The Reclaimer: Harvest of the Dead
Chapter 3 — The Interview Room
The ceiling light flickered once, and the hum of the machines around me changed pitch.
That's how I knew they were coming.
The door unsealed with a hiss, and two guards entered first — black armor, mirrored visors, the kind that made it impossible to tell if there was still a person underneath. Behind them walked Dr. Maris Venn, her white coat the only clean thing in the room.
"Mr. Carter," she said, voice as controlled as the machines. "You're stable enough for questioning."
I couldn't help a laugh. "Questioning? You mean interrogation."
"Words matter less than cooperation."
The guards unlatched the restraints. My wrists were stiff, the skin underneath bruised where the cuffs had bitten in. They didn't hand me clothes—just a gray jumpsuit, thin enough that the cold found every nerve.
Venn led the way down a corridor of white walls and faint green lights. The place smelled like sterilizer and recycled air. Every few meters a camera followed us, its lens rotating with a faint click.
"You built all this for people like me?" I asked.
"No," she said. "We built it for things like you."
That shut me up for a while.
We stopped at a door labeled Interview 6. The guards stayed outside. The room inside was small, clean, windowless. A single metal table, two chairs, a thin strip of light across the ceiling.
Venn sat across from me, tablet in hand. "For the record, state your name."
"Cole Carter," I said. "Thirty-two. Reclaimer, Plant Sector Nine."
She nodded. "And before yesterday, did you have any history of neurological irregularities, hallucinations, or auditory episodes?"
"No."
"Any contact with illegal materials, black-market Residuum, or unauthorized resonance devices?"
"If I had, I wouldn't have lived to sit here."
"Fair." She set the tablet down. "Tell me about what happened in Slot Seven."
I hesitated. "You already have the logs."
"I have data," she said. "I want perspective."
I exhaled slowly. "The furnace jammed. I tried to clear it. Then there was light. Heat like nothing I've ever felt. The next thing I knew, I was on the roof, and there was… a voice."
Her eyes flicked up. "What did it say?"
"Not words I understood. It asked if I wanted to extract something."
She made a note. "And you answered?"
"I didn't have time to think. It just… happened."
Venn leaned back slightly. "Describe the sensation."
"Like being pulled apart and pushed together at the same time. Like something crawled inside and started breathing with me."
She didn't flinch. "And since then?"
"Since then, I feel it moving when I breathe. When I get angry, it stirs. It feels… aware."
The tablet beeped. Venn ignored it.
"You said it feels," she said. "So you believe it's conscious?"
"I don't know what to believe. You're the scientist. You tell me."
"I don't know yet," she said, and I could tell she hated that sentence.
---
A long silence filled the room.
The hum of the ventilation unit, the ticking light overhead, my heartbeat — everything sounded too loud.
Finally, she said, "You should know what we found in the fragment."
I waited.
"It wasn't just Residuum. It contained structured memory layers—human memory, encoded like data. That's never been seen before."
"You mean someone's mind was inside it."
"Possibly," she said. "A mind… or an echo of one."
I stared at the table. "And now it's inside me."
"That's the theory we're testing."
I laughed once, sharp and bitter. "Great. I'm a test tube with legs."
"You're alive when you shouldn't be," she said. "That makes you valuable."
"Valuable to who?"
"To everyone," she said quietly. "The Board. The Directorate. And anyone else who understands what the word Revenant means."
---
A sound cut her off — an alarm, low and rhythmic. The guards burst in.
"Dr. Venn," one said, "containment breach, east sector."
She rose immediately. "Lock this room."
They sealed the door before I could stand. Through the glass strip in the wall, I saw shadows moving — people running, lights flashing red. Then nothing.
The alarm faded into silence.
Seconds stretched. Then the console on the wall flickered.
> [Containment Breach — Subject 07 Released]
The lights dimmed. The hum of the air vents turned into something slower, deeper.
I moved to the door. "What's happening?"
No answer. Just the low vibration under my feet, like something massive had started moving through the walls.
Then the intercom crackled.
> "Carter… can you hear me?"
It was Venn's voice, but distant, urgent.
"I hear you," I said. "What's going on?"
> "Don't panic. The breach wasn't you. Something else—Sector E. You need to stay calm. The resonance field—if it reacts—"
The signal cut off with a shriek of static.
The lights went red.
Every machine in the room shut down at once.
And then, through the mirrored glass, something moved.
It wasn't a person. It crawled more than walked, skin pale as wax, veins glowing faint blue — the same color that had burned under my skin.
It pressed a hand to the glass, leaving a faint residue that shimmered like ash.
Its mouth opened, but the sound that came out wasn't a voice — it was the same mechanical whisper I'd heard in my head.
> [Reclamation… incomplete.]
The glass spiderwebbed.
The thing smiled — a broken, human smile.
Then the lights died completely.
---
(End of Chapter 3 — Next: The Breach)