Scene 1 — The Ashwalk
The emergency doors hissed open, coughing dust into the sky.
The air was thick—metallic, burnt. Mason stumbled forward, barefoot and bleeding, into a world he did not recognize.
Behind him, the facility loomed like a concrete tomb, humming with emergency sirens and the soft crackle of fire.
His vision blurred. His thoughts fractured.
He had awoken in a pile of corpses.
Friends. Siblings. Familiar faces twisted in death. Their dried blood clung to his hands. The scent still curled in his nose—thick, coppery.
He ran. From pain. From the memory. From whatever he was.
But one truth chased him:
He was alive.
And he shouldn't be.
Scene 2 — Below the Boneways
Far beneath the surface, motion sensors flickered awake in the collapsed veins of the Boneways—an old metro line buried in ash and rust.
A lone figure limped through the ventilation shaft. Shadowlike. Barely conscious.
Three scouts emerged from the dark. Faces hidden behind gas masks. Armor cobbled together from salvaged steel. Their weapons raised.
"Contact," one whispered. "No Directorate tag. Pulse... high."
Mason collapsed before they reached him. Pale. Shivering. Bleeding.
But breathing.
And healing—faster than anything they'd seen before. Lacerations stitched themselves closed. Broken bones realigned. Dislocations snapped back into place.
Chills went up their spine witnessing this.
One of them murmured, "Is that thing even human…?"
Scene 3 — A Name Without a Past
Mason awoke to the sharp sting of antiseptic and melted plastic.
He jolted upright. Pain seared through his ribs. He wasn't restrained—just observed.
A girl leaned against the doorway. Lean build. Mismatched armor. A rifle slung on her shoulder.
"You've been unconscious two days," she said flatly. "Name?"
He hesitated. Memories swam behind his eyes—blood, concrete, a lullaby in a woman's voice.
"...Mason."
"Just Mason?" She raised an eyebrow. "No family name?"
He didn't reply.
She scoffed. "Flares took you in. We don't usually help strays. Count yourself lucky."
Mason stared at the ceiling.
He didn't feel lucky.
Scene 4 — The Ministry's Remnant
Far above, in a sterilized room washed in blue light, Tali floated inside a stasis tank. Her body motionless. Her eyelids twitching.
Dr. Adrienne Voss hovered near the console, studying the neural scan.
"Her memory's resisting deletion," she murmured. "Spikes. Fragments. Echoes of trauma."
Behind her, a Directorate officer loomed. "Can she be reconditioned?"
"To some extent. She'll obey commands. But the memories… they've rooted themselves."
On the screen, a flicker pulsed—red, then white.
Tali dreamed.
A boy's hand reaching for hers.
Screams.
Then, silence.
Scene 5 — Campfire in the Hollow
Deep below the ruins, the Flares gathered around a fire. The flames hissed and spat, licking at the shadows.
Mason sat alone, back to a rusted pillar. Watching the fire as if it could tell him something.
He saw faces in the flames. The Echoes. The twins. Tali.
All dead.
He had tripped over their bodies. Slipped in their blood.
His fingers curled into fists.
He should have died too.
But he hadn't.
A man with a metal eye approached. Scarred. Weathered. Calm.
"Ye got out o' a Directorate site," he said. "Not many can do that."
Mason didn't answer.
The man knelt beside him, Looks into his eyes. "I don't know what ye are, son… but I've seen that look before. The look of someone who's lost everything—even themselves."
Mason met his gaze.
"Life'll chew ye up," the man said, voice soft. "But sometimes, that's what it takes to find what you really are."
Mason looked back at the fire.
Then, footsteps. Three more figures approached.
The one in front—late 20s, confident, sharp eyes—offered a grin. "Heard my scouts dragged someone out of the Boneways."
He offered a hand. "Name's Liam. And you are?"
"…Mason."
Liam nodded. "Welcome to the Hollow. Those two behind me are Joseph and Klin—ignore the dumb looks."
They chuckled.
Liam crouched beside the fire. "I lead the Flares. We're what's left of the people the Directorate forgot. When they started playing gods and waging wars, they left us behind."
"We didn't forget," he said. "We remember. And we strike back."
"We raid their convoys. Burn their labs. Feed the ones down here. We're ghosts they can't kill."
Mason stayed silent, unsure whether to believe him.
Liam studied him. "Look, I've heard some things about you. Crazy things."
He scratched the back of his head. "Honestly? I don't care if any of it's true."
"But if even half of it is…"
He leaned forward.
"…We could use someone like you."
Mason didn't answer.
He didn't know if he was someone at all.
END OF CHAPTER 2