“Hacked… the…” Zafyra’s eyes fluttered, and then, without warning, her body lurched forward. I jumped toward her, just in time to catch her.
“Joey, help me.” I grimaced. Despite my many hours in the gym, I struggled with the weight, probably caused by her mechanical core parts.
Joey seemed torn, but upon seeing my pleading eyes, he helped me carry her to lay her down gently on the couch.
My entire body trembled with unreleased tension. “Zafyra—what—Joey, we need to—” I tried, but in my distress, I struggled to form the words.
“Raph… get… Raphael…” Zafyra’s gaze focused on me for just a second before unfocusing again. “He’ll know… what to…”
“Where’s Raphael?” I practically yelled out the question.
“I don’t know about this, Morgan.” Joey ran a hand through his disheveled hair, his frown deepening. “She seems physically fine,” he hissed to me. Though he probably thought Zafyra couldn’t hear, I saw the way her eyes fluttered, almost as if attempting one of her trademark eyerolls. “How do we know this is not another one of her tricks?”
“Who fucking cares!” My hands flew to my hair, pulling before I could stop myself. “First, let’s make sure she recovers from—from whatever this is. Then we can interrogate her, or…”
Joey hesitated for just a second, looking from Zafyra to me. Then he nodded, though his suspicious gaze remained. “Alright, I’ll call him. He’s at a seminar right now, but it’s not too far away.”
I breathed out a sigh of relief as he lifted his arm and started talking into his wristware.
Swallowing hard, I kneeled beside the couch and took one of Zafyra’s hands in mine. Her cold skin sent a shock through me – though her funginoid body had always been colder than mine, right now it felt closer to the winter forest ground. “Please.” My voice came out weakly. Despite how hard it was to hold eye contact with her in this state, I refused to avert my gaze – especially seeing how the sight of me seemed to help her focus. “Tell us how we can help you. If you were human, I would call an ambulance, but…” I gulped, suddenly hit with dread. I loved someone who wasn’t supposed to exist like this – in a stolen body. Who would help us if something was really wrong?
She tried to talk again, but I couldn’t make sense of her slurred speech.
“Raph is on his way, but without knowing what’s going on, I’m not sure if he can be of much help.” Joey slowly lowered his wrist. “Now, can someone please explain to me how—”
Zafyra gestured to the screen. “Unsync… it.”
Joey raised his eyebrows.
She sighed out through her teeth – a small relief she had a bit of her attitude back. “It’s… wireless. I need to…”
Joey and I exchanged a glance.
“Oh! I understand.” I jumped up a little too quickly – Zafyra flinched at the sudden movement. “She’s telling us to unsync the headset so she can connect herself to your TV, Joey. Similarly to how she synced herself with my VR headset and AR lenses when we…”
The thought heated my face, so instead of finishing my sentence, I rushed to unsync the headset.
Joey and I both turned to Zafyra, who seemed to slump even further back into the couch.
I blinked slowly as the screen switched on with a slight buzz. For a moment, I couldn’t make sense of what I saw.
The factory was all concrete, steel beams, and hanging pipes overhead that groaned softly under the weight of industrial ventilation. Fluorescent lights hummed in long rows across the ceiling, casting a flat glow over rows of thick cargo crates stacked onto hover-lifts and magnetized storage racks that stretched to the far end of the hall. Blinking indicators and the occasional thrum of unseen machinery kicking in from somewhere behind the walls gave the whole space an eerie feeling.
A row of identical humanoid guards stood shoulder to shoulder, their matte gray exteriors catching the sterile overhead light like warehouse mannequins. But something about the point of view was unusual, as if the cameraman was standing amidst the formation – no, like he was one of them.
“Those are some sick visuals,” Joey muttered. Despite the tense situation, he couldn’t help the part of his brain that loved a good film.
“What are we looking at?” I frowned. “Are we watching this from… the perspective of the humanoid? Like, there’s a camera inside it?”
“My memories,” Zafyra clarified. She lifted a trembling arm as if attempting to gesture to the screen, but seeing how the movement exhausted her, I grabbed her arm to put it back down gently. “I… hijacked… the guard.”
My eyes widened. “You did what? Was this today?”
“Like how you hijacked Raphael’s body to strangle me in the biotech facility?” Joey’s head slowly turned toward her, ignoring my scowl.
Zafyra only nodded, unbothered by the sneer.
“I don’t understand,” I stammered, my gaze flickering from Zafyra to the screen – my hands still clutching hers fiercely, as if I could somehow restore her life energy this way. “Where is this?”
