"I'm sorry about this," Derniere said, her voice laced with frustration. "The power hasn’t gone out in a long time."

  Kai shook his head. "It’s not your fault."

  Derniere shook hers as well. "No, I know it’s not my fault. I’m apologizing because of what we have to do to fix it."

  That didn’t sound good.

  She took the mushrooms he had gathered and set them by the door, then turned to the dark room and called out, "Bell, it’s time to go."

  As if on cue, the small creature scurried out from a hole in the wall, darting up Derniere’s leg, scrambling over her torso, and finally settling on her shoulder. It held on tight, making a few excited squeaks.

  Kai realized they were going out again.

  This time, Derniere pulled on her face mask, securing it in place before heading in the opposite direction—toward the trash piles.

  Kai followed behind without hesitation. It was still early, so at least they wouldn’t have to worry about the watchers.

  As they walked, Derniere kept her gaze upward, scanning something. Kai followed her line of sight and realized she was watching the street poles, checking the electrical wires.

  Halfway to their destination, just outside the city, the first whiff of decay hit Kai. He inhaled sharply, trying to shut his senses off, but it didn’t work.

  He grimaced. The stench of waste clung to the air, thick and rotten.

  Why does the liquid only work when I'm in danger? Kai wondered. If it could suppress pain and enhance his senses, then surely there was a way to block out the bad smell.

  He pushed the thought aside and pressed forward, following Derniere. The closer they got to the trash piles, the worse the putrid stench became.

  Then, he saw it—the water management system.

  It was the same one that had carried him down.

  A massive vertical platform system lowered slowly, rotating as it descended before turning back upward at the bottom. A conveyor belt system caught the trash, moving it further along until giant mechanical claws picked up the waste and dumped it onto separate conveyor belts that extended far beyond his vision.

  He squinted into the dim light, trying to see where the belts led. But he couldn’t. They stretched into the darkness, disappearing into the unknown.

  "Be careful, the robots patrol these parts," Derniere whispered.

  Kai nodded in acknowledgment, and the two pressed forward at a slow pace.

  That’s when he noticed something he hadn’t before—something that made his stomach churn.

  Bugs.

  They were everywhere. Insects crawled along nearly every inch of the surface, weaving in and out of rotting container bags, their bodies shifting and squirming like a living, pulsating carpet.

  Kai forced himself to look forward, keeping his eyes off the ground and the horror scuttling beneath him.

  They reached the bottom of the massive conveyor belts.

  Derniere searched the ground, scanning for something. Kai moved closer, and that’s when he saw it—the electrical wire. The same one that connected to Derniere's house.

  It was crushed beneath a heavy slab of metal, broken off from a larger piece of machinery.

  "Help me move this," Derniere said, placing her hands under the metal.

  Kai crouched down and gripped it as well. He lifted—and to his surprise, the metal wasn’t as heavy as he expected.

  Derniere stared at him like he was some kind of superhuman.

  Kai shrugged. The liquid inside him had enhanced his strength—this was nothing to him.

  Derniere gave him a long, curious look, but then turned her focus back to the damaged wire. She picked it up and examined the break.

  The wire had been snapped clean, yanked out of a short protrusion from an electrical box mounted on one of the supporting pillars for the conveyor belt.

  That’s when Kai realized how she had been getting her electricity—she had been stealing power from the waste management system.

  Derniere sighed, looking up at the electrical box. The connection point was too high for her to reach—too high even for Kai. She stood there, frowning.

  "I'm sorry, Kai, but…" She hesitated before looking back at him. "I think I’m going to have to borrow your shoulders for a moment."

  Kai nodded and crouched down, offering his hands. Derniere carefully stepped onto his shoulders, gripping his head lightly for balance.

  She was light—too light. Her body had clearly lacked the proper nutrients to grow.

  Kai stood, lifting her high enough to reach the broken connection. She stretched, trying to reconnect the severed wire.

  A frustrated sigh escaped her lips.

  "Put me down," she said. "This isn’t going to work."

  Kai carefully lowered her back to the ground. "What’s wrong?"

  Derniere tossed the damaged cable onto the floor with a bitter shake of her head. "The force that snapped the wire also broke the connector I installed in the system. And that was my last one."

  Kai frowned. "I mean… you can just get another one, right?"

  Derniere let out a humorless laugh. "Kai, these things are rare. I spent months salvaging to find that one. And now, it’s gone."

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  Kai exhaled sharply. "So what you’re saying is…"

  "We won’t have electricity again." Derniere’s voice wavered. Tears pooled in her gray eyes, but she refused to let them fall. "We’re doomed, Kai."

  They stood there in silence,

  Kai watched as Derniere tried to hold back her tears. He hated watching people cry. It always made something inside him ache.

  Kai looked up at the never-ending rotation of the massive conveyor system—the very one that had sent him down here in the first place. The gears turned with a rhythmic hum, a relentless, mechanical heartbeat that never stopped. It kept the topside clean and the underworld hidden.

  He watched the platforms cycle through their endless loop: down, drop, rotate, fold, ascend.

  Down. Rotate. Up. Down. Rotate. Up.

  Then, it hit him. What comes down must go up.

  His eyes widened. That was it!

  He turned to Derniere, his voice bursting with excitement. "I think I figured out how to get out of here! We just need to get on that thing!"

  Derniere didn’t share his enthusiasm. She had a faint smile, but she didn’t look hopeful. "No," she said softly, shaking her head. "It won’t work…"

  Kai’s grin faltered. "Why not? Doesn’t it go straight to the top level?"

