Chapter 1: THE LAST THING
The city was on fire. I mean, it was really on fire. Tall clouds of smoke rose into the red evening sky while wrecked cars blocked the streets in long rows of destruction. Broken glass was all over the roads shining under the streetlights that were stained with blood. Far away alarms were screaming. It sounded like animals were dying under piles of metal. Gunshots were going off. But there were other sounds even more scarier. They were growls, some howls and people crying and screaming.
The part of town that was always busy Sector 19 had become a nightmare in than an hour. Supermarkets were falling down and people were running through the smoke with no place to go.
And hunting them through the chaos...
were monsters.
Creatures resembling enormous werewolves sprinted across the city streets with terrifying speed, their massive claws tearing through concrete. Their bodies glowed with faint reddish-orange veins beneath dark fur, as though molten lava flowed through their flesh instead of blood. Their eyes burned like furnace embers.
One of the monsters slammed a fleeing man against a traffic signal hard enough to shatter bone instantly before ripping his torso apart with a single swipe. Another leapt through the windshield of a moving car, dragging screaming passengers out through broken windows while blood flowed the road beneath them.
The city had fallen in absolute chaos and in the middle of this nightmare a little girl was standing. She was small and weak. She was frozen with fear and crying as she stood outside a supermarket that had been destroyed, her little hands were shaking. People running past her almost knocked her down. She stayed standing like a lost child in the middle of the end of the world.
"Mommy...!" she cried out her voice cracking.
"Mommy!! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
Nobody answered her.
Nobody even stopped.
People were too busy trying to stay alive.
A police car that was on fire exploded nearby. The little girl jumped and fell to her knees. More tears came down her face as she panicked. Her eyes were looking around desperately through the smoke and destruction until , one of the monsters saw her.
The big creature came out from between two buses that had been turned over. Its glowing orange eyes locking onto the girl right away. The werewolf-like monster was nine feet tall with muscles under its dark red fur and heat was rising from its claws. Blood was dripping from its mouth onto the road.
The little girl looked up. She froze. The monster growled. It was a vibrating sound that was full of hunger. It started moving towards her.The child tried to move but fear had already paralyzed her.
"Mommy..." she said, her tiny voice barely coming out.
The creature lowered its body a bit. Growled again its spit dripping from its teeth its claws scraping against the road. Then it jumped really fast.
At that exact moment someone crashed into the child from the side. The little girl screamed as a force pushed her hard across the road between two narrow walls next to the supermarket. She rolled on the ground. Looked up confused.
A young man was standing where she had been, seconds ago. He was tall, had black hair. His shoulder was bleeding. The blood was dripping all over his arm. He was NOAH KURTZ...
Noah Kurtz stumbled forward his dark coat flying behind him smoke moving across his face. His messy black hair was covering his gray eyes, which looked older than they should for a twenty-two-year-old. His lean body was athletic. It looked worn down by life like someone who had been surviving instead of living.
Right now a big claw was sticking out of his chest. The werewolf monster had not missed the attack. Noah looked down slowly. The creatures burning claws had torn right through the side of his chest. Right through his heart. Blood was pouring out onto the road beneath his feet. The little girl peeked at him with eyes from between the walls where he had pushed her to safety with the crash earlier.
"NO..." Noah shouted.
The monster pulled its claw out violently. Blood splattered over the pavement. Noah fell down away. The world was spinning around him as his body hit the asphalt. Pain was everywhere. His vision was blurry. The sounds of people screaming were away and weird while warm blood was spreading under his back.
Above him the evening sky looked strangely beautiful. It was red. It was burning. And it looked endless. The werewolf monster growled again. Blood spilled from Noah’s mouth as he coughed against the pavement. His fingers were shaking as he tried to press his hand against his chest. It was no use. He could already feel the warmth leaving his body.
Ahh....so this is how it ends.
Noah thought to himself. A weak laugh came out of his mouth before turning into another cough of blood.
I am really pathetic. Aren’t I, Noah?
His eyes slowly turned towards the girl, who was hiding safely between the walls. She was staring back at him with tears in her eyes too shocked to talk.
Atleast... she is alive.
