They didn't stop running until the tunnel spit them out.
Light slammed into Felix's eyes.
Not sunlight.
Factory light.
Cold, white, artificial.
The Bitter District sealed itself behind them with a sound like a throat closing.
---
They collapsed onto a grated maintenance platform overlooking one of the lower production streets of the chocolate city.
Above them, conveyor belts rolled endlessly.
Below them, molten chocolate flowed through transparent pipes like glowing veins.
The city was awake.
Working.
Alive.
And completely unaware of what was stirring beneath it.
---
Leo lay flat on his back, gasping.
"I'm never… ever… eating chocolate again."
Aya dropped beside him, hands shaking.
"That's a lie and you know it."
Tomas leaned against the railing, staring down at the streets far below.
"There are people walking down there. Workers. Families."
His jaw tightened.
"They have no idea."
---
Felix sat apart from them.
His hands wouldn't stop trembling.
The taste was still there.
Bitter.
Metallic.
Wrong.
Nia knelt in front of him slowly, carefully, like he might shatter if she moved too fast.
"Felix," she said softly.
"You're here. You're safe."
Felix swallowed.
"He's not."
Nia didn't argue.
---
Lina sat cross-legged near the wall, sketchbook open again despite the shaking in her fingers. She wasn't drawing what she saw above.
She was drawing roots.
Thick, twisting shapes burrowing through layers of stone and chocolate, reaching upward toward buildings, streets, people.
Aya noticed.
Her voice dropped.
"Lina… how do you know what they look like?"
Lina didn't look up.
"I don't. I just… remember."
That sent a chill through all of them.
---
A loudspeaker crackled overhead.
"—Production levels holding steady—"
The cheerful voice echoed through the street, oblivious and bright.
Felix flinched.
"How can it still sound so normal?" he whispered.
"How can everything still be working?"
Tomas answered quietly.
"Because whatever's down there has been sleeping for a long time."
Aya crossed her arms.
"And now it's stretching."
---
Felix pressed his palm against his chest.
The key pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Slower than before.
Patient.
Waiting.
Nia noticed.
"It's still reacting, isn't it?"
Felix nodded.
"It wants me to go back."
Silence hit them like a dropped plate.
Leo sat up.
"Back? As in… down there back?"
Felix didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
---
Aya swore under her breath.
"No. Absolutely not. We barely survived that place."
Tomas nodded grimly.
"Whatever Ambrose built under this city wasn't meant to be seen."
Felix's voice shook.
"That man said Ambrose couldn't control it."
Nia inhaled sharply.
"That changes things."
---
Above them, a tram rolled past on suspended rails, carrying laughing tourists with chocolate-stained fingers and glowing souvenirs.
Felix watched it go.
The contrast made his stomach turn.
"They don't know," he said.
"They don't know what they're standing on."
Leo rubbed his arms.
"I hate cities now."
---
A shadow passed over them.
Not from below.
From above.
Aya's head snapped up.
"Did you see that?"
Another shadow.
Sharper.
Angular.
Mechanical.
Tomas squinted.
"Drones."
They all froze.
High above the production street, sleek black surveillance drones slid silently between buildings, lenses glowing faint amber.
City security.
Factory security.
Ambrose's eyes.
---
Felix's heart pounded.
"They're looking for us."
Nia grabbed his hand.
"Then we don't stay here."
Aya was already moving.
"Maintenance routes. Now."
Leo groaned as he stood.
"Do we ever get a break?"
"No," Aya said flatly.
"This city doesn't give breaks."
---
As they slipped into a side corridor, Felix glanced back one last time.
The street hummed.
The machines churned.
The city smiled.
And far, far beneath it—
Something shifted.
Something remembered his name.
Felix clenched his fist.
Whatever Ambrose had buried under the city…
Whatever heart beat beneath the chocolate and steel…
He knew one thing now.
This wasn't just about survival anymore.
It was about stopping a hunger
before the city finally tasted it.