Jonah looked up. The leaves on the tree were even stranger. Some leaves were dry and brown. But other leaves were made of thin, green glass. They looked like pieces of broken bottles hanging from the branches. Some leaves looked like small squares of plastic."The plants are broken," Jonah said softly.He looked down at the ground. The grass was not normal. Patches of dead, yellow grass grew next to patches of sharp, thin copper wires. The copper wires grew right out of the dirt like weeds."This is not a natural place," Marcus said. The old man was shaking with fear. He backed away from the metal tree. "God has cursed this land. We are in hell.""God did not do this," Jonah said. His deep voice was very serious. His dark eyes scanned the terrifying, broken forest.Jonah finally understood what was happening."When we entered the Dead Zone, my System turned off," Jonah explained to the group. "I thought the fog blocked the computer signal. But I was wrong.""What do you mean?" Lisa as

CRUNCH!The skull shattered into a hundred pieces. Black blood and gray brains splattered across the dirt. The dog stopped moving entirely.Jonah was breathing heavily. His chest heaved up and down. His right shoulder was bleeding badly. The pain was making him dizzy.He looked around the clearing.Lisa was helping Kevin stand up. Elena was shaking, holding her empty shotgun. Marcus was sitting on the ground, crying, but he was not bitten.The five clear dogs were all dead. Their broken, transparent bodies lay in the dirt.The clearing fell silent again. Only the sound of the humans gasping for breath filled the yellow fog.Jonah dropped to one knee. He held his bleeding shoulder."Dad!" Kevin limped over quickly. "You are hurt again!""I am fine," Jonah grunted. He forced himself to stand back up. He picked up his rifle from the dirt. He tried to look strong for the group, but he was incredibly tired. His body was failing.Lisa walked over to the dead dog Jonah had crushed.She knelt

A thick cloud of white steam exploded into the air as the hot metal hit the cold silver liquid. The container sank to the bottom of the pond. The crazy, flashing lights disappeared.Instantly, the terrible whispers stopped. The clearing was perfectly quiet again.Jonah dropped to his knees next to Kevin. He grabbed his son by the shoulders."Kevin! Look at me!" Jonah commanded gently. "It is gone. The voice is gone. Breathe."Kevin gasped for air. He opened his good eye. He looked at his father. Kevin’s face was covered in a fresh layer of cold sweat. He was shaking like a leaf in the winter wind."Dad," Kevin whispered. His voice was broken and terrified. "Did you hear them?""I heard them," Jonah said. He wiped the sweat from Kevin’s forehead. "They were broken."Lisa walked over and knelt down. Her face was pale. "I heard them too," she said. She looked at the silver pond where the container had sunk. "It sounded like a radio broadcast from hell. The voices were panicked. They were

The climb down into the dark chasm was a nightmare. The air was freezing cold. It smelled like old rust, wet dirt, and rotten meat. The walls of the deep hole were not smooth. They were jagged. Sharp rocks stuck out like broken teeth. Thick, heavy metal pipes ran down the sides of the hole. The pipes were covered in a thick, slippery black slime.Jonah climbed down first. His giant hands grabbed the rusted metal. He tested every pipe before he put his full weight on it.Creak. Groan.The old metal complained, but it held him."Step exactly where I step," Jonah called up to the group. His deep voice echoed loudly in the massive hole. "Do not rush. If you slip, it is a long way down."Above him, Kevin grunted. The young giant was climbing slowly. His broken ribs caused him terrible pain with every movement. Sweat dripped from Kevin’s nose, falling past Jonah’s face into the dark.Behind Kevin, Elena moved carefully. She was terrified, but she did not cry. Lisa followed Elena, watching

"Shut your mouth, Marcus," Lisa snapped without even looking at the old man.Lisa knelt down next to Jonah. She opened her small medical kit. She pulled out a clean white bandage.She started to wrap the deep cut on Jonah’s leg. She wrapped it very tight to stop the bleeding."Listen to me, Jonah," Lisa said softly, her voice much kinder now. "You are stripped down to your human limits. But human limits are not a weakness. They are a feature."Jonah looked at her. "What do you mean?""When a machine is broken, it stops working completely," Lisa explained as she tied the bandage tight. "But a human being adapts. You do not need a green bar in your eye to tell you when you are tired. Your body tells you. When you are breathing hard, you are tired. When you are bleeding, you are hurt. You have to listen to your body, not a computer."Lisa finished wrapping the leg. She patted his knee."You are afraid because you lost your absolute certainty," Lisa said, looking directly into his dark br