Chapter 15 · Rust Trap

"Get your hands off me!" I snarled, shoving Elara back as the scanner's last chime echoed through the wrecked clinic.

My chest felt like it was being ripped open by a hot iron. Every breath tasted like ozone and burnt copper. I tried to stand, but my legs were shaking, the muscles twitching with a frequency that didn't feel human.

"Sit down before you bleed out on my boots," Elara snapped. She didn't move away. Instead, she stepped closer, her hand gripping my shoulder with a strength that bruised. Her eyes were wide, scanning the room for the drones we both knew were coming. "Finch, tell me the scan was a glitch. Tell me he's not what I think he is."

Finch didn't look up from the monitor. His hands were shaking so hard the tablet almost slipped. "It's not a glitch. It's... it's replicating. The gene isn't just eating the chrome, Elara. It's learning. It's building a blueprint for something that shouldn't exist."

"English, Finch!" Elara yelled.

"He's a living weapon," Finch whispered, finally looking at me with pure terror. "A zero-gen prototype. If the Corps find him, they won't just kill him.