The alarm did not scream. It was a low pulse of red light that throbbed against the bunker walls like a dying heart. Lin Feng Yi snapped his eyes open. Mei was still asleep against his shoulder and her small hand was gripped tightly onto his sleeve. He moved her gently and stood up. His legs were stiff and his head felt like someone was driving a nail into his temple. The digestion of the potion was a slow and messy business. It made his senses too sharp and his skin feel too tight.
He walked to the main terminal and his bare feet made no sound on the cold metal floor. The screen showed a feed from the external cameras. The image was grainy and green but the shape was unmistakable. A Hesperian transport had landed near the parking garage. It was a massive iron beast that hissed steam into the morning air.
Soldiers were pouring out of the hatch. They were not the low level scouts he had crushed in the tunnels. These men wore polished brass plates and carried long rifles with glowing jade canisters. At their head walked a man who did not wear a suit of armor. He wore a long coat made of some dark heavy leather and a mask that covered the lower half of his face.
The scavenger Geng woke up and rubbed his eyes. What is that red light? Why is it blinking?
Lin Feng Yi did not turn around. They are here.
Geng scrambled to his feet his face turning pale. The hounds? How did they find us? You said this place was safe. You said we were ghosts!
I said they do not come here often Lin Feng Yi replied his voice steady. I did not say they were stupid. They tracked the energy spike when I turned the lights on.
The other scavengers were waking now. Fear filled the small room like a physical weight. Chen started coughing again and the sound echoed in the metal chamber. Mei ran to Lin Feng Yi side and grabbed his hand. Are they going to burn us Xiao Lin?
Not today Mei he said. He looked at the screen. The man in the long coat was standing by the hatch. He was not shouting orders. He was just looking at the ground. He knelt and touched the concrete right where the biometric scanner was hidden. He was an officer. That meant he had been grafted with more than just steam pistons. He had sensors in his blood.
Geng grabbed Lin Feng Yi by the shoulder and spun him around. We have to leave. There has to be another way out. You brought us into a trap!
Lin Feng Yi looked at Geng hand on his shoulder. Then he looked Geng in the eye. The scavenger flinched. There was no anger in the boy's gaze but there was a coldness that felt like an iron door closing.
There is no other way out Geng. The air vents are too small and the main shaft is crawling with soldiers. If you go out there now they will kill the men and take the women to the grafting pits. Do you want to see Mei in a pit?
Geng let go. His breath was coming in short gasps. So what then? We just sit here and wait for them to cut the door open?
No Lin Feng Yi said. He turned back to the terminal. We make them think there is nothing here worth taking.
He began typing. His fingers were flying across the keys. He was not just looking at the bunker systems anymore. He was reaching out into the old city grid. The Municipal Library was miles away but it was connected to this hub by the same geothermal lines he had used to kill the scout.
The Hesperians think they are the masters of steam he whispered to himself. But they are just playing with fire. I am the one who knows the stove.
He found a pressure valve located directly under the parking garage. It was a secondary bypass. If he opened it the ground above them would shake and the air would fill with sulfur and steam. It would look like a natural tectonic shift. The Hesperians were superstitious about the earth. They believed the ghosts of the old world lived in the hot vents.
A loud metallic bang echoed through the bunker. They were hitting the hatch with a thermal ram. The room shook and a cloud of dust fell from the ceiling. Mei screamed and hid behind Chen.
Stay quiet Lin Feng Yi commanded. Not a word. Not a breath.
He watched the screen. The thermal ram was glowing white hot. The alloy of the hatch was holding but it would not last forever. The officer in the long coat was watching the door with his head tilted to the side. He was listening. He could probably hear their heartbeats through the metal.
Lin Feng Yi waited. Timing was everything. If he blew the vent too early the soldiers would just wait it out. If he did it too late they would already be inside. He watched the heat levels on the ram. Sixty percent. Seventy.
Now he hissed and pressed the enter key.
The world exploded in sound. Even deep inside the bunker they could feel the roar. On the screen the parking garage vanished in a cloud of white vapor. The ground heaved and a massive crack split the concrete right under the Hesperian transport. The iron ship groaned and tilted sideways into the pit.
