“The enemy doesn’t just kill people anymore, Jensen. It convinces them. Twists their loyalty. Like a perfect apple that’s rotten at the core—looks fine until you take a bite, then you find the worms.”
A figure shambled out from between the trees. It wore the uniform of a 7Z security officer, but the fabric was fused to its skin, and its head… its head had split open along the jawline, revealing not bone, but a dense, fibrous mesh of white mycelium.
Jensen looked down at his own hands. The skin was beginning to split, just at the knuckles. Inside, instead of blood, a pale, fibrous thread curled out, tasting the air. warped apple undermine 7z
“A what?”
He tried to delete it. It duplicated.
“Check your fireteam,” Vance whispered.
7Z_APPLE_CORE.log
Now, Jensen’s boots squelched through the mud of the 7Z agri-dome, the air thick with the smell of overripe fruit and ozone. The dome’s bioluminescent lights flickered erratically, casting long, warped shadows. The apple trees—genetically engineered to feed the sector for a century—stood in crooked rows, their branches heavy with fruit that glistened like polished blood.
“Movement,” hissed Private Liao, pointing. “The enemy doesn’t just kill people anymore, Jensen