Ava sprinted.
Her boots thudded against the rusty metal ground as the robotic voice boomed behind them:
"𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟭𝟬 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘀. 𝗘𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗼𝗹: 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗲."
At her side, Rohit clamped his wounded side, breathing ragged, but his pace didn't slow. Anaya trailed behind, her face inscrutable, but her stride intense.
"Where are the children being detained?" Ava gasped.
"Lower sector," Rohit groaned. "That timestamp. they're going to purge the whole chamber."
They cornered a hall illuminated with dim red lights. Ava ran her fingers along the concrete walls, feeling for signs, for indicators—anything. Her brain churned. The photos of the children in pods. Her own name listed on the Memory Engineering document. Her uncle's voice in her mind: You were kidnapped. You were engineered.
And now.
Another screen came to life in the wall to their right. A new voice, a robotic one,
"𝗦𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝟵: 𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗼-𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱."
Ava pounded her hand on the panel.
Nothing.
"It's locked!" she yelled.
"Move aside," Anaya grumbled, forging ahead. Her fingers danced over the keypad. Beep. Beep. Denied.
Rohit moved back, looking up. "That vent."
Ava's eyes followed. A thin duct above the hallway. Just big enough to squeeze into for someone thin.
"You think we can access Sublevel 9 through that?" she asked.
"It's attached to the central air system. If they hadn't turned it off…" Rohit didn't complete the sentence.
Ava was already up the exposed pipes.
"Wait!" Anaya called. "You're going by yourself?"
"You won't be able to fit," Ava snapped. "I'll open from the inside."
Anaya looked uncertain. Then nodded.
Ava pulled herself up and into the duct. The metal was cold. Her breath misted in front of her. The air constricted with each crawl forward, the sound of the countdown still ringing through her ears.
𝟭𝟲𝟬 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘀.
She came to a grate. Below, blinking tubes filled the room, just as in the feed.
Dozens of them.
Children floated within—suspended, oblivious, peaceful in the face of death.
Ava's stomach twisted.
She kicked the grate. Once. Twice. It popped loose.
She dropped down, landing hard, knees stinging.
"Override panel… override panel…" she muttered.
To her left, a console glowed red. She ran to it.
"WARNING: PURGE SEQUENCE INITIATED."
Ava slapped her hand on the interface. The screen asked for a code.
She froze.
The numbers. Vikram's handwriting. The same sequence she'd used to enter the dome.
She typed it.
Beep.
The lights went white.
Sequence paused.
Ava blinked. "Yes…
But then—another screen came alive. A blurred face, masked, just as before.
The distorted voice came back.
"You're smart. But this was always on the agenda."
Ava's heart surged.
"You." she breathed. "You're responsible for this?"
But the figure just laughed.
"No. I'm just a protector of the truth. And you've just pushed things back. That's all."
Then the screen went dark.
Suddenly, vents above the pods hissed open.
Ava whirled.
Gas started leaking in—thin, grey, silent.
"No!"
She sprinted to the first pod, banging on the console.
An override. Anything. Something.
Nothing.
The gas thickened. The children lay still. Unaware.
Then—
A slam behind her.
Rohit and Anaya burst in, wheezing.
"I found a side route," Rohit coughed, shoving the gas aside.
"There's a release valve!" Anaya yelled, racing to the central tank.
Ava sprinted to the other wall, following the pipes. Her eyes fell on a lever. "Here!"
Together, they pulled.
The hiss ceased.
The room was silent.
Gas still clung, but the pods intact. No alarm. No action.
Rohit staggered towards a control console, typing in rapidly.
"They're alive," he reported, relief creasing his face.
Ava let out a sharp breath, her hand against her chest.
Anaya, hands against knees, gazed up slowly. "That. was too close."
Ava walked up to the closest pod. A girl, perhaps eight years old, drifted in the liquid. Her eyes blinked behind closed lids.
"How long have you had them here?" Ava asked.
Rohit's jaw locked. "Years. Vikram discovered the place during his final months. That's why he brought you here. You weren't alone."
Ava pressed a hand against the glass. "What is here, Rohit? Why we are here?"
"I don't know it all yet. But whatever they were doing—it was connected to Project ECHOES. They wiped you out for a reason."
