VOL. 1: CHAPTER 13: THE WEIGHT OF WITNESSES
They didn't speak for a long time after the conductor vanished.
The abandoned tram station felt hollow now, like a lung after exhale. The pressure was gone, but the echo of it lingered in Sionu's bones. His hands shook faintly, not from fear, but from restraint. Holding back always cost more than release. Kael had warned him about that too, though not in those words.
Blitz broke the silence first, voice low and careful.
"You good?"
Sionu nodded once. Then shook his head.
"I don't know."
Ultimo lay on his back, staring up at the dark ceiling, breathing slow and deliberate like Kael had drilled into him. "I swear, every time something wild happens, you say that exact sentence."
Blitz snorted. "That's cause it keep being true."
Drego remained standing, posture rigid, eyes still locked on the space where the conductor had been. He looked like a man who'd just seen the rules bend and hadn't decided yet whether to be impressed or terrified.
"That wasn't some random infected," Drego said quietly. "That was organized."
Sionu nodded. "He called himself a conductor."
Drego's jaw tightened. "Figures."
Blitz glanced at him. "You heard of that before?"
Drego hesitated. Then nodded once. "Not that name. But the idea."
Ultimo rolled onto his side. "You gonna explain, or we just vibing with the apocalypse now?"
Drego exhaled through his nose. "Street talk been saying some infected ain't just losing themselves. Some of them… linking up. Sharing thoughts. Sharing hunger."
Blitz muttered, "A hive mind."
Drego shook his head. "Nah. Hive implies no choice. This felt like leadership."
Sionu swallowed.
Leadership.
The word sat uncomfortably close to him now.
1) THE WALK BACK UP
They didn't linger.
The tram station might've been signal-dead, but it wasn't safe. Nothing that had already been noticed stayed safe for long. Kaloi's City didn't do forgiveness. It did patterns.
They climbed a maintenance stairwell that led back toward the surface, emerging into a block that looked half-forgotten even before quarantine. Closed storefronts. Trash caught in fences. A mural on the side of a community center depicting children reaching for a sun that had been painted over with graffiti.
Sionu paused, staring at it.
Blitz noticed. "You keep doing that."
"Doing what?"
"Looking at things like they asking you a question."
Sionu exhaled. "Feels like they are."
Ultimo muttered, "Bro, don't start talking like the conductor."
Sionu shot him a look. "I'm serious."
Drego nodded slowly. "City always been alive. Folks just don't notice till it bleeding."
They moved cautiously, sticking to shadows, avoiding open intersections. The sirens had shifted again. Not closer.
More frequent.
Sionu felt the attention of the city like a hand on the back of his neck. Not hostile. Curious. Like something waiting to see what he'd do next.
Blitz leaned in. "We still heading back to Latvier?"
Drego shook his head. "Not straight."
Sionu frowned. "Why?"
Drego glanced toward a distant glow down the avenue. "They gonna be watching that route now. Too many eyes. Too many feeds."
Ultimo cracked his neck. "So what, we hide?"
Drego's mouth tightened. "We redirect."
2) THE PEOPLE WHO SAW EVERYTHING
They cut through a residential block where the quarantine line had been enforced loosely. Families clustered on stoops. Some people argued with soldiers behind temporary barricades. Others just sat, watching, exhausted by outrage.
When Sionu stepped into view, the arguing stopped.
Not immediately.
But gradually.
Heads turned.
Eyes widened.
Phones lifted.
A woman whispered, "That's him."
A man scoffed, "That's who?"
"The light one."
Sionu felt his chest tighten.
Witnesses.
Blitz murmured, "We didn't plan this."
Drego whispered back, "Plans don't survive witnesses."
A kid, maybe twelve or thirteen, stepped forward from behind a parked car. He wore a hoodie two sizes too big and shoes that had seen better days.
"Yo," the kid said, voice cracking. "You the one from the billboard?"
Blitz stiffened.
Ultimo muttered, "Here we go."
Sionu crouched slightly so he wasn't towering over the kid. "I'm the one from the street."
The kid frowned. "They said you made the monsters worse."
Sionu's jaw tightened. "Who's they?"
The kid shrugged. "The screens. Soldiers. Everybody."
Sionu nodded slowly. "Did it look like that to you?"
The kid hesitated.
Then shook his head. "Nah. Looked like you stopped them."
A murmur rippled through the small crowd.
Blitz's breath caught.
Sionu felt something shift.
Not power.
Permission.
He stood.
"I can't promise I'll fix everything," he said, not raising his voice. "I can promise I won't lie to you."
The crowd leaned in.
"I didn't cause the infected," Sionu continued. "And I'm not here to make things worse. I'm here because y'all deserve more than being left to rot."
A man shouted from the back, "Then why the soldiers say you dangerous?"
Sionu met his gaze. "Because danger is easier to sell than accountability."
Silence followed.
Not agreement.
Consideration.
Blitz felt it too. She stepped closer, voice sharp and clear.
"They want you scared of him so you don't ask why the barricades here but the help ain't."
