Chapter 21 · Neon Deadline: Glitch Hunt - Chapter 21: The Recall

"Get your head down or you're losing it!" Seth screamed, his voice barely audible over the screech of the drones.

He didn't wait for me to answer. He slammed his palm into the small of my back, pinning me against the wet concrete of the alleyway just as a burst of plasma fire tore through the air where my head had been a second ago. The heat scorched the back of my neck. I gasped, the air tasting like ozone and burnt plastic.

"Move! Now!" he barked.

I tried to scramble up, but my legs gave out. A jagged spike of white noise exploded in my skull—the Recall protocol. It wasn't just a signal; it was a neural hook, dragging my consciousness back toward the corporate core. My vision glitched, the world splitting into three overlapping frames of reality.

"I can't... Seth, I can't feel my legs," I wheezed, clutching at his tactical vest. My fingers dug into the reinforced fabric, desperate for something solid while the ground felt like it was liquefying beneath me.

Seth looked down at me, his expression a mask of controlled fury. He was shaking. Not from fear—from the same agonizing feedback loop.