“Hold on Teric, it’s not what you think.” I holstered my handgun and put my hands up. It wasn’t enough. Teric hissed once more and took another step back, holding the glass shard like a knife. She wasn’t fast on her feet, but she was gutsy enough to sacrifice her own body just to slit my throat.

“Don’t touch me. Don’t come near me.” Teric said. Her eyes narrowed behind her black-haired fringe. “How do you know my name?”

“Heard about you from reports on the dark web.” I answered. Technically the truth. There were more than just factual reports—Teric earned enough enemies to fill an entire catalog of violent, angry forum posts. “Look, I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Oh?” Teric said. “Then what was that little shock from earlier?”

Damn INTERFACE-OS. Best not to beat around the bush. Teric, and the underground hackers’ group she rolled with, hated liars. “Your vision contains a screen straight out of a VR game or a programming interface. It’s stuck there like superglue and won’t leave.” I stated. “Yeah, sorry about that. It’s due to the anomalous neuro-aug inside me.”

“Close. It’s more akin to a bootup screen.” Teric said. She frowned. “It’s got a stat screen and a message stating am I now your ‘Ally Unit’ and I am to assist you with Impurity suppression.”

“I’m kinda still figuring out the details.”

Teric snorted. “I bet. IEHAR, correct? I see they’ve sent another young man into the bowels of hell.”

“Oh, it told you?”

“Yes. I don’t recognize you, however. You aren’t a member of an IST, nor one of their inner personnel. Are you a new recruit?”

“I fought off the Spawn at a Bearbrass mall.” I said. “Was supposed to get registered, then I wound up here.”

“Bearbrass is on the other side of the planet.”

“It’s an Impurity. I don’t know shit.”

Teric shrugged. “Fair.” And it makes your firearm handling and combat skills even more suspicious. Came her unsaid words. Nevertheless, she lowered the glass shard, her stance relaxing. Dirt had been kicked up in the fighting, coating the white sheets and walls. The rich scent of fertilizer mixed with human blood into a foul concoction. Teric looked me straight in the eyes, then crouched down to pick up a stray gun. I let her. She flicked on the safety and held it by her side.

“It’s gotten worse.” She commented, nudging a corpse with her foot. Her tone and expression were as impassive as the automated messages in subway station intercoms. The branches sprouting out of its torso quavered. “They actually looked human a while back. I caught them dumping soil onto the ground while tied to this bed.”

“Come on, let’s get out of here. The security room should be a safe place. I’ve taken care of the guards.”

“By yourself? Impressive.” Teric said. “This INTERFACE-OS master system must be a formidable augmentation indeed.”

Charisma Check [Hard]: Partial Success! +2 EXP!

I led the way back towards the security room. Teric followed close behind, the coattails of her straightjacket swishing against the hard floor. I knew she had her gun up, ready to shoot me in the back if I made any stupid moves. It was a toss-up who could react first—my scrawny ass or Teric’s banged up adult body. The way back was uneventful despite this. All the guards had either been eliminated or were lurking in the place I suspected (and hadn’t visited).

Teric’s first move in the security room was to take the guards I had tied up and shoot them in the head.

“Tip: taking care of the guards means terminating them permanently. Otherwise they’ll wake up and cause another ruckus. Best not to take chances, kid.” She said. She shut the closet and left the rancid meat to rot.

Oh, shut the fuck up. I wanted to retort. I’m a dozen years older than you. My fingers ain’t enough to count the number of times I’ve saved your ass from a stray bullet. Besides, who’s the one who freezes up at the sight of cockroaches?

“Nice gas mask by the way.” She said. She leaned on the security console, arms folded. The combination of her dirty cheeks, messy long black hair and long-sleeved straightjacket pointed to days, if not weeks of abuse, yet I could not ignore the edge settling at the forefront of my nerves. It brought up memories, too. Memories of teammates yelling at Teric and her patiently waiting before tearing their arguments apart with the precision of a sniper bullet. “So, kid, tell me how you got here.”

“It’s Kyle. For your information, I don’t remember.” I grunted. “I just woke up in the waiting room. Secretary said I had a number. Clued into the whole impure thing pretty soon. You?”

“Amnesiac properties, I see.” Teric said. “It matches what I experienced. I don’t know when I was forced onto my head, only that it happened. Before that, I was working here.”

“Work.” I stated. “Really.”

Teric paused before answering."I came here with a few friends for a freelance security and asset management contract. Unfortuantely, we were quickly ambushed by the staff and imprisoned inside the patient rooms. I’m not sure how much time has passed. My colleagues might already be dead.”

Translation: ‘My team raided GreenFuture to steal its data, but we weren’t expecting an Impurity. Its minions subdued us and locked us up. Everyone is probably dead except me.’

“What sort of security job involves shooting guards in the head?”

“What kind of teenager does not flinch killing his fellow man? Please don’t ask useless questions.” Teric said.

Damn, she got me there.

“So, what do you intend to do?”

“Suppress the Impurity. Get out of here. Return to IEHAR.” I said. “You?”

“I like the idea of the first two. The last one, definitely not.” Teric said.

“What? You don’t want to work for IEHAR? You raided them before?”

Teric rolled her eyes. “Don’t be an imbecile. No-one, least of all me, is willing to do something that stupid. I do not wish to be constrained by mission statement. My interests lie elsewhere.”

To advance her capabilities and continue with the thrill of raiding computer systems. It took me a good few years of acquaintanceship to wrangle out Teric’s goals in the previous timeline. The money she acquired went to learning new techniques, paying for rent and, of course, furthering her hacking tools. It was a self-sustaining loop that catapulted her to the top of the underground.

