The Abomination: Alpha Zero Project

Chapter 7: Echoes of the Traitors

Zeven looked up towards the thick glass of the observation room curving across the ceiling of the dead-end space. The faint silhouettes of the executives who had been watching him just moments ago had now vanished, leaving only the reflection of the blood-red emergency lights pulsing constantly. The rage burning in his chest meant Zeven wasted no more time searching for manual ladders or the detours usually taken by the workers. He bent his knees, gathering the remaining superhuman strength in both legs, and launched himself straight at the ceiling with tremendous force. His hands, coated in massive energy, gripped the iron supports of the observation deck, tearing through the structural concrete as if it were a fragile lump of clay. With a single, well-trained heave of his body, Zeven managed to force his way up, landing with a heavy thud right upon the marble floor of the main observation deck.

"They're gone, they've left us all here to die," a trembling voice muttered from a computer speaker that was still active.

"Don't let the mainframe shut down before all vital data has been transferred," another voice replied over a leaking radio frequency in the corner of the desk.

Zeven walked slowly around the vast room, which now appeared empty, messy, and littered with sheets of documentary paper scattered across the floor. A few coffee cups, still warm, and overturned chairs proved that the executives had fled only minutes before his arrival. The smell of burning dust from the server racks mingled with the copper stench of blood clinging to Zeven's clothes, creating an incredibly sinister atmosphere in the room. Massive monitor screens on the main wall remained alight, displaying footage of the underground corridors completely ruined by the mass rampage he had just unleashed. Zeven's gaze then locked onto a main computer terminal in the middle of the room, which was still automatically processing an emergency data download.

"Are there still secrets you wish to hide from me?" Zeven murmured, his tone remarkably low and cold.

He stepped closer to the computer desk, letting his fingertips, stained with laboratory fluid, touch the surface of the brightly flashing keyboard. An encrypted folder opened on the screen, displaying rows of high-level security codes that unlocked instantly as the system detected the total failure of the central generator. Inside the folder, a large digital document with a striking title caught the full attention of Zeven's sharp eyes immediately. The document was labelled Bill of Sale, a record of a financial and legal transaction dated precisely on the day he was first brought to this accursed place.

"This can't be happening, this must be a manipulation tactic to break my focus," Zeven whispered, shaking his head slowly.

"Open the file right now before the whole system is destroyed by the lockdown," Zeven commanded himself, pressing the execution button on the touchscreen.

Row after row of data began to unfold, revealing details of financial compensation, territorial rights, and guarantees of political power granted by the laboratory to an outside party. At the very bottom of the digital document lay an official digital signature and a pure blood seal belonging to the highest leader of his own tribe. The name written there was the name of his biological father, the man who was supposed to protect him but had instead sold him like livestock to the scientists. Finding an empty room, Zeven grew furious and opened the digital document labelled Bill of Sale, which exposed his biological father's heinous betrayal clearly without a single doubt. Zeven's chest heaved violently, feeling an emotional blow far more painful than the sting of chemical syringes that had torn through his flesh for years inside the experimental vats.

"So, all the suffering I've felt all this time was the result of my own parents' choice?" Zeven asked the silence of the quiet room.

"You were merely a commodity to them, a subject possessing no human value from the start," a pre-recorded voice from the automated system protocol droned on loop.

Zeven smashed his right fist into the computer desk in front of him, shattering the high-value electronic equipment into pieces and sending sparks flying. The monitors on the wall went dark one by one, leaving a harrowing silence inside the observation deck, which was now illuminated only by the red emergency lights. The sense of heartbreak that had briefly settled in the deepest corners of his heart evaporated quickly, replaced by a cold substance called absolute vengeance that burned away the remnants of his humanity. Every childhood memory he had kept safely in his mind now felt like a massive lie, deliberately designed to deceive him. The tears that had started to well in his eyes dried up instantly, turning into a blank stare filled with a desire to destroy the entire bloodline of the traitors.

"Every single one of them must pay for every drop of blood and tear spilled inside this underground facility," Zeven snarled, his jaw tightening.

"There will be no hiding place for those who signed this accursed treaty," he continued, clenching his fist until his knuckles turned white.

Zeven's footsteps now felt much heavier and purposeful, no longer driven by a wild survival instinct but by a structured plan of slaughter. He walked towards the emergency exit behind the observation deck, ignoring the remaining documents that no longer held any meaning for his new purpose in life. However, before his fingers could touch the iron door handle in front of him, a very heavy mechanical thud echoed from beneath the floor where he stood. The entire room shook violently, bringing down several ceiling panels and cutting off the remaining clean air supply within the main control room. A massive sound of grinding metal was heard from behind the wall, indicating a forced alteration of the building's structure by the central security system.

"Is this the final trap prepared by the elders before they fled to the surface?" Zeven asked, adopting a defensive stance.

"System detects total failure, lower-level evacuation to be executed within thirty seconds," the computer voice blared in a monotonous tone.

Zeven tried to step back, but the marble floor beneath his feet suddenly split open, creating a gaping chasm that swallowed his entire body into the darkness. He fell heavily to a lower level, landing on a cold concrete floor covered in puddles of rust-scented water. Around him, steel walls half a metre thick began to lower automatically at high speed from the ceiling, sealing off every available air gap. The sound of high-pressure hydraulics locked every corner of the wall joints, ensuring there was no path back up and no access to the main corridor. This new room was extremely narrow, resembling a subterranean prison box specifically designed to restrict the movement of a creature with superhuman strength like his own.

"Release me from this place!" Zeven roared, slamming both hands against the steel walls that had just locked him in.

His powerful blows only produced a dull thud, without causing the slightest crack in the specialized steel structure, which seemed to be coated in a kinetic energy-absorbing material. The air inside the narrow room began to feel increasingly thin and stifling, while the high humidity caused his sweat to pour down, soaking his wounds. From the corner of the room, a small pipe vent began to emit a thin grey smoke, spreading a strange aroma that was entirely too familiar to his sense of smell. Zeven realized that the executives had planned his recapture or total elimination if the main observation deck were ever breached by the test subject.

The heartbreak turned into a vengeful rage just as the walls of the room suddenly shifted, trapping him

on the lowest level.