The throbbing pain at the back of my skull made me swear. I raised a hand to it and rubbed the area, trying to endure it better. It felt as if I had fallen violently and my skull had echoed through my entire brain! I frowned and opened my eyes, with difficulty. I had never slept for long, but I was convinced that whenever I did, it brought me back to this state. I felt heavy, yet my head was painfully light, and lifting my eyes required a superhuman effort.

And then, there was so much noise. The alarm hadn’t gone off yet, and yet everyone was awake judging by the racket! Seriously, had they all suddenly decided that five in the morning wasn’t early enough? Annoyed by the din forcing its way through my battered mind, I turned my head toward Break and Ivan’s cell. But… nothing. No cell. I blinked for a long time, rapidly. Was I dreaming? I brought a hand to my eyelids, brushing them, chasing away what I thought were hallucinations.

But dreams happen when you’re asleep, and I didn’t remember any. What I had in front of me… was anything but a dream. Fuck… What… what the hell was this mess?

I sat up quickly, my gaze running absolutely everywhere. What… what had happened already? How had I ended up here? And where was “here”? What was in front of me? It had the dizzying, infinite height of the prison cells, but it was nothing more than a smooth metal wall, without any grip. There was only one opening, a door, facing me, and I had to reach it by crossing the staircase. I…

No. Actually, I was trapped between two walls, identical ones, which seemed to have no end upward, no end downward, no end to the right, and no end to the left. And between them, on different levels, were the same staircases I found myself standing on. On each of them… there was someone. There were no screams, no questions, and I recognized in that calm the prisoners of SOTA Prison. We were noisy beasts, but when faced with shocking situations, silence ruled.

All prisoners. Suddenly, I remembered Jill; him and his words. I was no longer in prison. The only exit was in front of me, and all I had to do was move forward. I was alone, and if I followed what he had said, what I would find on the other side would be different from everything I had ever known. I had no choice. It was move forward and adapt or jump and die. Break and Ivan were no longer by my side, and my first instinct at that thought was to touch my neck.

I felt the collar Jill had installed. Whatever I was going to find on the other side, he had deemed it necessary to protect that area. I therefore had a fairly good idea of what my situation was going to be from now on. I sighed loudly before taking a deep breath. Having known nothing but prison wasn’t going to help me, but I didn’t have many other alternatives. I cast a glance into the void. Jumping meant ending up as a pancake of intestines. And I wasn’t really into being a pancake…

So I moved forward. The metal beneath my feet echoed, and I thought I heard the same sound on both sides of this place. The others had started moving as well. Who knew what I was about to discover.

Make myself likable.

Attract attention.

Those were Jill’s instructions and… “they’ll help you.” At the top of the staircase, I found a packed piece of fabric. I opened it and discovered food and water, or whatever came closest to that. I searched for suppressors, without success. Jill hadn’t lied: there was nothing. So if that part was true, why not the rest as well?

It was true, he had given me something. I searched my gray suit for it. They might have removed it when they dropped me here, but… no. I found the small metal card he had given me. The small white geometric rabbit… I had to look for it. I put it back into my pocket and threw the bag over my shoulder.

Look for the symbol.

Say I come from Jill.

I stepped through the door. It was perfectly suited to my height and width. White recessed lights in the ceiling illuminated the path, and at the end of the tunnel, a bright light awaited me. Maybe it was death… My steps would tell. Leaving the narrow corridor, I was faced with… nothing could have prepared me for this. I didn’t know exactly where I was, but I recognized the shape of the place. That titanic height was still present, and no matter how I looked at it… it was a massive upright rectangle, if one ignored its ridiculously vast dimensions.

On different levels were those I had seen before, and our staircases intertwined. Ah shit, it was a fucking labyrinth. And that was without mentioning all the levels filled with people. There was life here. There were no guards, no prison uniforms, no cells. There were free men, dressed differently from me, and areas made of sheet metal and steel, illuminated by that white light. There was no color, like in prison, but it was different.

I raised my head, searching for the only thing I knew: the window. And to my great surprise, it was there. Towering higher than the last levels could reach, and the same star was shining. So it was night. Who knew how many days I had spent unconscious. Who knew how many days had passed. And all these people…

Trust none of them.

Use them.

That was how I was going to survive.

The attention was on us—the newcomers to this place—all prisoners. If I’d been able to doubt it at first, now nothing could have been more certain: our outfits spoke for us. Those who were already here were curious. Novelty was always intoxicating.

So this was where those who served their sentences ended up. Everyone I saw… they had all once been like us. I could survive if I understood the rules of this new place. First rule: I couldn’t be seen as a target. There were already leaders here, and newcomers were always prey. It was the law of the strongest. If Jill was telling the truth, I had a bag of basic supplies for this month, but once those thirty days were over, I’d be on my own. Theft would be common currency here.

I had to stay on my guard. I knew nothing. Was murder allowed? What were the limits of this new “world”? I would learn. I had no choice but to adapt.

So I climbed the steps, determined.

First: find the white rabbit. I didn’t need to trust them—just to have some kind of support to start learning. So… here we go.

Climbing the staircases, I quickly reached one of the levels. The number nine appeared in large form, written by a strange play of light. I rose onto my toes and passed my hand through it. My hand went straight through. And I remembered what Break and Ivan had told me. If everyone who arrived at SOTA lost their memory, it only concerned where they came from. They remembered colors and technology, but not where those things were used.

