"Push the last twenty crates of anti-infection meds into the void space, now!" I shouted, shoving the heavy steel boxes toward the shimmering tear in the air.

The red emergency strobes on Haven-7's evacuation platform bathed everything in the color of fresh blood.

A deafening crunch echoed from the perimeter.

"The Black Tide just breached the outer wall!" Caleb yelled. He dropped his hands from a bleeding guard's chest. A faint green glow faded from Caleb's palms, leaving his face the color of chalk. He swayed, catching himself on a railing.

I sealed the spatial tear, locking the medicine safely inside my personal dimension.

For two years, I had bled for this base, using my spatial ability to stockpile four hundred eighty crates of medicine and twelve tons of compressed rations. I had secured our survival.

Today, only three Ark Pods remained on the launch track.

Three seats out of this hellhole.

I spun toward the control console. Marcus stood there, his knuckles white around the silver access badge.

"Marcus, the perimeter is gone," I said, marching up the metal stairs. "Initiate the launch sequence. Caleb needs a pod, and we take the other two."

Marcus didn't move. He stared at the silver access badge in his palm, then looked over my shoulder.

Seraphina stood behind him, clutching a thick wool blanket around her fragile shoulders. She shivered, though the platform was sweltering from the fires outside.

"I saw the future, Marcus," Seraphina whispered. Her voice barely carried over the sirens, yet it commanded his absolute attention. "If I stay here, the resistance dies. You have to take me with you."

I froze. My gaze snapped between my husband and the trembling woman behind him.

"Take her?" I asked, stepping closer. "There are three pods. One for you, one for me, one for Caleb. That was the evacuation protocol we agreed on."

"Plans change, Evelyn," Marcus said. He finally met my eyes, his expression unnervingly calm.

"She isn't base personnel," I snapped. "She hasn't contributed a single ounce of food or medicine. I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into that spatial vault for us."

"And we are grateful," Marcus replied.

Grateful. The word tasted like ash.

"Grateful doesn't put me in a pod, Marcus. Open the hatches."

Caleb dragged himself up the stairs, clutching his ribs. "Commander, the Tide is swarming Sector Four. We have less than three minutes."

Marcus stepped in front of the console, blocking my path to the authorization scanner. "Caleb gets Pod One. I take Pod Two."

He stopped.

The silence between us felt heavier than the concrete walls crumbling outside.

"And Pod Three?" I demanded.

Seraphina pulled the blanket tighter. "I am sorry, Evelyn. The visions are absolute."

"Shut up," I told her, keeping my eyes locked on my husband. "Marcus. Tell me you are not giving my seat to her."

"Evelyn, be reasonable," Marcus said. He raised his chin. "You are the strongest out of all of us. Your spatial abilities give you a fighting chance out there."

A harsh laugh tore from my throat. "A fighting chance? Against the Black Tide? It dissolves flesh on contact!"

"You can hide in your void space."

"I can only hold it open for ten minutes at a time! You know that!" I slammed my hand onto the console. "I fed this base. I kept your soldiers alive. I am your wife."

"Which is exactly why you need to understand my position," he said, his tone hardening. "Seraphina is the Oracle. Humanity needs her foresight to win this war. You are a fighter, Evelyn. You survive. It's what you do."

He was weaponizing my resilience. Because I never complained, because I always carried the heaviest burden, he deemed me expendable.

"You are sacrificing me," I said, my voice dropping to a deadly calm.

"I am making a tactical decision for the future of our species," Marcus countered.

"You're saving your new favorite pet," I spat, gesturing at Seraphina. "Don't dress up your betrayal as martyrdom."

"Watch your mouth," Marcus snapped. "She is vital to the cause."

"And I'm just the pack mule," I said. "The one who starves so you can eat. The one who fights so you can play commander."

Caleb coughed violently, spitting dark blood onto the grating. "Marcus, you can't leave Evelyn. She has all the supplies in her vault. If she stays, the supplies stay."

Marcus frowned, a flicker of irritation crossing his face. "Evelyn, transfer the vault access to me."

I stared at him. For one stunned second, the sheer audacity of his demand left me speechless.

"Are you insane?" I asked.

"Transfer the supplies, Evelyn. We need them to establish the new settlement."

"You want the supplies?" I asked, stepping right into his space. "The medicine I stole from the warlords in Sector Four? The rations I hauled across the irradiated zone while you sat in this command center?"

"I commanded those missions," he shot back. "Your abilities belong to this base. To me."

"My abilities belong to me," I said. "And if I die, the void space collapses. The supplies vanish into nothing."

Marcus stepped closer, towering over me. "Then you better figure out how to survive. Like you always do."

"You promised me," I whispered, the weight of his betrayal finally cracking my composure. "When we married, you promised we would face the end together."

"I am saving humanity, Evelyn. Stop making this about your petty feelings."

