The maintenance shaft groaned, a low, tectonic rumble that vibrated through the soles of Mura’s boots. Dust, or perhaps data-corrupted particulate matter, hung in the stagnant air like suspended grey snow."Don't pull," Jax rasped, his eyes fixed on the ceiling where the structural steel was fraying into transparent polygons. "If you tug too hard, you’ll tear the local geometry. I’m already halfway to becoming background noise, Mura."Mura didn't let go. She braced her shoulder against a rusted pipe and hauled him upright. His body was unnervingly light, as if his mass was being calculated incorrectly by the city’s failing physics engine. "I’m not pulling you apart, Jax. I’m anchoring you. You said it yourself the Surveyors are just cleanup bots. If they see us as 'debris,' we just have to prove we’re structural.""Structural?" Jax let out a dry, hacking laugh. "I’m a cripple with a malfunctioning neural link. I’m the furthest thing from structural. Look at the wall, Mura. Look at the

"Three hundred meters, maybe four," Jax repeated, his voice clipping at the end, a digital stutter that grated against the silence of the maintenance shaft. "But it’s not a linear distance, Mura. The path is currently re-calculating its own existence. Every step we take, the floor realizes it’s supposed to be a void, and then it tries to remember how to be a floor again. It’s exhaustion, not distance."Mura tightened her grip on his arm. She could feel the static vibrating against her palms, a low-frequency hum that made her teeth ache. "I don’t care if the floor has amnesia, Jax. I care about getting you to a terminal that isn't eating you alive. Can you walk? Or do I have to carry you like a piece of dead weight?"Jax slumped, his boots dragging against the rusted grate. He looked up at her, his eyes flickering first a deep, natural brown, then a sharp, synthetic cobalt, then back to grey. "Carrying me might actually be safer. If I’m not touching the ground, the system might forget

"Don't flatter yourself," Jax muttered, though he leaned heavily into her hold. His synthetic leg dragged behind him, the servos whining in a high-pitched, discordant protest that echoed off the crumbling bulkheads. "We aren't people anymore. We're just data points that haven't been deleted yet. There’s a difference."Mura shifted her weight, feeling the sharp, biting edge of a bolt protruding from the wall as she navigated the narrow corridor. "Keep talking like that and I’ll leave you for the surveyors. If you want to be a data point, be a useful one. Tell me how to keep that door from phasing out of existence."Ahead, the massive blast door leading to the Sector 4 junction was wavering. One moment it was reinforced carbon steel, scarred by decades of conflict; the next, it turned into a translucent sheet of shimmering geometry, revealing the chaotic, white-noise storm raging in the interstitial space beyond.Jax blinked, his eyes struggling to focus on the threshold. "It’s not a do

"Janitors," Mura spat, hauling Jax over a pile of rebar that looked suspiciously like solidified television static. "They’re janitors, and we’re the trash they’re trying to sweep out. Great. That makes me feel much better about our chances of survival."Jax’s synthetic leg caught on a jagged piece of flooring, sending a shower of sparks that dissolved into blue mist before they even hit the ground. He gasped, his face draining of color. "Don't... don't be facetious. It’s an efficiency loop. They’re programmed to stabilize the area, and right now, the area is 'us.' If we can anchor the sector, we become part of the infrastructure. We cease being the mess and start being the foundation.""And how do we anchor a crumbling district with nothing but a rusted prybar and your failing servos?" Mura asked, her voice tight with the strain of supporting his dead weight.Jax gestured toward the flickering blast door with a trembling hand. "The junction box. The primary relay for Sector 4. If we b

"I’m not dragging you through the core to have you turn into a flickering silhouette," Mura repeated, her voice low, a blade sharpened by necessity. She shifted her shoulder, taking more of Jax’s weight until her own knees protested with a sharp, echoing crack. "You walk, or I carry you, but you aren't becoming a permanent part of the wall, Jax. Not today."Jax let out a wet, rattling laugh that turned into a spasm of coughing. He clutched at the collar of her jacket, his fingers twitching in a way that had nothing to do with human muscle control. "That’s the spirit, Mura. Stubbornness the final, most pathetic line of human defense. It’s almost endearing.""Save your breath for the bypass," Mura hissed, kicking a pile of debris out of their path. The floor beneath them rippled like water for a fraction of a second, the concrete turning into a soft, glowing gel before snapping back to reality. Mura didn’t look down. She kept her eyes fixed on the distant, pulsing light of the Sector 4