CHAPTER 72: CHAPTER 71 : NO PLACE TO HIDE

The ruins looked smaller when Zza stumbled back into them.

Maybe because she’d grown.

Maybe because the city’s breath was still crawling under her shell like a cold hand searching for a pulse to steal.

The coalition gathered the moment they saw her. Scarabs froze mid-step. Centipedes coiled tight. Glowbeetles dimmed as if the light in their bodies tried to hide. Even the Weaverworms drifted back, silk trembling like loose nerves.

Zza didn’t speak right away.

Her legs wobbled.

Her wings twitched without rhythm.

Her claws shook, not from exhaustion, but from something colder.

The Elder floated down in front of her.

"You returned."

The words weren’t filled with relief.

Just suspicion wearing a polite mask.

Zza lifted her head—slow, uneven—and saw their eyes settle on her chest.

The mark.

She hadn’t noticed it at first.

Too busy running.

Too busy breathing.

But now it burned.

A golden vein stretched from her collar down to her abdomen, pulsing softly like a heart desperate to match a rhythm that wasn’t hers. The glow crawled under her shell in weak waves. Every pulse felt like a whisper she didn’t want to hear.

A scarab stepped back. "She’s infected."

A Glowbeetle whispered, "Is it him? Is she carrying him?"

Another hissed, "She’s carrying *it*."

Zza’s throat tightened. "I’m still me."

The scarab bristled. "How do we know?"

She didn’t answer fast enough, and that was all it took.

Centipedes circled her. Glowbeetles drifted upward, forming a shivering halo of dim blue light. Scarabs lowered their claws like they were ready to pin her to the ground if she twitched wrong.

Zza raised her hands slowly. "I understand how it looks."

A Glowbeetle snapped, "Did it speak to you?"

Zza swallowed hard. "Yes."

Silence.

Thick, choking silence.

One scarab hissed, backing up. "We should drive her out."

"No," another scarab muttered, voice shaking. "If we do, the city will come for us. That mark... it means the network can track her. And if she’s near us—"

He didn’t finish.

He didn’t need to.

A Weaverworm whispered, "Zza... what did you bring back?"

Zza finally found the courage to answer. "A warning."

Her voice cracked on the last syllable.

The Elder lowered its head. "From him... or from it?"

Zza squeezed her eyes shut. Buzz’s whisper trembled in her skull like a candle flickering inside wind.

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

She forced herself to speak. "Buzz tried to warn me. But the network... it twisted his voice. It used him."

A Glowbeetle darted closer, studying the golden mark. "Then why did he reach you at all? Why did he care?"

Zza’s breath hitched. "Because part of him is still fighting."

That truth felt like a wound.

The coalition didn’t relax.

Not even a little.

The Elder’s silk swayed. "This mark. Does it change your mind?"

"No."

"Does it change your voice?"

"No."

"Does it change your loyalty?"

Zza’s claws curled. "Never."

The Elder drifted closer until its silk brushed the edge of the glow on her chest. The touch made her whole body jolt.

The Elder flinched back. "It burns. Like it recognizes me."

Zza swallowed. "The city is coming."

The ground answered her.

A distant tremor rolled through the ruins—soft, deliberate, wrong. A rhythm she wished she didn’t recognize.

Boom...

Boom...

Boom-boom...

The human shells had found her.

---

### **THE FIRST HUNTERS**

The coalition formed a line instantly. Scarabs moved into front formation. Centipedes twisted into a shield wall. Glowbeetles dimmed into faint sparks ready to flash-blind anything that approached. Weaverworms spun quick, thin nets designed to trip, tangle, or slow.

Zza stepped forward instinctively.

A scarab blocked her with his claws. "Stay back."

Zza bared her teeth. "I’m the reason they’re coming. Let me fight."

"You are the reason," he agreed softly. "That’s why you stay behind us."

Another tremor.

Closer.

Zza climbed the rubble mound at the edge of their hiding spot—and froze.

Shapes approached through the haze.

Humans.

But wrong.

Not twisted physically—no extra limbs, no warped shells—but their movements were too smooth, too synchronized. Their steps landed at the exact same angle. Their heads tilted at the exact same moment. Their shoulders rose and fell with the same breath.

Dozens of them.

A wave.

Behind them...

something taller.

Something darker.

Something glowing.

Zza’s heart pounded. "The hybrids."

A Glowbeetle hissed. "Stay low."

But the humans turned sharply in her direction, as if her voice traveled on light instead of sound.

Their golden eyes locked on her mark.

A low hum swept the air.

Not from their throats.

From the city behind them.

Zza’s mark throbbed in reply.

