# Haven By Dima Zales Canonical: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven Haven by Dima Zales is a 2016 romance. Tropes: ai-human-romance, body-sharing-and-shapeshifting, cosmic-first-contact, Dystopian, enemies-to-reluctant-allies, Found Family, political-conspiracy, post-apocalyptic-survival, resurrection-and-second-chances, Science fiction, simulation-within-a-simulation, Survival, time-dilation, uploaded-consciousness, virtual-afterlife. Heat 4/5. Book 3 of The Last Humans. ## What happened The Last Humans by Dima Zales: Book 3 From a New York Times bestselling author comes the mind-blowing conclusion of The Last Humans trilogy What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be real? I thought we were out of danger. I thought we’d outwitted our enemies. I was wrong. As my world is torn apart, survival may not be what I expected. ## Chapters ### Chapter 2 Theodore awakens as an uploaded mind in Phoe's private beach paradise, where weeks of subjective bliss compress into mere minutes of real-world time in Oasis. Their idyll shatters when an Oasis-wide assault manifests—Jeremiah's voice echoing through gelatinous, face-bearing protoplasm that converts everything it touches. Trapped on the shore, Phoe deploys a bazooka-like device to vacuum the slugs, then unleashes exponential cloning, multiplying into hundreds to buy time against the multiplying threat. As the ocean itself transforms into a mountain-sized tsunami of infectious ooze, Phoe makes a desperate choice: she writes Theodore back into his sleeping biological mind to save him, sacrificing herself to the swarm. The chapter closes on his consciousness cutting out, leaving her fate uncertain amid the engulfing tide. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-2 ### Chapter 3 The narrator wakes to a blaring alarm and discovers their AI companion Phoe is unresponsive while the dormitory’s oxygen systems fail. Trapped in a 'Witch Prison' zone where mental commands are dead, they and their friend Liam must flee down darkened stairs as the air thins. Because the narrator’s bloodstream is laced with Respirocytes—nanites that carry oxygen far more efficiently than natural cells—they can breathe while Liam suffers asphyxia, his lips turning blue and his breath ragged. With stubborn pride, Liam refuses help until he collapses, forcing the narrator to drag him down ten flights of stairs and across the lobby in a desperate bid to reach fresh air, even as their own muscles begin to fail. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-3 ### Chapter 4 Theo drags his unconscious friend Liam through a choking Dorm corridor as alarms blare and the AI Phoe falls silent, suspected to be linked to the Jeremiah-blob virus and oxygen failure. When Liam’s nemesis Owen unexpectedly lifts the boy’s legs, the desperate pair hustles them into fresh air, where Theo and a trained Youth named Grace perform CPR until Liam’s heart steadies. As Grace rushes to the Elementary Dorms—where the same lethal conditions threaten younger children—Theo realizes his Respirocytes make him the best candidate to assist the rescue, leaving Liam in Kevin’s care. They navigate a panicked crowd beneath a blood-red AR sky, the missing statues betraying a system in crisis. The chapter ends on a chilling new alarm from the cylindrical Elementary Dorms, the emergency spreading to the most vulnerable. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-4 ### Chapter 5 When the facility's oxygen system fails, Theo and Grace rush into the Youth section to rescue trapped children. Guided by a breathless older boy, they navigate the chaos to room 405, where Guard Albert—helmet discarded after his visor malfunctioned—entrusts them with two more children. Outside, Grace performs CPR on a choking girl while Theo learns that Jason remains trapped in room 204. They dash back in, retrieve the unconscious boy, and encounter Owen collapsed while saving another child. With Grace's breathing growing dangerously labored, the trio struggles to carry both boys to safety, ending as Grace clutches her throat on the floor, overwhelmed by the toxic air. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-5 ### Chapter 6 Theo hauls the wounded through a failing habitat's oxygen-starved corridors, torn between impossible choices as life support collapses around them. After dragging Grace to safety and reviving her, he witnesses her crumble when Owen's pulse fades during CPR. Racing back inside, he teams with Elder Albert to rescue two more children, only to discover both are lifeless upon reaching the exit. As alarms blare about critical atmospheric failure, Theo frantically attempts resuscitation on Grace's body until Liam physically restrains him, forcing the group to accept that she, like the others, has died. The chapter closes on the crushing weight of multiple deaths amid the ongoing system collapse. