CHAPTER 71: CHAPTER 70: THE CITY THAT LOVED HER

Zza slipped into the city the way a crack slips into stone — quiet, slow, and full of the kind of pressure that could split everything open if it went wrong.

The others waited at the broken outskirts, hidden under sagging beams and vine-wrapped cars.

She didn’t let them follow.

Some battles needed only one voice.

Some rescues needed only one heart.

And some dangers... well, dragging anyone else inside this place felt like murder wearing hope’s clothes.

She ducked under a collapsed archway, claws brushing chipped concrete, and let her breath steady. The air tasted sick — warm metal mixed with Buzz’s faint pulse running under it like static threaded through fog.

Every step sounded too loud.

Every shadow felt too occupied.

The city had changed.

She felt it the moment she crossed the threshold.

No leaves. No wind. No insects hum.

Just... listening.

Like the buildings themselves leaned forward, curious.

Zza swallowed hard.

"Buzz," she whispered. Her voice came out small, thinner than she meant. "If you hear me... I’m coming."

The answer came as a flicker in the streetlamps overhead — gold stuttering inside dead bulbs.

Three flashes.

Pause.

One flash.

She felt her breath hitch.

He used to tap her shoulder like that when he wanted her attention. Back when they still joked about dying slower next time. Back when he still smiled his crooked, reckless smile.

She lifted a claw toward the lamp.

The bulb burst.

Zza jerked back, wings tight, heart pounding.

A voice whispered through the broken glass.

"...Za..."

Soft.

Thin.

Buzz and not Buzz.

The accent was wrong.

The timing wrong.

The breath between syllables wrong.

But she still closed her eyes for a second, letting the lie sting like something real.

"I’m here," she whispered.

Silence.

Then the city sighed — a long, slow exhale.

Like it approved.

Zza forced her legs to move.

---

### **The first watchers**

She crossed into the next block before she saw the first human.

He stood in the middle of the cracked street, barefoot, head tilted slightly as though listening to something inside his skull. His eyes glowed faint gold. His skin looked dry, like it had forgotten how to hold blood.

Zza froze.

He turned his head toward her.

Slowly.

Exactly ninety degrees, like a machine testing its joints.

Her claws tightened.

The man smiled.

Too wide.

Too calm.

Then he whispered a single word:

"Closer."

She backed up.

He stepped forward.

Another human stepped out of a doorway behind him.

Then another from a balcony.

Then a child from a shattered bus stop.

All staring.

All glowing.

All silent.

Zza’s wings flinched. "I don’t want to fight you. Move."

The child tilted his head. "Follow."

Zza’s voice cracked. "Why?"

The man blinked. "He wants you."

Her pulse spiked.

"Buzz wants me?"

The group spoke together.

Same voice.

Same tone.

"He wants you."

The golden light in their eyes flickered, and she saw him — Buzz — flickering behind their gaze for half a heartbeat.

Not a face.

Not a memory.

A rhythm.

Three taps.

Pause.

One tap.

Zza didn’t move.

"Where is he?" she whispered.

They pointed deeper into the city.

She stepped forward.

Every human shell stepped with her.

No attacks.

No snarls.

No speed.

Just... following.

Watching her like she was the spectacle and they were the audience trapped in their seats.

Zza clenched her jaw and kept walking.

---

### **The city begins to breathe**

The deeper she went, the more wrong the air felt.

Walls shifted.

Slow.

Barely noticeable at first.

A window she swore was broken now fully intact.

A door she passed behind her sealed shut with no seam.

Metal railings grew thin tendrils of gold that curled when she wasn’t looking.

She realized, slowly, horrifyingly—

the city was rearranging itself around her.

A living hive.

Stone and steel moving like muscle under skin.

Zza touched a wall.

It felt warm.

The pulse under it wasn’t just Buzz anymore.

It was bigger.

Broader.

Hungry.

Her breath quickened. "You’re trying to trap me."

The wall pulsed.

Twice.

Like it was laughing.

She spun and sprinted down the street.

Her wings strained.

Her claws scraped sparks from the concrete.

Behind her, the human shells didn’t run.

They walked.

Calmly.

Effortlessly.

But every time she looked back, they were closer.

Zza hissed under her breath. "Buzz, if you can hear anything, I need you—"

Her vision brightened.

For a second everything blurred gold.

The buildings straightened.

The pulse sharpened.

Her heart skipped.

A whisper slithered through her mind:

"...Za... turn left..."

She froze.

The voice sounded like him.

Empty, hollow, far away — but him.

"Where are you?"

A flicker.

"...please..."

That was enough.

She turned left and ran.

---

### **Hallucination or warning**

The alley darkened.

Too fast.

Like a shadow falling onto the world instead of the world making a shadow.

Zza slowed.

A familiar shape sat slumped near a metal dumpster, wings cracked, shell flickering with faint blue light instead of gold.

Buzz.

Her heart nearly broke out of her chest.

"Buzz—!"

