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"You're lying." Mark grabbed Lucas by the collar and shoved him against the tunnel wall. "There is no train. The entire district's locked down."
Lucas didn't fight back. He just stared past Mark's shoulder at the red light pulsing deeper in the tunnel. "I've seen it. Three times. Maybe four."
"Maybe?"
"I don't know anymore, alright?" Lucas shoved Mark's hands off. "Every time you die, I wake up earlier. But it's not clean. Pieces don't come back."
Erin stepped between them. "He's telling the truth. The core isn't stationary. It moves on a loop through the district's old subway network. The train runs whether the protocol wants passengers or not."
"How convenient." Mark turned on her. "You show up, drop a bunch of cryptic warnings, and now there's a magic train nobody can see?"
"It's not magic. It's automated." Erin pulled a folded map from her jacket and spread it against the tunnel wall. The paper was covered in hand-drawn lines and timestamps. "The protocol repurposed the abandoned Line 7 extension. Sixteen stations. The core cycles through every six hours. If we miss the window, we wait or we die trying."
Mark studied the map. The route cut through the heart of the district, looping back on itself like a noose. "What happens if we're on it when the six hours reset?"
"Then the train resets too. And we reset with it." Erin traced the route with her finger. "But our bodies won't. You'll phase out of sync. I watched it happen to a contractor on day two. He came back inside out."
Lucas made a noise in his throat. "Jesus."
"Yeah." Erin folded the map and held it out to Mark. "So we time it right, or we don't do it at all."
Mark didn't take the map. He looked at Lucas instead. "You said you've seen it. Where?"
Lucas pointed down the tunnel. "Half a mile in. There's a service platform. I was running from one of those things with the bone faces. Got cornered. Then I heard the rails hum and the train came through. No lights except the red one in the front car."
"And you didn't get on?"
"I tried." Lucas held up his left hand. Two fingers were shorter than the rest, the skin puckered and pale. "Doors closed on me. I pulled back or I'd have lost the whole hand. Watched the train disappear into the east tunnel. When I turned around, the bone-face thing was gone."
Mark took the map from Erin. "How do we make it stop?"
"We don't." Erin started walking deeper into the tunnel. "We jump on while it's moving. The doors unlock for fifteen seconds at each station. Miss the window, miss the train."
"That's insane."
"That's the protocol." Erin didn't look back. "You want in or not?"
Mark glanced at Lucas. The guy looked like he hadn't slept in days. His eyes had that glassy, unfocused look Mark recognized from his own reflection after the third reset. "Can you run?"
Lucas nodded. "I can run."
"Then let's go."
They followed Erin through the tunnel. The air got colder the deeper they went. Mark could see his breath now, short white clouds that vanished as soon as they formed. The walls were slick with condensation. Something dripped in the dark.
"Tell me about your daughter," Mark said.
Lucas stumbled. He caught himself on the wall and kept walking. "Why?"
"Because if your memory's falling apart, I need to know what you're holding onto."
For a long moment, Lucas didn't answer. Then he said, "Her name's Sophie. She's seven. She likes dinosaurs and won't eat anything green."
"Where is she?"
"I don't know." Lucas's voice cracked. "I remember dropping her off at school the morning before the protocol started. I remember her backpack had a broken strap. I remember she forgot her lunchbox and I had to run it back. But I don't remember her face anymore."
Mark stopped walking. "What?"
"I said I don't remember her face." Lucas turned around. His eyes were wet. "I know she has my eyes. I know she has her mom's nose. I know there's a scar on her chin from when she fell off the swing set. But when I try to picture her, there's nothing. Just a blank spot where her face should be."
"That's not how memory works."
"It is in here." Lucas tapped his temple. "Every time you reset, the protocol takes something. It's part of the test. You get to keep your mods, but you pay for them. I've died six times trying to find her. I can't die again. I can't lose anything else."
Erin stopped ahead of them. "You hear that?"
