Abhimanyu's Sunday morning smelled like grease and cardboard. Not because he'd cooked—God forbid—but because the three-day-old pizza boxes stacked on his desk were now a part of his room's ecosystem. A fossil record of late nights and poor decisions.
The glow of his monitor painted his brown skin in soft blue light. His medium-length black hair stuck out like he'd lost a fight with gravity. His clean-shaven face was sharp but forgettable—average in every way except for the intensity in his eyes, glued to the game.
His fingers danced across the keyboard with a precision most people reserved for surgery. His character ducked, rolled, and fired a perfect shot. The victory banner lit up the screen.
"Another win," Abhi muttered, smirking to no one. "These people really don't learn, do they?"
On his second screen, a chat window blinked. The name read simply: K.
"Get out of the house, Abhi. Don't make me come drag you out. You've clearly forgotten the get-together."
Abhi froze mid-smirk.
"…Get-together?"
The door creaked open before he could type a reply.
"Unbelievable." Kriti leaned against the frame, arms crossed, lips pressed into a line. Her shoulder-length black hair framed a face that could soften when she smiled, but right now carried the look of someone babysitting an overgrown child. Her lighter skin tone caught the faint light from his monitor, making her stand out against the chaos of his room.
"You forgot, didn't you?" she said.
Abhi leaned back, grinning like it was a defense. "Forgot, or was not bothered."
Her eyes narrowed. "Come on. Everyone's waiting. You need to touch some grass."
"Touching grass? That's it? That's your big cure for my lifestyle?"
"Yes." She stepped forward, plucked his phone from the desk, and tossed it at him. "Garden. Now."
Abhi groaned dramatically, but he followed. Not because he wanted to—but because there were only two people in the world he couldn't say no to, and Kriti was one of them.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Germany…
The Rexon Research Facility stretched across the Rhine valley like a futuristic fortress. Glass towers. Steel arches. A massive dome housing the project the world had been waiting for.
The auditorium inside throbbed with anticipation. Scientists filled rows of seats, politicians whispered behind folded hands, and journalists jostled for the best angle.
At the center of the room stood the machine. A cathedral of metal and light. Concentric rings hummed as power surged through them. Energy crackled across glowing coils, pulsing in rhythm like a living thing.
Dr. Elias Gremory stood beside it, glasses slipping down his nose, hair already greying at the edges despite his thirty years of lifespan. A tablet tucked under his arm like an extra rib. His voice, when he spoke, was calm, flat, and almost bored.
"This is the culmination of decades of research. A new era of clean, limitless energy. Today, the world changes."
The audience erupted in applause. Cameras flashed.
One journalist whispered under her breath, "This is either the cure for everything… or the start of every sci-fi horror movie ever written. Sounds fun"
The machine pulsed again. Louder this time.
Back in India…
The garden was a serene landscape of peace. Children shrieked as they swung from iron chains. Couples strolled lazily under trees heavy with summer leaves. A group of old men played cards at a worn wooden table, their laughter mixing with the hum of life.
Kriti and Abhi sat with their friends on the grass, snacks spread across plastic sheets. Rahul, Kriti's boyfriend, sat close to her, animated as always. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and so energetic that he seemed to vibrate while telling a story.
"…and then the guy just froze," Rahul said, waving his arms for emphasis. "Like he'd never seen someone stand up to him before. I swear, his jaw was on the floor bro."
Kriti giggled, leaning against him. Abhi sat cross-legged, chewing on a samosa, unimpressed.
"Maybe he froze," Abhi said, "because you blinded him with all that hand-flapping. Ever consider that?"
A few friends snorted. Rahul shot him a look. Kriti's elbow jabbed Abhi in the ribs, silent warning. He just smirked and shrugged.
"What" Abhi responded to Kriti's jab
Kriti gave him a stern look
It was the rhythm of their group—Rahul the showman, Kriti the peacemaker, Abhi the dry commentator orbiting just outside of it all.
Then every phone in the park buzzed at once. Notifications lit up screens.
"Breaking news: REXON Labs on its way to change the world."
