2026-08-28 06:54:01Chapter 3 — The People Who Knew
Ethan didn't run.
That was the first thing Mia noticed.
Three black vehicles were parked outside the sporting goods store.
Rain hammered their roofs.
The men who stepped out wore identical black uniforms.
No police badges.
No military insignia.
Only one symbol.
72.
Mia tightened her grip on the metal pipe.
"Who are they?"
Ethan didn't answer.
He was counting.
Eight men.
Two vehicles had four men each.
The third vehicle remained closed.
That meant someone important was inside.
Ethan glanced toward the rear exit.
Twenty meters.
Clear path.
Unfortunately, the men outside were already spreading across the street.
They weren't searching randomly.
They knew exactly where to look.
Ethan's phone vibrated.
He checked it.
UNKNOWN:
You have five minutes.
Another message appeared.
UNKNOWN:
After that, they will enter.
Ethan looked at Mia.
"Can you run?"
She frowned.
"What?"
"Can you run?"
"Yes."
"Good."
He grabbed a backpack and threw it toward her.
"Take the water and medicine."
Mia caught it.
"What are you going to do?"
"Make sure they don't follow us."
"You can't fight eight people!"
"I don't need to."
Ethan looked toward the ceiling.
"There are three exits."
Mia looked confused.
"There are?"
"The roof."
He pointed toward the emergency ladder.
"The back door."
Then he pointed toward a storage corridor.
"And the basement."
Mia stared at him.
"You know this place very well."
Ethan paused.
"I've been here before."
"Today?"
He didn't answer.
The front doors suddenly slammed open.
"Search every aisle!"
A man's voice echoed through the store.
Ethan pulled Mia behind a shelf.
Boots approached.
Slow.
Controlled.
Not the footsteps of frightened civilians.
These people had training.
One of the soldiers spoke.
"Thermal scanner shows two people."
Another replied.
"Confirm identity."
A third voice came through their radio.
"Male, approximately thirty-five. Brown hair. Gray jacket."
Ethan's blood ran cold.
They knew exactly what he was wearing.
The radio continued.
"Female, approximately twenty-eight. Dark hair."
Mia looked at Ethan.
"They're looking for us."
"I know."
"How?"
Ethan's eyes hardened.
"Because someone told them."
A soldier entered the aisle.
Ethan waited.
Five seconds.
Four.
Three.
Two—
The soldier turned the corner.
Ethan grabbed his wrist.
He slammed the man's head into the shelf.
Once.
The soldier collapsed.
Mia stared.
"You killed him?"
"No."
Ethan pulled the man's radio from his belt.
"He'll wake up."
He put on the soldier's jacket.
Mia stared at him.
"You've done this before."
Ethan ignored her.
He pressed the radio button.
"Target located."
Static.
Then a voice answered.
"Location?"
Ethan looked at the shelves.
"North aisle."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes."
"Hold position."
Ethan smiled.
That was exactly what he wanted.
He threw the radio toward the opposite side of the store.
A soldier immediately ran toward the sound.
Ethan grabbed Mia's arm.
"Now."
They sprinted toward the back.
Gunfire erupted behind them.
Bullets struck the shelves.
Mia ducked.
"They're shooting!"
"Keep moving!"
They reached the emergency door.
Locked.
Ethan pulled out the soldier's access card.
Beep.
The door opened.
They ran into the alley.
Black rain poured down.
Ethan immediately pulled Mia under an awning.
"Don't touch the rain."
"I'm already wet."
"That's not what I mean."
He examined her face.
No black veins.
No fever.
Good.
They moved quickly through the alley.
Behind them, the soldiers reached the exit.
One shouted.
"They escaped!"
Another voice answered.
"Do not pursue."
Ethan stopped.
Mia nearly crashed into him.
"Why did they stop?"
Ethan looked back.
Because they weren't trying to catch him.
They were driving him somewhere.
"They wanted us to leave."
Mia's face paled.
"What?"
Ethan stared at the black vehicles.
"They're herding us."
"Toward what?"
Before Ethan could answer—
A massive explosion shook the street.
BOOM!
The ground cracked.
A wave of black energy swept through the buildings.
Windows shattered.
Cars flipped.
Mia fell.
Ethan grabbed her before she hit the ground.
Then he saw it.
At the end of the street, a giant black structure was rising from beneath the pavement.
A tower.
Impossible.
Ethan recognized it.
The same tower from his vision.
The same tower Mia had described.
