Episode 84 – The Ghosts of Jeju
They arrived at Jeju under new names, new faces, and silent resolve. Disguises had become second skin. Saira blended in as a foreign researcher. Aria wore the coat of a pharma executive. Raian—cloaked in a courier's uniform and cap—carried their forged credentials and the blueprints to the underground facility beneath Aether Biolabs.
From the outside, Aether looked like any other elite medical research center—gleaming glass walls, pristine lawns, security too tight to be casual but too quiet to scream military. But Aria knew the truth. Behind those walls, Jin's science thrived like a cancer under skin.
They entered at precisely 9:27 a.m., when the front shift rotated and security was busiest. Lena Myung, now working under the alias "Dr. Ahn," met them in the east atrium.
"You came," she whispered, barely blinking as she passed Aria a coded visitor badge.
Aria squeezed her hand. "You're risking everything."
"I've already lost everything."
They followed Lena through the marble corridors until she veered sharply, leading them to a closed section marked "Quarantine – Staff Only."
"This way," she said, and scanned a card that opened an elevator with no floor labels—just a keypad.
Raian watched every angle. "Security protocols?"
Lena keyed in a 7-digit code. "Three camera loops. Two biometric doors. One retina scanner."
"And after that?" Saira asked.
"Hell."
The elevator hummed downward in silence, stopping at a metallic corridor that smelled faintly of antiseptic and something older—something decaying. Aria's gut twisted.
"This is where they kept you," she said quietly to Raian.
He nodded once. "Smells the same."
The first biometric door scanned their forged prints. The second required Lena's palm. Then came the retinal scan, which only accepted Raian.
"Jin built it to recognize his favorites," Lena said bitterly. "His 'successful prototypes.' You were one."
Raian stepped forward. The scanner buzzed once, then green-lit. The heavy vault door groaned open.
Inside was a hallway of nightmares—steel and shadows, lined with observation rooms and padded chambers, most now dark and sealed. Aria slowed near one room. Behind the glass, a girl no older than twelve sat cross-legged, her eyes blank, her wrists scarred.
"She's one of them," Lena whispered. "Project Vesper. Failed healing regulation. She can regenerate… but not stop it. Her cells keep repairing even without wounds. She doesn't sleep."
Aria clenched her fists. "He kept them alive just to study them?"
"Not all are alive. Come."
They moved swiftly, passing rooms filled with broken machinery and ghost data. The further they went, the thicker the air became—like the walls themselves remembered the screaming.
At the end of the corridor, they reached a secure vault room. Lena unlocked it with a keycode that trembled in her fingers.
"This is it," she said. "Jin's original lab."
Inside was a steel workstation coated in years of dust, dozens of vials stored in cryogenic columns, and a mainframe humming softly.
Saira was already moving. "Get the drives. All of them. I'll start the data dump."
Aria moved toward the vials. "What are these?"
"Initial trials," Lena answered. "Gene serums. Blood infusions. Everything that made Raian what he is—and destroyed the others."
Raian stood in front of a broken operating table. Rusted chains still hung from the frame.
"I remember this."
Aria looked over sharply.
"It's where I woke up after the fourth stage trial. I thought I was dead. I prayed I was. Jin told me I was finally perfect."
Aria touched his hand. "You were never his creation. You survived in spite of him."
A sudden shriek echoed down the corridor. Saira paused. "What was that?"
Lena went pale. "They're awake."
"Who?"
"Subjects. They're not supposed to be conscious during off-cycle hours."
Raian drew his weapon. "They've triggered a defense."
Another shriek—louder, closer. Then a crashing noise as a steel door split open down the corridor.
"They're coming here," Lena said.
"Download what you can and torch the rest," Raian ordered. "We leave in five minutes."
Saira was already transferring files to a secure drive. "Give me three."
Aria opened a canister of incendiary foam. "We destroy every vial."
She worked fast, spraying over the serums while Raian stood guard at the door. Shadows flickered at the end of the hall. Then came the footsteps—erratic, inhuman, too fast.
Lena whispered, "He called them 'Phase X.' No names. No souls. Just pain."
One of them appeared in the doorway—a young man, barely older than Raian, but with eyes that bled red and veins pulsing silver. He tilted his head at Raian.
"You're one of us."
Raian aimed the pistol. "No. I'm what's left of you."
The boy lunged, but Raian shot clean between his eyes. The body crumpled.
Two more surged forward. Aria threw a flash grenade, the light disorienting them long enough for Raian to fire again. Saira slammed the drive closed and yanked out the cables.
"Done! Burn it all!"
Aria tossed the foam charge on the mainframe. "Let's move!"
They ran.
The facility lights began flashing red. Sirens wailed through the corridors. More shadows chased them—screaming, snarling, clawing.
At the final chamber, Raian held the door while the others escaped through the elevator. As he fired the last round into a mutated figure dragging itself toward him, he turned and slammed the control panel, locking the vault behind him.
Back at the surface, Lena helped override the upper doors while Aria and Saira covered the lobby.
They burst out into daylight moments later.
A thunderous boom ripped through the air behind them—the underground lab erupting into fire, smoke billowing into the sky.
Raian stood watching the flames, the wind blowing ash through his hair.
"It's over," Aria said, chest heaving.
"No," he murmured. "It's begun."