“Sister Teresa!”

  “Are you okay? Oh no!”

  “Lucia!”

  “That’s Sister Lucia for you, Sister Clarence,” Sister Teresa’s sharp tone instantly silenced the swarm of worried nuns.

  “Apologies, Sister. I was only overcome by worry.”

  Sister Lucia bit her cheek to hold in a laugh. Sister Clarence, so easily flustered and dramatic, was known for constantly landing on the wrong side of the head nuns.

  “Come on, let’s help her up now and get her out of here, Sisters.”

  At once, a dozen hands grabbed at her. The force sent her lurching forward into the arms of those crammed at the ambulance doors. In seconds, the knees of the younger nuns buckled and they all toppled onto the pavement in a heap of giggles, gasps, and shrieks.

  “Sister Nancy, get off my face!”

  “My head!”

  “Sisters, calm down!”

  Sister Lucia couldn’t help but peek at the chaos, amused by the array of animated expressions. It had been a while since she’s seen her peers so lively.

  She caught herself smiling, then quickly feigned illness, but not fast enough. Sister Clarence had already caught her. But before Lucia could panic, Clarence gave a conspiratorial wink making Lucia almost snort a laugh.

  “Oh no, Sisters! Sister Lucia has fallen, please help her up! For all the sake of the bound words, how can we let Sister Lucia fall over like this?!”

  Sister Clarence was dramatic to a fault. After several minutes of separating tangled limbs, the nuns got back on their feet. Sister Lucia leaned subtly on Sister Clarence’s shoulder.

  “Good to see you, Sisters,” came Restor’s voice, halting all conversation like a forbidden chant. The young nuns turned to Sister Theresa, unsure how to respond to a human.

  Sister Teresa sighed.

  “To know we’ve raised a bunch of socially inept individuals is... disappointing,” she only whispered to herself, but Sister Lucia caught it.

  “Please, Restor, thank you for your service. You may return to your…position now.”

  Restor bowed awkwardly and slid back into the ambulance driver’s seat. The vehicle departed, leaving the sisters to regroup.

  ”Alright, into the infirmary, you two,” Sister Teresa instructed the supposedly injured and the helper.

  “What about us?” Sister Cathy asked, tall and statuesque.

  “Why you all came down here is beyond me...”

  “The instructions said they needed six hands,” offered Sister Lady, a sixth-year with a high-pitched voice.

  “And since humans have two hands, how many sisters would that be, Sister Lady?”

  “Um…” She paused, then brightened. “Three.”

  “Wonderful. At least mathematics class wasn’t a waste. Sister Cathy, have the prompter update the protocol to say ‘three sisters.’”

  Sister Cathy, her ginger curls peeking from underneath her veil, nodded with purpose.

  *

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  The convent stood at the far eastern edge of the mega cluster. Since the emergency drop-off was on the western end, rather than the usual East end bus terminal entry, Lucia feigned exhaustion barely a mile in before they all transferred onto a conveyor belt that would carry them to the convent doors.

  Encased in glass, the belt hushed the group. Even the chattiest nuns fell silent. Outside, the tall, abandoned metal structures loomed like ghosts, their hollow shells blinking a faint red. A reminder that once this zone pulsed with power. Now it stood still.

  The conveyor belt drew closer to the east end. A familiar outline emerged; the convent grounds.

  The convent’s original four-foot gates were purely symbolic now, marking an aesthetic boundary more than any real one. Beyond them, newer walls towered high, built to contain human life and shield it from the constant hum of the server farms that once dominated the land. These days, the hums had faded.

  Word was, a handsome governor once fell in love with a nun here a decade ago. Moved by her sensitivity to sound, he ordered the entire server fleet relocated underground to spare her ears. The younger nuns adored the tale. Despite their devout beliefs, a good love story still had power, especially in whispered bedtime versions passed between bunks.

  The aboveground structures abandoned back then still remained, serving as ghostly reminders. Empty. Monumental. Unsettling.

  They fueled endless horror stories in the convent.

  “What was that?!” Sister Lady flinched, whipping her head around.

  The others followed.

  Only the low, steady rumble of machines beneath the ground answered.

  “Stop it!” Sister Cathy nudged her, breaking the silence, letting the group relax.

  “You sisters need to stop coming up with such abhorring stories to entertain yourselves. Horror stories are only fiction, and fiction goes against our faith,” Sister Leon grumbled. Always wound tight, Sister Leon found offense in almost everything.

  The girls looked to Sister Teresa walking a few feet ahead. Sister Teresa’s silence in the matter meant either she hadn’t heard or she didn’t care to address the breach of doctrine.

  “Always such a rule follower,” Sister Clarence whispered into Lucia’s ear.

  Lucia smiled. “As if you are not one yourself.”

  Sister Clarence bumped her playfully. “Only because you’re such a stickler.”

  Lucia grinned. “More than Sister Pompous Leon?”

  Thankfully, being at the back of the group hid their chatter.

  “Oh no. No one can beat Pompous.”

  They stifled their laughter as the conveyor belt came to an end. The nuns quickly hopped off, maintaining their orderly line to the convent gates.

  There was a moment of darkness as they passed through the separating structures. They left behind the dim industrial glow of the cluster and entered candlelight.

  Flickering flames cast warm hues on marble walls and glossy floors. The main convent building was pristine and serene, one of the reasons visiting pilgrims adored it. A sanctuary against the grime outside.

  The hallway opened to a large room. The nuns paused before Sister Teresa formally dismissed them. They quickly dispersed to their quarters, leaving Lucia and Clarence to follow the head nun.

  They passed through the main building into the courtyard, faintly silver under the moonlight. Despite the mega cluster’s heat, the night air here was cool. It grounded Lucia. She could breathe.

  The adjacent building was home for the senior nuns. No nun under the ranking of a superior was allowed in there. The younger nuns often fantasized of what was so secretly held in that building. Portals to the cities, dungeons of forbidden artifacts, grand fireplaces with archival libraries, or chocolate fountains by every bedside. The imagination of ideal minds always ran wild.

  Sister Theresa suddenly stopped. Lucia and Clarence nearly bumped into her.

  “Sister—” Sister Clarence began.

  “Hush,” Sister Teresa ordered.

  They froze. Something had clearly unnerved the head nun.

  “Sister Clarence, take Sister Lucia to the infirmary. Stay there tonight.”

  “Should I not return to my quarters?”

  Sister Teresa glared. “No. Stay with her.”

  “But Sister Portia won’t like—”

  “Clarence! Do as I say.”

  Sister Clarence nodded then held Sister Lucia tighter and scurried off. Lucia opened her eyes once they turned the corner and glanced back.

  Sister Theresa still stood in the courtyard, staring silently up at her own quarters.

  “What happened? Why did she send us away?” Sister Lucia asked.

  “I don’t know. She just told me to go.”

  “I know that, idiot. But why?”

  Sister Lucia stopped planting her feet firm on the ground. Clarence tugged her forward.

  “What are you doing?! We’ll get in trouble.”

  “Why did she freeze like that? Did you see something? Did she?”

  “Stop it, Lucia. We need to go!”

  Lucia wasn’t one to seek trouble. She followed the rules, whenever she could. But seeing Sister Teresa frozen there, alone in the dark courtyard, staring up at her own window…

  Something was wrong.