Chapter 1 - The Cage Beneath the EarthThe first thing Alex learned in the labor camp was never to look up.
The second was never to run.
The third was never to scream.
There were cameras in the ceiling. Guards in the corridors. Sensors buried beneath the concrete floor. But none of those things frightened the workers as much as the Roar.
The Roar did not need bullets.
It did not need fire.
It only needed sound.
Every morning at exactly five, the metal doors of Dormitory Nine opened, and four hundred prisoners were marched into the extraction tunnels beneath the ruined city.
Alex had spent six years walking those tunnels.
Six years breaking stone for creatures she had once believed were monsters from children's nightmares.
They were taller than humans, pale-skinned, unnaturally thin, with black eyes that reflected the weak blue lights of the underground world. Their voices were low and layered, as though several throats spoke at once.
Humanity called them the Hollow.
The Hollow called themselves the Vael.
And after the sky wars destroyed the old world, the Vael came from beneath the earth and took what remained.
Alex remembered almost nothing about her life before the camps.
A red bicycle.
Her mother's hands.
Rain striking a kitchen window.
Then came the bombs.
Then the screaming.
Then the Roar.
She was seventeen when she first heard it.
She remembered collapsing in the street while hundreds of people around her fell at the same time.
No explosion.
No gunfire.
Just a vibration that seemed to enter her bones.
She woke in chains.
She had never seen the sky again.
"Move."
A Vael guard struck the back of her shoulder with an electric baton.
Alex staggered forward.
The worker beside her, an old man named Tomas, whispered without looking at her.
"Don't fight today."
"I wasn't."
"You were thinking about it."
Alex almost smiled.
Almost.
Thinking about fighting was the only thing she had left.
The extraction tunnel stretched for miles, a black wound cut through the earth. Prisoners mined a strange blue mineral called arkonite, a substance the Vael used to power their machines.
Alex's task was simple.
Break stone.
Carry ore.
Do not stop.
She had just raised her hammer when the lights went out.
Every prisoner froze.
Darkness swallowed the tunnel.
For three seconds, nobody moved.
Then the emergency lights flickered red.
A siren screamed.
The Vael guards turned toward the western corridor.
Something was wrong.
Alex felt it before she heard it.
A vibration beneath her boots.
Not the Roar.
Something else.
A deep metallic pounding.
Then the wall exploded.
Concrete, dust, and bodies flew through the tunnel.
Alex was thrown backward.
She hit the floor hard.
When her vision cleared, two figures stood inside the breach.
Vael soldiers.
But they were not wearing the silver armor of camp security.
Their armor was black.
Their weapons were pointed at the guards.
The first one removed his helmet.
Alex stopped breathing.
His face was unlike the others.
His eyes were silver.
Not black.
The second soldier looked toward the prisoners.
"Run."
Nobody moved.
The first soldier raised his weapon.
"I said run!"
A guard fired.
The Vael soldier moved faster than Alex's eyes could follow.
One shot.
The guard fell.
Chaos erupted.
Prisoners scattered through the tunnel.
Alex ran.
She had no idea where she was going.
She only knew that staying behind meant dying.
She reached the western passage when a hand closed around her wrist.
She spun.
The first soldier.
Up close, he looked almost human.
Almost.
"What is your name?" he asked.
Alex stared at him.
"You just killed a guard."
"Yes."
"Why?"
His expression hardened.
"Because he was going to activate the Roar."
Alex looked back.
The dead guard's hand was resting beside a red control panel.
Her stomach dropped.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Kael."
He pointed toward the second soldier.
"That is Daren."
Daren was dragging an unconscious prisoner over his shoulder.
"We don't have time," he said. "The camp will be sealed in ninety seconds."
"Why are you helping us?"
Kael looked at her.
For the first time, Alex saw something behind his cold expression.
Fear.
Not fear of the prisoners.
Fear of what was coming.
"Because your people aren't the only ones who want out."
A distant metallic thunder rolled through the tunnel.
Kael's face changed.
"They found us."
Daren turned toward the darkness.
"Kael."
"I know."
Then came the sound.
A low vibration.
Growing.
Growing.
Growing.
Every prisoner froze.
Alex recognized it instantly.
The Roar.
Kael grabbed her arm.
"Close your ears."
"It's sound," Alex shouted. "That won't stop it."
"I know."
He looked directly into her eyes.
"But you're going to do something very strange."
"What?"
"When it starts..."
He pulled a small metal device from his belt and shoved it into her hand.
"...trust the monster."
The lights went white.
May you like
The Roar began.
And Alex felt her knees collapse.
