The RV rocked gently as Rachel sat on the edge of the fold-out bed, fingers trembling over the thick folder Harris had left behind. The hum of the heater did little to silence the ringing in her ears. She flipped the pages, skimming redacted memos, blurred surveillance stills, and medical charts with her name at the top. Her photo. Her blood type. Her behavioral markers.
The last page bore a strange symbol.
A circle with an arrow through it.
Underneath: Subject Status: Inconclusive. Observation Required.
Her hand froze.
[System Notice: Subject 112 — Dormant. Status: Dreaming in Static.]
[Awakening Protocol: Suspended. Time to Disruption: UNKNOWN]
Good. Maybe the damn thing had shut up for now. But the silence didn't feel like peace. It felt like a predator hiding in tall grass.
She stood, her reflection staring back from the tinted RV window. Her eyes were darker than she remembered. Or maybe she just forgot what she looked like.
Who was she before all this?
The memory tried to rise again. That birthday cake. That crying woman. A name—Evelyn. Then pain.
She gripped the side of her head.
Nothing. The image evaporated.
There was a knock.
Three raps. Sharp. Measured.
Rachel jumped. She grabbed a heavy flashlight, heart hammering.
A shadow moved outside. Then a voice.
"You left the door unlocked."
It wasn't Harris.
The door creaked open, revealing a girl about her age, maybe younger. Leather jacket. Blue hair. Piercing eyes like a fox.
"How'd you find me?" Rachel asked.
"I didn't. He did." She held up a phone. On the screen was a looping message: TRACE COMPLETE — 112 LOCATED.
Rachel backed up. "You're with them?"
"No." The girl pocketed the phone. "I'm with you. I got out two weeks ago. Name's Skye. You looked like you were going to freak out alone in here."
"You escaped the Program?"
Skye grinned. "Define 'escaped."
They sat at the tiny table while Skye devoured a can of beans like it was gourmet.
Rachel showed her the file.
Skye frowned. "Yours is thicker than mine was."
"You had one too?"
Skye nodded. "Everyone tagged does. Most just don't live long enough to read it."
Silence settled. Then, without warning:
[Transmission Breach — A Watcher Listens.]
Both girls froze.
[Signal Trace Initiated — Host Coordinates Unstable]
Rachel's vision blinked. For a split second, she wasn't in the RV. She stood in a lecture hall, empty, with chairs on fire and sirens in the distance. She heard screaming. Her own voice. Then—
Back.
Skye stared at her. "Did you see it?"
Rachel nodded. "What the hell was that?"
Skye looked away. "They're called Feedback Loops. Glitches. Memories. Warnings. Or traps."
The lights flickered.
A new notification appeared.
[Operator Levi_Sigma Requests Audience.]
Rachel hesitated. Skye leaned over.
"Don't open it. Once you engage with them, you let them in."
But curiosity is a loud voice.
Rachel tapped the message.
[Progress Noted. Initiating Curriculum Expansion.]
Attached was a video. She pressed play.
A classroom. Dozens of students. A professor writing on the board. But as the camera moved, faces began to distort—stretched, melting, pixelated. One by one, students turned to look at the camera.
Then to her.
They all whispered one word: "Subject."
The video cut to black.
Skye was already packing. "They know we're together now. We have to move."
They bolted from the RV. Cold wind sliced through the trees. Skye led, Rachel close behind. Branches whipped past them. In the distance, headlights blinked on—three sets. No engines. Just light.
[Caution: Perimeter Breach — Enforcers Mobilized]
Rachel's legs burned. She stumbled over a root. Skye grabbed her arm, yanked her forward.
"Don't stop. That's what they want."
"What are they?"
"You'll see."
The light swelled. A siren roared. Not police. Something... wrong. Synthetic.
They dove behind a fallen tree. The lights passed. No footsteps. No sound.
Machines hunting ghosts.
Rachel whispered, "What now?"
Skye smirked. "Now we find the others."
"Others?"
"There's more of us. Rebels. Broken code. But first—we need Levi."
Rachel tensed. "Why?"
Skye's grin vanished. "Because he's not just an Operator. He's the original Subject."
As the forest fell into unnatural silence, Rachel's system surged awake.
[Directive Upload: Campus Node Must Be Located]
[Optional Query: Determine Levi_Sigma's Origin Function]
[Caution: Trust is a virus. Use protection.]
She didn't know where they were going. But she finally understood:
This wasn't a school.
It was a system.
And she was already logged in.
The forest swallowed them whole. The deeper they ran, the darker it became—shadows twisting between branches like tendrils of smoke. Each footfall sank into damp moss and cracked twigs. Rachel's breath came fast, forming ghosts in the air.
