The Question in the Shadows
Anastasia had just finished a dry wash, her eyes blank as she stared out the window.
“You didn’t die, did you?”
“Nadia.”
“Mom, why?”
Elia’s voice—soft, almost gentle—slipped into the air like a thread pulling at old wounds.
The question hung there, heavy. Nadia stepped closer, her hand brushing her mother’s shoulder as if to steady her.
“Just a nightmare. A stupid dream. You’re fine. You’re all fine.”
Anastasia’s fingers dug into her own face. The woman who had once shattered steel with a silver spear now looked small, hollowed out by grief.
“She was bleeding. Her eyes were full of that terrible, accusing look.”
……
“If I had been there with her…”
“It’s just a dream. You’ve been so tired lately.”
Nadia stroked her mother’s back in slow circles, trying to push the guilt back down where it belonged.
“You didn’t leave her, Mom. You stayed. And because you stayed, she’s free now. Every day up there, she’s apologizing to the sky for you.”
Anastasia’s breath hitched, raw and ragged. The guilt still sat heavy behind her red-rimmed eyes, but slowly—painfully—it began to loosen its grip.
◆◇◆
“Hah. I finally made it in.”
After five months of digging tunnels through the jungle, the three refugees finally slipped past the electric fences into the forbidden zone.
Thick concrete walls rose on either side of them, topped with razor wire that gleamed like teeth. One step beyond that line and a bullet would find you.
Sandrobel was hiding something in here. Something big enough to risk the whole forbidden zone for.
“I still can’t believe we actually made it.”
“Even the king underestimated us, huh?”
“Yeah, well, a sane person wouldn’t have tried to sneak in here anyway.”
They moved deeper into the forest, boots silent, hearts hammering. This was the plan. Their only chance at a miracle.
The ground was soft with fallen leaves and thick moss. Every step made a wet, disgusting squelch.
“Hey, is this the right way?”
The woman at the back panted, sweat cutting tracks down her filthy face.
“It has to be. Just keep going. We can’t get caught.”
“If we head toward the outer wall, we’re dead. The watchers will hear us.”
“I know. We can’t all die like rats in a cage.”
The man at the front swung a machete, slicing through hanging vines with practiced fury.
His body was already giving out. Hunger had turned his stomach to stone. The heat sucked the moisture right out of him. Scratches from branches burned across his skin, and mud crawled into every crevice of his boots.
“Shit… I’m gonna die here…”
One of them couldn’t take it anymore. He dropped his pack and stumbled to a halt.
“Whoa… look at that.”
The pack hit the ground and the vines sprang back, revealing a small village nestled in the trees.
“We found it…”
Joy lasted less than a second.
The village was nothing but bones and dried skin. Every building, every street—abandoned long ago.
◆◇◆
I wiped the sweat from my brow with a damp towel, eyes scanning the horizon.
By now the refugees should have crawled into the abandoned village in the control zone.
Once they touched those tentacles, their lives would be over. But that was the price of the plan. A perfect reversal.
I’ve waited long enough.
After the shower, I moved the fake body forward without hesitation.
The endless fences and thick concrete walls loomed ahead. One wrong step and Sandrobel’s soldiers would turn you into red mist.
As I approached the gate, a Sandrobel guard stepped forward, posture rigid, head bowed low.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
I raised a hand in greeting.
“Any incidents?”
“None, Lady Elia! No intruders or unusual activity reported at all.”
“Good. Think for a moment and patrol the outer fences too. While you’re at it.”
“Yes, ma’am! We’ll head that way immediately!”
As we walked along the wire, the guard rattled off how thoroughly he’d hunted down every last refugee. I kept my face neutral, but inside I smiled.
Perfect.
A strange patch of soil caught my eye—dirtier than the rest, bushes piled unnaturally high.
“Wait here a second.”
The guard followed, curious. I kicked the bushes aside with my boot, and a yawning hole appeared.
A tunnel.
Bingo.
“This… what is this?”
