CHAPTER 17:Subject E-01
780 Words
The steel door slid open with a long metallic hiss.
Cold air poured into the corridor.
No one moved.
No one even breathed.
The emergency lights flickered once...
Twice...
Then steadied.
A pair of glowing green eyes stared back at them from the darkness.
Elena instinctively stepped behind Adrian.
"What... is that?"
Adrian tightened his grip on his pistol.
"I don't know."
Slow, deliberate footsteps echoed through the silent hallway.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
The figure finally stepped into the light.
It wasn't a monster.
It was a man.
He looked to be in his early forties, tall and lean, dressed in faded white patient clothing. His dark hair had turned gray at the temples, and several old scars crossed his face and hands.
What unsettled Elena wasn't his appearance.
It was his expression.
He looked completely calm.
As though he had been expecting them.
The computerized voice echoed again.
"Subject E-01 successfully awakened."
The man looked directly at Elena.
His lips slowly curved into a faint smile.
"So..."
"The last child finally came home."
Elena's heartbeat quickened.
"You know me?"
He nodded.
"I've known you since the day you arrived."
Samuel whispered, "Impossible..."
"You've been here for eighteen years."
The man chuckled softly.
"Not continuously."
"They woke me whenever they needed answers."
Adrian stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
The stranger's eyes shifted toward him.
"I wondered when Evelyn's son would find this place."
Adrian froze.
"You knew my mother?"
"I worked beside her."
The man extended his hand.
"My name is Dr. Nathan Hale."
"I was the lead scientist of Project Echo."
Silence crashed over the corridor.
Samuel immediately raised his pistol.
"You're responsible for everything that happened."
Nathan didn't argue.
"I was."
His calm admission stunned everyone.
"I spent years believing I was helping children."
His voice became heavy.
"I didn't realize I was destroying them."
Grace's eyes filled with anger.
"More than a hundred children died."
Nathan lowered his head.
"I know."
"And I remember every one of them."
Elena stared at him.
"If you regret it..."
"...why didn't you stop them?"
Nathan looked into her eyes.
"I did."
"I destroyed the final experiment."
Elena frowned.
"What final experiment?"
Nathan looked around the corridor before lowering his voice.
"You."
The room became deathly quiet.
"You and Adrian."
He pointed at them one after the other.
"You weren't chosen by accident."
"The Foundation believed your minds possessed an unusual resistance to memory manipulation."
Adrian frowned.
"So they experimented on us."
Nathan nodded.
"They wanted to create people who could carry information without ever revealing it."
Elena looked confused.
"I don't understand."
Nathan walked toward one of the monitors and activated another file.
A medical diagram appeared on the screen.
"It wasn't just memory they wanted to control."
"They wanted to hide secrets inside living people."
Samuel stared at the screen.
"You mean..."
Nathan nodded.
"They encoded information directly into your subconscious."
Elena took an uneasy step backward.
"What information?"
Nathan met her eyes.
"The location of the Master Archive."
Sophia gasped.
"No..."
Nathan looked at her sadly.
"You knew."
Sophia nodded weakly.
"I suspected..."
"But Thomas never confirmed it."
Nathan sighed.
"He wanted to protect Elena."
Adrian looked at the monitor.
"What's in the Master Archive?"
Nathan answered with a single sentence.
"The names of everyone involved."
He paused.
"Politicians."
"Judges."
"Scientists."
"Business leaders."
"People who funded Project Echo."
Grace whispered,
"If that archive becomes public..."
Nathan nodded.
"An entire network will collapse."
Elena suddenly understood.
"They aren't hunting me because of Vault 731."
Nathan gave a grim smile.
"No."
"They're hunting you..."
"...because you are the key."
Before anyone could speak again, alarms erupted throughout Sector 7.
Red emergency lights flashed across the corridor.
The computerized voice spoke urgently.
"Security breach detected."
"Multiple unauthorized personnel entering Sector 7."
Samuel rushed to the nearest monitor.
His face turned pale.
"They found another entrance."
The security cameras showed dozens of armed soldiers flooding into the underground complex.
At their head walked Victor Blackwood.
Beside him...
Sheriff Brooks.
And a woman in an elegant black suit.
Nathan's expression changed instantly.
"No..."
Elena looked at him.
"Who is she?"
Nathan's voice trembled for the first time.
"Dr. Isabella Voss."
"The current director of the Echo Foundation."
On the monitor, Isabella stopped walking and looked directly into one of the cameras.
Then she smiled.
"Welcome back, Dr. Hale."
Her voice echoed through the facility's speakers.
"I've been waiting a very long time for this reunion."
She paused before adding,
"And Elena..."
"I'd like to finish the experiment your parents interrupted eighteen years ago."
The lights suddenly went out.
Complete darkness swallowed Sector 7.
Then...
Somewhere in the darkness...
A child began to laugh.
- Writer
