I'll Follow You Down -

"She is lost," the drone insisted. "Gravity is a one-way street, Elias."

"You don't have to do this," the drone hovering over his shoulder buzzed. Its optic lens flickered blue, a cold imitation of concern. "The atmospheric pressure alone will crush your lungs before you hit the mid-levels. Statutory law says she’s already processed." I'll Follow You Down

She looked up, her face a map of exhaustion and wonder. "I told you I found it," she whispered. "The earth is still breathing down here." "She is lost," the drone insisted

"I know," he said, the weight of the miles above them finally feeling light. "I told you. Wherever you go, " "The atmospheric pressure alone will crush your lungs

Elias didn't look back. He tightened the straps of his rebreather, the rubber tasting of salt and old copper. He remembered Lena’s hand in his three nights ago, her fingers trembling as she whispered about a signal she’d found—a ghost in the machine calling from the deep. She had gone to find the source. She hadn't come back.

The rain didn't just fall in Sector 4; it dissolved. It was a caustic, neon-soaked drizzle that ate at the hem of Elias’s coat as he stood at the lip of the Great Descent. Below him lay the Sub-Strata, a vertical graveyard of rusted pipes and forgotten people where the city’s light never reached. Somewhere down there, in the dark, was Lena.