Recent digging. Fresh, damp earth. Wooden supports driven in for the entrance. Even the rough faces of the tunnel walls looked too perfect for a monster.
Someone had bored straight under the fence.
“No… this can’t be…”
The guard stumbled backward, eyes wide with disbelief.
“This is going to be a nightmare.”
“W-why…! During patrol there was nothing! Nothing at all!”
The control zone had been breached. The guard’s failure would light up the sky for weeks.
“Pull back the troops. Evacuate anyone within two kilometers right now.”
“Evacuate? Then what about Lady Elia?!”
“I’ll go in first. I have to see what kind of mess those rats have made down there before we fix it.”
“It’s impossible! There’s a Chimera Virus in that area!”
The guard was desperately trying to stall me, but I could feel the pressure.
“If I die, the king might even thank me.”
Maybe.
“No, it’s mixed with Cordyceps. The strain they’ve developed…”
Cordyceps. The core of the Chimera Virus.
Normally it would burrow into the nervous system and seize the brain completely.
But what if it met something else? Something with its own memories.
A true Receptor.
If that poison entered my body…
It wouldn’t just take over the brain. It would find the existing virus living inside me—the one that was already controlling this fake shell—and try to devour it for nutrients.
Then the Cordyceps would force the host’s reproductive system to activate, spreading spores.
A Receptor fighting for control.
A Cordyceps fungus trying to multiply by eating it.
Two instincts fighting inside one body. One would win. The other would be… upgraded.
Maybe the Sandrobel king had figured that out.
Though, of course, I wasn’t actually a Receptor. It was all theater.
The guard’s mouth snapped shut.
“I… I understand. I’m truly, truly sorry!”
His face was pale, like he was about to cry.
“Enough. Just go and handle the control zone. If something breaks out inside, you’ll have to seal it from the outside anyway.”
“Yes, ma’am! I’ll remember that!”
He snatched up his radio and vanished in a hurry. I listened to the order crackling over the air, then twisted my neck left and right with a satisfying crack.
All right. Let’s go in.
They had dug the tunnel. I simply walked through the jungle like I owned it.
No ordinary jungle here.
Thick vines slapped at my arms as I pushed through. The ground was a slick mess of rotten leaves and mud. Tiny insects crawled everywhere. Every breath carried the stench of decay.
The worst kind of environment.
I should have brought a gas mask.
The Chimera Virus smelled awful—thick, sweet, like something dead left in the sun. That smell was probably the reason the refugees had come this way.
I didn’t worry. This body was just a puppet. I could switch it off from the safe room anytime.
The disgust was still painfully real.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead with my sleeve.
Good thing finding the way was easy.
There are traces here.
Crushed weeds. Vines hacked to pieces by machetes. Muddy footprints everywhere.
“Thank you. Really.”
I moved at a casual pace. The deeper I went, the thicker the forest became. Giant leaves blocked out the sun, turning everything into a steaming greenhouse. Sweat poured down my fake body like rain.
Next time I’ll wear something lighter. A swimsuit would be more comfortable.
Wearing a swimsuit into a contaminated zone.
Insane. But the way my chest heaved, I almost didn’t care.
I kept following the footprints for a long time, teeth gritted.
“Finally.”
Abandoned buildings, covered in moss and mold. The village I had been looking for.
Right in front of me.
The central square of the ruined village.
Three figures stood there. The exact intruders I had been waiting for.
They were wrapped in rags, like marionettes on invisible strings. Their eyes were rolled back, completely white. Souls gone. Just empty shells.
They’ve already been taken.
I didn’t feel sorry for them. This was the place. They had gotten exactly what they deserved.
“Yo. You finally got some free toys?”
A massive, grotesque shape slowly emerged from the shadows.
How do you even describe something like that? Like rotting human flesh fused with thick, twisted vines. Chunky, ugly, barely recognizable. Dead meat.
He had driven thick tentacles deep into the necks of the two refugees. His eyes were milky, like pus.
From mouths split unnaturally wide on both sides, a voice dripped out.
“You… didn’t die, did you?”