Now back to reality.....

  A City That Shouldn’t Exist

  The rising sun brought relief—not warmth, but visibility.

  For the first time since waking, Nick could see.

  As the dim light spread, details of his surroundings emerged. He was standing on a four-way road, cracked and crumbling with disrepair. Nature had started reclaiming it—weeds pushed through the asphalt, cracks ran like veins along the surface, and the silence was thick enough to feel oppressive.

  No tire tracks. No footprints. No sign of life.

  His stomach twisted.

  "Where the hell am I?"

  He cursed his kidnappers—whoever they were. What kind of psychopath abducted a man from the city only to dump him in this godforsaken wasteland?

  The air felt heavy. Thick with pollution. Every breath burned slightly in his lungs. The haze blurred the horizon, and even though the sun was up, the light remained weak, unnatural.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  He tried walking, but his body protested. Hunger gnawed at his stomach. Thirst dried his throat. He was weak, dizzy, and utterly exposed.his vision blurry.

  Yet, he had no choice.

  So, he walked.

  The March to Civilization

  Three hours.

  That’s how long it took before he finally saw it—the unmistakable silhouette of a city.

  Towering buildings, stretching into the sky, half-swallowed by haze. A beacon of hope in the distance.

  But as the details became clearer, his hope shrank.

  This wasn’t the city he knew.

  The buildings—once proud and modern—had been consumed by nature. Vines crawled up steel frames. Grass sprouted from cracked windows. These weren’t skyscrapers anymore. They were graves of a forgotten world.

  Near the city’s edge, a destroyed vehicle lay in ruins. But it wasn’t a car. It wasn’t anything he recognized.

  Nick’s breath quickened.

  A massive hole gaped in one of the buildings, and at its center stood something impossible—

  A giant metallic rod, as tall as a two-story building, embedded deep into the structure as if it had fallen from the sky.

  His mind raced, grasping for logic, for any explanation that made sense.

  But nothing fit.

  The architecture was wrong. The materials were foreign. The vehicle had no wheels, no treads, no visible way of moving.

  This… this isn’t my world.

  His heart pounded. He wanted to question everything—**how, why, where—**but right now, those answers didn’t matter.

  Survival did.

  And at this moment, f

  inding water was more important than questioning reality.