I followed Kaz through the fortress corridors, watching his back as we walked.

  The path took us deeper into the prison fortress, away from the barracks and mess hall, into parts of the building I hadn't seen during my rushed orientation. Other teams moved in the same direction, Bridge Sergeants leading their groups through the labyrinthine passages. Most walked in silence, exhaustion etched into their faces after the day's fighting.

  I kept my eyes moving, memorizing each turn, noting the pattern of guard stations, counting the security cameras mounted in corners. The worms under my skin shifted restlessly, as if they too were memorizing the structure's layout.

  They'd given us a basic rundown during orientation, but it was the bare minimum shit about the fortress, bridge assignments, and chain of command.

  Then they'd thrown us straight into combat.

  The tear had taught me more in ten minutes than the entire briefing had. Nothing prepared you for the reality of tears opening in front of you, spewing monsters that wanted to rip your face off.

  But Kaz seemed different from the other Bridge Sergeants.

  He didn’t deal with the bullshit. If I wanted to understand how this place really worked, he was my best shot.

  "This will be your first time processing, so you should pay attention." Kaz said without turning around.

  "It’s my first time for everything here," I replied, keeping my voice casual.

  Kaz nodded.

  We went down a wide staircase, the walls changing from rough concrete to something more reinforced.

  "Where are the cores stored after processing?" I asked, testing how much information he'd share.

  Kaz glanced back. "Somewhere you'll never see."

  The corridor widened into a large antechamber with multiple doorways.

  Kaz led me through the one marked: Core Processing. Beyond it stretched a massive chamber with multiple stations, each separated by reinforced glass partitions. Guards in heavier armor than the ones patrolling the barracks stood watch at each station. Through the glass, I could see the sorting equipment, and specialized storage containers.

  Teams lined up at each station, waiting to submit their yields.

  The room buzzed with low conversation and the hum of processing equipment.

  Near the center of the room stood Curtis, the massive guard from the mess hall, overseeing the operation. His eyes swept over the room continuously as he assessed potential threats.

  "C’mon this way," Kaz said, steering me toward a line that was shorter than the others. "The benefit of regularly exceeding quota, priority processing."

  We took our place behind another team.

  While we waited, Kaz spoke quietly, his voice just loud enough for me to hear.

  "Cores are the only currency that matters here," he said. "Not favors, not information, not even your life. Just cores."

  I nodded, understanding immediately.

  "The more you harvest, the better your assignments."

  "The better your chance of surviving," Kaz corrected. "Nothing is guaranteed here. You could harvest a hundred cores today and still get torn apart tomorrow."

  "Well that’s comforting."

  Kaz's mouth twitched. "I'm not here to comfort you, kid."

  The line moved forward a few steps.

  "Not all tears are the same," Kaz continued. "There are predictable ones… like the ones at the bridges, the ones we monitor. They pretty much open on schedules, more or less."

  "Like the one today," I said.

  "Bingo. Teams get assigned to these tears based on their experience and past performance. Quotas are calculated based on expected activity."

  I watched as the team ahead of us handed over their cores to a guard who counted and logged them in robotic fashion.

  "Most cores come from these scheduled tears," Kaz said. "It's the safest way to harvest, as safe as anything gets here."

  "And the others?"

  Kaz's expression darkened slightly. "Then you have the random tears. They open anywhere, anytime, without warning. Inside the fortress, outside on the plains, in the middle of your fucking sleep."

  "How do you prepare for that?"

  "You don't, not really. You can't prepare for what you can't predict." Kaz's eyes watched a team being turned away from a station, their harvest apparently insufficient.

  "When random tears open, it's all hands on deck. If you're nearby, you fight. If you're not, you pray it gets contained before it spreads."

  The line moved forward again. Kaz's voice dropped lower.

  "Then there are surges."

  I remembered the alarm from earlier. "Like today?"

  "That wasn't a surge. That was a scheduled opening with a higher-than-expected creature count." Kaz shook his head. "No, a real surge is when the dimensional pressure builds past the breaking point. Causing multiple tears to rupture simultaneously. Beasts flood through in waves."

  Stolen story; please report.

  The hair on the back of my neck stood up. "What happens then?"

  "If it's contained quickly, casualties and property damage. If it's not..." Kaz's jaw tightened. "It cascades into something almost unstoppable. More and more tears open in response to the dimensional instability. Greater beasts pour through,It is a chain reaction that can collapse entire bridge sections."

  "The goblin thing today seemed minor," I said, remembering how quickly we'd dispatched them.

  Kaz gave me a look that made me feel like a child. "That was nothing. Real surges are extinction events. That's why we're here… to prevent them."

  We reached the front of the line.

  Kaz handed over our team's cores, and the guard began counting and logging them methodically.

  "Why here?" I asked quietly, keeping my voice low enough that only Kaz could hear. "Why prisoners?"

  Kaz's expression flattened, becoming unreadable. He was silent for so long I thought he might not answer.

  "The Front is like a buffer zone," he said, his voice barely audible. "Dimensional realms that are dying, begin overlapping and start to form tears… this happens easier and more frequently here."

  "And what if we just left them unchecked?"

  "Eventually, they'd connect to Earth." Kaz's eyes met mine. "We're not earth's defenders, Fish. We're meant to be meat shields. We hold the line so professional forces don't have to risk their precious Sacred."

  The brutal honesty of it hit harder than I expected. "We’re just sacrificial lambs…"

  Kaz nodded toward the guard, who had finished counting. "One hundred and forty-seven cores confirmed. Your unit is above quota."

