Whatever followed Ethan still lurked in the shadows.
Eliya ran back to the lab. She stepped in quietly and hid in a corner, watching Dr. Lena.
Lena, still gripping the steel rod, was smashing the biosafety level cabinets like a madwoman. Her eyes darted across the countertop.
Smash! Smash!
She laughed hysterically, running across the lab room, crushing already shattered glass and kicking the shards, sending them flying.
Then, she walked into another section of the lab, out of Eliya's sight.
Eliya peeked out from her hiding spot. Though she couldn't see Lena, she could still hear the wild laughter echoing. So, she stayed put, still observing.
Lena ran into the virus culture room, her laughter trailing behind her. She was reminiscing thinking about the days when things weren't destroyed.
SHORT FLASHBACK INSIDE ANOTHER FLASHBACK
Lena saw herself sitting at a table, observing strands of DNA as she merged them with a virion inside a petri dish. The virion flickered.
"Hmmm. Progress. A sweet feeling," Lena said, smiling to herself.
She recoiled in satisfaction as the merging went well. Then, she carefully dumped some virus stock into a liquid nitrogen tank.
SHORT FLASHBACK ENDS – ZOOM OUT
Lena stood in front of the real nitrogen tanks, breathing heavily. Her eyes burned with emotion.
"I used these tanks to store them. I groomed them. I made the serum," she muttered, despair in her eyes, anger in her soul.
Eliya, still hiding, shook her head in disbelief. A deep pity swelled in her chest. She wished she could step in and calm Lena down but Lena had strictly told her to stay out. Nothing could calm her fury now.
Lena started hitting the nitrogen tanks with the steel rod. She knew they were empty.
Smash!
"They probably took everything... important or not," she hissed. "I had other projects. Everything... gone."
She raised the rod again and struck the tanks with fury.
Smash! Clash! Screech!
Clash! Clash! Scarpshhh!
Metal squealed and groaned under the force. With one last blow, the tank cracked open.
BOOM!
The tank burst apart, releasing a thick cloud of freezing nitrogen fog.
Shhhrrhh. Shhhh...
The fog hissed and simmered, flooding the lab with a freezing mist.
Eliya, hidden in another lab room, gasped. The sound of metal groaning and the fog creeping in made her heart sink.
"What was that?" she whispered.
She peered through the mist. "Damn. She broke the nitrogen tank."
As the dense fog filled the lab, it came into contact with Lena. Frost spread across her skin, giving her cryogenic burns. She gasped for breath, feeling the oxygen in the air drop sharply.
The nitrogen had displaced too much oxygen.
Lena wheezed, stumbling through the debris. Her skin burned. She coughed, inhaling the icy vapor.
On the other end, Eliya grabbed a face mask from one of the nearby cabinets. She slipped it on, her hands trembling. Peering through the freezing fog, she called out.
"Ma'am?"
She stepped forward slowly.
"Ma'am, are you there?"
Silence.
"Can you hear me?" she called again, fear rising in her voice.
She began to search through the cold mist, reaching out with her hands.
"Ma'am, if you hear my voice, please respond!"
No answer.
Lena lay somewhere in the fog, coughing, gasping. The cryogenic burns tore into her skin. Her lungs burned with every breath. She wheezed and coughed, curling in pain.
FULL FLASHBACK ENDS
GHOST CITY – EAST OF CINDERFALL, EARTH, YEAR 3065 - PRESENT DAY
A thunderous snore shook the garage of an abandoned auto shop.
The deep rumble vibrated through the air. It felt like something primal and massive was asleep inside.
Cambria Frost scavenged through the ghost city, searching through rubble and ruins for scrap. So far, she had found nothing.
"This is a waste of strength," she muttered, flexing her arms.
She activated a blue hologram from her android compass, scanning the map of the ghost city.
It marked a point within the map 'Jacky Auto Shop'.
She smiled.
"Oh Janko, you sure do know what I want. I hope it's just as you described," she said, remembering Janko's vivid directions at the pub.
Cambria adjusted her boots and took off running across the wasteland. Her tech-enhanced speed boots carried her over cracked earth and tangled barricades. Rusted metal, shattered glass, and collapsed buildings blurred past.
She reached the auto shop.
Another thunderous snore echoed, this time closer and more intense. The sound was so raw and deep it almost deafened her.
Her eyes narrowed. Something wasn't right.
She peered inside the garage and froze.
Laying in the garage, breathing heavily in its sleep, was a Shade. But not just any Shade.
The Shade Queen.
Cambria's heart skipped a beat. Janko's words rang in her ears.
"I hear tell of a Shade Queen... thirteen feet tall. Wears the skins of her enemies. Found her in the ghost city east of Cinderfall."
Cambria had never seen anything like this. Shades were always aggressive never sleeping, never still. This was new.
Still, she couldn't back down.
She scanned the garage and spotted her prize: heaps of scrap twisted car chassis, pulleys, springs, fan belts, wires, spare tools... a scavenger's treasure trove.
She hardened her face and leapt inside, landing softly with her tech boots. She moved like a ghost.
She began collecting the scrap with precision and silence, every clink making her freeze, every creak holding her breath. Still, the Shade snored on.
Just as she was about to leave, a loud clank echoed.
Not from her but from the Shade, shifting in its sleep. A piece of metal fell, striking a fan.
The noise was sharp.
