Tye

I duck under the swing of another Stalker. His balance is terrible so, as he overthrows, I spin and kick him in the back of the knee. He stumbles forward, slamming his head against the wall as he trips. With a moment to catch my breath, I roll toward the door where I'd sent Niah. I can't risk them reaching her, but as I round up to face the remaining Stalkers, I reach down for the plasma pulser there. I complete the roll, coming onto the balls of my feet. I level the weapon at the nearest Stalker. I take another breath, exhale, and fire.

The plasma pulse creates a glow of white fire in the fading light. It lances toward a Stalker, plunging into the man's chest. He screams in pain as it scores straight through him. Then it slams into the head of the man behind him. They both crumple to the floor.

The third Stalker stumbles over their bodies. He lands face first in the dirt. "Chortessa's guts," he mutters, pushing himself back up.

I take the moment of distraction to dive across the alley and down a narrow groove between the buildings. The growing darkness helps to hide my movements. I duck out of sight and crouch low.

I'm hidden here. If I don't move, they won't hear me. Still, I aim the pulser back down the alley. If any Stalker comes looking for me here, I want to be able to take them out. I have room to move, but nowhere to go. The chill of the night is already descending and the fading light of the artificial suns leaves the streets in a haze of shadow.

Moments later, I hear a jumble of voices as more stalkers reach their fallen comrades. From my vantage, I can't see them, especially through the gloom, but I hear them pound on the walls of the alley. They slam the panels as they try to work out where Niah disappeared. Thankfully, they're too dim to figure out how to open the wall.

Eventually, one of the men sighs. "Baull-scat, we'll never get through like this. Can't see an eagrim's beak."

"Garett," says another, his voice commanding. "Go report to the Lord. Ask for a full contingent and a compliment of sierra stars to help with the search."

"Yes, sir!" A young voice responds. I hear the tap of his boots as he salutes and then races off down the street and toward the Palace. The remaining men chuckle.

"What a compy."

"Won't see him again."

"Last thing he'll ever do."

"Should we keep searching?"

"It's getting too dark," says the commanding voice again. "Besides, shift change was half a factor ago. Let's knock off, boys. Drinks at The Tipsy Dome?"

"Yes!" chorused the others.

"Drinks at The Dome!"

Their footsteps fade down the street. I sigh, letting out a breath I didn't realise I'd been holding. I push myself through the small opening and back out onto the street. I have to move mostly by touch because of the darkness but I find the wall again and press the marker. It slides open. I can barely see through the gloom into the greater darkness of the chamber beyond.

"Eagrim's beak," I mutter. Niah is gone. I shake my head, but plunge into the corridor anyway. I slam the door closed and begin weaving my way toward the Palace.

***

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Wish

With Casper's hand in mine, we race down the long corridor. Tears stream down my face as behind us we hear the gruesome sounds of the chortessa and Bellamy. His screams of anguish and terror echo off the metal walls.

"No!" Casper shouts, yanking out of my grasp. He turns to race back toward Bellamy but I grab his arm.

"Casper, we have to run away or it will get us too."

"But she's not supposed to be mean. She's not a bad puppy. She won't hurt us!"

I want to shake the kid but force myself to take a breath instead. I bend slightly so that his eyes are level with mine and look straight at him. "Listen to me, Casper. And listen to that noise. That's Bellamy trying to fight off the chortessa. It's attacking him, and it'll attack us too. We need to run away. We have to escape."

Casper gazes into my eyes for a long moment. His own eyes are full of tears. We listen as Bellamy's cries become a gurgle, and then there is nothing but the sound of rending flesh, breaking bone, and the snuffling of a beast feasting on a corpse.

"Puppy?" Casper whispers. His legs crumple underneath him. He kneels on the ground, his head in his hands.

I crouch down beside him and place my hand on his shoulder. "We have to go, Casper."

He nods but I can tell he is done in. "Can you run?"

He shakes his head.

I lean closer. "Put your arms around my neck. I'll carry you."

