I woke up again.
Same metal bed. Same cold air. Same emptiness.
For a moment, I stared at the ceiling and thought:
If I bite my tongue off… maybe I can die.
I don't know where I got that idea. Maybe I heard it once — the men in dark clothing sometimes say things they think I don't hear.
But then I imagined it. The pain. The taste of that warm red thing that comes out when you get hurt.
No.
It would hurt too much.
I let the thought go.
Then… something was off.
Where were they?
The two people who always came. Dr. Lyren and his assistant.
They always came one minute after I woke up. Always.
But now?
Nothing.
Just the quiet hum of lights above me.
I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. My feet touched the cold floor.
Then it happened.
A sound.
Low and deep. The room shook. A rumble passed under my feet. I lost balance and fell. My head hit the side of the bedframe. It hurt, but I didn't make any sound.
I pushed myself up.
The door.
It wasn't fully closed anymore. Just a sliver of light peeking through. The tremor must've done something to the lock.
I walked to it. Lowered myself. Slipped under the gap.
The hallway stretched long. Empty. Cold lights. Dust in the corners.
I looked right.
Figures dressed in black moved fast down the corridor. Their hands held long, strange metal objects. I didn't know what they were — not syringes, not tools. Something else.
I didn't want to be near them.
So I turned left and walked.
Past the halls I recognized. Past rooms I'd been taken to. One hallway curved to the right — I followed it.
After a while, I reached a door. I knew it. It was near the place where the picture was. The room where the ones in white coats gathered.
I stood there. Waiting.
Then — the door creaked. Opened just a little. A man in a white coat rushed out. His glasses were broken. His coat was stained. He didn't even look at me. He just kept walking fast, one hand holding his side.
I stepped into the room.
Shelves lined the walls. Bottles. Jars. Small boxes. Some were glass, some were plastic. All of them had words I couldn't read.
I stared at them.
I didn't know what they did. Maybe they healed. Maybe they hurt.
Then—
"There you are."
I turned.
A man I'd seen before. One of the assistants. Not Dr. Lyren's. His voice was tense, but his face looked… almost calm.
"You shouldn't be here. The fighting already started."
Fighting?
He didn't explain. Just stepped over to me and picked me up. Not gently, but not roughly either.
Like lifting something he needed to keep safe.
He didn't run.
He walked through the halls, moving past doors and people. Some lay on the floor. Some made sounds. Some didn't.
His grip was tight.
He finally stopped in front of a door. Opened it. It was a sleeping place — but not like my room. Softer lights. A few thin blankets. A bed, not metal.
"This is where you stay now," he said.
"Someone will come."
He pulled down his mask and showed a smile.
Not like the fake ones the white coats sometimes wore.
He looked real. But I didn't know what it meant.
He covered his mouth again. Then turned around and walked out the door.
And I was alone again.
I sat on the bed. Looked around.
The room was quiet.
But something was happening outside.
Location: Lower Sector B-7, Underground Lab Facility
"Visual on breach point. Door's open," came a whisper through Ruki's earpiece.
She crouched low behind a pillar, a dim red light blinking at the far end of the hallway. The sounds of boots thudding against steel grated in the air.
Alia stood beside her, holding up a clenched fist to signal a halt. Her expression was sharp, eyes narrowing beneath the tinted visor.
"Go silent from here," Alia said. "We find the research chamber. Nothing else matters."
Ruki nodded.
They moved like ghosts, sweeping the corridors — two among many. Other squads fanned out through the facility. Each had their own mission: data retrieval, asset extraction, subjugation of resistance. But Alia's target was more personal.
They were here for the boy.
For her brother.
Alia's gloved fingers trembled as they tightened around her stun-blade.
She hated that feeling — not fear, not hesitation.
It was something worse: hope.
Please… let him still be alive.
She hadn't seen him since he was five. When he was taken. Ripped from her arms by men in white with fake smiles and soft words.
Now, after so many years…
Ruki's voice came through, low and even.
"Thermal shows movement. Up ahead. One figure. Small. Alone."
Alia's heart skipped.
Small? Could it be…?
They rounded a corner — and there, slumped beside a reinforced door, was a man in a white coat. Unconscious. Breathing.
No sign of the boy.
Ruki stepped forward, scanning the door's lock.
"Recently used. Someone entered here."
Alia didn't wait.
She keyed in the override code the Council had recovered and pushed the door open — slowly, soundlessly.
The room inside was dim, quiet.
Just one bed. A small figure sat on it, unmoving, staring straight ahead.
No reaction. Not to the door. Not to them.
He looked like a doll at first — pale skin, thin limbs, blank face.
But when she stepped forward — her breath caught.
"...Kai?"
The boy didn't react to the name. Just blinked once, as if unsure if they were real or not.
Alia knelt down slowly, lifting her visor, revealing her face.
"It's me. I'm your sister. Alia."
The boy tilted his head slightly. As if confused.
No recognition in his eyes.
Only that same dead stillness.
He doesn't know me, Alia realized. They… they erased everything.
Behind her, Ruki stood guard by the door, tense. "We're exposed here."
Alia reached out, gently touching the boy's hand.
He didn't pull away. But he didn't lean in either.
"We're going to get you out," she whispered.
The boy blinked again.
Then—
"...what is a sister?" he asked, voice flat and colorless.
The words hit her harder than any bullet could.
She swallowed down the ache in her throat and forced herself to smile, tears stinging her eyes.
"I'll show you."