I never knew silence could feel so loud.
Not the kind that soothes, but the kind that suffocates. The kind that sits heavy in your chest, filling every breath with dread. It was the silence of a room after a scream, the silence of a battlefield right before the guns fire again.
That was what it felt like inside my head after the voice spoke.
The integration has begun.
The words hadn't been audible in the air they'd been inside me, etched into the edges of my mind like a scar. My pulse thundered in my ears. I wanted to tell myself it was a hallucination, stress-induced, the byproduct of too much adrenaline and too little sleep. But I knew better.
The shard had spoken. And it wasn't finished with me.
Kael's hand gripped my shoulder, dragging me back into the here and now. His eyes burned into mine, sharp, searching, unrelenting. "Morgan. Can you move?"
I forced my lips to answer. "Yeah. I'm fine." The lie tasted bitter.
He studied me for a beat too long, like he didn't believe me, then nodded. "Good. Because staying here isn't an option." He gestured to the rusted grate half-submerged in the toxic black river beside us. "That's our way in."
Eli gagged at the stench rising off the water, chemical waste mixed with something fouler like decay. His hoodie was pulled up so tight around his nose he looked half his age. "You're joking. We'll drown before we get halfway."
"No," Kael said flatly. "We'll survive. Because there's no other choice."
The grate loomed like the maw of some beast, jagged and corroded. My chest tightened as I stared at it. It wasn't just claustrophobia, or the thought of the poisoned water. It was the shard, pulsing in my palm, like it wanted me to go in there.
And then the voice whispered again, softer this time, almost coaxing:
Deeper. Integration requires descent.
My throat went dry. I tightened my fist around the shard until its edges bit into my skin. I couldn't let Kael or Eli see the tremor in my hand. "Fine," I muttered, trying to sound braver than I felt. "Let's go."
Kael didn't hesitate. He crouched, gripped the grate with both hands, and pulled. The metal screeched in protest, flakes of rust raining into the river, but slowly agonizingly it gave way. He shoved it aside, revealing the black tunnel beyond.
"After you," he said.
I swallowed hard and stepped forward.
The moment I slipped inside, the world changed.
The darkness was immediate, thick, pressing. It wrapped around me like a second skin. My boots splashed through shallow water, every movement echoing unnaturally loud in the cramped space. The air was damp and rancid, heavy with mildew. Each breath tasted like mold.
Behind me, Eli crawled in, muttering curses under his breath. His hand brushed mine as if to anchor himself. Kael followed last, closing the grate behind us with a metallic groan that reverberated down the tunnel.
I flinched at the sound. It felt final.
Like a tomb sealing shut.
We moved single-file, the water rising to our ankles. Every step was a reminder that this was real, that there was no turning back. My mind tried to conjure images of what could be waiting deeper in the dark flooded passageways, traps, ambushes. But my body was focused on something else entirely.
The shard.
It pulsed in rhythm with my heartbeat, flooding my veins with warmth, or maybe electricity I couldn't tell anymore. And with every pulse, I saw more.
The walls shimmered. Not in the real world, but in my overlay vision. Lines of glowing code ran across the damp concrete, scrolling symbols that twisted and reshaped themselves into patterns I almost recognized. Schematics. Blueprints. Directions.
I stumbled, clutching the wall. "What the hell"
Kael was instantly at my side. "Morgan?" His voice was sharp, alert, already ready for danger.
I hesitated. Telling him the truth meant admitting just how deep the Code had sunk its hooks into me. But keeping it secret could get us all killed.
"There's… a map," I whispered, my voice trembling. "I can see the tunnels. Not here, not physically but in the Code. It's showing me the way."
Kael's jaw tightened. His visor flickered with faint light, scanning me. I hated the way his eyes narrowed, calculating. Suspicious. But all he said was: "Then lead."
Eli's eyes darted between us, wide with fear. "Ayla… what's happening to you?"
I didn't answer. I just kept walking. Because if I stopped, if I let myself think about it, I wasn't sure I'd be able to move again.
The glowing pathways bent as I stepped, pulling me forward, deeper into the maze of tunnels. Left, right, down, around it didn't feel like my choice. It felt guided, like I was being walked down a path I'd already chosen without knowing.
Minutes bled into something longer. The light from the grate behind us had long since vanished. Kael's visor was the only glow, ghostly blue reflecting off damp walls. My own vision shimmered with code overlays, brighter, sharper with each step.
Finally, the tunnel widened into a chamber.
A cistern.
The water here was deeper, black and rippling, the surface reflecting nothing. It smelled worse, too like the rot of things that had been left too long underwater.
I froze. Because something was moving in it.
At first, I thought it was the current. But then the surface broke metal rising from the depths. A skeletal arm, corroded and dripping.
A drone.
Its body was warped with rust, wires exposed like veins, but its optic flickered red as it dragged itself from the water.
And then another.
And another.
Dozens.
They rose like drowned corpses reanimated, their joints creaking, their frames glistening with sludge. Forgotten machines, discarded in the poisoned river, now awakened by some unseen signal.
Eli screamed, the sound bouncing off the walls. "They're everywhere"
Kael shoved him back. His rifle was already raised. "Move, Morgan!"
But I couldn't. My feet rooted to the stone. Because the shard wasn't just pulsing anymore it was burning.
A searing heat flooded my hand, spilling up my arm, into my chest. My vision exploded in jagged streams of light, the world overlaid with cascading code.
And with it came the voice. Louder now, edged with command.
Submit, Ayla. Let the Code complete its integration. Only then will you survive.
My knees buckled. The water lapped at my boots as I fought to stay upright. The world around me split in two the physical swarm of drones closing in, and the digital lattice overlaying it, shimmering with access points, vulnerabilities, doors I could open.
I could feel them. The drones' programming. Their commands, their loops, their hunger. I could reach into it, twist it, change it.
The thought terrified me.
Kael's voice tore through the haze. "Morgan! Fight it! Stay with me!"
But part of me didn't want to fight.
Part of me wanted to let go.
The nearest drone lunged, claws outstretched
And the shard flared, searing hot, as if it had melted into my palm.
The world went white.
---
Ayla blacks out mid-battle as the shard forces a deeper integration with the Code. The reader is left uncertain if she'll awaken human, machine or something in between.