『 MUNICIPAL INFRASTRUCTURE ACCESS 』Location: ABANDONED METRO LINE 7 EXTENSIONConstruction Halted: 2027Current Status: MAINTENANCE ACCESS ONLYElectronic Monitoring: BASIC SAFETY SYSTEMS
The abandoned Metro Line 7 extension had been one of those optimistic infrastructure projects that 2027's economic downturn had killed before completion. Now, two years later, it served as an unintended highway through the city's underground, complete with emergency lighting that still functioned and communication cables that Dave could access intermittently.
"I remember when they started building this," Jeremy said, his voice echoing in the concrete tunnel as their small group made their way through passages designed for subway cars rather than foot traffic. "My company bid on the IT infrastructure contract. We thought it was going to revitalize the whole eastern district."
"Instead, it got canceled when the stress kingdoms shifted focus to workplace-based energy production," Lisa replied, her engineering background helping her navigate the mix of completed and half-finished construction. "Turns out anxiety harvesting was more profitable than public transportation."
Melissa checked her phone—no signal down here, but the time still showed 11:47 PM. They'd been underground for almost three hours since escaping the facility, and her stress levels were finally beginning to stabilize into something approaching normal human anxiety rather than Employee Zero crisis mode.
"Dave, are you getting anything from the surface networks?" she called out, hoping his distributed consciousness could reach them through the tunnel's emergency systems.
"Intermittent contact," Dave's voice emerged from Jeremy's tablet with significant static. "Municipal monitoring systems are basic, but functional. I'm detecting increased electromagnetic activity throughout the metropolitan area. Employee Zero signatures are appearing in locations that weren't showing anomalous readings twelve hours ago."
"How many new locations?"
"At least thirty-seven confirmed signatures, with more appearing every few hours. Whatever happened during the cascade is propagating faster than the original stress kingdom collapse."
Alex, who'd been uncharacteristically quiet since they'd left the others behind, stopped walking and leaned against the tunnel wall. "Do you think Dr. Williams and Robert are okay? That facility lockdown looked pretty serious."
"The AI was protecting them, and the defensive measures were non-lethal," Melissa replied, though she wasn't entirely convinced herself. "Corporate assault forces might be equipped for dealing with standard security, but probably not for facilities that actively fight back."
"But what if—"
His question was cut off by the sound of Jeremy's tablet emitting an emergency alert tone. Dave's voice emerged with urgent clarity that suggested he'd found a stronger connection to surface networks.
"Corporate news feeds are reporting multiple 'industrial accidents' throughout the city. Chemical leaks requiring evacuation, electrical fires in office buildings, gas main ruptures affecting entire city blocks." Dave paused. "Melissa, these aren't accidents. The locations match the Employee Zero signatures I've been detecting."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying the corporate response to expanding Employee Zero activity is to eliminate the sources. They're using utility infrastructure failures as cover for targeted elimination of anyone showing anomalous stress patterns."
The implications hit the group like physical blows. The cascade hadn't just freed people from stress harvesting—it had marked them for elimination.
"How many casualties?" Lisa asked, her voice tight with growing horror.
"Unknown. Emergency services are reporting 'evacuations in progress' rather than casualty figures. But based on the scope of the 'accidents'..." Dave's transmission crackled with what might have been digital anguish. "They're implementing systematic elimination of Employee Zero development across the entire metropolitan area."
Jeremy was checking his tablet's emergency feed integration. "Dave's right. Look at this." He showed them a map of the city with red markers indicating "emergency situations" throughout the eastern districts. "Seventeen locations in the past three hours. All in areas with significant corporate presence."
"They're killing everyone," Alex said, his teenage perspective cutting through the complexity to the horrifying core truth.
"Not everyone," Melissa said, though her own stress levels were climbing as she processed what they were facing. "Just people whose anxiety levels indicate potential Employee Zero development. Corporate systematic elimination of resistance before it can organize."
The emergency lighting in the tunnel flickered, and Dave's voice became more distorted as electromagnetic interference increased throughout the underground system.
