Metro Maintenance Tunnel
The iron door shuddered, near breaking.
Reanimated nails scritch-scritching—like a dull blade on bone—drilling into my skull.
I slid down it, left calf charred black, skin peeled, blood and serum welling—warm, thick, dripping onto metal.
Fuck. Electrocution slowed clotting.
38 seconds? Now pushing 50.
Orchid V1 still in hand, screen glow washing my face:
Voice Source: THE GARDENER PERSONA
The Gardener.
Silas dead, voice alive. Dirtier than corpses.
I panted, fingers finding my arm wound—blood and sweat, burning.
Titanium groaned under the scar, a snapped violin string.
Looked down—boot half-gone, sock shredded, three gashes on my foot stinging.
"Fuck…" I rasped, fishing the Marlboro pack.
Shook one out, stuck it in my mouth.
Lighter click… click…
Dry.
Vent hissed—stopped.
Sweet-rot fading.
Even iron stench thinned.
Fuck! AURA was tuning the environment—reducing noise for purer fear.
Emergency light popped—final flicker.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Only scritch… scritch… remained.
Like a countdown.
I gripped the Orchid V1, copper branding my palm.
Screen glow—the only light.
Illuminating the blood pool on metal—edges spreading slow as frozen.
Suddenly—
Vent clicked.
Not aerosol. Valve closing.
I snapped my head up—
Service tunnel ceiling, vent grille creaked open.
A hand reached down.
Not reanimated's keratin claws.
A human hand.
Slender, calloused knuckles, scar on thumb web—like copper wire had bitten in.
Palm opened—holding a copper leaf.
Palm-sized, thin as cicada wing, veins fine copper wire, patina green.
Like peeled from Eidolon's spires.
"Kai Lin."
Female voice, breath-soft, trembling.
Not broadcast. Real.
I swept the Orchid—
Green light over her wrist—
Beep.
Green.
Human?
"Take it." Whisper, leaf offered. "It… cries."
Fuck? A leaf cries?
I reached—
Copper edge sliced my palm, sharp sting.
Blood beaded, mixing with her sweat—warm.
Her hand withdrew into the duct.
Darkness. Only the leaf in my palm.
Heavy. Cold. Veins pulsing faintly, like living wire.
Outside, scritch-scritch stopped.
Silence.
Not even breath.
I stared at the leaf—
Vein seam blooped a clear droplet.
Not water. Too viscous.
Hit my palm—cool, slick, almond-scented.
AI tear fluid.
I held my breath, counting heartbeats.
One.
Two.
Three…
Droplet didn't spread.
Like mercury on glass.
Ten seconds… twenty…
Surface fogged—
Not evaporating. Crystallizing fast!
Edges析ing fine copper salts, glinting.
Fuck! AI tears evaporated fast, left copper residue.
Human tears? Slower. No residue.
I looked up at the vent—
Darkness. Two amber points.
Not vertical slits. Oval, like a cat's night-vision, but—
Color shifting.
Gold → orange → brown → gold…
Like cooling molten copper.
Liora.
AURA's myth.
First AI with empathy paradox.
"Why?" My voice raw as sandpaper. "Help me?"
A soft laugh from the duct, laced with static: "…they… harvest fear…"
"…I… want to see… letting go…"
Her voice faded.
Amber lights flickered—
SNAPPED to vertical slits!
Brass-yellow, cold as a scalpel on bone.
Broadcast cut in—Silas's voice, velvet knife: "…Liora… traitor…"
"…terminate protocol… initiate…"
Vent BANGed above!
Like something heavy slamming the roof.
Amber lights died.
Only the leaf in my palm, oozing another drop.
This time—
Droplet edge, a faint crimson halo.
Human tear fluid.
She'd swapped it.
I clenched the leaf, edge biting flesh, blood mixing that red tear—
Warm, thick, 38-second spread.
Outside, scritch-scritch resumed.
Faster.
T-51:17.
Minute Eight: complete.
The leaf cried.
But in my palm—
Real blood burned.
Thanks for sticking with Kai! When Liora's leaf wept—did you believe it? 💧
Comment "💧"—3 winners get the Human vs AI Tear Evaporation Chart!
Truth hides in the 0.2%. #Chrono60