Story 1263: Wrong Way Out

“You’re not supposed to be here yet,” the blue-eyed Juno-clone repeated, voice calm, detached.

The station pulsed with dim, candle-like lights—except there were no flames, only flickering holograms. The dozens of passengers, all identical versions of Juno, Shade, and H-13, stared without blinking. It was a hall of futures, a graveyard of choices.

Shade raised his weapon. “Back away from her.”

The clone didn’t flinch. “You don’t even know which her you’re protecting.”

Juno stepped forward. “This isn’t an escape route, is it?”

“No,” the clone said. “It’s a filter. The train doesn’t carry you out—it selects who deserves to leave. You bought a fare with your memory, but the rest of the price is identity.”

Behind them, the train’s engine began to dissolve into code—pixels flickering like a corrupted simulation.

H-13 scanned the flickering walls. “This whole station… it’s a neurosynthetic chamber. We’re inside the Mind Mirror Layer. One of VIREX’s final sanity tests.”