VOL. 1: CHAPTER 1: QUARANTINE CITY
Kaloi's City didn't end after the blast.
It shifted.
Like a man who gets hit too hard and comes back up with a different name.
Smoke hung low, thick enough to chew. The streetlights flickered in and out like they were trying to decide whether they still served a purpose. Somewhere close, something electrical popped and sizzled, a sharp sound that made Sionu's teeth ache as if his nerves were listening with their own ears.
He ran anyway.
Not the clean kind of running you see in movies, where the hero's form stays heroic and the camera loves him the whole time.
This was stumbling. Dragging. Limping with pride.
Ultimo kept one hand on Sionu's forearm, not exactly pulling him, but anchoring him, making sure Sionu didn't drift sideways into the smoke and disappear like everyone else who couldn't keep up.
"Bro, you bleeding," Ultimo rasped.
Sionu didn't answer.
He tasted copper. He felt it sliding down his chin. His hoodie clung in places it wasn't supposed to, damp and heavy. Every inhale was a fight.
But the worst part was the new feeling under his skin.
Electricity didn't just crackle at his fingertips anymore. It curled deeper, moving through him like a living thing learning the shape of its cage. It wasn't painful exactly.
It was… awake.
And it kept reacting to everything.
Fear. Anger. Shock.
As if his emotions were now switches.
As if his heart had become a breaker box.
They cut through an alley that smelled like burned plastic and stale rain. A stray cat shot past their feet, fur puffed, eyes wide like it had seen God and didn't like the expression on His face.
Behind them, the scene near Fort Trigg was still erupting.
Screams. Orders. The staccato of boots on pavement. A megaphone voice trying to force control into the air.
Then another sound, distinct, unmistakable.
A man laughing too hard.
Not joy.
Not humor.
The laugh of someone whose brain had slipped its leash.
Ultimo flinched and looked back over his shoulder. Sionu forced himself not to. His body wanted to turn, wanted to understand.
But understanding was a luxury.
Survival was immediate.
"Where we going?" Sionu finally croaked.
Ultimo's lips peeled back in frustration. "Anywhere that ain't there."
Sionu tried to nod, but his vision pulsed, the world brightening and dimming in sync with his heartbeat.
A street sign appeared out of the haze: W. MERCY AVE.
It felt like the city was laughing at him too.
Mercy.
Yeah. Right.
They crossed the street, keeping low. A wrecked car sat crooked in the intersection, windows blown out, airbags hanging like deflated lungs. Someone's phone lay face-up on the ground, screen still lit, recording nothing but smoke and a distant siren wail.
Kaloi's City loved to capture its own pain.
To prove it happened.
To prove it wasn't exaggeration.
Sionu's foot clipped the phone. It spun and skidded, and for a second the camera pointed at him.
At his face.
At his gold eyes.
Sionu felt something in his chest tighten.
In that fraction of a moment, he had a vision, quick and wrong:
A news broadcast.
A freeze-frame.
His face on the screen.
A headline: "SUSPECT IDENTIFIED IN KALOI BLAST"
Comments under it like knives, the internet doing what it always did.
Ultimo grabbed him harder. "MOVE."
Sionu moved.
1) THE CITY WAKES UP WRONG
By the time they reached the next block, the chaos had multiplied.
People poured out of buildings. Not in orderly evacuation lines, not guided by any authority that still deserved trust. They spilled out like water freed from a cracked dam.
Some cried.
Some yelled.
Some stared at the smoke as if it was a holy sign.
Some, most frightening of all, seemed… excited.
A group of young dudes stood in a loose half-circle near a busted bus stop, filming with their phones, voices overlapping.
"Yo that was some military sh*t!"
"Nah, nah, that was aliens!"
"Bro I swear I seen dude glowing!"
"Stop playing! Stop playing!"
A woman with a baby in her arms shoved past them, eyes wild. "Get out the way! My baby can't breathe!"
Nobody moved fast enough.
Sionu heard the baby's thin cry and felt something spark deep in him.
His fingers twitched.
The air around his hands tingled.
He clenched his fists hard, forcing it down.
Not now.
Not here.
He and Ultimo cut through another alley and emerged into a wider street that usually held food trucks and sidewalk vendors, a place that on good days smelled like fried dough and grilled meat and cheap cologne.
