The sound came first.
A deep metallic roar that drowned out screams and swallowed thought. The tunnel vibrated as if something enormous was forcing its way through stone that no longer wanted to obey physics.
Piter Hall didn't look away.
He already knew what was coming.
The train burst into the station like a bullet tearing through flesh.
It wasn't empty.
That was the first mistake everyone else made.
The headlights flared white, washing the platform in harsh light. For half a second, people felt relief. A way out. An escape.
Then the windows passed by.
And the faces pressed against the glass weren't human anymore.
Bodies were crammed inside the cars, twisted at impossible angles. Some were fused to the seats. Others clawed at the windows with hands that bent the wrong way, fingers splitting and reforming as if the train itself was rewriting them.
The train screeched to a halt.
Metal screamed.
People screamed louder.
The doors slid open.
And the Scenario truly began.
"Don't get on!" someone shouted.
Too late.
Panic surged like a wave. People ran toward the open doors, shoving, trampling, desperate to escape the platform where shadows were already moving along the tracks.
Piter stepped back, pressing himself against a pillar.
He watched.
Not because he lacked empathy.
But because this moment decided who lived long enough to matter.
A man jumped onto the train, grabbing a pole for balance.
The pole bent.
Wrapped.
Then pierced straight through his chest.
Blood splattered the floor as the pole retracted, dragging him halfway into the ceiling before snapping him in two.
The screams turned animal.
A woman tried to pull her child back from the door. The train doors slammed shut on the child's arm.
The arm didn't break.
It stretched.
Skin elongated like rubber, veins glowing faintly as the train absorbed him.
The doors reopened.
The child was gone.
The mother collapsed, screaming his name until something from beneath the train reached up and pulled her down onto the tracks.
Crunch.
Piter closed his eyes for half a second.
Then he moved.
This was the point where the Scenario punished hesitation.
The Interface flared.
[Scenario #2: Subway Exodus – Active]Participants Remaining: 143]
Already down from over three hundred.
Piter slipped through the chaos, keeping his movements economical. No wasted steps. No running unless necessary. Running drew attention.
A creature crawled up from the track ahead of him. It looked like a man whose spine had been stretched too long, vertebrae exposed and writhing like a chain of insects.
It turned toward him.
Piter stepped left.
The creature lunged where he had been, jaws snapping shut on empty air. It slammed into a pillar hard enough to crack concrete.
Piter grabbed a fallen emergency hammer and brought it down on the base of the creature's skull.
Once.
Twice.
The third strike caved in something important.
The body twitched, then stilled.
No notification.
Of course not.
Kills weren't rewarded in Exodus Scenarios.
Only survival was.
Someone crashed into him from behind, knocking the hammer from his hand.
"Help me!" the man screamed, eyes wild. "Please, help me!"
Behind him, the tracks rippled.
Something was coming fast.
Piter caught the man by the shoulders and shoved him sideways.
The thing burst from the tracks like a spear, impaling the man through the torso and dragging him screaming back into the darkness.
Piter didn't watch him die.
He was already moving again.
The terminal gate was visible at the far end of the platform. A reinforced steel door with a glowing green outline.
The supposed finish line.
Last time, Piter ran for it like everyone else.
Last time, he barely survived the bottleneck.
This time, he knew better.
The gate wasn't salvation.
It was a filter.
He veered off toward a maintenance stairwell halfway down the platform. Most people ignored it. It didn't glow. It didn't promise safety.
Which meant it mattered.
He took the steps two at a time.
Above him, the station shook as the train doors opened again.
A wet tearing sound echoed through the tunnels.
Piter reached the top of the stairs and shoved the door open.
Darkness.
He stepped inside and slammed it shut behind him.
The screams dulled, muffled by concrete.
For a moment, there was silence.
Then his Interface pulsed.
[Warning: Unauthorized Zone Entry.][Scenario Influence Increasing.]
