Chapter 5 — The Last Minute
321 Words
00:59
Evelyn’s pulse pounded in her ears, drowning the ICU’s machine beeps she’d memorized by heart. The syringe in her hand was cold, heavier than it looked.
00:45
She pictured the amber dose from before—the way it had jolted her father back. But this? Clear, anonymous, unmarked. No composition, no dosage notes. It could save him. It could stop him.
The voice from the speaker pressed in. “Thirty seconds. Or the prime ends.”
Her father’s breathing hitched. The monitor tone wavered.
00:30
D Level’s corridor swallowed Blackwell in metallic silence. The two gray suits led him past door after door, each with its own number burned deep into steel. No windows. No sound from inside.
They stopped at Door 17. A keypad blinked green at their approach.
“You’ll want to be respectful,” one said.
Blackwell tilted his head. “Respect’s earned.”
The door slid open. Inside—bright light, a chair, and on the far wall, a live feed of ICU 312. Evelyn, framed perfectly, holding a syringe over her father’s IV port.
00:20
Blackwell’s jaw tightened. “You’re watching her.”
“We’re watching you,” the first man said. “Your next choice decides whether she finishes the injection.”
00:15
In the ICU, Evelyn’s hand hovered. Sweat slid down her spine. She could almost feel someone watching—maybe Blackwell, maybe them.
She lowered the syringe toward the port.
00:10
Blackwell stepped forward, into the frame of the live feed. “Evelyn. Stop.”
She heard it—not through the room’s speaker, but in her own mind, sharp and certain.
The man in the suit smirked. “Say the word, Doctor, and she freezes. Or she injects.”
00:05
Her father exhaled, lips moving in a soundless phrase. Three words she couldn’t hear but could read.
Don’t. Trust. Them.
00:00
Evelyn’s fingers tightened. The plunger began to move—
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