We couldn't sleep all at once.
One of us had to stay awake and keep guard. We did it in turns.
The night passed in fragments, half-dreams, snapping twigs, Kazim's uneven breathing. Every time the fire crackled too loudly, or someone flinched, gave us goosebumps. Every shadow felt closer than it should've been.
When morning finally came, it didn't feel like it used to before portals appeared, the sun just shining but no heat passed through those as and dust cloud.
Kazim stirred just after the light began filtering through the broken windows of the ruin. His eyes opened slowly, unfocused at first, then sharp with pain.
"Hey," Aira said softly, kneeling beside him. "Easy."
He swallowed. "Did we… make it?"
"You're alive," Ren said. "That counts."
Kazim let out a weak breath that almost sounded like a laugh. "Figures. How bad is it?"
"Your leg's going to hate you," I said. "But you'll walk again."
He closed his eyes for a second. "Good. I still owe you idiots, a lot of running."
After we atedry rations, barely enough to call a mealwe packed up. No one wanted to stay longer than necessary. Safety felt temporary, like the world was just waiting for us to relax.
We activated our secondary wrist maps as we moved.
The terrain shifted. Broken roads. Familiar curves in the land.
Then the name appeared.
My town.
Or what was left of it.
Most of it was gone.
Buildings collapsed inward like they'd folded under their own weight. Streets were split open, nature creeping back through cracks in concrete. It looked smaller than I remembered. Or maybe I was just seeing it clearly for the first time.
We stopped when my house came into view.
Part of it still stood.
The roof had collapsed on one side, walls scorched and fractured but it was there.
My chest tightened.
I walked ahead without thinking.
Inside, dust coated everything. Broken furniture. Faded paint. The floor creaked under every step. And then it hit memories, sharp and uninvited.
Laughter in the hallway.
Homework spread across the table.
My sister arguing over nothing.
My brother pretending he didn't care but always checking on us.
Before portals.
Before light tore the sky open.
Ren and Aira stayed quiet. Kazim leaned heavily against the doorway, watching me.
I found the camera near the back room.
Cracked lens. Scuffed casing.
"It's my brother's. I think," I said.
My hands shook as I picked it up.
The recording started automatically.
The room appeared on screenclean, intact. My brother stood in frame, adjusting the machine behind him. It looked unfinished. Experimental. Wires exposed.
"Just testing," his voice said. Nervous. Excited. "If this works"
The portal opened.
No warning.
No buildup.
Cosmic light flooded the room.
My sister came in. Brother tried to send her out and closed the door.
She was smiling.
But a cosmic beam launched from the portal and touched her.
She froze mid-step, body lifted slightly off the ground, eyes wide open. The machine screamed, alarms blaring. Energy surged upward, a beam tearing through the roof and into the sky.
Then
The machine exploded.
The video cut out. Silence filled the house.
I couldn't breathe.
Outside, something moved.
A shadow passed the broken windowlow, hunched, bristling.
Spikes scraped against stone.
We froze.
Through the gap in the wall, I saw it.
A thing the size of an adult human, body warped and swollen, skin stretched tight over muscle and bone. Quills jutted from its back like jagged spears. Its face was too long, too many teeth.
A rat.
Or what a rat became when the world broke.
It sniffed the air.
I didn't wait.
I signaled the others, slow and careful. We backed away, step by step, breath held, muscles screaming to run.
The creature twitched but didn't turn.
We slipped out through the side of the house, choosing a longer route, quieter ground. No talking. No mistakes.
Because this time, there would be no second chances here.
And we all knew it.
One wrong sound.
One wrong step.
And this time, we wouldn't escape in one piece.