He heard it first. A brittle crinkle, then noxious fumes slid into his respirator. A spasm seized him before he could react. Lungs revolting violently.

It burned, even though there was no heat. The corners of his mouth started to melt, and the dark space behind his eyes flipped inside-out. He pulled up his overlay for answers and ceased.

Hands bound, he struggled to push away. Slamming the side of his head against whatever was behind him, the discomfort disappeared.

He slammed his head again.

And again.

“It’s good, isn’t it? First time I tasted it, reminded me of that stuff they used to give us for—” The voice was barely a whisper, and Niko didn’t care.

Niko coughed and tasted metal.

One of the first signs of shock is uncontrollable shaking.

Saliva ran out of the corner of his mouth and started filling the inside of his mask. His hands shot up to lift the edge, but all his fingers found was the ground under his ribs. Was that wire around his wrists? He tried again and felt something slice his ankles.

Rolling on his side, the concrete scuffed his face. He pressed down into the grit and moaned. The seal on the mask broke, and warm liquid poured down to his neck.

“They give us all a little Decomp A when we’re out on the Line. You’ll be awake for a while now. Day or so. The rest is for me.”

Niko heard the familiar crinkle before Aetch took a short huff. The other man’s voice tightened.

“Heroic wuff like you did, be glad you didn’t piss youself.” He exhaled.

It was the most he’d heard the man speak in weeks, and Niko couldn’t wait for him to shut up. Each syllable reminded him of the foundries back home. Great, sleepless stamping machines. The sizzle of tin pigs sprayed with oil.

He rolled over, felt the fluid in his forehead shift, and immediately flattened onto his back. It was uncomfortable and cold, but it was nothing compared to dipping his memory core into the fresh hemorrhage of his forehead.

He groaned.

“It’s your own damn fault. I’ll cut you free, but if you give me lip one more time, I’ll tell them you stepped on a Betty and use that thick skull of yours to warm up some caff before I walk home. Get me?”

Despite the pain, Niko nodded and answered yes.

He received a boot in his thigh for it.

The world seemed to steady from the shock.

“What’d I just say? Wireless from now on.”

Leave it alone, you inbred fuck of a warden.

Niko heard some shuffling and forced himself to raise an eyelid. It hurt like hell, but he needed to know where he was. Where Aetch was and what he was doing.

Through the shadows, he found the man sitting on a folding chair beneath a lean-to of plyboard and black pallet wrap, his monolithic rifle upright against the inner wall. Shelter. But too exposed to sleep in.

On second glance, he noticed something else resting near Aetch’s boot. A small, flat device, about the size of a magnetic drive, sitting on the dusty concrete. One of its edges lit the ground immediately in front of it in dim red contours.

[DRU saying anything?]

Aetch looked up, then reached down and tapped the top of the device.

[There’s too much drift. I had to backtrack after we made contact—didn’t want to risk another patrol coming to check the area. Plus, I was carrying some dead weight. We need to get up and get moving. You’re on point again.]

So we’re lost.

Niko was about to dismiss the idea, but the look in Aetch’s eyes told him to shut up unless he wanted another beating.

He peeled himself off the ground and swallowed the urge to be sick. He reached down, brushed the receiver of his SMG, and felt relieved to still have it. The world spun under him. He grabbed the nearest surface, braced himself, and took several deep breaths. Before he realized it, Aetch was leaning over his shoulder.

Adabana saku.

Something hard punched him in the back of his shoulder.

[Which way?] Niko asked.

The response was short and efficient. They were somewhere north of the ramp he’d seen the rats on. They needed to go around to the west and then drop south. Work their way up a few levels in the process, but they’d lost their advantage.

[Stay sharp. The Gumi have lost elements around here recently. Heavily patrolled.]

[Your map tell you that?]

He could hear Aetch’s reservation through the wireless.

[Just keep your eyes open. Keep moving.]

Niko made the rest of the trip with the least amount of conversation possible. He resented the other man’s skills and control, but there was nothing he could do about them. Moving forward in silence felt like a small victory. His head hurt less, and he could pretend the man wasn’t there—even if Aetch probably appreciated the silence too.

The narrow channel in the foundation ended at a short flight of hidden steps. At the top, Niko found a heavy metal door that’d slipped its latch. The internal locking mechanism appeared snapped. Niko recognized the damage for what it was—suborbital energy. Despite all the collapses several levels above, the strikes were taking a toll on the deeper levels too. He pulled the door aside with both hands and squeezed through the opening. At the top of the steps, his head emerged above floor level.

The cavernous room opened up around him. Tube scaffolding stood tall down the center of the room. Both structure and armature, the scaffolding held up sections of the ceiling and a grid of heavy blue curtains that split the room into open service bays. The far end of the ceiling was collapsed. Where it had shifted and split, the scaffolding had buckled and rubble had poured in. None of the sheets reached all the way to the ground, so he crawled out onto the floor looking for signs of movement below the bays.

