Somewhere deep in his cells—buried within strands of DNA that defied human understanding—a dormant sequence flickered to life.
Bathed in the golden light of Earth's yellow sun, that mysterious genetic code began to work.
It didn't just revive him. It set him on fire—from the inside out.
Imagine pouring ice water into boiling oil. The explosion, the chaos, the agony. That's what his body went through as the solar radiation was absorbed, converted, and redistributed—flooding every inch of his broken, starved frame.
But this wasn't just a simple boost in strength. The energy tore him apart and rebuilt him at a cellular level. Every nerve, every fiber, every fragile corner of his senses was yanked into overdrive.
A breeze brushed his skin—and it felt like a battering ram. Wind became a weapon, slamming into his hyper-sensitized nerves, reverberating through his organs, his bones. His ribs cracked. His liver spasmed.
Then healed.
Fast.
And when it healed, it came back stronger.
It was a brutal cycle—pain and repair, destruction and renewal. Over and over. A process of violent rebirth.
Even frequencies beyond human hearing—ultrasound, infrasound—began hammering at his ears like jackhammers. Every faint vibration amplified to unbearable levels. His eardrums screamed, then adapted. Nerves rewired. Senses expanded.
Smell, sight, touch, pain. All surged to incomprehensible acuity.
And the brain? It had to keep up.
His neurons fired like wildfire. Synaptic pathways overloaded and restructured. His mind was evolving just to process the torrent of raw sensory data.
The truth is, no body—no matter how strong—could handle such input without adapting. A human frame would crumble. You don't slap an F1 engine into a bamboo go-kart and expect it to drive straight. It would tear itself apart.
But his body didn't tear apart. It changed. Hardened. Adjusted.
Each reinforced cell brought with it new potential—capabilities he didn't yet understand. His frame was becoming more than human. Something faster. Something stronger.
If this transformation had been gradual, maybe it wouldn't have hurt so damn much.
But this was instantaneous. Brutal. Like a system update downloaded with a sledgehammer.
And worst of all?
His brain hadn't caught up.
The hardware was evolving, sure—but the software? Still running on factory settings. His thoughts were still his own. Still human. Still slow.
It was like trying to run a next-gen game on a Windows 95 rig. The power was there, but the interface was busted. Glitched.
The data flooding in had no filters. Signals crossed. Sensory wires misfired. Vision bled into sound. Smell tripped memories. Emotions crashed against instinct.
He couldn't think. Couldn't focus. His brain was just another victim of the chaos.
Fortunately, his body knew what to do—even if he didn't.
Muscle memory. Survival instinct. Reflex.
The corpse wasn't a corpse anymore.
It just hadn't told anyone yet.
---
The switch flipped when the young men finally reached the cemetery.
They dropped him unceremoniously onto the ground, joking about where to dig the hole.
That drop? That final jolt?
To him, it was like setting off a bomb beside his ear.
And that did it.
The "dead man" shot upright with a scream that shattered the quiet.
The boys screamed back—except theirs were the screams of terror. The kind that made grown men piss themselves.
Zombies were the worst-case scenario.
You could shoot a vampire. Run from a werewolf. Bargain with a witch. But a corpse that just got up?
Nobody knew how to kill something that had already died once.
"Get the shovel—"
"Shoot it!"
"Run!"
But before they could even decide on a plan, the resurrected man bolted—so fast he left a gust of wind in his wake.
---
He wasn't running from them.
He was running toward something.
The sun.
His brain was still scrambled. Thoughts incoherent. Instinct in the driver's seat. But the light—warm, golden, alive—called to him.
Like a starving man chasing the scent of bread. Like a drowning man clawing toward the surface.
He didn't run through shadows. He avoided them without even realizing it. His route curved with the light, not because of strategy, but because his body refused anything that would dim his fuel source.
He didn't smash through trees. Didn't crack boulders in his path.
He didn't need to.
He was gone before the air even realized he'd passed through it.
And by the time he reached the edge of the land—the very brink where soil turned to sea—his hospital gown was long gone. Torn to ribbons by air friction.
He didn't stop.
He leapt.
Off the cliff.
Into the ocean.
---
He hit the water like a missile.
No hesitation. No splash.
Just velocity.
The shockwave split the waves like a sonic boom. A rolling wall of whitewater exploded outward, as if a warship had crashed down from orbit.
But the farther he went, the slower he became.
The glow of transformation dimmed.
The borrowed strength faded.
Eventually, the water won.
He drifted.
Floated.
And finally, collapsed on a frozen beach, cold and breathless, half-submerged in icy surf.
Alive.
But only barely.