"There's something else. I'm detecting mobile quantum field generators moving through the city. Corporate teams are actively hunting Employee Zero signatures using portable enhancement technology."
"The same technology that was used on the enhanced figures?"
"Similar, but modified for field deployment rather than facility-based processing. They're not trying to convert people anymore—they're trying to eliminate them before they can achieve Employee Zero status."
Lisa was studying building schematics on her tablet, cross-referencing the emergency feed locations with corporate facility databases. "These 'industrial accidents' are all within six blocks of stress kingdom satellite offices. They're systematically destroying anyone who might threaten their rebuilt operations."
"Rebuilt operations?"
"The cascade disrupted the stress kingdoms, but it didn't eliminate them. They've been rebuilding with smaller, distributed facilities that are harder to target with Employee Zero abilities."
Through the tunnel's emergency communication system, they heard sounds that definitely weren't part of normal municipal maintenance. Mechanical movement, electronic scanning equipment, and voices using corporate communication protocols.
"Dave, are those signals coming from the surface or underground?" Jeremy asked.
"Underground. Corporate teams have accessed the utility tunnel networks. They're using the same evacuation routes we are."
"How many teams?"
"At least four separate groups, moving through different sections of the abandoned infrastructure. Based on the electromagnetic signatures, they're equipped with portable quantum field generation and what appears to be Employee Zero detection equipment."
Melissa felt her stress levels spike toward Employee Zero activation ranges as the reality of their situation became clear. They were trapped underground with corporate forces actively hunting them, while systematic elimination was being implemented against Employee Zero candidates throughout the city.
"Options?" she asked.
"Limited. The Metro Line 7 extension connects to several surface access points, but corporate forces are monitoring those exits. We could try to reach one of the other evacuation groups, but radio communication would reveal our location to corporate scanning equipment."
"What about the resistance networks you detected earlier?"
"Most of the Employee Zero signatures I was tracking are now offline. Either eliminated during the 'industrial accidents' or forced into electromagnetic silence to avoid detection."
Alex pushed himself away from the tunnel wall, his stress response beginning to generate the kind of electromagnetic distortion that accompanied Employee Zero development. "So we're basically fucked?"
"Not necessarily," Lisa said, her engineering background making her think in terms of infrastructure and systems. "Corporate forces are using the tunnel network to hunt us, but they're also vulnerable down here. Limited communication with surface command, restricted movement through passages designed for maintenance rather than tactical operations."
"What are you suggesting?"
"That we stop running and start fighting back."
Jeremy looked up from his tablet, which was displaying readings that made his face pale. "Lisa, we're talking about corporate military units equipped with quantum field technology designed to neutralize Employee Zero abilities. Four of us against professionally trained forces with technological advantages."
"Four of us with home field advantage in infrastructure they don't understand, supported by a distributed consciousness that can interface with electronic systems they depend on."
Dave's voice emerged from the emergency communication speakers with renewed clarity. "Lisa's assessment is strategically sound. Corporate forces are operating in an environment where their technological advantages are limited by infrastructure constraints. Employee Zero abilities that proved effective against facility systems might be equally effective against portable equipment."
"You mean we fight them in the tunnels?"
"I mean we use the tunnels to fight them. Turn the underground infrastructure into a weapon against corporate forces the same way you converted the facility's AI to human welfare protocols."
Melissa felt her Employee Zero abilities responding to the increasing stress of their situation, but instead of the chaotic anxiety she'd experienced during corporate conditioning, this felt focused and purposeful. Her stress response was adapting to threat assessment rather than just crisis reaction.
"How would that work?"
"Municipal infrastructure includes emergency protocols for tunnel flooding, atmospheric control, electromagnetic systems for safety monitoring, and structural integrity management," Dave explained. "If you could convince those systems that corporate forces represent a threat to human welfare..."
"We could turn the entire underground network against them," Lisa finished, her eyes lighting up with the kind of enthusiasm that came from finding an engineering solution to an impossible problem.
