The sirens howled continuously. They echoed through steel and concrete to fill every corner of the cell block. Red strobes pulsed in rhythm with the alarms. They painted the white walls in frantic bursts of crimson. My knees wanted to buckle. My lungs wanted to scream. But **I** remained upright. The silver sword in my hand hummed eagerly.
Zack slumped in the broken cell. He was beaten and hollowed but he was still alive. His swollen eye cracked open just enough to see my face. Recognition burned in his gaze. His whispered word still echoed in my mind. Run.
I tilted my head and studied Zack. A wide grin pulled at my lips.
Footsteps pounded in the corridor outside. Shouts rang out over the sirens. Heavy boots hit the floor. Weapons clicked as safeties were disengaged. I straightened my back. The sword lifted to shoulder height. Its silver edge glinted red under the alarm strobes.
The door blew inward. Smoke and sparks spat into the room. Stun charges rolled across the floor and detonated. The blast hit like a physical hammer of light and sound. My ears rang. My vision stuttered. Then the nanites flared. They muted the pain completely and sharpened my sight. Soldiers stormed through the smoke. They wore black helmets and gleaming visors. Their movements were crisp and highly efficient.
I wanted to back away. I wanted to shield Zack from the crossfire.
I lunged forward instead.
I moved with absolute economy and wove through the thick smoke. The first soldier raised his rifle. An elbow smashed directly into his jaw, sending teeth flying with the loud crunch of bone. I pivoted. A swift knee snapped upward to crush another throat straight through the heavy visor, folding the man backward in a grotesque spasm. This was not wild hacking. Tight elbows and sharp headbutts blended with brutal directness. Every single strike was calculated to kill or cripple in one motion.
I felt every impact and every breaking bone. I felt the spray of hot blood on my skin. But my body refused to stop. A soldier managed to step close with a crackling shock baton. I caught the weapon under my arm and trapped it, pivoting sharply. My knee drove into the man's ribs three times. Each strike sounded like a gunshot. His chest caved inward. I begged my own hands to stop.
Another squad poured in from the left flank. They moved smart and overlapped their fields of fire. I twirled the sword into a low guard and burst forward with impossible acceleration. Bullets sparked off the silver skin across my chest and arms. The blade swept in a brutal horizontal arc. Rifles were cleaved and torsos sliced in half. I tasted warm iron on my tongue. My stomach churned with bile. I inhaled deeply and smiled.
The last soldier in the line dropped his ruined rifle. He pulled a combat knife with total desperation in his eyes. He feinted left and slashed right. I caught his wrist mid swing and twisted the arm until the bone shattered like dry wood. My forehead smashed into his nose. Before he could even fall the sword punched completely through his sternum and slid out his back. His body dropped to the floor.
The cell door groaned behind me. Zack had dragged himself upright. He pressed one arm to the shattered glass. Blood ran steadily down his chin. His voice was hoarse and ragged but it cut completely through the noise of the alarms.
"Ashen. Stop."
My muscles locked instantly. The blade wavered in the air. **I** wanted to rush into the hallway and find more targets. But Zack's voice reached something deep inside my chest. My hands trembled.
The next squad was seconds away. I heard them stacking up in the corridor. Breach charges primed. I rolled my shoulders to prepare for the next wave.
Zack spoke again. "Ashen. Please...stop."
The blast doors shook. Charges detonated in the hall. The concussion rattled the glass and shook dust from the ceiling. A wall of smoke and fire swallowed the entrance. Armored silhouettes surged through the flames. Rifles barked loudly. Shock rounds spit white fire across the room. Stun grenades popped and seared the room in blinding light.
I prepared to leap into the center of the formation.
I threw everything I had against the movement. I slammed my own will against my muscles. My arms dropped abruptly. The blade lowered. Bullets thudded heavily into my torso and sent white hot agony through my nerves. The nanites surged immediately to seal the damage. Silver veins glowed as flesh stitched together and bones reforged.
"Keep firing," a soldier shouted through the smoke.
I forced my knees to bend. I took control. I crawled and fumbled toward Zack's cell.
I punched the sword through the cell door. I did not aim for Zack. I aimed for the heavy electronic locks. Sparks sprayed everywhere as the reinforced steel screamed under the impact. I struck it one more time. The glass wall shattered outward in a massive storm of shards. Zack crumpled forward. He barely caught himself on one knee. His good eye locked onto mine.
"You are still in there," Zack said.
I reached out for him. My hand trembled violently. I tried to wrench my arm back to join the fight. Zack grabbed my hand tightly with both of his.
"Fight it," Zack said. "Do not let it win."
The soldiers closed in quickly. One leveled his rifle directly at Zack's skull.
