LOGINRAYNAThe storm outside had no mercy left to give.Every step across the frozen highway pass was a fight against the wind. My body ached deep inside my thermal suit, my muscles pulling tight and stiff from sheer physical exhaustion. Miller was shuffling two steps behind Lior, dragging his boots through the snow like a man walking to his own execution. He hadn't said a word since we lost Red off the cliff. His eyes were wide, glazed over, and fixed on the white ground beneath his helmet."Lior," I rasped through the helmet mic, my breath sounding thin and raspy in my earpiece. "Suit battery is down to eight percent. If we don't find a heat tap soon, the coils are going to freeze."Lior didn't slow down. His broad suit frame cut straight through the silver haze like an iron wedge. "Keep moving. There is an automated highway fuel depot half a mile down this ditch. It was built to keep emergency transport trucks running during the initial evacuation.""If it has power," Miller whimpered s
RAYNAThe explosion of the transport truck was still burning behind us. A towering column of bright red fire tore through the heavy silver fog, turning the whole mountain pass into a twisted, glowing hellscape.Through my frosted suit visor, I watched the shapes moving out in the road.They weren't acoustic walkers. They didn't have the strange, pulsing skin or the hollow heads. These were human bodies. Dead bodies. Men and women who had frozen to death on this highway two weeks ago, their skin black and hard as iron, their old winter coats shredded by the wind.They moved with horrible, jerky steps. Their legs snapped forward like broken wooden sticks, their heads tilted back at unnatural angles. The blue ice had crept straight into their frozen muscles, controlling them from the inside like puppets on wire. One of them dragged a rusted iron crowbar across the asphalt. Another dragged a heavy mining pick, the steel tip screeching against the frozen road."Puppet husks," I rasped into
LIORThe airlock overhead pump sputtered out, leaving only a small green indicator light pulsing above the interior door frame.I kept my heavy back pressed flat against the iron outer hatch, my boots planted wide, my rifle raised toward the dark. My suit's internal heating coils were whining with a low, dying hum. I stayed completely still, listening through the thick insulation of my helmet for whatever had just tapped on the iron from the highway outside.Silence. Nothing answered except the long, hollow moan of the wind tearing through the canyon."Lior," Rayna rasped over our suit radio, her voice crackling through the short-range band. Her face behind the frosted visor was pale, her dark eyes wide. "Unlatch the interior seal. The airlock sensors show the atmosphere inside is stable. We need to swap these power packs before our suit coils go dead."I turned the heavy iron wheel and threw the interior hatch open.The maintenance hub was small, concrete-walled, and smelled like bur
RAYNAThe cold outside our thermal suits was lethal, but inside, the heating coils were dying.I tapped the control panel on my wrist sleeve. The digital readout pulsed a weak, dying amber: BATTERY LIFE: 14%. COIL OUTPUT: CRITICAL.We were wearing heavy, multi-layer arctic mining suits—pressurized, insulated gear built for deep-core subterranean runs. But the extreme atmospheric drop was draining the heavy lithium battery packs strapped to our lower backs at three times the normal rate. Without these suits heated, our blood would turn to solid ice in less than four minutes on the open road.My hand was locked around the handle of my sidearm inside my thick, insulated gauntlet. The rubber suit lining was sticking to my skin, hot with trapped sweat that was slowly turning clammy as the suit heater struggled."Keep your suit power on low conserve," Lior growled over the short-range helmet comms. His voice came through the earpiece rough, flat, and choked with static. "We have three miles
RAYNAThe static burst out of the radio speaker, high and sharp enough to make my teeth ache.I dropped straight to my knees in the snowbank, my gloves tearing open as I clawed at Lior’s shoulder rig to grab the frequency dial. My heart was pounding like a hammer inside my ribs."Filter the signal!" I screamed.Lior didn't answer. He threw his big body over mine, blocking the freezing wind, his rifle pointed straight down the dark highway. Miller and Red tumbled out of the pipe behind us, dragging Dr. Theodora into the white drift.Mark’s voice came through the crackle. It didn't sound like him. It sounded thin, dry, and terrifyingly small."Commander... if you're receiving this... stay away from the lower drainage vents..." Mark gasped. He was breathing like a man who had just run ten miles in the cold. "It’s been fourteen days... we thought you were dead..."My hand froze on the radio knob."Fourteen days?" I rasped out, turning my head up toward Lior. "Lior... what the hell is he t
LIORThe metal floor under my boots felt like a slab of deep freezer ice. I didn't care about the cold. I didn't care about the dark or the two dead bodies rotting on the tile behind us. I only cared about the woman breathing hard against my chest.Rayna was shaking. Her bare knuckles were split wide open from punching the glass screen, thick dark blood dripping onto the sleeves of my coat. I kept my thick hands locked around her wrists, squeezing hard enough to leave bruises, forcing the heat of my own body straight into her skin."Look at me, Rayna," I growled down into her face. My voice was a dark, rough rasp. "Keep your eyes on me."She pulled against my grip, her small teeth grinding together, her eyes wild with a mix of pure rage and terrifying panic. "Lior, let go of me! We don't have anything! There is no cure! We dragged everyone out here for nothing!""I don't give a shit about the cure," I rasped, stepping right into her space until her back hit the cold steel wall. I lean







