The first thing Kai felt was the wind.
It wasn't the hot, recycled air of the slums or the chemical sting of factory vents. It was real wind — sharp, clean, filled with the scent of earth and metal and something ancient that the city had long forgotten.
He pushed himself up from the wreckage, every muscle screaming in protest. The train car lay on its side, half-buried in debris. Sparks flickered from torn cables. The once-gleaming walls were blackened with soot. The Hollow Rail stretched behind them into the darkness, severed and smoking.
Lia coughed softly beside him. "Are we… outside?"
Kai glanced toward the light streaming through a jagged crack in the rock. "Yeah. I think so."
Jex stirred near the control panel, muttering a curse. "Remind me never to let you drive again."
Kai managed a faint smirk, but it didn't last. His gaze drifted to his arm. The mark had changed — the black sun twisted into an eye, its dark iris pulsing faintly like a heartbeat. When he looked at it too long, the world around him seemed to dim, colors fading to gray.
He tugged his sleeve down quickly.
Lia noticed anyway. "It's different, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
"What does that mean?"
He shook his head. "Don't know yet."
They crawled out through the cracked window, stepping into a narrow ravine carved between cliffs of rusted stone. The sun hung low in the sky — a sickly orange disc filtered through clouds of ash. The light felt wrong somehow, like it belonged to another world.
Beyond the ravine, the land stretched wide and empty. Fields of broken metal, skeletons of machines half-buried in the soil, and far off, the shadow of a dead city swallowed by fog.
Jex whistled under his breath. "Well, damn. Guess the stories were true."
Lia shaded her eyes. "What is this place?"
"Old world," Kai said quietly. "Before the towers. Before the walls."
They began moving, following the slope downward. The air grew colder as they descended. There were no birds, no insects, no sound except the crunch of their boots on the dry ground. Every few steps, Kai felt the mark pulse faintly, like it was tracking something he couldn't see.
He tried to ignore it, but the whisper was still there — softer now, almost gentle.
Hunger walks ahead. Follow it.
He clenched his fists. "Shut up."
Lia looked at him, puzzled. "What?"
"Nothing." He forced a smile. "Keep moving."
By midday, they found the remnants of a road — cracked concrete covered in dust and old vines. Abandoned vehicles lay overturned, their engines long rusted out. Lia brushed her fingers over one of them, tracing faded letters on the door.
"ENFORCER UNIT 21," she read softly. "They used to patrol out here?"
"Not anymore," Jex said. "The perimeter's supposed to be uninhabitable. Radiation, toxins, ghosts — take your pick."
Kai scanned the horizon. The air shimmered slightly, like heat rising from asphalt, though the wind was cold. He could feel something watching them. Not human eyes. Something older.
They followed the road until they reached a massive metal gate, toppled sideways. It looked as if it had been ripped apart from within. Beyond it lay the ruins of a settlement — crumbled walls, rusted towers, and signs of a long-ago battle. Burn marks. Bullet holes. Bones.
Lia's voice was barely a whisper. "This place… people lived here."
Jex knelt beside a half-buried helmet. "Yeah. And they died here too."
Kai moved ahead, stepping over rubble. His senses felt sharper out here, the shadows longer, heavier. The mark under his sleeve throbbed every few seconds, in rhythm with something he couldn't quite identify.
He stopped when he heard it — a faint scratching sound, like claws on metal.
"Wait," he said quickly. "Don't move."
Lia froze. "What is it?"
Kai scanned the ruins. The noise came again, closer now. Then another. Multiple.
Jex raised his weapon. "Company."
From behind a shattered wall, a shape crawled into view — long, thin, moving on all fours. Its skin was pale gray, stretched tight over bones. Its eyes glowed faint blue.
Lia gasped. "What the hell is that?"
Before anyone could answer, three more emerged from the shadows. They moved like animals, but their faces were disturbingly human.
"Scavs," Jex whispered. "Old experiments. Leftovers from the outer projects."
The creatures hissed, jaws opening too wide.
Kai drew his knife, but before he could step forward, the mark on his arm ignited. The pulse of black light burst across the ground, spreading in waves. The creatures froze, heads snapping toward him. Their eyes changed — from blue to black.
Then they knelt.
Lia's breath caught. "They're… bowing?"
Kai took a step back, the knife trembling in his hand. "No. They're waiting."
Command them.
The voice filled his head again, cold and absolute.
He felt something in his chest — a tug, like invisible strings connecting him to the kneeling creatures. His thoughts brushed against theirs, and for a moment, he saw what they saw: hunger, pain, endless dark.
Lia grabbed his arm. "Kai, stop. Whatever this is, don't—"
Too late. The mark flared again, and his words slipped out unbidden. "Rise."
