Li An didn't wait to see the outcome the rooftop platform trembled under the storm's fury as she scrambled down the scaffolding behind her the flare's red glow illuminated Qiao Lan's silhouette charging the console one last time. Li An thought she heard a shout, then a sickening crack metal against metal and Qiao was gone.
Heart hammering, Li An reached ground level and sprinted through the maze of scaffolding and debris. Sirens shrieked somewhere in the distance as she burst into an empty street. Neon reflections danced in puddles at her feet. She pressed the shard against her chest, trying to still its frantic pulse
She ducked into the shadow of an overturned vendor cart, chest heaving, eyes scanning every dark corner. The transmitter in her pocket rattled once, then sparked to life
"Transmission 45%… 60%… 80%…"
Relief cracked her wariness for a fraction of a second.
She wasn't alone.....
Suddenly the world shook as a drone crashed into a nearby wall, sending shards of concrete spraying like confetti. Li An dove sideways, covering her head, breath catching in her throat. She looked up just in time to see two black-clad figures emerge from the wreckage, scanning the street on either side.
"No time."
She bolted again, winding through back alleys she thought she knew by heart but now felt alien under the storm's grip. Rain plastered her hair to her face,each step splashed cold water into her shoes, but she hardly noticed.
Her mind raced back to Qiao Lan her fierce eyes, the way she'd risked everything for the shard. I have to finish this Li An thought, forcing her legs to keep moving
A flash of movement ahead an overturned bus, its windows shot out she slipped behind it, chest trembling, and pulled up the tablet.
"Upload complete"
A new message appeared almost instantly
Unknown Source"We got it now get to Sector 11. There's a safe house beneath the old radio tower, I'll meet you there."
Li An's fingers hovered, Sector 11 was across the river, through areas marked high-risk on every map she'd ever seen but she had no choice,she tucked the tablet into her jacket and headed toward the bridge, each span of its steel arches looming like a gauntlet.
Halfway across the river, she heard them again footsteps behind her echoing on the metal grating. She risked a glance: three pursuers wearing the same unmarked black gear their faces were hidden, but their intent was obvious.
Li An sprinted the last meters and dove through the pedestrian gate at the bridge's base, nearly colliding with an old maintenance door. She fumbled the lock, hands numb, then yanked it open and slipped inside just as the first drone appeared overhead, its searchlight probing the walkway.
Inside the dusty room, she slammed the door and pressed herself against the cold wall. Rainwater seeped through gaps at her feet she caught her breath and let her heart slow.
A soft voice came from behind a stack of crates "Li An?"
She spun Qiao Lan emerged, drenched, bruised, but alive.
"How…" Li An managed
Qiao gave her a crooked smile, "I didn't go down that hatch I sent you through, I circled back through the subbasement maintenance corridors nearly lost my balance on the flooding deck but I made it".
Li An sank to the floor beside her friend, relief and guilt mixing in her chest,"I thought I left you behind."
"You gave me purpose," Qiao said quietly,"I'm not going anywhere".
They sat in silence for a beat before Li An said, "We need to move. Now".
Outside, the drone's hum was growing distant. Qiao checked the tablet.
"Next waypoint in ten minutes. Sector 11 safe house."
Li An nodded, "Tell me again why I should trust this person."
Qiao's gaze sharpened "Because they knew exactly how to reach you and not through the city's networks. Through the old radio channels no one uses anymore someone who still remembers."
Li An absorbed that trust was smaller than it used to be.
They slipped out of the maintenance room and back onto the bridge platform. The storm had eased to a drizzle but the night still felt alive with static.
Each step across the remaining spans felt like threading a needle through a storm. She gripped Qiao's hand once, a brief anchor in the vast darkness
At the far end they dropped down into a shadowed tunnel,Li An could almost taste the anticipation ahead, a flicker of warm light through a grated doorway marked "Sector 11 Transit Rise"
They exchanged a look
"One more push," Li An said
Qiao nodded.
Together, they stepped into the glow and toward whatever truth waited in the next chapter of their fight against a silent, sentient virus that had learned to hunt hope itself.
But as they crossed the threshold, something shifted.
The hum of power in the walls wavered lights flickered not out of failure, but like they were reacting to their presence.
Qiao hesitated "This doesn't feel like a rescue."
Li An felt it too a pressure behind her eyes, not pain, just a strange, weightless awareness. Like she was being watched not from outside, but within.
The terminal ahead blinked to life. No password prompt. No interface. Just one line of text:
WELCOME BACK, LI AN.
She stared at it,"How does it know me?"
"You sure this is your first time here?" Qiao asked, half-joking.
But Li An couldn't answer her memory stuttered images that didn't belong to her flashing behind her eyes a hallway a room full of red lights. A woman screaming, not in pain, but in warning.
The terminal changed again.
SUBJECT STATUS: UNRESOLVED.
Then another message scrolled up the screen.
RUNNING SIMULATION: PROTOCOL ECHO.
"What the hell is this?" Qiao murmured.
The lights dimmed doors around them sealed with a soft hiss.
Li An stepped back instinctively.
That's when she noticed the final line of text:
BEHAVIORAL MIRROR INITIATED.
The screens went dark.
From the ceiling, something small dropped and clinked against the floor a metal sphere, smooth, blinking green.
Then red.
Then it split open.
Qiao grabbed her hand "Run—now!"
Li An ran.
But even as her feet pounded against the ground, she couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't escape.
It was release.
And somewhere, buried deep, a voice she didn't recognize whispered from her own memory:
"You were the beginning."