Prologue #2
Another tiny convenience, courtesy of the Prometheus collective.
The door slid open, and she was met by a familiar sight: Noah hunched over his laptop, typing furiously with his usual focus.
It wasn’t one of those sleek holographic models everyone flaunted.
No, his machine was a clunky relic, one Luci had secretly spent months saving up for, just to make his life a little more bearable.
He never asked for it. Never asked for anything, really.
Noah had sacrificed more than just time and comfort to look after her. Years of his own life, aspirations paused or cast aside completely. In truth, no machine, no matter how advanced, could ever repay that kind of loyalty.
“You look cold,” Noah called from behind his computer screen, his eyes never leaving the glowing display. It made Luci laugh. He hadn’t even looked up, yet he had still managed to clock her state perfectly.
“Freezing actually,” she replied, peeling off her layers with stiff fingers before rummaging through their nearly empty cupboard.
They were running low on essentials again. Nothing dire yet, but she’d been putting off dipping into her bank account. Another time loan wasn’t an option she wanted to consider, not this soon and certainly not after the last one.
Noah pitched in when he could, but in their world, time was often more valuable than money, and he had already given her plenty of both.
“I’ll stop by the store on my way back from work,” he said casually, still typing.
Luci didn’t need to ask how he knew. After so many years of coexisting in the same cramped apartment, their thoughts often ran on the same wavelength, predictably intertwined and dependable.
“You sure? It’ll be late by the time you get home,” Luci said, still hunting for the box of hot chocolate packets she’d stashed away for cold gray days just like this.
“Yeah, it’ll be fine. The hot chocolate’s in the other cupboard,” Noah replied, not missing a beat. “You moved it the last time you got mad at me and started deep cleaning the entire kitchen.”
Luci’s lips tugged into a smile. The days had blurred together lately, one bleeding into the next until everything felt like an endless loop, but he was right, she had moved it. Sure enough, the box sat exactly where he said it would be, waiting patiently for her like a silent I told you so.
“Don’t make me mad again,” she said, half a warning and half a joke. “I hate misplacing things.” She grabbed the box and reached for what little milk remained in the fridge.
“Want me to pack you dinner for later?” Luci asked, already anticipating his answer.
Noah shook his head without looking up. “No, I’m heading out to the factory in a minute anyway. The bots are down at work again, something about a lockdown. They asked me to come in early, double pay and all that. I’ll just grab something on my break.”
Luci’s attention snapped into focus. “I was just at Danielle’s place and they wouldn’t let me in. Same excuse from the officer, but he wouldn’t say anything else. You think something happened?”
Her brother was many things — brilliant, stubborn and annoyingly perceptive — but in his free time, nothing thrilled him more than falling down rabbit holes of the latest conspiracy theories online.
“Sounds like something knocked out a good chunk of the grid,” he said, finally looking up from his laptop.
“I’m sure it’s nothing though. You know how these things go: Glitch in the system, false mass panic, someone cashing in on the chaos.
” He snapped his laptop shut, rose to his feet, and started to layer up, wallet, scarf, jacket, all in his usual unbothered rhythm.
“I’ll be back late, so don’t wait up, yeah?” he added, which, between them, meant I’m going to my coworker’s place, and no, he’s not my boyfriend, stop asking.
Luci just rolled her eyes, smiling as she leaned into the kiss he pressed to her cheek before heading out the door.
A long time ago, Luci had read somewhere that people with routines were statistically more successful. She wasn’t sure if there was any actual research behind that or if it was just another productivity myth, but the idea stuck with her all the same.
Or maybe that’s just what she told herself to justify being boring.
It was nearly bedtime. She’d eaten dinner, checked in on her elderly neighbor Mrs.Winston, who frequently forgot her meds, and left food out for cats she didn’t own.
Peeked at a few petri dishes she’d left incubating in the lab downstairs and reminded herself, again, that Danielle still hadn’t texted her back.
Still, she was convinced everything would be fine by morning. It always was. With the sun gone and the noise of the city beginning to taper off, her nerves began to settle just a little.
She let her gaze drift out to the oversized window that spanned both their kitchen and living room and found herself comforted by the flickering lights and distant hum of a city trying its best to sleep.
Luci almost laughed when she spotted a jogger sprinting up the street towards the hospital. Not because she thought exercise was ridiculous, but because she didn’t know a single person with the luxury of time to waste on something so…optional.
Her smile vanished the moment she saw the runner’s arms thrash violently as he turned to look over his shoulder.
Luci followed his gaze to find a second runner barreling down the street, closing the distance with unnatural speed.
Luci stood abruptly, heart pounding, eyes straining in the dim light.
She reached for her phone, fingers fumbling for the back pocket of her jeans, but before she could dial, the chase was over.
She froze.
From thirteen stories up, the details were fuzzy but not the sound.
Not the screams.
One man had tackled the other, dragging him to the pavement with a brutal thud. Luci squinted through the dark as the attacker straddled his victim, movements jerky and aggressive.
Then, it looked like...like he was biting into his neck.
Tearing into his flesh and eating him alive.
She staggered back from the glass.
Sirens erupted through the building, echoing down the halls like a shriek. Then a voice came
over the intercom, sharp and urgent.
“CODE SILVER. I REPEAT, THIS IS A CODE SILVER.”
Her body moved faster than her thoughts could.
Code Silvers were a myth, something they were trained for but never truly believed would happen.
Luci tried to convince herself it was a drill even as adrenaline blurred her vision and her feet pounded against the floor.
Confused neighbors poked their heads out from their rooms, but she ignored them all as she bolted for the stairs, taking them two at a time and barely managing not to fall.
Her heart was pounding as she reached the stairwell, breath hitching in her throat at the deep metallic rumble that followed. She burst through the next door and sprinted down the hall, only to see that this was not a drill.
Thick iron doors groaned shut, sealing off the hospital.
They were locked in.
People crowded the lobby, patients and staff forming clusters of panic and confusion. Luci weaved through them, eyes scanning the crowd for someone who could get her out.
Noah. He was out there, somewhere on the other side of those walls, facing whatever had triggered the Code Silver.
She couldn’t leave him to face it alone.
“Alex!” she called out, spotting the tall, dark haired guard she knew she could trust. He wasn’t like the others. He had a heart and, hopefully, answers. “Do you know what’s going on? Noah’s at work, I need to get to him.” Her voice shook with urgency.
She needed him to tell her this would pass, that this was temporary — a false alarm.
“I don’t know, Lucilla,” he said, his voice grim. “But I just confirmed with my supervisor, it’s not a drill.”
Her stomach dropped. “We’re stuck then?” she asked, barely above a whisper.
He nodded once. “Indefinitely.”