Chapter 46: System Lockdown

You know how people who have claimed to pass over to the other side say that in the moment between life and death, their lives flashed before their eyes, as if it were some detailed movie? How each event that had taken place from the time they opened their eyes until the very last time they closed them, played in sequence, showing them all their greatest hits? Yeah, well, I think I unlocked a new way to reach that before actually dying.

“Joseph?” Chandler asked, straining his eyesight to see beyond the blackened shades of the night. “Is that you?”

The area surrounding us expanded into a large forest, comprised of multiple hills and valleys, with what I assumed to be the Karydaki Aqueduct to our far right. Overgrown grass tickled my ankles as it blew in the wind, and I sucked in a deep breath while the crickets moaned in the background. Tyler was right—we were pretty far from the city.

“Shut up, Renner,” the man in front of us barked. “Where’s Isaak?”