The soldiers scrambled back in terror. The steam was not just hot. It was loud and filled with the shriek of ancient pipes. It sounded like a thousand banshees. The officer in the long coat stood his ground for a moment his mask glowing with a faint blue light. He looked directly at the camera lens for a split second. Lin Feng Yi felt a chill run down his spine. The man knew. He knew someone was watching.
But the pressure was too much. The ground was collapsing and the transport was about to be swallowed by the earth. The officer raised a hand and signaled a retreat. The soldiers dragged their gear back to the smaller scout fliers and took off into the grey sky.
The screen went black as the external camera was melted by the heat.
Silence returned to the bunker. It was a heavy ringing silence. Lin Feng Yi slumped into the chair and his hands started to shake. He had pushed his mind too far. The golden script in his eyes was spinning and he felt a sharp pain in his chest.
Did we win? Hao asked his voice trembling.
Lin Feng Yi took a deep breath. We bought time. That is all. They will be back with more sensors and more men. But they think this sector is unstable now. They will be careful.
He turned to look at the group. They were all staring at him. There was no joy on their faces. Only a deep unsettling fear. They had seen him talk to the ghosts in the walls. They had seen him command the earth to swallow a ship. He was not the boy who shared his bread with them anymore. He was a stranger.
Geng walked over and sat down on a crate. You are a devil Xiao Lin. Or whatever you are. You almost killed us all.
I saved you Geng Lin Feng Yi said tiredly. There is a difference.
Is there? Geng asked. Because it feels like we just traded one master for another. The Hesperians want our jade. You want our souls. I do not know which is worse.
The words stung more than the cold or the hunger. Lin Feng Yi wanted to tell them about 2025. He wanted to tell them about parks and schools and a world where children did not live in holes. But he looked at their faces and realized they would not understand. To them the past was just a story told by dying men.
Mei walked up to him and touched his hand. She did not pull away this time. Her fingers were cold but her grip was firm. I am glad the big ship went away she said. Thank you Xiao Lin.
Lin Feng Yi managed a small smile. Go eat something Mei. We have a lot of work to do.
He spent the next few hours teaching the men how to operate the manual air pumps. He showed them how to read the pressure gauges without using the digital screens. He was trying to bridge the gap between their world and his. He needed them to be more than just scavengers. He needed them to be engineers.
It was a slow process. They were clumsy and they didn't trust the machines. Every time a pipe clattered they jumped. But they listened. They listened because they knew that outside that hatch the world was full of fire and steam and they had nowhere else to go.
Late that night Lin Feng Yi sat alone by the main terminal. The orange lights were dim again to save power. He opened the file labeled Project Jade again. This time a small portion of the text was visible. It was not a blueprint for a city. It was a diary.
Entry 402. The grafting has failed. The subjects are no longer human. They have the strength of the steam but they have lost the capacity for empathy. We are the last of the pure bloods. If we cannot find a way to balance the Dao with the tech we are just building a faster way to die.
Lin Feng Yi leaned his head against the screen. The weight of the world felt like a physical mountain on his back. He was a Ritualist. His job was to bring harmony to the chaos. But how could he bring harmony to a world that had forgotten what it meant to be human?
He felt the golden calligraphy pulse in his mind.
Academics Pillar Progress Twenty Percent. Harmony Threshold Zero Point Five Percent. Digestion Status Fifteen Percent.
He was becoming stronger but he was also becoming more alone. He looked at the sleeping scavengers. He was their leader but he was not their friend. He was a strategist playing a game that had started two thousand years ago.
He thought about the officer in the long coat. That man had seen him. He had felt the eyes of the bunker. That meant the Hesperians were evolving. They were not just brutes in brass suits. They were looking for the same things he was.
He closed the file and stood up. He walked over to the storage locker and pulled out a small piece of old metal. It was a shard of Star Jade he had found in the boys pocket. It glowed with a faint sickly light.
He held it in his hand and felt the energy humming through his skin. It was messy and dangerous and beautiful. It was the future.
He looked at the hatch. He knew he could not stay in this tomb forever. He had to go out. He had to find the other bunkers. He had to find the people who were still human.
But for now he would sleep. He would dream of the sun. And he would wait for the next move in a game that was only just beginning.