Shatterpoint

5206 words

Episode 5: Shatterpoint The wind howled through the skeletal remains of the warehouse district, carrying the acrid bite of smoke and the metallic tang of blood. Jae-min crouched behind a rusted shipping container, his breath shallow, his pulse a drumbeat in his ears. The storm outside raged on, rain slashing sideways, drumming against the metal like a thousand tiny fists. His gear was soaked through, the weight of it dragging at his shoulders, but he barely noticed. His focus was on the faint, flickering glow ahead—a sickly green pulse emanating from the breach’s edge, barely a hundred meters away. It wasn’t stable. Nothing about this was stable. “Jae-min, you copy?” Eun-ji’s voice crackled through his comms, sharp and urgent, cutting through the static of the storm. “We’ve got movement on thermal. Something’s coming through.” He pressed a gloved hand to his earpiece, wincing as a gust of wind nearly knocked him off balance. “Yeah, I see it. How many?” “Hard to say. Readings are scrambled. Could be one, could be a dozen. Min-soo’s recalibrating the sensors, but—” She cut off, a muffled curse filtering through. “Damn it, it’s spiking again. Energy signature’s off the charts. You need to pull back.” “No chance,” Jae-min muttered, his voice low, almost lost in the roar of the rain. He edged forward, boots grinding...