"No," she whispered. "No, no—don’t respond—"

But it did.

The golden vein on her chest brightened.

The humans stepped faster.

The taller shape moved with purpose.

Zza’s breath tightened. "Get ready."

Scarabs lowered into strike stance.

Centipedes raised their front segments.

Glowbeetles flickered to full light.

The hybrids broke into a run.

And the ruins erupted in chaos.

---

### **THE FIRST CLASH**

The humans hit the scarab wall like a metal storm.

Their bodies didn’t flinch at impact.

They didn’t cry out in pain.

They didn’t bleed.

They just kept pushing.

Scarabs dug into the ground to hold the line. Centipedes lashed forward, striking at legs, arms, anything.

The humans didn’t dodge.

Didn’t defend.

Didn’t hesitate.

They moved with single purpose:

Reach Zza.

Zza leapt from the rubble mound and slammed into the first attacker, claws slicing across his chest.

No blood.

Just gold dust.

Like cutting into glass filled with light.

The human fell, then twisted back onto his feet as if strings pulled him upright.

Zza hissed. "You aren’t alive."

The human smiled. "We are Buzz."

Her stomach flipped. "Stop using his name."

The human shells spoke together:

"Buzz wants you."

She slashed him again. "He wants you dead."

More gold dust spilled.

He grabbed her wrist.

His grip was too strong.

Her mark pulsed.

His eyes brightened.

"He knows you."

Zza snarled. "He regrets it."

She tore free, spinning and slicing through another attacker, kicking him into rubble.

Behind her, the coalition fought hard—but they were outnumbered, overwhelmed, unprepared for enemies that didn’t fear pain or retreat.

Glowbeetles flashed bursts of blinding light. Humans stumbled but didn’t stop.

Centipedes wrapped bodies tightly, trying to crush ribs. Humans didn’t scream—they snapped joints back into place and kept moving.

Scarabs cut legs out from under them. Humans crawled forward anyway.

Zza’s breath shook. "They don’t stop. They don’t die."

The Elder drifted overhead, silk trembling. "The city gave them a single command: Retrieve the marked one."

Zza wiped gold from her claws. "Then break their command."

And she launched herself straight into the thickest group.

---

### **TAKEN**

She fought like something rabid.

She slashed.

She kicked.

She tore through gold and dust and human bodies that didn’t know how to stay down.

But every cut on her attackers came with a new pulse in her chest, like the city kept pulling air through her lungs.

The mark glowed brighter.

A human grabbed her leg.

Another grabbed her arm.

A third wrapped arms around her waist.

Zza thrashed, claws digging into shoulders and faces and throats.

A voice slid behind her ear.

Not human.

Not insect.

Something in-between.

"You are ours."

She screamed, twisting violently—but the hybrids tightened.

More hands grabbed her.

More golden eyes.

More calm smiles.

The coalition shouted her name.

She heard wings.

She heard claws.

She heard the Elder screaming orders.

But the humans lifted her off the ground.

Her claws scraped the dirt.

She kicked.

She fought.

She tore herself bloody.

The taller shape stepped forward.

It wasn’t a human at all.

It wasn’t an insect either.

A hollow frame of metal and gold and veins.

A walking conduit.

It touched her cheek with a glowing hand.

Zza’s mark burned.

Her vision blurred.

The conduit spoke in a voice that shattered something inside her:

"...Za..."

Buzz’s voice.

Twisted.

Drained.

Pulled through a dying speaker.

"Come... home."

She choked out, "You aren’t him."

The conduit leaned close.

"Become... him."

Zza’s wings shuddered. "I’ll die first."

The conduit smiled.

"That is... acceptable."

The humans began carrying her toward the city.

Her coalition charged forward in panic.

The conduit raised a hand—

—and the ground split open between them, a wall of gold rising like a newborn spine.

The coalition slammed into it.

They couldn’t climb it.

Couldn’t break it.

Couldn’t even touch it without burning their limbs.

Zza reached out through the narrowing gap.

"Don’t follow!" she screamed. "It’ll kill you!"

The Elder shouted, "We do not leave our—"

The ground shook violently.

The wall rose higher.

Zza’s reach failed.

Hands dragged her away.

Her last sight of the coalition was their bodies pressed against the glowing barrier, screaming her name until the light drowned them out.

The hybrids marched her toward the city.

Toward the pulse.

Toward the thing wearing Buzz’s voice.

Toward the hive mind that now knew her completely.

Zza whispered one last thing as the buildings closed in around her:

"Buzz... fight it. Just fight a little. Fight for me."

A whisper brushed her ear.

A weak, flickering echo:

"...Za... run..."