Page 119 of Immersed
Asher assessed the distance with a quick glance.“It’s too far.”
He’sright.The platform tilted with the rest of the room, and they began to slide in earnest toward the waiting press.
“Asher!”Levi gasped as Asher’s grip on his arm faltered.
Asher fought against the pull of gravity, twisting his body to stay with Levi. Their hands found each other amid the tumult, fingers interlocking with desperate strength.
The plates moved inward around them. Levi felt the cold metal against his back and chest, pressure building as the space continued to shrink.
Asher’s grip on his hand remained firm even as their bodieswerecompressed. Therewasa quiet acceptance in his expression, the fear replaced by something like peace.
“I’ll find you again,”Asher said, voice steady despite the grinding metal closing in around them.“I always do.”
The plates continued their advance, the pressure becoming unbearable as they compressed the space smaller and smaller. Levi’s vision began to dim at the edges, his body screaming in protest against the crushing force.
His last conscious thoughtwasof Asher’s hand in his, the one point of warmth and connection in a world of cold, impersonal metal. The one constant in this nightmare of death and rebirth.
Then the plates snapped shut, and darkness claimed him once more.
41
Permadeath
Levifelthandsonhis body before he opened his eyes. Fingers trailed down his chest and stomach, then slipped beneath the hem of his shirt to trace the curve of his ribs. Then the memory came back: the chamber, the tilting floor, the crushing plates closing in from all sides.
The sensation of being compressed into nothingness.
His eyes snapped open to find Asher looming over him, studying him with unsettling intensity. They were in a small,dimlylit room lined with monitors—a security office of some kind. He was lying on a narrow cot, Asher kneeling beside him, hands still exploring as if confirming every part of Levi had returned intact.
“You came back to me.”Asher smiled.
Levi tried to sit up, but Asher’s other hand pressed down on his shoulder.
“We need to check if everything still works,”Asher said, the hand on Levi’s chest sliding lower, slipping beneath his waistband.
“Stop,”Levi protested, grabbing Asher’s wrist.“We need to figure out where we are first, find the others—”
“I’ve been patient,”he said, voice dropping to that register that seemed to vibrate through Levi’s chest.“We keep dying. Time is running out.”
The statement was odd. They died before, multiple times, and Asher had never said anything about time running out. Something had changed in him, some new fear driving his actions.
“We’ll have time,”Levi promised, keeping his tone steady.“After we’re safe. After we find the others.”
For a moment, it seemed Asher might ignore the deflection, his fingers digging into Levi’s shoulder.
“Fine,”he conceded, though the set of his jaw suggested the retreat was temporary.“Make sure we didn’t lose the key.”
Levi checked his pockets and breathed a sigh of relief as his fingers found the vial of Faine’s blood. “I still have the vial, so we just need to get the last two keys,”he said.“We need to figure out where we are and where the others are.”
Asher’s mouth curved in a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.“The others,”he repeated, an odd inflection in his voice.“Let’s see.”
The security office was small but well-equipped. A bank of monitors lined one wall, most displaying static but a few showing grainy feeds from various parts of the sanitarium. A control panel beneath the monitors allowed them to cycle through different cameras.
Levi grabbed the radio from his belt. “Jasper? Elliot? Maddie? Tyler? Anyone copy?”
Static hissed from the speaker, brokenoccasionallyby unintelligible fragments of speech. He tried again, adjusting the frequency.
”—copy,“came Jasper’s voice, distorted but recognizable.“Where are—location—”