Anaya's voice interrupted. "And someone's still observing. That masked psycho isn't a recording."
Ava spun around. "You think he's here?"
"Maybe not inside the building," Anaya replied. "But he's nearby. Knows what every move we make is."
Abruptly, overhead, a machine click.
The pods started draining. Gradually.
Ava took a step back. "Are they waking up?"
Rohit nodded. "Looks like it. We have to evacuate, though. This entire facility is in lockdown. There may be traps."
Ava glanced at the line of children. "We can't carry them all."
"There's a mobile platform unit close to the lab area," Anaya said. "We can stack them and push."
"How do you know?" Ava demanded.
Anaya avoided her eye. "Because I saw it when I was brought in."
Ava hesitated.
She wanted to question her more—but there wasn't time.
"Fine," she said. "Lead the way."
Rohit stayed behind momentarily, monitoring vitals on the pods. "They're stable for now. But we'll have to act fast. Facility power is fluctuating."
They moved quickly, weaving back through the corridors. Red lights pulsed like a heartbeat. Ava couldn't stop glancing behind her, expecting masked figures. Sirens. Explosions.
But only silence followed.
Anaya took them into a side room. Promised, an old transport platform leaned against the wall. Rusted, but functional.
They pushed it back in together. One by one, they started to pull the pods out. Children breathing. Some starting to wake up.
"We'll do it in two trips if we must," Rohit said.
Ava did not respond. Her thoughts reeled with questions.
Why her?
Why had her name been on the trial?
Why did Vikram never speak the truth to her?
And who was that guy behind the screen?
They'd nearly gotten to the corridor once more when another warning blared out:
"External breach detected. Unauthorized entry from North Gate."
Rohit glanced up. "Someone else has come."
"Rescue?" Anaya hoped.
Ava shook her head. "No. It's never rescue."
They increased their pace. Pushing the first batch of pods along the inclined corridor, toward the entrance Ava had taken.
A voice crackled over an overhead speaker. Not robotic. Not the masked figure.
A woman's voice.
Familiar.
"I warned you, Ava. Curiosity kills."
Ava stood stock-still.
Anaya raised an eyebrow. "Who is that?"
Ava's mouth had gone dry. She knew the voice.
Prisha.
But that couldn't be right.
She had left her behind. Knocked out. Innocent.
Right?
Rohit observed her. "What is it?"
"It's Prisha," Ava said softly. "But it doesn't make sense."
"She's involved in this?" Anaya asked, straining.
Ava shook her head. "I don't know. Possibly someone's mimicking her voice. Trying to confuse us."
Rohit did not seem to believe her.
Anaya said nothing.
They reached the exit chamber. The keypad Ava had previously used remained active. No signs of pursuit—so far.
Rohit activated the emergency override on the gate.
The dome hissed open. Daylight flooded in.
"Let's go," Ava said.
But as they rolled the pods out, a low rumble rocked the ground.
Behind them—an explosion shook the dome. Fire erupted upward from inside.
Ava covered her eyes.
The building was crumbling.
"Run!" Rohit yelled.
The three urged the platform onward. Children in the pods began to move. One blinked open her eyes, bewildered.
Ava glanced back to watch the whole dome implode behind them—engulfed in fire, ash, and dust.
They didn't stop until they were among the trees.
Then, silence.
Only birdsong and the rustle of wind.
They collapsed onto the grass, gasping, hacking, filthy.
Rohit reclined, his eyes on the sky. "We got them out."
Ava didn't answer.
She gazed at the children. Then the trees.
Then her hand dipped into her pocket—dragging out the photo she had stolen from Vikram's lab. The one with her name.
And another.
Subject 12: Status—Missing.
The photo was old. Blurry.
But the face?
A girl.
Young. Same eyes. Same jawline.
Anaya.
Ava raised her head, slowly.
Anaya looked back at her.
She knew.
The air went cold between them.
Then,
A child's voice behind them. Soft. Whispers.
"Where… am I?"
They turned.
One of the pods had opened.
The girl emerged.
Her eyes glowed.
.....................................
The glowing-eyed girl blinked slowly, confusion clouding her gaze as she took in the forest around her. Her voice, barely above a whisper, trembled as she repeated, "Where… am I?"
