Nazar woke up in a body that had no right to be called a body.
The first thing he felt wasn't pain.
It was hunger.
Nazar began counting automatically.
One—the ground was wet.
Two—his hand had too many fingers.
Three—the teeth in his mouth belonged to someone else.
Four—he was still capable of thought, which meant panic could wait.
He had always done this. At the hospital, he counted the drops in Lia's IV pump. In supermarket lines, the backs of strangers' heads. On bad days, the seconds between Lia's breaths.
Count something, and for a moment it pretended to be under control.
Nothing here was pretending.
This wasn't human hunger. Not I could really go for some bread.
Something else.
Low. Wet. Humiliating.
As though a small animal had moved inside him and no one had bothered to explain morality to it.
He opened his eyes.
The sky was black.
But it wasn't night.
The sky was a screen.
Advertisements drifted slowly across it.
EDENWORKS PRESENTS: THE AFTERLIFE HUNT
PREMIUM SESSION ACTIVE
VIEWERS: 184,203
Nazar jerked upright.
His hands sank into the wet ground.
Except they weren't hands.
The fingers were too long. The skin was gray and thin, threaded with translucent veins of code. Tiny blue symbols flickered beneath it like insects trapped under ice.
"What..."
The voice that came out wasn't his.
Hoarse. Dry. Animal.
A notification flashed across his vision.
INITIALIZATION COMPLETE
FORM: ZERO
ROLE: PREY UNIT
VALUE: MINIMAL
MEMORY WIPE: PENDING
Nazar froze.
"No."
He remembered the room.
Lia.
Her thin arm with the catheter taped to it.
The medical bill glowing on the tablet screen.
The EdenWorks contract.
The fine print.
His signature.
Posthumous participation.
He had joked about it at the time.
"Well, if they turn me into an office printer after I die, at least I'll finally be useful."
Lia had laughed.
Then started coughing.
And he had signed.
YOU ARE READING
ZERO FORM
Science FictionNazar sold his afterlife to EdenWorks to pay for his dying sister's treatment. Now he has awakened as a Zero Form-a disposable prey unit created for the entertainment of wealthy subscribers. Legally, he is no longer human. He is a contract, an asset...
