Chapter 10: The Awakening
333 Words
The facility began to collapse.
Doors opened throughout Eden.
One after another.
Then hundreds.
Then thousands.
The Ascended emerged from their chambers.
They didn't attack.
They walked.
Slowly.
Silently.
Together.
Elias stood behind a security barrier and watched them fill the corridors.
They looked human.
That was the worst part.
Some were old.
Some were young.
Some looked almost normal.
Others were horribly distorted.
But every one of them moved with the same purpose.
Mara watched them.
"They're afraid."
Elias looked at her.
"The monsters are afraid?"
"No."
She looked toward the ceiling.
"They're afraid of what's coming."
A sound passed through the facility.
It wasn't loud.
It wasn't even a sound Elias could properly describe.
He felt it in his bones.
Every glass surface vibrated.
Every machine activated.
Noah covered his ears.
"What is that?"
Lena looked at Mara.
"You know."
Mara nodded.
"The Watchers."
Elias looked upward.
"You said they were watching."
"They were."
"From where?"
"Beyond the atmosphere."
A light appeared through the ceiling.
Not sunlight.
Something colder.
Something artificial.
Every Ascended suddenly stopped.
Thousands of creatures stood motionless.
Then all of them turned toward Elias.
He felt their attention enter his mind.
Memories flashed through him.
Faces.
Cities.
Deaths.
Mara's childhood.
His own childhood.
The hospital.
The rain.
The woman standing in the road.
He stumbled backward.
Mara caught him.
"They can see you."
"Why?"
"Because you're connected."
"To them?"
"To something older."
The ground shook again.
A massive c***k appeared across the ceiling.
Through it, Elias saw the sky.
And above Earth were thousands of objects.
They weren't ships.
They had no engines.
No wings.
No visible propulsion.
They simply existed.
Watching.
Then every surviving electronic device on Earth activated simultaneously.
Radios.
Televisions.
Computers.
Phones.
Satellites.
A single message appeared everywhere.
SPECIES 001.
OBSERVATION COMPLETE.
Elias looked at Mara.
Her face had gone pale.
"What does it mean?"
She whispered:
"They're finished watching."
"And now?"
Mara looked toward the sky.
"Now they're deciding what to do with us."
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