The air outside the facility felt different. Not just fresher or warmer, but empty. Eli Stone had gotten used to the sterile hum and controlled breezes of his confined rooms, but this was a huge, open quiet.
It was the absence of sirens, of distant booms, of the constant low thrum of a
world waiting for disaster. It was unsettling.
Aris Thorne stood next to him, relaxed, a soft smile on her face. Her clothes, a simple, elegant tunic of woven light, seemed to soak up and reflect the gentle glow from the city's built-in energy system.
"Ready, Eli?" she asked, her voice a calm ripple in the vast silence. Ready. The word felt like a lie in his mouth. He wasn't ready for anything but another small fight, another guard shift. He was a weapon without a war, a soldier without a front line. But he'd
made a deal, a tough one, for this bit of freedom. He'd shown them the flaws in their 'perfect' simulations, pointed out the weak spots their AIs missed, and in return, he got… this.
A supervised trip into a world he couldn't understand. They moved onto what Aris called a 'communal flow-path'. It was a wide, shimmering surface that subtly sped up or slowed down to match the relaxed pace of the dozen or so people already on it.
Eli's instincts screamed at him. Exposed. No cover. Too many unseen angles. He scanned
the faces of the other citizens – calm, unlined, completely lost in their own quiet thoughts or soft conversations. None had the tension of a world bracing for an explosion. None carried the ghosts he did.
A family drifted past – a woman, a man, and a small child, maybe four years old, with eyes like shiny blue stones. The child laughed, a pure, unrestrained sound that Eli realized, with a jolt, he hadn't heard in… decades? Centuries? He watched them, a deep ache blooming in his chest.
They lived in a world where laughter wasn't stolen by the roar of gunfire. It was simply... given.
The sheer, terrifying innocence of it was a physical blow. He wanted to shield them, to warn them, but warn them of what? The ghosts only he could see?
He felt Aris's gentle touch on his arm. "Are you alright, Eli?" He pulled his gaze from the retreating family, forcing his shoulders to relax, forcing the soldier back into the cage. "Just... adjusting," he grunted, the lie tasting less bitter this time.
He was adjusting, perhaps, to the sheer, overwhelming peace that felt more dangerous than any battlefield he'd ever known.