"Petty feelings?" I shoved his chest, hard. He barely moved. "I gave you everything!"

"And I am asking for one last sacrifice," he said.

The heavy steel doors of the platform buckled inward with a groan of tortured metal. A horrific screech tore through the air, vibrating in my teeth. The Black Tide was chewing through the final titanium barrier. Black, viscous sludge seeped beneath the doorframe, hissing violently as it ate into the floorboards. Noxious smoke curled upward, smelling of rusted iron and burnt ozone.

"Marcus!" Seraphina cried out, shrinking against the console. "They're here! The swarm is breaking through!"

"Hold the line, Evelyn," Marcus ordered, pointing at the melting door. "Use your spatial shields to buy us time."

"Buy you time to leave me behind?" I asked, staring at the man I had loved for five years. "You want me to cover your escape?"

"It is your duty!" he roared.

"My duty was to my team. To my husband. Both of which are dead to me now."

Marcus shoved me aside. The force of his push caught me off guard, sending my shoulder crashing into the sharp edge of the railing. Pain flared down my arm.

"I don't have time to argue with you," Marcus said.

He turned to the main terminal. The screen displayed the three authorized passengers.

Caleb. Marcus. Evelyn.

Marcus tapped the screen. He highlighted my name.

"What are you doing?" I asked, pushing myself off the railing.

"Ensuring our survival," he replied.

He dragged his finger across the screen, crossing my name out.

My name vanished from the manifest. A harsh buzzer sounded, locking me out of the launch sequence.

"Marcus, no!" Caleb yelled, stumbling forward, but his weakened legs gave out, and he collapsed to his knees.

"Caleb, get in Pod One before I revoke your clearance too," Marcus ordered, not even looking back.

Marcus turned away from the console, holding the silver access badge up to the flickering red lights.

He pressed the badge firmly into Seraphina's trembling hand.

I lunged forward, grabbing Marcus by the wrist before he could pull his hand away. My fingers dug into his skin, searching for the silver access badge he had just pressed into Seraphina's palm.

"You don't get to give my life away," I said, my voice cutting through the wail of the evacuation sirens.

Marcus wrenched his arm free. "It is already done, Evelyn."

I reached for Seraphina. She flinched, clutching the badge to her chest.

A body slammed into my shoulder, shoving me back.

I stumbled, my boots skidding across the metal grating. I caught myself on the railing and looked up.

Caleb stood between me and Seraphina. My son.

He held his hands up, a faint green glow illuminating his pale, sweat-slicked face. "Mom, stop."

"Move, Caleb," I ordered. "He just gave her my seat."

"She needs it," Caleb said. He did not lower his hands. His jaw set in a stubborn line. "Sera's prophecies can save the remaining settlements. We need her."

I stared at him. The boy I had raised, the boy I had bled for, was shielding the woman stealing my only way out.

"I am your mother," I said.

Caleb swallowed hard. He refused to meet my eyes. "And you are the strongest fighter in Haven-7. Mom, you are so strong. You can survive out there. Sera can't."

His words hit me harder than Marcus's physical shove. My son was using my resilience as the excuse to leave me behind.

"I survive because I have to," I snapped, stepping toward him. "Because if I don't, who protects you?"

"I don't need protection anymore," Caleb argued, his voice cracking. "I have my healing light. I am a soldier now."

I looked at the soft green light radiating from his palms. My chest tightened until it felt like my ribs might snap.

Exactly one year ago, I had handed Marcus that very same silver access badge. I traded my command rank to secure a private isolation ward for Caleb. Before that, the base scientists strapped my boy to a metal table every morning, draining his blood to synthesize their healing serums. I gave up everything to stop them from treating him like a human battery.

"You think you are a soldier?" I asked, my tone dropping to a whisper. "You are alive because I bought your life with my blood."

"And now you are being selfish!" Caleb yelled. He finally looked at me, his eyes wide and frantic. "You have your spatial vault. You can hide. Sera has nothing but her visions. If she stays, humanity loses its only guide."

"Humanity?" I laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "You are sacrificing your mother for a stranger."

"I am doing what is right," Caleb said.

Marcus shoved the transfer panel toward him. "Then authorize the reassignment."

Caleb hesitated for one terrible second before pressing his glowing palm to the scanner. A green confirmation bar swept across the screen.

Pod Three access transferred: Evelyn Vale to Seraphina.

A deafening boom shook the platform. The titanium blast doors buckled inward, the thick metal groaning under immense pressure.

"Warning. Ninety seconds to launch," the automated voice blared over the intercom.

Black sludge spewed through the widened cracks, hissing as it melted the steel floor. The Black Tide was inside. Noxious smoke poured into the room, smelling of melting copper and rotting meat.

"Get to the pods!" Marcus yelled. He grabbed Caleb's shoulder, pushing him toward the launch track.

