5:45 AM. Unit 1418.
Jae-Min hadn't slept.
He sat at the dining table. A glass of water in front of him. A Glock 19 beside it. The void in his chest hummed quietly. Restless.
The apartment was dark. Only the faint orange glow of Manila sunrise seeped through the curtains.
He had spent the night preparing. Not just physically. Mentally.
Uncle Rico was military. Thirty years. Combat in Mindanao. Camp Aquino. Villamor Air Base. The man had seen war. He had seen death.
He had not seen the impossible.
Jae-Min needed to be careful. One wrong move and Rico would drag him to the nearest V.A. hospital. Report him as a security risk. End everything before it started.
A knock on the door.
Sharp. Precise. Three knocks. Military rhythm.
Jae-Min stood. Walked to the door. Opened it.
Ricardo Del Rosario stood in the hallway.
Small build. Wrinkled face. Gray hair cropped short. He looked like a retired grandfather. Until you saw his eyes. Cold. Calculating. Scanning the apartment behind Jae-Min in less than a second.
"Jae-Min."
"Uncle."
Rico stepped inside without waiting for an invitation. His eyes moved. Living room. Kitchen. Hallway. Exits. Windows.
Old habits.
"You look like shit," Rico said.
"I haven't slept."
"So I noticed." Rico turned to face him. Arms crossed. "Talk. Why did you forge my signature on a two-million peso loan?"
"Because I needed the money."
"For what?"
Jae-Min didn't answer. He walked to the dining table. Picked up the glass of water. Set it down in the center.
"Sit down, Uncle."
"I'm not here to—"
"Sit."
Something in Jae-Min's voice made Rico pause. He looked at his nephew. Really looked. The dark circles. The hollow cheeks. The dead eyes.
Rico sat.
Jae-Min stood across from him. The table between them. The glass of water sitting in the middle.
"What I'm about to show you doesn't leave this room."
"Jae-Min—"
"Uncle. Please."
Rico stared at him for a long moment. Then he nodded once.
Jae-Min raised his hand. Hovered it over the glass.
"What are you doing?"
"Watch."
He reached down.
His fingers touched the glass.
It vanished.
No sound. No flash. Just a faint ripple in the air. Like heat rising from asphalt. Then nothing.
The table was empty.
Rico blinked.
He looked at the table. Then at Jae-Min's hand. Then back at the table.
"The hell?"
Jae-Min raised his other hand. Focused. A black crack split open in the air above the table. Small. Barely the size of a fist.
Inside the darkness, the glass floated. Water perfectly still. Undisturbed.
Rico stood up. Chair scraped against the floor.
"What the fuck is that?"
"Watch."
Jae-Min reached into the crack. His fingers disappeared into the void. He pulled.
The glass reappeared on the table. Water sloshed gently against the sides.
Rico stumbled back.
His hand went to his hip. Empty. He wasn't carrying. He was retired. But the instinct was still there.
"What the hell did you just do?"
"I stored it. In a pocket dimension. Inside my body."
Rico stared at the glass. Picked it up. Examined it. Cold. Wet. Real.
"This is a trick."
"It's not."
"Magic tricks. Hidden wires. Some kind of illusion—"
"Uncle." Jae-Min's voice was flat. "I'm a logistics manager. Not David Copperfield."
Rico set the glass down. His hands were shaking. Slightly. Barely visible. But Jae-Min saw it.
This man had survived ambushes in Mindanao. Had taken bullets. Had watched men die.
And he was shaking.
"Show me again."
Jae-Min picked up the Glock 19 from the table. Held it out.
"Uncle. Catch."
He dropped the gun.
It fell. Vanished mid-air. The black ripple swallowed it.
Rico flinched.
Jae-Min raised his hand. The crack appeared. He reached in. Pulled out the Glock. Set it on the table.
Rico didn't touch it.
He just stared.
"Three days ago," Jae-Min said, "I woke up in this apartment. But before that, I was somewhere else. Somewhere cold. Somewhere dead."
"What are you talking about?"
"I died, Uncle."
Rico's jaw tightened.
"I was eaten alive by my neighbors. Starving people who lost their minds. And right before I died, something inside me snapped. I tore through time. And I came back here."
"Jae-Min—"
"Thirty days from now, the world ends."
Rico went still.
"Not a war. Not a virus. The temperature drops to negative seventy degrees in the middle of Philippine summer. Billions die within the first week. No power. No food. No government. Just cold. And hunger. And teeth."
"You're telling me you're from the future."
"I'm telling you I died in the future. And I came back to change it."
Rico sat down. Slowly. Like a man whose legs had stopped working.
"The loan," Rico said.