  The guard stamped something on a digital pad and waved us forward to wait for processing.

  "The shattered front isn't natural, kid." Kaz continued as we moved to the side. "These dimensions have been dying for centuries, maybe longer."

  "That's why tears open so easily?"

  The guard called us back and handed Kaz a small digital token. "Quota adjustment for tomorrow: plus five. Rotation assignments will be posted at 0500."

  Kaz pocketed the token with a nod.

  As we walked away from the station, I processed what I'd learned. A dying dimension where tears to other realms opened constantly.

  "Why do the tears connect to so many different places?" I asked as we left the processing center.

  Kaz shrugged.

  "No one knows for certain. Some people think it's the collapse itself, the dying dimension touching others as it falls. While others think something more deliberate."

  "The tears connect to different dimensions?"

  "Different worlds. Different realities." Kaz led me through a corridor I didn't recognize. "Each has different beast types, different dangers, different resources."

  The thought was uncomfortable. So I pushed it away.

  Kaz stopped in a quieter corridor, turning to face me directly. His expression was serious, almost grim.

  "There are four things you need to understand about surviving here," he said. "First: there are no safe zones."

  I nodded, waiting for him to continue.

  "The fortress is the closest thing to safety. Tears can open anywhere. What was safe yesterday might kill you today."

  Kaz held up two fingers. "Second rule: trust your team, suspect everything else."

  "Sounds like paranoia."

  "It's not paranoia when they really are out to get you," Kaz replied. "Some beasts in the Front can mimic others. Not just appearance but their behavior, voice, even memories."

  A chill ran through me despite myself. "Shapeshifters?"

  "Something worse… there have been cases of prisoners following what they thought were teammates into tears." Kaz's eyes were hard. "They never came back."

  "How do you tell the difference?"

  "You can't, not always. But if someone acts off, if something feels suspicious, don't ignore it. Better to be wrong and alive than right and dead."

  I glanced around the corridor involuntarily, suddenly aware of how many shadows lurked in corners.

  "Third rule." Kaz's voice pulled me back to the present. "Your death is your problem."

  "Meaning?"

  "There are no rescue teams. No extraction protocols. If you go down during a tear, your team might not retrieve your body. If you get stuck in a random tear, you're gone. The Front don't give back what they take."

  "Sounds pretty harsh."

  "It's practical. We can't risk the living to recover the dead."

  I nodded, accepting this without flinching.

  "Four." Kaz raised his final finger, pausing for emphasis. "Most important: there is no ceiling."

  "On what?" I said, looking up.

  "On Earth, threats are managed and maintained. Their outbreaks are scaled appropriately." Kaz's eyes were deadly serious. "Here, nothing is managed… here a random tear might spit out Grade 5 weakling like those goblins today. Or it might open a path to a Grade 2 nightmare that kills your entire team in seconds."

  I thought of the monsters I'd faced during my assessment at the SDC facility. Even there, where they were testing me, there had been some balance to the challenges.

  "No fairness," I said, understanding. "No scaling. No system protecting us."

  "Nothing but chance." Kaz nodded. "Stay with your team. Don't wander. Don't explore alone."

  I nodded, but privately planned to learn the patterns anyway. Knowledge was the only real protection in a place like this.

  "Tomorrow, the rotation assignments update," Kaz continued. "Based on tonight's collection, tear activity, and casualty reports."

  "What does that mean for us?"

  "Positions reassigned. These things can't be predicted in advance." Kaz crossed his arms. " Might get moved somewhere else. Depends on where the need is greatest."

  "And where the punishment is needed most," I added.

  Kaz's mouth twitched in what might have been a smile. "You catch on quick."

  "What's your advice?"

  "Whatever happens, find people you can trust." Kaz's voice was matter-of-fact. "The ones you fight beside are the ones who keep you alive."

  I thought of Zo's curious eyes and Sadie's icy stare. Not exactly the team I would have chosen, but better than facing the tears alone.

  "How do you get out?" I asked the obvious question.

  Kaz's expression shifted to something unreadable. "Official answer: serve your sentence. Exceptional performance. Valuable enough to transfer, and all that bullshit"

  "And the real answer?"

  "Almost no one makes it that long."

  The words hung between us, heavy with their implication.

  "Some prisoners try to escape," Kaz added after a moment. "Run into the deeper Front, hoping to find a way out… Find natural portals, dimensional weak points, anything."

  "Has anyone succeeded?"

  "None that have been confirmed." Kaz's eyes were distant. "The Front extends for an unknown distance, maybe they go on forever. "

  "So what's the play?"

  "Stay with the system… make your quotas, and survive the grind." Kaz shrugged.

  I noted that Kaz didn't say escape was impossible. Just unconfirmed. I locked that information away carefully.

  Kaz straightened, our conversation apparently over. "That's what you actually need to know. Not the crap from orientation."

  I nodded, genuine respect forming despite myself.

  Kaz led me back toward the barracks, through corridors that were quieter now, most teams finished with their core collection. We passed a few guards, other prisoners heading to rest after the day's battles.

  "Barracks are that way. Mess hall's back the other direction if you're still hungry. Tomorrow at dawn, check the board for rotation assignments."

  I nodded. "Thanks for the intel."

  "Get some sleep. It's another resource here, so don't waste it." Kaz said, turning and walking away, leaving me alone in the corridor.

  I stood there for a moment, exhaling slowly. The worms beneath my skin had settled, no longer restless. Maybe they'd been listening too.

  No point worrying about it now. I headed toward the barracks, ready for whatever passed for sleep in this place.

  Kaz had called us.