MADISON.
It ALL began with a virus.
Approximately 256 days ago, the world was still partly put together. We had houses to sleep in, clean water to drink, and didn't have to flinch at the sound of every tiny movement.
Until the virus.
Not a disease or microorganism like you'd think. But a mistake—what you could call knowledge gone wrong.
Nathaniel Druski, a world-renowned scientist, thought he could bring a solution to the world. Bots who were exactly like humans.
Give birth to a human child.
Metabolize.
Be… human.
But he was wrong.
He ended up creating an army of robots—robots that didn't listen to human commands. Before they could be shut down, nothing was left of the diseased world but dust and ruin.
"It's getting cold, Maddy," Sam wheezes from under his torn blanket.
I look away from the distant movement, then back at him.
"You'll be fine," I tell him, lifting my palms over his body as I warm him with my mutation.
I forgot to tell you something else.
Destroying every robot could happen in only one way—by sending a wave over the earth. Hot… burning heat that killed most, mutated a few, and left some completely… unfathomable.
He shudders violently. "Something is wrong with me, Maddy."
My heart pulses hard. "Nothing is wrong with you, Sam. You'll be—"
Bloody hell.
A shiver crawls down my dislocated spine at the unnatural coldness of his body.
Fourteen degrees Celsius.
"I'm going to die," he breathes, rolling uncontrollably.
I stand, running my hands through my chipped hair in panic. The next group of humans lives twenty miles from here.
I pick Sam up into my arms, forcing every mutation in my body to pulse, desperate to keep him alive.
"Don't panic, Sam. I'll get you help."
But the moment I turn to run, I see them.
People called them The Terrifiers.
Tall men, their bodies completely covered in thick layers of green clothes, only their eyes visible. Armed with weapons. They hunt what's left of the living—to turn them into slaves.
And they're heading straight for us.
"Maddy," Sam gasps in my arms, his skin turning deathly white.
My eyes burn with tears, but I refuse to cry.
Think, Madison. Think.
The tallest one—the man in the middle—locks eyes with me. His grey eyes almost smile with cruelty.
"A mutant, over there," he says. Irish.
I kick away the rubble behind me and run as fast as I can. Footsteps pound the ground behind us. Sam keeps wheezing. Tears finally spill, hot and uncontrollable.
There's nowhere to go. No place to hide. Everywhere is empty. Broken. Earth's beauty has been lost.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Thirty-nine.
Pain explodes through my neck. My body goes numb. I scream in my head, my lips refusing to move. I crash to the ground… on Sam.
Unalive me.
Don't kill my brother.
Take me instead.
Hands lift me off Sam and flip me onto my back.
The grey-eyed man.
He says something in Irish to the others. They pick up my brother.
I want to scream. Fight them until they kill me. But I can't.
They're taking Sam away—every one of them—until it's only me and the grey-eyed man left.
He grips the device on my neck and yanks it out. Then he reaches into his ragged bag, pulling out a small cloth and a bottle.
Liquid onto cloth.
He raises it toward me, then pauses. His brows knit as he studies my face, like he's trying to remember something.
"Your brother will be fine," he mutters finally, then presses the cloth over my nose.
Earth finally dies.