Ultimo added, voice rough but honest, "They want you mad at us instead of them."
The crowd murmured again.
Phones kept recording.
Sionu realized then what Hale had underestimated.
Narratives didn't just flow downward.
They bled sideways.
3) A COSTLY INTERRUPTION
The moment shattered when a loudspeaker crackled to life at the end of the block.
"This is a restricted area. Disperse immediately."
Soldiers advanced, weapons lowered but ready.
Blitz cursed. "They don't waste time."
Drego muttered, "Told you."
Sionu felt the electricity stir, reflexive.
He forced it down.
Respond.
Don't react.
He raised his hands, palms open.
"We're leaving," he called. "No need to escalate."
The commanding officer hesitated, eyes flicking between Sionu and the crowd.
The drone overhead adjusted its angle.
A child cried.
The officer's voice hardened. "Move. Now."
Sionu turned to the crowd. "Go home. Please."
Reluctantly, people began to back away, pulled by fear and survival instinct. Phones lowered. Doors opened. Curtains closed.
The street emptied in seconds, leaving only Sionu, Blitz, Ultimo, Drego, and the soldiers.
The officer approached, stopping a few feet away.
"You're interfering with federal operations," he said.
Sionu met his gaze. "I was talking."
The officer sneered slightly. "That's interference now."
Sionu nodded slowly. "Then arrest me."
Blitz's head snapped toward him. "What?"
Ultimo hissed, "Bro—"
Drego cursed. "Don't."
The officer blinked, caught off guard. "You… what?"
"Arrest me," Sionu repeated calmly. "Let them go."
Blitz grabbed his sleeve. "You lost your damn mind?"
Sionu didn't look at her. "If they want a villain, they already got one. But I'm not letting them take you."
The officer hesitated again, clearly not briefed for this.
Then a voice cut in over his earpiece.
"Negative."
The officer stiffened.
Sionu felt it before he heard it.
Hale.
"Do not detain," Hale's voice said, calm and distant. "We want him mobile."
Sionu's stomach dropped.
The officer straightened. "Orders received."
He stepped back.
"You're free to go," he said flatly. "For now."
Blitz stared at him. "That's it?"
The officer's jaw tightened. "Move."
They didn't argue.
They moved.
As they turned the corner, Blitz rounded on Sionu, fury barely contained.
"You ever do that again without telling us, I will knock you out myself."
Sionu met her gaze. "They want me visible."
Ultimo muttered, "They want you studied."
Drego shook his head. "Hale just told you the truth without saying it."
Sionu exhaled slowly. "Yeah."
4) THE SHIFT
They found temporary shelter in an abandoned daycare, its walls still painted with cartoon animals smiling through peeling paint. Tiny chairs lay overturned. A pile of children's books sat in the corner, warped by moisture.
Blitz stared at them, jaw tight. "This city really don't protect nothing."
Ultimo slumped against a wall. "I need a nap that last a week."
Drego paced. "You realize what just happened, right?"
Sionu nodded. "He let us go."
Drego shook his head. "No. He chose the stage."
Blitz crossed her arms. "Meaning?"
Drego stopped pacing and faced Sionu. "Meaning he wants you seen. Talked about. Argued over."
Sionu swallowed. "So whatever I do next…"
"…defines the next chapter," Drego finished.
Sionu closed his eyes briefly.
He could feel it now.
The shift.
He wasn't just surviving encounters anymore.
He was shaping trajectories.
Blitz sat beside him, voice quieter now. "You didn't have to offer yourself."
Sionu opened his eyes. "Yeah. I did."
Ultimo frowned. "Why?"
Sionu looked around the room. The daycare. The empty chairs. The ghost of laughter.
"Because somebody gotta draw a line that ain't written in blood."
Silence followed.
Heavy.
But not empty.
5) THE CITY RESPONDS AGAIN
That night, Kaloi's City buzzed with new footage.
Not explosions.
Not chaos.
Clips of Sionu talking to people. Kneeling to talk to a kid. Standing unarmed in front of soldiers.
The government tried to bury it.
It leaked anyway.
Comments split down the middle.
He's lying.
He's different.
This is staged.
Why would they let him walk?
Hale watched it all in silence.
"Public sentiment trending unstable," an analyst reported.
Hale nodded. "Good."
He looked at the screen where Sionu's face was paused mid-sentence, eyes steady, hands empty.
"Unstable sentiment creates opportunity."
The analyst hesitated. "Sir… what if he becomes a symbol?"
Hale smiled faintly.
"Symbols are easy," he said. "You just have to decide what they represent."
Deep beneath the city, the Event Horizon pulsed again, slower now.
Like a heartbeat syncing to something new.
Sionu sat on the floor of the daycare, back against a wall, staring at nothing.
He felt the weight of witnesses pressing in from all sides.
Not crushing.
Demanding.
Tomorrow, he wouldn't just be reacting to danger.
He'd be answering expectation.
And expectation, he knew now, was heavier than fear.
to be continued...