I sprinted through the forest, lungs burning, a stolen briefcase bouncing against my hip, with the shadows of a patrol not far behind. My mind raced with panic, though I tried to control my breath, glancing over my shoulder at intervals, unable to shake the feeling that they were gaining on me.

"Keep going!" urged a voice in my head. The implant. The damn thing they’d convinced me to get, powered by Eleqei, the mystical energy they said would amplify my abilities, make me smarter, faster, more attuned. “It’ll be like a companion,” they’d promised. I almost laughed at the irony as the voice chimed in again, “Move faster!”

I snarled back, “Shut up. You’re why I’m in this mess.” My throat ached, and the strain of running without sleep gnawed at me, making every step harder than the last. Three days I’d been running, barely surviving on sheer grit, the device in my head pushing me onward, making me feel like I could handle anything. Until now.

“Aaaah,” I sighed under my breath, the exhaustion rising. How did I get here so fast? Why was everything catching up with me?

The voice laughed. “I told you it’d be like this.”

“Enough.” My hands shook as I trudged on, through the dense, shadowed forest, aware that every sound might be a step closer to being found. If I activated Eleqei to enhance my thoughts, they’d ping my location in an instant. But the implant wasn’t just a voice in my head; it felt like a parasite I couldn’t shake. It knew things, things about me that I hadn’t even realized — and maybe never wanted to.

A deep regret gnawed at me. My house, my car, my father — they’d find them all and use them to trap me. I never would have done this if it hadn’t been for the voice.

“Liar,” it whispered.

I knew it was right. I had let myself slip, allowed myself to get swept up in the thrill of it all. A heist I hadn’t planned, an urge to grab the briefcase, and Eleqei singing in my brain as the plan unfolded perfectly. But I’d ignored every warning sign the implant had given me, and now, the consequences loomed.

“Thanks for the reminder,” I muttered, sarcastic.

The voice retorted, “Remember, you’re the one who can’t access Eleqei right now.”

I grimaced. This thing could retain every memory since the implant’s activation, but I couldn’t remember a single detail in those stolen research papers in the briefcase. Every line of information was hidden from me as soon as I crossed the facility's threshold. Even now, I had no clue who I worked for or what was in these documents. All I knew was that someone high up wanted me gone.

The loud crack of a gunshot split the air.

“Yeah, thanks. I heard it,” I hissed, annoyed that the implant loved stating the obvious. It knew just how to rile me up, driving my thoughts to distraction when I needed clarity most.

“Focus,” it whispered. “Find the warp gate.”

“Right. Sure. Like it’ll be easy to spot a warp gate shaped like a rhombicosidodecahedron in the middle of a jungle.”

“Do you even know what that looks like?”

“Of course I do.” But finding a shape that precise, that unique, seemed impossible here, amidst the twisting roots and endless canopy of the biosphere. A biosphere reserve, I realized suddenly. Since when were they allowed to shoot here?

“Unless…” I whispered, horrified. They’d gotten a TTC decree. I was being hunted as a traitor.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The implant laughed, “Told you it’d come to this.”

I forced myself to keep walking, feeling the weight of the implant pull at my thoughts. It felt like poison. Maybe those scientists were right — maybe Eleqei was damaging my brain after all. My rational mind had barely functioned since the implant was embedded. Why did it feel like my mind was fractured, like I could hardly tell where my own thoughts ended and the device’s influence began?

The evening wore on, casting the forest in dark shadows as the sun set. Sirens wailed in the distance. I knew they couldn’t use aerial vehicles here, even with a decree. They’d have to track me on foot, waiting for any spike in Eleqei signals that would give them a pinpoint location. But the implant’s tracker still held sway, meaning I’d need to find a way to remove it before I could even think of using Eleqei’s full potential to escape.

“Good luck with that,” the implant sneered. “Most Eleqei trackers also have frequency detectors, remember?”

The realization hit me like a brick. Of course they’d bring a frequency detector. The technology was identical, a dual-function trap waiting for me to trip. My frustration boiled over, blending with helplessness. I was doing everything wrong.

Finally, night swallowed the forest, and distant lights flickered through the trees. I moved toward them, suppressing every urge to make noise. The lights led to a rundown shack, a satellite dish jutting from its roof.

Could this be the place they were monitoring from?

I crept closer, and there they were — three guards. Two lounged around a fire outside while the third was inside, his shadow flitting past the curtained windows. I knew I couldn’t take them on, but maybe I could outwit them.

The voice in my head suggested, “Kill them.”

“What? No!” I muttered back. “Stop with the homicidal suggestions.”

Ignoring it, I slipped to the rear of the shack and tried the window. Locked. I cursed under my breath.

“Break it,” the implant urged.

“Too loud,” I whispered back, but then noticed the guards outside. Drunk. Oblivious to the world. Breaking the glass wouldn’t make a difference. I steeled myself and shattered the window, climbing through. Glass crunched beneath my boots, but the guards didn’t move.

The room was sparse — two bunk beds, a cupboard against the wall. Something felt strange. I scanned the walls and floor, and then saw it: a small hatch beneath the cupboard. I pushed the cupboard over to cover the window and pried the hatch open.

Darkness greeted me, an oppressive, blinding dark. I dropped into the tunnel, feeling my way forward along cold, damp walls. Gradually, a faint glow appeared at the end of the passage, and I sensed another presence up ahead, retreating into the shadows as I approached.

The tunnel led to a cavernous chamber, the ceiling arching high overhead, a jagged abyss yawning before me. An enormous glass dome encased the chasm, shaped like a dodecahedron — exactly what I needed. I’d found it.

“Not so useless after all,” I muttered, marveling at the intricate structure before me. This was where I was meant to be, finally some relief.

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” came a voice. I turned, startled. A man stood behind me, short, his eyes gleaming. His voice was disturbingly familiar.

“Who are you?” I asked, dread chilling my spine.

“You could call me… your conscience,” he sneered. “The implant? I hacked it.” He chuckled as my horror grew. “Oh, don’t look so shocked. Remember that shop where you got your tracker removed? I own it. We’ve been following you since.”

Before he could say more, I bolted, dashing toward the door that led to the chasm. I’d been compromised, and now there was only one thing left to do: remove the implant at all costs. I needed freedom from this twisted machine that had hollowed me out.

The man shouted after me, but I didn’t stop. My mind raced. Had I even done the heist myself? Or was that all the implant, coaxing me into it, leading me like a lamb to slaughter?

Memories flooded back as I neared the door. I sensed guards on the other side — they were expecting me. The reality hit hard: this wasn’t a biosphere reserve. It was a government facility. My memories flickered, struggling to piece themselves together. And as I crossed the threshold, I finally understood — I was back at my place of work, and this whole chase was a ruse.

They stopped me at the entrance, demanding ID. I opened the briefcase, handing them my identification, realizing in that instant that it was all mine: the case, the papers, the ID. I hadn’t committed the heist — yet.

The implant suddenly sparked, its functions resetting. It had lost control. My memories cleared as I entered the facility and regained control of myself. I looked at the map and knew exactly where to go: the lab.

I made my way there, breathless, heart pounding, but a calm settling in as I entered the implant lab. It was empty, the equipment glinting under the cold fluorescent lights. On a table lay the extraction device. I took a deep breath, placing it on my head, feeling the metal press into my scalp.

And in one swift motion, I pulled the trigger.