I'll Follow You Down -

"I know," he said, the weight of the miles above them finally feeling light. "I told you. Wherever you go, "

He looked into the abyss. It was a throat of twisted metal and steam, miles deep. Most people spent their lives looking up at the spires, dreaming of the sun. Elias only cared about the shadows. "Then I’m changing direction," he said. He stepped off the ledge. I'll Follow You Down

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. "I know," he said, the weight of the

"She is lost," the drone insisted. "Gravity is a one-way street, Elias." It was a throat of twisted metal and steam, miles deep

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."

Eventually, the vertical tunnels opened into a vast, silent cavern. At the center sat an old atmospheric processor, humming with a soft, bioluminescent glow. And there, sitting on a heap of scrap, was Lena. She was covered in grease, her eyes fixed on a small, green sprout growing from a crack in the floor—the first real life Elias had seen in years.

"She’s not a statistic," Elias muttered, his voice muffled by the mask.