Slumdog Hero

The sun had barely crested the horizon when they found the bodies.

They'd been following the track left by some kind of heavy transport vehicle—wide, deep treads cutting through the sand like a promise of civilization. The tracks led them over a series of low dunes before dropping into a wide basin ringed by jagged stone outcroppings.

That's when the smell hit. Rancid and sweet, the unmistakable stench of meat left too long in the sun.

"Oh god," Serena gagged, hand flying to cover her nose and mouth. "What is that?"

Fii didn't need to answer. The basin opened up before them, revealing what remained of an expedition camp. Or maybe massacre was the better word.

Half a dozen vehicles lay scattered across the depression—sleek, corporate-issue transport modules with high clearance and reinforced frames. Most sat at odd angles, tires blown out or simply missing. Two had been flipped entirely, their undercarriages exposed like gutted animals. Equipment cases spilled their contents across the sand. Shredded canvas flapped from broken tent poles.

And everywhere, dark stains were soaking into the sand.

"Stay alert," Luke murmured, scanning the perimeter. The undersuit sensors at his wrists and collar pulsed with soft blue light as he shifted into a combat stance.

Fii adjusted her gravitational field, making herself slightly lighter on her feet. The basin felt wrong under her gravity sense, like stepping onto a floor that shouldn't be there. Weights that didn't match what she felt.

The whole place scrambled her internal compass.

No movement. No sound except the whisper of sand across metal and the snap of torn fabric. Whatever had happened here was long over.

"Let's check it out," she said, starting down the slope. "Might be supplies we can use."

Luke followed, steps slow and cautious. "Look for signs of what happened. Could be raiders, could be something worse."

"Worse than raiders?" Serena's voice pitched higher than usual as she created a small hard-light mask over her nose and mouth. "Like what?"

"Like whatever left those," Luke pointed to a series of tracks leading away from the camp—wide, irregular depressions too large to belong to any human.

The wrongness intensified as Fii descended into the basin. Her feet carried her forward while her gravity sense screamed that the ground wasn't solid. Like walking on a frozen lake with the ice groaning beneath your weight.

She approached the nearest vehicle, a transport crawler emblazoned with a corporate logo: a triangle inside a circle, with the word "TRICON" beneath it.

"Salvatore's company," Luke noted, running his fingers along the scratched metal. "Makes sense. They've been sending expeditions into the Wastes for years."

Fii circled the vehicle, hand hovering just above its surface. "Something tore through the side panel here. Metal's bent outward, not in."

"So whatever was inside wanted out," Serena observed, peering through the jagged hole.

Luke crouched near the vehicle's tracks, examining the compacted sand. "Multiple entry points. Coordinated attack." He traced the pattern with his finger. "They surrounded the camp before striking. Classic ambush formation."

"Raiders?" Fii asked.

"Possibly. But raiders usually take what they can carry—supplies, weapons, equipment." His gaze swept the camp. "There's too much left behind. And these drag marks..." He pointed to long furrows in the sand. "Something was hauled away. Or someone."

A breeze picked up, bringing with it the scent of ozone and dust. Fii glanced at the horizon, where dark clouds gathered. "We should grab what we can before that storm hits."

They split up to search the camp, keeping within eyesight of one another. Fii headed toward a relatively intact transport module, its rear compartment still sealed. The vehicle's gravity made no sense—too heavy here, practically weightless there, as if chunks of it kept blinking in and out of existence.

She pried open the compartment door. Inside lay equipment cases, survival gear, and scientific instruments she couldn't begin to identify. She grabbed a couple of water filtration units, some ration packs, and a compact medical kit. As she reached for a portable heater, her fingers brushed against a metallic cylinder wedged beneath a seat.

The moment her skin made contact, reality... slipped.

The transport's interior stretched like pulled taffy, colors bleeding into one another. The desert beyond the open door compressed into a single point of light, then exploded outward again.

For a heartbeat, she saw something impossible—the same vehicle, same equipment, but surrounded by dense jungle instead of desert. A woman in a lab coat stood at a workstation, mouth moving silently as she manipulated holographic displays.

Then everything snapped back into place. Fii stumbled backward, heart hammering against her ribs.

Stolen story; please report.

"What the fuck," she whispered, staring at her hand.

The cylinder remained where it was, innocuous and silent. Fii eyed it warily, then used her powers to lift it without touching it directly. It floated before her, suspended in her gravitational field—a simple data storage device with the Tricon logo etched on its side.

As it hovered, the cylinder pulsed with a faint iridescent glow, the same quality she'd glimpsed in her vision. Stranger still, its weight fluctuated in her gravitational field, like trying to hold onto something that's half-submerged in water, half in air.

She tucked it into her pocket, continuing her scavenging while giving the spot where the vision had occurred a wide berth.

By the time she returned to their meeting point, the wind had picked up considerably. Sand hissed across the basin's floor, stinging any exposed skin. Luke had gathered survival equipment and what looked like weapons components, while Serena had found clothing, food supplies, and communication equipment.

"Storm's coming fast," Luke shouted over the rising wind. "We need shelter now."

