Chapter 5 The World Breaks Early

Karl leaned forward, his frame drooping before the wreckage of the destroyed drone. Smoke curled from its mangled core and sparks fizzled weakly out of its exposed wiring as the arena stared on in stunned silence.

He lifted his head up, his bloodied grin wide as he met their eyes. Blood dripped steadily from his wounds, pooling beneath him in dark circles, but he didn’t care.

He savored the moment.

Until, the alarms went off.

This wasn’t the training alert or the controlled, rhythmic warning that signalled the start of the simulations. It was loud and harsh, tearing through the entire academy as red emergency lights flashed rapidly overhead.

Panic riled through the students as everyone covered their ears and stared around in confusion. But Karl just stood there, the smirk on his face fading as his stomach dropped.

“No…” he whispered.

Then came the principal’s distorted voice crackling through the speakers mounted above the hall.

“EMERGENCY PROTOCOL ACTIVATED. ALL STUDENTS PROCEED TO EVACUATION ZONES IMMEDIATELY.”

The calm tone contrasted the chaos already spreading as students began running and screaming.

“What’s happening?!”

“Is this part of the test?!”

“It’s not, look!”

Karl gaze followed where the student gestured until his eyes landed on a second drone.

The machine stood amongst the inactive units piled along the edges of the arena. At first, everything looked normal. But then it jerked, its body twitching as sparks burst from its joints.

For a brief second, nothing happened.

Then its sensors flickered on, turned blue…

And glitched red.

Karl took a back step, his breath catching. “…No way,”

It took a step forward, its motion autonomous. It didn’t look like a machine following commands, or running a controlled simulation. It twisted and groaned like a predator surveying its prey.

Then in a quick blur, it shot forward.

An unsuspecting student standing at the stands was its first victim, receiving a burst of gunfire that ripped through the air and out his body. He jerked violently before collapsing onto his own blood.

Dead.

The sight snapped everyone to reality.

“RUN!!”

Screams rang from every corner of the arena as everyone shoved past each other, scrambling toward the nearest exits. Whatever order remained vanished, panic taking its place as more drones began to twitch.

Some stayed blue, rushing to help the students. But the others that glitched red did not hesitate. They sprayed bullets everywhere, dropping bodies in every direction.

Karl stood frozen at the center of it all, his mind racing, heart pounding.

This… this was the apocalypse. This was exactly how it began, the machines turning against their programming and wiping out humans without mercy.

He knew this would come. But it wasn’t supposed to happen now. He was supposed to have five more years to prepare for the world that was to burn. But instead…

“It’s happening…” he muttered, his voice hollow as his eyes darted across the chaos. “It’s…”

His words caught in his throat as his gaze landed on them.

Jace and Selene

They pushed through the crowd, forcing their way toward the exit along with everyone else. Jace’s grip tightened around her wrist as he pulled her along. The arrogance that he carried had dissolved into fear, his chest heaving as he forced a path through the sea of people.

Then Selene’s eyes turned and found Karl’s across the chaos.

“Karl!” She struggled toward him, hands stretched outward. “Karl, come on…”

Jace yanked her back hard, pulling her into the crowd. “Leave him!” His eyes didn’t even find Karl. “He can fend for himself!”

“But…”

“I said leave him!”

He kept pulling her towards the exit as she stumbled. She glanced over her shoulder one last time before slipping out the door, disappearing into the flood of fleeing students.

They were gone.

For a long moment, Karl didn’t move. He just stood there, watching the people he once trusted run, leaving him behind again. He didn’t expect any less from them. But witnessing it happen again left something hollow settling in his chest.

Teeth gritted, he pushed it down until it twisted into something colder.

Something closer to reality.

“…Right,” He tore his gaze away from the exit.

Slowly, he shifted back to the chaos, the machines and the red glow burning in their eyes. And as he stared at it, something clicked inside of him.

The look the drone had given him earlier was no different from the stare his Butlerbot had given him that morning. It wasn’t passive or blank the way it used to be. It seemed… aware. Like it had recognized something about him was different.

Karl’s eyes widened.

“They know…” he breathed.

The entire timeline hadn’t just changed. Somehow, it had reacted to him, to the system he now possessed. The machines were aware of what he was.

And if all of that was true, then the apocalypse wasn’t just starting early. It was coming specifically for him.

A chill ran down his spine.

“I don’t have time,” His head snapped up.

He needed to get out of here now.

“System,” He pressed a finger against his ear, just like the protagonists in the comics always did. “System, open interface.”

He waited, scanning the space around him. No screen appeared. No voice responded.

His jaw tightened. “System.”

Still nothing.

Another burst of gunfire echoed from across the arena. He watched a drone cut down a fleeing student near the exit and his expression darkened.

“Don’t play with me right now,” His voice dropped low. “System, fucking respond!”

All he got was the loud thud of his pulse and the clinking of bullet casings against the floor.

“Shit!”

Clutching his bleeding side, Karl staggered forward toward the back door. Pain flared through his body and his ribs screamed with every step, but he forced himself forward.

He couldn't stay here, not when his mother and Mara were back home.

His heart clenched. He needed to protect them.

A few drones with visors still blue hovered near the other exits, guiding the remaining students out.

“Proceed to evacuation zones.”

“Remain calm.”

“Follow designated…”

One of them stopped mid-sentence. Its voice distorted, its head twitched, sparks flew from its joints.

Karl didn’t wait to see what happened next, but he heard it anyway. Another wave of gunfire, the sound of bodies dropping to the floor. Students screaming.

He pushed forward, Inching closer to the exit. Then a scream tore through the air behind him, high-pitched and desperate, coming from just a few feet away from him.

Karl’s steps slowed. His eyes shifted toward the sound.

Not too far away, a young girl had fallen, scrambling backwards across the floor as a drone marched toward her. Its blade extended by its side, the steel gleaming under the red light of it’s visor.

“No,” she cried, tears running down her cheeks. “Please… stop. I don’t want to die.”

Karl stopped. Stared.

Then, he turned back toward the door.

She wasn’t his problem. That was how you survived the wastelands. You didn’t save strangers, you never hesitated, and you kept on moving.

The survival of the fittest.

But just as he took his next step, a memory flashed in his mind. Mara. The way her small body flailed. The way she has screamed his name, right before the

machine…

Karl’s breath hitched. His steps stopped completely. Something twisted violently in his chest as his gaze darkened.

“…Damn it,” he muttered.