Nico Reyes didn’t believe in hauntings- not ghosts, not echoes, not whatever passed for myth in the drip-fed husk of Zone 9. But the waterfall behind the old filtration bunker? That was different.

It wasn’t on any modern map. The system marked it as non-potable runoff-acidic, unstable, unworthy of the grid. Which made it perfect.

He crouched behind the veil of water, every droplet hitting like s...