SELENE: I AM NUMBER ZERO

Outskirts, District 3 The night was cold and moonless. A convoy of military vehicles rolled silently through the abandoned industrial district, their headlights cutting through the darkness like blades. Rain drizzled from the sky, turning the cracked pavement into a mirror of broken reflections. Inside the lead vehicle, Captain Daniel Reyes studied the intelligence report one final time. Top Secret written on the folder. Objective: Secure Warehouse 17. Threat Level: Extreme. Intel: Suspected illegal human experimentation facility operated by a rogue paramilitary organization. The report made his stomach churn. Experiments on prisoners. Missing civilians. Children. If even half the information was true, what they would find inside would be enough to haunt them for the rest of their lives. Daniel closed the folder. "Move." The squad advanced. Twelve heavily armed operators surrounded the building. Through their night-vision scopes, the warehouse appeared lifeless. Too lifeless. "Alpha Team, breach." A thunderous explosion shattered the silence. The steel doors burst inward. The soldiers stormed inside. "Clear!" "Left side clear!" "Moving!" Gunfire erupted almost immediately. Hidden enemy guards emerged from elevated walkways and cargo containers. Bullets ripped through the air. "Contact!" "Second floor!" The warehouse became a battlefield. Muzzle flashes illuminated the darkness as soldiers exchanged fire with the enemy. Explosions shook the facility. Bodies fell to the cold concrete floor. Within minutes, the remaining hostiles were eliminated. An uneasy silence followed. "Area secured," Sergeant Cole reported. Daniel nodded. "Begin the search." The team spread out. What they discovered only confirmed their fears. Rows of medical beds. Restraint chairs bolted to the floor. Blood-stained surgical equipment. Laboratory notes scattered across desks. Most disturbing of all were the holding cells lining the far wall. Some were empty. Others showed signs that someone had occupied them until recently. Too recently. "Captain," one of the soldiers called. Daniel approached. The operator pointed toward a hidden freight elevator concealed behind stacks of shipping containers. "Found something." The elevator descended deep beneath the warehouse. Far below ground level. Far deeper than any warehouse should extend. The squad exchanged uneasy glances. Then they entered. The elevator groaned as it carried them downward. And downward. And downward. Finally, the doors opened. A long corridor stretched endlessly ahead. The walls were constructed from reinforced steel instead of concrete. Security cameras hung from every corner. At the end of the corridor stood a single massive door. Unlike anything they had seen above. It was heavily armored and sealed with multiple electronic locks. "What the hell were they keeping down here?" Cole muttered. No one answered. Because none of them wanted to know. Daniel motioned to a young technical specialist. "Lee." The soldier stepped forward carrying a portable hacking device. "On it, Captain." He connected several cables into a nearby security panel. The machine hummed. Lines of code streamed across the screen. The squad established a perimeter while Lee worked. Minutes felt like hours. Then— BEEP. "I've got it." Mechanical locks disengaged one after another. CLANK. CLANK. CLANK. The sound echoed through the underground corridor like a warning. Finally, the massive door slowly slid open. The squad raised their weapons. Night-vision goggles swept across the darkness beyond. "Move carefully." The room was enormous. Circular. Pristine white walls stood in stark contrast to the horror littering the floor. Bodies. Everywhere. Some wore blood-soaked lab coats. Others wore tactical armor similar to the enemy forces they had fought upstairs. Broken chairs, overturned equipment, shattered glass, and twisted metal were scattered throughout the chamber. Deep gouges clawed across the walls, while blood stained nearly every surface. Whatever had happened here, it hadn't been an execution. It had been a battle. A brutal one. And judging from the amount of blood, no one should have survived it. The metallic scent filled the air. Several soldiers instinctively tightened their grips on their rifles. "What the hell happened here?" Cole whispered. No one had an answer. At the center of the devastation stood a lone figure. Small. Motionless. A child. A girl. She couldn't have been older than twelve. Long black hair concealed her face. Her thin white hospital gown was soaked red. Bare feet rested in a pool of blood. Yet she wasn't injured. At least, not visibly. She simply stood there in the silence. As though she had been waiting. Daniel slowly lowered his rifle. "Easy." The girl's shoulders tensed slightly. "We're military," Daniel said, softening his tone. "We're here to help." Still no response. One of the soldiers began inspecting the corpses. "Captain." Daniel looked over. The soldier's face had gone pale. "Some of these bodies..." He swallowed. "They weren't shot." The team examined the scene more carefully. Several corpses looked as though they had been thrown against walls hard enough to crack reinforced steel. Others suffered injuries that made no sense. Broken necks. Crushed rib cages. Limbs bent at impossible angles. The room grew colder. Then the girl slowly raised her head. Her hair parted. The squad froze. Her eyes weren't frightened. They were cold. Empty. Ancient. As though she had witnessed horrors no human being should ever see. For a brief second, Daniel felt less like a rescuer— and more like someone