  Derniere sighed. "If it were that easy, my people would’ve escaped a long time ago."

  Kai frowned. "Then what’s the problem?"

  She looked up, as if caught in a distant memory. "I remember someone trying that when I was a kid. He thought he could ride it up to the surface." Her voice lowered. "He was gone for days. When he finally came back, he was shaking his head. He said that when it reaches the next level, the space gets so tight, no human can fit through. He had to jump ship and take the chute back down."

  Kai’s excitement faded. Of course the designers had thought about that. They knew people lived down here, so they had made sure no one could use the system to escape.

  He felt foolish now for thinking it would work. Worse, he had given Derniere false hope, only to watch it slip away, leaving her even more defeated.

  Maybe he should just go back. Maybe they really had no choice but to light a fire as their illumination.

  Kai sighed and looked up at the rotating platforms again.

  "No human can fit through," he murmured.

  Then, suddenly, an idea hit him. Maybe he didn’t have to fit through.

  He had been thinking about his own escape this whole time. But he wasn’t alone. He had an entire crew up there, a crew that was probably looking for him right now.

  He looked down at the Black Swan pin Isaac had given him.

  This just might do.

  If he aimed it just right, the system would carry it up for him.

  His lips curled into a smile.

  He unpinned it from his uniform, weighing it in his hand. He stepped back, lining up his throw. He had one shot. The pin needed to stick to the platform and be carried all the way up without falling.

  Kai tossed it a few times, feeling the weight. It was solid, which was good. He focused, using his enhanced vision to track the perfect trajectory.

  Derniere gasped beside him. "Your… your eyes are glowing."

  Kai didn’t answer. He blocked out everything else. He took one steady breath, zeroed in—and threw.

  The pin flew silently through the air.

  A faint clank echoed as it landed on a rising platform.

  Kai listened.

  No further noise. No clatter of metal hitting the ground.

  His smile widened.

  Now, he just had to hope the crew hadn’t given up on him.

  ---

  Eliana moved like a shadow.

  The stealth suit wrapped tightly around her, absorbing the darkness, making her nearly invisible.

  She carried nothing but a small signal receiver, about the size of a notebook, tucked tightly against her. Her hair was pulled back, secured to keep it from getting in her way. Her martial arts training had done more than teach her how to fight—it had built a foundation of discipline, agility, and control. It made her faster, quieter, and stronger. And she needed all of that now.

  She was close to the Archive.

  11:50 PM.

  Ten minutes before curfew. Most of the streets were empty now. The citizens had already returned home. The only ones still outside were securities—people who had clearance to be in public after hours. She wasn’t one of them.

  She moved quickly, sticking to the shadows, slipping between alleyways, keeping herself out of sight. She was so close now.

  11:55 PM.

  Eliana stopped and pulled herself back into the shadows. The Archive was in sight—but so were the guards. Yellow security tape fluttered in the wind, blocking off the entrance.

  But the guards weren’t human, they were AEC androids.

  She muttered a curse under her breath. There were no other ways in. The Archive was placed in an open area, perfect for security, terrible for infiltration.

  She took out the receiver and checked it again.

  Still no new signal.

  She pointed it toward the Archive. The last ping was over 24 hours ago. If Kai was dead, they would have retrieved his body by now.

  But the fact that there was no new signal meant something else. It meant they were hiding something.

  Maybe they had captured him. Maybe they had locked him in a Faraday cage.

  Just when she started to doubt herself, all the lights went out. The city fell into silence as every commercial display and advertisement screen dimmed. The once-bustling streets became eerily still, the towering skyscrapers casting long, oppressive shadows.

  "All citizens must remain indoors during curfew. Personnel remaining outside will be detained and prosecuted." A female voice echoed through the empty city, broadcasted from unseen speakers.

  It's too late now.

  Eliana had to make a move. The nearest android was facing away from her, its sensors scanning the streets. This was her only opportunity.

  She slipped out of the alleyway, moving slowly and carefully, using every shadow and obstruction to keep herself hidden. She kept her breathing steady, her body low, every movement calculated.

  In the distance, she saw it—the red glow of a Watcher, scanning the streets, its eerie light creeping toward her position. The androids stationed near the Archive began to move, their mechanical limbs clicking in precise motions.

  She had only two choices now. Stay hidden and pray the Watcher wouldn’t spot her, or make a dash for the Archive before the androids noticed. Either way, it was risky.

  Eliana never left her fate to chance.

  She bolted.

  Keeping her body low, she sprinted toward the Archive, her feet barely making a sound against the artificial pavement. The air felt dense, pressing against her as she pushed forward, her muscles burning with effort.

  The entrance was in sight. The entire structure jutted from the depths of the previous level, supported by four massive rails. A bridge connected the Archive to the artificial ground—the bridge she was now racing toward.

  Behind her, alarms blared, the androids detected her movement.

  Bullets peppered the ground around her, sparks flying as rounds struck metal and concrete. She weaved, her movements sharp, sprinting in a zigzag pattern to make herself a harder target.

  She was so close now. Just a few more steps.

  Eliana leaped onto the bridge, using her momentum to push forward—only for a sudden wave of weakness to hit her.

  Her limbs went numb. It felt like her entire body shut down, like something had cut her off from her own strength. The muscles that had carried her through countless fights, that had never failed her before, suddenly refused to obey.

  The Archive vanished from view and darkness rushed in.

  She realized what had happened — The bridge had given out beneath her.

  She was falling.