Mark went quiet. At first, he heard nothing. Then, low and steady, a hum rising from the rails beneath their feet. The metal sang. The sound got louder. Closer.
"It's coming," Erin said. "Platform's thirty yards ahead. We've got maybe ninety seconds."
They ran. The tunnel opened into a wider space, an old service platform with cracked tile and rusted benches. The hum became a roar. Wind pushed through the tunnel, hot and chemical. Mark saw the light first, a single red eye burning in the dark.
The train came out of the east tunnel like a bullet. Six cars, no windows, every surface smooth and black except for the red light in the front. It didn't slow down.
"It's not stopping!" Lucas shouted.
"It doesn't stop!" Erin ran alongside the train. "It slows for three seconds at the platform marker! Watch the doors!"
Mark ran. His lungs burned. The claws in his right hand punched through his skin and he didn't care. He just ran. The train started to slow. Not much. Just enough. He saw the seam of a door in the second car. It slid open. Erin jumped first. She caught the edge of the doorframe and pulled herself inside.
Lucas went next. He timed it wrong. His foot hit the edge and he went down, half in, half out. The door started to close. Mark grabbed his arm and yanked him inside. They hit the floor together. The door sealed shut. The train sped up.
Mark rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. It was white. Seamless. The light came from everywhere and nowhere. He couldn't see a single bulb or panel.
"Everyone alive?" Erin stood and brushed herself off.
"Define alive," Lucas muttered.
Mark sat up. The car was empty except for them. No seats. No windows. Just smooth walls and that sourceless light. The floor vibrated under him. He couldn't tell if they were moving fast or slow. There was no reference point.
"Where's the core?" he asked.
"End of the line." Erin walked to the front of the car. There was a door there, sealed tight. "We have to go through all six cars. The core's in the engine."
"How do you know?"
"Because I helped install it." Erin pressed her palm against the door. It slid open. "Before I knew what it was."
The next car was identical to the first. Empty. White. Silent except for the hum of the rails. They moved through it quickly. The third car had something different. Screens. Dozens of them, floor to ceiling, all showing the same feed. Mark saw the district from above. The streets. The buildings. People moving through the locked-down zone like ants in a jar.
"Subject tracking," Erin said. "The protocol monitors everyone inside the perimeter. Vital signs, mutation rate, behavioral patterns. It's building a dataset."
Mark stopped in front of one screen. It showed a convenience store. The lights were on. Someone moved inside. He recognized the uniform. Vera. She was stocking shelves. Alone. Normal. Like none of this was happening.
"Why isn't she affected?" he asked.
"She is." Erin zoomed in on the feed. Mark saw it now. Vera's hands. The skin was darker than it should be. Rough. Segmented. "She's just slower. Some subjects adapt. Some break. The protocol doesn't care which."
Mark turned away from the screen. He wanted to put his fist through it. He didn't. "How much further?"
"Three more cars."
They moved faster. The fourth car was storage. Crates stacked to the ceiling, all labeled with codes Mark didn't recognize. The fifth car was worse. Specimen tanks. Dozens of them, filled with cloudy liquid and things that used to be human. Mark didn't look too close. He didn't want to know.
The sixth car was locked.
"This is it," Erin said. She pulled a key card from her jacket and swiped it against the panel next to the door. Nothing happened. She tried again. Still nothing. "It's not reading."
"What does that mean?" Lucas asked.
"It means they locked me out." Erin hit the panel with her palm. "I'm still flagged as a defector. They updated the access protocols."
"So we're stuck."
"Not stuck. Just delayed." Erin turned to Mark. "You've got claws. Can you cut through?"
Mark looked at his right hand. The claws were out, three inches of bone and keratin. They looked sharp. He didn't know if they were strong. "I can try."
He dug the claws into the seam of the door. The metal resisted. Then it gave. Slowly. He pulled. The door peeled back like foil. The smell hit him first. Ozone and rust and something else. Something organic.
