I don't know how I got here. I don't even remember falling asleep. One second, everything was normal or what passes for normal these days and the next, I was just.....here. Awake. Alert. Like someone flipped a switch in the back of my skull.
It wasn't a dream. Dreams have that floaty, disconnected haze. This was sharp. Too sharp. I could feel the cold biting through my clothes. I could hear the low hum of something mechanical vibrating through the floor. I could smell metal, gun oil, stale air, and something else… something I still can't name.
The bed beneath me was a slab. Hard, cold, and welded into the floor. I sat up and instinctively reached for the blanket that wasn't there. That's when the unease kicked in real unease. That old sixth sense, the one that warns you right before something terrible happens. You know that moment right before a storm hits? That static in the air, that weird taste at the back of your throat? That. But turned all the way up.
I stood slowly. Every muscle felt.....new...Stretched, rebuilt. My legs had weight to them I didn't recognize. The boots on my feet weren't mine. The clothes? Standard issue combat gear. Clean, pressed, and unfamiliar.
I opened the door. Or maybe it opened for meI can't remember. The hallway outside was dim and flickering with emergency lights. Panels buzzed overhead, and the red glow pulsed like a heartbeat. I started walking. Not sure where. Just…forward.
The deeper I went, the louder the world got. Not shouting exactly, but movement. People rushing. Metal clanking. Weapons being locked and loaded. Someone was giving orders over the intercom, but the voice was warped and cut in and out like it didn't want to be understood.
Then I saw it. Through the observation deck at the end of the corridor.
The Wall.
It's not something you understand until you see it with your own eyes. Pictures, stories—they don't do it justice. It's not just tall. It devours the sky. The fog around it swirls like it's alive, and there's this... hum. Deep and endless. It's not just a barrier. It's something more. Ancient, almost. Like it's been here longer than we've existed, even though I know we built it. Didn't we?
And the guns. The Mounted Gods. Bigger than skyscrapers. Black and rusted from constant use, but still moving. Still aiming. Still firing into whatever hell lives beyond that wall. Each shot sounded like thunder given metal bones. And smaller guns mounted, mobile, tracking something invisible lit up the mist in brief flashes.
I stood there frozen. And that's when someone ran into me. Hard.
"Move your ass, rookie!"
He shoved a rifle into my chest and didn't wait for a reply. Just vanished into the crowd of soldiers storming past. I looked down at the weapon in my hands. My fingers moved like they knew what to do. Like they'd done it a thousand times. But I didn't remember.
I didn't remember any of it.
The sirens were louder now. The intercom screamed:
"Sector Twelve breach probable. All units to containment stations. Repeat: all units"
I took a step back, gripping the rifle tighter. Then I caught my reflection in a fractured steel panel. And I swear to whatever's left of God I didn't recognize myself.
That was me. But…not....I looked stronger. Harder. Scarred. My eyes were sunken like I hadn't slept in days, maybe weeks. My jaw was clenched tight, like I was holding back a scream. It was like I'd been living through something I couldn't remember, and it left pieces behind.
Then a voice behind me. Calm, like nothing was wrong.
"Goddamnit, Richard. Get up. Stop being so cowardly."
I froze. Turned around. And there he was. Him. My old friend. The one I'd trusted with my life. The one who would later sell us out. The one who would almost bring the whole sector crashing down because of some deal he thought he could control.
But right then, he was just standing there. Smirking like nothing had happened. Like it was still before. Before everything.
I didn't know it yet, but that moment that exact second was the start of everything unraveling.