The stairwell lights flickered on.
They revealed a narrow service corridor stretching ahead, lined with pipes and old wiring. The air felt heavier here. Not hostile, but thick, like the world was leaning in to listen.
Piter exhaled slowly.
"This is it," he murmured. "The part no one saw."
He walked.
Every step echoed too loudly.
Halfway down the corridor, the pressure changed.
Not suddenly.
Gradually.
Like a hand closing around his chest.
Text appeared.
Not white.
Not black.
Gray.
[Secondary Condition Activated.][Objective: Identify Deviation Candidates.]
Piter stopped.
"So this is where you sort them," he said quietly.
The corridor shimmered.
The walls peeled back like skin, revealing a vast hidden chamber beyond the concrete. A maintenance hub the size of a gymnasium, filled with machinery that didn't belong to any human design.
Cables pulsed like arteries.
Symbols crawled across surfaces, rearranging themselves constantly.
And in the center—
People.
About twenty of them.
They stood frozen, eyes unfocused, bodies stiff.
Candidates.
Those who had taken non-optimal paths. Those who hesitated. Those who thought too much.
Piter recognized two faces.
One was a man who had tripped near the platform edge earlier but somehow survived.
The other was a woman who had refused to get on the train at all.
Last time, Piter never saw them again.
He knew why now.
A presence stirred above the chamber.
Not an Administrator.
Something lower.
A Collector.
It descended like a shadow folding itself into shape. Tall, thin, with too many joints and a face that looked like it had been erased and redrawn incorrectly.
Its voice echoed directly inside Piter's skull.
"Deviation detected," it said. "Classification in progress."
The frozen people began to tremble.
One by one, symbols burned into their Interfaces.
Most glowed red.
A few flickered yellow.
One stayed blank.
Piter's.
The Collector turned its featureless face toward him.
"Unclassified," it said. "Explain."
Piter met its gaze.
"I survived," he replied.
The Collector paused.
That wasn't an answer it liked.
"Survival alone is insufficient," it said. "Purpose is required."
Piter smiled faintly.
"Then you won't like mine."
The Collector raised a hand.
The red-marked candidates screamed as their bodies began to collapse inward, bones folding, flesh compressing into dense, writhing masses that were absorbed into the machinery.
The yellow-marked ones were dragged away, still conscious, still screaming.
Only one person was left untouched besides Piter.
The woman.
She met Piter's eyes.
Help.
She didn't say it.
She didn't have to.
Last time, Piter turned away here.
Last time, he told himself he couldn't save everyone.
This time—
He stepped forward.
The Collector's head snapped toward him.
"Interference is prohibited."
"Add it to the list," Piter said.
He grabbed a loose cable from the wall and slammed it into the exposed machinery core.
The chamber screamed.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
The lights exploded.
Symbols scrambled.
The Collector recoiled, static tearing across its form.
[Warning: Scenario Integrity Compromised.]
Piter lunged, grabbing the woman and pulling her toward the exit.
The Collector shrieked, a sound like metal bending inside a skull.
"You will be marked," it hissed.
"Already am," Piter replied.
They ran.
Behind them, the chamber collapsed into itself, walls snapping back into concrete as if nothing had ever been there.
They burst out into the stairwell.
The station shook violently.
Piter shoved the door open onto the platform.
Chaos had thinned.
Bodies littered the ground.
The train was gone.
So was the terminal gate.
In its place hovered a single message, pulsing angrily.
[Scenario Update in Progress…]
Piter steadied his breathing.
The woman stared at him, shaking.
"What… what did you do?" she whispered.
Piter looked up at the message.
"I changed who gets counted," he said.
The text finalized.
[Participants Remaining: 2]
The woman's Interface flared.
Her name appeared beside his.
And beneath it—
A new line burned itself into existence.
[Variable Proximity Detected.]
Piter's smile faded.
Because this time—
He wasn't the only one who remembered how to break the System.