Ascension Exists |10,769 PCS|

The air was thick with static, humming with the promise of Ascension—the government’s proudest invention. They said it was liberation: upload your mind, shed the weight of flesh, and join the Infinite Network. No hunger. No disease. No pain. Billions had already gone.

She should have been eager. The line for processing curled around the city block, filled with gaunt, hopeful faces. But Mara’s cheeks were wet, her tears cutting clean tracks through the grime. Her older sister had gone up two years ago, smiling as the white light swallowed her, promising to wait. The calls came at first—strange, metallic, but loving. Then nothing. No replies. No trace.

Mara clutched the silver chit that marked her appointment. In the sky, drones pulsed like silent watchmen. Behind her, the city’s lower levels groaned under smog and poverty, the last place left for those who refused. The choice was simple, they told her: ascend… or vanish into the gutters of the unregistered.

The beacon flared again, bathing her in light. For the first time, she wished she could hate hope.