PART 1: CHAPTER 1

Survival. Will you fight for survival? Or let death devour you?

The bruise-purple sky bled a sickly light onto the skeletal remains of New Detroit. Rubble choked the once-mighty avenues, monuments to a civilization long gone. I navigated the wreckage with practiced ease. As I scan the surrounding for anything valuable, I pulled back my dusty brown hair in messy braid. I felt my little brother Kai held my hand with his small frail hand, while he's tightly holding his ragged teddy bear tighter with every rustle of the wind.

Life in the ruins was a constant scavenger hunt. Food, clean water, even scraps of fabric for warmth – everything was a precious commodity. Hunger gnawed my stomach, a constant companion. But Kai is my priority right now, worry is etched on Kai's face that made me sharpened my focus. He's scrawny, his clothes hanging loose on his small frame made my heart ache. He deserves better.

"There!" I nudged a rusted a rusted metal sign, sending a cloud of dust into the air. Beneath it lay a forgotten stash – a dented can of what might have been a fruit cocktail, a half-empty bottle of water, and a single, wilted carrot. I let out a sigh. "It wasn't much, but-". I was cut off when I saw how Kai's eyes lit up, a rare smile flickering on his pale face that made me emotional. 

We huddled together; I give him the food we found as I keep guard of the surrounding. "How about you Elara?" I look at him and gave him a smile. "I'm not hungry, now help yourself." I lied as I pat his head, but I was taken aback when he gave me half of the carrot. I held my tears back as I took the carrot from his small hands and made it like an airplane going in his mouth. "Here comes the airplane~". He giggled as he took it from my hands and looked at me hoping I'll accept it. I ate it as I raise an eyebrow to him that he just laughed about. 

I let him peacefully eat his meal as I look up at the purple sky, a constant reminder of the airborne virus that had ravaged the world. Silence was broken only by the rasp of Kai's chewing and the blowing of the wind. 

I yawned as I was about to close my eyes when suddenly, a guttural screech echoed across the desolate landscape. My blood ran cold as I held Kai's hand that is trembling. Reavers. Twisted parodies of humans, driven by insatiable hunger, they were the apex predators in this new world. Fear, sharp and primal, clawed at my throat. They're here.

"Elara," Kai whimpered, clutching my arm. My heart hammered a frantic rhythm against my ribs. I tried to calm myself, there's no time for fear. Trembling, I held Kai's shoulder as I shoved the meals into his arms. "Go," I whispered, my voice is hoarse with a surge of adrenaline. "Hide behind the collapsed building, no matter what."

I felt Kai hesitated, tears welling in his eyes. I touched his cheeks as I look at him, telling him to do what I told him. He scurried away, clutching the meager offerings of our lunch and leaving me alone to face the approaching nightmare. 

The Reaver burst into view, a hulking monstrosity with razor-sharp claws and eyes that glowed with predatory hunger. I covered my ears when it roared, a sound that promised pain, and lunged. Fear, a surge of something terrifying that made me freeze to where I am standing, I did something unthinkable. My body move on its own as an act of defense, my hands reached out, and fire erupted from my fingertips, a searing blaze that met the Reaver's charge head-on. The creature shrieked as flame devoured it. 

"W-what just..." I cut my own words as I fell on my knees looking at my trembling hands, "...happened," terrified and surprised of the sudden events, I don't know what to feel first. 

Suspended between terror and a newfound power, I knew my world had changed forever.