CHAPTER 53: THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT

November 1, 2120

Sera knew it was going to be a bad day the moment Noah walked in.

He didn’t say anything—he never did unless necessary—but she could feel him from across the gym like static against her skin. That odd, oil-slick presence that made the creature in her chest hiss. He was shirtless, wearing black pants, a towel slung over his shoulder and a water bottle clutched in his left hand like it was a weapon. His face was unreadable.

She glanced at Lachlan across the front desk, catching his eye.

For a heartbeat, his entire expression darkened. Jaw tight, brows low. Then he blinked and grinned, tossing his keys in the air like everything was fine.

"Noah! What a surprise! Why are you here?" Lachlan asked as Noah waved at the him from the doors. It was really too cold outside for the man to be walking around topless, even if he took his shirt off inside his car.

Sera cocked her head to the side, studying the man. She hated that she couldn’t pinpoint the source of her unease. Was it because he was like her, and the cold didn’t affect him like it would others? Or did she just not like him and was just looking at him with suspicion.

Either way, neither the woman nor the creature could really stand the idea of him in her territory.

"I know you didn’t want me around your precious Princess," chuckled Noah, leaning against the front desk. He gave her a wink, like his charming, boyish personality would be enough to change the way she felt about him. "But I really needed a work out. Did you want to join me on the treadmill for a warmup before going at it in the ring?"

Lachlan smile at him, shaking his head. "You do what you want," he assured the other man. "But unfortunately, I have a crap ton of paperwork that I need to do."

Noah nodded his head, walking away with a whistle toward the cardio equipment.

"Are you going to be okay?" Lachlan asked, his eyes narrowing in concern.

Sera bit her tongue and simply shook my head. "Of course," she said after a while. "But if a dumbbell falls on him, I’m not rescuing him."

Lachlan chuckled softly. "I wouldn’t expect you to."

We didn’t say a word about the fact that Noah was in the gym after that.

Sera let out a long sigh as grabbed a cloth and spray, going over to the weight machines.

She cleaned the weights while he refilled the spray bottles, and Noah stretched in the back corner near the free weights like nothing was wrong. The music was loud and brainless, something poppy with no real rhythm, and it bounced off the mirrors like it had nowhere else to go. Dumbbells clinked. Conversations buzzed. Everything was fine.

Until it wasn’t.

At 5:01 p.m., the lights flickered. Once.

And then the entire gym went black.

No humming machines. No overhead bulbs. No exit signs glowing red.

Just silence.

And then—

Light. Again.

Barely a second had passed.

But the floor was littered.

Bodies were everywhere. And they weren’t moving.

Half the members were crumpled where they stood, their heads lolled back or forward, limbs splayed. Someone’s phone hit the ground with a crack. The music didn’t come back on. The ceiling fans were still.

Lachlan was already moving, crouched beside a teenager by the yoga mats. His fingers were pressed against the boy’s throat, his face calm but unreadable.

Noah had drawn a knife.

Of course he had. The bigger question was where had he been hiding it all this time?

Sera didn’t move. Not at first. She stood behind the front desk, staring down at the scene as something cold slithered down her spine.

And then one of the bodies in the corner twitched.

She saw it first.

"Back away," she snapped at Lachlan, leaping over the counter without thinking. Her boots hit the rubber floor just as the man’s back arched—so hard it cracked. His eyes rolled back, and his fingers clawed at the air.

Muscles spasmed violently beneath his shirt.

Then his skin turned the color of rotten sky.

Pale blue. Veiny. As if something inside him had frozen and boiled at the same time.

She saw it all happen, processing everything in the blink of an eye.

His head inflated—grotesquely large, bulbous. His eyes shrank to pinpricks. His mouth yawned open as if his jaw had broken completely, revealing a second row of teeth... then a third... like some shark’s nightmare made flesh.

And then he moved.

Too fast.

One blink and he was already on top of another gym member—a man who had just been standing in the corner, a look of confusion on his face.

The transformed one ripped through the man’s neck with a wet crunch, and she could hear the air whistle through the shredded throat before the body went limp.

Blood sprayed everywhere.

Hot and bright red as the transformed man continued to gorge on the other.

And the creature inside of her vibrated.

Not in fear.

But recognition.

Her nose twitched at the stench of blood and panic. The walls were shaking with it—fear, thick and metallic, rolling off the survivors in waves.

Another twitch.

Then another.

The rest were waking up.

Seizing.

Changing.

"We need to leave," she said sharply, already pivoting and grabbing Lachlan by the wrist. "Now."

He opened his mouth to argue, but something on her face must have convinced him that that was a bad idea.

But as she tugged him toward the staff hallway that led to the back exit, one of the others changed men leapt toward us.

His hair was hanging in clumps falling all over the place with every step that he, his eyes too wide, his lips curled back to reveal those same jagged teeth.

His whole body moved like water, too loose, too liquid as he swayed back and forth.

He lunged for Lachlan, his mouth wide open.