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Chapter 9 - Episode 9: “We Move Before They Do”

Scene opens:The rooftop is now empty. The sky has cleared a little. The storm is calm — for now. Morning light begins to pierce the horizon.

Inside the underground facility — Aran, Liya, and Shaggy stand before a tactical screen showing a blinking red dot. It marks a location outside the quarantine zone — a zone untouched by the virus... for now.

Aran (voice calm, steady):"They're planning to release the next strain here. If that happens, the world's finished."

Shaggy:"So we take it down before they can."

Liya (arms crossed):"What exactly is there? A lab? A drop site?"

Aran:"Both. It's where the original outbreak was meant to start... before something went wrong. Before I escaped."

The others go quiet, the weight of that truth heavy.

Shaggy (looking at him):"And now they're trying again."

Cut to:Keira sitting in the corner, quietly drawing with a broken crayon on the floor. She draws Aran with a big sword, and her beside him holding his hand. A small sun shines in the corner of the paper.

Liya walks over and kneels beside her.

Liya (softly):"Hey. That's Aran, huh?"

Keira (nodding):"He saved me. Twice."

Liya:"Yeah. He does that."

Back to the mission room.

Aran lays out a plan:

Infiltrate the drop zone.

Extract any intel on future virus drops.

Destroy the release system.

Shaggy (cracking knuckles):"Finally, something I can smash."

Liya (loading ammo):"If we do this, we do it clean. Quiet. Fast."

Aran (nods):"And we don't fail."

Later — at sunset.

The team rides out in a black armored vehicle across broken highways and abandoned city limits. The camera pans behind them, showing Keira watching them disappear from the rooftop.

At the drop zone – midnight.

An abandoned military base lies silent under moonlight. Barbed wire fences, rusted watchtowers, and a strange hum coming from deep underground.

They sneak in through broken fencing. As they enter a stairwell leading to the lower levels…

Suddenly — mechanical sounds.

Shaggy (whispering):"Drones. Armed."

Aran (drawing his weapon):"They're guarding something… important."

As they reach the control room — Aran freezes.

On the wall: A screen blinks.Words appear:

"HELLO, SUBJECT A-01."

Liya (shocked):"...They're watching us."

Aran (eyes narrowing):"No. They're waiting for me."

Final shot:

A figure stands in another facility miles away, watching the screen — half-covered in shadow. A commander with glowing red cybernetic eyes.

"Let him come. It's time he sees what he was created for."

TO BE CONTINUED...

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