I wake up at 0500 to the sound of someone else's alarm.
For a full minute, I don't know whose alarm it is. Mine? Claire's? Marcus's?
I reach for my phone—no, that's not right, Marcus never had a phone, he had a military-issue comm device—no, wait, I'm not Marcus, I'm—
"Silas," I say out loud. "My name is Silas Kaine."
The words feel true.
I grab my notebook. Read yesterday's entries. Ground myself in facts.
By the time I've showered and dressed, I almost feel like myself.
Almost.
The armory at 0545 is buzzing with quiet, efficient activity.
Jin is already there, checking weapons and equipment. Two other security personnel are suiting up—I recognize one of them from yesterday. Chen. No relation to Yuki, just unfortunate coincidence.
The other is new to me. A woman, maybe mid-thirties, with ash-blonde hair pulled back tight. She moves with the same efficiency as Jin. Military training.
"Kaine." Jin tosses me something.
I catch it automatically—Marcus's reflexes. It's a tactical vest. Lightweight armor plating, equipment pouches, communications gear integrated.
"Suit up. We leave in ten."
I strap on the vest. Marcus's muscle memory guides my hands through the process. Efficient. Practiced.
It should disturb me how natural it feels.
The blonde woman approaches. "Lieutenant Sarah Reeves. I'll be on point with the Captain."
"Silas Kaine."
"I know. You're the eater." She's studying me like I'm a threat assessment. "Two fragments, right?"
"Yeah."
"Chen—Yuki Chen—she has twenty-three now. You ever see someone that fragmented up close, it's..." She shakes her head. "Just do your job and don't touch anything weird. We've lost enough people this week."
"I'll try."
Jin calls us over to a holographic display. It shows the route to the western nexus.
"Standard reconnaissance protocol. We approach to within two hundred meters, no closer. Kaine observes and documents the nexus structure. We note dead positions and behavioral patterns. Fifteen minutes on site, then we extract." He looks at each of us. "No heroics. No engagement unless absolutely necessary. Clear?"
"Clear," we echo.
Chen hands me a recording device. "Mount this on your vest. It'll capture everything you see—visual, audio, Residuum signatures if you're using your detector."
I clip it on.
"One more thing." Jin pulls out a small case. Opens it.
Inside are three injectors. Clear liquid.
"Emergency fragmentation suppressant," he explains. "If you start losing coherence in the field—if the obsessions override your judgment—inject this. It won't fix the fragmentation, but it'll give you about an hour of chemical clarity. Enough to get back to the sanctuary."
"Side effects?"
"Severe. Neurological damage. Seizures. Potential coma." He meets my eyes. "But better than fragmenting completely and becoming a threat to the team."
I take the injectors. Tuck them into my vest pocket.
"Ready?" Jin asks.
No. Absolutely not.
"Yeah," I say.
We head to the west gate.
The wasteland looks different this time.
Maybe it's Marcus's tactical perception, but I'm noticing things I didn't before. Cover positions. Threat angles. The way the rubble creates natural choke points and ambush zones.
It's useful.
It's also deeply unsettling to be seeing the world through someone else's training.
We move in a tight formation. Reeves on point, Jin slightly behind and to the right, Chen covering our rear. I'm in the center, Residuum detector in hand.
The detector is picking up signals immediately. Scattered fragments throughout the ruins.
Each one a potential power boost.
Each one another piece of myself I'd lose.
"Contact," Reeves says quietly. "Thirty meters, eleven o'clock."
I spot them. Two dead, shambling through the ruins. A man in construction gear and a woman in jogging clothes. They're not coordinated. Just wandering.
We adjust course. Give them wide berth.
They don't react to us.
We push deeper into the wasteland.
After twenty minutes of careful navigation, the dead clusters start appearing on my detector.
"I'm picking up concentrated Residuum signatures ahead," I report. "Multiple sources. Very dense."
"The nexus," Jin confirms. "How far?"
I check the readings. "Maybe three hundred meters."
"We approach to two hundred, remember. Reeves, find us an observation position."
Reeves scouts ahead. Returns two minutes later.
