Chapter 7 · Reset Protocol - Chapter 7: Vera Is Changing

"Mark." Vera's voice cracked. "My hands. Look at my hands."

I turned and the streetlight caught her skin. Blue veins mapped under her wrists, spreading like frost on glass. Not normal blue. Electric blue. The kind that glowed.

"It's fine," I said. "It's just—"

"Don't lie to me." She held them up between us. Her fingers trembled. "I can feel it. Something's rewriting me from the inside."

The train had disappeared into the tunnel five minutes ago. Lucas was still sitting against the wall behind us, muttering his daughter's name like a prayer. We'd made it across the tracks. We had the route. The overpass was twelve blocks north.

And Vera was turning into something else.

"How long?" I asked.

"Since the train." She flexed her fingers. The veins pulsed brighter. "When we jumped the gap. I felt something snap inside my chest. Not bone. Something deeper."

I stepped closer. Her skin was cold. Not corpse cold. Refrigerator cold. Like her body was trying to preserve itself.

"We need to move," Lucas called from behind. "Train's coming back in forty minutes. We don't have—"

"Shut up," Vera said. She didn't look at him. She was staring at her palms. "Mark.