Se connecterOn New Year’s Eve, my fiancee, Delilah Carrington, left me to freeze to death in subzero snow. As my body went numb, she was wrapped in the military coat I had found for her, curled up in Everett Kingsley’s arms while eating the holiday groceries I had paid for. When I opened my eyes again, I was back before everything fell apart. So when she called—cold, demanding, rattling off a shopping list like I owed her—I hung up, blocked her number, and made my move. I sealed off Blackridge Logistics Hub, the largest logistics hub in the country. Stockpiling supplies? Pointless. Because my coworkers and I had more packages than we could ever open: seafood delicacies, premium cigars, top-shelf liquor, and industrial generators. Hundreds of millions of shipments meant for the holidays were now all mine. Inside a warehouse kept at a steady 26°C, I ate wagyu steak and watched the world collapse through surveillance feeds. I witnessed Delilah’s entire family tear each other apart over half a moldy pack of crackers. I thought I could live like this forever. I was wrong. In the apocalypse, the most dangerous thing isn’t what’s waiting outside. It’s the people who refuse to stop playing the hero.
Voir plusDelilah thought she’d found a way out and rushed straight in.I raised my hand and slammed the emergency close button beside the door. The heavy alloy door began to shut, slowly sealing her screams and curses inside the subzero cold.I leaned against the freezing metal surface, listening to Rhys’s anxious voice crackling through the radio.I pressed the button. "I’m alive. Just took out the trash."The first month after the final battle, Rhys and I became the only two living ghosts in the entire logistics park.The days that followed were bland and repetitive. We repaired solar panels and counted supplies, like NPCs stuck in a glitched game.Rhys would often stand staring out at the frozen wasteland, absentmindedly knocking his wrench against the railing."Cut it out." I leaned out from behind a checklist. "You’re not going to summon a miracle.""Boss, when’s this snow ever going to melt?""When the devs patch the game."I didn’t expect the patch to come so soon.In the seco
Tamsin collapsed into the corner, unable to say a single word.I stood at the doorway and looked at the two of them inside. "Congratulations. Now you can stay together forever. From this point on, you’re no longer my colleagues."You’re resources that happen to breathe. One bowl of paste a day. Enough to keep you alive. Your only value is when those lunatics break in again—either as bargaining chips or bait."When I finished speaking, I didn’t look away.Right in front of them, I switched on the welding machine and sealed the storage room door shut with my own hands, leaving only the small feeding slot.When it was done, I turned around. Rhys stood a short distance away, watching me with a complicated expression.I walked over and took the pack of cigarettes out of the safe, handing it to him. He froze for a moment, then shook his head. "Boss, I quit."I didn’t respond. I just shoved the pack into his jacket pocket. He stood there in silence for a long time before finally speaki
I tossed the cigarettes and the letter into the safe together and locked it shut. "When you’ve calmed down, we can talk about what being comrades really means.""Dammit!" Garrick slammed his fist hard against the metal cabinet and stormed out.Late that night, I watched the monitors. Garrick hadn’t gone back to his room. He was pacing outside Tamsin’s storage room.Since the cigarette incident, Garrick’s resentment had been obvious.That same night, I kept watching. He pried open the food slot used to pass her meals, and the two of them whispered back and forth. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could see Tamsin’s expression. It was soft and persuasive.Garrick nodded along like a puppet."Boss." Rhys had come up behind me at some point, his expression dark.I turned off the monitor. "Tomorrow, install a backup camera on the roof ladder. Cover it with sheet metal."Rhys made a throat-slitting gesture.I shook my head. "No. Let him stick his own hand into the fire."
A low hum…Then the generator cut out.The entire world dropped into dead silence. Absolute darkness.Working by feel, I flipped the new power switch.A few seconds later, emergency lights flickered on, one by one. Then the central monitors in the control room lit up again, screen after screen.Dim but stable.That night, I sat alone in the control room. I had shot the drone down earlier with the nail gun and pulled out its memory card.In the footage, Delilah was kneeling in front of a thickset man, massaging his legs with a submissive smile.I turned it off and switched back to the external cameras.Across the endless frozen landscape, our warehouse, which was lit by only a few scattered lights, looked like a lone island in the dark.Solar power was limited, so I enforced strict energy rationing.Heat ran for four hours a day—no more. The rest of the time, the warehouse felt like a freezer. Food dropped back to cold rations of compressed biscuits and canned goods.Rhys sp












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