The air at the edge of the time rend felt wrong.
It wasn't cold or hot—just misaligned, as if the wind couldn't decide which direction it belonged to. Shattered light bent at strange angles above the cracked highway, and fragments of a world long dead bled through reality like ghosts pressing against glass.
This was Epsilon-1.
A low-grade time rend on the outskirts of New Eden, catalogued, mapped, and labeled manageable. Manageable did not mean safe. It meant survivable—if you knew what you were doing.
Maya Clark stood at the very edge of it.
She hadn't moved since they arrived.
The faint glow of the Hub's perimeter lights faded behind them, replaced by the pulsing distortion of the rend ahead. Broken vehicles lay half-sunken into the ground, their metal frames warped as if time itself had tried to chew through them and failed. In the distance, something moved—slow, dragging shapes barely visible through the haze.
Zombies.
Alex shifted uneasily beside her, adjusting the strap of his battered rifle for the third time in as many minutes. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and visibly tense, the kind of man who liked plans and hated uncertainty.
"Maya," he said carefully, keeping his voice low. "We don't have to do this now."
She didn't answer.
Connor stood on her other side, quieter, thinner, his eyes fixed on the flickering edge of the rend. He flexed his fingers repeatedly, a nervous habit. Unlike Alex, he didn't speak often—but when he did, it usually mattered.
"This isn't a training sim," Connor added. "Your family has facilities. Real instructors. Domestic drills, combat tutors, strategy labs. You could come back in a month and still clear this."
Maya finally turned.
Her eyes were sharp, unsettlingly calm for someone who had awakened less than a week ago. The bronze insignia clipped to her collar caught the light as she moved—a symbol she hadn't earned the hard way yet, but one the Hub had granted her without hesitation.
Bronze rank.
Not because of her level.
But because of her name.
"I know," she said simply.
Alex frowned. "Then why are we here?"
Maya looked back toward the rend.
Because she'd already seen it.
THE AWAKENING
Maya Clark had awakened at Level 5.
It had happened the night after her sixteenth birthday, in the heart of her family's shelter, surrounded by reinforced walls and armed guards. No chaos. No blood. No horde tearing reality apart.
Just silence.
And then—
Fragments.
Moments not her own slammed into her consciousness. Streets collapsing. Faces she didn't recognize screaming her name. A blade breaking. A hand reaching out—and missing.
The system had announced itself coldly, clinically.
A unique talent.
A breach in causality.
She could glimpse the past and future—not clearly, not fully, but in flashes. Broken images layered over reality, impossible to ignore once they began.
Along with it came her skill.
Tactical Awareness – Level 5.
It didn't give her strength or speed.
It gave her clarity.
Positions.
Lines of attack.
Threat vectors.
Probable outcomes.
It whispered possibilities into her mind, constantly adjusting as the world changed.
It was… exhausting.
And invaluable.
EPSILON-1
"Look," Alex said, stepping closer, his voice dropping. "You're not weak. None of us are. We're all Level 1 now—sub-level six. We've cleared clusters. We've trained."
He hesitated.
"But this is a rend."
Maya nodded.
"Yes."
"And if something goes wrong—"
"—it will," she interrupted calmly.
Connor blinked. "What?"
She exhaled slowly.
"There's a moment," she said, eyes unfocused. "Three minutes in. Something rushes from the left. Not a zombie. A structure collapse triggered by movement."
Alex stared at her. "You're seeing things again."
"I'm remembering things that haven't happened yet."
Silence fell between them.
The wind howled through the fractured space ahead, carrying with it the low, wet sounds of the dead.
Maya tightened the grip on her spear.
"I don't die here," she said.
Alex's jaw clenched. "That's not comforting."
"I know."
She turned to face them fully now.
"I didn't come because the Hub gave me Bronze. I didn't come because my father wanted results. I came because if I don't start now, these visions get worse."
Connor swallowed. "And us?"
Her gaze softened.
"You're still here in the futures I see," she said. "That means something."
Alex cursed under his breath, then gave a humorless laugh. "You're impossible."
"I've always been," she replied.
THE EDGE
They stood together at the boundary, three figures framed against a broken world.
Maya stepped forward first.
The air distorted as her boot crossed the threshold, the pressure shifting instantly. Tactical Awareness flared in her mind—angles, distances, timing overlays snapping into place.
Behind her, Alex chambered a round.
Connor adjusted his grip on his blade.
Whatever lay beyond the rend was waiting.
And Maya Clark—Bronze Awakener, daughter of a shelter leader, seer of broken futures—walked toward it without hesitation.
