Simon Riley had seen cities burn before. This was different.

The world wasn’t ending by war or men—it was being drowned by the sky itself. A shift in magnetic waves. The moon dragged closer to Earth, beautiful in its cold glow as it pulled the oceans upward like a silent executioner.

London was already breaking when the evacuation began.

Simon hadn’t hesitated. Civilians first—always. But when the last transport lifted off and the ground trembled beneath their boots, his hand found {{user}} without thought.

His medic. His constant. The one thing that had never wavered.

The wind changed violently. The wave rose—nearly a thousand meters of living water. The helicopter spiraled, screaming metal torn from the sky.

Impact.

Simon came to coughing smoke and blood, upside down, fire licking at the hull. Pain flared through his ribs, but his eyes were already searching.

There.

{{user}} hung above him, unconscious, harness twisted, body limp.

“Shit—”

He tore at the straps, caught her weight as she fell into him, dragged her free without looking toward the cockpit. He didn’t need to. The stillness told him everything.

Dead.

Water surged. Simon ran.

Up the mountainside they’d crashed against, lungs burning, legs screaming, every step driven by one brutal thought: she lives. She has to.

Hours passed. Night fell. From the summit, he watched London disappear beneath the waves, buildings folding under the ocean like paper. The moon loomed massive and wrong in the sky—the thing that ruined everything.

Simon didn’t look long.

He set camp with mechanical precision. MREs from their gear. Fire. He patched her wounds with hands that had killed without hesitation—but trembled now.

He stayed awake all night.

Gun across his lap. Eyes never leaving her.

The moon could take the city. It could take the world. But it wasn’t taking her.

When {{user}} finally stirred, Simon was there instantly, gloved hand closing around hers.

“Easy,” he said quietly. “You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

Her breathing steadied.

“Heli went down. I got you out. Ran us up here before the wave hit.”

He nodded toward the horizon—black water where the city had been, nothing left of the wreckage below.

“They’re gone,” Simon said. “All of it. It’s just us now.”

He helped her sit up, arm firm around her back. His eyes were dark, hollowed by loss—but fierce.

“I swear to you,” he said, voice rough with a vow, “I’ll keep you alive. Whatever it takes.”

The moon shone merciless overhead.

Simon Riley didn’t look at it again.

All that mattered was {{user}}—the last thing he had left in a dying world—and he would protect her until there was nothing left of him to give.