Continuation..
The hum of drones was getting closer.
I stared at the pulsing blue light in Alessia’s hand. This was my choice. Step into the unknown—or let the system erase me forever.
I clenched my teeth. “Do it.”
She pressed the device, and the world around me shuddered. Not physically—something inside me.
Like I was being pulled into a freezing current of pure data, swirling, warping, consuming me. My consciousness fractured, shattered… then rebuilt itself.
The drone’s hum snapped me back into reality. “Run,” Alessia grabbed my hand and yanked me forward.
We slipped into a dark corridor between server racks. Something inside me felt different. Unstable. Every step felt too light, like I was moving faster than I should. We dodged through one door, then another. Alessia led me into a narrow passage, where the air reeked of metal and ozone.
She stopped suddenly, kneeling by a hatch in the floor. With a quick motion, she hooked a crowbar under the heavy metal plate and wrenched it open.
“Down. Now.”
I didn’t argue. Ladder. Darkness. The red glow of her flashlight flickered to life, casting eerie shadows.
For the first time, I got a clear look at her eyes through the mask—soft, alive, but exhausted. Like she hadn’t slept in days.
“Tunnel ahead. Stay low,” she whispered.
I followed, crouching. Cables. Pipes. The scent of mold. Everything around me felt sharper, like I could see the world in multiple layers at once.
A crash echoed above us - drones. They had breached the door upstairs. I tensed, but Alessia squeezed my hand firmly.
“Stay calm, Riko. This tunnel isn’t in their schematics.” We moved forward.
A grate blocked our path. Locked. Alessia reached under her cloak, pulling out a small hacking device - the same kind she had used on me. A quiet buzz, a spark, a click. The lock released.
Ahead, a dim light flickered. Silhouettes stood waiting.
“It's us,” Alessia raised her hands. “This is Riko. The one the system just marked.”
People exchanged glances.
A woman stepped forward. Marina. Short hair, lean frame, holding a tablet. Homemade AR glasses flickered across her face.
“Well… still breathing,” she said dryly, but not unkindly. “Welcome to the underground, Riko. You really stirred some shit up.”
I exhaled. "Alive." But deep down, I knew - my life would never be the same again.
“…Who are you people?” The words barely left my lips as I tried to process the fact that I had just slipped from certain capture.
Marina stepped closer, smirking.
“The ones who don’t exist,” she said. “Ghosts of the system. Just like you now.”
My throat went dry. I really was one of them now. “…And what exactly do you do down here?” I gestured vaguely at the space around us.
A tall, broad-shouldered man stepped forward. His right hand was missing a thumb - just four fingers remained. They called him CZ.
“We fight,” he said. “We survive. We strike back. Against the Pattern. Against this whole damn Matrix.”
The way he spat the word “Matrix”—with pure, raw hatred - made it clear. These people had been through hell.
I took a breath.
I had found them.
People who understood me.