Rahul swiped open his phone, the group huddling closer. Onscreen: Dr. Gremory, standing beside the machine, his expression unreadable as any scientist would have. The countdown began.
Three.
Two.
One.
The machine erupted. A column of light speared the sky, then fractured into thousands of radiant threads, lashing outward until they jolted down towards everyone around the earth like a glowing net.
For half a second, the world shone unnaturally bright.
…
Rahul turned to make another joke—
—and vanished. The light engulfed him. Just a flash and he was gone.
Not crumbled. Not burned. Just gone. Like someone had hit "delete" on his existence.
The others followed in a ripple. Friends mid-laughter. Children mid-swing. Couples mid-step. One moment alive, the next erased by the light beams.
Phones thudded into grass. Snacks scattered without hands to hold them. A child's ball rolled slowly to a stop.
The world went silent for a moment and then crashes, explosions and loud noises.
Abhi's chest seized. He whipped toward Kriti.
"K?"
She was still there. Her wide eyes locked on the space where Rahul had been seconds ago. Her breath came in shallow gasps.
Everywhere else: emptiness. They were alone.
Kriti stumbled back, clutching her chest. "He—he was right here—Abhi, he was right here—"
"K. Look at me." Abhi grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to focus. His voice was sharper than usual, an edge cutting through the panic. "You're here. I'm here. That's what matters."
Tears welled in her eyes. "What do you mean that's what matters? Everyone's gone!"
"I know." His own voice cracked, but he steadied it. "We'll figure it out. Not here. Come on. We have to move."
Hours later, in Kriti's living room, the silence was deafening. The city outside was chaos—distant crashes, screams, sirens that never seemed to stop.
Then the television flickered on by itself. Every screen in the room did.
Dr. Gremory's face appeared, pale and drawn. His glasses slipped lower, his hair more disheveled than before. His voice was low, grim.
"This is Dr. Elias Gremory of Rexon Labs. The experiment… I'm afraid, has failed." His lips pressed thin. "What you've witnessed is a catastrophic malfunction. We don't yet know why. But there may still be a solution."
He tapped his tablet. Behind him, the glowing rings of the machine sparked, unstable.
"To any survivors hearing this: come to Germany. To the Rexon facility. There may be a way to undo this. Just survive and make it till here. Find Survivors, come together. You are not alone. Repeat: you are not alone. We are all in this together…"
The screens went black. The silence that followed was heavier than the message itself.
Kriti buried her face in her hands. "He expects people to just… walk across continents? Abhi, we should stay. The army, the government—someone will fix this. They have to."
Abhi paced the room, restless energy crackling through him. "K, listen. The government, the army, everything is gone. That beam wiped out everybody, or at least most of them. If anyone has answers, it's him. Sitting here isn't going to give us answers. We have to move."
Her voice cracked, raw. "Rahul's gone. My parents. My friends. Everyone. And you want me to follow some stranger's voice across the world?"
He stopped and looked at her. No smirk this time. Just steel.
"Yes. Because doing nothing will not bring them back, and whatever little hope we have of changing things lies there, not here. You heard the guy…"
"How are you so sure?" Kriti questioned with disbelief
"I'm not, okay. I don't know, all I know is that nobody died, so there might be some chance to undo all of this, and I want to take that chance because that might be the only option we have."
Kriti shook her head, tears spilling freely. " What if there's no fixing this?"
"Then at least we'll die knowing we tried." Abhi's jaw tightened. "We can't stay here, K."
She broke. A sob escaped her, and she curled against him. He wrapped an awkward arm around her, eyes staring into the flickering darkness of the TV screen.
"How do we go?"
Abhi gently pulled back and looked into her eyes "Do you trust me?"
Kriti let out a breath "Why is that a question?"
"Do you or do you not?" Abhi looked dead into her eyes.
"I do" Kriti matched him.
"Then let me be the brains and you be the passenger princess just like old times, cool?"
Kriti nodded softly "Cool"
And now their choice was made. Germany wasn't just a direction. It was the only option.
And it was the only path to take in a world left behind.