Marcus checked his watch. 11:47 AM.
Lily's voicemail had said noon. He was already cutting it
close before the sky broke open.
He was on the beach when it happened. Summer heat. Families
everywhere. Kids in the water. The sky went white like someone
broke the sun and a screen appeared in front of his face.
Just floating there like it belonged.
SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE.
SCANNING: MARCUS VAEL.
CLASS ASSIGNED: PATHFINDER.
Around him people were screaming. A kid fell off the pier.
Someone's umbrella caught fire for no reason. A man in a
sun hat stood completely still staring at his screen like
he was reading a menu.
Marcus pressed the notification.
PATHFINDER — KNOWN ROUTES.
You always know the fastest path between two points.
Through water. Through sand. Through anything.
COMBAT SKILLS: None.
He stared at it.
Eleven years as a courier. The system looked at him and
gave him exactly that. More of what he already was.
No combat. No spells. Just navigation.
Great. Really great.
His phone buzzed.
Voicemail from Lily. Three hours old.
"Dad it's me. They want to keep me overnight. Nothing
serious, don't freak out. I'm at Coastal Medical. You
said you'd be here by sunset right? Call me back."
Don't freak out. Classic Lily. Telling him to stay calm
from a hospital bed like he was the one who needed
managing.
He opened Known Routes. Just thought about the hospital
and the ability fired. A route lit up in his head like a
road he'd driven a hundred times.
Fourteen kilometers up the coast. Two sections underwater
already. One area flagged red.
Two hours on a normal day.
He looked at the beach. People running. Something big
moving in the water fifty meters out. Dorsal fin but wrong.
Too big. Moving wrong.
He grabbed his courier bag off the sand. Still had today's
packages in it. Four deliveries left for the beachfront hotels.
Habit. Eleven years of it.
He started moving.
---
First kilometer was just sand and panic. People sprinting
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
inland, away from the water. Marcus went parallel to the
shoreline. Not toward the water. Not away. Just along.
Known Routes kept updating. The thing in the water turned
and the route shifted him ten meters up the beach. He
followed without thinking.
Tried Lily.
Nothing.
The boardwalk was blocked. Something had come up through
the planks from underneath. Still moving. Known Routes
dropped him down to the wet sand. Packed hard. Faster.
He ran.
Stopped once to catch his breath, hands on his knees,
sweat already mixing with salt spray on his arms. The
courier bag swung off his shoulder and he caught it
automatically, checked the velcro pocket the way he
always did between stops.
Four packages. Still there.
Hotel Marisol. Room 204. Room 311. The penthouse.
He thought about the penthouse guest who'd complained
last week about a late delivery. Really leaned into it.
Left a three star review.
Wondered if they were still up there.
Zipped the pocket and kept moving.
---
Two kilometers in the monsters came out of the water.
Three of them.
Crawling up the beach on too many legs. Moving wrong.
Like something that had never touched land before and
didn't care to learn. One grabbed a beach chair.
Crushed it.
Didn't slow down.
Marcus stopped hard.
Known Routes updated. Direct path gone. New route lit up:
into the water. Twenty meters out. Shallow. They stay on
the sand. They don't go back in.
He looked at the water.
Looked at them.
"You're kidding," he said.
He went in.
Knee deep. Then waist deep. Cold even in the summer heat,
the kind of cold that gets into your chest before you
expect it. The ability walked him along parallel to the
beach, showed him where it stayed shallow, kept him away
from the drop.
The monsters stayed on the sand.
He came back up half a kilometer past them, soaking from
the waist down, shoes full of water now on top of the sand.
He thought about Lily telling him don't freak out and
almost laughed.
Tried her again. Still nothing.
Kept moving.
---
Four kilometers. The coast road had collapsed into the ocean.
Cars half submerged. Windows still up on some of them.
A coffee cup sitting on one dashboard like the owner
stepped out for a minute.
People on the cliff above yelling down at someone in
the water below.
Known Routes showed him a path. Down the cliff face.
Across the rocks. Through the gap. Back up the far side.
Fifteen meters down.
Wet rocks.
Waves every thirty seconds.
"Sure," Marcus muttered. "Fine."
He went down.