Skye moved like she belonged in the trees, ducking under limbs and weaving through underbrush. Rachel struggled to keep pace, her shoes soaked through and ankles burning. Above them, the stars were blotted out by a rolling fog, unnatural and suffocating.
"I thought you said there was a road," Rachel panted.
"There was." Skye skidded to a stop, surveying the area. "They've changed the layout again."
Rachel blinked. "What do you mean, changed?"
Skye crouched and tapped a spot on her phone. A crude map appeared, but it glitched every few seconds, rerouting like it couldn't agree with itself.
"This forest isn't... normal anymore," Skye whispered. "The Program folds reality around access points. Especially the hidden ones."
Rachel's chest tightened. "Access points?"
"Nodes. Places where the system bleeds into the real world. Like leaks." Skye stood and pointed into the trees. "We find one, we might learn why Levi sent that message. Or how to kill the damn system."
They continued forward. Behind them, the forest remained silent—too silent. Not a single birdcall. Not even the wind.
Then a crack.
Rachel whirled. Something moved between the trees.
[NOTICE: Shadow Signature Detected]
She didn't need the alert. She could feel it now—something watching. Breathing with them.
They reached a clearing shrouded in pale mist. At its center stood an old phone booth. Red, rusted, out of place like a ghost from another era.
"This is it," Skye said, walking slowly toward it. "Node-Delta. One of the original anchors. It predates the current interface."
Rachel stared. "That thing? It looks like a prop."
Skye placed her hand on the glass. The door opened with a hiss.
Inside, the booth was filled with wires, screens, and a small keyboard grafted into the rotary dial. Static buzzed faintly.
Rachel stepped in behind her. The moment she did, her system surged.
[Node Access Initiated]
[WARNING: Data Echo Detected. Playback Engaged.]
The booth shimmered. Then the world fell away.
Rachel stood in a classroom again. But this one was real. Dusty desks. A whiteboard covered in formulas. A broken projector humming in the background.
A young man sat in the front row, typing frantically on a laptop. The screen bore the system's interface—older, rawer. A prototype.
"Levi," Rachel whispered.
The man looked up. Not at her—but through her.
He began to speak.
"If you're seeing this... you've been chosen. You weren't supposed to remember. But now it's too late."
The classroom darkened. The walls melted like candle wax.
"RUN," he mouthed.
Back in the booth, Rachel gasped.
Skye pulled her out. "You accessed a live memory. You okay?"
Rachel nodded. Barely. "That was Levi. A long time ago."
Skye swallowed hard. "He's leaving a trail. Breadcrumbs. But for who?"
Rachel looked at her hands, shaking.
"Maybe... himself."
They didn't talk as they left the clearing. Whatever that node did, it unsettled both of them. Rachel kept glancing over her shoulder. She could still hear Levi's voice echoing in her head.
They reached the edge of an abandoned road. Faded paint. Cracked asphalt. A yellow bus, overturned and rusting, sat half-submerged in a ditch.
The air shifted. It began to rain—but not water.
Static.
Tiny white flecks, like television snow, drifted from above. It clung to their clothes, their skin, fizzing softly.
Rachel brushed it off. "What is this?"
"System interference," Skye said grimly. "Reality's thinning here. We're too close to another bleed."
From the fog, shapes appeared. Students.
But they weren't students.
They wore uniforms, carried books, moved like clockwork. No eye contact. No awareness. Their faces repeated—like someone copied one face and pasted it a hundred times.
Rachel backed up. "Are they real?"
"They're echoes. Shells. Feedback experiments."
One of them looked at Rachel.
And smiled.
[Subject 112: Integrity Check Initiated]
[Foreign Process Detected — Countermeasure Failed]
[Corruption: 3%]
Rachel stumbled. Her vision blurred. A high-pitched scream echoed through her head.
Skye grabbed her. "Hey—stay with me!"
Rachel clutched her temples. The system was eating into her.
Then it stopped.
The student echoes froze mid-step.
[Override Signal Received]
[Source: Unknown]
The echoes turned away. Walked back into the mist.
Skye pulled Rachel toward the bus. "We need shelter. And answers."
Inside the wreck, among shattered glass and broken seats, was another folder.
Rachel opened it.
A photo of her parents stared back.
On the back, in red ink: Found
[New System Directive: Interrogate Origin — Parent IDs Linked]
[Side Task: Prevent Further Feedback Corruption]
[Note: Answers come at a cost. Prepare to pay.]
Rachel felt the weight of the file. Skye stood beside her, silent, waiting.
This wasn't just about her anymore.
This was personal.
And the system knew it