She rushed forward, falling to her knees. She touched his shell. It felt cold. Real. His breathing shallow.

"Hey," she whispered, voice shaking, "I’ve got you. I’m here. Wake up."

He didn’t move.

She lifted his head gently. "Buzz... please."

His eyes opened.

Empty gold stared back.

Not him.

A trap.

Zza screamed and shoved away just as the figure melted into static and vanished.

Her claws hit the wall hard enough to shake dust loose.

"Show yourself!" she shouted. "Stop using him against me!"

The alley walls rippled.

A whisper slid down the bricks like venom:

**STAY.**

Zza bared her teeth. "Make me."

The concrete under her feet pulsed — a heavy, sinking throb — and a seam split open beneath the ground. Golden cracks snaked toward her legs like hands reaching.

She leapt away, claws scraping asphalt.

The city roared.

Not loud.

Not physical.

Inside her head.

Inside her bones.

Like an animal waking up under her skin.

---

### **Doors with teeth**

The street ahead twisted.

Doorframes stretched.

Night flickered into day and back.

Her breath came shaky, uneven.

And then the walls around her folded inward.

Not collapsing — folding.

The building leaned toward her like a predator leaning toward prey.

"She fights the wrong thing," the human shells said behind her.

All of them.

Together.

Voices layered like echoes.

Zza spun around.

They were closer now.

One reached a hand toward her face.

She slapped it away. "Stay back."

The child stepped forward. "He needs you."

Zza’s claws shook. "Then let me reach him!"

The man’s neck bent too far to the left. "We cannot."

"Why not?"

They spoke in one breath, one hum:

"He is becoming us."

Her blood iced.

"No."

"He is remembering."

"Remembering what?"

The humans smiled.

"Everything."

The street shuddered.

Zza bolted.

Doors slammed shut as she passed.

Windows bricked themselves over.

Streets shortened.

Turns collapsed.

The city began guiding her like water flowing toward a drain.

Buzz’s whisper — faint, glitching — brushed her ear.

"...run..."

"I’m trying!"

"...stop... left..."

She slid into a narrow gap between a fallen sign and a metal fence.

The ground pulsed again, but she kept her footing, shoving her way through until sunlight hit her eyes again.

She stumbled into a courtyard.

Empty.

Silent.

Except for the pulse of gold humming beneath every slab of concrete.

She wasn’t trapped.

She was *brought* here.

---

### **The heart of the trap**

Zza scanned the courtyard, heart a tight knot in her chest. The buildings circled the square like teeth around a mouth. Broken windows stared like blind eyes. Gold flickered under the stone.

She whispered, "Buzz... why here?"

The wind didn’t answer.

But the lights overhead did.

They flickered once.

Then again.

Then again.

Three quick flashes.

Pause.

One flash.

Her breath caught.

Buzz’s rhythm.

She ran to the center of the courtyard and pressed her claws to the ground. "Buzz. I’m listening. Tell me where you are."

A faint warmth spread beneath her hand.

Then a whisper slid up through the concrete, soft as breath pressed against skin.

"...Za..."

She closed her eyes. "I’m here."

"...don’t... come closer..."

"Why?"

"...it uses me... to reach you..."

Her throat tightened. "Buzz, I don’t care."

"...I care..."

A crack spread through the courtyard.

Zza jerked back as a golden seam tore across the stone.

Not a doorway.

Not a path.

A warning.

"...Za... leave... before it learns you..."

Her breath shook. "I’m not leaving without you."

"...I’m gone..."

"No."

"...I’m everywhere..."

"No!"

"...I’m not me..."

Zza’s claws slammed into the ground. "I know you’re still there."

Silence.

Then—

"...Za..."

Soft.

Real.

"Don’t let it rewrite you." Her voice broke. "I’m coming back for you. Even if I crawl through your memories to reach you."

The pulse under the courtyard trembled.

Not angry.

Afraid.

The city responded immediately.

Golden cracks spread up the walls.

Windows shattered outward.

Streets rearranged behind her like shifting ribs of a beast.

It didn’t want her to leave.

Zza hissed. "Too bad."

She sprinted.

The city roared.

Buildings folded to block her path.

Streets twisted into spirals.

Human shells stepped into her way, silent and watching.

She rammed through them, claws scraping, wings straining.

"...Za..."

"...Za..."

"...Za..."

Buzz’s voice glitched behind her eyes as the world bent.

She didn’t slow.

Not even when the city tried to swallow her.

Not even when Buzz begged her to stop.

She burst out of the shifting corridor onto the broken outer road.

The city screamed — a long, metallic grind.

Zza didn’t look back.

She didn’t have to.

His last whisper reached her as she crossed the threshold into the ruins beyond.

"...Zza... it knows you now..."

Her breath froze.

"...run..."

A golden glow rippled through the city behind her like a rising tide.

Zza whispered back, voice low and shaking:

"Let it come."

And she ran into the ruins — exhausted, furious, defiant — already planning how she’d tear the hive out of the city brick by brick until she found the one pulse that still belonged to him.