As a man born on a technologically advanced planet, a spaceship enthusiast, and, at his core, a man of science, Kai had never believed in ghosts. He thought they were silly—made up to scare children away from dangerous places or for a good laugh at a party. Everything supernatural must have a scientific explanation behind it.

  Derniere's hand moved away from his shoulder. A sharp metallic clack echoed in the dark as she chambered a round, followed by a deafening bang. For a brief second, the flash illuminated their surroundings.

  Kai’s eyes locked onto the advancing red glows, now closer than before. He listened, expecting some sort of reaction—a metallic impact, the dull sound of a bullet hitting flesh—anything. But there was nothing. No ricochet, no resistance. No feedback at all. The shot had passed through as if nothing was there.

  Derniere worked the bolt again, ejecting the empty casing, smoothly chambering another round. Her stance was firm, her breathing controlled. She had done this countless times before.

  "Let the shot surprise you."

  She whispered the phrase to herself, steadying her grip. This time, she tried to fire between the glowing red lights.

  Another shot rang out.

  In that split second of illumination, Kai saw it.

  A figure—or something that resembled one. It had the rough shape of a humanoid, yet its edges were blurred, translucent, shifting, as if it weren’t fully there. Was it a machine? A living being? His mind struggled to comprehend what he was looking at before the light vanished, swallowing it back into darkness.

  His instincts kicked in. Lowering his stance, he controlled his breathing, focusing on sound alone. He had trained himself to fight without sight before, using his ability to form mental outlines of enemies through movement and sound. It had always worked. Even against non-human targets.

  But this time, there was nothing.

  No clear outline. No defined shape. Just an unsettling void moving toward him.

  Then he heard it—woosh.

  A strike coming straight for him. He ducked low, feeling the rush of air as the attack barely missed his head. Taking the opening, he countered, launching a sharp jab forward.

  His punch connected, but the sensation was wrong.

  It felt like punching water. No resistance. No impact. Yet an eerie wetness lingered on his skin where he struck.

  Another woosh—this time from the left.

  Still mid-punch, he had no time to retract his arm. He braced, tightening his left arm to shield his head.

  The hit landed.

  It was like getting hit by a freight train. The force sent him sprawling, slamming him into the ground. For a moment, the thought crept into his mind—was he actually fighting a ghost?

  “Kai?” Derniere’s voice was sharp with concern, but she couldn’t see him in the dark.

  Kai groaned, rolling onto his side, his arms instinctively coming up to shield himself. Another strike landed. Then another.

  Each hit felt impossibly heavy. He fought back, throwing his fists at the shifting mass, but every time his punches felt like they were cutting through mist—hitting nothing solid.

  His body burned. His nanos worked desperately to repair the damage, but they were using too much energy, too fast. He could feel the exhaustion creeping in. He wasn’t healing fast enough.

  Another hit sent him sprawling. His head slammed against the hard ground, and he tasted blood.

  "Run". He tried to say it. Nothing came out.

  "Get out of here, Derniere." His own voice yelled in his head.

  Another hit. The impact knocked the air from his lungs, forcing him to cough violently. His blood splattered onto the cold ground beneath him. His vision flickered.

  Darkness pressed in.

  Kai clenched his teeth. His body felt like it was on fire, every nerve screaming. He wanted to stand. To fight back. But as the attacks kept coming, his strength faded.

  His flicking thoughts, bitter and defiant, echoed through his fading consciousness—He refused to be killed by a damn ghost.

  ---------------------

  Eliana shot up from laying in a panic. It was Kai's screaming that she heard in her sleep. She put her palm up and covered her face. Kai's scream still echoed in her mind, it felt so vivid and real.

  She looked around her. Robert, Ivan, and Teresa's were all asleep, Robert had drue coming out of his mouth and Ivan slept in a weird angle, Teresa clutched her rifle and sat with her back leaning on the corner.

  She checked the local time — 12:35.

  They had been here in the tight space for a long time now. The metal box was old, weathered, poorly ventilated. But at the same time it was their own way down to the bottom level, to Kai.

  Eliana popped the discomfort pressure differences in her ears. Soon it came back again. He sighed.

  Dr. Isaac's plan to rescue Kai was to use the maintenance route in the waste management system. A separate shaft that hosted an elevator that would bring them straight down to the bottom level. The down side however to this system was that it was old and didn't provide much in terms of rider comfort.

  "Can't sleep?" It was Teresa's voice.

  "Yes, just worrying about Kai." Eliana said, she looked at Teresa, her wavy hair covered half of her face.

  Teresa smiled, "I'm going to take a bath after all this is over."

  Eliana nodded, "me too."

  "And don't worry about Kai, you know if anyone will survive it will be him." Teresa gave Eliana a reassuring smile.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  Eliana gave one back. She shifted her weight so her legs won't go numb. She checked her watch, they were just ten hours into the ride and still had ten more left.

  Teresa had her eyes closed and was back to sleep. Eliana guessed she would do the same too. She took the water bottle beside her and took a tiny sip, just enough to make her lips feel moisturized.

  Soon she will be able to reunite with Kai again.

  -------------

  “Ahhhh!” Kai growled, his body pinned to the ground by an unseen force. His arms and legs strained against the crushing weight, but it felt like an invisible hand was pressing him down, holding him in place.

  Derniere’s voice cut through the darkness. “Kai!”

  He heard her charging toward him, boots pounding against the hard surface. For a split second, the pressure on him lifted—but then Derniere screamed.

  Her voice faded, followed by the unmistakable thud of a body hitting the ground.

  Kai clenched his teeth and forced every ounce of strength into his limbs. He pushed up against the invisible weight, fighting to move. His arms trembled, his body screamed in protest, but he managed to get onto his knees.

