CHAPTER 17 : THE ONES BELOW
1318 Words
The thing climbing out of the elevator shaft did not move like a human being.
Humans hesitated.
Humans reacted.
This thing moved with horrifying certainty.
One massive hand gripped the edge of the broken floor, fingers splitting concrete like wet paper. Then another hand appeared beside it, pale skin stretched over muscle that looked unfinished, veins glowing faint blue beneath layers of scarred flesh.
Everyone in the hallway froze.
Even the creatures outside the hospital windows stopped moving.
The network inside my head went silent again.
Not calm.
Fearful.
The connected subjects were afraid of whatever was coming out of that shaft.
And suddenly, so was I.
The creature pulled itself higher.
Its body was huge—easily seven feet tall—but distorted in ways that made my stomach tighten. One arm was longer than the other. Its chest rose and fell too slowly, like breathing was something it had learned instead of something natural.
But the worst part was its face.
Because there was still something human trapped inside it.
One cloudy eye twitched toward us weakly while the other glowed blue.
Like two different beings were fighting over the same body.
Damian raised his weapon immediately.
“Move back.”
The creature looked at him.
Then it smiled.
Not angrily.
Hungrily.
The first Elena whispered:
“Oh my God…”
Cross went pale.
“That’s impossible.”
The Original’s voice came through the monitors calmly.
“Generation One has reached the surface.”
The thing suddenly tilted its head sharply toward the sound of her voice.
Its entire body twitched violently.
Then it let out a scream so loud the hallway lights exploded.
I covered my ears instinctively.
The sound wasn’t just noise.
It hurt.
Like something scraping directly against the brain.
Outside the windows, several connected creatures collapsed instantly, shaking on the ground.
The network pulsed in agony.
Damian fired.
The gunshot echoed through the corridor.
The bullet tore into the creature’s shoulder—but instead of falling back, it only jerked slightly before looking down at the wound with confusion.
Then the flesh began healing.
Fast.
Too fast.
The first Elena grabbed Damian’s arm.
“That thing doesn’t even feel pain.”
Cross stared in horror.
“No… it’s adapting.”
The creature suddenly lunged forward.
Damian shoved me backward just as the thing slammed into him with terrifying force.
Both of them crashed through a hospital bed near the wall.
Metal twisted loudly beneath the impact.
“Damian!”
He drove the barrel of the g*n upward and fired twice directly into the creature’s chest.
Blue fluid exploded across the floor.
The creature screamed again—but this time in rage.
It grabbed Damian by the throat and lifted him off the ground effortlessly.
Everything inside me snapped.
The network erupted violently through my mind.
And suddenly—
Every connected creature outside the hospital lifted their heads at once.
The Generation One creature froze.
Its glowing eye flickered.
Then slowly…
It turned toward me.
I could feel it trying to understand something.
Recognize something.
The Original spoke through the monitors again.
“Elena.”
I barely heard her.
Because the network was responding to my panic automatically.
The creatures outside began flooding toward the building.
Hundreds of them.
The first Elena noticed immediately.
“They’re coming here.”
Cross looked terrified for the first time in his life.
“She’s influencing the network unconsciously.”
Damian was still choking in the creature’s grip.
“Elena—!”
I stepped forward before I could think.
“Stop.”
The word came out quietly.
But the effect was instant.
The creature froze completely.
Its fingers loosened around Damian’s throat.
Blue light flickered violently beneath its skin.
Then slowly—
It released him.
Damian dropped hard onto the floor, coughing violently.
Everyone stared at me.
Including the creature.
My breathing became uneven.
“What did I just do?”
Cross answered in a whisper.
“You gave it a command.”
The hallway suddenly felt much colder.
The Generation One creature stared at me like a starving animal trying to decide whether to obey or attack.
Then, slowly…
It knelt.
The first Elena stepped backward in shock.
“No way…”
Outside the hospital, every connected creature dropped to their knees too.
The entire city synchronized around a single moment.
Me.
The Original’s expression on the monitors softened slightly.
“She’s stabilizing control faster than expected.”
Damian got back to his feet, breathing hard.
“We are not calling this control.”
His voice shook with anger.
“She almost got me killed.”
The Original looked at him calmly.
“She saved your life.”
He pointed his weapon toward the screens.
“You’re manipulating her.”
“No,” the Original replied softly.
“She’s becoming what she was designed to become.”
I felt sick hearing that.
Designed.
Like I wasn’t even human anymore.
The Generation One creature suddenly lifted its head slightly.
Its human eye focused on me weakly.
And for the first time…
It spoke.
“Hel… p…”
The word barely sounded human.
But it was enough to freeze all of us.
The creature trembled violently.
Its larger arm slammed into the floor repeatedly like it was fighting itself.
“Hurts…”
Blue veins spread across its body like cracks.
Cross stared at it in disbelief.
“That’s not possible.”
The Original answered quietly:
“The human consciousness survived longer than predicted.”
The creature looked directly at me.
And suddenly I saw flashes.
Not memories.
Its memories.
A man strapped to a surgical table screaming while Lazarus machinery fused into his nervous system.
Doctors panicking.
Cross yelling for more stabilization serum.
The man begging them to stop.
Then darkness.
Pain.
Years of endless pain.
I staggered backward, horrified.
“You did this to them.”
Cross’s face hardened immediately.
“We were trying to save dying patients.”
“No,” I snapped.
“You turned them into experiments.”
Another violent roar echoed from below.
The floor trembled again.
The Generation One creature looked terrified suddenly.
Actually terrified.
Its glowing eye widened.
Then it whispered:
“More… coming…”
The elevator shaft exploded upward.
Concrete and metal erupted across the hallway.
Everyone hit the ground instinctively.
A second creature crawled out.
Then a third.
Then another.
Different shapes.
Different sizes.
All horribly wrong.
One moved on all fours with glowing veins exposed across its back.
Another dragged half of its body behind it while its broken spine clicked loudly against the floor.
But unlike the first one—
These creatures were not calm.
They were feral.
Hungry.
The first Elena cursed under her breath.
“We’re dead.”
The creatures attacked instantly.
One launched itself toward Cross.
Another crashed through the hallway wall trying to reach the nearest movement.
Damian grabbed my arm hard.
“RUN!”
We sprinted down the corridor as screams erupted behind us.
Gunshots echoed violently.
Blue blood splattered across walls.
The network inside my head exploded into chaos again.
Fear.
Pain.
Confusion.
Every connected subject in the city reacting to the violence.
The Original’s voice followed us through the monitors lining the hall.
“Elena, you must reach the core chamber.”
Damian shouted angrily:
“SHUT UP!”
Another Generation One creature smashed through a doorway ahead of us.
Damian fired instantly.
The bullets slowed it—but didn’t stop it.
The creature lunged.
And suddenly the first Elena swung a metal pipe directly into its skull.
The impact cracked bone loudly.
The creature collapsed sideways into the wall.
She stared at it, breathing hard.
“Okay,” she whispered shakily.
“That definitely hurt it.”
For one second—
We almost laughed.
Almost.
Then the hospital lights died again.
Darkness swallowed everything.
And somewhere deep below us…
Something enormous opened its eyes.
chapter 18 coming soon...........
- Writer
