(adventure flash story)

The sky was bleeding orange as Kira vaulted over the edge of the rooftop, landing hard on the gravel-strewn surface below. Her comm crackled. “Three minutes before the blackout zone expands. Do you have the drive?”

She didn’t answer.

She was too busy sprinting across the rooftop, dodging rusted antennae and broken glass. In her jacket pocket, the heat of the quantum drive pulsed like a heartbeat — the last copy of humanity’s evacuation coordinates, now reduced to a whisper on a corrupted satellite.

Below her, the city screamed. Towers collapsed in the distance, consumed by a crawling digital mist that erased matter pixel by pixel. The Collapse wasn’t a war. It was something older, smarter — like the world waking up and choosing to forget us.

Kira leapt again.

This time, her fingers barely caught the ledge. She dangled for a second before hauling herself up, legs burning. Ahead, the beacon tower loomed — tall, skeletal, flickering.

One minute.

She slammed her palm against the biometric pad. Nothing. A red flash.

“No… no, come on!”

She looked down. The mist was eating the street below. Cars disintegrated. Light bent sideways.

In desperation, she pulled the drive from her pocket. It began to vibrate, glow — reacting. She touched it to the panel.

A green light blinked. The door hissed open.

Kira didn’t waste time. She ran up narrow stairs, past old radio equipment still whispering static prayers.

At the top, she slammed the drive into the transmitter.

“Beacon online. Transmitting…”

Outside, the mist reached the base of the tower. The structure groaned.

“Just a few more seconds,” she whispered.

Then a noise behind her — the door creaked.

Not human.

Something had followed her in.

Kira turned.

And smiled.

She had one last bullet left.