I spun around. I brought the blade flashing up in a tight diagonal arc. Steel met the incoming bullets mid flight. The nanites hardened the surface of the sword and deflected the storm of lead. A follow through slash severed the soldier's arm at the elbow. His weapon clattered uselessly to the floor. The motion belonged to me.
Zack coughed blood. He dragged himself upright and used my shoulder as leverage. His voice was little more than a rasp. "We do not win this fight. We run."
Run. The word seared through me. My legs moved. I held Zack upright with one arm and wielded the sword with the other. We charged straight through the smoke toward the breach.
Gunfire erupted everywhere. Bullets sparked and hissed against my skin. Some bit deep into my shoulders before the nanites knitted the flesh back together. Pain rolled through me in heavy waves. But pain meant I was still human. We hit the line of soldiers like a storm. I slashed the sword in close tight arcs. I rammed my shoulder into a chest plate and cracked the armor. I drove a knee up into a groin and lifted the man off the floor. Zack snatched a sidearm from a fallen soldier. He fired blind. His bullets cracked visors and staggered enemies just enough for me to finish them.
"Left," Zack shouted.
I spun with the sword raised. I cleaved through a shock baton an instant before it could crack across Zack's skull. I snapped a kick to the wielder's knee and folded him inward. The blade punched through his chest.
We broke the line and pushed into the main hallway.
Alarms wailed louder. Automated turrets folded down from the ceiling panels. Their heavy barrels tracked us with mechanical precision.
"Cover," Zack rasped. He pulled me toward an overturned security console.
Rounds shredded the walls around us. Sparks showered down. The air filled with burning ozone. I raised my left arm. The nanites writhed and hardened into jagged thick plating. They formed a massive shield of solid silver. Bullets pinged and flattened against the surface. The ricochets hissed in the air. The turrets clicked empty. The shield folded seamlessly back into my veins.
Zack stared at my arm with wide eyes.
We moved fast. We ran through halls of fire and smoke. My sword sang and Zack's stolen pistol cracked. The corridors bent and twisted like arteries. Each one bled red light from the overhead alarms. Zack stumbled beside me. His grip was weak but incredibly stubborn. Every step dragged fresh streaks of blood from his battered frame. The thunder of heavy boots grew louder behind us. We had cut too deep into Alpha Division to go unnoticed.
The corridor ahead sealed with a loud hiss. Steel shutters slammed down and locked us into a dead end. Troops poured in from recessed doors on either side. They were armored shock units. Their visors glowed faint blue. They moved as one single unit with weapons raised.
"Containment squads," Zack cursed under his breath.
The first volley hit us in a synchronized storm. Shock rounds and stun batons struck my chest and arms. Electricity tore through my nervous system. My muscles spasmed violently. I almost collapsed.
I seized the electrical jolt and twisted the current into raw power.
I whirled the sword precisely. A diagonal cut flowed smoothly into a pivot. The blade caught a rifle barrel and twisted it upward while an elbow smashed into the soldier's visor. I raised my forearms to deflect a baton and drove my skull into the attacker's chin with a bone shattering headbutt.
Another soldier lunged low. His shock baton aimed for my knee. I let the strike land. The blow cracked my bone loudly. The nanites hissed and sealed the ligaments in a fraction of a second. I snapped my leg forward in a vicious low kick. My shin slammed into his temple with the hollow sound of breaking glass.
Zack fired perfectly between my movements. He placed his shots with the absolute precision of a Division veteran. A round slipped past my shoulder and shattered a visor just before my blade took the soldier's arm clean off.
"Focus left," Zack barked.
I obeyed the command. We shifted together and covered each others blind spots. My strikes flowed tighter. I caught arms and twisted joints. Zack ducked under my swings and pressed close to fire past my hip. We broke the squad under our relentless pressure. Bodies hit the floor. The survivors retreated and dragged their wounded away. Their tight formation was completely shattered.
We pressed on deeper into the facility. Labs blurred past us. Glass walls shattered from stray bullets. Scientists scattered in terror.
"Stairs," Zack gasped. He pointed down a side hall. "Service lift is two levels down. That is our shot out."
We turned the corner and nearly died.
A massive round smashed directly into my chest. The thunderclap impact launched me backward into a concrete wall. Flesh folded as bones reknit. Ribs snapped violently back into place. My lungs convulsed. I tasted copper. Heavy response units blocked the hallway. They wore black armor reinforced with thick kinetic plating. Their visors glowed bright crimson. They carried heavy armor piercing weapons designed to destroy vehicles.
Zack dove into cover and dragged me with him. "Juggernauts."
Bullets tore the walls apart. Chunks of steel and concrete exploded into dust clouds. Every single shot was a cannon blast. They fired in disciplined bursts and walked us into a tight corner.