The boy reaches forward and wraps his arms around me. I lift him as I push myself back to my feet. Casper tucks his head against my shoulder. I hold him tight, but with his weight and my own body already exhausted I can't run very fast. Still, every step takes us away from the chortessa and, I hope, closer to freedom, so I keep running.

Eventually, the long corridor opens into a large room. I glance left and right, searching for an exit. "Chortessa's guts!" I shout, turning in circles. I search the walls for any means of escape beyond the corridor from which we'd just come.

A low growl fills the room. A shiver runs across my skin as I glance into the darkness of the corridor. A pair of sharp, blood-stained fangs coupled with rows of jagged teeth gleams in the darkness. Above them, a set of eyes lock onto us. The hulking form of the furry beast fills the doorway as it stalks toward us.

I step backwards but I know there's nowhere to go. I wonder if it's possible to shield the boy in my arms, but as the animal moves closer, I feel a sinking hopelessness. "What did Bellamy say?" I ask Casper but the boy is so heavy in my arms I'm not sure he's still awake. "It's just a program." As I try to remember the rest I glance down at the boy in my arms. "That's it, we have to wake up. Casper, wake up. It's just a program. Wake up."

The boy looks up at me with tired eyes. "You too, Wish?" I nod although I have no idea how. "Okay then." Casper's gaze turns distant and he fades from my arms. I suck a breath into my lungs and then sob. I'm not sure if it's relief or loneliness I suddenly feel. But the weight in my arms is gone.

Now I'm alone to face the beast.

Wake up? No one told me how.

***

Niah

With the tablet to guide me, I move swiftly through the halls and corridors of this strange interior world. I keep moving steadily toward Wish. When I reach a section of the Palace that seems to hold a door connecting this segment to the interior of the building I hook the tablet into a socket in the wall and hack the door open. It slides sideways, opening into an empty hallway. I peer up and then down. There is no one moving nearby so I step into the room.

I glance down at the tablet again to choose my direction and continue heading toward Wish. The route through the Palace is relatively straightforward. The building is built for function and beauty so it's arranged in sensible wings and floors.

As I step into a larger chamber I freeze, seeing a well-dressed man. I drop back behind a nearby cupboard and wait for him to pass before darting through the room, up the stairs, and down a long corridor. Each step takes me closer to Wish until I stand at the door to the room where her dot has remained at rest.

I pause to listen. Soft sobs cross through the door. My heart begins to race. "Wish?" I whisper, pushing the door open carefully.

The room is empty except for two bodies laid prone across strangely glowing chairs. The person closest to the door is torn to shreds. Dried blood pools all around his body. I swallow the wave of bile that rises in my throat and lift a hand to my nose to block out the smell as my gaze turns on the other body.

"Wish!" I gasp.

I race around to her. Wires run from her face and ears and are threaded across other parts of her body. She's drenched in sweat and her breath is heaving in her lungs. In her sleep, she's sobbing.

I reach a hand to touch her wrist but she doesn't stir. Beneath my fingers her pulse is racing. "Wish, wake up. You have to wake up."

When she doesn't stir I glance instead to the strange device she's hooked into. I place the tablet on top of the system and browse through the console. Tye said it's some kind of virtual reality. It may be dangerous to unplug her.

I look at the cords threading out of the machine and into my sister. A similar set still dangles from the remaining threads of flesh on the dead man beside her. I step to his side and grit my teeth as I pull the headpiece free of his skull then turn back to Wish.

"But if I go in after you, we both might be stuck," I whisper, looking down at Wish as I use the edges of my cloak to wipe clean the headset. I reach to pick up the tablet and use the adapter Lyris gave me to hook into the console.

The code is barbaric and convoluted, but it's built on the same basic structure as that used to program Elixr and Hart. It's a jumble with very little order or logic but I find it relatively easy to build in a subroutine that can wake us up in one factor. Surely that would be long enough for me to find Wish in that world and bring her home, here, to her body.

I activate the command then lay the tablet down. I climb into the chair with Wish. I gaze across at her one last time before sitting back. I fit the headset over my eyes, nose, and ears, then allow myself to enter the world the Lord created.