The road to Millhaven had become a graveyard for dead machines. Abandoned cars littered the highway, their radios blaring static even with cold engines. The streetlights flickered as Jack's truck passed, their bulbs bursting like overripe fruit. Dr. Lin stared at the chaos through cracked glasses, her hands clenching Emily's locket. Finch sat in the backseat, fingers flying over his laptop, his face lit by the sickly glow of the code.
"It's herding us," he muttered. "Every tower we blew just funneled it here, he said. Like we're playing tag with a tornado."
Jack didn't answer. The town's skyline rose ahead—the church steeple snapped like a bone, and the woods clawed over the rooftops. The Revenant's voice slithered from the truck's speakers.
…welcome home…
Dr. Lin's phone buzzed with a message: a photo popped up of the town hall, its doors wide open. Shadows were pooled on the steps, forming arrows pointing inside.
"It's inviting us," she said.
"Or feeding us to itself," replied Finch.
Jack parked at the town limits. The air tasted metallic, similar to licking a battery.
The Rotting Town
Millhaven was a corpse left in the sun. Storefronts were shattered, and mannequins were stripped to wire skeletons. The diner's neon sign now read ETTY'S ITE, with the missing letters clawed away. However, the worst was the silence. No wind. No birds. Only the crunch of glass underfoot.
Finch pointed to the power line. A body hung from the cables, skin charred black, and mouth frozen in a scream. "That's new."
"Don't look," Jack said, he as
"Too late."
They reached the Town Hall. The doors creaked, their hinges bleeding rust. The floor was slick with black sludge. The walls pulsed, veins of static writhing beneath the peeling paint.
Dr. Lin then adjusted her scanner. "Electromagnetic readings are off the charts. It's… birthing something here."
A giggle echoed from upstairs.
Children's giggles.
Jack climbed the steps, axe in hand.
The Nursery
The second floor was a nightmare nursery. Dolls hung from the ceiling by their necks, with glass eyes tracking the group. A crib rocked empty in the corner, with sheets stained brown. On the wall, a mural of the Revenant loomed over stick-figure families, its antlers branching into cell towers.
…Jack…
Emily's voice came from a toy radio on the shelf. Jack picked it up.
…it's using the hall to grow… like a womb…
"How do we stop it?" he whispered.
…the heart… you have to crush the heart…
Finch peered over his shoulders. "The heart? We blew up the tower's heart!"
…there's another… deeper…
The radio exploded in Jack's hand. Plastic shards were found on his cheek.
Downstairs, Dr. Lin screamed.
The Basement
They found her crouched by the basement door, the scanner shattered. "It's down there. The true heart. And it's… alive."
Jack pried the door open. The stench hit first— of rotting meat and ozone. The stairs groaned under their weight, and the steps squelched with every footfall.
The chamber below was no longer a room.
It was a body.
The walls were rippled with fleshy membranes. The floor was undulated, with twisted metal ribs rising from the sludge. At the centre stood an altar of fused bones pulsating with a black-green orb. Tendrils connected it to the ceiling, vibrating with distorted voices.
…Jack…
The Revenant stepped out of the shadows. Not a shadow now, but a grotesque hybrid of man and machine. Its torso was a nest of wires, its face a shifting collage of everyone it had consumed: Emily's hollow eyes, Sheriff Dalton's sneer, and Walter's grief.
…you brought me a feast…
Finch gagged. "That's… that's my code in its chest!"
The Revenant's hand morphed into a blade of static. …you'll join us…
Dr. Lin shoved Jack aside as the blade hit him. It pierced her shoulder and pinned her to the wall. She screamed, blood sizzling where the static touched her skin.
"Lin!" Jack swung the axe, severing the blade. It was dissolved in the form of sparks.
The Revenant laughed, retreating into the walls. …finish the game…
The Sacrifice
Dr. Lin slumped against the wall, his face pale. "The heart… it's a fusion of the original curse and my research. You have to… overload it."
"How?" Jack gripped her arm. The blood-soaked through her lab coat.
"Same way we did in the lab. Lure it in, and then hit it with a counter wave. But it'll take everything we've got." She nodded to Finch. "The drone… modify it… use the locket as a conductor…"
Finch unzipped his backpack, his hands shaking. "On it."
Jack turned to the heart. It pulsed faster as if sensing their plans. Emily's voice whispered from the orb.
…it's time…
He unhooked the locket. "You sure about this?"
Dr. Lin nodded. "Do it."
Finch rigged the locket to the drone, with wires snaking around C4. "Ready to light the fuse."
The Revenant's face bulged from the wall. …you lose…
"Now!" Jack launched the drone.
It buzzed toward the heart, and Emily's locket glowed. The orb shrieked, tendrils lashing out at the air.
"Detonate!"
The explosion tore the chamber apart.
The Unmaking
Jack woke to silence.
The basement was scorched, and the walls collapsed. No flesh. No wires. Only ash and the smell of burnt hair remained.
Dr. Lin lay nearby, breathing shallowly. Finch knelt beside her and applied a torn sleeve as a bandage.
"Did we…?" Jack croaked.
A rumble answered. The ceiling cracked.
…not… over…
The Revenant's voice was fractured.
Above, the town hall creaked. The floor tilted.
"Out!" Jack dragged Dr. Lin up the stairs as the building collapsed behind them.
They stumble into the street. The hall imploded, and dust billowed. For a moment, the sky cleared, and the sun shone.
Then, the radios in the abandoned cars crackled to life.
…you cannot… kill… a god…
The Revenant's face flickered on every screen and every shard of glass.
…see you… soon…
The Survivors
They regrouped at the motel the next day. Dr. Lin's wound festered, and her veins turned black under her skin. Finch hacked into a satellite feed, showing the red zones shrinking.
"It's weaker," he said. "But not gone."
Jack stared at Emily's locket, now a melted husk. "We bought time. That's all."
Dr. Lin grasped the patient's wrist. "Time is enough. To find the others."
"Others?"
"The ones like us. Fighting it." She coughed, her breath static. "Holloway wasn't the only lab."
A knock at the door.
A woman stood outside, her face scarred, eyes glowing faint blue. "Heard you need an army."
Behind her, figures emerged from the fog—men and women armed with strange devices, their skin marked with antistatic tattoos.
"We're the Black Signal," she said. "And we're here to burn this thing to the ground."