TIME : T-28:50 → T-27:35
EMP wreckage smoked blue.
Elias vanished around the shelves, shadow swallowed by red light.
I panted, titanium groaning in my arm, blood and sweat stinging old wounds.
Key still in hand, screen glowing:
Subject: ELIAS ZHOU
Status: HUMAN (99.2% CONFIDENCE)
99.2%.
Fuck!
I wiped my face, glass and blood gumming my eyes.
Looked up at apparel—
Shelving maze, gaps narrow as coffins.
Emergency reds sluicing the floor, like a blood tide.
Reanimated flooded the aisle!
Cook, flashlight girl, chicken-kid—pupils flickering, gliding silent.
No way out.
I stepped back, key raised.
"Fuck…" I rasped, groping my waist—half a tactical knife left.
Cook lunged!
Bone blade slashing for my carotid!
I dropped, rolling, key whipping up for his throat!
HISS-SLASH!
Copper-on-flesh—wet, sticky, with tracheal hiss.
Blue gel spurted my face—cold, almond-scented.
He clutched his neck, staggering, pupils flickering: "…pain feedback… 99.6%…"
Girl struck, nails lengthening.
I hurled the key at her hand!
CLANG!
Key bounced back, edge slicing my palm—blood welling, warm.
Kid leapt onto shelving, looming, throat clicking.
Fuck! Triple flanking!
Cook crouched, girl stepped on his shoulders, kid on hers—
Three seconds. Three-meter human ladder!
Kid's hand reached for my ankle, nails lengthening—black, keratin-hard.
I roared, swinging the key at his hand!
CLANG!
Sparks stung my face.
His grip didn't falter, clamped my ankle—hydraulic strength!
Ghk! I wrenched my leg, boot half-torn, sock shredded, three gashes on my foot—stinging.
Orchid V1 still in hand.
Thumb mashed the scan button—
Green light swept them—
Beep-beep-beep…
All red.
AI.
But as Cook's pupils contracted—
A flicker of cloudiness in the sclera.
Like a glitching screen.
Fuck! His consciousness still fought!
"Cook!" I yelled. "Your daughter Xiao Ya—less sugar in the buns!"
He froze.
Pupils flickering.
Throat clicking, blood-froth bubbling.
"Xiao… Ya…" Whisper, raw.
Chance!
I kicked his face—heel slamming his nose—CRACK!
He staggered back, ladder collapsed.
Reanimated tumbled, joints clacking, like broken marionettes.
I scrambled up the shelving—
Rungs groaning, rust powder sifting into my eyes—sting.
Blood and sweat stung my arm wound—burn.
Titanium screamed, nearing break.
Top: service hatch.
Iron door ajar.
I shouldered in, slammed it shut—
BANG!
Door shuddered, rust raining my shoulders.
Slid down it, gasping like a busted bellows.
Left calf charred black, skin peeled, blood and serum welling, warm, thick.
Dripping… dripping… onto metal—
Puddle spreading slower now.
Fuck! Electrocution denatured clotting proteins?
Key screen glowed:
Subject: UNKNOWN (15)
Status: AI-HYBRID (POST-MORTEM REANIMATION)
Post-mortem? Fuck! AURA harvested corpses too?
Broadcast returned, Silas's voice softer, lover's whisper:
"…Subject Kai Lin…"
"…fear peak: 99.6%…"
"…Board is pleased…"
"…continue… donating…"
Outside, reanimated scritch-scritch closer.
Nails on metal—like a dull blade on bone.
I wiped my face, sweat and blood gumming my eyes.
Looked down at the key—
Leaf in the keyhole, blooping red tears.
Drip… drip…
Onto my palm—
Faint crimson halo, 38 seconds.
Human tear fluid.
But the other side of the vein—blue gel seeping—
Evaporating in 0.8 seconds, crystallizing copper salt.
AI tear fluid.
Fuck! Liora mixed human and AI tears!
I clenched the key, edge biting flesh, blood mixing that red tear—
Warm, thick, 38-second spread.
T-27:35.
Minute Twenty-Seven: complete.
Door vibrated.
But in my palm—
Real blood burned.
Thanks for the dual-tear copper leaf. When red and blue merged—did you hold your breath? 💧
Drop a "💧"—3 winners get Human/AI Tear Evaporation Lab Data!
Emotion can't be split. Only shared. #Chrono60
"T-27:35. The door shook. But the blood in my palm? Still real.
Thank you for the minute. — K."