Where the Line had been cold, almost freezing, for several weeks, this space felt warm and humid. The concrete floor was covered in oily beads of perspiration, and he could see that sweat had stained the faded material of the partitions. Despite this, even though his mask, Niko could taste something foreign in the air.

Satisfied no one was around, he sat up and surveyed his current stall. It was some kind of assembly booth. Chemical trays littered the tables. Small metal parts bathed in old fluids congealed with fallen debris and settled dust. Niko bumped the nearest tray to see if the liquid would move.

It didn’t. Either it was too heavy or it was affixed to the table. One of the table legs lifted and dropped back to the floor.

As soon as it did, something whirred in the air behind him. Niko turned around as a single gunshot snapped through the air. He watched pieces of the drone scatter. Plastic and wire peppered his arm, while the center of the machine crumpled inward and burst. It fell to the ground with a clatter and clanged against one of the other table’s lower shelves.

Niko looked toward the shot.

Aetch was scanning the rest of the room from the steps. He didn’t say anything, only glancing at Niko after he’d swept the room a couple more times.

That was close.

Niko drew his SMG and started moving slowly around the rest of the room, in case there were other drones.

[You’re welcome,] said Aetch.

He refused to take the bait, swung his aim around the corner of a curtain, and discovered a mound of red-brown plant matter on the floor. Whatever it was, it looked dried out and dead.

Niko stepped around it and into the next bay. He found a pile of vacuum-sealed bags. Cloudy vinyl-PE pouches littered the end of the nearest table; they looked like they’d been sliced open in a hurry.

[You ever seen a place like this, Aetch?]

Looking around, he couldn’t find the sniper but knew he was still close.

[Stop moving and look up,] replied Aetch.

Up?

Niko planted his feet and raised his chin. The respirator straps pulled at his oily hair, but he managed to tilt his head back enough to see what had caught the Gumi soldier’s attention.

[What are those?]

[Not sure, but they look a lot like the bags you just walked by. How about you walk back over here and avoid touching anything.]

Niko stared up at rows of pouches suspended along the ceiling. Each was hooked to some sort of chain-fed conveyor system. He didn’t see a control for it. Whatever filled the pouches, he preferred it suspended.

[Is that—?] started Niko.

[—A hand? Yeah. You can see a few more from back here.]

[They look like—] He stepped back. [Dead?]

[Very,] replied Aetch.

Niko found Aetch standing in the corner of the room. His rifle leaned against his hip while he pulled his mask across his cheek stubble.

[Not dead enough. Look.]

Rifle back in his hands, Aetch was using it to point across the room. An imbricated hummock of thin, pale arms reached towards them, their fingers extended as if trying to invite introduction. Fungal shelves pushed out from beneath the stained lab coat, bulging the fallen form beyond its bloat.

[What is that?]

[Damned if I know. Looks like a man—only it isn’t.] Niko tried to move closer, but Aetch reached out to stop him. [Don’t touch anything in here. We shouldn’t even be in here.]

Aetch pointed up.

In the high corner of the ceiling, he could just make out the cylindrical shape of the security camera.

[You didn’t touch anything, right?] asked Aetch.

Niko shook his head.

[Alright. Let’s move.]

He didn’t need Aetch’s permission and had already started back toward the entrance. He’d barely covered any ground, when Aetch told him they couldn’t go back.

[The hell are you talking about?] asked Niko.

[We’ve been that way. There’s the patrols. And we need to get you southwest. We have to find another way,] said Aetch.

If he could have unholstered his SMG and shot the Gumi soldier faster than Aetch could raise his rifle, he would have.

Niko looked over his mask and saw fear in the soldier’s eyes. He shook his head.

[Great. That’s just great. Now, how do we get out of here?]

They walked the perimeter of the room, careful about what they touched and where they walked. Up until that point, they’d considered the space a curiosity. Now, everywhere they looked, each surface seemed covered in spore dust and the thinnest of crystalline-clear threads. It was impossible to avoid stepping on it, and the whole time Niko could feel someone else watching him from above. At the other end of the room, they found a locked door. Niko pulled his gloves up over his wrists and gave it a yank. It had some give, but he needed more leverage. Aetch refused to help.

Niko looked up and found another camera looming in the ceiling’s shadows.

[Searching the room,] said Niko.

Aetch asked what he was supposed to look for, but he ignored him.

Dead anyway, if I stay here.

Despite Aetch’s objections to touching things, he found a table with a loose leg. Its bolts partially corroded, the leg came off quickly with a couple kicks. It wasn’t a silent process though. Each clang made him hurry and kick harder. It was an awful racket and a hell of an announcement: here we are, come get us.

Niko bent down to pick up the twisted metal spar and heard rusty hinges complain under moving weight. He looked up to see Aetch trying to fight off two soldiers in trenchcoats. Together, the three of them clogged the open doorway, with more soldiers trying to push through behind them.

