CRASH!​A violent smash that completely splintered the wooden frame of the iron cot echoed from inside Professor Alice's quarantine cell. Liana, who was just about to whisper orders into Giselle’s ear, snapped her head around instantly.​Inside the dim cell, Alice’s body was arching at a totally unnatural angle on the concrete floor. The blanket wrapped around her had been shredded to pieces. The old woman looked up, revealing a pair of eyes that had gone completely milk-white with no pupils, surrounded by a web of ink-black veins pulsing aggressively all the way to her temples.​"Professor?" Nathan lunged forward, gripping the iron bars of the cell with shaking hands.​Alice didn't answer with human words. She roared—a raspy, high-pitched shriek that shook the dust off the station ceiling. With one brutal, jerking motion, her thin hands gripped two of the iron bars. Her arm muscles swelled, vibrating violently, and terrifyingly, the two-centimeter-thick iron bars started bending wide

SCREECH... CRACK.​The cart’s iron wheels ground violently against the rails before coming to a dead stop. A hard crash into the wreckage of a burnt-out subway car ahead killed all their escape momentum. A thin plume of smoky air drifted up from the derailed, charred carriage blocking the main tunnel line.​"Dead end! Get off, now!" Liana ordered, jumping first onto the wet track gravel.​Nathan moved fast, hoisting Professor Alice’s still-unconscious body off the cart deck. The old woman’s breathing had stabilized, but her body was still way too limp to stand. Nathan helped her behind a concrete tunnel wall, trying to shield her from any flying metal debris.​"Liana, there’s a bypass switch on the right!" Giselle yelled, aiming her small flashlight at a massive iron lever standing between the two rail lines. Right next to the lever, an emergency iron door leading to a train maintenance room stood slightly ajar.​"Anna, help me with the lever! Giselle, watch the emergency door!" Liana

The wooden fishing boat's hull groaned with every heavy wave that slammed against it as the night sea got rougher. The ghost town on the mainland slowly shrank behind them, disappearing into a thick, freezing sea fog. The boat's diesel engine chugged along, spitting faint plumes of smoke into the air as it cut through the waves toward White Sand Island.​Inside the tiny, stuffy cockpit, Liana gripped the wooden steering wheel with her bruised hands. Nathan sat on the floor corner, keeping watch over Professor Alice, who was wrapped in a tarp, while Giselle was busy checking an old compass under the faint, flickering panel lights.​"How much longer 'till the island, Giselle?" Liana asked, keeping her eyes glued to the windshield that was continuously pelted by salt spray.​"If our speed holds, two hours," Giselle replied, wiping sea spray from her face. "But that storm ahead looks like it's moving faster than we expected."​At the stern, Anna leaned against the crates of supplies they’

​"What about the scavenger ship docked on the starboard side?" Liana asked, her voice tight as she checked the charge on her final stun-baton.​Anna stepped forward, sliding a heavy wrench into her belt. "I’ll handle them. They're just bottom-feeders looking for scrap. I'll make sure they stay busy while you two get the parts."​"Don't get yourself killed, Anna," Nathan said, his voice flat.​"Too late for that," she replied, disappearing into the shadows of the stacked cargo crates.​Nathan and Alice waded through the rising water toward the supply depot. The hangar was a graveyard of broken technology—dented fighter jets, overturned forklifts, and tangled webs of wire. The silence was heavy, broken only by the drip of seawater and the distant, muffled clang of heavy boots hitting steel.​They reached the depot, but the heavy blast door was already halfway open. Inside, flashlights cut through the gloom.​"Someone’s already here," Alice hissed, pulling Nathan behind a support pillar.

CLAK. KLAK. KREKKK.​The sound of metal tools clanking against a steel console echoed through the cramped, damp space of the radar tower's control room. Cobwebs hung from the corners, but the dusty old monitors were finally flickering to life, throwing a pale blue glow over everyone's tense faces.​Giselle wiped a streak of grease from her forehead, her fingers flying across a modified keyboard. "Alright, guys, that part we lifted from the military dock actually did the trick. Satellite uplink is green. We are officially on the grid."​Professor Alice adjusted her glasses, her eyes fixed on a progress bar that was creeping toward one hundred percent. "The decrypted files regarding the Sektor Utara project are loaded, Liana. Once we push this broadcast, every shortwave radio, military frequency, and hidden receiver on the mainland will get the data. They'll know the government created the virus—and they'll know Nathan's blood holds the cure."​Nathan stood near the mi