The Shade stirred... and woke up.
Cambria froze. The Shade's red eyes snapped open and locked on her. It snarled and charged.
"I'm not here to fight!" Cambria shouted, dodging its massive swings.
But the Shade didn't care.
"You want food? Go to the river! Eat some damn fish!" Cambria said shouting at The shade "I can't be your meal, just here for some scraps" she continued talking while leaping out of the way again.
The Shade blocked the exit.
Cambria rolled, landing roughly as she dodged more blows.
Then, out of nowhere
Kaden's team burst in.
Kaden fired his assault rifle. Eliya launched chemical vials, splashing them on the Shade. The creature screamed as its skin sizzled.
"What the heck?" Cambria gasped, watching in awe as the chemicals burned the Shade's flesh.
"I need that in my weapon stash," she muttered.
"Get your ass out of the way! We're here to save you!" Eliya shouted, reloading.
The Shade staggered, but didn't fall.
Suddenly, Ryder burst in from the side, shooting arrows with deadly precision.
Cambria's eyes locked on him.
"Hey," Ryder said with a wink.
"What's with the 'hey, hey'? I'm Cambria Frost! I don't need saving like some princess!" she snapped.
"Then stop standing around and fight!" Ryder yelled, dodging the Shade.
"Oh, I will, arrow boy," Cambria smirked. "Time for revenge."
She yanked out a bundle of screwdrivers, connected with magnetic wires. She flung it, striking the Shade.
Together, the four of them attacked Kaden firing, Eliya throwing chemicals, Ryder shooting arrows, and Cambria whipping her screwdriver weapon.
The Shade shrieked in pain.
Cambria's screwdrivers hooked onto a necklace around the Shade's neck.
"Wow. Didn't know Shades wore jewelry," she muttered, pulling it.
The necklace dragged, strangling the Shade. It fell to its knees.
Kaden approached cautiously. The Shade looked into his eyes pleading, almost... human.
Eliya, Ryder, and Cambria stoodfar back, ready.
Kaden stared. Something about the Shade struck a nerve in him.
"It's not fighting anymore," he said. "Let go of it." she said to Cambria.
"No way," Cambria said. "This thing nearly killed me!"
"You're hurting it. We didn't come here to kill," Kaden said softly.
"And who the fuck are you to tell me what to do? You are not the boss of me" Cambria snarled, tightening the wire.
The Shade screeched again low, pained.
Eliya raised her pistol but didn't shoot. "Let's go," she said.
Cambria looked at her, hoping for support but Eliya shook her head in disapproval. "You can't kills it"
"I'm strangling it till it dies," Cambria said again.
"It won't die. Besides It's not fighting," Kaden said. "I think it... doesn't want to anymore."
Silence fell.
The Shade whimpered.
And now, Cambria had a choice to make.
She looked over to Eliya.
Eliya gave her a nod, silently telling her to leave it. That didn't sit well with Cambria, so she turned to Ryder.
Ryder gave her the same look. But Cambria, still not convinced, reached out and dragged the magnetic screws hanging from the shade necklace. With a swift pull, the necklace snapped free from the Shade Queen's neck and flew into the air.
Cambria, who loved anything metal, jumped and caught the necklace mid-air.
"I've got a souvenir," Cambria said with a grin. "Can't wait to show this off at the pub." She had finally conquered the SHADE QUEEN.
"Good for you. Now let's leave before the SHADE regains its strength," Kaden said angrily, his voice sharp.
Cambria bent down to pick up her screwdrivers, arranging them neatly with the magnet and wires still attached. Her heart pounded in her chest, but her face held a victorious smirk. She turned, clutching the Shade Queen's necklace tightly in one hand.
"Finally, something worth the risk," she muttered, wiping sweat from her brow with the back of her hand.
The team began to retreat from the garage. Kaden led the way cautiously, his eyes darting back to the Shade Queen, who still lay groaning in pain.
Suddenly, the Shade SHRIEKED an earsplitting scream that ripped through the air like a storm wind as it rose, furious at the loss of its necklace.
"Run!" Kaden shouted.
They all bolted, their pace quickening.
The Shade staggered after them, its jagged limbs twitching with rage.
Eliya lingered a moment, staring at the creature as if caught between pity and fear. Then she gritted her teeth and gripped her pistol tighter before turning to flee.
Ryder ran beside Cambria, nudging her lightly with his elbow. "So, souvenir girl... feeling like a damsel in distress now?"
Cambria scoffed. "Please. I was buying time till you all showed up. Classic bait strategy."
"Are you sure? I bet you didn't even know we were coming. You don't even know us," Ryder said with a grin.
"Whatever you guys are saviors or not you're not doing a great job. Killing that Shade would've been smarter," Cambria snapped.
"Next time, try not to almost get squashed," Ryder replied.
"Next time," she said with a sly smirk, "I'll squash it myself."
They burst out of the auto shop and into the cracked, dry wasteland. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, casting a reddish hue over the ghost city. Shadows stretched long and thin across the ruins.
Behind them, the Shade screeched again, a sound so loud it nearly deafened them.
"I told you we should've killed it when we had the chance!" Cambria shouted at Kaden as they kept running.
They all ignored her and pushed themselves to run faster than they thought possible. The Shade's screams echoed behind them, wild and desperate, as it chased them because that necklace felt like a part of its very identity.