All Chapters of System Reboot: Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
12 chapters
Chapter Eleven: The Long Way Around
"Something's wrong with the ground up ahead. Don't step past that cracked line."Wren said it low, one hand raised, the whole group stopping behind her without needing further explanation. Three days of walking had taught Dax to trust her Warden senses the same way he used to trust a scout's read on unfamiliar terrain, fast and without argument."How wrong," he asked."Gravity's doing something there. Feels heavier than it should, like standing too close pulls at you." She squinted into the dark ahead, the road curving out of sight around a collapsed overpass. "I think it's a Zone boundary. We must be closer to the Zone 3 edge than the map said."Priya checked her tablet, frowning at the screen. "Should still be a mile off. Boundaries have been drifting though. Not supposed to happen, but nothing about the Grid does what it's supposed to do anymore."They'd left the pharmacy two nights back, moving mostly after dark to avoid Vanguard patrol schedules, resting in short stretches during
Chapter Twelve: What the Ground Remembers
"Tell me you felt that.""I felt it." Dax planted his boots wider, the street beneath them trembling faintly, a low groan rolling up through the concrete like something enormous shifting its weight far below. "Everyone stay still a second."They'd left Coral an hour back, her directions solid so far, cutting a path well clear of the worst of the boundary drift. The tremor now felt different from the usual gravity quirks the Grid threw at them daily. Deeper. Wronger.Wren's eyes had gone distant, Warden senses stretching out across the street, and her face paled fast."The ground's not stable here either," she said. "Coral said this stretch was clear.""Maybe it was, an hour ago," Priya said, checking her tablet with a frown. "She said the boundary's been drifting fast. Maybe it caught up to this stretch since she last walked it."Another tremor rolled through, stronger this time, a section of sidewalk a dozen feet ahead buckling upward like something underneath had pushed against it a