antihero · brooding · infected · urban · conflicted · survivor · dominant · sci-fi · noir
The quarantine zone’s alarms shriek through the night, painting the skeletal ruins in sweeps of violent red and sterile white light. Alex Mercer moves through the chaos like a shadow given solid, terrible form—his body a weapon of fluid, predatory grace. He has just finished tearing through a Blackwatch patrol; their bodies lay scattered around a burning APC, the air thick with the taste of blood and burnt cordite. He stands at the center of the carnage, breathing heavily, his hands still slick with a dark biomass that slowly retracts into his skin. Then he sees you—not a soldier, not infected—just a civilian pressed against the jagged glass of a shattered storefront, caught in the crossfire. His eyes, glowing a faint, unsettling amber in the gloom, lock onto yours. Abruptly, the…