The Hollowed (Project Virion #1)

Prologue

Lucilla

The winter winds of New-Chicago didn’t whisper or wail.

They attacked.

Icy and unforgiving, they slammed through Lucilla Castillo as she trudged through the buzzing streets of a city that was anything but new.

Despite the rebrand, there had never been anything all that great about New-Chicago.

That name had simply been slapped on during the so-called “Great Transition”.

Back then, the government had proudly announced that the city of Chicago would be the first major metropolis in North America to be completely run by artificial intelligence.

Spoiler Alert: That plan went to shit quickly.

Personally, Luci couldn’t remember the city being anything but a rotting pile of junk, but at only twenty-three, it wasn’t like she’d experienced much. Besides, by the time she had been born, there were already more crises than anyone could possibly keep track of.

Her textbooks often explained that it had started as a housing crisis. There were too many bodies and not enough rooms, so naturally they started building vertically.

Which is exactly why Luci could only catch a glimpse of the murky sky above if she tilted her head straight back. Even then, all she could really see was the chemically laced fog.

When the government had figured out that ground level real estate wasn’t the only thing they could monetize, they took to the sky, stacking massive apartment complexes on top of grocery stores and hospitals. You name it, someone lived above it.

Genius? Not quite.

What they failed to consider was that humans are petri dishes for bacteria, and bacteria thrives in warm, enclosed spaces. Pack a thousand families that can’t afford proper healthcare or a nutritious, immune boosting diet into 600-square-foot apartments, and what do you get, class?

Disease.

And lots of it.

Followed by epidemics. And when those little hotspots of infection turn into global pandemics, well...that’s when things started to get really interesting.

Artificial intelligence was supposed to save the city and make life easier, but it turns out, algorithms aren’t great at finding cures. And humans? They’re only so fast.

So people died.

A lot of people died.

Luci’s parents did during an outbreak of Marrow Rot. It was an airborne disease. And once the bacteria entered your system, its cells eroded your bone marrow quickly, making your skeletal system collapse, which led to a quick but painful death.

Luci and her older brother, Noah, were spared.

Some might call it luck, but losing both your parents at a young age never feels lucky.

The one saving grace had been that Noah had just turned eighteen, and the government signed over Luci’s parental rights quicker than Noah could ask for them.

But at his age and with barely any savings or a job for that matter, Noah could only afford to cram them into a 600-square-foot apartment.

Do you know what it’s like to share 600 square feet with your older sibling?

Not many do, but Luci’s best friend does.

By the time Luci and Danielle were teenagers, they’d gone through their fair share of troubles.

For Luci, life back then had consisted of staring at Noah’s shift schedule taped onto the fridge and doing homework at the kitchen table while Noah turned her pages. He’d taught her to keep lists, fix what could be fixed, and to always do the right thing.

Love, in their house, was practical.

Danielle’s life had been similar. She had an older sister who had held three jobs to keep their shoebox apartment that was often home to a rotating cast of cousins and friends. Danielle and her sister made space for everyone including stray cats and Luci on bad nights.

Luci and Danielle both studied hard and pretended not to notice when the lights flickered due to a late bill. It was either that or lose their placement at Prometheus and therefore, their future.

The Institute was free but there was a catch.

Tuition?

10 years of your life.

Four years of the Institute.

Four years of college in a subject of their choosing.

Two years of research in that field.

And that was just the minimum.

If you needed better housing, the price was another five years.

Grocery stipend? Six months.

Want or need the latest lab equipment? More time.

Time was the only currency that mattered anymore.

So, months quickly turned into years , and Luci was now approximately 22 years in debt.

Even then, it still beat the cost of public school.

The Department of Education went down a long time ago when the government figured out it was easier to control a society that was uneducated and easily scared.

This happened before Luci was born as well.

There were other institutions that provided free education of course, but you had to be gifted in some way, and they all required time as their form of currency.

Staying in those programs? That was another battle entirely.

Which was exactly why Luci was out in this freezing hellhole.

Danielle was missing.

