The mechanical hum dissolved into a silence that felt like pressure on Leon's eardrums. There in the thick blackness, a synthetic voice cut through.
"Welcome, Leon Storm. Survive for 10 minutes."
A digital timer materialized in the center of his vision, glowing in a dense white: 00:10:00. Then, an inexorable countdown began.
Light bled into the world harshly, revealing itself to Leon as he blinked. On his first blink, he saw a flood of butterflies dancing in a beam of sunlight.
His second blink showed him birds that wheeled in the blue sky above him. On his third blink, he swallowed hard as a ground-shaking roar tore through the air.
The earth beneath his boot shook violently. The buildings flanked sideways, causing debris to fall like rain. Windows exploded outward in a glittering cascade.
From the top, chunks of concrete and twisted metal rained down, kicking up dust that swallowed the sky and the ground at large.
