I woke to grey. Everywhere was kind of grey that sterile emptiness, making my skin crawl. I tried to sit up but my body refused to respond. Panic flared in my chest. I could feel everything, from the cold metal table beneath me, to the restraints around my wrists and ankles, and the electrodes attached to my temples. But I couldn't move. I couldn't even turn my head. I was completely paralyzed. "Don't fight it," a female voice said. "The neural inhibitor will wear off in approximately three minutes. Fighting will only prolongs the effect." A figure moved into my field of vision and I instantly went cold. The familiar sharp features, with eyes that looked like polished steel. She wore a white coat over dark clothing, and her hair was pulled back so severely it looked painful. It was the same doctor back at the research facility. Doctor Shen. "What are your doing here?" My voice came out hoarse, barely more than a whisper. I moved my eyes around. "Why I'm I here?"

"I know who's also behind the wave attack," Katseye said. "And it's not only Vex and Shen." We all stared at her. "So you're saying that some people plan to cause a genocide?" Vira asked, watching Katseye nod in agreement. "Why didn't you say anything all these time?" I asked. "Because I wasn't sure, but after what played out, the pieces are slowly fixing itself." she explained. "So, who else is involved?" Jabari asked. "It is worse than you think." she stated, looking at our faces to know if we are paying attention. "There is an external force triggering it." Katseye pulled out a small device from her pocket, something that looked like a modified comm-pad. Where did she get that from? "During the period my father first came here from the surface, he talked about a spot that holds pieces of where he came from and brought some of these with him." Katseye looked at me, making me wonder how she knew what I was thinking. "My father is very intentional at keeping things — pri

The stench wasn't the only thing that clung to the roof of my mouth like a living thing with a thick, cloying veil of metallic decay every time I breathed, I tasted iron and rot. But the fact that I'm battling with skin irritation to the point that I harshly scratch my skin due to the uncomfortable tingling I'm getting all over my skin. My fingers, stained with the dark, tacky residue of the corpse-slurry, fumbled through yellowed parchments and heavy leather-bound ledgers in Casimir’s study. "Can we ‘please’ wash this off now?" Katseye hissed, her voice tight with a gag she was barely suppressing. She held a stack of blueprints at arm's length, her nose crinkled in pure disgust. Yuyan didn’t even look up from a map she was scrutinizing. Her face was a mask of cold stone. "Only if you’re volunteering to go back out and find another decayed corpse to reapply when we leave. The scent is our only shield. Unless you want to be the main course for the next pack of mutants we stumble a

The silence didn't last. It was shattered by a sound like grinding stones as the Mother mutant uncoiled from the rafters. Her descent was a blur of pale, muscular limbs. I tasted the salt of my own sweat stinging my eyes as I realized I was the closest target. "You guys should run while I draw it away!" I screamed, my voice cracking. It was an old rhythm now; I was the bait, the scapegoat, the one whose life felt the most expendable in the heat of the moment. I dove under the central kitchen island, the smell of wet fur and sour milk filling my nostrils. The Mother’s claws raked across the metal above me with a screech that set my teeth on edge. I scrambled toward the hallway, the creature’s heavy, wet footfalls right on my heels. "Move it, kid!" One of Yuyan’s men with the scarred knuckles who hadn't said much since we came here lunged from the shadows of the study door. He swung a heavy iron pipe, catching the Mother in her midsection. She let out a guttural roar, turning h

"Before I go into the main reason, I'll first of all wish to congratulate you all." she said, her tone as clinical as a doctor delivering a diagnosis. That confused us as we wonder what she was up to. Every compliment or nice comment always carry something vicious behind them. She is that good at coaxing deceit with nice words, which to me is confusing as I have no idea what she's thinking "You've discovered the clone protocol. I was wondering when someone would finally make it this far." she said. Yuyan spun toward the nearest monitor. "You sick—" "Please. Spare me the moral outrage." Shen adjusted something off-screen. "The clone protocol is necessary because of what we were able to gain from it." she paused. "You see, champions are valuable assets, but when we saw how fragile they were, being the fact that they were humans that were growing old and frail, we thought.....hmmm, maybe we should enhance them and see if they fit the goal we are aiming for? So if they die, clon