who had just unlocked a cage. But then he noticed something else. Behind those unsettling eyes was exhaustion. Loneliness. Pain. The look of someone who had been trapped for far too long. Daniel took a careful step forward. "It's over," he said. "We're taking you out of here." The girl stared at him. Seconds passed. Then she gave the slightest nod. The tension inside the room eased immediately. "Let's move," Daniel ordered. The squad formed a protective perimeter around the girl and guided her toward the exit. As they left the chamber, Daniel glanced back one last time. The massive door. The layers of reinforced locks. The isolated underground location. Everything suddenly clicked. The room hadn't been built to protect whatever was inside. It had been built to contain it. And someone had deliberately abandoned her there. The team moved swiftly through the underground corridors. They searched every laboratory they passed. Every holding cell. Every operating room. Every testing chamber. Empty. Not a single survivor. No prisoners. No scientists. Nothing. It was as if the facility had been evacuated in a hurry. Except for one person. The girl. The deeper they looked, the clearer the truth became. Whoever ran this place had intentionally left her behind. Locked away. Forgotten. Or feared. A burst of gunfire suddenly echoed through the corridor. "Contact!" The radio exploded with chatter. More enemy troops were pouring into the facility. Reinforcements. "They're coming from the upper levels!" a soldier shouted. Daniel's jaw tightened. "Damn it." The enemy had returned in force. Far more than before. The squad immediately exchanged fire, retreating through the hallways while shielding the girl. Bullets ricocheted off steel walls. Sparks erupted around them. "Magazine check!" "Half ammo!" "Three mags left!" "Two here!" Their situation was deteriorating rapidly. Every firefight drained precious ammunition. And more enemies kept coming. "We need extraction now!" Cole barked into the radio. Static answered him. The facility interfered with communications. "Move!" Daniel yelled. The team pushed toward the freight elevator. More hostiles emerged from side corridors. Then another group appeared behind them. They were being surrounded. "Captain!" Daniel turned. At least thirty enemy soldiers blocked the path ahead. Another wave approached from the rear. The squad stopped. Trapped. Cornered. Several soldiers began reloading what little ammunition remained. The outcome looked inevitable. Then— The girl moved. No one saw her leave Daniel's side. One moment she was standing beside him. The next she was in front of the squad. The enemies hesitated in confusion. A child? One of them laughed. The laughter lasted less than a second. The girl surged forward. Faster than humanly possible. A blur. A soldier flew backward before anyone could react. His body slammed against the corridor wall with enough force to dent the steel. Another enemy raised his rifle. The girl seized the weapon and snapped it in half with her bare hands. Shock spread across both sides. "What the—" Before the man could finish speaking, she struck him. He collapsed instantly. The corridor erupted into chaos. The girl moved through the enemy ranks like a storm. No weapon. No armor. Only her hands. Every movement was precise. Efficient. Terrifying. Within moments, trained soldiers were falling one after another. The squad could only stare. Even Daniel was speechless. The bodies scattered across the underground chamber suddenly made sense. Every single one of them. Several enemies broke ranks and attempted to flee. The girl stopped. Her cold eyes followed them. For a brief moment, Daniel saw something frightening behind them. Not rage. Not hatred. Instinct. As if violence had become second nature to her. The last enemy hit the ground. Silence returned. The entire corridor was littered with unconscious or broken soldiers. The girl simply turned around and walked back toward Daniel. As though nothing unusual had happened. As though she hadn't just defeated an entire platoon alone. The squad stared in disbelief. Nobody spoke. Nobody even knew what to say. The girl stopped beside Daniel. For the first time, her expression softened. Just slightly. Then she quietly asked, "Are we leaving now?" And for the first time since entering the facility, Captain Daniel Reyes found himself afraid—not of the enemy pursuing them, but of the mystery standing beside him. The silence that followed was almost as terrifying as the battle itself. Dozens of enemy soldiers lay scattered throughout the corridor. Some unconscious. Some badly injured. All defeated. And standing among them was a twelve-year-old girl in a bloodstained hospital gown. The squad stared at her. Nobody knew what to say. Nobody knew what she was. The girl's eyes moved from one soldier to another before settling on Daniel. "Are we leaving now?" she asked quietly. Her voice sounded normal. Too normal. As if she hadn't just torn through an entire enemy platoon with her bare hands. Daniel exchanged a glance with Cole. Neither of them had answers. "Yeah," Daniel finally said. "We're leaving." The girl simply nodded. The freight elevator opened. The surviving members of Alpha Team rushed inside with the girl. The moment the doors closed, another series of explosions rocked the facility. The enemy wasn't retreating. They were destroying evidence. "Those bastards are cleaning house," Cole muttered. Daniel clenched his jaw. The empty laboratories. The abandoned cells. The missing scientists. It was all planned. Whoever ran the facility had evacuated before the