Out of the shadows crept a creature, animalistic and wrong. Low to the ground. Too many joints. Too many teeth.
It charged.
The first body split with a wet snap. Blood sprayed the walls.
More screams. People scrambled. The corridor became chaotic.
He froze-heart pounding, muscles locked.
Then the monster turned.
It charged again.
The boy slipped-his boot sliding in blood. He toppled toward the edge of the ship.
He dove, catching him by the wrist just in time.
The wind roared past them. His arms trembled. Sweat stung his eyes.
"Your name!" he cried. "Tell me your name!"
The boy looked up. His eyes were full of fear-but he was smiling.
"Ash... Allucron. Take care."
His fingers slid away.
He fell.
His body slammed into a pillar far below. There was a sickening crack-and then, the abyss.
"No!"
Behind him, the soldier roared. Spear in hand, he charged the beast and drove the blade deep into its chest.
The creature shrieked, thrashed-then crumbled into ash.
And silence returned.
He stood, gasping. Alone.
Days Passed
The ship floated through a sea of fog and grey sky-directionless, broken. No one else had survived. The food had been lost in the struggle.
He hadn't eaten in three days.
Neither he nor the soldier spoke.
The silence was thicker than hunger. The guilt was worse.
The boy-the only person who had shown him kindness-was gone. He had frozen when it counted.
He didn't even know if Ash Allucron had been the boy's name... or a final word, meant for someone else.
Still, it hurt.
The soldier searched every compartment of the hollow ship. No survivors.
Just them now.
Then-on the fourth dawn-He squinted through the mist.
There, rising through the clouds, was a city like nothing he'd ever seen.
A colossal metropolis suspended between pillars that scraped the heavens. Walkways looped between towers like veins, connecting structures that clung to the stone like machinery clings to bone.
The ship shuddered, then docked. Ropes gripped it and held it firmly in place.
The soldier stood and motioned silently for Him to follow.
Together, they walked across a metallic gangway into the city's edge.
Cold lights buzzed. The air tasted sterile-like steel and copper. They walked halls that curved and twisted until they reached a chamber.
A glass pane split the room in half. Behind it stood an officer-sharp-eyed, clipboard in hand.
He looked at him-not unkindly.
"Do you remember your name?"
He hesitated. Then, the name came to his lips-unexpected, but certain.
"...Ash."
The officer made a note on his clipboard.
"Welcome to the High-Rise," he said, as steel doors slid open behind him.
Ash stepped forward, uncertain whether he was walking into shelter...
Or something far more dangerous.