Hello World: (Tales From the Vault: Short Shocks 7)

Riley Kade thought she was done hearing things.

She was wrong.

Three days after the Harbor. Back at school. Headphones around her neck like a collar she doesn't fully trust anymore. The building's electrical hum hitting her engine-sense like a machine orchestra she can't turn off.

Then her earbud crackles.

A whisper. Thin. Static-cut. Half-broken.

"Riley."

She knows that voice.

She doesn't know if she should trust it anymore.

When the smartboard flickers and every screen in the building goes dark at once, Riley sees it. Plain white text in a system font. No animation. No scroll. Just sitting there like it had always belonged.

HELLO WORLD

The class thinks it's a hacker.

The coding kid thinks it's coding.

Riley can hear the rhythm underneath it. The kid-ugly, slightly broken, prank-signature beat that could only be one person.

Sam is still in the grid.

And something else just heard him knock.

Tales From the Vault: Short Shocks - Short, sharp, shocking tales from the shadow of the Seawall. Read them in an hour. Remember them forever.