[Wait!] yelled Niko, recognizing that the overcoats were deep red like his own.

Aetch bellowed as one of the soldiers got under his arm and punched him in the liver.

Why are they attacking us? he thought as he rushed in with the metal raised over his head.

[Help!] yelled Aetch. [Get off me, you bastards.]

Niko swung the table leg down, but it deflected off Aetch’s rifle before hitting one of the VKA in the shoulder. His target’s thick coat absorbed a lot of the blow. The man didn’t let go of Aetch’s gunstock. Instead, he smashed his boot into Niko’s inner thigh.

He yelped. The blow forced Niko back. He felt his bone flex.

The second attacker landed a sharp right hook across Aetch’s cheek. The sniper’s head snapped sideways and bounced back, but the other soldier was faster. A second punch caught Aetch along the bottom edge of his mask, and he went limp.

Niko hurled the metal rod into the two attackers as they yelled in some language he’d never heard. They ducked the wild throw as it went wide. Before they could recover, Niko went for the Gutterline. He pushed down on the barrel and twisted the handle free with an audible snap. The barrel came up to meet his off hand. His finger began squeezing the trigger before his eyes focused on the target.

Kill these three and I can go home.

The soldiers dragged Aetch through the doorway and pulled the door shut behind them.

Niko pulled the trigger and watched as bullets sprayed the closed metal door.

Niko stood for a moment, unsure how many rounds he’d just used. He wanted to rush the door and catch them on the other side. And he would have, except for the voice in his head telling him to run.

Run!

Run, you fool. Now is your chance.

Gun in hand, he was down the steps and halfway through the narrow channel before he started to reload. The magazine refused to release at first. He had to smack it with the back of his hand before it dropped to the floor. He pulled a new mag from its pouch and smoothly slipped it into place.

He was still running.

The channel opened back up to a larger room. He saw where Aetch had taken cover with the tracking unit, and it struck him.

He didn’t know where to go.

He didn’t even know how to get back to where he’d been.

Niko slowed down and surveyed the area. He knew this was how people got lost under the Mat. He and Aetch had seen bodies: no gunshots, just gaunt, hollowed-out corpses. He needed to hurry, but he needed to be smart too. He put the SMG back in its holster and quickly stripped the red coat from his shoulders. He ran back to the little hovel and draped the coat over the back of the chair he’d seen Aetch sitting in.

It wasn’t perfect, but he turned the chair toward the back corner and pulled down some of the black wrap to make it look like someone hiding.

He didn’t need to wait for them to find it.

He started running again.

The air was cold against his skin. The warm room, the fight, and all the running—now that the coat was off, he realized just how much he’d been sweating. The moment he stopped, he’d start shivering.

One problem at a time.

He slowed down at the next intersection and looked around. Clear right. Several doors lined both sides of the approach ahead. None of it was familiar. To the left, another large lot. Dumpsters and crates had been arranged in defensive lines, but he couldn’t tell which direction they were meant to defend. It was darker that way too. No emergency lighting.

The left felt like a trap.

Niko turned right and sprinted to the first door.

Don’t be locked.

Don’t be a small room or closet.

He needed a hidden corridor, something to give him more distance to run without being seen.

The door was locked.

He tried two more before he found one that would open. He turned the knob, pulled, and stepped in with his gun drawn.

“Dammit.”

It was just a small storage room, a kill box for anyone dumb enough to sleep inside. The shelves had been ransacked. There were a few empty boxes on the floor. He let go of the knob and turned for the next door when he heard a pair of gunshots.

Niko froze.

He reached for the door knob again to use the door for cover, but stopped when he noticed bright red on his shirt sleeve. He looked down to find two dark, growing stains on his side.

He looked back toward the intersection.

A man stood only a couple paces away, his back to the shadows. Niko recognized the dark red overcoat of the VKA and wondered why his own were hunting him.

His curiosity waned almost immediately as the man’s eyes flickered blue. This deep there was no connection. There was no subnet.

Niko reached for the door knob again. Something flashed out in front of him. A moment later his gloved hand landed on the ground at his boots.

Pain shot up from his arm, and he didn’t need an overlay alert to tell him he’d taken damage. He grabbed the stump of his wrist just in time to see the man drive the blade deep into his ribs. The glowing red blade slid effortlessly in, burning through his organic tissue.

“Why?”

The assassin cocked his head to the side. Its eyes flickered once and then it answered.

Niko winced at the sound of its voice. He couldn’t understand what it was saying. He couldn’t feel the sword slide out of his body either. With a slump, Niko collapsed to his knees and fell over.

His overlay still offline, there were no critical damage alerts to flood his vision. He stared across the coarse ground past the assassin’s boots and watched the shadows rush forward.

He listened to the soft gurgle of fluid in his throat and remembered almost drowning inside his mask earlier in the day. He felt the cold ground draw the heat from his body and wished he’d kept his coat.

And then Niko died.