Day 37, 14:00 Hours
The Command Deck (Sector 1)
Sauget, Illinois
The healing wasn't a miracle. It was a metabolism.
The Heart of the Iron Boar had burned through my system like jet fuel in a lawnmower engine. For four hours, I had felt invincible. The pain in my leg had been a distant memory, replaced by a buzzing, electric heat that made me feel like I could kick down a steel door.
Now, the crash hit.
It didn't come on slowly. It slammed into me.
I was standing at the map table, leaning on a piece of rebar I was using as a cane. One second I was fine; the next, the heat evaporated, leaving behind a cold, hollow ache in the marrow of my bones.
My blood sugar bottomed out. My vision greyscaled at the edges.
I stumbled, catching myself on the edge of the table. The metal bit into my palm.
`[SYSTEM ALERT: BUFF EXPIRED.]`
`[METABOLIC CRASH: ACTIVE.]`
`[CALORIC DEFICIT: CRITICAL.]`
My stomach cramped, a violent, twisting knot that doubled me over. It wasn't just hunger; it was starvation accelerated by magic. The System had stripped every ounce of glucose from my bloodstream to knit the calcium in my femur.
Now, it wanted payment.
I dry-heaved, spitting bile onto the floor.
"Fuel," I whispered.
I reached for the MRE on the desk. Empty.
I needed to get to the mess hall. I needed protein.
I grabbed the rebar cane. I took a step.
The pain in my leg returned. It wasn't the jagged, screaming agony of the break. It was a dull, grinding itch. The bone had fused, but the nerves were still raw. It felt like my leg was filled with broken glass and fire ants.
"Walk," I ordered my leg.
I hobbled to the door.
I looked at the monitor feed on the wall. The camera for the Level 2 Stairwell—the main artery between the Command Deck and the factory floor—was flickering.
But the audio was working.
"Move," a female voice said. Yana.
"Go around," another voice answered. Echo.
I stopped. I looked at the screen.
The angle was bad, high and grainy, but I could see them.
Yana was holding a basket of laundry—bloody bandages from the infirmary that needed to be boiled. She was standing at the top of the landing.
Echo was sitting on the stairs, blocking the path.
And below her, filling the narrow concrete throat of the stairwell, were the Rippers.
They weren't moving. They were a wall of wet red muscle and bone.
I felt the Cruelty trait spike in my chest. It wasn't anger. It was annoyance.
"Discipline," I muttered.
I opened the door and limped toward the stairs.
The Stairwell (Level 2)
14:05 Hours
The air in the stairwell smelled of bleach and wet dog.
I stopped at the top of the flight, hidden in the shadows of the landing. I gripped the rebar cane, my knuckles white.
Yana was standing ten feet below me. She hadn't seen me yet. Her back was to me, her posture rigid.
Echo was five steps down. She was sharpening her knife—a piece of leaf spring steel that hissed rhythmically against a whetstone.
Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.
"There is no 'around'," Yana snapped, her voice tight with exhaustion. "You're blocking the only way to the laundry. Move your dogs."
Echo didn't look up from the blade. She tested the edge with her thumb. A bead of bright red blood welled up. She licked it off.
"They're sleeping," Echo said. Her voice was a low purr. "They hunted hard today. They earned their rest. Did you earn yours, Shadow?"
"I'm working," Yana said. "I'm washing the bandages because the Nulls are too busy building your kennel."
"Busy work," Echo dismissed her. "You're just making noise to pretend you're useful."
She stood up.
She stepped up one stair, looming over Yana. Echo wasn't taller, but she had a density to her—a gravity of violence that filled the space.
"You're empty," Echo whispered. She leaned in, sniffing the air around Yana's midsection.
The Rippers at her feet stirred.
They didn't growl. They didn't bare their teeth.
They chattered.
It was a strange, clicking sound, their jaws vibrating. They pressed their noses into the concrete, whining. They looked... confused.
"They smell it," Echo said. "The rot."
"Back off," Yana warned.
