The shopping mall was a hollowed-out ribcage of steel and concrete, a tomb for a civilization that had traded its physical existence for a digital dream. Now, that dream was over, and the survivors were huddled in the center of the atrium like cattle in a slaughterhouse.
"Don't let the fire die!" Mara’s voice was a whip-crack in the darkness. "Keep the Uploads in the center! If you see a pale limb, you stab it! Don't wait for a face!"
I stood at the edge of the torchlight, my breath coming in ragged, white plumes. The cold was a physical weight, pressing against my lungs. Beside me, Nix was holding a piece of jagged rebar, her knuckles white. She was shivering, not just from the temperature, but from the sound coming from the rafters.
Click-clack. Click-clack.
It was the sound of the K