Today, it smelled like smoke and fear and money about to do something ugly.
Two store owners argued outside a corner shop with barred windows.
"You can't close on me!" one shouted. "I already paid you for the order!"
"You see what's happening out here?" the other man screamed back. "You want me to die for your damn chips and soda?!"
A third person, a skinny kid in a puffer jacket, tried to slip past them toward the shop door.
The store owner saw and snapped, lunging, grabbing him by the collar.
Instantly, the street's energy shifted.
Like the city had been waiting for an excuse.
People turned.
Phones lifted.
Someone shouted, "Ayo! Let him go!"
The kid swung first. A wild punch that missed, but it didn't matter. The store owner shoved him hard. The kid stumbled into the metal bars, hit with a clang.
And something in the crowd broke.
A bottle flew.
Then another.
Then a brick.
The store owner ducked. The windows shattered anyway.
For a moment, Sionu just watched, stunned by how fast people turned into weather.
Ultimo grabbed his sleeve. "We can't get caught in that."
Sionu snapped back to himself. "Yeah."
They moved along the edge of it, slipping by as the first hands reached through the broken window bars, grabbing whatever they could.
Looting didn't start because people were evil.
It started because fear makes people hungry.
And hunger makes people honest about what they think the world owes them.
2) THE GOVERNMENT SHOWS ITS TEETH
They heard the drones before they saw them.
A high, insect-like whine over the street, a mechanical buzz that made people look up. Small black shapes floated above the rooftops, camera eyes swiveling, recording.
A woman shouted, "Get that damn thing out my face!"
Someone threw a rock. Missed.
The drone adjusted, calmly, like it didn't know what anger was.
Then a deeper sound rolled in.
Not thunder.
Engines.
Military vehicles pushed into the district from the direction of Fort Trigg, moving slow but purposeful, like they'd already decided they owned the streets.
A loudspeaker crackled.
"This is a federal emergency directive. Remain inside. Curfew is now in effect. All civilians must return to their residences immediately."
People laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was insulting.
A man in a white tank top raised both middle fingers at the convoy. "Y'all wasn't saying that when my cousin got shot last week!"
A soldier lifted his rifle slightly.
Not aiming. Not yet.
But the threat was visible.
Sionu's stomach turned.
He'd grown up watching power perform itself like theater. He knew the scripts. He knew when things were about to escalate.
Ultimo leaned close. "You see their faces? They scared too."
He was right.
The soldiers looked tense. Young. Eyes darting at every shadow. Their gloves were thicker than usual. Their masks tighter.
Like they were preparing for contamination.
A woman next to Sionu whispered, "They finna lock us in. They finna lock us in like animals."
Sionu didn't answer, but his mind flashed to Blitz.
To their apartment.
To the window looking out over the city.
Was she watching this too?
Was she safe?
His phone was gone, lost in the blast, and suddenly that felt like a death sentence.
Ultimo tugged him. "We going to my auntie's place. She got a basement. We can lay low."
Sionu nodded, but his chest felt tight.
"Blitz," he said.
Ultimo's face hardened. "Bro… right now, we gotta survive."
"I'm going back," Sionu said, surprising himself with the firmness in his voice.
Ultimo stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "You crazy. The city about to close. You know how they do. They finna barricade everything."
"I can't leave her," Sionu said, jaw clenched.
Ultimo's eyes flicked to Sionu's hands, where faint sparks danced, invisible to most, but not to someone who'd grown up around danger.
"Bro," Ultimo said slowly. "What happened to you back there?"
Sionu swallowed.
"I don't know," he admitted. "But I know I gotta get to her."
Ultimo looked torn.
Then his loyalty won.
"Aight," he said, voice tight. "Aight. But we moving smart. No hero sh*t."
Sionu nodded.
They started heading toward Sionu's neighborhood.
And that was when the first bodies started getting back up.
3) THE PLAGUE STARTS SHOWING ITS FACE
They came around a corner and nearly ran into a man leaning against a wall.
He looked mid-thirties, hoodie zipped up, hands shaking. At first glance, he seemed like just another person trying to breathe through the smoke.
Then he turned his head.
His eyes were wrong.
Not glowing like a neon sign. Not dramatic. Just… slightly lit, like embers under ash.
His veins pulsed faintly beneath his skin, a subtle illumination that made him look sick from the inside out.
