The bunker door groaned, reluctant as it cracked open. I stood at the threshold, feeling my pulse kick up as I took the first step into the wasteland beyond. A crater stretched out before me, its jagged depths swallowed by a swirling ocean of miasma, glowing faintly in the shafts of cold light slicing through the fractured dome overhead. The whole scene felt like some twisted artist’s vision of the apocalypse—harsh, brutal, but almost… beautiful in its way.
“Hello there, isn’t this a sight to wake up to?” Arvie’s sardonic voice chirped in my head. “Nothing like a little apocalypse to kickstart your day. Ready for your grand adventure?”
Adventure? Sure, that’s one way to put it. I stepped forward, feeling the earth crack beneath my boots. Every sound echoed, hollow and strange, like the world was a bad recording of itself. My gut told me this place wasn’t just dead—it was restless.
Something flickered in the swirling fog below. Instinct took over, sharpening my senses. “Careful now,” Arvie’s tone shifted, a smirk behind the caution. “I’m picking up some rather... peculiar activity down there.”
My gaze sharpened on the shifting forms. Down in the pit, two droids were locked in a deadly ballet with a pack of Nether beasts—jaws snapping, limbs thrashing, the whole fight a blur of violence. The droids were fast, precise, their energy beams slicing through the creatures like they were nothing. The beasts fought with a feral intensity, until one by one they collapsed into the fog. As the last abomination was swallowed by the miasma, the droids turned and disappeared into the fog, leaving nothing but the memory of carnage.
“Yikes,” Arvie buzzed, clearly enjoying the show. “The locals seem a bit restless. Maybe take the scenic route, unless you’re feeling extra brave.”
I wasn’t feeling brave. Committed, maybe. I pressed forward, the miasma wrapping around me like a snake, coiling tighter the deeper I went. Just as doubt began to creep in—BAM!—the ground erupted in a blast of plasma fire. I hit the dirt, the heat licking at my skin even from a distance.
“Watch it!” Arvie’s voice cut through the chaos like a whip.
I scrambled to my knees, heart pounding. The smoke cleared to reveal them—droids. Hovering above, their eyes glowing red, like bored executioners who just found a reason to care. Their voices crackled, metallic and harsh.
“Citizen, why did you not respond to our calls?”
Arvie clicked, realization sinking in. “Ahhh, yeah, that’s on me. Your Neurolink’s scrambled worse than a Shog’s breakfast. They’ve been trying to ping you for a while. Oops.”
I raised my hands, trying to look harmless. “Neurolink’s fried,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “I couldn’t respond.”
They hovered, processing my excuse. A moment passed, then another, the silence almost worse than the plasma blast.
“Rise and accompany us.”
Not exactly a warm invitation. With no real choice, I stood. The droids closed in, escorting me deeper into the miasma. Oddly enough, it didn’t burn as much now—maybe that whole “body adapting to hostile environments” thing Arvie mentioned wasn’t just talk.
We moved through the haze, the landscape a blur of decay and ruin, until we reached a door—massive, reinforced, looming like the entrance to underworld. The droids stopped, and with a rumble, the door creaked open, revealing a dark corridor leading into the heart of the city.
“This is the Regulatory Directorate,” Arvie whispered, her voice tinged with fascination. “These were the ones supposed to keep the city in line—citizens, factories, you name it. Now they’re more about damage control.”
Inside, the air was thick with the scent of rust and failure. My boots clanged against the metal floor, the sound echoing through the vast, empty space. Two guards approached, their visors down, every movement in sync, mechanical. They stripped me of my satchel and plasma rifle, stowing them in a grimy locker with a red tag that screamed condemned.
The clang of the locker door felt final, like they’d just sealed away any chance I had left. The guards, all silent efficiency, herded me forward. I was passed off to another set of droids, and we continued through a maze of corridors. Broken screens flickered on the walls, casting pale light over the empty desks and shattered terminals, the only sound the distant hum of failing machinery.
The chamber they led me to had that sterile chill—the kind that makes you feel like you’re already under a microscope. Behind the console a stern-looking officer waited, tall for his kind, all posture and protocol, authority etched into every line of his face. His gaze latched onto me like I was some strange organism crawling out of a Petri dish.
“Greetings,” he said, clipped and formal, as if he had better places to be. “I am officer Larek of the Directorate.” His eyes swept over me, narrowing. “You’re... an unusual sight. Not often we come across someone like you.”
I could feel him dissecting me with his eyes, his expression hardening with suspicion. “Who are you? Your identity mesh is scrambled. Explain.” His tone implied that was a personal affront.
“I don’t know,” I replied, trying to hold onto some shred of dignity. “I woke up in the middle of the city’s collapse with no memory. Identity mesh’s probably damaged, along with my Neurolink.”
