"Infected?"
The word crawled out of my mouth like something dying, broken by static as if another voice were trying to speak through me. The sound wasn't mine anymore—it vibrated with distortion, metallic and empty.
My head tilted with a slow, mechanical creak.
Doman swallowed hard, taking a shaky step back. His visor was cracked, one lens completely black. I could see his eyes behind it—wide, bright with fear.
"I… I had to," he stammered. "It's your duty as a low‑born."
My boots sloshed through the mud, heavy and deliberate. No stumble. No hesitation. The dull blue glow from my left eye merged with the amber blaze of my right, pulsing in opposing rhythms—one slow and human, one sharp and electric.
I smiled. A faint, fractured expression, too cold to be mine.
"Maybe you're right," I said. "But that doesn't explain why you left me to bleed out like an animal."
He parted his lips—nothing came out. The pistol in his hand trembled, catching the light in a jittering reflection. Fear rippled through him, a scent I could almost taste.
A low vibration started deep in my ribs, crawling up my throat. The circuits under my skin shimmered alive, glowing brighter with each breath.
>Execute command
"Don't," he croaked, hands shaking. "Please, … if you don't kill me— I can take you to the Upper Colony! My family's rich. They'll pay you, anything—just don't—"
That word again. Rich. Upper.The tone rubbed against something still human inside me—raw, old, hateful. My grip loosened. For a second, I felt something like mercy rise and die in my chest.
Then came the scream.
Not Doman's.
A wet, broken cry echoed from down the tunnel. Through the flickering firelight, an infected dragged what was left of itself toward us—half‑melted, bones visible through blistered flesh. Its fingers scraped the floor, leaving trails of skin and blood.
The orange in my right eye flared.
I turned. Raised my hand.
The air around me detonated—rings of pressure rippling outward, shredding the creature before it could make another sound. It disintegrated into mist and splinters of bone that painted the walls red.
When the ash cleared, I looked back at Doman.
He wasn't begging anymore. He was snarling.
He moved quick—a flash of silver light—and pain ripped through my chest.
The knife sank deep into my heart.
For a heartbeat, I felt nothing. Then the glow pulsed violently, orange to white.
Doman's face twisted into a smile. "You really thought I'd die down here, rat?" His voice was low, shaking, desperate to sound strong. "Just die, you infected beast."
A laughter bubbled from his throat—a trembling, half‑mad sound that echoed in the hollow space between us.
> Eliminate threat.
Something clicked inside my skull.
I looked up at him, slowly, my head turning in a jerky motion. The lights in my eyes dimmed to coals. "You shouldn't have done that," I whispered.
He stepped back, slipping on the wet stone. "You're not— you can't be alive—"
>Kill.
My hand snapped up, seizing him by the throat before he could finish. I could feel the pulse fluttering under his skin, erratic and terrified.
He clawed weakly at my wrist. "D‑don't— my family—"
I lifted him with one arm, his boots scraping against the wall, his breath hitching into silence.
> Kill.
I hurled him backward. His body met the jagged rock wall with a sickening crack; the knife slipped from his grasp, clattering against the stone.
He crumpled but didn't stop glaring. "You bastard," he rasped. "Whatever you do… my family will find you. They'll kill you."
I stepped over him, raising my hands. The glowing veins under my skin flared again, brighter now—alive, hungry. The hum in my body sharpened to a single note of killing intent. My vision split, binary overlays flickering across my sight.
Doman tried to crawl away. The mud beneath him turned dark and slick with his blood.
I flicked my wrist.
A wave of invisible force screamed through the air. It carved the world in half for a heartbeat—then silence.
When the dust settled, Doman lay still.
Blood spread outward in a halo. His eyes were frozen wide, his throat a ragged wound of ruin.
I stared down at him. The smell of iron filled the air, sharp and electric.
A strange heat pulsed through me—not regret, not sorrow. Satisfaction.
It frightened me how good it felt.
I crouched beside the corpse. For a second, the world tilted—the realization crawling up my spine. I killed a person. Not out of defense. Not to survive. But because it was easy.
Because the thing inside wanted it.
And… because part of me did too.
Above, the ground trembled. A deep rumble rolled through the air—a sound like engines waking from their sleep.
Through the roar, faint mechanical shrieks echoed.
Drones. Patrol units. The colony's hunters from the accademy.