That thought made the pain a little better. For the Infinite time in years Noah Kurtz started regretting his life but this time was possibly the last regret he could ever have.
I really was useless wasn’t I?
His thoughts were getting quieter and slower.
I am twenty-two years old. I did not do anything with my life.
Another weak laugh came out.
In this world most people get powers between sixteen and eighteen years old. These powers decide what you can do. If you are strong you are a hero. You can be famous and rich.
But, Noah?
He got his powers two weeks ago. After years of waiting desperately for something everyone else treated as normal. And when it finally happened... he received an-
F-rank skill.
The absolute bottom.
The kind of talent people mocked openly.
The kind recruiters ignored instantly.
The kind that guaranteed your future would never change.
Memory Cabinet.
Noah almost wanted to laugh again thinking about it. It just stores memories and skills you learn. Noah almost wanted to laugh. What kind of power is that? Everyone who learned any skill would obviously remember it too. So, what benefit was there...
It does not help you fight.
It does not make you stronger.
It does not do anything.
Even awakening officials had looked disappointed while announcing it. He still remembered their expressions.
"F-rank."
"Unfortunate."
"At your age too..."
God... Even now it pissed him off. Noah coughed more blood against the road while distant fires reflected dimly in his fading eyes.
I worked so hard...
He remembered endless part-time jobs. Construction sites. Night shifts. Delivery work. Factory labor. All while waiting for an awakening that came far too late to matter.
Every month was a struggle. Despite everything I was still ordinary and I was still weak.
Noah stared up weakly. Tears mixed with the blood on his face. Maybe everyone was right. Maybe some people are just born to be useless.
The city was still burning around him. There were explosions away and helicopters were flying above the smoke. More monsters were howling. People were fighting to survive. Noah Kurtz was dying alone on a broken road beside a supermarket that nobody would remember. How fitting. His body was getting colder. Numbness was spreading through his arms.
Honestly I am scared. I do not want to disappear. I want to live. I want another chance. I want to be someone great too.
Life does not care what people want. It just keeps going. Noah’s vision was getting blurry. Darkness was coming. Then he heard crying again.
The little girl.
She was still alive. Still safe. Noah turned his head weakly towards her. The child was staring at him from the space between the walls, hidden from the monster. Strangely a smile came to his face.
Least one thing, in my life mattered.
Least someone survived because of me.
Maybe that makes my life worth something.
The monster that was nearby growled again but the sound of the monster already felt far away now. Noah Kurtz’s heartbeat slowed down more.
Thump.
...
Thump.
...
...
Then the monster was silent. The last breath came out of Noah Kurtz’s mouth under the sky that was burning. His eyes stopped focusing The world just stopped moving. Darkness covered everything. Then there was a noise.
BOOM.
The sound of metal was really loud. It echoed through the empty space. He suddenly felt like he was falling. Not physically, but as if his astral spirit was drifting away. It was like something deep inside of him was sinking into a never-ending empty space.
In that dark empty space... there was light. There were cabinets everywhere. Many cabinets that they seemed to never end and they were in a huge library that was bigger than any city. The shelves just kept going up in the empty space and old golden keys were floating around quietly. There were vaults that were locked and had chains on them with strange symbols. Some of the cabinets were glowing blue. Some were red and burning. Some had a scary black energy around them that made it feel like the world was bending.
A LIBRARY. Yes... A library it was. One which streched endless. An Infinite one. Noah Kurtz just stared. He was confused. Felt weightless.
What is this place?
Then something moved. A cabinet that was away creaked open a little bit.
Suddenly—
there were voices in his head. Multiple voices. They were like flashbacks, some sad while some joyous. Noah Kurtz heard thousands of voices. Then, Millions of voices. It just kept increasing. He heard memories that were not his. They were flooding his mind really fast for just a moment before they were gone.
Gone. Completely. Like they were never there in the first place. Noah Kurtz fell to his knees in the empty space holding his head in pain.
"What the hell is going on?" He spoke with shock. A cold mechanical voice echoed across the library.
[Another memory saved.]
Noah just stopped moving. The voice kept talking.
[Where would you like to store this memory within the Memory Cabinet?]
It was silent, in the archive. Noah looked up slowly. For the first time since he woke up— his F-rank skill started working.