His lips stretched into a grin that didn't match the tension in his face.
"Y'all… y'all feel it?" he asked, voice trembling with delight and terror.
Ultimo stepped back instantly. "Nah. We good."
Sionu stared, frozen.
Because he felt something in his own chest respond.
Not empathy.
Recognition.
Like two tuning forks vibrating at the same frequency.
The man's head tilted. "You got it too."
Sionu's spine went cold. "What?"
The man's grin widened until it looked painful. "The light. The hum. The… the SOL."
Ultimo's eyes sharpened. "How you know that word?"
The man laughed again, and this laugh was worse than the earlier one. It sounded like it was being pulled out of him by force.
"I don't know how I know," he said, voice cracking, "but I know. I know it's in me. I know it's in the air. I know the city ain't the same."
He pushed off the wall, taking a step toward them.
Ultimo put a hand out. "Back up."
The man didn't.
Sionu felt electricity crawl up his arms like a warning.
His fingers twitched.
A spark snapped in the air.
The man flinched, eyes widening. "OH!"
He looked… thrilled.
Like he'd just seen proof that God existed.
"Do it again," he whispered.
Sionu's breath caught. "I ain't doing nothing."
The man stepped closer.
Ultimo shoved him. Hard.
The man stumbled back, hit the wall, then straightened.
For a split second, something flickered behind his eyes.
A shadow.
A hunger.
He lunged.
Not like a normal person.
Too fast. Too wrong.
Ultimo cursed and swung, connecting with the man's jaw. The man's head snapped sideways, but he didn't fall.
He turned back slowly, smiling through a split lip.
And then he exhaled.
A faint shimmer drifted out of his mouth, barely visible in the streetlight.
Sionu's body reacted instantly.
The electricity inside him surged, raising the tiny hairs on his skin, buzzing in his bones.
Ultimo coughed as the shimmer touched him.
His eyes went wide.
Sionu grabbed Ultimo by the hoodie and yanked him back.
"Run!" Sionu shouted.
They ran.
Behind them, the man's laughter echoed, growing louder, joined by others.
As if the city had become a choir of broken hymns.
4) BLITZ, ALONE
Across the city, Blitz stood at the window, watching the smoke smear the skyline.
She'd tried calling Sionu five times.
Straight to voicemail.
She'd tried calling Ultimo.
Nothing.
Her hands shook, but her face stayed hard.
Blitz Jalid had learned young that panic didn't pay bills and didn't save lives.
She turned away from the window, pacing the apartment like a caged lioness.
The TV was on, but it wasn't helping. News anchors spoke fast with careful voices, like they were trying to control fear by pronouncing it politely.
"…unconfirmed reports of an explosion…"
"…public urged to remain calm…"
"…military presence has increased…"
"…possible chemical exposure…"
Chemical exposure.
Blitz's jaw clenched.
They always said "chemical" when they didn't want to say "something we caused."
She grabbed her keys, then stopped.
If she went outside, she'd be one more body in the street, one more target, one more person the city could swallow.
If she stayed, she'd be trapped if they locked the district down.
Her eyes flicked to the hallway closet.
Inside, behind winter coats and old shoes, was a metal bat Sionu kept "just in case." He'd never called it a weapon.
He'd called it "insurance."
Blitz pulled it out and tested its weight.
Comforting.
Solid.
Real.
She heard shouting outside.
Then a heavy knock at the building's main entrance below. Voices. A commotion.
Blitz's grip tightened on the bat.
She walked to the peephole.
In the hall, two neighbors stood whispering, eyes wide.
"Did you hear?" one hissed. "They said the government finna quarantine us."
"They can't do that," the other whispered.
"They can," the first replied. "They do whatever they want."
Blitz's stomach turned.
Quarantine meant sealed exits. Roadblocks. No help coming. No leaving.
She stepped back from the door.
Then she heard something else.
A soft scratching sound from inside the apartment.
Not from the hall.
From the kitchen.
Blitz froze.
The apartment was small. She knew every sound it made.
That sound was new.
She lifted the bat and moved slowly, heart beating hard but controlled.
The scratching came again.
Like nails on tile.
Blitz rounded the corner into the kitchen.
And saw…
A cockroach.
But not normal.