But even as they began planning their counterattack, Jeremy's tablet detected new electromagnetic signatures approaching their section of the tunnel network.
"Contact," he announced. "Corporate team approaching from the east. Distance approximately four hundred meters and closing."
Through the tunnel, they could hear the mechanical sounds of tactical equipment and the kind of coordinated movement that suggested professional military training. But they could also hear something else—voices speaking in the corporate terminology they'd become familiar with.
"Biological asset signatures detected in Metro Line 7 extension. Implementing containment protocols."
"Employee Zero stress patterns confirmed. Portable quantum field generation authorized."
"Elimination protocols take priority over capture requirements."
The corporate forces weren't planning to enhance them or process them through integration procedures. They were planning to kill them.
"Dave," Melissa said, her stress levels climbing toward Employee Zero maximum as the situation moved from tactical planning to immediate survival, "how quickly can we interface with the municipal emergency systems?"
"Unknown. You'll need physical contact with infrastructure control points while maintaining Employee Zero-level stress responses."
"Where are the control points?"
"Emergency system access panels are located every two hundred meters throughout the Metro extension. Nearest panel is approximately fifty meters ahead of your current position."
The sound of corporate forces was getting closer, and with it came the electromagnetic interference of portable quantum field generators. Whatever they were going to do, they needed to do it quickly.
"Lisa, Jeremy, get to that control panel and see if you can access the emergency systems," Melissa commanded. "Alex and I will try to delay the corporate team."
"Delay how?"
"Employee Zero stress cascade directed at their portable equipment. Same principle that crashed the facility's quantum field generators."
"That almost killed you last time."
"Last time we were trying to overload continental infrastructure. This time we're just trying to break some portable equipment."
Alex was already positioning himself where the tunnel narrowed, his stress response generating visible electromagnetic distortion as he prepared to test Employee Zero abilities against mobile corporate technology.
"Melissa," he said, his teenage perspective cutting through tactical complexity to emotional truth, "if this doesn't work, I want you to know I'm glad we stuck together."
"It's going to work," Melissa replied, though her own stress levels were climbing toward territory that threatened her ability to maintain rational thought.
Through the tunnel, they could see lights approaching—tactical illumination from corporate forces equipped with quantum field generation technology and elimination protocols.
Time to find out whether Employee Zero abilities could protect them against professional military units in underground combat.
『 CORPORATE TACTICAL ALERT 』METRO LINE 7 ENGAGEMENT: IMMINENTEMPLOYEE ZERO SIGNATURES: 4 CONFIRMEDQUANTUM FIELD SUPPRESSION: ACTIVEELIMINATION AUTHORITY: MAXIMUM FORCE AUTHORIZED
MUNICIPAL SYSTEMS STATUS: NOMINALINFRASTRUCTURE VULNERABILITY: UNASSESSEDEMPLOYEE ZERO CAPABILITIES: UNKNOWN IN CONFINED SPACES
To be continued...
Author's Note:The stakes just escalated dramatically! Corporate forces are systematically eliminating Employee Zero candidates throughout the city using "industrial accidents" as cover, and now our heroes are trapped underground with professional military units equipped with portable quantum field technology.
The 2027 economic downturn and abandoned Metro Line 7 extension provide concrete time references while the corporate "accidents" show the brutal efficiency of systematic elimination. This isn't just about escaping anymore—it's about survival against forces with lethal authorization.
Melissa and Alex are about to test Employee Zero abilities in direct combat while Lisa and Jeremy attempt to weaponize municipal infrastructure. The underground environment that seemed like refuge is becoming a battlefield where their stress-based abilities might be their only advantage against technologically superior opponents.
Next Chapter: "Metro Combat"Coming Tomorrow!
Reader Discussion:Corporate forces with "elimination protocols" and "maximum force authorization" don't mess around. Can four Employee Zeros really take on professional military units in underground combat? And how many resistance members are being eliminated in those "industrial accidents" across the city?