Chapter 1 The Merge

Through the starry night, a woman dashed down a forest trail. She pushed herself faster and faster, breathing erratically as she struggled to take in enough oxygen. Her brown bangs blew away from her sweat-slick face with each heaving breath, straining against the red sports bra stuck to her chest.

With one last burst of energy, she reached a pine needle-covered road bisecting the trail. She stopped and pressed a button on her running watch. While swaying lightheaded from the exertion, she raised her arms behind her head, taking deep breaths reining in her breathing.

After standing still for several minutes, her breathing calmed. She checked her watch, causing a smile to grace her tan, but sticky, face. With an extra bounce in her step, she strode out onto the road while running through the data screens on her watch.

A bellowing horn sounded as brakes screeched, drawing the attention of the exhausted but cheerful woman. Her head snapped up, hazel eyes widening, staring into the blinding light. Like a deer in the headlights, she froze as the semi barreled toward her.

The brakes squealed as they fought to stall the hulking rig, but far too slow for the frozen woman in its path. Thirty metric tons smashed into the runner’s body just as the semi skidded to a halt, releasing a burst of air from its brakes.

The woman stared up at the star-filled sky, legs crushed under the semi. Blood ran from her lips, joining the growing pool under her body as life fled from her hazel eyes. She took in one last strained breath before her mangled body stilled.

A week later, a teary-eyed, middle-aged Asian man spoke next to a casket suspended over a hole. “My daughter, Elysia, was always one to do her own thing. When she was eight, she was dead set on running track after watching the Olympics. I tried to talk her into waiting until she was older but she refused to listen.”

The speaker paused to gather himself before continuing. “As a single father raising two beautiful daughters, I struggled to make ends meet, but as many of you know, it’s hard to resist your kids. I found a track meet with her age group and signed her up that month, figuring one race would appease her. Who could predict that one race would turn into ten years of passion?”

A proud smile formed as he wiped tears from his eyes. “Her hard work paid off. Just last week she received a scholarship offer to run track for Stanford. As a father, I couldn’t be prouder of my Elysia. My time with her may have been short, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Now my beloved wife gets her turn to enjoy our remarkable daughter.” He set a track medal on the casket before stepping off to the side, giving way to a late teen girl wearing a black dress with a near-identical appearance to the girl within the coffin.

Tears flowed from the girl’s brown eyes as she attempted but failed to put up a strong front in front of the crowd as she spoke. “Even though we are twins, my sister and I rarely got along. We were like opposites. I loved to socialize, while she preferred to spend time by herself. I tried countless times to drag her out of the house for shopping or hanging out with my friends, but she always refused. I wasn’t alone in my attempts. We fought over my grades and her need to force me to study almost daily. Still, despite our differences, I love her with all my heart. I don’t know how I’ll live without my twin sister.” Unable to speak any longer, she unclasped a heart necklace from her neck, setting it next to the medal on the casket, before stepping back to join her father.

After the father and daughter duo said their piece, dozens of other men and women set flowers on the casket. Each person bowed their heads before stepping back to allow the next person to give their respect.

The father nodded his head toward the funeral director, giving him the go ahead to lower the casket. Tears continued to flow from the now family of two as they watched the casket lower into the grave. Once it reached the bottom, an excavator dropped dirt into the grave.

Even after the crowd dispersed, the duo remained with tearful eyes as they stared at the gravestone.

Elysia Arashi February 8, 2003- May 17, 2021

Beloved Daughter and Sister.

The family of two stayed for another half hour in silence before turning to leave as the sun set.

That night, the sky distorted as an earthlike planet appeared, dwarfing earth. This planet phased into earth, merging. Earth and the surrounding space stretched as if to accommodate the larger planet, causing devastation. Earthquakes assaulted the surface as the very core of the planet shook. Tall and fragile structures tumbled, crushing their unfortunate inhabitants as they slept. Despite stretching and earthquakes, most natural features survived, defying physics, instead spreading further apart, leaving gaps of nothingness.

After a few minutes, the earthquake subsided, making way for a wave of warmth flowing through the survivors. At once, everyone still conscious turned to stare up at the new addition to the night sky. A glowing blue moon near the same size as the other moon. Dings resonated through their minds before many disappeared to places unknown.

As the warmth sunk into the planet, the already earthquake and tsunami wrecked planet’s landscape changed. Nature took over, resetting the world as trees shot through foundations and roads while artificially diverted bodies of water returned to their ancient shorelines. The gaps caused by the stretching filled in with dense wilderness, fusing seamlessly with the surrounding land as if it was always there.

In just a few hours, much of the world’s civilizations looked as if decades, if not centuries, passed covered under vegetation. Even previously barren deserts turned into the lush grasslands of times long passed.

Back at the cemetery, trees sprouted, spearing through coffins and gravestones, taking half decomposed bodies and skeletons to the surface. The warmth radiated through the bodies, causing them to twitch as they reanimated. These bodies plummeted to the forest floor, snapping bones upon impact. Undeterred, the undead shambled through the former cemetery, joined by other undead digging themselves out of surviving graves.

Separate from nature reclaiming the cemetery, dense clouds gathered as purple lightning writhed. The clouds darkened, fueling violent cracks of thunder. When the clouds turned black, barely visible in the night sky, the loudest thundering boom yet shook the sky, pouring an ocean’s worth of rain onto the newly regrown forest.

Deep purple lightning hovered in the clouds, expanding to the size of a semi before it struck. With an ear-popping explosion, the lightning punctured through the muddy, freshly packed soil, heading directly for the recently buried coffin.

Like the soil, the lightning burned through the wood coffin before striking the body within. The coffin shattered as the body jerked, causing its mangled limbs to flop under the floor-length gold-embroidered white dress.

The embalmed veins glowed purple through the body’s colorless skin as electricity coursed. Just as the lightning dissipated, another lightning strike descended, lighting up the dark cemetery as it struck the girl at the bottom of the crater that once was her grave.

Her muddy brown hair turned white under the assault as her shattered bones snapped into place with grotesque pops. More lightning struck down, springing the body a meter into the air, landing with a splat in the muddy crater.

Upon landing, her eyes sprang open, gasping for breath. Her now glowing amethyst eyes stared at the dissipating clouds above with an unfocused gaze. She remained motionless as the last of the clouds vanished, revealing a starry night sky through the dense forest canopy with twin moons shining, one blue the other white.

After laying for several minutes her eyes snapped into focus, eliciting a bloodcurdling scream. She desperately clawed at the slick mud walls of the crater, trying to escape as her mind shattered, unable to cope.

A second later, her body stilled as a ding resonated, returning coherent thought to her traumatized mind.

System initialized.