"Sixteen million pesos. Seven banks. Nine credit cards. In thirty days, debt won't exist."
"The food you ordered. The restaurant."
"I can store it. All of it. In here." Jae-Min tapped his chest. "Enough to feed a small army. And I'm going to need it."
Rico rubbed his face. His eyes were red. Exhausted. Confused.
"This is insane."
"I know."
"You're talking about the end of the world. Flash freezes. Time travel. Pocket dimensions." Rico looked up. "Do you understand how crazy this sounds?"
"I do."
"And you expect me to believe you?"
Jae-Min met his eyes.
"I just made a gun disappear in front of you."
Rico didn't answer.
"The plane," Jae-Min said. "Mom and Dad's flight from Incheon."
Rico flinched.
"It crashes into the Alishan Mountains. Flash freeze. Blizzard. Malfunction." Jae-Min's voice didn't waver. "No survivors."
"Stop."
"I told them last night. They didn't believe me."
"Jae-Min, stop."
"Ji-Yoo believes me. She rebooked her flight. She's coming home in five days."
Rico's hands curled into fists.
"But Mom and Dad won't listen. And in twenty-seven days, they're going to get on that plane. And they're going to die."
"SHUT UP!"
Rico slammed his fist on the table. The glass shattered. Water spilled across the wood.
He stood up. Breathing hard. Eyes wild.
"You don't get to come in here. Show me some parlor trick. And tell me my brother is going to die."
Jae-Min didn't move.
"That's exactly what I'm telling you."
The room went silent.
Rico stared at him. Chest heaving. Jaw clenched.
Then something broke behind his eyes. The military discipline. The stoic mask. All of it crumbled.
He sat back down. Put his face in his hands.
"Jesus Christ."
Jae-Min waited.
Rico didn't cry. He wouldn't. Not in front of his nephew. But his shoulders shook. Just once.
"How?" Rico's voice was muffled. "How do I stop it?"
"I don't know. I tried. They think I'm crazy."
"They've always been stubborn." Rico lifted his head. Eyes red. "Hermano... your mother... they won't listen to reason. They never have."
"I know."
"Then what do we do?"
"We prepare. We build. We survive." Jae-Min slid a piece of paper across the table. "This is my plan. Sixteen million. Guns. Ammo. Steel. Generator. Water filtration. Enough supplies to last months."
Rico looked at the paper. Scanned the list. His military mind kicked in. Categorizing. Calculating.
"This is a bunker."
"Unit 1418 becomes a fortress."
"You're turning a condo into a military installation."
"I'm turning it into the only place that survives."
Rico picked up the paper. Read it again. Slower this time.
"I have contacts," he said quietly. "Villamor. Camp Aquino. Quartermasters who owe me favors."
"I need guns."
"I know a guy. Ex-military. Runs a private security outfit. He can get you hardware without paperwork."
"How much?"
"Depends on what you want. But for sixteen million? He'll build you an armory."
Jae-Min nodded.
Rico set the paper down. Looked at Jae-Min.
"You really believe this is happening."
"I know it is."
"And you're going to save them?"
"I'm going to try."
Rico stood up. Straightened his shirt. The military mask returned. Cold. Disciplined.
But his eyes were different now.
"Then I'm in."
Jae-Min blinked.
"You're what?"
"I said I'm in." Rico walked to the door. Paused. Looked back. "I didn't spend thirty years in the army to watch my family die in a condo. If the world is ending, we end it on our terms."
Rico opened the door.
"I'll call my contact. Meet me at the Makati gun range at 2 PM. Don't be late."
The door closed.
Jae-Min sat alone in the quiet apartment. He looked at the shattered glass on the table. The spilled water.
Uncle Rico believed him. One more.
His phone buzzed. A message from Kiara.
"I saw you leave your apartment this morning. Where are you going? - K"
Jae-Min stared at it. Didn't reply.
He walked over to the window instead. Looked down at the street. A black sedan was parked across from the building's main entrance. The windows were tinted, but he could see the faint glow of a phone screen in the passenger seat.
Jennifer. Writing in her little notebook.
Jae-Min sneered. Let them watch. It wouldn't matter in thirty days.
He turned away from the window. His eyes caught a faint reflection in the glass. Not his own reflection.
It was a glow coming from the living room floor.
He walked over. Frowned.
A faint, translucent blue line was tracing itself across his floorboards. It looked like a map. A localized radar grid. It pulsed once, highlighting two red dots in the hallway outside his door.
Someone was standing right outside Unit 1418. And they weren't Kiara's spy.
The blue grid faded into nothing.
Jae-Min's hand slowly reached for the Glock on the table.