Kai reached the small metal door. He grabbed the rusty handle. He pulled it. It did not move.Kai pulled harder. He grunted with pain as the muscles in his burned hands tore. The door was completely, solidly locked."Thorne!" Kai yelled in panic. "It's locked! It has a heavy digital deadbolt!""Then hack it!" Thorne shouted back, firing a shot into the dark. BANG!"I can't!" Kai cried. He looked at the electronic keypad next to the door. The screen on the keypad was completely smashed. The wires were ripped out. "The keypad is physically destroyed! Someone smashed it with a hammer! I can't interface with it!"Thorne backed up until he was standing next to Kai. They were trapped at the dead end of the tunnel. There was nowhere else to run.Down the tunnel, the bright beams of the Purist flashlights were getting closer and closer. They could hear the splashing of heavy boots. The soldiers were reloading their guns."Well, kid," Thorne said. His voice was grim and tired. He checked the c

Kai and Thorne ran to the nearest window. They looked down at the dark streets of Crest City.The city was no longer quiet. The streets were filled with people. But they were not peacefully walking. They were a wild, violent, angry mob.The Purist Manifesto had acted like a virus. It had infected the minds of the scared, hungry people sitting in the dark. Colonel Raines had given them a target. He had given them permission to be angry.Kai watched in horror as a crowd of fifty people surrounded a broken, powerless delivery drone on the street. The drone was just a simple machine that delivered groceries. It was not a weapon. It could not hurt them.But the people attacked it with heavy metal pipes, baseball bats, and rocks. They smashed the drone into tiny pieces. They screamed and cheered as the metal broke.Further down the street, a group of men threw a homemade firebomb into the window of an automated smart-pharmacy. The glass shattered. Bright orange fire exploded into the dark

The world was a nightmare. People were screaming. Fire burned in the windows of the stores. Rioters were flipping over old, dead automated cars. The air smelled like thick, black smoke and burning plastic.Kai pulled the hood of his dark coat over his head to hide his glowing silver eyes. If the angry mob saw his eyes, they would tear him apart with their bare hands. They believed he was the Traitor of Flesh. They believed he was the monster who had caused all of this.They moved like ghosts through the shadows. They avoided the large crowds. Thorne kept his hand on his gun, ready to shoot anyone who tried to stop them.They walked for an hour through the burning city.Finally, they reached a massive, thick steel wall built into the side of a rocky hill. It was the entrance to the Alpha Bunker. This was where the Accord Council hid during emergencies.Two heavily armed human soldiers stood guarding the steel door. They looked terrified. They were watching the fires burn in the city be

Kai found the main access terminal on the side of the giant metal dish. It was a heavy steel box. He pulled the metal cover off. Inside, thick copper wires sparked faintly with leftover static electricity."I need to connect the raw wires directly to the nano-dust in my blood," Kai explained. His voice was steady, but his hands shook slightly.He reached into the box. He grabbed two thick, exposed copper wires."Thorne," Kai said, looking over his shoulder at his friend. "When I connect, my body will lock up. The shock will be massive. Do not touch me. If you touch me, the electricity will kill you instantly.""What if the machine tries to trap you again?" Thorne asked, his rough face full of worry. "What if it tries to erase you like Liora?"Kai looked back at the wires. He thought about Rhea. He thought about her sitting in a dark room, a prisoner of Ambassador Sol. He had to save her. He had to save the world."If I do not wake up in thirty minutes," Kai said softly, "take your gun

BANG!The sound of the heavy revolver was deafening in the small, concrete room.A bright yellow flash of fire shot from the barrel of Thorne’s gun. The heavy lead bullet ripped through the air. It hit the thick copper wires connecting Kai’s bleeding chest to the massive Deep-Space Array.Sparks exploded everywhere. ZAAAAP! Bright blue electricity popped and hissed like angry snakes. The wires snapped in half.In the digital world, Kai was staring at the glass box holding Rhea. The silver liquid was rising. He reached his hand out to her.Suddenly, the black glass floor beneath him shattered. An invisible hook grabbed Kai by the back of his neck. It pulled him backward with terrifying, violent speed. The giant pillar of light, the millions of faces, and Rhea’s sleeping body all vanished into dark shadows."NO!" Kai screamed in the digital void.In the real world, Kai’s physical body crashed hard onto the dusty concrete floor of Sub-Level Four.He gasped for air. His eyes snapped op