Hunger in the Lower Sector wasn't just a physiological feeling. It was a sentient entity. A parasite that settled in the stomach and slowly, day by day, crept up to the brain, eating away fear, morality, and memories, leaving only one primal instinct: Eat.

  Kai didn't know how much time he had spent in the ventilation system. Without the shifting of lighting cycles, the hours turned into an endless, sticky nightmare. His knees and elbows were scraped raw against the rusted metal. His mouth was so dry his tongue felt like sandpaper.

  He lay on his stomach in the narrow, dusty duct, his face buried in his crossed arms. Life was slowly draining from his eight-year-old body.

  "Get up, Kai..." The whisper echoed directly inside his skull. Not through his ears. The vibration came from the metal of the pipe itself, transferring through his jawbone.

  Kai forced his eyes open. In the pitch-black shaft, a faint purple glow pulsed. Spiderweb-thin black veins had grown through the rivets of the ventilation duct, weaving into a complex pattern right in front of his face.

  "I can't, Avi..." Kai whispered soundlessly, moving only his lips. "I'm dying."

  "The roots won't let you die, brother. The Garden needs you," Avelo's voice was calm, devoid of childish inflections. It sounded like the rustle of dry leaves. "Crawl toward the light. I found water for you. I found a pulse."

  One of the glowing veins detached from the wall and reached forward, guiding the way in the darkness like Ariadne's thread.

  The instinct for self-preservation hit his bloodstream with the last remnants of adrenaline. Kai gritted his teeth, gripping the metal joints with scraped fingers, and crawled after the purple shimmer.

  The pipe slanted downward. Soon, the heavy air of ancient dust and dried blood shifted. The atmosphere grew thick with the heat of fried wiring, damp concrete, and... food. Synthetic protein. Kai's mouth filled with viscous saliva, his stomach cramping in anticipation.

  The duct ended at a cast-iron grate. Beyond it lay a utility collector — a dead-end corridor with thick cables disappearing into the wall.

  Kai pressed against the grate. Below, under the harsh glare of a dim emergency lamp, sat a man.

  He was a scavenger from the Lower Sector slums. Filthy, heavily stubbled, wearing a canvas jacket stained with old blood. He sat on an overturned plastic crate, using a knife to pry open a Consortium military ration.

  A dented aluminum flask lay on the floor nearby, precious, clean water dripping from its neck.

  Kai let out an involuntary sob. The sound was quieter than a mouse's squeak, but in the dead space of the collector, it rang out like a gunshot.

  The scavenger froze instantly. He set the ration can aside and pulled a long shiv made of rebar from his boot. His watery, vicious eyes locked directly onto the ventilation grate where the boy was hiding.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "Who's there?" the man rasped, slowly rising to his feet. "A rat? Or did fresh meat crawl in on its own? Come on out, you little bastard. A kid's liver fetches a high price on the black market right now."

  Kai pressed himself flat against the metal, trembling with primal terror. The scavenger was huge. One move, and he would snap the boy's neck.

  "He wants to take your life," the Substrate whispered with Avelo's voice. The purple threads around Kai pulsed faster, filling with light. "But his flesh is full of energy. His nerves are strong. Take him. Open the grate, Kai."

  "He'll kill me..." the boy wheezed, tears streaming down his face.

  "We won't let him. We are hungry, brother. Step out."

  The hunger in his stomach roared, drowning out the fear. With trembling hands, Kai fumbled for the two rotary latches holding the grate. The metal was rusted, but the black sludge of the Substrate oozing from the boy's fingers acted as the perfect lubricant. The locks gave way silently.

  Kai pushed the cast-iron grate outward. It crashed onto the concrete floor of the collector with a dull, heavy clang. Unable to hold on with his scraped hands, Kai tumbled out of the pipe right after it, hitting the concrete hard.

  The scavenger flashed a predatory grin.

  "Ah, there you are, little mouse."

  The man stepped forward. He grabbed the exhausted boy by the collar of his jacket and hoisted him into the air with one massive jerk. Kai dangled in his grip like a broken doll, futilely trying to pry the huge, filthy fingers from his throat.

  The scavenger took a step back, pressing his broad back against the rear wall of the collector to get a better grip on his shiv and strike. The very same wall where a black, glossy growth was pulsing beneath a layer of peeling paint.

  He had stepped into a trap, but not one set by the boy. It was set by It.

  The man raised the shiv, but the strike never landed. The curses caught in his throat, turning into a strangled, gurgling wheeze.

  The wall behind him came alive.

  The black stone softened. Dozens of thick, glistening tendrils whipped out from it like the tentacles of a deep-sea predator. They didn't just wrap around the scavenger — they pierced right through his canvas jacket.

  With a sickening crunch, the two thickest tendrils slammed directly into the base of his skull and along his spine, instantly hardwiring into his central nervous system.

  The man screamed — a wild, piercing shriek, but it was abruptly cut short. His fingers uncurled.

  Kai dropped to the floor, gasping greedily for air. Crawling backward, he watched the scene unfold with primal horror.

  The Substrate wasn't devouring the scavenger. It was assimilating him. The man was pulled halfway into the wall, his skin rapidly taking on a gray, stony hue. His eyes rolled back, turning into blind, milky-white orbs.

  A violent tremor shook his body, but it wasn't a death throe. It was a rhythm. The man began to breathe in unison with the slow, heavy heartbeat of the Abyss.

  He had become the first battery.

  "Perfect," Avelo's voice rustled with satisfaction inside trembling Kai's mind. "Voltage is stable. And now... drink, brother."

  Kai's attention snapped to the ration and the overturned flask left on the floor. Animal hunger took over once again. The boy threw himself at the food, ripping the lid off the can, shoving the cold synthetic gruel into his mouth with filthy hands, washing it down with the spilled water.

  He ate, choked, and cried, while just a meter away, entombed in the wall, a man quietly wheezed — a man whose nervous system now fueled the growing power of the subterranean overlord.

  In that moment, something inside eight-year-old Kai snapped. Forever. He understood the golden rule of survival in this terrifying new world his brother had gifted him. If you want to live, someone else must become the fertilizer.

  "We need to grow," the Substrate whispered when Kai emptied the flask. A narrow maintenance alcove opened in the wall above the sleeping scavenger's head, leading even deeper into the lower levels. "Come, Gardener. I will show you our domain. We need more energy."

  Kai wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. The look in his dark eyes had changed. The tears had dried, replaced by the very same cold that would one day freeze the entire City. He picked up the scavenger's rebar shiv from the floor, gripped it tightly, and stepped into the darkness, following the purple light.