The creatures obeyed. Slowly, obediently, they stood.
Jex took a step back, aiming his weapon at them. "Kai, what the hell did you just do?"
Kai couldn't answer. The shadows around him twisted faintly, like smoke pulled by wind. He could feel their presence inside his mind — alien, broken, loyal.
Then one of the Scavs turned its head sharply toward the horizon and hissed.
Kai followed its gaze. In the distance, dust was rising. Vehicles. Dozens of them.
Enforcers.
Jex cursed. "They tracked us!"
Kai's heart pounded. The creatures snarled, ready to charge, but he could sense the voice in his mind urging him.
Feed. Protect. Become.
He took a deep breath, fighting the pull. "No. We move."
He turned to Lia and Jex. "We head east. Those things—" he glanced at the Scavs— "will slow them down."
Jex didn't argue. "Fine by me."
Lia hesitated, staring at the creatures. "Kai… they'll die."
"They're already dead."
She looked away, and he wished he hadn't said it.
They ran through the ruins as engines roared behind them. Gunfire echoed. The air filled with screams — inhuman and metallic. Kai didn't look back. He didn't need to. The mark on his arm told him everything: the Scavs were gone within minutes, torn apart by the Enforcers. But they'd bought time.
By dusk, the group reached the edge of the ruins. The land opened up into a vast plain of ash and steel, dotted with twisted metal towers that leaned like graves.
Lia stumbled, exhausted. "How far are we going?"
"Until we stop seeing smoke," Kai said.
Jex collapsed beside a fallen structure, breathing hard. "This place doesn't end."
Kai crouched near him. "Rest for a bit. I'll keep watch."
He walked a few paces away, standing at the edge of a cliff overlooking the wasteland. The wind carried whispers through the metal bones of the land. He closed his eyes, feeling it again — the hunger. The voice.
You command shadows, yet you fear them. Why?
"Because I've seen what they do," he muttered.
You are what they do.
He opened his eyes. The horizon flickered — for an instant, he saw not the wasteland but the city. Sector 9, burning. The slums collapsing into themselves. Lia screaming.
Then it was gone.
He dropped to one knee, gripping his head. "What do you want from me?"
Balance.
The word echoed like a bell.
He saw flashes — chains breaking, a gate opening, a figure stepping through light. Himself. But different. Older. Stronger. The eye mark blazing across his arm like fire.
Then the vision shattered.
"Kai?" Lia's voice was close. She knelt beside him, her hand on his shoulder. "You're shaking."
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not." Her eyes were steady, searching. "You said something's following you. Maybe it's not just following. Maybe it's becoming you."
He looked at her then, and for a moment, he saw the faint reflection of the mark in her pupils — like the shadow inside him was spreading. He turned away. "Get some rest."
She hesitated, then nodded and returned to the fire Jex had managed to light with broken wiring.
Kai stood alone under the dying sky. The light from the fire danced on the metal wreckage, throwing long, jagged shadows across the ground.
He thought of the Pit. Of the voice. Of the creatures that bowed to him.
And for the first time, he wondered if the city's worst curse hadn't followed him out here — if maybe he was carrying it.
Hours passed. The night grew colder.
Then, from the distance, a new sound reached them — not the hum of Enforcer engines, but something deeper. A low, rhythmic pounding, like footsteps too heavy for any man.
Jex stood instantly. "Tell me you hear that."
Kai's hand went to his knife. "Yeah."
Lia looked into the dark. "What is it?"
The pounding grew louder. A silhouette appeared in the haze — enormous, moving on all fours, eyes glowing white.
When it stepped into the firelight, even Jex took a step back.
It wasn't a creature. It was a machine. A war-beast from the old world, half organic, half steel, its armor covered in scars and moss. And on its head, a symbol burned faintly — the same black sun that had once been on Kai's arm.
The mark on his skin flared in response.
The machine stopped a few meters away, lowering its head as if waiting for something.
Lia whispered, "Kai… it's responding to you."
He swallowed hard. The voice inside him purred like static.
The hunt begins.
Kai took one slow step forward, the ground trembling beneath his boots. The beast didn't move, only waited.
Jex's voice was tight. "You sure about this?"
"No," Kai said. "But it's the only way to survive."
He reached out a hand toward the creature. The mark on his arm and the symbol on its head pulsed in unison.
The shadows rippled outward. The air grew cold.
And when his fingers touched the metal, a surge of energy exploded through him — visions, memories, screams of a thousand dead things echoing in his skull.
He saw the city collapsing, the Pit opening wide, a black sun rising above towers of bone.
Then, just before darkness took him again, he heard the voice whisper — softer than before, almost gentle.
Welcome, Shadow Hunter. The world remembers you.