Morning didn't arrive like hope.It arrived like exposure.
The sun rose without permission, pulling heat across the plains and dragging shadows out of hiding. Whatever illusions survived the night died quietly. No announcements followed. No supplies dropped. No authority corrected the situation.
The island stayed silent.
Arjun Yadav stood on uneven ground and watched people wake up confused, angry, and already tired.
Some were vomiting.Some were checking wrists, hoping numbers changed.Some were already looking for someone to blame.
No one looked up.
That was the first thing Arjun noticed.
Nobody was watching the land. They were watching each other.
That's how groups die.
A man with dried blood on his knuckles started shouting.
"This isn't survivable. We need to move. Inland. Now."
Another voice snapped back. "Move where? You don't even know where water is."
"I know more than you."
"Then lead."
Silence.
Leadership doesn't fail because people refuse it.It fails because nobody wants responsibility without control.
Arjun stepped forward when the shouting looped.
"Stop talking," he said.
Not loud.Not commanding.
Just placed correctly.
Some people turned. Some didn't. He didn't repeat himself.
"We don't wander," Arjun continued. "We don't wait. We don't argue. You want to survive—do something useful."
A woman laughed. "And you decide what's useful?"
"Yes."
That annoyed people more than shouting would have.
"You farming experience?" she asked.
"No."
"Military?"
"Yes."
"So you think this is war?"
Arjun looked around at raw meat stains, broken fingers, and empty eyes.
"This is worse."
He pointed toward the flatter land near the plains.
"You. You look like you understand soil."
The woman froze. "Me?"
"Yes. Agriculture. Figure out what grows. What doesn't."
She narrowed her eyes. "And if I say no?"
"Then you leave."
"Leave where?"
Arjun looked past her toward the empty land.
"Anywhere not here."
She stared at him for three seconds.
"Fine," she said. "I'll do it."
A pause.
"By the way," Arjun added, "what's your name?"
She wiped dirt from her hands. "Min-Jae Park."
She didn't smile.
She didn't bow.
She walked.
🇰🇷 MIN-JAE PARK
Title: FAMINE
CRIME: ?
Hunger kills silently.
Arjun turned immediately.
"You," he said to a broad-shouldered man already inspecting stones. "You're not useless with tools."
The man shrugged. "Civil engineer."
"Mining. Stone extraction. Structural integrity."
"Resources?"
"We'll make them."
The man nodded once. "Dev Patel."
🇮🇳 DEV PATEL
Title: THE FORGER
CRIME: SELLING GUNS
Which turns the land into a weapon.
Arjun didn't praise him.
Praise creates expectation.
He moved again.
A quiet man had been watching everyone without speaking. Not hiding. Not inserting himself.
"You ration," Arjun said.
The man blinked. "What?"
"Food. Distribution. Waste. You look like someone who doesn't panic when people complain."
The man considered it. "People won't like me."
"They don't have to."
A pause.
"Min-Jae grows food," Arjun continued. "You make sure it lasts."
The man exhaled slowly. "Min-Jae Park, right?"
She didn't look back.
He nodded. "Min-Jae Park won't like me."
"What's your name?" Arjun asked.
"Park Min-Jae will starve me if I screw up," he replied. "I'm Min-Jae Park's nightmare. Min-Jae Park's problem."
Arjun waited.
"Min-Jae Park can call me Park. Everyone else can call me Min-Jae's problem. But officially—Park Min-Jae."
Arjun stared at him.
The man corrected himself. "Min-Jae Park is agriculture. I'm Min-Jae Park adjacent."
Arjun didn't react.
"What's your actual name?"
The man sighed. "Min-Jae Park is going to kill me. I'm Park Min-Jae—Korean system. People mess it up."
Arjun pointed. "You ration. Name?"
"Min-Jae Park—no—fuck. Min-Jae is agriculture. I'm Park Min-Jae."
Arjun nodded once.
🇰🇷 PARK MIN-JAE
CRIME: ?
Title: SHADOW FAMINE
Min-Jae Park looked back finally.
"If people starve, I'll blame you," she said.
Park Min-Jae replied, "If they eat too much, I'll blame you."
They didn't smile.
Good.
Arjun moved toward the tree line.
A woman stood partially hidden, eyes moving constantly.
"You don't like being seen," Arjun said.
She didn't deny it.
"Camouflage. Surveillance. Misdirection."
She tilted her head. "You assume a lot."
"I observe quickly."
She stepped out.
"Paths disappear. Camps move. Traces get erased."
"You're good at making things vanish," Arjun said.
She shrugged. "Italy teaches you that."
"What's your name?"
"Elena Ross."
🇮🇹 ELENA ROSS
Title: THE VEIL
CRIME: Stealing a Jewel
What is visible is not the truth.
A shadow crossed the ground.
A tall man stood where the sunlight broke, arms crossed like nothing here impressed him.
"You build walls," Arjun said.
The man didn't respond.
"You don't break. You don't bend."
A beat.
"I was military police," the man said. "Riot control."
"You control perimeter," Arjun replied. "Defense. Physical."
The man nodded. "Omar Khalid."
🇪🇬 OMAR KHALID
Title: BASTION
CRIME: HE IS A TERRORIST
Even the thing that cannot be broken, He can breaks.
Arjun turned to a man mapping lines on the dirt.
"You think in expansion," Arjun said. "Territory without blood."
The man smiled thinly. "Brazilian corporate acquisitions."
"Same thing."
"Tomas Silva."
🇧🇷 TOMAS SILVA
Title: CONQUEST
CRIME: SLAP A POLICEMEN
Blood is not necessary to acquire land.
Last.
A woman hadn't moved since sunrise.
She stood still, eyes half-closed, listening.
"You're not working," someone muttered.
Arjun ignored them.
"You see patterns before they happen," Arjun said.
She opened her eyes. "Sometimes."
"You warn."
"Sometimes no one listens."
"What's your name?"
"Hana Sato."
🇯🇵 HANA SATO
Title: OMEN
CRIME: SELLING ILLEGAL DRUG'S
She tells you in advance what is going to happen.
Now, Seven people.
Not friends.Not loyal.Functional.
Arjun looked at them.
"This isn't democracy," he said. "This is survival. You work. You eat. You fail—you leave."
"Leave where?" someone asked again.
Arjun didn't answer.
Because now, everyone already knew.
ELSEWHERE — DESERTED ISLAND
Kairo Voss didn't introduce himself.
He didn't need to.
Seven men stood behind him because everyone else was dead, gone, or hiding.
A man limped forward.
"I can help," he said. "I know traps."
Kairo shot him.
The sound echoed.
"Anyone else skilled?" Kairo asked.
Silence.
"Good," he said. "I don't like competition."
🇩🇪 KAIRO VOSS
THE ABSOLUTE PREDATOR
CRIME: MURDER
No mercy, onlySelection.
The island didn't resist him.
People did.
They failed.
Back on WIMO land, Arjun stood above a rough map scratched into dirt.
Seven people around him.
Dozens watching.
"We don't rush," Arjun said. "We don't expand blindly."
A scream echoed from far away.
Not human.
Something else.
Hana Sato spoke quietly.
"Someone else is building," she said.
"Not like us."
Arjun looked toward the horizon.
"Then we finish first."
The wind shifted.
And somewhere far beyond the water, something laughed.