> "Do not think. Do not feel. Do not speak. The body obeys. The soul does not exist." — Motto engraved in the halls of ACC Block-72
Yna woke before the beep.
Not out of discipline, but because of the burning in her chest.
Again.
A sharp sensation, as if the air wasn't enough, as if something else was breathing inside her.
She sat up slowly, careful not to make a sound. The others didn't hate her, but they didn't accept her either. In that place, affection counted as negative marks in the reports.
The cold ceiling lights flickered three times. Time to get up. Time to pretend nothing hurt.
Dormitory Block 72 – Female Level
"Another sleepless night?" asked Arlina, the bunkmate below her.
Yna didn't answer.
She never did before the first bitter-powder coffee served in the mess halls.
And besides, she didn't want to talk about what she had seen that night.
A white hallway.
A stretcher.
A faceless woman.
A knife.
A child who didn't cry. Just… watched.
The dining hall smelled of boiled metal.
The food was gray mush, supplemented with synthetic protein and low-level tranquilizers.
Yna had stopped taking them weeks ago, hiding them under her tongue and spitting them out in the shower.
Since then, the dreams had grown worse.
But at least they were hers.
Or so she wanted to believe.
Outdoor Training Field – ACC-72 Module
That day was hand-to-hand combat training. Their "reaction test," as they called it.
In truth, it was just a legalized form of violence.
There were cameras in every corner, recording everything for "evaluation."
Yna was paired against Namil, a taller, stronger cadet who enjoyed being allowed to hit someone without consequences.
On the third strike, he threw her to the ground with a mocking shout.
"You're too fast for someone who sleeps with her eyes open, White Rat."
> Don't get up, said a voice inside her head.
She got up.
> Let him win. You're not yourself yet.
She didn't.
The next blow stopped before it hit her face.
It was like the world blinked.
Namil fell backward.
Twisting as if something had crushed his skull from the inside.
Yna hadn't touched him.
But her vision was still shaking.
And her ears… were filled with a buzzing sound, like a thousand voices speaking behind the walls.
> "Unit 02. Latent resonance. Anomaly detected."
— Hidden record, not visible to standard personnel.
Isolation Block – 3 Hours Later
"Do you know what you did?" asked the doctor who never said her name.
Yna's lips were split. Not from blows, but from biting them during the interrogation.
"No," she replied.
The doctor checked the scanner. Silence.
The soldiers beside her didn't blink.
> "You have a very calm heart for someone who just altered a surveillance system."
It wasn't her. It was what dwells near her.
She said nothing more.
The doctor left the report, walked out, and shut the door.
But didn't lock it.
> Run.
Yna didn't know why that word pushed her.
But it did.
She ran through the hallways, down a blocked emergency exit, used her body to break through a metal grate, fell two floors.
She didn't know how she survived.
But she did.
Outside – Service Zone / Midnight
The rain felt like oil.
The sky held no stars. Only the humming of the ACC's electric towers.
And there, for the first time in her life, she saw the city from beyond the wall.
She saw ruins.
She saw mist.
And amid the dust…
a silhouette on horseback.
It didn't shoot.
It didn't flee.
It just looked at her, for a moment…
…as if it already knew her.