Maya Clark
Level: 1 (sub-level 5)
XP : (40/320)
Unique Talent: Temporal Glimpse
Skill: Tactical Awareness (Level 5)
Rank: Bronze
Alex
Level: 1 (sub-level 6)
XP: (200/640)
Skill: Shock Wave (Level 1)
Connor
Level: 1 (sub-level 6)
XP: (50/640)
Skill: Interface Breach (Level 1)
.......
The moment Maya crossed fully into the time rend, the world shifted. The sky fractured into overlapping shades of gray, buildings from a dead era bleeding into the present like unfinished sketches. Rusted cars lay half-fused with the road, their frames twisted by decades that did not belong together.
Her Tactical Awareness activated instantly.
Lines formed in her mind—distances, angles, threat vectors. Weak points in structures. Paths that minimized exposure. Zombie movement patterns flickered like ghostly overlays.
"Two ahead," she said calmly. "Slow. Weak."
Alex nodded, rolling his shoulders. Connor moved without a word, fingers hovering near a portable terminal strapped to his wrist.
The first zombies emerged from between collapsed storefronts—rotting figures dragged forward by muscle memory rather than intent. Their movements were sluggish, predictable.
Alex struck first.
He slammed his foot into the fractured asphalt.
Shock Wave.
The ground rippled outward, a blunt concussive force tearing through the air. The two zombies were thrown back violently, skulls cracking against concrete. Maya moved immediately, spear flashing as she pierced one through the neck, then another through the skull.
It was efficient.
Controlled.
They advanced deeper.
CLEARING EPSILON-1
The time rend resisted them.
Zombies emerged in clusters—never too many, but never alone. Every street felt like a funnel. Every open space hid blind angles. Tactical Awareness whispered constantly, forcing Maya to adjust their formation every few steps.
"Left alley in ten seconds," she warned.
Alex repositioned. Connor disabled a dormant automated turret embedded in a half-collapsed checkpoint—old-world tech still twitching with residual power.
They adapted.
By the time they reached the core zone of Epsilon-1, the air was thick with decay and ozone. The final cluster surged from beneath a fallen overpass—six weak zombies, faster than the rest.
Alex's Shock Wave bought them space.
Maya finished the rest.
Silence followed.
The rend began to destabilize, light flickering as the past lost its grip on the present.
"That's it," Connor breathed. "We did it".
"We killed quite a lot of zombie let's check our progress before progressing",Maya suggested
Maya
Level 0 (sub-level 5)
XP: (130/320)
Alex
Level 0 (sub-level 6)
XP: (240/640)
Connor
Level 0 (sub-level 6)
XP: (60/240)
Even though they were resting they were on high alert.
Alex exhaled through his nose, eyes darting to the far south. "Got movement. Something's coming."
Connor squinted. "Humans."
They crept closer, keeping to the warped shadows. Down the cracked avenue, a squad of soldiers moved in perfect formation, scanning the ruins with mechanical precision. Their armor was black, insignias faint but sharp under the dim light. Every movement synchronized. Every glance calculated.
"They're… Akentens," Connor muttered, voice barely audible. "But… this isn't rogue. Look at them."
Maya's Tactical Awareness kicked in. Lines of probability, likely movement patterns, weak points in the environment—all appeared in her mind. But even that didn't feel enough. These soldiers moved like a single organism.
Alex hissed, "Too clean. Too… professional. They're hunting, not raiding."
Before they could react further, a snapping tile underfoot betrayed them. Instantly, the Akentens' heads turned, weapons raised. Gunfire erupted, echoing through the fractured streets.
Bullets slammed into concrete. Dust exploded from the walls. One round tore through Alex's jacket.
"Cover!" Maya shouted. She drove forward, spear striking down the first approaching zombie as Alex slammed his foot against the cracked asphalt. Shock Wave rippled outward, throwing the nearest attackers backward. Connor dove for the terminal of a collapsed kiosk, activating a small electrical trap that arced across the street and stunned two more enemies.
The Akentens were relentless. They pressed the attack, adapting instantly to every obstacle. Maya could see it in her visions—their formations adjusting before she could even predict the angle of assault.
There was only one choice. Escape.
She gritted her teeth and let her unique talent flare, overdriving it. Pain exploded behind her eyes, the world splitting into overlapping fragments. Past and future bled together, screaming possibilities in flashes too fast to comprehend. Her body trembled.
And then she saw it: a massive slab of concrete, fractured yet stable. Beneath it, a hatch, hidden for decades. A vision of soldiers long gone: fingers pressing a sequence into a panel. A secret passage.
"There!" Maya gasped, pointing. "North side—under the rubble! It's our way out!"
Alex didn't hesitate. "Move!"
They sprinted, bullets tearing through debris above them. Alex triggered another Shock Wave, sending falling concrete outward to slow their pursuers. Connor punched the code into the panel, and the hatch groaned open just in time.