Piercing screams rose from the deep foundation pit below. This was the site of the Thirteenth District's new municipal council building. Construction had yet to begin, but the enormous pit was already piled high with rotting corpses.
Flies swarmed. On one side of the access passage, living people were still being pushed into the pit in an endless stream. Most were missing body parts; clearly, they had suffered horrific torture before being brought here.
Across the road from the foundation pit, in a neighboring high-rise, an oval conference table stood in the center of the thirteenth floor, surrounded by thirteen evenly spaced chairs.
"We can now confirm that whoever entered the city this time wasn't a Traveler. Another city must have infiltrated ours."
Someone occupied each chair. Their clothes and appearances differed, as though they came from different regions and observed different customs, but they shared one thing in common: each had their left hand chained to an iron box. They looked like prisoners, yet also like people who had willingly accepted imprisonment, trading their freedom for something else.
"Less than a week has passed since we issued the warning. Of the thirteen districts, every district except our Thirteenth District, the First District, the Second District, and the Fourth District has erupted in violent conflict. These outsiders seem particularly adept at provoking conflict and confrontation, fanning the flames everywhere they go. What a pack of menaces."
"We need to kill every last one of them as soon as possible."
"How are we supposed to kill them when we can't even find them? Only our Thirteenth District is taking this seriously. The other districts care only about themselves. Some of them are even working with the outsiders. They know there's something wrong with their identities, yet they're still willing to join