This one moved weird, twitching, legs too fast, body shimmering faintly under the light.
Blitz stared, unsettled.
Then the roach stopped.
Lifted its head, as if it could look at her.
And she felt that pressure in her chest again, stronger now, like the air itself was trying to push into her lungs.
Blitz's breath caught.
The roach scuttled away under the fridge.
Blitz didn't chase it.
Because suddenly, the room felt… watched.
Not by eyes.
By something bigger.
Something that didn't care if she believed in it.
Blitz swallowed and whispered to herself, "Sionu… where you at, baby?"
Outside, another siren wailed.
Then another.
And far off, the low hum under reality deepened, as if Kaloi's City had begun vibrating at a new frequency.
5) THE CHASE
Sionu and Ultimo ran until their lungs burned.
They cut through side streets, ducked behind dumpsters, slipped past a group of men arguing over a bag of stolen goods.
They tried not to look suspicious, because in a city under pressure, suspicion was enough to get you killed.
As they neared Sionu's neighborhood, the atmosphere changed.
Less looting.
More fear.
People were pulling children indoors, slamming doors, taping windows.
A man yelled from a balcony, "Everybody get inside! They locking it down!"
A woman screamed at him, "You don't know that!"
He screamed back, "I do know! My cousin work at the precinct!"
Sionu's chest tightened.
"Faster," he said to Ultimo.
Ultimo nodded.
They turned a corner and nearly collided with a barricade.
Not official.
Homemade.
Trash cans, pallets, a flipped table, and four men standing behind it like they were guarding a kingdom.
One of them stepped forward, hand on his waistband.
"Where y'all going?" he demanded.
Sionu raised both hands slightly, not surrendering, just signaling he wasn't trying to start a war. "Home."
The man's eyes narrowed. "This block closed."
Ultimo scoffed. "Closed by who? You?"
The man's expression hardened. "By us. Cause we seen what's out there."
Another man behind him spoke, voice shaky. "They biting people, bro."
Sionu went still. "Who?"
The first man licked his lips, eyes darting. "People. But not… not normal. They sick. They glowing. They… they laughing."
Sionu's stomach dropped.
Ultimo muttered, "We just seen one."
The men stiffened, gripping their weapons.
Sionu forced his voice calm. "We not here for trouble. My girl in my apartment. I gotta get to her."
The first man studied Sionu's face, then his eyes locked on Sionu's gold irises.
Something passed through the man's expression. Recognition, maybe. Or fear.
"You one of them?" the man asked quietly.
Sionu's throat tightened. "I don't even know what 'them' is."
For a second, it looked like the man might deny them.
Then something happened behind Sionu.
A sound like running feet, fast.
Sionu turned.
Three figures sprinted out of the smoke at the far end of the street.
Their movements were wrong. Jerky. Too eager.
They didn't look like disciplined attackers.
They looked like people whose bodies had been hijacked by adrenaline and madness.
One of them screamed, not words, just sound.
The men at the barricade raised their weapons.
"GET BACK!" one shouted.
The figures didn't slow.
They slammed into the barricade like waves hitting rocks.
One of the attackers grabbed a man's arm and BIT down.
The man screamed.
Blood sprayed.
And in the streetlight, Sionu saw the attacker's veins glowing faintly beneath his skin, pulsing like a sick heartbeat.
Sionu's body moved before his brain could argue.
Electricity surged up his arms.
His hand snapped out.
A bolt of blue-white energy cracked through the air and struck the attacker's shoulder.
The sound wasn't like thunder.
It was sharper. A violent snap, like reality being whipped.
The attacker flew back, hit the pavement hard, body twitching.
Silence fell for half a second.
Everyone stared at Sionu.
Sionu stared at his own hand.
Ultimo's voice came out thin. "Bro…"
Sionu's heart hammered.
He hadn't meant to do that.
He hadn't even known he could.
But the electricity inside him felt… satisfied.
Like it had been hungry.
The other two attackers hesitated, heads twitching, as if they were confused by pain.
Then they turned and fled, vanishing back into smoke.
The barricade men stared at Sionu with fear now mixed with something else.
Respect.
Or terror.
The bitten man collapsed, clutching his arm, face contorted.
"Help me," he begged. "Please!"
His veins already began to glow faintly around the wound.
Sionu's stomach turned.