Ava's heart pounded fiercely. She exchanged a glance with Rohit and Anaya, all of them frozen for a moment, the weight of the unknown settling around them like thick fog.
"Shh," Ava said softly, stepping closer, "You're safe now. You're out."
The girl's shining eyes wavered, changing from disoriented to suspicious. She appeared to be fighting to establish a connection, memories trapped behind a clouded wall.
Rohit knelt down cautiously, presenting a hand. "Do you know your name?"
The girl's mouth opened, but nothing emerged. Instead, an eerie hum resonated in the air — nearly robotic, unhuman.
Anaya's eyes narrowed, looking out as though waiting for something other to come out of the darkness.
"We don't have much time," Rohit whispered. "The facility. it's not secure. That explosion — it was just the start."
Ava nodded, hugging her coat closer to her. The woods that surrounded them were abnormally quiet, but the sound of flame crackling in the distance reminded them of where they had come from.
The girl shifted abruptly, moving back from Rohit's grasp, her eyes now an unnatural, deep blue that beat like a slow pulse.
"Don't… come any closer," she whispered in a voice that was innocent and yet capable of sending shivers down one's spine.
Anaya's eyebrow arched, "How do you know how to say that? Have you been instructed?"
The glowing-eyed child peered down, torn. Ava's thoughts whirled — what had they done to these kids? What experiments had reduced them to this?
Abruptly, from among the trees, a soft rustling caused them all to spin sharply. The child jerked back, holding Ava's arm in a desperate grasp.
"Stay close," Ava breathed.
A figure emerged into the clearing — a man, unarmed, wary. His face was obscured, but his eyes blazed.
I'm not here to hurt you," he told her hastily. "But you have to leave. Now."
Rohit eyed the man cautiously. "Who is this?"
"My name's Malik," he replied, his voice low. "I was with the resistance group within the facility. We attempted to sabotage what they were doing."
Ava's gaze narrowed. "Why didn't you save the others?
Malik clenched his jaw. "It was already too late for too many. But some of us were able to sabotage certain aspects of the operation. The purge countdown is not yet finished. We have perhaps an hour before they send in reinforcements."
The glowing-eyed girl grabbed Ava's sleeve once more, eyes stretched wide. "They… will come?"
"Yes," Ava replied resolutely. "But we won't let that happen."
Malik gestured for them to come behind him further into the woods. "There is a safe house just a few minutes away. You can regroup, rest, plan the next move."
As they walked through the dark woods, Ava's mind reeled. The image of 'Subject 12'—Anaya—haunted her. Was this girl another 'subject'? Were they all victims? And who had planned this ghastly project?
Questions swarmed her mind, but there were few answers. Survival was all that counted for now.
Further into the woods, the shadows crept long and black, curling around them in quiet observation. The children, groggy some of them, struggled after them. Ava's hand clamped tighter on Anaya's, never staying still in one place for a moment.
Malik stopped in front of an ancient oak, punching a code into a discreet panel concealed in bark. A door opened, and a small underground room filled with stores, outdated machinery, and a faint lantern.
"Welcome to the hideaway of the resistance," Malik said, entering. "Not much, but it's safe."
Ava breathed out, relief blending with tension. "We have to discover who is responsible for all this."
Malik shook his head. "The true puppet master? You will not find him here. Not yet."
His words rang with a threat: the shadow behind all things was still waiting, still watching.
Night fell outside, but within the safe house, hushed discussions awakened as the children started to recover from their ordeal. Ava sat against the wall, holding the old photo once more, feeling the gravity of a fate she hardly knew.
Anaya sat next to her, voice barely above a whisper. "Why did they do this to us?"
Ava glared at her, eyes burning. "Because they're scared of what we know. What we could become."
The glowing-eyed girl huddled in the corner, quiet but watchful. Her glowing eyes beat softly in the dark.
Rohit moved up to Ava, softly. "We need a plan. And fast."
Ava nodded, looking over at the small group of saved children. "This is just the beginning."
Outside, the trees leaned in to whisper secrets — and the far-off thrum of machines vibrated faintly under the ground.
The true war had just started.
...........................