Flames licked the ceiling as another pipe burst behind us, spraying steam and what looked like molten insulation across the corridor. The world was screaming: metal against metal, alarms strangled halfway, people shouting in every direction, some in SkyStandard, others in broken Earth dialects I had not heard in decades.
My arm locked around Naeva's waist, pulling her close as we ducked beneath a sparking conduit. She was light in my grip, breath sharp and fast, like a bird trying not to panic in a burning cage. Her robe, once elegant—silver over pale blue synthweave—was streaked with ash and fine blood spray. She had tried to wipe it away earlier with her sleeve. The smear only spread. Now her hands trembled.
"Do not look," I murmured as we stepped over another body. This one was torn open down the back, still twitching from whatever kinetic spike had shredded his spinal net.
"I already did," she whispered, voice fragile as mist. "I cannot unsee it."
A sob caught in her throat. Not loud. She would not let herself break. Not entirely. Her body shook anyway. She did not fall behind. She did not scream. She held on and moved.
Danika reappeared ahead, pressed against a bulkhead, eyes wild.
"They are not invaders," she snapped. "Test units. Prototypes. Bio-hybrids. They are not supposed to be awake. Not this far out."
"From where?" I asked.
She shook her head, lip bleeding. "Lower research vaults. Ghost sectors the Corporation swore were gone. Lies. They were building something under the tower. Now it is loose."
More screaming from below, metal torn, then gurgling.Something slammed into the corridor wall two floors down. Bones snapped. It kept moving.
Danika grabbed my shoulder. "Bridge. Manual lift shaft. Old maintenance route. The auto-rails are corrupted."
"And the evac transports?"
"Gone. Overloaded or sabotaged. Too many people. Too many… things."
Behind us, Naeva staggered against the wall, hands braced, sobbing quietly as she tried to brush blood off her thigh. She shook with disgust, not fear. It was the grime, the filth. She hated it. The feel of blood. Of ugliness.
She looked at me, tears clinging to her lashes."I am dirty," she whispered. "Kael, I am so dirty. I cannot breathe."
I cupped her face with both hands. Sweat dampened her skin. Her lips trembled.
"You are beautiful," I said. "Even like this. Especially like this. You are with me. That is what matters."
"I do not want to die like this."
"You are not dying."
And I meant it. If she died, I would not just lose her. I would burn the sky.
A new figure stumbled in behind Danika: a man in industrial body armor, visor cracked, shoulder slick with dark blood. He dragged another Companion. Her legs were limp, clothes shredded, a faint heartlight blinking at her collarbone.
"She saved me," he panted. "Ripped a door open with her hands. She should not be able to do that."
Danika cursed. "Newer models are adaptive. They were exposed to the breach field. Behavior parameters are unstable."
The Companion blinked, dazed, then fixed on Naeva."You are clean," she said dreamily. "I like you."
Naeva's breath hitched. She slipped behind me.
Then the boom.A controlled charge detonated two floors up, close enough to buckle the ceiling panel. Dust rained down. A vent shaft collapsed, sealing us off from the lift corridor.
Emergency lights flared red.
A voice bled through the wall. Not electronic. Not natural.
"WE WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE LEFT BEHIND."
Naeva whimpered. Her knees gave. I caught her.
"Move!" Danika screamed. "They are coming from above too!"
No time to think. Just run. Bleeding, choking, shaking. We ran. The bridge was close.
The crawlspace stank of melted plastic and old coolant. Heat rolled off the walls, turning the passage into an oven. Metal groaned with every tremor, as if the city's skeleton wanted to split apart.
Naeva crawled ahead of me. The torn edge of her skirt dragged behind, smeared with oil and soot. Her thighs, pale and trembling, moved in tight, jerky motions. She hated this: the dirt, the confinement, the scrape of metal on skin never meant for war.
"I cannot breathe," she whimpered, her voice echoing down the pipe like a broken song.
"You are doing well, sweetheart," I said, my hand never leaving her ankle. "Almost there."
"I feel it on me," she gasped. "I cannot clean it. It is under my nails. There is blood in my nails."
Behind me, Danika groaned. "Tell her to shut up or I will."
"She is not you," I snapped.
"She better learn."
Tyven crawled after Danika, exosuit joints grinding in the tight space, the shoulder-mounted mini-lift whining each time he twisted.
"We are not all built for this," he muttered. "Skin like a mine door and I am still seconds from screaming."
"You are screaming," said the girl ahead—Lyss, barefoot, clutching a scavenged power pack. She moved faster than all of us, navigating the tunnel like a home territory.
"I worked these shafts," she said. "They are rated for two. If the next quake hits, this whole tunnel could—"
Boom.
Not an explosion. A collapse. Something above gave way. The floor over the pipe snapped like brittle bone.
Dust and debris poured in. Danika cried out as metal slammed her back. Tyven's actuator sparked.
Naeva shrieked, high and sharp, curling inward. "Kael, it is closing. Do not let it. Do not let it."
"I am here." I crawled faster. My hand found her ankle. She kicked, froze when she recognized my touch, then sobbed.
"I cannot do this," she whispered. "Let me pass out. Let me go numb."
I pulled level with her, pressed my forehead to hers. "If you go numb, I die."
Her breath hitched. Her hands trembled on my shoulders.
Behind us, a scream. Danika.
"I am stuck," she cried. "My arm. It is pinned. Burning."
Tyven braced his exo-shoulder against the metal. "Hold. I can lever it. Hold."
Lyss crawled back. "Service valve on the left ahead. It opens to a vertical chute."
"A chute?" I said.
She nodded. "Drop is rough. Leads to the waste bay. Better air."
Naeva shivered, still crying softly. I pulled her close.
"You with me, dove?"
She nodded against my chest. "I do not want to die covered in filth. I want to die less if I am with you."
I kissed her hair and turned to the others."We reach the chute. We drop."
Danika hissed through her teeth, blood soaking her sleeve. "Fine. We fall together."
Behind us, the tunnel moaned again. Not metal this time.
Something was crawling after us.