  Everything hurts. His muscles burned, his head felt heavy, and his breath came in ragged gasps. But still, he fought.

  He swung his fist, blindly striking out at the thing restraining him. He knew it wouldn’t do much—maybe nothing at all—but he refused to just sit there and accept his fate.

  He threw another punch, but this time his wrist was caught. He tried again with his other hand but it was caught too.

  Then, pain.

  A brutal impact crashed into his face, snapping his head to the side. Blood flew from his mouth as his body was flung backward.

  The grip on his wrists loosened. His arms buckled, and he collapsed, barely catching himself before hitting the ground.

  Kai coughed, spitting blood onto the cold, hard floor. His head swayed as he looked up, eyes locking onto the two frantic red glows.

  They were no longer steady.

  They weaved erratically, moving up and down in a jittery, unstable pattern as if in pain.

  Then he saw it.

  A faint blue glow, flickering in the air between them.

  Kai’s mind raced. His body was weak, his limbs felt like lead. A pulse of light erupted in the darkness.

  The entire space flashed red, illuminating the shape of his attacker. For an instant, it looked almost human—then it shifted, warping into something else entirely.

  Another pulse. The red glow twisted and wrapped itself around the blue light—his blood—as if the two forces were battling each other.

  Kai watched, unable to move, barely able to breathe.

  The blue light pulsed and expanded like a beating heart, pushing against its restraint. Slowly, the red glow began to weaken. The blue light grew stronger.

  The lights pulsed more rapidly now, flickering like a battle of forces playing out in the air. The red glow twisted and fled upward, a thin, fraying string of light. The blue chased it, surging forward, the two meeting again in midair, colliding and fighting for dominance.

  Kai felt a hand grab his shoulder, firm and insistent. He could also hear Bell’s frantic squeaking, its tiny movements skittering across his chest. Someone slid their arms under his armpits and pulled. He shifted slightly but felt like a dead weight.

  “Why is he so heavy?!” Derniere’s murmur strained with effort.

  Another pull, dragging him a little more.

  Kai felt himself slipping in and out of consciousness, reality flickering like a dimming light. The battle of colors continued above him, but now, there was more blue than red. His blue.

  He smiled weakly.

  Then, finally the red was gone.

  Derniere stopped pulling him, likely confused by the sudden stillness. His head rested against her overall, his breath unsteady but calm. The blue light hung motionless in the air before shifting.

  It moved toward him.

  He could feel Derniere tense beside him, feel her grip tighten as she prepared to pull him away again. He stopped her with a simple, quiet word.

  "No."

  That was all he could manage.

  The blue light drifted closer, shifting as it moved, warping into something new. A humanoid shape. It had no features, no face, no gender—just an outline, a body made of thousands of tiny, shimmering lights.

  It landed a few feet away, its glowing form moving with deliberate steps toward him.

  Kai sensed no hostility. No threat.

  The figure stood over him for a long moment before crouching, bringing itself closer. Countless tiny lights swirled within its form, shifting and pulsing like living data. It was a strange sight, but the strangest part of all was knowing that this thing had come from him.

  An extension of the blue glow reached out—a hand. It pressed gently against his face.

  The moment it touched him, he felt it.

  The same strange wetness he had felt when the liquid invaded his body. The sensation was oddly familiar now, like something deeply ingrained in his existence.

  Then, darkness.

  Kai passed out.

  In his unconscious state, visions flickered through his mind.

  Glimpses of moments he had never seen before, images so fleeting they barely lasted a second.

  A massive spaceship floating in space.

  Closer, the view of a docking port.

  Then, a man sitting behind a large desk, looking down at him.

  The view shifted again—the man's face was closer now. Familiar, Kai had seen him before, but he didn’t know when, where, or who he was.

  The scene changed again.

  A blue sky. A green field.

  The vision turned, revealing something enormous—a massive thruster of a ship unimaginably large.

  Then, darkness again.

  Kai's eyes fluttered open.

  The humanoid shape was still there, but it was already pulling away, retracting its hand. He watched as it stepped back, it's glowing form beginning to unravel. The light surrounding it separated, breaking apart into individual strings of energy, then those strings split further, scattering into countless tiny fragments.

  The pieces of blue floated upward, dissolving into the air, disappearing into nothing.

  Kai stared, watching the last remnants fade.

  Then—blinding light.

  A sudden, massive flood of artificial light engulfed everything.

  It poured down from above, swallowing them in a brilliant, piercing glow.

  Derniere yelped in surprise, instinctively covering her eyes. She reached out, pressing a hand over Kai’s eyes as well, shielding him from the overwhelming brightness.

  "Don't look at the light," Kai managed to say, his voice rough and weak. He turned away, and kept his eyes shut tightly. After days in near-total darkness, the sudden flood of brightness felt blinding even with the protection of his eyelids—like miniature suns burning overhead, not just illuminating the space but radiating actual warmth.

  "Don't open your eyes," he repeated, forcing himself onto unsteady feet. His body ached, his limbs felt heavy, and hunger gnawed at his stomach, but he pushed through.

  Carefully, he cracked his eyes open just a sliver, just enough to see without being overwhelmed.

  And what he saw stunned him.

  The ground that must once have been a field of grass was instead soft brown dirt, stretching out in every direction. A winding road cut through the landscape, leading toward the distant horizon.

  In the far distance, he spotted the wall they had entered through—The massive structure stood broken, the center collapsed where the walker had crashed through.

  This was never just a wall dividing two sides.

  It was an enclosure—a secret hidden from the outside world. A space deliberately sealed away.

  Besides the broken wall behind him, everything matched the last image from his vision.

  He turned around.