why are you decorating a doomsday bunker?"

"Just because the world is ending doesn't mean we have to live like prisoners in a cave," I told him. I plugged the lights into a small battery pack. A soft warm glow filled the dark corner of the room. "We need something nice to look at while we plan our survival."

I saw a small genuine smile break through his cynical exterior. It was a rare moment of actual warmth. The pretty butterfly lights provided a funny contrast to the heavy assault rifles stacked nearby.

He walked over to the mapping table. The soft lights cast a gentle glow over his handsome face. His smile faded into a deeply serious expression. Pushing off the edge of the table, he slowly moved toward me.

His tall frame blocked out the light, making him look incredibly intimidating in the small room. He didn't stop until he was standing right in front of me, forcing me to tilt my head up just to look at him.

"Carys," he said, his voice low and heavy. "Please don't lie to me anymore. I really want to know what is happening with you. You have been acting weird lately."

He leaned in close, his dark eyes searching my face for any sign of a trick. "No more dodging the subject. How did you know about Silas hiding illegal weapons? How did you know the mutation would happen early? Who are you really?”

I opened my mouth, trying to invent a believable lie on the spot. I thought about claiming I had psychic premonitions. I thought about saying I deeply analyzed hidden internet trends and police scanners. I needed to give him an answer that kept his trust without revealing I came from another dimension.

Before I could speak a single word, the massive wall of security monitors behind Evander glitched out.

The screens turned into violent flashing static. A loud piercing beep echoed through the bunker, making me cover my ears. The static resolved into emergency broadcast signals from every major news network.

The global timeline just broke.

The news channels didn't show isolated insect bites anymore. The screens showed major cities engulfed in massive flames. Huge hordes of mutated creatures flooded the city streets, tearing screaming people apart. Military blockades fell and collapsed in seconds. The anchors panicked and abandoned their desks on live television.

The blue system screen suddenly reappeared in my vision. The timer that previously stated we had about twenty six days left was gone. It was replaced by a flashing red counter that spelled absolute doom.

00:00:00.

Evander's perimeter breach alarms suddenly screamed through the bunker. The loud sirens were deafening in the enclosed space. He dropped his tools on the floor and rushed to the main camera feed. We both expected to see a massive swarm of mutated zombies scratching at our metal gates.

I looked at the screen and my chest tightened.

It wasn't zombies. Three heavily armored unmarked black tactical vans just rammed straight through our outer perimeter fencing. The thick metal fence crashed to the ground. Dozens of government soldiers poured into the yard. They wore full black ops gear and carried heavy assault rifles and breaching explosives. They took strategic positions around our walls, aiming their weapons directly at our main door.

They came to silence the crazy scientist before the world officially ended.

The blue system screen flickered one last time right in front of my eyes.

[PLOT OVERRIDE DETECTED. The Author has initiated an emergency purge. Survive the next ten minutes, or face deletion.]