Ultimo whispered, "We gotta go. Right now."
Sionu nodded, backing away from the barricade.
The first man lifted a shaky finger and pointed at Sionu.
"Yo," he said, voice cracking, "if you can do that… you better be careful. Cause they finna come for you."
Sionu didn't respond.
He just ran.
6) HOME, BUT NOT SAFE
When Sionu reached his building, his breath was ragged, his body trembling with exhaustion and something like withdrawal.
Ultimo stayed close, scanning the street.
The building entrance was cracked, the lock busted. Someone had forced their way in.
Sionu's heart dropped.
He bounded up the stairs two at a time.
"Blitz!" he shouted, voice raw.
No answer.
He hit the third floor, sprinted down the hall, and slammed into his apartment door.
It was locked.
That alone gave him a flash of relief.
He pounded. "Blitz! It's me!"
A pause.
Then the locks clicked.
The door opened a crack, and Blitz's eyes appeared, sharp and furious and wet all at once.
She yanked the door open fully and pulled Sionu inside like she was afraid the hallway would steal him.
Ultimo followed.
Blitz slammed the door and locked it, chain and all.
Then she stepped back and looked at Sionu.
Her face changed.
Not because she didn't recognize him.
Because she did.
And she recognized the blood.
The soot.
The way his body held tension like it had been electrocuted by life itself.
"What happened?" she demanded, voice shaking.
Sionu tried to speak, but his throat locked.
Blitz's eyes flicked to his hands.
A faint spark danced across his fingertips, uninvited.
Blitz went still.
Ultimo muttered, "Yeah… we got problems."
Blitz took a slow breath, like she was forcing herself not to shatter.
"Sionu," she said carefully, "why your hands doing that?"
Sionu stared at his palms like they were betraying him.
"I don't know," he whispered.
Blitz looked at Ultimo. "What he mean he don't know?"
Ultimo ran a hand over his face, eyes haunted. "There was an explosion. And some… shimmer. Like gas but not gas. And people started… changing."
Blitz's grip tightened on the bat she'd been holding. "Changing how?"
Ultimo's voice dropped. "Like they not they self no more."
Blitz stared at them both, then turned to the window.
Outside, the street had gotten quieter.
Not peaceful.
Quiet like a predator crouching.
In the distance, military vehicles rolled, lights flashing.
A loudspeaker voice echoed faintly, bouncing off buildings:
"…emergency directive…"
"…quarantine…"
"…remain inside…"
Blitz's jaw clenched.
She turned back.
"Okay," she said, voice suddenly calm in a way that scared Sionu more than her anger. "Okay. We alive. We together. That's step one."
Sionu swallowed.
Blitz stepped closer, placing her hand on his chest again, right where she'd felt the pressure earlier.
She closed her eyes.
Sionu felt the electricity inside him respond, not violently, but like it recognized her touch.
Blitz's eyes opened, wide.
"I feel it," she whispered. "It's like… it's like something in you humming."
Sionu's breath caught. "Blitz…"
She stepped back, shaking her head slowly. "No. Uh-uh. Don't 'Blitz' me. What did you bring into my house?"
Sionu's guilt rose like bile.
Ultimo's voice was tense. "It ain't just him. It's the city. It's in the air."
Blitz looked between them, mind racing.
Then, from the kitchen, a soft scratching sound came again.
Blitz's eyes snapped toward it.
Sionu followed her gaze.
The air in the apartment felt heavier now.
The pressure in Sionu's chest deepened.
And outside, somewhere on their floor, down the hall…
A scream ripped through the building.
Short.
Violent.
Cut off too fast.
Blitz raised the bat.
Ultimo tensed, fists clenched.
Sionu's hands sparked.
And from the hallway, they heard something else.
Not footsteps.
Not running.
A slow dragging sound.
Like something being pulled across the floor.
Then a voice.
A neighbor's voice.
But wrong.
Soft and joyful, like a lullaby sung by someone who didn't understand death.
"Open… open… open…"
Blitz whispered, barely audible, "Oh hell no."
Sionu stared at the door.
His heartbeat thundered.
The electricity inside him rose like a storm, deciding whether to break.
Because whatever was outside wasn't just looking for shelter.
It was looking for SOL.
And something inside Sionu felt like a lighthouse in the dark.
to be continued...