"There's a collapsed parking structure at two-ten meters. Upper level is still intact. Good sight lines."
"Let's move."
The parking structure is a skeleton of concrete and rebar. We climb carefully to the third level.
And from there, I can see it.
The western nexus.
It's just like the one from yesterday. Dead arranged in concentric circles—maybe two hundred of them this time. All facing inward.
Toward the center.
Where something is growing.
I raise my binoculars.
The nexus itself is larger than yesterday's. The sphere of compressed light is maybe ten feet in diameter, rotating slowly. Thousands of colors bleeding into each other.
But there's something else.
Around the base of the nexus, the ground itself is changing.
Crystalline structures are growing. Like massive Residuum fragments, but rooted in the earth. They pulse in rhythm with the nexus—red to blue to green to purple.
"What the fuck is that?" Chen breathes.
"Evolution," I murmur. Marcus's tactical analysis and my own horror are mixing. "It's not just collecting Residuum anymore. It's terraforming."
I activate the recording device. Document everything.
The dead in the circles aren't just standing anymore. Some of them are kneeling. Hands on the ground.
And where their hands touch, small crystalline growths are forming.
"They're feeding it directly," I say. "Channeling their tethered obsessions into the ground. Growing the structure."
"How long until it's complete?" Jin asks.
"I don't know. But if all six nexuses are doing this—if they're all growing crystalline structures that connect beneath the sanctuary—"
"It's a cage," Reeves finishes. "They're building a cage around us."
No. Worse.
I think about what Yuki said. Something wants what we have. What's inside us.
"It's not a cage," I say slowly. "It's a harvester. When it's complete, it won't just trap us. It'll extract us. Process every living person in Sanctuary Seven the same way it's processing the dead."
The implications hang in the air.
"We need to stop it," Chen says.
"How?" Jin's voice is hard. "There are six of these things. Hundreds of dead guarding each one. We barely escaped one with a full security team. We can't fight them all."
"Then we find whoever's building them," I say. "The entity. The intelligence behind this. We cut off the head."
"And how do you propose we find it?"
I look at the nexus. The way it pulses. The way the energy flows.
Marcus's tactical training is whispering possibilities.
"The nexuses are connected," I say. "Six points around the sanctuary, all channeling energy. That energy has to go somewhere. To someone."
"The central point," Reeves says.
I pull up my detector. Switch to wide-area scan.
The screen shows all six nexus signatures. Six bright points arranged in a perfect hexagon around Sanctuary Seven.
And in the very center—
A seventh signature.
Faint. Buried deep.
Directly beneath the sanctuary.
"Oh fuck," I breathe.
"What?" Jin leans in.
I show him the screen. "There's a seventh nexus. Underground. Right under the sanctuary. Under us."
"That's impossible. We've scanned the underground levels—"
"Not deep enough, apparently." I zoom in. "This signature is coming from at least a hundred meters below the lowest sanctuary level. Whatever it is, it's been there the whole time."
Jin's face has gone pale. "Beneath the sanctuary. Beneath three thousand people."
"Being fed by six surrounding nexuses," I continue. "Building toward something. And when it's ready—"
"It harvests everyone," Reeves finishes.
We stand there in silence.
Finally, Jin speaks. "We need to report this immediately. Director Voss needs to—"
One of the dead moves.
Not in the circle. Behind us.
I spin. Marcus's combat training brings my hand to the weapon Jin gave me—a sonic pulser—before I consciously decide to move.
There are five of them. Shambling up the parking structure ramp.
They shouldn't be here. We were careful. We avoided the clusters.
Unless—
"They're herding us," I realize. "The nexus detected our presence. Sent scouts to push us toward it."
"Fall back," Jin orders. "Other exit, now."
We move. But Reeves holds up a hand.
"More coming from the north stairs."
We're surrounded.
Ten dead, maybe fifteen, closing in from both sides.
"Center position," Jin snaps. "Defensive formation."
We form up. Weapons ready.
The dead approach slowly. Patiently.
They're not attacking yet. Just... pushing us.
Toward the edge of the parking structure.
Toward a straight drop to the ground level.
