Chapter 7 · The Blue Fire Door

The tunnel smells like copper and burnt plastic. Zero's got my wrist, pulling me through the dark so fast I'm tripping over my own feet. Behind us Ash is yelling orders, boots hammering the concrete.

"Left," Zero says. Doesn't ask. Just yanks me around a corner into a maintenance shaft so narrow my shoulders scrape both sides.

I can't see shit. The rune's glow died the second we started running, like it's saving itself. My arm's cold all the way to the bone.

"Where are we going?"

"Old access route." Zero's voice is flat. He's not even breathing hard. "Marcus locked it down three years ago. Thought he scrubbed the records."

Three years. Right when I got out.

The shaft opens into a service corridor. Emergency lights flicker yellow every ten feet. The walls are that industrial gray that looks green under bad lighting. There's graffiti from maintenance crews, dates going back to 2019. Then nothing after 2021.

Zero stops at a junction. Listens. His head tilts like a dog's.

"They're not following," I say.

He looks at me. Those eyes are still wrong. Still got that yellow edge. "They're calling it in. Marcus'll seal the whole sector.