Chapter 304 SURROUNDED
Chapter 304 SURROUNDED
\[POV: Zuri\]
The first bullet tears through the window above my head.
Glass explodes across the floor.
Amani grabs me before I can even think.
“Down!”
I hit the ground hard, his body covering mine as another shot punches through the wall.
Ghost fires back.
Rex moves toward the rear corridor.
“Too many!” he shouts.
My heart pounds against my ribs.
Outside, engines roar.
Not one.
Not two.
At least six.
Headlights sweep across the broken windows, turning the dark station into flashes of white.
We are surrounded.
Exactly as the voice promised.
I look at Marco.
He is standing near the radio, frozen.
Not scared.
Recognizing.
“You know them,” I say.
His eyes meet mine.
“No.”
“Don't lie to me.”
Another bullet strikes the metal frame beside us.
Marco ducks.
“I don't know who they are.”
“Then why do you look like you've seen them before?”
He doesn't answer.
Amani pulls me behind the concrete wall.
“Questions later.”
I look at him.
“What do we do?”
His eyes scan the room.
“Get out.”
Ghost shakes his head.
“Front entrance is covered.”
Rex checks the rear.
“Rear exit too.”
Amani's jaw tightens.
“They want us trapped.”
The radio crackles.
Everyone goes silent.
That voice returns.
Calm.
Almost patient.
“You always were difficult to move, Zuri.”
My blood turns cold.
I step toward the radio.
Amani catches my wrist.
“Don't.”
The voice continues.
“You came looking for answers.”
I stare at the speaker.
“Show yourself.”
A quiet laugh comes through.
“Not yet.”
My fingers curl.
“Then tell me who you are.”
Static.
Then:
“Ask your brother.”
I look at Marco.
He looks away.
My stomach twists.
“What does he know?”
The voice says:
“More than he admits.”
The transmission dies.
I turn on Marco.
“What does that mean?”
Marco doesn't answer.
I walk toward him.
“Marco.”
His eyes finally meet mine.
“I told you everything.”
“No.”
My voice shakes.
“You told me enough to keep me asking questions.”
Amani steps between us.
“Zuri.”
I move around him.
“No. I'm done waiting.”
Another burst of gunfire tears through the station.
Dust falls from the ceiling.
Ghost shouts that the building won't hold.
Amani looks toward the floor.
“There's another way out.”
Marco's head snaps up.
“What?”
Amani points toward the old communications room.
“Basement.”
Ghost frowns.
“This place has a basement?”
Marco goes pale.
I see it.
The reaction.
Immediate.
Fear.
“You knew,” I whisper.
Marco looks at me.
“I knew there was an underground route.”
“Then why didn't you tell us?”
“Because it isn't an exit.”
“What is it?”
Marco hesitates.
“A holding room.”
The words make my skin crawl.
“For who?”
He doesn't answer.
Amani grabs a flashlight.
“We're going down.”
We move.
Ghost takes the lead.
Rex follows.
Amani stays beside me.
Marco comes last.
The floorboards creak beneath our feet as Ghost finds a hidden metal door underneath an old cabinet.
He forces it open.
Cold air rises from below.
A narrow staircase disappears into darkness.
I stare down.
Something about it feels familiar.
Not because I've seen it.
Because my body remembers it.
I touch the wall.
A flash hits me.
A little girl.
Running.
My mother screaming.
A door slamming.
A man's hand gripping my arm.
Then—
Samuel.
“Keep moving, Zuri!”
I gasp.
The memory disappears.
Amani catches my shoulder.
“What happened?”
“I've been here.”
Marco closes his eyes.
“No.”
I turn.
“You knew.”
“I knew the station was connected to the night you disappeared.”
My chest tightens.
“And you still brought me here?”
“I didn't bring you here.”
“But you knew what was underneath.”
He says nothing.
That silence hurts more than an answer.
We descend.
The basement is larger than I expected.
Old equipment lines the walls.
Tables.
Cabinets.
Metal restraints.
My breathing stops.
“This was a Silver Wolf facility?”
Marco nods.
“Emergency holding and transfer station.”
I walk toward one of the tables.
There are scratches carved into the metal.
Names.
Dates.
One name makes my entire body freeze.
SAMUEL.
I touch it.
The memory comes again.
Samuel is standing beside this table.
Blood runs down his forehead.
He looks at someone behind me.
He says:
“Take her.”
I turn in the memory.
I see only a shadow.
Then the memory breaks.
I stagger backward.
Amani catches me.
“Zuri?”
“Samuel was here.”
Marco looks at the carving.
His face changes.
“You're sure?”
“I remember him.”
Marco steps closer.
His eyes fill with something I haven't seen before.
Guilt.
“You knew he came here.”
“I suspected.”
“You suspected?”
My voice rises.
“You've been carrying pieces of my life around like they belong to you.”
Marco flinches.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“Stop saying that.”
The words come out harder than I expect.
“Every person who took something from me called it protection.”
Silence.
Even Amani doesn't interrupt.
Then Ghost calls from the other side of the room.
“I found something.”
We turn.
He holds an old metal box.
Inside is a stack of photographs.
He hands the first one to me.
My mother.
Samuel.
Marco.
And another man.
My eyes lock on the fourth face.
Gabriel Kane.
But there is something wrong.
The photograph is dated two days after my supposed disappearance.
My fingers tremble.
“That isn't possible.”
Marco stares at it.
His face drains of color.
Amani looks between us.
“What?”
Marco whispers:
“He was supposed to be dead.”
The lights suddenly go out.
Total darkness.
Then the radio upstairs comes alive.
The mysterious voice speaks one final time.
“You finally found the right room.”
A pause.
“Now find the door Samuel used.”
A red light appears at the far end of the basement.
A hidden door unlocks with a heavy metallic click.
Marco takes one step toward it.
I grab his arm.
“What happened behind that door?”
He looks at me.
And this time, there is no lie in his eyes.
Only fear.
“That,” he whispers, “is where I lost Samuel.”
The door slowly opens.
And from the darkness beyond it—
someone fires a single shot.