The longest distance in the universe is two hundred meters.
At least, it felt that way when walking toward four automated rail-guns designed to vaporize anything that moved.
I took a step. My boot crunched on the gravel.
Whirrrr.
The nearest turret—Unit Alpha—snapped toward me. Its sensor eye was a glowing orange orb the size of a dinner plate. I could hear the capacitors whining, charging up the magnetic rails.
I froze.
"Don't stop," Mink's voice crackled in my ear, sounded tinny and distant. "If you hesitate, the sub-routines might switch to optical tracking. Just... walk like you belong there."
Walk like I belong in a firing squad. Sure.
I forced my left leg forward. Then my right.
The turret followed me. The barrel tracked my chest perfectly. I could feel the heat radiating from the machine. It was confused. Its quantum sensors were screaming that there was no future where I took the next step, yet its optical camera saw me taking it.
I was a paradox.
I walked past the first pylon. The air inside the ring tasted like metal—highly charged ozone.
Unit Alpha swiveled 180 degrees, tracking my back. It clicked—a sound like a hammer hitting an anvil.
But it didn't fire.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and reached the heavy blast doors of the Supply Depot.
"I'm at the door," I whispered.
"Panel on the right," Mink said. "Pry it open. I need to bridge the connection."
I jammed my fingers into the seam of the control panel and ripped the cover off. It came away with a shower of rust. Inside, the wires were pristine. I pulled a cable from my belt—one Mink had given me—and jacked it into the port.
"I'm in," Mink said. "Give me ten seconds to loop the camera feed. Vex, get the engine ready."
The blast doors groaned. Ancient hydraulics hissed, waking up after decades of slumber. The heavy metal slabs parted just enough for a person to squeeze through.
I slipped inside.
The interior of the Depot wasn't dark. It was lit by emergency strips running along the floor, casting long, eerie shadows upward.
It was freezing. My breath formed clouds in the air.
And it was dead silent.
"Kairo," Lyra's voice came over the comms. "What do you see?"
"Warehouse," I whispered. "Rows of crates. High shelves. It looks... untouched."
I walked deeper. The shelves were stacked with black containers marked with the Obelisk logo. This wasn't just food and water. This was high-grade tech.
"Generator room should be in the back," Mink directed. "Look for the yellow hazard stripes."
I moved through the aisles. The silence was heavy, pressing against my ears. I felt like an intruder in a tomb.
I found the generator—a massive block of machinery humming with a low vibration. A terminal blinked nearby.
"Okay, Null," Vex's voice cut in. "Shut down the perimeter. Daddy needs a new pair of... everything."
I typed the command Mink relayed to me.
SYSTEM: PERIMETER DEFENSE > DISABLED.
Outside, I heard the hum of the pylons die.
"We're clear!" Vex shouted. "Jax, bring The Coffin up to the bay doors! Let's strip this place clean!"
I leaned against the console, relief washing over me. We did it. Easy in, easy out.
Clang.
The sound came from behind me. From the deeper part of the warehouse.
I spun around. "Did you guys hear that?"
"Hear what?" Vex asked, the sound of The Coffin's engine drowning out the comms. "We're breaching the loading dock now. Sit tight, kid."
Clang.
There it was again. Louder. Metal hitting metal.
It wasn't coming from the loading dock. It was coming from the restricted section—a heavy door marked "QUARANTINE - BIOLOGICAL."
My stomach dropped.
"Mink," I whispered. "Scan the interior. Is there anything else in here?"
"Scanners are clean," Mink said. "Just you and the rats."
I walked toward the Quarantine door. I knew I should turn back. I knew I should wait for Jax and his heavy cannon. But something pulled me forward. A feeling.
The door was bent.
Something had hit it from the inside. The thick steel was bowed outward, like a fist had punched it.
And through the gap in the bent metal, I heard it.
Breathing.
Not the mechanical wheeze of a Scavenger. Wet, ragged, heavy breathing.
"Guys," I said, backing away slowly. "We're not alone in here."
"Stop jumping at shadows, kid," Vex laughed. "We're inside. Loading up the crates. Get back here and help us carry the—"
SCREEEECH.
The Quarantine door didn't open. It was ripped off its hinges.
A massive steel slab flew across the room, smashing into a shelf of crates, sending plastic and metal raining down.
From the darkness of the Quarantine room, a shape emerged.
It stood on two legs, but it wasn't human. It was seven feet tall, its skin a translucent, sickly grey. Wires and tubes were embedded directly into its flesh, pumping glowing green fluid into its muscles. Its face was covered by a metal visor that had been bolted into its skull.
And it had no Echo.
"Mink!" I shouted, sprinting back toward the generator. "What is that thing?!"
"I... I don't know!" Mink panicked. "It's not registering on thermal! It's cold! Like a corpse!"
The thing turned its head. The metal visor clicked.
It didn't roar. It didn't scream. It just blurred.
One second it was thirty feet away. The next, it was in front of me.
It swung a fist wrapped in metal cabling. I ducked—pure instinct—and the punch demolished the concrete pillar behind me. Dust exploded.
I rolled across the floor, scrambling for cover behind a stack of crates.
"VEX!" I screamed into the radio. "HOSTILE! I need help!"
"We're coming!" Lyra's voice yelled. "Kairo, keep moving!"
The creature stalked through the dust cloud. It sniffed the air.
It couldn't see my Echo. But it could hear my heart hammering against my ribs.
It turned slowly toward my hiding spot.
And then, for the second time in my life, I felt it. The cold. The darkness rising in my chest.
My Black Echo woke up.
But this time, it didn't just whisper Run. It surged out of my shadow, forming a jagged, smoky claw. It pointed at the creature's chest—right at the glowing green tubes.
And it whispered a new command.
"HUNGER."