CHAPTER 20: LEVEL ZERO
886 Words
The chamber shook violently.
Concrete cracked overhead while smoke poured through the underground vents. Red emergency lights flashed across the white walls like bloodstains.
The countdown continued on every screen.
09:11.
09:10.
09:09.
“Lyra,” Iris whispered through the monitor.
“Don’t let Elian reach Level Zero.”
Then the screen flickered out.
Silence crashed over the chamber for half a second.
Before chaos exploded again.
“What is Level Zero?” Lyra shouted.
Ren answered immediately.
“The deepest section beneath Blackthorne.”
Elian’s expression darkened sharply.
“You should’ve stayed away from this, detective.”
Nova looked around wildly while alarms screamed overhead.
“I personally think everyone should’ve stayed away from this!”
Another violent tremor shook the underground chamber.
Beds rolled across the floor.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
The countdown continued.
08:52.
08:51.
Caius grabbed Lyra’s wrist tightly.
“We’re going after him.”
Ren looked sharply at him.
“No. We leave now.”
“If Elian reaches Level Zero, more people die.”
The detective’s jaw tightened.
“We don’t even know what’s down there anymore.”
Elowen suddenly spoke quietly.
“I do.”
Everyone turned toward her.
Her face had gone pale beneath the flashing red lights.
“The original subjects are below Level Zero.”
A horrible silence followed.
Lyra stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
Elowen swallowed slowly.
“The children who survived the experiments.”
Nova blinked rapidly.
“…You mean there are people living under the school?”
“No,” Elowen whispered.
“Not people anymore.”
The chamber seemed colder after that sentence.
Even Elian remained silent.
That silence terrified Lyra more than any answer.
Ren stepped toward Elowen sharply.
“How much do you know?”
Her gray eyes lowered briefly.
“My family helped fund Blackthorne.”
Silence.
Caius looked disgusted.
“You never told us.”
“You think I’m proud of it?”
Another tremor shook the chamber violently.
The countdown hit 08:17.
Elian suddenly moved.
Fast.
He shoved one Watcher aside and sprinted toward a hidden metal door at the far end of the chamber.
“Stop him!” Ren shouted.
Caius reacted instantly.
He chased after Elian while Lyra followed without thinking.
“Lyra!” Nova yelled behind her.
Too late.
The hidden door slammed open revealing another descending staircase.
Deeper underground.
Colder.
Darker.
Elian disappeared into the shadows below.
Caius ran after him.
Lyra followed immediately.
The stairwell spiraled downward endlessly while alarms echoed through the concrete walls.
Behind them, Ren and Elowen followed close behind while Nova shouted angrily the entire way.
“I WANTED A NORMAL SCHOOL YEAR!”
Another explosion thundered above them.
The academy was dying.
And everyone underground knew it.
The deeper they descended, the stranger the walls became.
The clean white laboratory walls disappeared.
Replaced by old stone.
Ancient stone.
Symbols covered the surfaces now.
Circles.
Eyes.
Names carved into the walls.
Some looked decades old.
Others fresh.
Lyra suddenly noticed something horrifying.
Tiny handprints covered part of one wall in faded red paint.
Children’s handprints.
Her chest tightened painfully.
Another memory flashed violently.
Small children lined against stone walls while white masks watched silently above them.
A little girl whispering:
“They never let us outside.”
The memory vanished.
Lyra stumbled briefly.
Caius noticed instantly.
“You okay?”
“No.”
Her voice cracked slightly.
“I keep remembering things.”
His expression softened painfully.
“I know.”
That hurt more somehow.
Because he remembered too.
The stairwell finally ended at a massive underground corridor.
The sign above it read:
LEVEL ZERO.
Cold air rushed through the hallway like breath from something sleeping underground.
Ren stopped suddenly.
“Oh God…”
The corridor ahead looked abandoned.
Broken lights flickered overhead while thick cables ran along the walls.
But what terrified Lyra most—
Were the doors.
Rows and rows of massive steel doors lined both sides of the corridor.
Like prison cells.
Most stood slightly open.
Empty darkness waited behind them.
And faintly—
Very faintly—
Something moved inside one room.
Nova immediately stepped behind Elowen.
“Nope.”
A soft scraping sound echoed from somewhere deeper below.
Scratch.
Scratch.
Scratch.
Elian stood at the far end of the corridor beside another locked vault door.
He calmly typed a code into the keypad.
Ren raised his gun immediately.
“Elian!”
The silver-eyed man looked back once.
Almost disappointed.
“You still don’t understand what Blackthorne created.”
The giant vault door slowly began opening.
Darkness waited behind it.
And from that darkness—
Came breathing.
Heavy.
Uneven.
Wrong.
Lyra’s blood turned cold.
Then she heard whispering.
Dozens of voices layered together softly.
“Lyra…”
“Lyra…”
“Lyra…”
The voices belonged to children.
The lights overhead flickered violently.
And something stepped slowly out of the darkness behind Elian.
At first, Lyra thought it was human.
Then it lifted its face toward the light.
And she realized it wasn’t.
Its skin looked unnaturally pale.
Its eyes completely black.
Thin surgical scars covered its neck and arms.
The thing tilted its head slowly toward Lyra.
Then smiled.
Too wide.
Too unnatural.
Nova screamed immediately.
“What IS THAT?!”
Elian looked almost proud.
“The future.”
- Writer