Break had explained that he remembered light playing an important role. It was some kind of… holography or… hologram. Or at least something close to it. Now I understood. I lowered my hand back to my side and continued on my way. There were “writings” everywhere. If the number nine indicated the level I was on, the rest mostly pointed toward different locations. I had never known any of this, unlike the others from the prison—but it had been taught to me.

Growing up in prison meant learning from the biggest criminals. Many of them had taught me things, right down to the most basic ones: commerce. Places where things were sold. Incredibly simple. Obviously mundane. But for me, it was nothing like anything I’d ever known. I should probably thank those bastards for their lessons. Yeah. I owed them that much. But even so, nothing they’d ever told me prepared me for the rest.

Aside from the looks aimed at me, filled with curiosity at the novelty—which wasn’t really a problem… it was huge. This place was immense. How was I supposed to find the symbol of a rabbit? Even that was minor. I’d find it eventually, even if it took several days. The real obstacle was the smells—the pheromones. Before today, I’d never smelled them. Suppressors had always kept everyone in check, and even if a few whiffs had occasionally slipped through, never like this.

Here, everyone’s pheromones were free. It was… every single one of them tickled my nose. That shit gave me a headache. Break and Ivan would have known how to deal with it. But without them, all I could do was endure it. I didn’t know if I could latch onto one scent to free myself from the others. I could sense some that were more pleasant than others, but how was I supposed to focus on them when the rest were assaulting me?

Worse still, I wasn’t being targeted. You didn’t need to be a genius to realize that everyone here just lived their lives and didn’t give a damn about what they released. The problem was that I came from a place where it had always been repressed to the point of near nonexistence. I was the problem. I stopped for a brief moment. My head was spinning. I leaned against the railing, bending over it, bracing myself for possible nausea. If I threw up here, everyone below would get a shower.

And then, like a rookie, my bag was yanked from me. I growled, deeply annoyed. Of course it happened. And who knew how long that dog had been tailing me, waiting for the right moment. Pushing the nausea aside, I chased after him. Shoving a few people out of my way, I didn’t stop. But… the little shit was fast. Fuck! He slipped through the crowd like a real snake. I clearly wasn’t going to catch him like this.

I looked around, searching for anything I could throw—something heavy enough to hurt. Fate smiled on me. There, on a stall, a heavy metal ball gleamed brightly. It was calling to me. But… that was stealing, right? Was it better to steal or starve for a month? Who knew when I’d find that damn rabbit! If I had to survive until then… I needed food. And if stealing sent me back to prison… was that really so bad?

Ha. No. I didn’t give a damn.

I grabbed the small ball from the stall. The guy behind it shouted in outrage and hurled insults at me, but I didn’t care. My food was getting away! I climbed onto the railing. In the middle of the crowd, there was only one person running. The culprit. I aimed. In prison, those who finished eating the fastest had to find ways to entertain themselves. Some became targets, others shooters. I hadn’t thought it would be useful here, but… I threw it.

Bullseye.

I let out a victorious shout. The sphere was heavy. It had been heavy in my hand, so when it struck the thief’s skull, he collapsed instantly. I lunged after him again, the merchant right behind me. But something I hadn’t expected happened: an explosion. I stopped short. Was that… oh fuck… I stumbled back a few steps, and with a wet sound, an arm slammed down at my feet. The explosion had… I didn’t know how many were dead. Was it me?

The next second, a rain of blood came crashing down on us. All eyes turned toward the blast zone, and I swallowed hard. Was it the sphere?

A body slammed into me and pinned me to the ground. I recognized the merchant’s voice. My face was forced down, unfortunately pressed against the torn-off arm. I didn’t try to struggle. I had no idea what had actually happened.

"Fuck, you’re going to pay for this, newbie!"

And I didn’t know whether he meant the theft or the rain of corpses.

"Hey, get off him, old man. We’ll take care of this."

Great. And who was this now? I didn’t bother hiding my irritation. As if losing my food wasn’t enough. The weight on my back disappeared, and I was free to move again. I sat up, brushing chunks of bloody flesh off my incredibly glamorous outfit.

"That was one hell of an explosion. It’ll get you noticed—so well done."

I lifted my head toward the voice. My brain stopped working for several long seconds at the sight of the two figures standing in front of me. They weren’t human… not exactly. Their gray skin, their scars… and yet they were alphas. The surrounding scents vanished, overwhelmed by theirs. But more than that, my attention was drawn to the rabbit mask worn by the taller one. I let out a brief, euphoric laugh and pulled the small card from my pocket. I showed it to them. They exchanged a look, and the one without the mask knelt in front of me.

There were scars on his fingers. On his entire body, really. His smile was wide—wider than any I’d seen before; his canines were sharp, just like all of my own filed teeth; and his pale yellow eyes were slit. Yeah. Definitely not human.

"Jill sent me."

He laughed and nodded.

"Jill. Our dear Jill!"

He shared a complicit laugh with the one wearing the mask—or almost, since the masked one didn’t laugh.

"You come from the prison."

Wow. Such sharp insight…

"Is it my prison uniform that gave it away, or my stunning face you’ve never seen around here?" I mocked.

He took the small card from my hand and waved it with amusement.

"Not exactly, but…"

He picked up the arm from the ground and examined it closely. After several long seconds, his attention returned to me. He then shook the limb, mimicking a greeting. The smile he gave me was macabre. This guy… or whatever he and his friend were… was insane. A dog of the worst kind. I shivered under his gaze and under the insistent stare of the masked one as the first “welcomed” me.

"Welcome home, my little rabbit."