It shouldn't exist.
Not yet.
Not on the first night.
The tower continued rising.
Thirty meters.
Fifty.
One hundred.
Its surface looked like black glass.
No windows.
No doors.
Only the symbol:
72.
Ethan couldn't breathe.
Mia whispered:
"That's it."
"What?"
"The tower."
She looked at him.
"That's the place from my dream."
Ethan's phone vibrated.
He looked down.
A message appeared.
UNKNOWN:
You weren't supposed to see the Tower until Day 30.
Ethan stared at the words.
Another message.
UNKNOWN:
Something changed when you returned.
His eyes narrowed.
"What changed?"
No answer.
Then the screen displayed a location.
72 RESEARCH CENTER — 4.7 KM
Mia looked over his shoulder.
"What's that?"
Ethan put the phone away.
"We're leaving."
"Where?"
"Somewhere underground."
"Why?"
"Because the city is about to become a death zone."
Mia grabbed his sleeve.
"Ethan."
He stopped.
"What?"
"There's something else."
"What?"
She hesitated.
"I didn't tell you everything about my dream."
Ethan's expression darkened.
"Tell me."
"I wasn't alone."
His eyes narrowed.
"Who was with you?"
Mia looked toward the Tower.
"There was another man."
"What man?"
"I don't know."
"What did he look like?"
She shook her head.
"I couldn't see his face."
"Then how do you know he was a man?"
"Because he spoke."
"What did he say?"
Mia's lips trembled.
"He said..."
She closed her eyes.
"Ethan Carter must never remember who he was."
Silence.
Ethan felt something inside his mind crack.
"Who I was?"
Mia nodded.
"That's what he said."
Ethan stepped backward.
For the first time since waking up, he felt genuine fear.
He had assumed his memories were real.
He had assumed his first life was exactly what he remembered.
But what if it wasn't?
What if someone had altered his memory?
What if the three years of apocalypse he remembered were incomplete?
A sudden headache exploded behind his eyes.
Ethan grabbed his head.
Images flashed.
A laboratory.
A woman in a white coat.
A child crying.
A black door.
And himself—
standing inside the laboratory.
But he wasn't thirty-five.
He was younger.
Much younger.
Maybe seventeen.
A voice echoed inside his head.
"Subject 72 has awakened."
Ethan collapsed to one knee.
Mia grabbed him.
"Ethan!"
He couldn't breathe.
Another memory appeared.
His hands were covered in blood.
A woman was screaming.
Then a door slammed shut.
And someone whispered:
"Erase his memories."
Ethan's eyes opened.
The vision disappeared.
Mia was staring at him.
"What happened?"
He looked at his hands.
"I don't know."
Then—
A voice came from behind them.
"That's because you weren't supposed to remember."
Ethan turned.
A man stood beneath the awning.
Tall.
Black coat.
No weapon visible.
A silver mask covered half of his face.
Mia raised her pipe.
"Who are you?"
The man ignored her.
He looked directly at Ethan.
"You really shouldn't have come back."
Ethan's blood ran cold.
"What did you say?"
The stranger smiled.
"You heard me."
Ethan reached for his knife.
"Who are you?"
The man removed his mask.
Ethan froze.
The face staring back at him was familiar.
Impossible.
He knew this man.
Everyone knew him.
He was supposed to be dead.
He had died two years after the apocalypse.
Ethan had watched his execution.
Yet here he was.
Standing alive.
The man smiled.
"Hello, Ethan."
Ethan's voice disappeared.
The stranger stepped closer.
"You've forgotten me."
He touched the symbol 72 on his chest.
"But I haven't forgotten you."
Ethan's heart pounded.
"Who are you?"
The man's smile vanished.
"I was the first person you killed."
Ethan stared at him.
The stranger continued:
"And I'm the reason the apocalypse happened."
Thunder exploded above them.
Then the black Tower stopped rising.
Every screen in the city suddenly turned on.
One sentence appeared across every billboard.
Every phone.
Every television.
Every surviving computer.
SUBJECT 72 HAS RETURNED.
Ethan stared at the message.
Then another sentence appeared.
BEGIN PHASE TWO.
Mia looked at Ethan.
"What is Subject 72?"
Ethan didn't answer.
Because deep inside his mind, a memory was returning.
A memory he had forgotten.
A memory from before the apocalypse.
And in that memory—
Ethan wasn't a victim.
He was standing beside the people who created it.
Previous Chapter
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