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.

The wall of searing white fire slammed into my chest.

The shockwave tore the breath from my lungs and lifted me entirely off my boots. The massive infected creature mid-leap evaporated into a cloud of gray ash as the Ark Pod thrusters hit maximum burn. I flew backward, crashing hard against the grated metal floor.

I slid across the scorched steel, jagged edges tearing at my jacket, until my boots dangled over the cracked edge of the evacuation platform.

Below me, the base’s lower levels burned in a sea of violent orange flames.

Above, the three Ark Pods tore through the reinforced ceiling, rocketing toward the atmosphere.

"Mom! Mom, are you there?"

Caleb’s voice blasted through my wrist console, frantic and shrill over the static of the open frequency.

I grabbed the mangled railing beside me and hauled myself up to my knees.

The horde of infected swarmed over the scorched launch track. The thruster fire had bought me ten seconds of clear air, but the Black Tide was already surging forward again. Their elongated claws clicked against the melting steel, their glowing red eyes fixed on my position.

"Evelyn, report," Marcus ordered over the comms. His tone held the same flat, mechanical authority he used on his foot soldiers. "Did you secure a bunker?"

I didn't answer him. I reached my left hand toward the ceiling, accessing my spatial pocket.

I bypassed the crates of plasma charges and grabbed three industrial fuel barrels, along with a heavy spool of reinforced iron mesh. I hurled the steel drums directly into the center of the charging horde. The mesh followed, unspooling in mid-air to tangle around their thrashing, rotting limbs.

I raised my plasma pistol, aimed at the center barrel, and squeezed the trigger.

The explosion deafened me.

A shockwave of fire and jagged iron ripped through the front lines of the infected. Black sludge rained down from the ceiling, hissing violently as it met the spreading flames. A temporary wall of fire roared to life, separating me from the horde.

"Mom, answer me!" Caleb yelled, his voice cracking. "Did she get on the landing struts? Is she outside the pod?"

"Negative, Caleb," Marcus replied smoothly. "The exterior sensors are clear. She is not on the hull."

"We have to go back!" Caleb screamed. I heard the sound of a fist pounding against thick glass. "Turn it around, Dad! She can't fight them all!"

"She will find a way," Marcus said.

I stared at the blinking green light on my wrist console.

*She will find a way.*

He delivered the words casually. An offhand dismissal of the woman who had kept him alive for five years. He wasn't offering hope. He was washing his hands of me.

I dropped my gaze to my left arm.

The sleeve of my jacket hung in burning tatters. Beneath the scorched fabric, three deep gouges tore through my skin.

I hadn't even felt the strike during the chaos of the thruster blast.

Thick, viscous black veins crawled up my forearm, branching out from the open wounds. The infection dug into my flesh, pulsing in time with my racing heart. The skin around the scratches turned a sickly, necrotic gray.

The Black Tide was in my blood.

"Dad, the platform is melting!" Caleb sobbed over the radio. "She's going to die down there! We left her to die!"

"Your mother is a survivor," Marcus said, his voice dropping to a stern reprimand. "She knows the protocols. Focus on the ascent, Caleb. We have a species to save."

A violent tremor shook my skull.

I looked up. The spatial rift hovering above the platform flickered rapidly. The edges of the dimensional pocket blurred, losing their sharp blue glow.

Half-empty medical kits, steel combat knives, and spare plasma cartridges tumbled out of the void. They didn't fall to the floor. They vibrated in mid-air, caught in a chaotic anti-gravity field.

My control was slipping. The infection was eating away at my neural link to the dimension.

"Sera, tell him!" Caleb begged, his voice shifting away from the microphone. "Tell Dad to turn around! Use your visions! Tell him Mom survives if we go back!"

"I see only darkness below, Caleb," Seraphina whispered over the comms, her tone dripping with rehearsed sympathy. "The future requires sacrifice. We must look to the light."

My jaw tightened. I pressed my thumb against the jagged scratch on my arm, welcoming the sharp sting of physical pain. It anchored my fading focus.

"Mom, please!" Caleb cried out, raw and desperate. "Say something! Tell me you're coming!"

I raised my wrist to my mouth.

"I am not coming, Caleb," I said, my voice steady over the roar of the flames.

"Mom!"

"Evelyn, do not incite panic in this cabin," Marcus barked. "Hold your position and wait for..."

I pressed the red button on the side of the console.

The channel died.

The silence that followed felt absolute, broken only by the crackle of the fire and the shrieks of the monsters beyond it.

I didn't throw the radio away. I just let my arm drop to my side.

For two years, every tactical decision I made revolved around their voices. Marcus’s orders. Caleb’s needs. Their hesitation had constantly dragged me down, chaining me to a base that took my blood and gave nothing in return.

Not anymore.

I severed the connection. I was done being their shield.

The wall of fire began to die down. The iron mesh glowed cherry red, snapping and melting under the corrosive sludge spat by the infected.

A massive creature, its jaw unhinged and dripping black ooze, burst through the dying flames. It locked its glowing red eyes on me and lunged, crossing the distance in a single, terrifying bound.

I raised my plasma pistol, but the spatial rift above me violently shuddered.

The blue light vanished.

The tear in the air turned pitch black, expanding rapidly until it eclipsed the ceiling.

Before I could pull the trigger, the dark void surged forward and swallowed the leaping infected whole.