“Run! Run! Run!” the bow sawed the sky.

  Cooper ran through the city on his legs, lungs, heart, but mostly mind. The surround sound infused him with an energy that ignited the heat, then the storm, then the guts to do whatever he wanted, whatever the outcome might be. A compulsion to keep going took over, increasingly irresistible over time.

  When it came to speeding for the sheer thrill of the spree, he forgot his physical limits. His breath stung, muscles burned, heart thumped dangerously close to detonation. Billions of cells beat in single mindless pursuit. He couldn’t stop, even at the edge of physical harm.

  When it came to harm though, his chasers suffered the same. They were his lone chance to get away, should they give out, before he never would.

  “Come and catch me!” Cooper baited the Circuit in a provocative jeer, spouting off quality insults inaudible in the noise. Wasted!

  He couldn’t yell any louder than that. He could barely breathe, yet somehow kept up his taunting. Regardless, it was crucial to keep going and advance every action already in progress, even as he tried to quit and stop it.

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  He continued running and baiting, “You know that I know that you’re suffering the same as me, but maybe even more! You’re going to give out soon, so why not give up sooner and get it over with?”

  “Believe me, I’m unbelievably annoying! You don’t want me falling into your hands!”

  Cooper blundered into a thick maze of stationary alleys and partition walls. He snaked the complex webwork superimposing the tenements.

  Whenever he reached a sector blockade, he gathered his strength to scale it. Vault over the top! Fall down the far side!

  Once, he slammed the ground two levels below, where the alley sank deeper ahead. The impact hit hard. The backlash hurt.

  The buoyant freefall was worth the weight of the plunge jolting his long bones in shockwaves. Up and running with a leap from a spin, Cooper ran off the aftershocks.

  The chant called for him to run, run, run!

  So he ran headlong and carefree!

  But even as it chanted to run faster run farther, he ran point blank into a wall. He fought to flee a runaway madness, but the orchestra hacked madly alongside.

  Aiming to stop, he sped up to strike the wall harder. He struck with a sharp stab, not nearly harmful enough, and rebounded in a second.

  Vaulting over, he slipped down a high rampart. At its base, he plopped into a puddle, unable to run on at last.

  Cooper crashed against the slick, wet, sparkling tiles. Even in its background webwork, the city modeled fractals of beauty, slippery at every scale.