military arrived. Almost everything had been removed. Everything except the girl. No. Not except her. They had intentionally left her behind. Locked inside the deepest and most heavily secured room in the entire underground complex. A room designed not to keep intruders out— but to keep her in. The elevator reached the surface. The warehouse above had transformed into a war zone. Gunfire echoed from every direction. Smoke filled the air. The military perimeter outside was under attack. Enemy reinforcements continued arriving through hidden tunnels and access roads. Searchlights illuminated the darkness. Tracer rounds streaked overhead. "Move! Move! Move!" Daniel shouted. The squad sprinted toward the extraction point. Several armored vehicles waited outside. A military helicopter circled above. But reaching them wouldn't be easy. More enemy fighters emerged from nearby buildings. The squad returned fire while pulling back. Their ammunition was nearly depleted. Several operators had switched to sidearms. "Captain!" a soldier yelled. Daniel turned. A rocket-propelled grenade streaked through the darkness. "DOWN!" The explosion destroyed one of the waiting vehicles. Flames erupted skyward. The shockwave knocked several soldiers off their feet. The girl remained standing. Watching. Silent. Daniel looked toward her. For the first time, he noticed she wasn't frightened by any of it. Not the gunfire. Not the explosions. Not the blood. Nothing. Almost as if she'd lived through worse. Far worse. The extraction helicopter finally touched down. Its rotors screamed against the night air. "The bird is here!" One by one, soldiers boarded. Daniel stayed behind to cover the retreat. The girl stood near the helicopter door. Then something happened. A sniper round cut through the darkness. Daniel never saw it coming. Neither did anyone else. The girl did. Her head snapped toward the source instantly. Then she moved. Faster than human eyes could track. She appeared in front of Daniel. The bullet struck her shoulder. Everyone froze. The impact should have shattered bone. Should have ripped through flesh. Instead— CLANG. The sound rang out like metal being struck. The bullet bounced harmlessly onto the ground. The squad stared. No blood. No wound. Nothing. Just a small tear in the hospital gown. "Holy shit..." Cole whispered. The girl looked down at the bullet. Then at Daniel. Confused. As though she didn't understand why everyone was staring. And that's when Daniel finally realized. The bodies downstairs. The sealed room. The reinforced containment chamber. Her impossible strength. The bullet. The experiments. The truth. The enemy hadn't been trying to create a soldier. They had succeeded. Minutes later, the helicopter finally lifted off. The burning warehouse disappeared beneath them. For the first time all night, nobody spoke. The soldiers sat in stunned silence. The girl occupied a seat near the rear ramp. Quietly staring at the darkness outside. Daniel sat across from her. The intelligence officer who had joined the extraction team carried a recovered data drive salvaged from the underground servers. "What did you find?" Daniel asked. The officer looked uneasy. "You're going to want to see this." He connected a tablet. Several heavily encrypted files appeared. Most had been corrupted during the self-destruct sequence. But one survived. A personnel file. PROJECT SERAPHIM The screen displayed an image. A little girl. Smiling. Healthy. Ordinary. Unlike the child now sitting in front of them. Subject Designation: S-01 Name: Selene Age at Acquisition: six The squad exchanged disturbed looks. Acquisition. Not recruitment. Not enrollment. Acquisition. She had been kidnapped. Seven years ago. The next file opened. Medical records. Genetic engineering reports. Neurological enhancements. Combat adaptation. Accelerated cellular regeneration. Synthetic muscle fiber integration. Bone-density reinforcement. Every page became more horrifying than the last. The scientists hadn't simply experimented on her. They had rebuilt her. Piece by piece. Year after year. Turning a human child into something else. Something stronger. Something impossible. The final document appeared. A recommendation from the project's director. SUBJECT S-01 HAS EXCEEDED ALL EXPECTED PARAMETERS. SUBJECT IS NO LONGER CONTROLLABLE. ALL TERMINATION ATTEMPTS HAVE FAILED. CONTAINMENT IS THE ONLY VIABLE OPTION. The cabin fell silent. Nobody looked away from the screen. The final entry was dated three months earlier. Three months. They had locked a twelve-year-old child in that underground chamber for three months. Alone. The girl's reflection appeared in the helicopter window. Quiet. Expressionless. Listening. Reading every word. Daniel slowly closed the tablet. The girl finally spoke. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "My name..." Everyone looked at her. The child lowered her gaze. As if trying to remember something forgotten long ago. "...was Selene." Daniel's chest tightened. Was. Not is. Was. As if that little girl had died a long time ago. The helicopter continued through the night. None of them noticed the blinking red light hidden beneath one of the girl's ears. A tiny implant. Still transmitting. Hundreds of miles away, inside a secure facility buried beneath a mountain, a computer screen suddenly came alive. A signal. Active. Recovered. The director smiled. "Subject S-01 has been extracted." He folded his hands. "Proceed with Phase Two." And far above the clouds, inside the helicopter, Selene stared into the darkness. Unaware that the nightmare she had escaped from was only beginning.