ZERO-DEATH PROTOCOL

Steel and Spores

The air in Sector 4 was thick, tasting of stagnant water and rotting ozone. Ariful moved through the waist-deep muck, his flashlight beam cutting a jagged path through the darkness. Zoya followed closely, her boots crunching on submerged debris.

"Keep your head down," Ariful said, his voice barely a murmur. "The pressure sensors are peaking."

"I see them, Ari. My HUD is screaming red," Zoya replied, her grip tightening on her rifle. "Are you sure this is the right path?"

"Positive. The data cache is behind that rusted bulkhead. If we’re fast, we’re out before they even realize we’re here."

"And if we’re not?"

"Then we’re already dead," he said, not breaking stride.

Suddenly, a massive, wet thud echoed against the steel walls. The pipes above groaned, bowing under an unseen weight.

"Did you hear that?" Zoya whispered, freezing.

"I heard it. Move to the alcove, now!"

"Something just dripped onto my shoulder. It’s... it’s acid, Ari!"

"Don't touch it! Get back!"

The hull of the sub-level buckled inward with a sound like a scream. A swarm of grey, twitching husks poured through the breach, their faceted eyes glowing like dying embers in the dark.

"There’s too many of them!" Zoya shouted, raising her weapon.

"Don't shoot yet! You’ll alert the rest of the hive!"

"Ari, they’re twenty feet away! I’m not waiting for them to say hello!"

"I said hold your fire! Let me draw them off."

"Are you insane? You’ll be shredded in seconds!"

Ariful surged forward, his boots churning the water. He didn't head for cover; he headed for the swarm. His bones felt heavy, reinforced by the evolution points from his previous deaths, humming with a kinetic charge that made his skin prickle.

"Ari, no!" Zoya screamed, firing her weapon. The shots flashed, illuminating the room in strobing, violent bursts.

Ariful caught the lead husk mid-air, slamming his elbow into its chitinous chest with the force of a wrecking ball. The creature shattered, turning into a cloud of toxic dust.

"Keep moving to the vent!" he roared, blood spraying from a jagged cut on his arm.

"I am not leaving you!"

"That’s an order, Zoya! Get to the ventilation shaft!"

"I don't take orders from a civilian!"

He lunged again, parrying a clawed strike with his forearm. The pain was blinding, but he didn't falter. He could feel the timeline straining, the edges of his vision blurring at the seams.

"Zoya, listen to me!" he gasped, panting. "If you don't go, we both lose the cache. And if we lose the cache, the city dies!"

"Why are you so obsessed with saving everyone? Who are you, really?"

"I’m the guy who’s tired of watching you die!"

She stopped, her finger hovering over the trigger, her face pale in the dim light. "What did you say?"

"Just run!"

A massive husk, larger than the others, leaped from the shadows, its serrated claws aimed squarely at Zoya’s throat. She was too slow, paralyzed by the sudden revelation.

Ariful didn't think. He threw himself into the path of the strike.

The claw punched through his chest, a sickening crunch of bone and muscle. He collapsed, pinning the beast down with his own body.

"Ari!" Zoya lunged, grabbing his collar, her eyes wide with a frantic, desperate realization.

"Get... get to the vent," he choked out, blood bubbling on his lips.

"No, no, no. You promised you wouldn't die! You said—"

"I lied," he gasped, his vision turning to grey ash. "It’s the only way, Zoya. Every time... it’s the only way."

The room began to dissolve, the walls warping into the familiar, terrifying texture of the hive. He could feel his heartbeat slowing, the rhythm syncing with the dying city.

"You look like... you remember," he whispered, his hand reaching out to touch her cheek. "Tell me you remember."

Zoya’s face was inches from his, her eyes shimmering with tears. She didn't move away. She pressed her forehead against his, her breath warm, desperate, and shattering.

"I remember the smell of burning copper," she sobbed, her voice trembling. "I remember you falling, every single time. Why does it always end like this?"

"Because," he wheezed, his world fading into the white-hot light of the reset, "I haven't figured out how to save you yet."

"Ari, stay with me! Don't you dare leave me in this hell alone!"

"I’ll be back," he whispered, his eyes closing as the dust consumed him. "I always come back."

The world tilted, the sound of the hive-mind’s screeching crescendoing into a deafening silence. Ariful felt his lungs fill with the familiar, suffocating pressure of the alleyway.

He slammed against the wet brick.

"Ari? Is that you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost, man."

Ariful blinked, his chest heaving, his fingers clutching the empty, cold air where Zoya had been only a second before. He turned slowly, his eyes locking onto Sumi, but his mind was still back in the dark, still feeling the ghost of Zoya’s breath against his skin.

He pulled a small, jagged piece of metal from his pocket—a fragment of the cache he hadn't realized he’d held onto during the reset.

"Sumi," he said, his voice cold, steady, and terrifyingly sharp.

"Yeah, Ari? You’re acting even weirder than before."

"We’re going back," he said, staring at the horizon. "But this time, I’m changing the game."

"Back where? To the warehouse?"

Ariful gripped his knife, the hum of his reinforced bones vibrating through his entire frame. "To her. I’m going to kill every single one of those things before we even reach the sector, and then, I’m going to make sure she remembers everything."

"You’re really losing it, aren't you?"

"I’m finding it," he corrected, turning into the shadows. "And for the first time, I think she’s waiting for me."