The hospital's hallways seemed quieter the next morning, but not in a peaceful way. The kind of quiet that warns you something is listening. Fluorescent lights buzzed faintly overhead, but the shadows between the tiles had grown longer. Every corridor felt like a narrowing tunnel.
Finn sat hunched at the breakfast table, his tray barely touched. Eve sat beside him, eyes darting between her tea and the doorway. Across the room, Franklin leaned over to whisper to Edward, who smirked and nodded, mouth full of toast.
"Something's up," Finn murmured.
"You mean besides the creepy lockdown protocol on the lab levels?" Eve said. "They're pretending nothing's happening."
Finn shook his head. "No. I mean I heard someone last night... outside our room. Talking. Not staff. Two people arguing. One said something about 'Specimen Seven.'"
Eve blinked. "What's that? Another patient?"
"I don't think so."
Before Eve could press further, Franklin slid into the seat beside them, Edward trailing with a cup of coffee. "Yo," Franklin whispered, glancing around. "You guys know about the west hallway intercom?"
Eve frowned. "What about it?"
"It plays security updates at night. Around 2 a.m., I couldn't sleep. Heard it say something about a breach drill. Containment protocol. Then it was cut off."
Edward piped up. "Then came this voice, real calm. 'Subject remains in dormant phase. Hostility index currently low. Awaiting further orders.' Creepy stuff."
Finn and Eve exchanged a look.
Finn leaned closer. "Did it mention Specimen Seven?"
Franklin raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, actually. Said it twice."
Their whispers died as Williams entered the cafeteria, his tall frame moving with quiet authority. He sat at the far end, alone as usual, nodding at Rika as she joined him. She gave him a small smile but didn't speak.
The tension in the hospital had settled like a fog. That morning, during their rotation near the patient recovery ward, Jonah passed by a nurse's station where two staff members
argued in hushed voices. One of them, a man in a gray coat with a silver keycard, kept glancing over his shoulder.
"He's not stable," the man hissed. "The last trial triggered regression. The auditory hallucinations returned. We shouldn't be pushing it."
"Too late now," the nurse snapped. "Containment is a priority. They can't shut it down mid-phase."
Jonah kept walking, pretending not to notice, but his heart beat faster. He caught up with Eve later that afternoon in the resource room.
"Hey," he said, breathless. "Have you ever heard about Specimen Seven?"
Eve froze. "Where did you hear that?"
"Staff. They were arguing near Ward C. Said something about a regression. And... hallucinations."
That night, in the student dorms, Finn gathered the group.
Williams stood with arms crossed. Rika leaned against her bunk, watching Finn with curious eyes. Jonah sat beside Edward, who tapped a pen nervously on his knee.
Finn opened his notebook and laid it on the center table.
"There's something deeper going on here," he said. "You all feel it. We're not just interns. We're part of something else.
Some of you heard about the Specimen. Others heard security updates. I think they're connected."
"Specimen Seven," Franklin repeated. "Sounds like a science project. Like bio-weapon level stuff."
"Or a test subject," Rika said. "From one of the deeper labs, Just like the rumor."
Finn nodded. "Exactly. They never told us what was on Sublevel 4. Or why the west wing is sealed. But there are rumors. Failed experiments, human experiments, bio weapons and all that."
Edward snorted. "Okay, but... that sounds like a bad horror movie. I mean, seriously? Human experiments, like monsters locked in the basement?"
"No one's saying monster," Williams said calmly, breaking his silence. "But they are hiding something. And it's not standard medical practice."
Franklin looked toward Eve. "You've been quiet. What do you think?"
She glanced up, eyes wide. "I think... we need to be careful. Whatever Specimen Seven is, they're trying very hard to keep it secret. That means it's dangerous."
The group fell silent.
In the hallway outside, the fluorescent lights flickered briefly.
Later that evening, Rika went to the second floor to retrieve a supply box from the storage wing. As she passed the hallway near the restricted west corridor, she heard soft murmuring through a vent.
She froze.
It was a conversation. Two voices again, one male and one female.
"Containment fields are destabilizing... if it wakes again, we won't be able to hold it."
"We'll activate the kill switch if necessary." "But the students—"
"They're collateral. Focus on the protocol."
Rika backed away, breath shallow, and returned to the dorm in silence. That night, she wrote a message in her notebook and tore it out, slipping it under Finn's book:
**"They called us collateral. We're not safe." The whispering never stopped after that.
Even during sleep, the students would stir to strange static sounds from the vents. Footsteps that didn't belong to any of them. A distant clanging of metal. Once, Jonah swore he heard breathing through the wall.
Whatever Specimen Seven was, it wasn't dormant. It was watching. Waiting.
And the hospital halls had begun to whisper its name.