Chapter Seven: The Survivor
The world did not end in fire. It screamed.
I was eighteen when the oceans broke their ancient boundaries. The bombs they used were not meant to burn cities. They were meant to crack the earth. England vanished first. I watched walls of violent water devour the horizon. When the chaotic tide finally retreated it left behind a grave of twisted steel and fractured stone. The survivors called it NewV. I called it a tomb.
That is where Alpha Division found me.
They did not bring food or blankets. They wore dark tactical armor and mirrored visors. They marched through the starving crowds and selected recruits based purely on physical strength. I was starving but I refused to look down at the dirt. They did not rescue me. They claimed me.
Training started with complete starvation. They locked us in cages and withheld food until we fought each other for it. Hesitation meant death. They stripped our names away and assigned us numbers. But I held onto my name in the dark. Zack Rivers. I knew if I lost my name I would lose my mind.
I remembered the first time they handed me a pistol. The boy standing across from me shook with absolute terror. The instructor stood behind me and pressed a gun to my temple. He told me to pull the trigger or die.
The boy across from me dropped his weapon and cried. My hand stayed completely steady. I fired one shot. The boy collapsed. I was nineteen years old. They did not build soldiers in Alpha Division. They built survivors by killing our compassion.
The years blurred together. I survived by using what I already knew. Before the oceans swallowed the world I had studied Taekwondo. Alpha Division took the discipline of the martial art and turned it into pure brutality. My legs became faster than forged steel. A spinning kick shattered ribs. An axe kick broke spines. By twenty four I was a weapon.
But I still heard the whispers in the dark barracks.
The older soldiers talked about the Weapon Project. It was an old failed experiment to build the ultimate soldier. The instructors told us it was completely abandoned. I did not believe them. In Alpha Division secrets only stayed buried if they were dead.
Then came the mission to the ruined NewV bunker.
Intelligence sent my squad down into the dark. We walked over broken glass and dried blood. We reached the very center of the bunker and found a slaughterhouse. Shattered consoles. Dangling wires. Dead Division soldiers lying in cracked armor.
I saw a body on the floor. I thought he was just another corpse. Then his chest moved.
I stepped into the doorway. I looked at the dead soldiers and then looked down at him. Recognition hit me instantly. My rifle snapped up and aimed directly between his eyes.
He moved before I could even blink. He rolled sideways as my warning shot sparked against the concrete wall. He scrambled forward and clamped his bare hand directly onto the hot barrel of my gun.
Our faces were inches apart. He was young. I saw complete disbelief in his eyes. My finger stayed frozen on the trigger.
"You are alive?" I asked. My voice was a low rasp.
He forced out a bitter laugh. "What does it look like?"
My jaw tightened. "Did you do this?"
He looked at the skeletal hands and the black stains on the floor. "I do not know."
I lowered my weapon slightly. I studied his face. "Name."
"Ashen."
I stared at him. The whispers in the barracks were completely real.
It happened on an ordinary day. There were no alarms. My squad geared up for a standard briefing. We carried our helmets and checked our rifles. But we walked down the wrong corridors. The walls grew colder and darker.
"Wrong turn," I said.
Nobody answered. My squad closed in around me. They aimed their rifles inward. Heavy rifle stocks pressed hard into my ribs and pinned my arms.
"What is this?" I asked.
Max stepped out of the shadows. He wore a clean suit and a polite empty smile. "Stand down Rivers."
"Why?" I demanded.
"Because you saw Ashen Ashford," Max said smoothly. "The Weapon. The Division does not keep liabilities."
I lunged at him. I threw a spinning kick aimed right at his head. But my squad was faster. A rifle butt smashed heavily into my jaw. Another hit my stomach. I hit the floor tasting my own blood. Heavy boots pinned my chest down.
Max crouched beside me. "You will rot where we put you. And if he comes looking for you we will see who the real weapon is."
They dragged me to a dark cell and the heavy steel door sealed shut. I sat on the cold floor with broken ribs. I knew Ashen was real. I knew he was alive. And I knew if I ever got out Alpha Division would regret keeping me breathing.
The night exploded behind us.
Sirens howled through the fractured concrete walls. Red emergency lights pulsed hard in the dark. We tore a massive hole through the heart of Alpha Division. Thick black smoke filled the air with the smell of burning oil and fresh blood. It was a complete war zone.
And we were walking right through it.