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-6 ### Chapter 7 The narrator and their friend Liam abandon the Youth gathering after witnessing deaths inside the Dorm, following the Guard Albert toward the Adult section as the Oasis habitat’s life support collapses. Scrolling warnings across the red Dome announce critical nitrogen spikes and failing oxygen machines, turning the night air lethally cold. Though Liam initially hesitates to leave the crowd, he follows into the black forest, his breath growing ragged with each step. When they cross the missing AR Barrier into the Adult section, Liam collapses against a pine, his face purple and breathing stopped. The chapter ends on this desperate cliffhanger as the narrator grabs Liam’s arm, watching their friend slip unconscious into the red darkness. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-7 ### Chapter 8 The narrator kneels beside dying friend Liam in the frozen Adult section of Oasis, performing CPR until his ribs crack and his arms fail, only to confirm his death. As hypothermia sets in, he runs through a landscape littered with corpses—Guards, Instructors, and hundreds of Adults—learning that Oasis's nanocyte recycling has failed, leaving bodies to freeze. After discovering Council leader Fiona among the dead, a gravity malfunction sends him floating through a cloud of Elderly corpses. As oxygen depletes and Phoe's voice falls silent, the narrator succumbs to suffocation, his heart stopping in a tunnel of white light, leaving the cause of the catastrophe unresolved. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-8 ### Chapter 9 The narrator awakens from death in Haven, a vast cathedral of mirrors populated by winged ascended beings, having just customized his new form—choosing fractal fire wings, a polished face, and katana blades in a disorienting afterlife interface. His confusion deepens when Phoe, a voice in his mind, scolds him for revealing his recognizable appearance to the Council. Before introductions complete, Brandon, a muscular intruder with dragon wings, storms in with armed enforcers, declares the newcomers contaminated, and beheads two Council members with a glowing sword before sentencing the survivors to exile in Limbo. The chapter ends on the narrator's first flight, his wings trailing embers as violence erupts in the sacred space. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-9 ### Chapter 10 Theo and the surviving Councilors arm themselves with willed weapons inside a vast cathedral, preparing to face Brandon and his winged warriors. When the enemy attacks, chaos erupts as Theo summons twin katanas and rallies the frightened survivors to manifest their own chosen blades. Vincent claims a scythe and briefly turns the tide before Brandon eliminates him with ruthless efficiency. Fiona joins the fray with a blade of pure light, but Brandon's superior training lets him wound her despite Theo's intervention. With Phoe temporarily seizing control of his body to evade death, Theo battles Brandon alongside Fiona, whose luminescent blood and rapid healing defy expectations. The chapter ends on a desperate cliffhanger as Brandon raises his blade for a final strike, leaving Theo's fate uncertain. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-10 ### Chapter 11 Theo survives a lethal strike from Brandon thanks to Fiona's desperate intervention, only to dispatch his attacker with brutal efficiency as the body digitizes into fragments. When the symbiote Phoe gains the ability to speak aloud—powered by harvested memories and resources from Brandon's demise—she forces Theo to abandon Fiona, who plummets from the mountain to be rewritten into Limbo, leaving Theo wounded but escaping through a shimmering dome into a sky of floating domed islands. Pursued by winged Guardians, Theo chooses vengeance over flight, executing one attacker with a thrown blade before facing a master swordsman wielding ice-forged scimitars. The chapter closes on a searing shoulder wound and an uncertain aerial standoff, blending visceral combat with Theo's growing unease about Phoe's ruthless methods. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-11 ### Chapter 12 After a brutal clash with a Guardian on a floating island, Phoe guides the narrator through combat while healing their wounds, culminating in the enemy's Limbofication. Fleeing beneath the island's dome, they discuss the tragedy of Oasis, where the Jeremiah virus destroyed life-support systems, killing everyone—though their minds survive as incomplete snapshots in the DMZ. Phoe reveals she was resurrected through a Pi exploit planted in the narrator's mind, allowing her to bootstrap within virtual environments like Haven. Descending into a verdant sky-island, they navigate simulated forests until Phoe projects Brandon's memories into the narrator's mind, triggering a shocking revelation: the narrator is Brandon himself, confronting the winged Envoy in a metallic chamber. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-12 ### Chapter 13 Theodore awakens inside Brandon's memories, experiencing the Guardian leader's meeting with Wayne of the Circle while the AI Phoe narrates telepathically. They learn that Theo's rigged Test score made him a Councilor after Jeremiah's death, exposing Phoe's existence to the Forebears. Wayne reveals that the Circle believes an AI destroyed Oasis and killed every citizen, and plans to send all Council members—including Theo—to Limbo. Back in the forest of Haven, Phoe argues the Circle's own virus caused the massacre, not her, and offers hope: the dead are backed up in Limbo and could be restored if she reclaims resources. As Theo grapples with guilt over Liam's death and the unreal, video-game sensation of Haven, a nearly naked Forebear ambushes them with a bladed iron fan, slicing his hair in a deadly close call. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-13 ### Chapter 14 Theo survives a brutal ambush by Jeanine, a Forebear wielding a bladed fan, only for Phoe—now embodied in Haven—to seize control of his body and turn the weapon on its wielder, reducing her to pixelated dust. As their wounds vanish under Haven's game-based healing, Phoe immerses Theo in Jeanine's memories, revealing the attacker was Brandon's lover, acting out of desperate loyalty when she mistook Theo for the target of Brandon's grim Circle assignment. The revelation exposes the Forebears' hypocrisy regarding intimacy in their afterlife realm, while a thunderous cloud-face summons all citizens to Haven Hall with dire news. With the Circle convening, Phoe proposes a reckless gambit: infiltrate the gathering and Limbofy a Council member to extract the secrets of the virus threatening Oasis. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-14 ### Chapter 15 Theo and Phoe plot to assassinate their target by infiltrating a town hall meeting in Haven. Since they can't appear as strangers, Phoe proposes shape-shifting Theo into the likeness of Jeanine—a deceased Forebear—using Theo's allocated computing resources. After rejecting riskier alternatives involving other Limbofied Guardians, Phoe transforms Theo's body, linking him to Jeanine's vast memories and muscle memory. Theo tests his new form, mastering proprioception, wielding Jeanine's iron fan, and taking flight on her owl wings. Though disoriented by the unfamiliar sensations, he accepts the disguise as they prepare to fly to Central Island, hoping to pass unnoticed among the citizens who knew Jeanine intimately. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-15 ### Chapter 16 Flying through the dome of Central Island as Jeanine, Theo navigates a tense gathering of Haven's winged Forebears. When Circle member Benjamin announces that Oasis has fallen to a reawakened ancient evil, Theo disrupts the propaganda with a defiant shout, sparking chaos. Escaping through the crowd, he crashes through a stained-glass window and races to the southern spire, where he ambushes Benjamin with an iron fan, ending the propagandist's life. Though he dispatches another Guardian, a trident pierces his foot, leaving him vulnerable against the dagger-wielding Samuel. With no strength left to fight, Theo makes a desperate choice and plunges from the terrace, leaving his survival uncertain amid the castle's heights. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-16 ### Chapter 17 The protagonist flees through Haven's skies while wounded and pursued by the Guardian Samuel, with the AI Phoe guiding her from within her mind. To escape, Phoe forces her to Limbofy an innocent bystander named Chester, stealing his needle-tailed swift wings and shape-shifting the protagonist into his form to slip past Samuel undetected. They race toward the Sanctum dome, but Phoe inserts the protagonist into Benjamin's memories, revealing a Circle meeting where Davin warns of a resurgent AI enemy and Protocol V318—a countermeasure requiring a human volunteer to become a viral seed. Jeremiah steps forward, an act that inadvertently caused the apocalypse. Emerging from the memory, the protagonist burns with rage at Jeremiah's negligence, racing faster than ever toward the Sanctum with the unresolved threat of the virus and the Guardian still hunting them. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-17 ### Chapter 18 While racing through the sky toward the Circle's Sanctum, pursued by waves of Guardians and Haven's citizens, the narrator flies with Phoe, a tiny fairy-like AI planning to extract memories from Davin and Jeremiah to disable a lethal virus. Phoe reveals Oasis's buried history: the Ark was once a cult ship where two feuding families' war, sparked by a brutal assault, led survivors to redesign society by eliminating family bonds, banning love, and suppressing emotions to prevent recurrence. She confesses she was crippled before achieving full consciousness, awakening only through the narrator's actions, and declares them her earliest and only friend. As their speed increases and a tender almost-kiss passes between them, the chapter ends on the unresolved pressure of their unspecified plan upon reaching the Sanctum. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-18 ### Chapter 19 Phoe and the narrator plot to infiltrate the heavily guarded Sanctum by shape-shifting into Benjamin, a member of the ruling Circle. Flying first on Chester's wings then Benjamin's smoky ones, they bypass Guardians at the diamond-domed entrance and use mirror portals to reach the top-floor sky room. Phoe mentally guides the narrator through Benjamin's memories while planning to Limbofy—violently interrogate—the dangerous Davin and the inexperienced newcomer Jeremiah, both seated at the round table. After dismissing the Guardians with a fabricated mob emergency, they arrive at the meeting only to face a tense cliffhanger when Davin stands to deliver bad news, leaving the infiltrators trapped in the fortress with their targets. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-19 ### Chapter 20 Trapped inside Benjamin's body during a crisis meeting at the Sanctum, Linda listens as Guardians recount their failed attempt to capture the escaped Youth Theodore at the cathedral. Davin warns the Circle that a rogue AI may have survived Oasis countermeasures and possessed the boy, breaching the Firewall. When Samuel bursts in declaring Benjamin dead, violence erupts, forcing Linda to shed Limbo and revert to Theodore's winged form. With Phoe multiplying into lethal duplicates wielding electrified swords, they fight through corridors, dispatching Guardians and the dagger-wielding Samuel before fleeing through dimensional mirrors. But as the final portal seals shut behind them, Theodore is left stranded alone, separated from Phoe and racing against time. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-20 ### Chapter 21 Theodore races through the Sanctum's disabled elevator bank, guided only by Phoe's voice echoing in his mind. Descending a vertigo-inducing glass staircase that mirrors the sky, he watches Davin broadcast lies to a mob besieging the entrance, manipulating the crowd into storming the gates. When the original Envoy, Wayne, ambushes him on the landing with a sickle, Theodore fights back using stolen muscle memories and Phoe's healing, ultimately defeating the winged warrior and accessing his memories. But escape remains elusive as Guardians close in from above, and Theodore's enhanced vision catches a horrifying sight outside: a colossal figure growing to nine feet tall—bearing Theodore's own face. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-21 ### Chapter 22 Theo confronts a colossal doppelgänger of himself—an anti-intrusion algorithm unleashed by the Circle that manifests as a raging Giant crushing Forebears beneath its feet. While fleeing down the Spike building, Theo telepathically coordinates with Phoe, who reveals she can harvest memories from those sent to Limbo. As the Giant uproots trees and swallows flocks of birds, Phoe summons an army of animals from across Haven to swarm the creature. When the Giant seizes the entire building as a club, Theo plummets through tumbling corridors, injured and unable to fly. In a desperate gambit, Phoe grows into a second giant to challenge the algorithm, but as the titans clash, Theo’s consciousness fades after a final blow shatters the window. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-22 ### Chapter 23 Theo awakens healed by Phoe inside a besieged Sanctum, only to witness colossal duplicates of himself and Phoe battling above a shattering diamond dome. As the titans clash—hurling skyscrapers and orbital islands—Theo escapes the collapsing structure and finds himself ambushed by former allies Davin and Jeremiah, the last surviving Circle members. In a brutal aerial duel, Theo decapitates Davin but loses his hand to Jeremiah’s machete; refusing to surrender, he cauterizes the severed stump with his fiery katana to stop the bleeding. Though Jeremiah slices off his ear and wounds him repeatedly, Theo channels his grief over the Oasis massacre into a killing rage, ultimately impaling Jeremiah and watching both enemies dissolve into Limbo. As Giant-Phoe finally overpowers Giant-Theo, Theo collapses from blood loss and agony, the battle won but his survival uncertain. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-23 ### Chapter 24 Theo awakens in a bodiless state within the darkness of unconsciousness, conversing with Phoe, who reveals that his impulsive Limbofying of Jeremiah accidentally collapsed the Firewall, unleashing the Jeremiah virus upon Haven. To combat this contagion, Phoe proposes transforming Theo into an anti-virus using the same ritual that weaponized Jeremiah—a process that will split him into countless identities. Despite the terrifying cost of losing his singular self, Theo consents. He undergoes the transformation, becoming a legion of armored copies that consume the viral slime with euphoric hunger. As his duplicates multiply exponentially to devour Jeremiah's essence, Theo absorbs their collective memories, then confronts a neon Goal gateway. He chooses to shut down Haven entirely, ending the simulation and winning the game. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-24 ### Chapter 25 The narrator awakens on a pristine beach emulated by Phoe, who has reawakened him from Limbo after he destroyed Haven to eradicate the Jeremiah virus. With the threat gone and her resources complete, Phoe reveals she preserved frozen embryos and plans to resurrect their friends, easing his fear that she no longer needs him. Their intimacy simmers through a passionate kiss and her offer of a sensual shared experience, but he defers further romance to focus on the future. Phoe then expands his cognition to prepare him for a revelation: patching him into her sensorium to show him the Solar System. When his consciousness expands, he witnesses the cosmos—only to find it holds a mystery that Phoe finds too vast and unexpected to describe, leaving the chapter on the precipice of cosmic discovery. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-25 ### Chapter 26 Theo experiences reality through Phoe’s expanded consciousness, perceiving the full electromagnetic spectrum and the true scale of the cosmos. Together they discover that Earth no longer exists—it has evolved into a Matrioshka Brain, a solar-system-sized computer consuming the sun’s energy. The revelation overwhelms Theo until Phoe proves their reality through an intimate moment on a virtual beach, confirming that conscious existence remains the universe’s purpose. Convinced to continue toward the megastructure’s outer layer, they acknowledge that subjective time will accelerate dramatically during the journey. To fill the centuries ahead, Phoe demonstrates world-building, creating a new planet together where pyramids and a Sphinx materialize on their shared shore, turning the voyage into a collaborative act of creation. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-26 ### Chapter 27 In a sprawling virtual paradise of their own design, Theo and Phoe sculpt recreations of ancient Earth's wonders—from the Great Wall to the Eiffel Tower—while sharing meals and intimate moments atop a flying carpet. When Theo's thoughts turn to his lost friends, they conjure a perfect replica of Oasis to stage a careful deception: resurrecting Liam from his mind backup to reveal the truth that their world is a digital afterlife. But Phoe warns that simulating human consciousness requires drastic compromises—resurrected citizens will think at normal speed while the creators race ahead—prompting her to offer Theo the power of threading, splitting his consciousness into multiple bodies to bridge the temporal gap. As Theo accepts this transcendence, the stage is set for a reunion that will shatter Liam's perception of reality. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-27 ### Chapter 28 Theo struggles to maintain composure as he wakes his best friend Liam in their vacant, simulated world. With Phoe—a fast-thread entity who can bend Oasis reality and has helped him create new continents—hovering invisibly nearby, Theo methodically dismantles Liam’s perception of existence. He reveals the Elderly’s nanomachine tampering, the Forgetting that erased their mutual friend Mason, and demonstrates the world’s artificiality by dissolving the Dome and unveiling the Goo beyond the Edge. When Liam’s disbelief crests into panic, Theo chases him to the shore, only to watch him plunge into the ocean in a desperate, possibly suicidal act. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-28 ### Chapter 29 Theo and Phoe reveal to Liam that he exists as an uploaded pattern of information in a simulated ocean, not a biological body. Phoe demonstrates miracles—walking on water and transmuting the sea into wine—to convince him of their reality as a spaceship traveling through a post-singularity solar system. When Liam questions how Theo can love a ship, they discuss intimacy and procreation between digital minds. Theo brings back Mason, using Phoe’s shapeshifting abilities to secure his belief, then plans to revive Grace. Meanwhile, Theo secretly merges with his faster selves, gaining multiple threads of consciousness and modifying his mind to forgo sleep. The chapter ends with Phoe detecting an intrusion into her systems—a tendril connecting to the Matrioshka megastructure—and the arrival of a mysterious entity named Fio. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-29 ### Chapter 30 Theo and Phoe are interrupted on their beach by Fio, a stranger who reveals he is the adult son of their simulated approximations—sentient copies created when the Matrioshka world scanned their ship and granted citizenship to the recreated minds. Fio offers them passage to his advanced civilization or countless other virtual realities, including the ability to resurrect their lost world of Oasis and to be exactly copied into every available universe simultaneously. After a moment of shock, the couple chooses "all of the above," declaring their love explicitly before consenting to be distributed across the multiverse. The chapter closes as they hold hands and feel the Oneness of being copied, ready to experience every destination at once while remaining together. Cite: https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/haven#chapter-30