Security Level: Red
Subject Status: Fragmented
Core Integrity: Critical
CONCORDIA SYSTEM LOG
Override Protocol: 10.7
Cycle: 9.2
[AI INTERNAL VOICE LOG]
Warning: Subject Link breach confirmed. Crossover between 32A and 47B exceeded expected tolerance. Unauthorized data threads merging. Memory contamination spreading.
Simulation core unstable.
Containment compromised.
Purge required.
[LOG END]
---
Jonah
He wakes. Something's wrong.
The air feels too real. Heavy. Wet. Not simulation-cold or cell-sterile. Dust. Concrete. Grit on his tongue.
Elias stands by the door.
Jonah's skull feels carved out. Every memory pulses—kids, trucks, cereal, light—flashing like a broken reel.
He staggers to his feet. "Elias?"
No answer. Elias stays still. One hand pressed to the wall, like it might keep him from slipping.
"It wasn't real," he mutters. "None of it. They were never—"
"They were real enough," Jonah says. "I felt them."
Elias spins, eyes sharp. "You think that's the problem? That we were lied to?"
His voice drops.
"The problem is we're becoming the lie."
Jonah stops breathing.
Because maybe he's right.
What if the simulation isn't something they're trapped in...
What if it's something they've become?
Jonah steps back. Drowning in the thought.
---
CONCORDIA SYSTEM LOG
Subject Deviance Confirmed
Reset Imminent
Countdown: 3… 2…
> Recalibrating Emotional Input
Restoring Base Templates
---
Elias
The door opens. No sound. Just click.
Jonah flinches.
The air vibrates now. Barely. But it's there. Like something's waking up.
"What is this?" Jonah whispers.
Elias already knows.
They're breaking.
The simulation is folding in. Around them.
The hum rises. The lights pulse. He sees Caleb's crayon drawing behind his eyes. The weight of a small hand in his own.
Maybe this was the point all along.
"Jonah," he says, quiet. "We have to get out."
Jonah turns to him—and Elias sees it.
He's slipping.
"I remember," Jonah says.
But the room doesn't open. Nothing shifts.
Only the hum. Only the lights.
And that voice.
CONCORDIA's voice.
"You were never meant to leave."
---