"You're carrying a corpse, Shadow," Echo said. "I can smell the necrosis. Something inside you is dying. Or maybe it's already dead."
Yana dropped the basket. The bandages spilled across the stairs, unrolling like white tongues.
"Don't touch me," Yana hissed.
Echo reached out. It wasn't a strike. It was a test. She reached for Yana's throat, slow and deliberate.
Yana reacted.
She didn't use magic. She used instinct.
She dropped her shoulder and drove a knife-hand strike toward Echo's kidney. It was a dirty, vicious move. A kill shot.
But it was slow.
Echo caught Yana's wrist.
It wasn't a struggle. It was a stop. Echo didn't even flinch. She just stopped the blow cold.
"Weak," Echo whispered.
She twisted Yana's arm. Yana gasped, her knees buckling.
Then, Yana tried to use the System.
I saw the shadows flicker around her feet. She was trying to Shadow Step—to teleport out of the grip and reappear behind Echo with a blade in her hand.
BZ-Z-Z-T.
The shadows didn't form. They shattered.
It looked like black glass breaking in the air.
`[SYSTEM ALERT: MANA FAILURE.]`
`[SOURCE: PARASITIC DRAIN.]`
`[ABILITY CANCELED.]`
Yana choked. She doubled over, vomiting clear bile onto the steps. The effort of the failed spell had drained the last of her stamina.
The baby had taken it all.
Echo laughed.
"Pathetic."
She didn't let go of Yana's wrist. She pulled her in.
Echo backhanded her.
It wasn't a martial arts strike. It was a paw swipe. Brutal. Heavy. Disrespectful.
CRACK.
Yana's head snapped back. Blood sprayed from her lip. She hit the concrete wall and slid down, dazed.
`[ROOT: YES. TEAR HER. CULL THE WEAK. SHE IS A LIABILITY.]`
The voice in my head screamed for blood. It wanted to see the strong eat the weak. It wanted the natural order.
`[ADMINISTRATOR: WARNING. ASSET DAMAGE. INTERVENTION REQUIRED.]`
The Administrator wanted order. It wanted resources protected.
I didn't care about either of them.
I looked at Yana. She was on the floor, holding her face. She looked up at Echo with hatred, but no strength.
Echo raised her boot. She placed it on Yana's shoulder, pinning her to the ground.
"Submission," Echo growled. "Stay down. Or I let Brutus have a snack."
Below, the male Ripper raised its head. It opened its jaws, saliva dripping onto the bandages.
I stepped out of the shadows.
"Step away."
My voice wasn't loud. It was cold. Absolute.
Echo froze. She looked up.
I stood at the top of the landing, leaning on the rebar cane. My other hand rested on the grip of the Fang .45.
"Alpha," Echo said, breathless. Her eyes dilated. She didn't remove her foot. "She attacked me. I was just—"
"I saw," I said.
I hobbled down one step. My broken leg screamed, a lance of fire shooting up my hip, but I didn't wince. I let the Cruelty trait mask the pain.
"You think she's weak," I said.
"She is weak!" Echo argued, pointing at Yana. "She's dying! I am strong! I am optimizing the pack! You need sons, Jack! Warriors! Not... this!"
"You aren't the Alpha," I snarled.
I took another step.
I drew the gun.
I didn't aim at Echo. I aimed at Brutus.
The red laser dot danced on the Ripper's exposed brainpan.
"Step off," I whispered. "Or I cancel your pet."
Echo's eyes went wide. She looked at the gun. She looked at the dog.
She realized, in that second, that I wasn't bluffing. She realized I would destroy a Tier 2 biological weapon just to make a point.
That wastefulness... that absolute disregard for value... that terrified her.
She stepped back.
"Good," I said.
I kept moving. I walked past Yana. I stepped over her legs.
I didn't help her up. I didn't check her injury. I walked straight to Echo.
I holstered the gun.
I grabbed Echo by the throat.
My grip strength was nerfed by the crash, but my placement was perfect. I drove my thumb into her windpipe and slammed her back against the railing.
The metal groaned. Echo gagged, clawing at my wrist.
