Chapter 15: Echoes in the Silence.

Chapter 15: Echoes in the Silence

The night air hit Sierra's face like a slap—cold, sharp, and strangely cleansing. She took a deep breath, the scent of burnt ozone and metal still clinging to her. Behind her, the bunker door slammed shut with a mechanical hiss, locking away the ghost of the man who had tried to control her.

She didn't look back.

Knox revved the armored bike. "We have to move. Fast. That shot you fired? It might have triggered something else—an alert, a fail-safe... maybe worse."

Sierra climbed on behind him, her body sore, her mind buzzing with the weight of everything she'd just done. The engine growled, and in seconds, they were racing into the darkness, the ruined city stretching around them like the skeleton of a forgotten world.

"Where do we go now?" she asked over the wind.

"Someplace safe. Off the grid," Knox replied. "I've got a contact in the Northern Wastes. A place where the Protocol's signal doesn't reach."

Sierra stared ahead, the horizon a blur of black and steel. No signal. No control. For the first time in what felt like forever, that idea brought her something like peace.

But it didn't last.

A sudden screech tore through the sky—shrill, mechanical. Sierra looked up. Drones. Two of them. Sleek, black, and fast. They'd been tracking her. They were always tracking her.

Knox cursed and swerved off the main road, tires skidding through the cracked concrete. The drones followed, beams of light cutting through the night.

"They must've locked onto the bunker before we got out!" he shouted. "They're not letting you go that easy."

Sierra clenched her fists. "Then we don't give them the chance."

The bike roared as Knox pushed it to its limits, weaving through collapsed buildings and debris. The drones closed in, their rotors slicing the silence, their targeting systems locking onto Sierra like wolves scenting blood.

"Left!" she shouted as a beam of energy scorched the road behind them.

Knox swerved hard, the bike jolting. One of the drones dove lower.

Sierra didn't hesitate. She reached for the side holster and drew Knox's second pistol. She turned slightly on the bike, her balance razor-sharp despite the speed. She waited. Watched. Breathed.

Then fired.

The shot struck true.

The first drone spiraled out of control, crashing into a crumbling overpass in a shower of sparks.

The second drone veered upward, recalculating.

Knox shouted, "Hold on!"

He gunned the bike toward a narrow tunnel beneath an abandoned rail line. They ducked inside just as the drone fired, the blast slamming into the edge of the tunnel entrance, sending fire and rubble crashing behind them.

They burst out on the other side, dirt and smoke trailing in their wake.

Silence returned.

For a moment, all Sierra could hear was the pounding of her heart and the rhythmic thrum of the engine.

Knox slowed. "That bought us a few minutes. Not much more."

Sierra nodded, holstering the pistol. "I think they're not just tracking me anymore. They're testing me."

Knox glanced at her. "What do you mean?"

"I think... I think the Protocol wants to see what happens when I resist. When I break the script. It's studying me, Knox. Like a lab rat trying to chew through the glass."

He was quiet for a long moment, then said, "Then let's make sure we shatter the glass completely."

They rode through the night, the edges of the city giving way to wasteland. Ahead, the horizon began to glow—dimly, softly—as if the sky itself was remembering what it meant to hope.

Behind them, the Protocol was stirring.

Watching.

Waiting.

But Sierra was no longer running.

She was planning.

She was ready.

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