This Teric was younger, mouthier, shorter—ain’t that something. Then again, from her eyes, I was nothing but a spring chicken.

“Yeah, I think you might have a hard time separating from IEHAR.” I said. I tapped to the side of her head. “You do realise INTERFACE-OS was made by them?”

She snorted. “As if this was the worst mental affliction I’ve received.” Teric said. “Worry about yourself, kid. The mortality rate for youths in IEHAR is higher than you realise. That brand new neuro-aug? It sounds like a prototype and IEHAR never lets its precious technology go. You should kiss goodbye with a normal relationship with your family.”

Okay, that was uncalled for. I growled internally. Hey ALICE, Teric is my Ally Unit, yeah? Can she escape from it?

Nope! Ally Units are sworn to assist you in suppressing Impurities. Their service shall not end until your mission does. Once this mission is complete, I’ll demonstrate how to properly train and raise your Ally Units.

You’re making them sound like animals. The cage fight sort, y’know.

Think of them as extensions of yourself. Your arms, your legs, your eyes, and more!

So she’s stuck with me forever.

Yes! You will have innate knowledge of her general location at all times. I suppose if she really wanted to leave your service, she could simply kill herself.

I looked back at Teric. She might.

Studies have revealed that many humans are significantly less ready to commit suicide, despite past statements.

Then again, she was younger here. She possessed a shriveled black diamond for a heart instead of a black hole. This might work. I was not telling her any of this, for obvious reasons.

“Fine, fine. Truce until we suppress the Impurity.” I said to Teric. “Can you break into that terminal? It’s probably security footage in it?”

“Stand back.” Teric said, turning around and sitting on the swivel chair. The familiar sound of rapid typing filled the space. I sat on the floor and busied myself with checking my status. My gun still had enough rounds left, as did Teric’s. My HP and Energy hadn’t decreased too much from the encounters. I pressed my ear against the door and heard no footsteps. It wasn’t the worst situation, but the Impurity still worried me. We had no idea how strong it was, nor the amount of backup awaited in the greenhouse.

I poked my stomach. It didn’t ache. I wasn’t hungry, then. There was someone else who might be.

ALICE, dump the Field Ration Kit from the Mailbox.

A brown sack fell on the ground besides me. Teric continued to type, her back towards me. I opened the sack and found just what I was looking for—ready to cook MREs along with a portable cooker and distilled water. Getting the MRE cooked was a simple matter of slicing off the top with my knife, filling it up with mater and placing it near the cooker. The musky, muddy scent of superdried chicken rice dinner filled the security room.

“Here.” I said, handing the meal over to Teric. Out of all the options, chicken was the least likely to piss her off. “You hungry?”

“Where’d you get this?”

“Bought it from a store.” I said. “Just eat. They sure as hell didn’t feed you properly.”

“I won’t say no, then. Thank you for the meal.”

She ate in silence, shoving down the saucy rice and strips of chicken and chewing them with brutal efficiency. Two gulps of water swished it all down. She returned to work, not bothering to wipe the grime on her fingers. This was her little spite—her own equipment was kept in meticulous condition.

“Done.” She said. “Check this out.”

I stood up and saw a live camera feed split into nine sections. The bottom-most held the views of the front areas. The patients still milled about in the waiting room with empty sees and blank stares. The secretary still handed out numbers, now having looped back to zero. Sprouts were growing out of the lone security guard’s face.

The middle row was a view of our surroundings. Just a bunch of fallen bodies and empty hallways. The top layer, however, was where the jackpot was. It showed a large greenhouse beneath a glass dome, filled with an abundance of forest growth. Thick, leafy trees stretched to the sky. A layer of mulch and vivid green grass lay below them. I was no biologist, but this sort of growth in a greenhouse was too anomalous.

Teric shifted the camera around and there I saw it: the Impurity. The same birch-white bark tree, glistening like sunlight upon snow, red and blue fruits shaped like hearts dangling from thin branches. The faculty of GreenFuture gathered around it, watering it with hoses, cutting away weeds and even kneeling down before it.

Impurity worship. Disgusting. ALICE said.

“The spatial distortion must be confined there, as the floorplans do not match its dimensions.” Teric said. “Do you have any plans?”

I thought for a moment. “Got any ways of starting a fire?” I asked.

“Besides the flames you sprouted from your hands?” She asked. “Actually, yes. There is a storage room in the basement. I suspect that’s where they’ve taken our confiscated equipment.”

She then frowned. “Oh dear.”

That was a solid Oh fuck from a regular person. “What’s up?”

“My teammate. It appears he’s about to be given to the Impurity as fertilizer.”

I swiveled my head to the screen. Ah crap, so that’s where Cosmos is. The gunner was tied up and gagged, dragged to the Impurity tree by its minions out of his patient room and towards the greenhouse. We were too far away to stop them. His body disappeared past the greenhouse doors and out of sight.

Shit! We have to rescue him. We need the extra firepower. Teric had the same thoughts, because she stood up abruptly and marched to the door.

“Let’s go.”

The way down to the basement was a peaceful one. Opening the door and being greeted with a man crouched on the ground holding a sword was not. Bandages wrapped around his bald head, the aging blood visible. His teeth were rotten and shuddered from a ghastly breath. His clothes were filthy, not with dirt, but with sweat and a sticky fluid. He leapt up, waved the sword at us and spoke in a language I didn’t understand.

Oh, guess we found the Heretic.