Fade in. Neon lights flicker on either side of the street, like fluorescent mirages on an electric storm. I run—hard, fast, and desperate. My footsteps echo off the damp asphalt and cracked, decrepit buildings. The alley behind me is a canvas of worn graffiti, drawing my eye in a counter-point to the mesmerizing flash of signs hanging above.
Panic is a fire beneath my tongue. It tingles against my teeth as it builds to a crescendo of incoherent thoughts. It’s all fallen apart, and I am left alone in the dark grit of the city’s underbelly. I suck in stale air and try to catch my breath, the panic clawing its way up my throat.
I’d never thought it could happen like this.
We were finally on the verge of cracking the code, data streaming in from every corner of the city. We knew the dirty secrets, the lies they hid beneath their glass towers and elaborate facades of order. As we picked through the scraps of information we’d gathered at our fingertips, I could feel it—we were close to uncovering the truth and blowing the lid off everything. The system was about to crumble, and they knew it too.
But it wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Somewhere, someone slipped up. They traced us back through our digital footprints—or maybe they’d always known who we were—infiltrating our network from within, feeding us only what they wanted us to see. In any case, the trap was sprung, and suddenly we were scattered like wild animals caught in a storm.
Rat-tat-tat—Footsteps behind me. I turn a corner and skid into an alley, trying to stay one step ahead of my pursuers. I can hear their synthetic heartbeats, altered by machines for optimum efficiency—no longer human. And as the panicked thunder roils in my chest, I pray they cannot hear mine.
There must be a way out of this. The city has been my home for years, a labyrinth of shadows and shortcuts. But they’re forcing me deeper into the maze, closing every exit as I race toward an unknown fate.
Zhen, our leader, made the plan. We were to gather in a safe house on the other side of town. “If we can make it there,” he said, his eyes hard and determined, “we will regroup and find a way to fight back. They will not win.”
His words echo in my head as I run. The hope they gave me is fading now, replaced by the fear that I’m too far gone to ever find my way back. If I make it out, what will be left of me?
The streets blur together as I try to navigate their shifting patterns. My heart feels like it’s about to explode, but I force my legs to keep moving.
A sound, shrill and fearful; I realize it’s my own breathing. I clasp a hand over my mouth, forcing myself to stifle it. They cannot find me. Not when I’m so close.
I see it then: the door on the far end of the alley, with its chipped paint and rusted hinges. Beyond it lies safety. Zhen’s voice urges me on, and I surge forward like a bullet from a gun.
They catch me just as I reach it.
The ground is ripped from beneath my feet; cold steel coils around me like a vice. Their eyes are blank and cold as they stare at me from behind their visors. I am nothing more than a bug to them, caught in the spider’s web.
But then, between labored breaths, I laugh.
My laughter echoes through the alley as a light begins to flicker inside me—a spark of ingenuity that defies all their attempts to extinguish it. The code, the secrets, the lies—they all pale now, insignificant against the one truth I possess:
I do not play by their rules.
My laughter grows louder, filling the alley like a chorus of ghosts. The walls shake, streetlights flicker and sputter out as the machines falter. I feel a surge of energy rise within me, a force that frightens them. They cannot control it, and they do not understand it.
They panic.
For the first time, *they* are afraid.
They release me, and my body slams into the ground like a ragdoll. I am bruised and battered, but I refuse to be broken. The door is in front of me now, and with a single push, it swings open before me.
There they are—Zhen and the others, waiting with bated breath. The relief in their eyes is palpable as they help me up and close the door behind us.
In this room, we are safe for now. We have found our sanctuary from the city’s storm. And as we regroup and tend to our wounds, we begin to plan our next move.
For in this dark and twisted game, it is now our turn to play.
Fade out.
Author: Opney. Illustrator: Dalli. Publisher: Cyber.
