2025-09-30 19:42:57
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The words BEGIN EXTRACTION had barely finished appearing on the screens when Wilson screamed.Not shouted.Not yelled.Screamed.It was the kind of scream that came from somewhere deep inside a person who had finally reached the absolute limit of what they were willing to tolerate from one particular evening.“No!”Reika flinched.“Wilson!”“No! I reject this!”Beverly stared at him.“You can’t reject it.”“I can reject anything I want!”“It’s a computer command.”“Then I reject the computer command!”The woman standing in the doorway looked at him as though she had genuinely forgotten how exhausting he could be.“You haven’t changed.”Wilson pointed at her.“You died!”She blinked.“Yes.”“You died!”“I heard you the first time.”“Then why are you standing there?”She sighed.“I’ve been asked that question a lot.”“By whom?”“Mostly myself.”Wilson stared at her.For once, he had absolutely nothing to say.Beverly might have laughed if the lights hadn’t suddenly begun flashing.A sha
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For once, nobody had a joke.Not Wilson, which was probably the clearest indication that things had gone horribly wrong.The message remained on every screen in the chamber, glowing against the darkness with an almost insulting level of confidence.BRING US DAVION.Beverly stared at it.Then she looked at Davion.Then back at the screen.Then at Davion again.“Well,” she said slowly, “that seems unnecessarily personal.”Wilson turned toward her.“Personal?”“Yes.”“Beverly, they just told us to hand Davion over!”“I know.”“And that’s what you have to say?”She shrugged.“I don’t know what else you want me to say.”Wilson pointed at the screen.“Maybe, ‘Oh no, mysterious people who apparently know everything about us want our friend!’”Reika glanced at him.“Friend?”Wilson paused.“Fine. Colleague.”Davion looked at him.Wilson cleared his throat.“Extremely intimidating colleague.”“Better.”Beverly almost laughed, but the sound died when the lights flickered.The message disappeare
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The first voice was followed by another.Then another.Then another.Within seconds, the underground chamber was filled with them.They came from every direction, overlapping so badly that Beverly couldn’t understand a single word, and the worst part was that they weren’t distorted or robotic like the system had been.They sounded human.Some were whispering.Some were breathing.Some were saying things that sounded like names.And one very strange voice was calmly reciting what sounded suspiciously like a grocery list.Beverly stared into the darkness.“Is that person talking about tomatoes?”Wilson looked at her.“What?”“Listen.”They did.“…two cartons of milk, bread, tomatoes…”Reika slowly lowered her weapon.“What in the world?”Wilson looked genuinely offended.“I don’t know, Beverly. We have bigger problems than someone’s underground shopping list.”“I just think it’s weird.”“Everything about tonight is weird!”Davion turned toward them.“Focus.”Wilson pointed toward the ce
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For three full seconds, nobody moved.Not because they were brave.Not because they were carefully planning their next move.Mostly because the lights had gone out, something underneath the facility had apparently opened its eyes, and nobody had any idea what the appropriate response to that was.Wilson finally broke the silence.“I would like to officially withdraw my participation from this mission.”Reika sighed.“You cannot withdraw.”“Why not?”“Because we are underground.”“That feels like a technicality.”Beverly heard Reika mutter something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like a prayer.She almost laughed.Almost.Then something beneath them made a deep, vibrating sound.Boom.The floor shook.Wilson immediately grabbed the nearest person.Unfortunately, that person was Reika.She looked down at his hands.Then up at his face.Wilson slowly released her.“Sorry.”“You just grabbed me.”“I panicked.”“You grabbed the woman holding a blade.”“I panicked badly.”Reika
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Davion’s words stayed in the room.It is over.Nobody moved.Nobody seemed willing to be the first person to breathe too loudly, as if making too much noise might somehow wake the thing they had just destroyed.Wilson stared at the empty screen.His fingers were still hovering over the console.“Okay,” he whispered.Reika looked at him.“Okay what?”Wilson swallowed.“I think we actually did it.”Beverly slowly lowered her weapon.“You think?”Wilson looked at her.“I’m trying to be emotionally responsible here.”Reika stared at him.“You just erased something that nearly killed all of us, and your biggest concern is emotional responsibility?”“I have range.”“No, you have anxiety.”“Same thing.”Beverly almost smiled.Almost.Then the lights flickered.Everyone froze.Reika’s blade came up instantly.Wilson nearly jumped out of his skin.“Okay!” he shouted. “That was not me!”Davion turned toward the ceiling.The lights flickered again.Once.Twice.Then stabilized.Wilson stared at
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The word erase did not sit right in the room.It landed heavily, like something that was not meant to be said out loud.Wilson was the first to react, and even he did not laugh this time.“…Erase?” he repeated slowly. “Like, completely?”Davion did not look away from the fractured system.“Yes,” he said.Reika tilted her head slightly, studying him.“That is not the same as breaking it,” she said.Beverly’s expression tightened.“It is more final,” she added.Wilson ran a hand through his hair, clearly stressed.“Okay, I need everyone to understand what that means,” he said. “We are not talking about shutting down a program. We are talking about wiping something that has already started rewriting itself across multiple layers of infrastructure.”The system flickered weakly in the background, like it was listening.Wilson continued anyway.“If we mess this up, even slightly, we could scatter pieces of it into other systems permanently. And then we are not dealing with one entity anymor
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