A guard by the melting door screamed. A thick tendril of black ooze whipped through the smoke, wrapping tightly around the man's ankle. The soldier fired his rifle blindly into the expanding mass, the muzzle flash illuminating the writhing horror of the swarm.

"Hold the line!" the guard shrieked, clawing at the grating as the sludge dragged him toward the breach.

Caleb turned. His hands flared with bright green healing energy. "I can burn it off him!"

He took a step toward the doomed soldier.

"Don't waste your strength," Seraphina said.

She reached out and clamped her fingers around Caleb's wrist.

Caleb jerked. His boot slipped on a patch of slick oil leaking from a ruptured pipe. He crashed hard to his knees, his chin striking the metal floor.

The green light in his palms sputtered and died.

"Help me!" the guard screamed one last time.

Without Caleb's healing light to repel the sludge, the black tendril yanked the guard backward with terrifying speed. He vanished into the writhing mass of the Tide. The wet crunch of breaking bones echoed over the blaring sirens.

I rushed forward, reaching for Caleb.

Seraphina looked up from my son. She met my gaze.

For a fraction of a second, a thin, jagged red line flashed across her irises. It glowed with a sickening, unnatural light.

My blood ran cold. I stopped dead in my tracks.

That was not the mark of an Oracle. The seers of the resistance possessed eyes of pure white when they channeled the future. Red meant something else entirely. Red meant infection. Red meant the Tide.

"Get away from him," I warned, summoning a shimmering spatial blade into my right hand. The weapon hummed with blue energy.

Seraphina released Caleb's wrist and took a quick step back, hiding behind Marcus. "She is going to attack me."

"Evelyn, stand down!" Marcus ordered. He hauled Caleb to his feet by the collar of his jacket.

"Look at her eyes, Marcus!" I pointed the blade at Seraphina. "She is infected."

"You are losing your mind," Marcus spat. He shoved Caleb toward the first pod. "Get in, now."

Caleb stumbled into Pod One. He did not look back at me. The hydraulic canopy hissed shut, sealing him inside.

"Warning. Sixty seconds to launch," the intercom announced.

The Black Tide surged forward, devouring the last of the blast doors. A wave of black sludge rolled across the platform, melting the remaining guards into screaming puddles of liquid.

"Marcus, she manipulated him," I pleaded, keeping my weapon raised. "She made Caleb fall. She killed that guard."

"She is terrified, Evelyn," Marcus said. He backed away, shielding Seraphina with his body. "This is exactly why I could not trust you. You are too volatile. You let your emotions cloud your judgment."

"My judgment is the only reason you are still breathing," I said.

"Goodbye, Evelyn," Marcus replied.

He jumped into Pod Two. The heavy glass canopy slammed down, locking into place.

Seraphina stepped up to Pod Three. My pod.

The emergency strobes painted her face in harsh crimson shadows. She paused on the threshold, her hands resting on the metal frame.

The swarm roared behind me, the heat of the melting platform singeing the back of my jacket. I raised my spatial blade, preparing to cut the pod's control panel. If I could not leave, neither could she.

Seraphina leaned out of the pod.

She fixed her eyes on mine. The red jagged line pulsed in her pupils, bright and undeniable.

"You won't die," she whispered, her voice slicing clearly through the chaos. "But they will forget you hurt."

The thick polymer canopy of Pod Three slammed shut, cutting off the wail of the evacuation sirens.

I slammed my fists against the reinforced glass. "Open this hatch, Caleb!"

In the adjacent launch tube, my son refused to meet my eyes from inside Pod One. Seraphina sat alone in Pod Three—my pod—her pale lips parted in feigned exhaustion.

"Press the emergency release," I demanded, tapping my wrist console to override the pods’ external comms. My voice echoed sharply through their helmet speakers.

Caleb flinched. He pressed his bare palm flat against his transparent canopy. His fingers trembled. The yellow emergency-release control flashed on the console beside his other hand. With command-family clearance, he could still abort Pod Three's launch.

He didn't push it.

"Mom, please," Caleb’s voice crackled over the radio, thick with unshed tears. "Don't make this harder."

"Harder?" I asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous calm. "You are strapping a parasite into my seat."

I shifted my glare to the adjacent launch tube. Marcus sat strapped into Pod Two. He kept his head locked forward, his fingers flying across the pre-flight dashboard. He avoided looking out his side window. He avoided looking at me.

"Marcus, look at me!" I shouted over the open frequency. "You know exactly what she is. I gave you the security logs!"

Marcus flipped a row of toggle switches. "This is not the time for your paranoia, Evelyn."

"Paranoia?" I struck the glass again, the impact rattling my shoulder. "Six months ago, the South Wall didn't just collapse. She claimed she foresaw the breach. But six veteran guards abandoned their posts that exact night. Six men made consecutive, fatal errors."

