«We can’t… we can’t continue like this,» Eva said, her voice quieter, but with a ring of steel. She was already recovering, her engineer’s logic taking over her emotions. «If the anomalies continue to intensify at this rate, we won’t reach the center of „Echo-7.“ We’ll just go insane or be torn apart. We need to find shelter, wait until reality stabilizes at least a little. Or at least pretend that we have a clear plan, and not just a desperate dash into the unknown.»
«Shelter?» Drake laughed hoarsely, but the laughter was empty, devoid of any mirth. «Are you serious, Carter? We’re ten miles from this damned crack in the arse of the world, and it’s already crawling into our heads like a worm in a rotten apple! Where the hell are you going to hide? In this radioactive rubble? Or in your vaunted damn logic, which almost kicked the bucket a couple of minutes ago?»
«Shut up, Holt,» Eva snapped, but her gaze was fixed on Kyle. She was waiting for his decision, though deep, long-standing distrust was still readable in her eyes. But now something new was mixed in with it – perhaps the understanding that they were all in the same boat, and this boat was rapidly sinking.
Kyle took a deep breath, trying to piece together the shards of his thoughts. He knew Eva was right – they wouldn’t withstand another anomaly like that without rest and preparation. But stopping meant losing precious time, and every hour of delay brought them closer to inevitable failure. And yet, somewhere in the depths of his tormented consciousness, he felt the Rift calling him. Ella’s voice, even if it was just a cruel illusion, a product of his diseased imagination, pulled him forward like a powerful, irresistible magnet.
«We’ll find shelter,» he finally said, his voice hoarse but firm. «The drones registered the remains of an old military bunker somewhere around here, to the northeast. „Northern Shield,“ I think. We’ll wait it out there, check the equipment, try to recover. And decide how to move forward. But we’re not retreating. „Echo-7“ is our only chance. Whatever the cost.»
Lina nodded gratefully, her face still pale, but a faint spark of hope flickered in her eyes. Drake just shrugged, muttering something unintelligible under his breath, but didn’t argue further. Eva, after a long, tense pause, silently turned to the control panel, directing the Thunderclaw towards the indicated coordinates. But Kyle felt this was only the beginning. The Rift had already penetrated their minds, and with every step, every meter closer to its heart, it would dig deeper, more ruthlessly. He looked out the window at the distant, venomous, pulsating glow of «Echo-7» and thought that perhaps it wasn’t them going towards it. It was patiently waiting for them, setting its invisible traps.
Chapter 5: «Shadows in the Walls»
2247. The Wasteland, 12 kilometers from «Echo-7,» Abandoned Bunker «Northern Shield.»
The Thunderclaw shuddered to a halt with a heavy, protesting groan at the rusted, mangled gates of the abandoned bunker that once, in another, almost forgotten life, bore the proud name «Northern Shield.» Now the structure looked like a sinister ghost of the past – massive concrete walls, covered in deep cracks and sores of moss, half-sunk into the earth as if trying to hide from the horrors of the Wasteland. The steel gates, warped by time and perhaps some unknown force, barely clung to their rusted hinges, gaping with dark openings. Above the bunker, like a giant, malevolent eye, hung the cold, pulsating light of «Echo-7,» its unearthly glow casting trembling, elongated shadows on the gray walls, shadows that seemed too alive, too deliberate to be merely a play of light and darkness. Kyle Rain exited the transport first, his exosuit whirring in protest as it adjusted to the uneven, debris-strewn surface, a cold, clinging premonition tightening in his chest that he could neither explain nor ignore.
The air here was even heavier than in the open Wasteland, saturated with a strange, nauseating metallic tang and the smell of stale mold, which made his throat scratch and his eyes water. Kyle felt the pressure of the Rift intensify with every second, like invisible, cold fingers touching the back of his neck, whispering something unintelligible but infinitely ominous at the very edge of hearing. He glanced back at his team: Eva Carter, pale but composed, was already scanning the perimeter with a portable drone, her face tense but focused, every muscle controlled; Lina Cyrus, clutching her medical backpack like a lifeline, nervously looked around, her breathing rapid and uneven; Drake Holt, as always, tried to appear nonchalant, but his hand never left the hilt of his plasma cutter, and his gaze darted uneasily across the dancing shadows as if expecting an attack from every dark corner.
«This place looks more like a tomb than a shelter,» Drake muttered, kicking a chunk of concrete that rolled with a hollow, unsettling sound into the darkness of the half-ruined entrance. «Are you sure we’re relatively safe here, scientist? Because all my instincts are screaming that this hole is soaked in death and something worse.»
«Nothing is safe this close to the Rift, Holt,» Kyle snapped, trying to hide his own growing unease. He felt it too – the lurking, invisible threat. «But here we can at least try to wait out the peak of anomalous activity and check the equipment. Eva, what does the drone show? Is there a working entrance?»
Eva, without looking up from the screen of her neural interface, nodded curtly. «The main entrance is fifty meters north. The gates are partially collapsed, but there seems to be a passage. Inside, there are residual, weak energy signals, but… they’re extremely unstable. As if something is trying to turn on and immediately goes out again. It could be old, damaged equipment. Or… something else entirely. Something that’s mimicking it.»
«Something else? Worse?» Lina turned to her, her voice trembling, her eyes wide with fear. «What could be worse, Eva? Do you… do you mean… the shadows? I’ve heard they often appear in abandoned places like this, closer to active Rifts. Is it true?»
Eva didn’t answer, only casting a quick, meaningful glance at Kyle, full of unspoken questions and shared anxiety. He knew she was thinking the same thing he was. Shadows. Not just a play of light, but something more. He had seen them before, in the first, most desperate years after the catastrophe – elusive, translucent figures that vanished if looked at directly, but left behind a feeling of deathly cold in the bones and a clinging, irrational dread. He didn’t want to tell Lina about this, didn’t want to see her fragile, almost childlike hope finally crumble under the weight of this truth. But he couldn’t lie, give false assurances either. Not here. Not now.
«Possibly,» he finally said, his voice quiet but firm as steel. «But we don’t know for sure what it is. Maybe it’s just illusions, generated by the proximity of the Rift, like the ones we saw in the anomaly. The main thing is to stick together. Don’t stray from each other. And, whatever happens, don’t lose your head. Don’t panic.»
Drake snorted loudly, but this time said nothing, only tightened his grip on the cutter. The team cautiously moved towards the gaping maw of the entrance, their steps echoing loudly in the dead silence of the Wasteland. Inside the bunker, it was even darker and colder than outside. The air was stale, heavy, with the smell of decaying organic matter and something subtly chemical. The walls were covered with a thick layer of slimy mold, and old, broken lamps hanging from the ceiling on scraps of wire flickered ominously, though they couldn’t have worked for decades. Kyle switched on the lamp on his exosuit, and the narrow beam of light snatched from the darkness fragments of rusty furniture, mangled crates, and something that looked like old, dust-covered terminals. But something was wrong. Something subtly off. The shadows cast by their own flashlights moved slower than they should, as if lagging behind the light source, living their own, separate lives.
«Do you… do you see that?» Lina whispered, her voice trembling so much that Kyle could barely make out the words. She pointed