The tunnel shook behind them as the machine and the Carrier tore each other apart, but Mira barely heard it.
Her pulse roared louder than the collapsing steel.
Zayn's hand was still wrapped around hers.
He didn't let go until they burst into an abandoned substation—a wide concrete chamber lit only by the flicker of a broken neon sign overhead.
Leena collapsed against a pillar, shaking. "This is insane. All of it. Machines. Ghosts. Monsters—what is happening to us?"
Mira tried to answer, but her gaze kept slipping to Zayn.
He was pale. Sweat-covered. Bleeding from the shoulder where the Carrier had thrown him. Every few seconds he winced—but tried to hide it.
"You're hurt," Mira said, stepping toward him.
"I'm fine," Zayn lied, badly.
She reached for his arm.
He flinched—not from pain, but from the sudden closeness.
"I said I'm fine," he repeated more softly.
She held his gaze. "Let me help."
For a moment, Zayn hesitated… then he let her lift his sleeve.
His shoulder was bruised black-blue, veins spiderwebbing out from the impact. It looked wrong. Not natural.
"Zayn…" she whispered.
His voice broke. "If I pass out, don't leave me, okay?"
Mira swallowed hard. "I wouldn't."
Something warm flickered between them.
A feeling that made the cold room feel too small.
But before either could speak—
A wet dragging sound echoed through the far hallways.
Leena's eyes widened. "No… no no no—what *now*?"
Zayn pulled away from Mira, gripping his fallen blade with renewed desperation. "Weapon check. Everyone arm up."
Mira's switchblade glinted weakly in the neon light.
Not enough.
She scanned the room—pipes, broken panels, rusted tools—and her gaze landed on a steel cutting saw disc buried under debris. She yanked it free.
It was heavy, jagged around the edges, and coated with old rust.
Perfect.
She tied it to the end of a broken metal rod with stripped wiring, forming a brutal, makeshift **saw-axe**.
Zayn stared. "You just made that in ten seconds?"
"You taught me how to improvise," she said.
He blinked—surprised, impressed, maybe a little proud.
Leena armed herself with a jagged crowbar she could barely lift.
The dragging sound grew louder.
The shadows in the hallway shifted—something crawling just beyond the light.
Not one thing.
At least five.
Mira stepped forward, pulse thundering. "Whatever comes out, don't let it touch you."
They emerged.
The **Scavengers**—half-metal, half-sludge creatures shaped vaguely like humans but wrong in every possible way. Their limbs were too long, bending backward. Their faces were melted outlines of features—no eyes, just pits where wires twitched like exposed nerves.
The lead one gurgled and opened its mouth.
Black fluid oozed out, sizzling when it hit the floor.
Mira raised her saw-axe. "Zayn… stay behind me."
He pulled her back. "Not a chance. We fight together."
More tension.
More fear.
More everything.
The Scavengers lunged.
And hell broke loose.
---
## **The Fight**
One leaped at Mira, metal claws extended.
She swung hard—
The saw-disc slammed into its skull with a sickening crunch, sparks and dark fluid spraying the floor. The creature convulsed violently, then collapsed in a twitching heap.
Another charged at Zayn. He slid under its reach, slashing upward with his blade.
The cut wasn't deep, but he hit something vital—black wires snapped, spraying smoke. The creature shrieked and staggered back.
Leena swung her crowbar wildly, screaming. She accidentally smashed a Scavenger's knee backward, sending it collapsing like a broken puppet.
But the horror wasn't done.
The creatures didn't bleed.
They leaked—a thick black tar that crawled like living insects, dragging itself toward Mira's boots.
The tar whispered.
Her name.
"Miraaaaa…."
She stepped back, horrified. "Zayn—it's saying—"
"I hear it!" he shouted. "Stay away from the floor!"
One Scavenger pounced from above. Mira reacted on instinct—catching it mid-air with her saw-axe.
The blade buried in its face.
It screamed, thrashing violently enough to shake her entire arm.
Zayn rushed in, kicking the creature off her weapon.
"Mira!" he yelled, grabbing her shoulders. "You okay?"
Too close.
Too intense.
Too loud inside her chest.
She nodded—not trusting her voice.
He didn't let go.
His thumb brushed her cheek, wiping away dust. "Don't scare me like that."
Her breath stopped—just for a second.
Before she could answer—
A metallic shriek echoed down the hallway.
Every Scavenger froze.
Then, like puppets whose strings were cut, they collapsed into piles of twitching metal and sludge.
Silence.
Only the fading neon buzzed overhead.
Leena stared. "What made them stop?"
Mira felt the answer before she said it.
The air behind her turned cold.
A distant echo stirred in her chest.
A whisper she felt in her bones.
The Carrier wasn't dead.
Zayn saw her expression shift.
"Mira?"
His voice was gentle.
Worried.
Too soft for the world they were trapped in.
"Something's calling me," Mira whispered.
Zayn stepped closer. "Then I'm going wherever you go."
Her chest tightened painfully.
Afraid.
Grateful.
Something dangerously close to more.
But beneath that emotion…
She felt something else.
A connection she couldn't explain.
A pull deeper than fear or instinct.
The Carrier's human eye.
Its cracking mask.
Its torn voice whispering *Remember…*
Something inside her responded.
Not with fear.
With recognition.
Zayn watched her carefully. "Mira… what aren't you telling me?"
She looked away.
Because she didn't know how to say the terrifying truth:
*She didn't just hear the Carrier.*
*She felt it.*
In her mind.
In her blood.
Like a memory of someone she had once loved—
and forgotten.