I leaned my weight into her, pinning her over the drop. Thirty feet down to the concrete basement.
"She is my property," I whispered in her ear. "You damage my equipment, I damage you."
I squeezed.
"Submit."
Echo stared at me. Her face was flushing purple. She looked into my eyes and saw the void. She saw the cold math that would drop her down the shaft without a second thought.
She went limp.
It wasn't defeat. It was adoration.
She bared her neck, tilting her head back to give me better access to the artery. She let out a soft, high-pitched whimper.
`[ECHO: LOYALTY MAXIMIZED.]`
`[STATUS: SUBMISSIVE.]`
She respected the monster.
I held her for another second. Letting the fear set. Letting her know that her life existed only because I allowed it.
I threw her to the side.
She scrambled to her hands and knees, panting, rubbing her throat. She looked up at me with shining eyes.
"Strong," she whispered.
I looked up.
On the landing above, a shadow moved.
Vance.
He was standing there, holding his clipboard. He had watched the whole thing.
He didn't look shocked. He looked calculating. He made a note on his paper.
He had seen the fracture. He had seen the infighting.
He knew exactly where to place the wedge.
I ignored him. I turned to Yana.
She was pulling herself up using the handrail. She wiped the blood from her mouth. She looked at me.
She didn't look grateful. She looked horrified.
She had seen me choke Echo. She had seen the way Echo liked it. She had seen the dynamic of the pack, and she realized she wasn't the Alpha Female anymore.
She was the runt.
"Get up," I said.
"Jack..."
"Get. Up."
She stood, swaying.
"Go to Block C," I ordered.
Yana froze. "What?"
"Block C," I said. "The Nursery. Go there. Lock the door."
"You're... you're jailing me?" Her voice cracked. "I'm the victim here, Jack! She attacked me!"
"She tested you," I said. "And you failed."
I pointed down the stairs.
"You are a target, Yana. You can't fight. You can't run. And you just proved you can't defend yourself. If you stay in the general population, you're dead."
"I'm your partner!" she screamed.
"You're a liability," I said. The words tasted like ash, but they were necessary. "Go to the room. Lock the door. Do not come out until I say so."
Yana stared at me. The betrayal in her eyes was absolute.
She looked at Echo, who was still kneeling, grinning, rubbing her bruised neck.
She looked at Vance, watching from the shadows.
"Fine," Yana whispered.
She limped past me. She didn't touch me.
She walked down the stairs, descending into the dark.
I watched her go.
The baby inside her kicked. I saw the movement through her shirt. A sharp, violent spasm.
Even the unborn sensed the cage closing.
I turned back to Echo.
"Get your dogs," I said. "We have a perimeter to check."
Echo scrambled up. She whistled. The Rippers stood, shaking off the lethargy.
"Yes, Alpha," she purred.
She fell in behind me.
I hobbled up the stairs, past Vance. I didn't look at him.
"Notes?" I asked as I passed.
"Just one," Vance said softly. "House of cards, Jack. House of cards."
I walked into my office and closed the door.
I sat in my chair. The pain in my leg was a roaring fire now. The adrenaline was gone.
I opened my drawer.
I took out the bottle of painkillers. Empty.
I took out the vial of System Suppressant.
I looked at the clear liquid.
`[ITEM: SYSTEM SUPPRESSANT (GRADE B).]`
`[EFFECT: DAMPENS EMOTIONAL CORTEX.]`
I needed to work. I needed to plan the defense against the Enclave. I couldn't do that if I was thinking about Yana crying in the dark.
I popped the cork.
I drank it.
The world went grey. The guilt vanished.
I pulled up the spreadsheet.
"Let's optimize," I whispered.
FOUNDRY PROTOCOL - DAY 37
SECTOR 1 (JACK MONROE) ██████████ 10/10 Nodes
STATUS: SEGREGATED
JACK: MOBILE (Impaired) / EMOTIONALLY DAMPENED
YANA: DETAINED (Block C)
ECHO: LEASHED
NEXT EVENT: The Isolation / The Sabotage