"My name is Clara," the woman cried softly, pulling the dirty blanket off her head. "I am a senior nurse at the Grand Hospital. Inside the inner city walls."Rick frowned. The Grand Hospital was the richest, most elite medical building in Rustgate. It was where the Guild Masters and the wealthy merchants went for treatment. "Why are you here, Clara?" Rick asked softly, offering her a wooden cup of warm water. "The inner city gates are open now. You do not need to hide."Clara took the cup. Her hands shook so badly that water spilled onto her white uniform. "I am hiding from them," Clara sobbed. "I am hiding from the official doctors. You have to help me, Doctor Rick. Terrible things are happening in the white towers."Isaac stepped out of the shadows from the hallway. He had been sleeping in a nearby room. He wore a simple gray shirt and dark pants. "Define terrible, Nurse Clara," Isaac commanded in his smooth, logical voice. Clara jumped when she saw Isaac. She recognized the for

They stepped into the quarantine ward. It was a long, wide hallway lined with patient rooms with glass walls. The scene was absolute horror. Every single glass wall in the hallway was completely covered in thick, dark black frost. They could not see inside the rooms. But the doors to the rooms were wide open. Rick walked slowly to the first open door. He looked inside. The hospital bed was perfectly made. The white sheets were clean. But a thick layer of white frost covered the pillows. The room was completely empty. "They are gone," Luna whispered, checking the next room. "Empty. Just like Clara said.""Where did he take them?" Rick asked, his heart hammering with dread. Ash walked down the center of the hallway. The little girl did not look at the empty rooms. She looked straight ahead, toward the very end of the long white hallway. At the end of the hall, there was a massive set of double doors. They were the doors to the main surgical theater. "The ghosts are walking that

"I built this hospital," Isaac said. His voice was perfectly flat. "I supervised the construction of the Grand Hospital twenty years ago. I drew the blueprints. I approved the budget."Isaac pointed a clean, white-gloved finger down into the dark hole. "There is no basement beneath the surgical theater," Isaac stated coldly. "The blueprints end at this floor. This space... it does not exist on any official city record."Rick sat up slowly. He groaned in pain. The green light was still leaking from his skin. "The Guild kept secrets from you, Isaac," Rick said. "No one keeps secrets from the Chief Auditor," Isaac said. But his hands were shaking slightly. He realized that the Pharmaceutical Guild was much darker than he had ever imagined. Ash walked up to the edge of the hole. The little white-haired girl looked down into the dark. She did not look afraid. She just blinked her giant black eyes. "It smells like crying," Ash whispered. "The dark stairs go down to a very bad place. The

Rick used simple, brutal martial arts. He smashed the staff into the robot’s knee joint. The robot fell forward. Rick spun the staff back around and smashed the heavy wood directly into the robot’s metal face. The robot short-circuited and died. Luna jumped down from the walkway. She landed safely, rolling on her shoulder. She ran toward the silver machines between the glass tubes. A scientist tried to grab her. "You cannot be here!" the scientist yelled. Luna swung her heavy iron wrench with her one strong arm. She hit the scientist in the jaw. He fell to the floor, completely unconscious. "Stay away from the machines!" Luna yelled fiercely. She raised her wrench and smashed it down onto the glass keyboard of the main control panel. The glass shattered. Sparks flew into the air. The machine let out a loud, dying beep. High above, Isaac continued to fire his silver pistol. He provided perfect sniper cover, shooting any robot that tried to aim at Rick or Luna. Rick ran through t

The giant, heavy steel door slammed shut behind them. Rick, Luna, and Ash were trapped. They stood inside the Vault of Flesh. It was the deepest, darkest, most secret room in the entire City of Iron. In front of them stood the Emperor of Rot. He was a monster. But he did not look like an ugly beast. He did not look like a rotting pile of mud. He looked like a perfect, giant man. He was ten feet tall. His skin was pale gray, incredibly smooth, and flawless. His chest and arms were covered in thick, bulging muscles. Black, toxic veins crawled just under the surface of his skin. The veins pulsed with a terrible, bright purple light. His eyes were two pools of solid, burning purple fire. The Emperor slowly raised his massive hands. He looked at his new fingers. He squeezed his hands into giant fists. The sound of his knuckles popping was louder than a gunshot. The air around him shimmered with terrible heat. "Perfect," the Emperor whispered. His voice was no longer the hissing sou