The City Of Cenopolis

Chapter 2: Sam's Tragedy

The quiet hum of the Nexus Corp building was unnerving. The calm efficiency that usually permeated the halls felt stifling to Eli now. It had only been a few hours since Sam left for her neural chip upgrade, and already, the day felt impossibly long. Eli had tried to bury himself in his work, but every time he looked at the clock, time seemed to have barely moved.

Luke’s words from earlier—*“too perfect”—*echoed in his mind like an annoying itch he couldn’t scratch. He had dismissed it at first, chalking it up to Luke being Luke, always questioning the world around them. But now, sitting at his desk, that nagging thought refused to leave him. Something’s off.

A message notification blinked across his neural interface, a gentle ping in his vision. Dr. Harding’s name appeared, along with a few words that made Eli’s heart race.

“Eli, please come to the medical wing. There’s been… an issue with Sam’s upgrade.”

For a moment, everything froze. The world around him—the clean, shining walls of Nexus, the quiet hum of technology—blurred as his mind raced ahead. Without another thought, Eli was out of his seat, sprinting to the medical wing.

The halls stretched before him, too long, too bright. He barely registered the people around him, their faces serene as they went about their tasks, their neural chips guiding them effortlessly through their perfect day. How could the world remain so calm when his was falling apart?

Finally, the doors to the medical wing slid open with a soft hiss, and Eli stepped inside.

The sight that greeted him hit like a punch to the gut.

Sam lay motionless on a medical bed, her eyes closed, her skin pale under the sterile lights. Several doctors and technicians stood around her, their faces grim as they worked in tense silence. Wires and tubes connected her to machines that monitored her vitals, but there was no movement, no flicker of consciousness.

Sam was gone.

“W-What happened?” Eli’s voice was a whisper as he approached the bed, his heart pounding so loudly it drowned out everything else.

Dr. Harding stepped forward, his typically calm demeanor gone, replaced with sorrow. “Eli, I’m... I’m so sorry. There was a malfunction during the procedure. Sam suffered severe neural damage. Her system didn’t integrate the upgrade properly. We don’t know why.”

Eli shook his head, refusing to believe it. “But… she was healthy. You said it was safe.” His eyes darted to the machines, as though willing them to change their readings. Please, just let her wake up.

“I know,” Dr. Harding replied quietly. “It was supposed to be safe. We’ve run this procedure countless times without issue. This… this has never happened before.”

Eli stood frozen, his gaze locked on Sam. Her chest rose and fell with the help of a machine, but there was no life in her, no spark of the person she had been.

She’s just sleeping, he told himself. She’s going to wake up.

But deep down, he knew that wasn’t true.

A hand on his shoulder broke through the fog of his thoughts. Eli turned to see Luke standing beside him, his face pale, his usual skepticism replaced with quiet sorrow.

“I told you something wasn’t right,” Luke whispered, his voice low and filled with regret. “There’s always a price for perfection.”

Eli couldn’t respond. His throat was too tight, his mind a whirlwind of confusion, anger, and grief. This wasn’t supposed to happen. This couldn’t be happening.

Luke stood silently for a moment, then placed his hand gently on Eli’s back. “Come on,” he said softly. “We need to go.”

For a long moment, Eli couldn’t move. He couldn’t tear himself away from Sam’s side, from the person who had been so full of life just hours ago. But eventually, with Luke’s guidance, he let himself be led out of the room.

---

The cool air outside Nexus Corp did nothing to clear Eli’s mind. The world felt too bright, too perfect. People walked past them on the spotless streets, their faces serene, unaware of the tragedy that had just unfolded inside. Drones buzzed overhead, maintaining the city’s facade of perfection.

Luke lit a cigarette, exhaling a cloud of smoke into the crisp air. “You can’t stay quiet about this,” he said finally. “This isn’t just some malfunction, Eli. Something’s wrong.”

Eli looked up at him, his mind still reeling. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Nexus. They’re not telling us everything. There’s more to these upgrades than we know. Sam’s proof of that.”

Eli shook his head. “She... she trusted them. We trusted them.”

“I know,” Luke said, his tone softening. “But now we have to find out what’s really going on.”

Eli sat down on a nearby bench, his head in his hands. He had never questioned Nexus before—never thought to. But now, with Sam lying in that bed, he couldn’t ignore the growing suspicion that Luke might be right.

“How do we even start?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Luke sat beside him, the tension in his body finally easing as he spoke. “We start by digging into the data. There’s got to be a record of other incidents. If we can find out how many others this has happened to, we’ll have a case. Something that Nexus can’t hide.”

Eli looked up, meeting Luke’s gaze. “You think this has happened before?”

“I don’t just think it,” Luke replied grimly. “I know it.”

---

And so, as the perfect city of Cenopolis gleamed around them, Eli and Luke took their first steps toward uncovering the truth—toward unraveling the lie that had been carefully constructed around them for so long.

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