The silence after the shutdown was almost worse than the alarms.Everything was dead quiet. No hum, no machinery, no red lights flashing. Just the slow drip of water from somewhere deep in the concrete walls.Davion stood there, breathing like he’d just run ten marathons. His father’s voice was gone. The screen was blank.But the weight wasn’t.Beverly was the first to move. She stepped closer to him, her hand brushing his arm. “Davion,” she whispered. “It’s over. We did it.”He shook his head, eyes locked on the darkened console. “No. He’s not gone. I know him. He always has another move.”Rami leaned against the wall, chest heaving. “Man, I don’t know. That thing looked like a coffin for real. If he’s still alive after that, he’s basically a cockroach.”“Exactly,” Maya muttered, still gripping her knife. “Cockroaches don’t die easy.”The scarred boy—one of the kids they’d found—shifted nervously. His voice was low, almost defensive. “He’ll come back. He always comes back. You don’t

The corridors shook as alarms kept blaring, that ugly red glow flashing across the cracked walls. Every step deeper into the core made the air hotter, heavier, like the whole place was breathing around them.Davion kept his jaw tight, helmet under his arm, sweat sliding down his temple. His dad’s voice was still echoing in his skull—taunting him, calling him weak. He wanted to punch through steel just to drown it out.Behind him, Beverly jogged with her pistol raised, eyes scanning everything. Rami was hunched over his tablet, fingers moving too fast, cursing under his breath. Maya twirled her blade like she was daring someone to step out. Elias was limping but kept up, stubborn as ever. And the girl they’d saved—the one with the implants still glowing faintly—stayed pressed to Beverly’s side, shaky but breathing.“Okay,” Rami finally said, his voice a little breathless. “We’re almost there. Power readings say the core’s three levels down. Big surprise: it’s guarded like crazy.”“Defi

The room was alive with noise—alarms shrieking, sparks raining from broken panels, smoke curling up toward the cracked ceiling. Davion’s boots crunched against shattered glass as he and the others pushed deeper into Genesis’s heart.The core chamber looked like something out of a nightmare. Tubes filled with green liquid lined the walls, faint shapes floating inside them. Kids. Teens. Some awake, staring blankly, others unconscious with wires in their veins.Beverly gagged. “Oh my god.”Maya swore under her breath. “This is messed up. This is—this is worse than I thought.”Rami was already at a console, his fingers flying. “Give me a second, I can shut the pods down—”“No.” Davion’s voice cut through the panic. “Not yet.”Everyone turned to him. His eyes were locked on the largest pod at the center, cables twisting like veins into the floor. Inside, a boy about twelve years old floated, his face calm, like he was asleep.“That was me,” Davion said quietly. “That’s what I was.”The roo

The metal doors slammed shut behind them with a hiss, locking the group inside a narrow passage that looked like it had been carved straight out of nightmares. The walls weren’t just walls—they pulsed faintly, wires glowing like veins, machines breathing like some sick organism. Every step echoed too loud, bouncing back at them like the place itself was listening.“Okay,” Maya muttered, gripping her blades tighter. “I’ve seen creepy labs before, but this? This is top-tier horror movie stuff.”Rami pushed his glasses up. “It’s not just tech. It’s… integrated. Like, the whole structure’s alive. Artificial nervous system. His father turned the facility itself into a weapon.”“Cool,” Maya said flatly. “And by cool, I mean terrifying. Thanks for the nightmare fuel.”Davion didn’t reply. He was at the front, shoulders tight, eyes locked on the glowing corridor ahead. His pulse felt like a drumbeat inside his skull. Every step deeper into Genesis was like stepping into his own coffin.Beverl

The alarms were still echoing in Davion’s head even though they weren’t real anymore. Just ghosts of everything they’d run through. The group stumbled into the lower levels of Genesis, the flicker of dying red lights bouncing off broken walls. The place felt like it was breathing—every groan of metal and hiss of steam made it sound alive.Rami was the first to break the silence. “This feels like walking into a horror movie.” His voice cracked as he tried to laugh. “You know… right before the monster jumps out and eats everybody.”“Comforting,” Maya muttered, gripping her blade like she was waiting for exactly that.Beverly walked close to Davion, her eyes darting around. She whispered, “Are you okay?”He didn’t answer right away. He was staring at the walls, where faded symbols and old scorch marks made the place look like a war had already happened here. Maybe it had. Finally, he muttered, “I don’t think ‘okay’ exists in this place.”The girl they’d rescued—the one with the spine imp