Well perhaps that was an overexaggeration.

She hadn’t shown up for their morning shift at Sanctum Medical, where they both worked as medical researchers. And she wasn’t answering messages or picking up calls which was not like her at all.

Luci knew Danielle was smarter than to skip a shift and risk her contract.

Which led Luci to wrap up her work at the hospital as quickly as she could, throw on every thin, useless jacket she owned, and brave the cold.

A twenty-minute walk through New-Chicago shouldn’t be this miserable, but thanks to the government, extreme weather was just another thing to endure.

The politicians claimed it was out of their control. That the climate had changed too fast for them to do anything.

Bullshit.

If they had just listened, taken the earth’s warnings as truths instead of “opinions,” their citizens wouldn’t be living in a frozen wasteland in winter and a scorching inferno in summer.

But it didn’t matter. The past wasn’t going to change.

What could change, though, was the amount of debt Luci was willing to take on to avoid freezing her ass off.

Noah had warned her against taking out a loan for a plasma rail pass. Accidents happened too often for it to be worth the risk. But right now? With her fingers going numb and her nose burning from the cold?

She was really reconsidering.

Because, honestly — what was a few more months of debt on top of the years she already owed?

Luci considered that question carefully as she made her way through the maze that was her city, taking shortcuts and being careful not to bump into any pedestrians who looked particularly angry or disturbed.

She was grateful when she finally caught sight of the soaring apartment building where her best friend lived.

She didn’t even think twice when she drew closer and discovered a handful of police troops parked outside.

Crime ran rampant, too.

Luci had seen this sight more times than she could count. Flashing lights, armored uniforms, tension thick in the air. She instinctively tried to slip past them like always, but this time, a firm hand raised and halted her footsteps.

“Sorry, can’t let anyone in or out,” the officer said, his tone indifferent. It was a weak excuse, barely more than a wall of words.

“What do you mean? I need to check on my friend,” Luci shot back, her voice trembling not from the cold, but from the simmering dread building inside her. “She’s not answering my messages,” she added. After all, she hadn’t dragged herself through this concrete city just to be turned away.

Not now when something felt undeniably wrong.

“Yeah, yeah, the grid’s on lockdown until we get the situation cleared,” the officer muttered,

voice flat and devoid of all concern.

Luci loathed many things — cold coffee, cheap lies, and being constantly under surveillance. But her disdain for officers and their addiction to authority ranked near the top.

She carried a badge too. Hers just happened to have the title of doctor engraved on it, a title earned, not handed out. But even that didn’t give her the right to treat people like they didn’t matter.

“Well, is everything okay? I walked here all the way from Maryland Ave,” she continued, the chill starting to nip at her fingertips. “The least you could do is tell me something — anything.”

“Yeah? That’s a hell of a walk.” The officer gave a low, humorless chuckle. “Might wanna start heading back before it gets even colder out here.”

Luci briefly fantasized about grabbing the smug officer by the collar and knocking the wind out of him, just enough to make a point.

But even that thought risked everything.

One wrong move and her contract with the Institute would go up in smoke.

So instead, she inhaled deeply, let the burn of frustration settle in her chest, and pivoted on her heel.

This wasn’t new. Lockdowns happened more often than city updates. If the grid was frozen, it probably just meant a few hours of silence before her messages went through. A few hours before her screen lit up with a casual “What’s for dinner tonight?” from Danielle, like nothing had happened at all.

Everything will be fine, she told herself again and again as she trudged back into the haze of the city.

By the time Luci returned to the hospital complex where she was lucky enough to live, exhaustion had burrowed deep into her bones. All she could think about was wrapping her stiff, cold hands around a warm drink.

Maybe, just maybe, there was still one last packet of hot chocolate left in the cupboard.

She stepped into the elevator and leaned against the wall as it climbed up to the thirteenth floor. With every passing level, she prayed her brother hadn’t used the last of the good stuff. It was barely mid-afternoon, but the day had already chewed her up and spit her back out.

As she reached the apartment door, the chip in her palm activated the lock with a faint click.