Chapter7
554 Words
The one that was forgotten.
The subterranean slums had changed now.
Zara, Usman, and Mara moved like shadows, trusted by no one, watched by everyone. Following the near-ambush and the relay raid, they were legends or targets.
Probably both.
Zara studied the stolen files for hours. Beneath the system code and encrypted comms was one name hidden “Subject #02 – ZAVIER.”
Alive. Last signal: Sector Delta Ruins.
Usman leaned over her shoulder.
“Another like you?”
Zara nodded slowly. “If he remembers anything, he might know how to bring the Project down.”
“Or he might be a weapon they forgot to clean up,” Mara muttered.
Still, they went.
The Sector Delta Ruins
The Delta Ruins were where the city died—bombed out, flooded, forgotten. Walls were tagged with red skulls and broken promises. No signals. No drones. No one sane stayed long.
In a train graveyard, they found him, sharpening a blade beside a pile of broken rebel gear.
Tall, sharp jaw, quiet. His neck, curled up with black tattoos.
He didn’t flinch when Zara stepped out.
“I know who you are,” he said.
She froze. “You do?”
“You’re 13. You screamed louder than the others.”
Usman moved fast, stepping between them.
“Watch what you say.”
But Zavier didn’t mind him. Just Zara.
“They’re hunting you harder than they hunted me. It means you’re the key.”
Zane leads them into an old power station, filled with half-working tech.
There, he drops the truth bomb:
“The Project wasn’t just about turning orphans into weapons. "It was about building rulers—children they could control, manipulate and unleash to rebuild the city after the collapse.
“They stopped at thirteen. But not all of us were killed. I escaped. I’ve been waiting for the others to wake up.”
“Now you have.”
Zara stared at the floor.
“But we’re not rulers.”
Zavier tilted his head. “Are you sure about that?”
Before they leave, Zavier reveals one more secret.
“There’s one more alive. Subject #09. She’s already been activated.”
“Who?” Zara asks.
Zavier hesitates.
“… Her name is Mara.”
Silence struck like a bullet.
Zara turns.
Mara’s face is frozen. Pale. Shocked.
“No,” she whispers. “That’s not possible.”
Zavier tosses her a small card.
“DNA lock matches. Check it out yourself.”
Mara drops to her knees.
“Why didn’t I remember?”
“They don’t want you to,” Zavier says. “Until they do.”
That night, in the campfire lights, no one sleeps.
Mara doesn’t speak.
Zara watches her, unsure what to say.
Usman finally says: “How many of you are there?”
Zara shakes her head. “I don’t know. But it doesn’t change anything.”
Mara finally speaks. “It changes everything.”
She walks off into the dark.
Zavier steps beside Zara.
“You’re not just survivors anymore. You’re the storm coming. And it’s time we started choosing targets.”
Zara looks down at the cracked tablet. The map of rebel bases. Elite towers. Data centers.
She draws a red X over one of them.
And says:
“Then let’s start with Tiger.”
- Writer
