Core Fragment – The Mindless Savior of Manhattan

📌 Disclaimer:

This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, events, and locations are purely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.

1. The Island That Refused to Sleep

[Location: Manhattan Island, New York – Zone Red: Sector Collapse Site]

[Rift Type: Core Split Event – Subclass: Quantum Echo Rupture]

[Estimated Deaths: 4,712]

[Survivors: 112 (Quarantined)]

[Target: Carter Rhys – EMT / Entity-X Fragment Host]

[Mental Status: Brain-dead. Movement: Intermittent. Echo Affinity: Unknown.]

The chopper passed over the East River as the sun set like a smudged scar behind the high-rises.

Raunak sat in silence. Kaede hovered a thin screen beside him, running real-time anomaly data.

"It's not clean," she said. "The entire south-side grid is folding in loops. Reality is recycling itself every 58 minutes."

He nodded.

"It's the Core Split. It didn't just rupture reality—it copied it wrong."

[Mission Brief: Carter Rhys reportedly stands by the same window in Queens Shield Hospital every day at 6:43 PM.]

[Brain scans show zero activity. But surveillance sees his body shifting positions. Sometimes blinking.]

[Last week, he vanished and reappeared exactly 12 hours later on the roof.]

Raunak's System pulsed.

[Entity-X Detection: Mild]

[Risk Level: Intermediate / Unstable Time-Locked Zone]

[Objective: Establish Echo-Link or neutralize Rift Host.]

They landed.

2. The Hospital Without Heartbeat

Queens Shield had been one of New York's leading trauma centers. Now it was silent. Still stocked. Still powered. But empty.

Raunak and Kaede moved through auto-opening doors. None squeaked. Lights turned on exactly one second after each step — as if someone knew they were coming.

Kaede paused.

"Time in here isn't stable. Look."

Raunak's watch blinked: 18:36 → 13:22 → 25:99 → E:

"Glitching?"

Kaede shook her head. "No. Looping. We're in a recursion field."

They reached the elevator shaft.

On every floor number, Carter Rhys stood still — identical in form — hands folded, staring outward.

Every floor.

Same position.

Same time.

Different reflections in each window.

3. Carter Rhys: The Living Echo

They took the emergency stairs. On the 13th floor, Room 1343 — the "real" Carter stood.

He was pale. Standing by the window. Eyes open. But empty.

A nurse's tag lay on the floor, frozen mid-fall — suspended inches off the ground. A loop glitch.

Kaede whispered, "This man is dead."

Raunak shook his head. "No. He's locked. Something's keeping him from finishing."

[System Alert: Entity-X Core Fragment embedded in Neural Cortex]

[Echo Signature Detected: Medical Grade Trauma-Loop / Survivor Complex]

[Trigger: Carter's Final Loop must be completed to restore cognitive function.]

"Kaede. Pull up the surveillance from the day the Rift hit."

4. The Day the Rift Hit

They jacked into the wall port using Kaede's Neural Splice. Raunak watched the final three minutes before the rupture.

Carter Rhys sprinted down a hallway, wheeling a stretcher.

"Keep pressure on her lung! I've got one shot at making this—"

A glowing fissure cracked the floor.

Time bent.

Carter dropped to his knees — hands shaking — as reality tore behind him. Light fractured into geometric dust.

He screamed, "Not now—not when she's alive!"

Everything froze.

5. The Trial of Unfinished Duty

Back in the real-time loop, Raunak moved toward Carter.

"Your loop wasn't your death," he said slowly. "It was your guilt."

[Trial Initiated: "Core Split – Paradox Binding"]

[Goal: Complete Carter's Final Action Before Temporal Collapse in 4 Minutes.]

[Failure = Fragment Overrun. Entity Possession Probability: 92%]

Kaede: "He didn't want to die saving her. He wanted to live knowing she did."

Raunak: "And the Rift didn't let him. It broke that outcome."

They rematerialized in the memory fragment. Carter stood frozen, eyes filled with sorrow. The girl's vitals blinked red.

Raunak ran forward — slammed his hand on the emergency charge unit — restarted CPR — pumped once. Twice. Three times.

Flatline.

Then—

Heartbeat.

[Survivor Log Updated: "Patient 218 – Status: Alive"]

[Carter Rhys: Loop Complete.]

6. He Woke Up

Carter's eyes fluttered.

"Where… is she?"

Raunak smiled faintly. "Safe. You saved her."

Carter blinked again, then turned.

"No… you did."

[System Alert: Carter Rhys has joined your team as Phantom Link Ally #2]

[Unlocked Skill: "Core Split Recall" – One-time per day: Prevent fatal damage by splitting into a quantum echo. Return with 1 HP.]

[Raunak's Sync: +3%. Carter is classified as a Temporal Echo-Bound]

7. The Other Side of the Rift

As they left the hospital, Carter paused. Looked at the skyline.

"I remember being... watched," he said. "Something in the mirror—when the Rift opened. Something that waited for me to fall."

Kaede tensed.

[New Threat Detected: "The Looking Glass Cult" – Followers of Entity-X that operate via reflective surfaces. Seen most in Core Rift zones.]

[Leader: Unknown. Belief: Reality should fracture, not heal.]

Raunak looked at his team — two allies now. The world getting stranger. The walls between real and broken thinner by the hour.

"We're out of time," he said again. "Next Rift."

End of Chapter 14 – Manhattan