Do not look down, just jump! Rhea screamed the order as the frozen ground beneath them completely gave way. The fifty-foot crater from Idris's solar strike shattered like fragile glass, swallowed by the massive, glowing blue shaft that had just torn Sector Five open. There was no time to deploy cables or find a handhold. Gravity simply ceased to exist on their terms. Idris fell backward into the blinding blue light, his hands still covered in the fading heat of his own blood. The air rushing past his ears was not the freezing wind of the Cybernetic Abyss. It was warm, sterile, and smelled faintly of clinical antiseptics. It smelled like the world before the dead started walking. Lock armor joints! Jax yelled over the squad comms, his massive obsidian frame falling through the blue void like a dark meteor. Beta Squad, grab the civilians! Alpha, form a terminal velocity shield below the commander! The first emotional beat hit Idris as he plummeted. He watched his clones, his fa

Seal the blast doors!Elena's pristine composure shattered instantly, her fingers flying across her glass tablet as the soft white lights of the laboratory were swallowed by a harsh, pulsing crimson emergency glow.Across the massive underground hall, the rows of towering glass cylinders began to fracture. The bubbling green fluid inside sprayed against the reinforced glass as dozens of Category 5 mutations slammed their massive, bone-plated fists against the containment walls. The simulated paradise was a slaughterhouse waiting to be uncaged.Fall back into a defensive square! Jax roared, his obsidian armor shifting as he slammed his heavy boots into the hexagonal tiles. Alpha, cover the flanks! Beta, secure the civilian hostages! If anything touches them, burn it to ash!The nineteen clones moved with lethal, synchronized precision. They formed an impenetrable wall of steel and plasma rifles around Rhea and the shivering group of survivors. Rhea stood at the front

The red light blinked once.Then twice.Then it died, swallowed by the dark.Idris stared at the ceiling of the medical tent, his chest still wrapped in bandages that smelled of antiseptic and something floral his mother had probably cooked up in a lab. His body felt like it had been through a meat grinder and put back together with duct tape and spite.Rhea hadn't left his side. She was dozing in that chair again, her hand still wrapped around his. Her grip was loose, but her fingers twitched every few seconds like she was fighting something in her sleep.He watched her for a long moment. The bruise above her eye had faded to a sickly yellow. The cut on her lip was scabbed over. She looked like hell. But she was still the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen."Stop staring," she muttered, her eyes still closed. "It's creepy.""You're awake.""I wasn't. But you're staring so loud I couldn't sleep."He la