Toward the nexus.
"They want us to jump," Chen says. "Want us to run toward the nexus."
"Why?" Reeves asks.
I know why.
"Because we're still alive. Still processing emotions. Fear. Desperation." I can see it now, the way the dead are positioned. The way they're forcing our choices. "If we run toward the nexus in a panic, we'll be outputting maximum emotional energy. Perfect for harvesting."
"So we don't panic," Jin says. "We fight through."
He opens fire.
The sonic pulses hit the nearest dead—a man in a torn suit. His chest cavity collapses. But he doesn't stop.
They never stop.
"SUPPRESSING FIRE!"
We all open up. The sound is deafening.
Dead collapse. But they're not dissolving. Not dying. Just falling and getting back up.
"They're too strongly tethered to the nexus!" I shout. "We need to break their Residuum anchors!"
Jin pulls the disperser cylinder from his belt. Presses it against the nearest corpse.
Glass-breaking sound.
The dead man dissolves.
But there are fourteen more.
And Jin only has three disperser charges.
"We need to move," Reeves says. "Now."
We push toward the north exit. Chen and Reeves lay down covering fire while Jin disperses two more dead.
We make it to the stairs.
Behind us, the remaining dead are following. Not fast. But inevitable.
We descend. Fast. Controlled.
Marcus's tactical training is screaming at me. This is a trap. We're being channeled. Herded.
We hit ground level. The exit is fifty meters ahead.
Between us and the exit: twenty more dead.
"FUCK!" Chen spins. "Behind us too!"
We're boxed in.
Forty dead. Maybe more.
Three disperser charges left.
And behind all of them, I can see the nexus. Pulsing. Glowing. Hungry.
"Ideas?" Jin's voice is tight.
I look at my detector. The Residuum signatures are everywhere.
Including right here. In this parking structure.
Five fragments. Ten. Twenty.
All the power I'd need to fight my way through this.
All the pieces of myself I'd lose.
"Kaine, what are you thinking?" Jin sees my expression.
"There are Residuum fragments here. Close. If I consume them—"
"No." His voice is flat. "You're at two fragments. You consume twenty more and you'll be gone. Completely fragmented."
"But we'd survive."
"You wouldn't. Silas Kaine would be dead. Whatever consumed those fragments would just be wearing your face."
"Does it matter if we're all dead anyway?"
"YES!" Jin grabs my shoulder. "It fucking matters because the moment we start sacrificing who we are to survive, we've already lost!"
The dead are closing.
Thirty meters.
Twenty.
Claire's protective instinct is screaming at me to do something. Save them. Save the people.
Marcus's tactical training is calculating odds. Twenty fragments would give us combat abilities far beyond human. We could tear through these dead like paper.
And Silas—
Silas is terrified.
Not of the dead.
Of disappearing.
"There has to be another way," I say.
"There is." Reeves pulls something from her vest.
A grenade.
Not a normal one. The casing is marked with a Residuum containment symbol.
"Experimental tech," she explains. "Dr. Zhao's been developing it. Releases a pulse that temporarily disrupts Residuum anchors in a twenty-meter radius."
"Temporarily?" Jin asks.
"Five minutes. Maybe less. But it should give us a window to run."
"Do it."
Reeves pulls the pin. Throws.
The grenade arcs through the air. Lands in the center of the dead cluster.
The explosion is silent.
But the light is blinding.
When my vision clears, the dead are on the ground. Not dissolved. Not destroyed.
Just... disconnected. Their Residuum anchors temporarily severed from the nexus.
"RUN!" Jin bellows.
We run.
Out of the parking structure. Into the wasteland. Away from the nexus and the fallen dead and the terrible pulsing light.
Behind us, I can hear them getting up. The anchor disruption is wearing off.
But we have a lead.
We run for ten minutes straight.
When we finally stop, we're a mile from the nexus. Safe.
Relatively.
We collapse. Breathing hard.
"Everyone alive?" Jin does a head count.
We're all here.
Chen is checking her weapon. Reeves is already scanning for threats.
And I'm staring at my hands.
