2025-07-29 00:23:09The entrance to the uplink bunker was buried beneath layers of moss, rotting leaves, and a collapsed thicket of tree limbs. No one would have known it was there unless they were looking. And even then, it took Jared nearly twenty minutes to uncover the old steel hatch hidden beneath a camouflaged tarp coated in decades of forest debris.
Mei knelt beside him, shivering from the cold sweat that came with fear. She held the rifle tightly, even though she hadn’t fired it once yet. Her hands trembled, but her stance didn’t break.
“This is it?” she asked quietly.
Jared gave a slight nod. “Used to be a failsafe command post. Remote systems control. It was taken offline before the Collapse.”
“Why would they hide it way out here?”
“Because it wasn’t meant to be found. Not by the public.”
The badge Finn gave him still felt warm in his hand. Like it carried the weight of all the ghosts it had passed through before reaching him. He slid it into the scanner beside the hatch. There was a long silence.
Then a mechanical hum.
The scanner lit up green.
And the hatch began to unlock.
With a low grinding sound, the circular door rotated and popped free, revealing a ladder that disappeared into darkness.
Mei’s breath caught. “We’re really going down there?”
“You can stay up here.”
She gave him a look that was almost a glare. “Not a chance.”
He went first, climbing down the metal rungs with practiced control, rifle strapped across his back, flashlight clamped between his teeth. The air grew colder as they descended. The bunker felt like it had been sealed in ice.
Mei followed, her boots echoing faintly behind him. When they finally hit the ground, the space opened up into a narrow concrete corridor. The walls were lined with broken monitors and cracked emergency lights.
Somewhere in the distance, a slow drip echoed.
Jared moved ahead carefully. “Watch your step. Old wiring could be unstable.”
Mei stayed close behind. “What exactly are we looking for?”
“A terminal. If it’s still active, I can force a system reset and intercept the Purge command.”
“And if it’s not?”
He didn’t answer.
They reached a door marked “Systems Core.” The keypad was shattered. Jared crouched, pried open the panel, and rewired it manually. A few sparks flew. Then the door slid open with a sharp hiss.
Inside was a control room sealed in time. Dust coated everything. A skeleton still sat slumped in the corner, dressed in a decaying military uniform. Mei turned away, swallowing back nausea.
Jared approached the central terminal and slid in the badge.
The screen blinked.
Verifying clearance… Accepted.
Welcome back, Lt. Jared Rhodes.
Mei stared at the name. “You never told me your last name.”
“I didn’t want to remember it.”
He began typing commands rapidly, accessing hidden protocols, decrypting files buried beneath obsolete firewalls. Mei moved to the edge of the room, watching him work. Something about the way his hands moved—calm, deliberate—told her this wasn’t the first time he had been behind a terminal like this.
Then the screen changed.
Reconstruction Protocol: Phase Two Active
Status: Purge En Route
ETA to Sector 14: 31 hours
Mei’s stomach dropped. “That’s not forty-eight hours.”
“They accelerated it.”
Jared’s fingers flew over the keys. “I can trigger a lockdown on the drone network. But I need one more code fragment.”
Mei frowned. “From where?”
He leaned back, exhaling slowly. “There were three uplink bunkers built. This is one. The second is near the coast. The third…”
He stopped. His eyes met hers.
“The third is buried beneath Capital Sector. Ground zero.”
“Which one has the code?”
“I don’t know. But I can narrow it down. If I can sync this station with the old satellite grid—”
The console sparked suddenly, cutting him off. Lights above them flickered.
Jared stood, rifle in hand instantly.
“What was that?” Mei whispered.
Then they heard it.
A sound like a buzz, faint but unmistakable. High-frequency modulation.
The drones had found them.
Jared yanked Mei toward the hallway. “They’re tracking terminal access. Move.”
They sprinted back through the concrete corridor, footsteps pounding in unison. Behind them, something exploded—concrete cracking as metal forced its way inside.
Above them, the hatch had already started to reseal. Jared shoved Mei up the ladder first, barking at her to climb.
She moved fast, pulling herself up as the mechanical whine of the drones grew louder.
Jared was right behind her. He pushed her onto the ground and slammed the hatch shut the moment he was clear.
Then the ground shook.
One of the drones had fired. But the hatch held.
For now.
They lay on the forest floor, breathing hard.
Mei turned to him. “We’re not safe here.”
“No. They know where we are now.”
He sat up and pulled a small chip from his vest.
“The data’s incomplete. But I got part of the signal map. I know where the second bunker is.”
“Where?”
He looked up at the sky, where dark clouds had begun to roll in.
“Somewhere in what used to be Louisiana.”
She blinked. “That’s hundreds of miles away.”
“We’ll move fast. Stay off the grid. Travel at night.”
Mei was quiet for a long moment. “And what happens when we get there and it’s a dead end?”
Jared looked at her. His eyes weren’t cold now. They were tired. Worn down. But beneath that was something steady.
“We don’t stop until it ends.”
She nodded.
It wasn’t much of a plan.
But it was all they had.
System Update: Satellite Fragment Synced – 41% Decryption Complete
Drone Response Time: Reduced by 20%
Uplink Status: Compromised
Warning: Remaining Core Access Points – 2
Back in the control room, long after they’d gone, the skeleton in the corner shifted slightly.
A faint red light blinked inside its chest.
Something else had woken up.
