ZONEWALKERS :SECTION 2

"District 5, huh?" Kieran said with an easy grin. "We know where that is."

Thalia shot him a skeptical look, arms crossed. "Really? You know where District 5 is? How many districts even exist? What district are we in right now?"

Kieran snorted, throwing a glance at her. "Thalia, we've lived in this city our whole lives, so…yeah, we know where it is."

Jax exhaled sharply, his patience thinning. "Alright then, let’s move. We don’t exactly have unlimited time here—we’re still being hunted, in case anyone’s forgotten." He turned to look at Kieran. “Can you get us to District 5 or not?”

Kalduram chuckled, shaking his head. "Yeah, yeah. We can. Forgive my brother…he’s always been bad at playing well with others."

District 5 was a world away from the towering structures of the Coalition-controlled zones. It was a graveyard of the past, where old-world tech lay rusting, its neon flickers barely strong enough to light the narrow alleys. The air smelled of ozone and burning metal, resulting from decayed Pulse currents that had long since eroded the zone’s infrastructure.

Here, the Coalition’s control was weak. Enforcers rarely patrolled these streets, wary of the dangers lurking in the crumbling buildings. To them, District 5 wasn’t worth policing. It was a dumping ground, a no-man’s land where scavengers and Drifters, survived on scraps of forgotten technology and the black-market trade of stolen Pulse-tech.

Jax kept his hood low as they moved, following the brothers through the labyrinthine alleys. They weaved through tight corridors, ducking beneath collapsed structures and slipping into underground tunnels that only the locals seemed to know existed.

As they neared an abandoned market, a voice rang out from the shadows.

“Yo! Didn’t think I’d see you idiots again so soon.”

A young man stepped into view. His clothes were patched together with reinforced plating, worn but functional. His short, uneven dark hair barely concealed the streaks of white near his temples.

Kalduram grinned. "Still alive, Aiden?"

"Surprised me too," Aiden smirked, but his gaze quickly shifted to Jax and the others. Instead of suspicion, his expression showed something else—relief.

“Woah! I see you found what you were looking for.”

Kalduram smirked holding out his arm. “This…is the infamous Resistance and that…,” he said pointing towards Jax, “… is their leader.”

Aiden’s eyebrows shot up. "No shit." He reached out, gripping Jax’s hand in an eager shake. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you."

“Nice to meet you.” Jax politely shook his hand.

Aiden finally let go of Jax’s hand after a few minutes. "You guys came at the right time." His voice was low but urgent. "I need your help."

Aiden wasted no time explaining. There was a woman and her child, who was incredibly sick but they were refused authorization to the Zones because of some bogus credit inflation.

"I don’t have clearance to take them through an Arc Gate," Aiden admitted, frustration evident in his voice. "So the only way out is through the Rifts."

“The rifts?” Lila asked frowning.

"Yeah," Sam nodded, catching on. "I heard about them in my travels. They're unstable offshoots of Arc Zones, right? Like a piggyback system—using decayed Pulse energy to slip between Zones."

Aiden nodded. “ More or less, we call it Zonewalking.”

Zonewalking—the art of slipping between Arc Zones using unstable Pulse fissures. Unlike the Coalition's heavily monitored Arc Zones, Rifts were natural ruptures in space-time, uunstable remnants of decayed or malfunctioning Arc Zones.

The Arc Zones were designed to contain and regulate Pulse energy but over time, the older zones—like Arc 8, the Horizon Rift—had begun to collapse, leaving behind fissures where time and space twisted unpredictably. Unlike controlled portals, these Rifts were wild, unstable, and temporary. They could lead anywhere—or nowhere at all. Normally, these rifts were dangerous for normal citizens unless they were guided by the Children of the Light.

Jax knew these Rifts all too well. He can see the Pulse fissures when they occur enabling him to create portals instantly. His own portal ability wasn’t limitless—he needed these distortions to work. He could manipulate them, widen or redirect them, but creating one from nothing? It was impossible.

Kieran crossed his arms. "I’ve seen a lot of things, but I’ve never seen someone open a portal like you did back there, Jax." His gaze was calculating. "Even I can’t do that."

Jax narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Kieran smirked, jerking a thumb at Aiden. "We’re Drifters. We live off the scraps of Pulse energy the Coalition abandoned. We’ve figured out ways to stabilize Rifts long enough to move through them…but you?" He exhaled. "You don’t just open a Rift. You control it. That’s not normal."

Jax didn’t respond. He had no intention of exposing more than necessary.

Aiden pressed two fingers against his temple, grimacing. Blue sparks of Pulse energy flickered between his fingertips.

"The Rift in the Undercity tunnels is about to open." His voice was tight. "We have a small window before it collapses again. If we don’t get the woman and her kid through now, we’ll have to wait longer."

Thalia frowned. "And you’re sure this Rift leads somewhere safe?"

Aiden hesitated. "…Not exactly."

In truth that was the gamble. Zonewalking had no guarantees,

A Rift could spit you out in the right Zone—or in dead space, trapped between dimensions. This is why sometimes citizens who enter the rift never return.

And if a Rift collapsed while you were still inside?

You ceased to exist.

Aiden suddenly gritted his teeth, his body tensing. Veins along his temples pulsed erratically, glowing faintly with residual Pulse energy.

Kalduram patted his shoulder. "We call him a Pulse Compass…when his head starts pounding, we know a Rift’s about to open."

Aiden scowled. "Yeah, great ability. It feels like my skull’s being torn in half."

Jax studied him. "You can feel Rifts before they open?"

Aiden exhaled, rubbing his temple. "More like they make themselves known…pressure in my skull like something’s trying to break through. It’s not precise, but it gives us a head start."

Jax glanced toward Aiden. "How long do we have?"

"An hour. Maybe less."

Jax exhaled. The risks were high, but there was no other way. The Coalition wasn’t going to stop hunting them, and the woman and her child didn’t stand a chance on their own.

“Alright,” he said pulling his hood up. “We need to meet up with some of our friends first.”