The engine room was alive. The core sat in the center, a sphere the size of a car, suspended in a lattice of cables and tubes. It pulsed. Red light. Same as the signal in the tunnel. Same as the light in the front of the train. The walls were covered in code. Alien script that hurt to look at.
"There it is," Erin said quietly.
"How do we shut it down?" Mark asked.
"Termination code. Six digits. I don't have them."
"Then why are we here?"
"Because the route's in the core's memory." Erin pointed at a console next to the sphere. "It logs every stop. Every station. If we pull the log, we'll know where it ends."
Mark crossed to the console. The screen was active, text scrolling too fast to read. He touched it. The scroll stopped. A list appeared. Station names and timestamps. Sixteen stops. The last one made his chest tighten.
Overpass Junction. 23:47.
"That's where I died," he said.
"What?" Lucas looked over his shoulder.
"The first time. The truck. The voice that said 'Subject 447 selected.' It happened under the overpass." Mark's hands shook. "The protocol started there. It ends there."
"When?" Erin asked.
Mark checked the timestamp. "Forty-one minutes."
The train lurched. The lights went out. When they came back, the core was brighter. Angrier. The cables around it writhed.
"What's happening?" Lucas backed toward the door.
"It knows we're here." Erin grabbed Mark's arm. "We have to go. Now."
The train lurched again. This time it didn't stop. The floor tilted. Mark hit the wall. The console sparked. The screen went black.
"The route!" he shouted.
"You saw it!" Erin pulled him toward the door. "Overpass Junction! Forty-one minutes! Move!"
They ran. The train tilted further. The fifth car was flooding. The tanks had ruptured. The specimens spilled onto the floor, twitching and wet. Mark didn't stop. He couldn't stop. They made it to the fourth car. The third. The second.
The door to the first car was sealed.
"It's locking us in," Lucas said.
"No." Mark dug his claws into the seam. "It's trying."
He pulled. The door screamed. His shoulders burned. The claws cut deeper. The door opened. They fell through into the first car. The exit door was already open. Wind roared in. Mark saw the tunnel wall flying past. Too fast.
"We have to jump!" Erin shouted.
"We'll die!"
"We'll die if we stay!"
Mark looked at Lucas. The guy was pale. Shaking. "If I die again—"
"You won't," Mark said. "I won't let you."
He grabbed Lucas by the jacket and jumped.
They hit the ground hard. Mark rolled. His head cracked against something metal. He tasted blood. When he looked up, the train was gone. The tunnel was dark. Silent. He couldn't hear the rails anymore.
"Lucas?" he called.
No answer.
"Lucas!"
A groan. Off to the left. Mark crawled toward it. Lucas was on his back, one arm bent wrong. But he was breathing.
"I'm here," Lucas said. "I'm still here."
"Good." Mark sat next to him. "Don't move. Erin!"
She appeared out of the dark, limping. "I'm fine. Train?"
"Gone."
"Core?"
"Still active. But we know where it stops." Mark wiped the blood from his mouth. "Overpass Junction. Thirty-eight minutes."
Erin nodded. "Then that's where we go."
Mark helped Lucas sit up. The guy winced but didn't scream. "I need to find Sophie."
"You will," Mark said.
"Promise me."
"I promise."
Lucas grabbed Mark's wrist. His grip was weak. Desperate. "If I die again, I won't remember why I'm looking for her. I'll just know I lost something. Don't let that happen."
"I won't."
"Swear it."
"I swear."
Lucas let go. He closed his eyes. "The overpass. That's where you died the first time?"
"Yeah."
"Then maybe that's where this ends." Lucas opened his eyes. They were wet again. "Or where it starts again."
Mark stood and pulled Lucas to his feet. Erin handed him the map. The route was burned into his memory now, but he took it anyway. Overpass Junction. The place where the truck hit. The place where the voice said his number.
The place where Subject 447 was born.
"Thirty-seven minutes," Erin said.
Mark folded the map and started walking.
Behind them, deep in the tunnel, the rails began to hum again.