Larek didn’t seem impressed. He frowned, giving me a long look that made me wonder if his skepticism could physically knock me over. “Your identity mesh is indeed damaged,” he said, his voice as flat as the screen in front of him. “That will make things... complicated.”
“Complicated?” Arvie chimed in, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Understatement of the parsec.”
I ignored her, meeting Larek’s razor-sharp gaze. “I’m just trying to figure out what’s happening. If there’s anything I can do—”
Larek cut me off with a sharp motion, the kind of gesture you make when you really don’t care for small talk. “You’re in no position to offer assistance until we know who and what you are.” He leaned back, still stone-faced but maybe, just maybe, a little less hostile. “But we’re not looking to make enemies. Cooperate, and we’ll help with your... predicament.”
The droids backed away, and Larek motioned to a nearby console. “Let’s run a diagnostic. See if we can establish a baseline on your system status.”
I stood there, trying to ignore the knot of unease settling in my stomach as the screen lit up, scanning my brain like it was going through a junkyard and cataloging every scrap of broken hardware.
Arvie’s voice was back, a little too gleeful. “Oh, this is going to be good. They have no idea what they’re in for.”
Larek’s eyes widened as lines of data flooded the screen, his professional calm slipping. “This makes no sense,” he muttered, leaning closer, squinting at the incomprehensible mess of readings. “Your stats are... erratic. Inconsistent with any known patterns.” He paused, visibly frustrated. “Your MIM is active, but the readings are all over the place. And—” He stopped, glaring at me as if I was somehow to blame for this chaos. “Your modules are damaged, yet they’re functioning in ways I’ve never seen. This defies logic.”
I met his gaze evenly, even though I was barely keeping it together. “I’ve told you everything I know. My memory’s scrambled like the rest of me.”
Larek’s jaw tightened, eyes boring into me like he was trying to peel back the last layer of deception. Just when I thought he was going to push harder, I blurted, “There are survivors in another bunker. Jaraek and Reya.” Desperation edged into my voice, but I tried to keep it cool. “Not far from where they picked me up.”
Surprise flickered across his face, but he snapped back to his professional mask quickly. “We detected a distress beacon there,” he said, more measured now. “Assumed it was automated. Low priority.” He turned back to the console, nodding toward a nearby droid. “Dispatch a team. Extract survivors and any remaining supplies.”
Larek’s expression flickered with surprise before he snapped back into control. The tension eased slightly. “We detected a distress beacon there,” he said, more measured now. “Assumed it was automated, low priority. We’ll dispatch a team to extract the survivors and any supplies.”
The tension in the room ebbed a little, but Larek’s gaze was still cold, distant, like he was only halfway convinced I wasn’t about to explode in his face. The screens flickered, tactical overlays taking over as the droids prepped for the extraction. The immediate crisis had passed, but the distrust still hung between us like a fog.
Arvie, subdued now, whispered in my mind, “Nice save. But we’re not out of the woods yet. Stay sharp.”
I nodded inwardly, the weight of the moment pressing down on me. Something was off, though—I could feel it. The air in the chamber seemed to thicken, every second dragging, amplifying the nagging sense of unease clawing at the back of my mind. Then, the ground trembled beneath my feet. A low rumble that built into a sickening tremor.
Larek’s head snapped up, eyes narrowing. “What the—” His words were swallowed by a cacophony of alarms, each note a shard of ice. Colorful lights flickered, throwing the room into chaos.
A droid’s voice cut through the mayhem, its tones grating. “Director, multiple breaches detected in lower sections. Hostile entities identified as Nether beasts are infiltrating the city. Cause of breach unknown. Immediate action required.”
“Damn it,” Larek hissed, his expression hardening. He barked orders at the enforcers and droids gathering around him. “Mobilize containment units. Lock down the industrial zone.”
The place erupted into a hive of frenetic activity, droids moved with precision, relaying commands, enforcers scrambled to gear up, their faces set in a grim parody of determination. The urgency in the air was electric.
In the chaos, I caught sight of one officer standing apart, his movements... wrong. Jittery, like a program glitching out. His eyes darted, quick and nervous, before he turned and slipped out the door.
“Something’s off,” Arvie murmured, her voice a fount of caution. “Stay sharp.”
Before I could piece together what that meant, it hit. A rush of heat, searing through my nerves like a lightning strike. Pain. Blinding, white-hot pain that shattered my senses and ripped through my body.
Larek’s voice—distorted, distant—echoed through the roaring in my ears as I dropped to the floor, muscles locking up, the world breaking apart into static and shadows. Cold hands gripped my arms, dragging me across the hard surface. My thoughts scrambled, slipping between fragments of pain and confusion.
And then, in the haze of it all, I saw him—that officer staring down at me as the world pixelated around the edges. His face was a blur, but those eyes... they were burning with cold calculation.
And then I was gone, swallowed whole into the abyss of encroaching black.488Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcC73tilTP6
