The streetlights flickered like dying stars as the rain tapped on rusted metal sheets above the slums of Sector E. Beneath the pulsing buzz of faulty wires and old tech, a boy moved like shadow — eyes glassy, pupils glowing faint blue.
They called him Caleb.
To the world, he was broken.
To the system, he didn't exist.
To the dying, he was the last whisper of hope.
He crouched beside a motionless woman slumped against the alley wall. Her body spasmed in jagged fits. Binary code ran across her veins like infection — glowing numbers crawling under her skin, distorting her face. Her identity chip blinked erratically.
> CODE DECAY DETECTED. MEMORY CORRUPTION. TERMINATION IN 00:02:43
Caleb didn't flinch. Instead, he pulled a thin, needle-like rod from his tattered hoodie — a relic tech he called the Stitcher. With trembling hands, he slid it into the base of her skull. Her screams were muffled by the rain and static.
He closed his eyes. His body convulsed as her corrupted data poured into his nervous system. Images, screams, government control files, and childhood pain collided inside his head.
His nose bled.
His spine arched.
Then—
Silence.
The woman gasped, her eyes wide. The glowing code faded. She blinked once, twice — alive.
"I… I remember," she whispered, tears falling. "They erased my son… they deleted my child."
Caleb collapsed.
His breath ragged. His fingers twitching.
He had just rewired another human soul… at the cost of a piece of his own.
---
In the tall black towers beyond the slums, a figure watched the scene from a digital surveillance feed — unmoved, inhuman.