"The Oracle was weak," Marcus replied, his tone flat and mechanical. "Her visions drain her physical form. She couldn't warn them in time."

"She didn't warn them because she orchestrated it!" I yelled. "I handed you the evidence. The guards were manipulated. She engineered that breach, just like she engineered Caleb’s fall on this platform!"

"That is a severe accusation," Marcus snapped. He finally turned his head, glaring at me through his canopy. "I ignored your report because it was baseless. I will not let your petty jealousy sabotage the survival of our species."

A harsh, bitter laugh tore from my throat. "I am telling you there is an infected traitor sitting next to our son, and you call it jealousy?"

In Pod Three, Seraphina shifted in the pilot seat that should have been mine. Her eyes met mine through the thick glass. The corners of her pale lips twitched upward into a faint, mocking smile.

She mouthed two words at me.

*Thank you.*

My stomach twisted into a hard knot. I locked eyes with Caleb.

"Caleb, get away from her," I ordered. "Her eyes flashed red. She carries the Tide."

Caleb shook his head, pressing his hand harder against the glass. "Stop lying, Mom. Sera is just scared. She needs my healing light when we reach the rendezvous."

"She needs a host!" I screamed, pulling my spatial blade from my belt. The weapon hummed to life, projecting a lethal blue edge. "Step back from the console. I am cutting the door."

"Warning," the automated terminal blared. "Launch track engaged. T-minus ninety seconds."

A blinding strip of blue neon ignited beneath the pods, vibrating through the metal floorboards.

At the far end of the platform, the twisted remains of the titanium blast doors gave way. A deafening, metallic shriek echoed through the cavernous room. The heavy steel crumpled inward, tearing violently off its hinges.

The Black Tide spilled onto the evacuation deck.

Scores of infected poured through the broken threshold. Their flesh hung in gray, rotting strips. Noxious black sludge dripped from their elongated claws, hissing as it melted the metal grating beneath their feet.

"They breached!" Caleb yelled, panic spiking in his voice.

Marcus slammed his fist onto his console. "Evelyn, run! Find a secure sector and hide!"

"Hide?" I asked, lowering my blade. "You took the only three seats out of this hellhole."

"You are the strongest fighter in Haven-7," Marcus argued over the comms. "You always find a way."

He was right about one thing. I was a fighter. But I no longer fought for him.

I turned my back on the pods. I planted my boots firmly on the scorched floor, placing my body squarely between the launch track and the surging horde.

"Mom, what are you doing?" Caleb asked.

"Giving you your fighting chance," I said.

I raised my left hand toward the high ceiling. I focused on the spatial vault I had maintained for two agonizing years. The dimensional pocket held nearly everything our base needed to survive.

"You wanted the supplies, Marcus?" I shouted over the roaring infected. "Take them!"

I wrenched open the section of my void space that held our reserve arsenal.

A massive, shimmering tear ripped open in the air above the platform. Dozens of heavy steel crates rained down from the rift.

Metal boxes smashed onto the floor, bursting open upon impact. Thousands of rounds of ammunition, high-explosive grenades, plasma charges, and medical kits spilled across the platform, forming a jagged barricade of raw firepower.

I stood alone in front of the mountain of stolen munitions.

"Are you insane?" Marcus roared over the radio. "You just dumped our reserve arsenal into a dead zone!"

"My supplies belong to me," I stated, drawing two plasma pistols from the chaotic pile at my feet. "And I decide how they are used."

The infected scrambled over the loose ammunition. They shrieked, their glowing red eyes fixing on the brightly lit Ark Pods behind me.

I leveled my weapons at the leading monsters.

I did not raise my guns to protect my husband. I did not stand my ground to save the Oracle who stole my seat. I planted my feet because the boy I raised sat in that pod, and I would not let him die today.

"Initiating final launch phase," the automated voice announced. "T-minus ten seconds."

"Mom, get out of there!" Caleb screamed, pounding both fists against the glass. "They are too fast!"

I ignored him. I squeezed the triggers.

Twin bolts of searing blue plasma tore through the air, punching massive holes through the chests of two infected. They collapsed into bubbling puddles of sludge.

Four more leaped over their fallen bodies.

I fired again and again, tracking their erratic movements. My shoulders burned. My boots slipped on the slick, melting floor. I kicked a rolling plasma charge directly into a cluster of the horde and shot it mid-air.

The explosion rocked the platform, sending charred limbs flying into the burning walls.

"Five seconds," the intercom droned.

A massive infected, twice the size of the others, burst through the smoke. It vaulted over the barricade of crates, its jaw unhinging to reveal rows of razor-sharp bone.

I aimed my pistol, but the weapon clicked empty.

The creature lunged, its claws extended directly toward my throat.

Behind me, the Ark Pod thrusters ignited, unleashing a deafening roar and a wall of searing white fire.