And it wasn’t alone.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 85- What the World Is Becoming
POV: JaredI go farther than I ever meant to.It starts small. A longer walk. One more hill. A place I used to avoid because there was nothing there and nothing is dangerous when you are used to things breaking.But the nothing is gone now.There are paths.Not carved. Not forced. They curve the way feet prefer to move, the way water would choose if it had legs. I follow one and realize I am not deciding where to step. The ground already knows.I pass a frame of something that might become a shelter. Three walls leaning into each other, patient. No tool marks. No signs of hands. Just intention, paused mid-thought.I touch the surface. It is warm. Alive in that quiet way stone sometimes is when it remembers heat.There are people.Not echoes. Not visitors who vanish when you look too closely.People with packs and stories and tired eyes that have learned how to hope without making noise about it. They move carefully, like the world might change its mind if they rush.When they see me,
Chapter 84- Proof of Life
POV: JaredThe visitor returns on a morning that feels undecided.Not stormy. Not kind. The sort of morning that could become anything if pushed hard enough.They do not come alone this time.There are two of them now, standing where the ground still remembers Emma’s footsteps. One waits farther back, respectful or wary, I cannot tell. The other holds a narrow case against their chest. Not sealed. Not dramatic. Just carried like something that has already been opened too many times.I do not ask why they are here.I think part of me has been expecting this since the footprint by the river.They kneel. Open the case. Push it toward me.“There’s no point bringing images,” the visitor says. Their voice is softer than before, like they learned something since last we spoke. “Those can lie without knowing they’re lying.”Inside the case are three things.They are arranged without ceremony. No labels. No explanation. Just objects, trusting me to recognize the truth on my own.The first is a
Chapter 83- The Day the Journal Changes
POV: JaredI notice the journal first.Not because I am looking for it. It has learned how to find me on its own. It sits where it always does, near the window, catching the part of the morning light that feels undecided. I pick it up the way I always do, careful, familiar, like my hands remember rules my head did not make.I read the same page as yesterday. I am sure of that. I even remember where I stopped, the way her handwriting slanted when she got tired, the tiny pause before the sentence broke off.That is why my eyes trip.There is a line that does not belong.Not a new page. Not an ending. Something threaded in, quiet and precise, as if it had always been waiting for space.The ink is darker. The letters are steadier. Cleaner than the rest, like her hand did not hesitate even once.I read it again. Slower.I remember more when I’m farther away.The room feels smaller for a second. Or maybe I do.I flip back a page. Then forward. I check the margins, the binding, the spine, li
Chapter 82- Staying Still Means Trusting
POV: JaredTime does not pass the way I expected it to.It does not rush at me. It does not circle back to hurt me on purpose. It moves like the river does when no one is watching. Forward, uneven, sometimes quiet enough that I forget it is working at all.The first days are the hardest. Not because of pain. Because of habit.I keep turning to speak to her. I keep saving thoughts like spare coins, planning to hand them to her later. When I realize there is no later yet, my chest tightens, then loosens. Over and over. Like a muscle learning a new job.I do not break.That surprises me.Instead, I learn the shape of loneliness without panic. I learn that missing someone does not mean I am losing them. It just means there is space now, and space can be lived in.I talk. Out loud.At first it feels foolish, then it feels necessary.I tell the tree by the river about my dreams. The ones where the world glitches and she laughs like it is nothing. The river gets updates too. I explain my day
Chapter 81- The Goodbye That Isn’t One
POV: JaredEmma did not disappear.That was the lie I had been preparing myself for. Light. Noise. Some dramatic tearing of space that would give my grief something sharp to hook onto.Instead, she packed slowly.Not with bags. With pauses.She touched things like she was checking they were still real. The edge of the table. The wall where the shelter leaned a little to the left. The river stone she liked because it fit perfectly in her palm. She left it where it was.I stood a few steps away and did not help. Not because I did not want to. Because helping would have meant participating in the leaving, and I was not ready to be that honest.When she was done, she walked.No announcement. No speech. Just forward, toward the place where the air thinned and the world felt less certain. The visitor waited farther ahead, out of respect or strategy. I did not care which.The grass bent under her feet. Then sprang back up.Every instinct in me screamed to follow.I had chased her across coll
Chapter 80- Emma Chooses Something New
POV: JaredShe did not say it like a sacrifice.That was the first thing that scared me.Emma said it while folding her sleeves, like she was preparing to wash her hands. Calm. Thought through. Already lived with the idea long enough that it had softened around the edges.“There’s a third option,” she said.I waited for the catch. There was always one.She would go with the visitor. Not forever. Not to save everything. Just one breach. One place that was still tearing itself apart. She would help them stabilize it, show them how to listen instead of forcing fixes, teach them how to let broken systems breathe.Then she would come back.No vows attached. No guarantees smuggled into the sentence.Just intention.I opened my mouth and nothing came out.I wanted to argue. I had the words ready. I had them memorized. I could list risks and probabilities and timelines like scripture. I could tell her how fragile this world still was, how fragile she was, how every separation felt like tempti
You may also like
Cheated No More: The All-in-One System
WillyCatchFish67.8K viewsUnparalleled Demon System: Tales of the Lost Demon
Dark Crafter21.3K viewsBecame a billionaire with system
Dee Hwang 41.4K viewsThe Reign of Zane Gardner
Herolich31.2K viewsTHE BLACKLIST SYSTEM: REBIRTH OF NOAH VALE
Diva Pen290 viewsRevenge Above The Sky
Starfall_V4.3K viewsDragon System
Maine Enciso4.2K viewsFavored By The System
Babyblue1.3K views