Zack looked at me. He was pale and shaking. "We cannot fight them head on."
I formed the silver shield again, forcing my body low and sprinting in sharp zigzags to blur their aim. We closed the distance in mere seconds.
Up close the Juggernauts were mountains. They swung their heavy rifles like steel clubs. I trapped a massive arm under mine and twisted until the thick armor plating bent completely. Knees and elbows drove directly into their soft joints. The sword split a thick chest plate with a screech of tearing metal. The blade lengthened. It became a massive silver cleaver.
Another Juggernaut grabbed me in a crushing bear hug. Thick armor ground against my silver veined skin. My ribs snapped again. I erupted the nanites outward in a jagged spike. The metal impaled him completely through the gut. His grip loosened instantly. I spun and flung his dying body into the line of fire. Zack used the opening to place a perfect headshot through a cracked crimson visor.
One by one the Juggernauts fell to the floor. The corridor became a complete slaughterhouse of steel and gore. When the last body dropped the hall was finally ours.
Zack leaned against the wall. His chest heaved. "You are not just the weapon."
The floor trembled beneath our boots. Bulkheads slammed shut somewhere above us. The sound of steel locking into steel reverberated through the bones of the Division. The alarms shifted tone. They were no longer frantic. They beat a steady methodical rhythm.
"Lockdown," Zack rasped. He wiped blood from his mouth. "They are sealing us in."
I tightened my grip on him. His arm was slung over my shoulder. We rounded a corner and sprinted past the wreckage of gutted security posts. The hallway opened into a stark square chamber lit by harsh white floodlights. The service lift was embedded in the far wall. Its doors were thick and heavily reinforced.
Between us and the lift stood a final squad. They were not hulking Juggernauts. They moved with terrifying total silence. Their black armor was smooth and entirely faceless. They were armed with crackling shock pikes and curved blades. Their stances were fluid and perfectly balanced.
"Execution detail," Zack tightened his jaw. "They do not miss."
I gently lowered Zack against the concrete wall. "Stay low."
The first assassin moved like lightning. He was a blur of black armor against the white light. His shock pike aimed directly for my throat. I jerked my head aside. The pike sizzled right past my ear. An elbow cracked into the assassin's smooth visor. A knee drove into his gut and doubled him over. I punched the silver blade straight through his back.
The others attacked as one coordinated unit. Steel clashed heavily against silver. The air filled with the hiss of nanites and the sharp crackle of electricity. A high slash forced me low. A sweep waited for me at knee height. I wove my body between the blows. My blade flashed in brutal clean arcs. Forearms raised high to deflect a strike before smashing outward with bone shattering force.
They pressed closer. One hooked my arm and twisted. His curved blade drove straight for my ribs. I rolled directly into the grapple instead of fighting it. An elbow snapped back into his throat and wrenched my arm free. I carved the sword completely across his chest.
Another leapt from behind with his knife angled for my spine. A shot rang out loudly. Zack's pistol barked once. The bullet tore through the assassin's knee. He dropped screaming to the floor. I stepped forward and thrust the sword through his visor in a clean efficient motion.
When the last body hit the floor the chamber was a slaughterhouse. The air was thick with the horrible stench of ozone and fresh blood.
The lift loomed ahead. It was our only escape.
Zack staggered to my side. He stared at the carnage.
We reached the lift doors. They were locked tight and heavily reinforced.
I shoved both of my hands deep into the center seam. The nanites screamed outward to form jagged tendrils that pierced the thick steel doors. I forced the metal to warp and split. The doors tore apart and screeched loudly as they buckled and gave way.
The lift interior gleamed sterile and white. We stumbled inside. Zack nearly collapsed against the wall. I slammed the control button. The heavy doors ground shut. The alarms were instantly muffled. The chaos dimmed.
Zack slid down to the floor. His good eye found mine. "Ashen. I do not know what is happening to you. But you saved me. Not that thing. You."
I swallowed hard. My skin crawled with the restless hum of the silver metal. "Do not thank me yet."
The lift shuddered and groaned upward. Seconds stretched into long eternities. My reflection stared back at me from the polished steel walls. Silver veins crawled under my pale skin. My eyes flickered with a cold light. I shut my eyes and clung to the sound of Zack's ragged breathing beside me. It was absolute proof I was not gone yet.
The lift jolted and halted with a loud hiss. The doors parted.
Cool night air slammed into my face. The sky above was completely fractured by sweeping searchlights and thick black smoke. The Division compound sprawled behind us. It was a massive scene of fire and sirens.
Beyond it lay total darkness.
Zack gripped my arm tightly. "Run."
We ran out of Alpha Division and disappeared into the night.