I almost did it. Almost consumed twenty fragments. Almost erased myself completely.
For what? To save three people?
Would it have been worth it?
"Kaine." Jin sits next to me. "You good?"
"I don't know."
"Fair answer." He's quiet for a moment. "Back there, when you were thinking about consuming those fragments—I saw your face. You were terrified."
"Of dying?"
"Of living. Of surviving but not being you anymore." He meets my eyes. "That's how I know you're still in there. Still mostly Silas. Because the fragments don't fear their own erasure. Only the original person does."
I hadn't thought about it that way.
"How long do I have?" I ask. "Before I'm more fragments than Silas?"
"I don't know. Yuki made it to seventeen before things got really bad. You're at two. But everyone's different."
"What if I can't stop? What if every mission requires more fragments, and I keep consuming until there's nothing left?"
"Then you stop going on missions."
"People will die."
"People die anyway." Jin stands. "The question is: are you willing to die—really die, not your body but your self—to maybe save some of them? Or do you draw a line and say 'this far, no further'?"
I don't have an answer.
We start the trek back to Sanctuary Seven.
The journey is quiet. Tense.
My detector keeps picking up scattered Residuum. Each one is a temptation.
Each one is a piece of myself I'd lose.
We reach the west gate by 0900.
The security team lets us through. Takes our equipment. Debriefs us.
Jin handles most of it. Explains what we saw. The growing nexus. The crystalline structures. The dead herding us.
And the seventh signature beneath the sanctuary.
That gets everyone's attention.
"We need to excavate," Dr. Reid says immediately. "Find the central nexus and study it."
"Absolutely not," Director Voss counters. "If there's an active nexus beneath our feet, disturbing it could trigger an early harvest."
"So what do we do? Wait for it to complete and harvest us anyway?"
The argument escalates.
I stop listening.
Maya finds me in the hallway outside.
"You survived," she says.
"Barely."
"But you survived. And you didn't consume any additional fragments." She sounds almost proud.
"I almost did. There were dozens of them. All I had to do was reach out."
"But you didn't." She touches my arm. "That's growth, Silas. Restraint. That's how you stay yourself."
"For how long?"
She doesn't answer.
Instead, she pulls out her tablet. "I reviewed the footage from your recorder. The nexuses are definitely connected. Six points feeding a central seventh. Classic thaumaturgic circle."
"Thauma-what?"
"Magic circle. Ritual structure." She pulls up a diagram. "It's old. Pre-Veil. The kind of thing that shouldn't work in our reality but apparently does now."
"Someone built this. Deliberately. Before the Veil tore."
"Or while it was tearing. Or immediately after." Maya is typing rapidly. "Either way, it means someone knew this was coming. Prepared for it. Built infrastructure to harvest human suffering on a massive scale."
"Why?"
"Power. Control. Apotheosis." She looks up. "When you have enough concentrated emotional energy, you can reshape reality. Become something beyond human. The old texts called it godhood."
"Someone's trying to become a god?"
"Or something already did, and this is how it's feeding." She closes the tablet. "Either way, we need to find the source. The entity directing all this. And I think I know where to look."
"The central nexus. Under the sanctuary."
"Exactly. Which means we need to go down. Deep."
"Voss won't authorize it."
"I know. So we don't ask for authorization." Maya's expression is fierce. "Tonight. You, me, and anyone else brave or stupid enough to join us. We find the access point, we descend, and we find out what's really happening."
"That's insane."
"Yes. It is." She meets my eyes. "Are you in?"
I think about the nexuses. The dead. The cage being built around us.
I think about Yuki, twenty-three fragments deep and fading.
I think about all the people who don't know they're being farmed for their suffering.
And I think about my mother's face. Already gone. Lost to Claire's memories.
How many more pieces can I afford to lose?
But also: how many people can I afford not to save?
"I'm in," I say.
"Good. Meet me at sub-level three, maintenance access seven, at 2300 hours. Come armed."
She leaves.
I stand in the hallway.
Somewhere below my feet, a seventh nexus is growing.
And tonight, I'm going to find out what it's building toward.
Even if it costs me everything I have left.