Serena pointed to the largest vehicle—a command module with reinforced walls still mostly intact. "That one!"

They sprinted across the open ground, supplies clutched to their chests as the first wall of sand hit them. Fii used her powers to create a gravitational buffer, deflecting the worst of it, but the air still grew thick with dust.

Luke reached the command module first, forcing the door with a burst of kinetic energy. They piled inside, Serena sealing the entrance with a hard-light barrier that blocked the howling wind.

Darkness enveloped them, broken only by the faint glow of emergency lighting strips along the floor. The module's interior smelled of metal, electronics, and something else—a sharp, clinical scent that reminded Fii of Edith's lab.

"Everyone okay?" Luke asked, his voice echoing in the confined space.

"Define 'okay,'" Serena muttered, brushing sand from her hair.

Fii found the main console and flipped a series of switches. Backup power hummed to life, weak but functional. Dim lights flickered on, revealing a space designed for both transportation and research. Workstations lined one wall, while secure storage compartments and sleeping berths occupied the other.

"Looks like we're riding this out here," Fii said, dropping her gathered supplies onto a workstation. "Could be worse."

Luke nodded, already sorting through his findings. "I'll secure the perimeter. See if you can get any of these systems working—might be information on what happened."

As Luke moved through the module, checking exits and potential weaknesses, Fii examined the console. Most systems were locked or damaged, but a few basic functions remained accessible. She activated a status display, watching as data scrolled across the screen.

"TRICON Expedition #47," she read aloud. "Objective: Specimen Retrieval and Anomaly Research. Last log entry three weeks ago."

Serena leaned over her shoulder. "Can you access the logs?"

Fii tapped a few commands, and a data directory appeared. Most files were corrupted or required security clearance, but one audio log played when selected.

A woman's voice, strained with exhaustion, filled the module: "Day 37. The phase anomalies are increasing in frequency and duration. Two more specimens escaped containment during yesterday's fluctuation event. Dr. Keller believes they're somehow synced to the desert's electromagnetic cycles, but I think they're causing the distortions, not responding to them."

Static interrupted the recording before it continued: "—containment protocols clearly inadequate. Requesting immediate extraction and reinforcements. These netherlings are getting smarter, finding the weak points in our security measures. They seem to—" More static. "—exist partially out of phase with our reality. Conventional weapons are ineffective unless—"

The voice cut out entirely, replaced by chaotic noise and a distant scream before the recording ended.

Silence hung heavy in the command module as the log finished playing.

"What the hell were they keeping here?" Serena whispered.

"Nothing good," Luke replied from across the module, where he'd been examining a sealed door. "And I think I know what happened to the expedition team."

He stepped aside, revealing a viewport in the door. Beyond the reinforced glass lay a laboratory section, equipment overturned and specimens shattered across the floor. Dark stains marked the walls and ceiling.

"Something broke out," Luke said. "Then broke everyone else."

The wind howled louder outside, sand pummeling the module's exterior like thousands of tiny fists. The structure creaked and groaned around them, but held firm against the onslaught.

Fii turned back to the console, determined to find more information. "I'm going to try accessing the security feeds, see if there's any footage of what happened."

As her fingers moved across the control panel, the gravity around her shifted again—that same wrong feeling from earlier, but stronger now. Patches of air suddenly weighed as much as concrete, while solid objects felt hollow and empty. Her stomach lurched as if she'd missed a step on a dark staircase.

A low, chittering sound came from somewhere behind the sealed laboratory door.

Luke was at her side instantly, voice dropped to a whisper. "Turn it off. Now."

Too late. The console screen flickered, then went dark—along with all the module's emergency lights. They stood frozen in perfect darkness, listening to that strange chittering grow louder, more insistent.

"Something's coming through," Fii murmured, her gravity sense detecting bizarre fluctuations on the other side of the door. Mass appeared and disappeared like bubbles bursting in slow motion.

Luke pulled them back toward the module's entrance. "Serena," he whispered, "can you give us some light? Just enough to see."

A small golden sphere materialized in Serena's palm, casting soft illumination that barely reached the walls. In that dim light, they watched as the sealed laboratory door began to... ripple. Not bending or breaking, but becoming momentarily fluid, its molecules rearranging.

"It's like the door's melting," Fii breathed. "But without heat."

A dark shape pushed through the rippling metal—not breaking it, but passing through as if the door were no more substantial than water. First came blade-like appendages, then a head with multiple gleaming eyes.

The creature that emerged was the size of a large dog, with an insectoid carapace that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. Its body was segmented and low to the ground, with a mass of skittering legs that ended in curved talons. Two massive scythe-like forelimbs extended from its thorax, their edges gleaming even in the dim light.

"What the actual fuck?" Serena hissed, backing against the wall.

The creature skittered into the command module, its exoskeleton seeming to flicker in and out of focus. All six eyes glittered in the hard-light glow, focusing on the three humans with predatory intensity.

"Don't move," Luke murmured. "Maybe it can't see us."

The creature paused, mandibles clicking as it tested the air. Then, with terrifying suddenness, it surged forward.