Hands and feet. Slow and flat against the rock. The first
wave hit him square in the chest and knocked the air out
of him, salt spray in his eyes, the cold of it immediate
and total. He held on. Let it pass. Kept moving.
Crossed the gap. Climbed back up.
Tried Lily. One bar. Rang once. Dropped.
Halfway.
---
Six kilometers. A hotel had collapsed into the beach.
Not all of it. Just half. The south wing, sliding into
the sand like the ground got tired of holding it. Floors
pancaked into each other. Some windows still intact.
Curtains still hanging. A ceiling fan still turning slow
in a room with no ceiling anymore.
He stood there for a second and just looked at it.
Then Known Routes showed him through. Ground floor.
Pool area. North side exit.
He went in.
Dark. Chlorine and concrete dust and something burnt
underneath both of them. Water from the pool spreading
across the tile floor in a slow sheet. His footsteps
echoed wrong, too loud, too hollow.
He moved where the ability told him.
Almost out.
Someone yelled for help.
He stopped.
A woman. Concrete beam across her legs. Alone in the
dark. She'd gone quiet the way people do when they've
been yelling long enough to stop expecting an answer.
She was just looking at him.
Known Routes showed him forward. Coastal Medical. Lily.
Eight kilometers.
He looked at the woman.
Looked at the route.
Looked at his watch.
Thought about room 412 and nurses who weren't talking
and Lily trying to sound calm on a voicemail three
hours ago.
He went back in anyway.
The beam was too heavy to lift. But Known Routes showed
him the gap underneath. The exact angle. Pull her through
without shifting the weight above.
"Don't move," he said. "Not even a little."
He pulled her through exactly like the ability showed him.
She stood up slow. Bleeding from her arm. Shaking.
But up.
"Thank you," she started. "I was—"
"Can you walk?"
"Yes."
"Up the hill. Away from the water."
He was already walking.
---
Eight kilometers. Beach ended. Rocky coastline, waves
coming in hard, no path that anyone could see.
Known Routes showed him one anyway.
Into the water. Around the rocks. Time it exactly.
He went in.
Waist deep. Chest deep. A wave came and he ducked under,
felt it drag at him, came up gasping and blinking. Moved
between the rocks. Another wave building behind him.
He waited, felt the pull, let it break. Moved.
Pulled himself out on the far side and stayed on the
rocks for three seconds, sun hot on his wet back,
chest heaving, sand grinding under his palms.
Three seconds.
Then up.
Tried Lily.
Two bars.
It rang.
She picked up.
"Dad?"
"I'm coming," he said.
"I've been calling for hours. Dad I'm scared. They locked
the ward doors and nobody will tell me anything and I can
hear people screaming outside and—"
Dropped.
He stared at the phone.
She'd sounded scared. Actually scared. Not Lily-scared
where she was mildly inconvenienced and being dramatic.
Actually scared.
He ran.
---
Coastal Medical on the hill. White building. Blue signs.
Lights still on in the upper floors. Shapes moving
behind the windows.
Fourth floor. She was there.
Known Routes lit the path up the hill. He ran it hard,
legs burning, wet shoes slapping the ground, courier bag
bouncing against his back with four packages for hotels
that were probably rubble now.
Something hit the sand behind him.
Big. Wet. Fast.
Known Routes fired. Up. Now. Too heavy for the slope.
Won't follow.
He went up and didn't look back.
Heard it roar.
Kept going.
Reached the top.
Front door locked. Service entrance around the side.
He went around, pushed through, stepped inside.
Stood in the corridor breathing.
Soaking wet. Sand grinding in his shoes with every step,
had been for two hours, probably would be for the rest
of his life at this point. Courier bag still on his back.
He didn't take it off.
Known Routes lit up the building.
Stairs. Two floors. Three. Fourth floor. Room 412.
Lily.
He moved toward the stairwell door.
Then stopped.
Behind the wall of glass at the e
nd of the corridor
something moved.
Low to the ground.
Fast.
Gone before he could focus on it.
Between him and the stairs.
Known Routes updated. Rerouted. A new path lit up,
narrower than before, threading through the corridor
on the left, up through what looked like a maintenance
access, coming out above.
Barely a path.
But there.
He took it.
