Chapter 31 Broken But Fighting
KAEL'S POV
Pain exploded through my skull as I forced myself upright.
The enhanced subjects—or whatever they'd become—circled us like wolves. Their gray skin looked wrong under the red emergency lights. Their black eyes tracked our every movement. They didn't blink. Didn't breathe normally. Just stared with empty hunger.
"Kael, stay down!" Aria tried to push me back, but I grabbed her hand.
"Not a chance." My legs shook. My ribs screamed. Sienna's torture had left me barely able to stand, but I'd be damned if I died lying down. "We fight together or not at all."
"How touching." The mechanical voice crackled through speakers again. "Your bond makes you predictable. Which makes you easy to kill."
The creatures attacked.
I shoved Aria behind me and met the first one head-on. My fist connected with its jaw—and pain shot up my arm. It felt like punching concrete. The thing didn't even flinch.
It grabbed my throat and lifted me off the ground.
Can't breathe. Can't fight. Too weak.
Then Asher was there, slamming into the creature from the side. We crashed to the floor together. I rolled away, gasping for air.
"Stay close!" Marcus yelled, positioning himself between us and three more creatures. "Don't let them separate us!"
But there were too many. They kept coming through doorways, crawling from vents, appearing from shadows. At least twenty now. Maybe thirty.
We were going to die here.
"Dr. Park!" Luna screamed. "Tell me you have something! Anything!"
Dr. Park fumbled in his coat pocket, pulling out a small device. It looked like a garage door opener with extra wires. His hands shook so badly he almost dropped it.
"I—I built this," he stammered. "Electromagnetic pulse. Theoretically it should disrupt their neural implants, but—"
"But what?" Aria demanded, blocking a creature's swing with a metal tray.
"It only works once! The battery can't handle a second pulse!" Dr. Park's voice cracked. "And I don't know the range! It might not reach all of them!"
A creature lunged at Luna. She ducked, but it caught her hair, yanking her backward.
"NOW!" I shouted. "Use it now!"
Dr. Park pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
My heart sank.
Then electricity crackled through the air. Blue lightning arced between the creatures. They convulsed, their black eyes flickering. Sparks flew from their necks where the neural implants must have been.
One by one, they collapsed.
The hallway went silent except for our ragged breathing.
"Did it work?" Marcus whispered.
I watched the closest creature. It twitched but didn't get up. Its eyes were still black, but they'd stopped moving.
"I think—"
The creature's hand shot out and grabbed my ankle.
I kicked free, but my damaged ribs screamed in protest. The creature started rising. Then another. Then all of them.
"They're getting back up!" Luna's voice pitched with panic.
"Impossible," Dr. Park said. "The EMP should have fried their implants!"
But they kept standing. Slower now. Jerky. Like puppets with tangled strings.
"The implants are adapting," I realized, my strategist brain working despite the pain. "They're rerouting around the damage."
"So what do we do?" Aria asked.
I looked at the exit door. Thirty feet away. Might as well be thirty miles with creatures between us and freedom.
"We run," I said. "Right through them. Don't stop for anything."
"That's your plan?" Marcus stared at me. "Run?"
"You have a better idea?"
Silence.
"On three," I said, grabbing Aria's hand. "One..."
The creatures moved closer. Their movements were getting smoother. They were recovering fast.
"Two..."
Dr. Park gripped his empty EMP device like a weapon. Luna positioned herself next to Marcus. Asher cracked his knuckles, his enhanced body ready despite the exhaustion in his eyes.
"Three!"
We charged.
I ran despite my screaming body. Despite the pain that made every step agony. Aria's hand in mine was the only thing keeping me upright.
Creatures grabbed at us. Marcus threw them aside. Asher fought with brutal efficiency. Luna shocked one with her laptop's battery, buying us precious seconds.
We were ten feet from the door.
Then five.
Almost there.
A creature stepped directly into our path. Bigger than the others. Its black eyes focused on Aria with terrible intelligence.
"Mine," it said in a voice that sounded almost human. Almost.
It reached for her.
I threw myself between them. The creature's hand caught my chest instead, its fingers crushing against my already broken ribs. White-hot pain exploded through me. I tasted blood.
But Aria was safe behind me. That was all that mattered.
"KAEL!" She tried to pull me free, but the creature's grip was iron.
"Go," I choked out. "Get to the exit. I'll hold it—"
"No!" Tears streamed down her face. "I won't leave you again!"
The creature lifted me higher. My vision blurred. I could feel my consciousness slipping.
This is it. This is how I die.
Then Asher was there, his enhanced strength prying the creature's fingers open. "Nobody dies today!"
He freed me just as Marcus kicked the exit door open. We tumbled through together—all six of us in a desperate, bloody heap.
Luna slammed the door shut. Marcus wedged a metal bar through the handles.
Immediately, creatures pounded against it from the other side. The door shook. The bar bent.
"That won't hold long," Marcus said grimly.
"It doesn't have to." Dr. Park pointed down the hallway with a shaking finger. "The main exit is two corridors away. If we can reach it—"
"If?" Luna interrupted. "What do you mean if?"
"The facility's lockdown protocol. When backup systems activate, all exits seal automatically after five minutes." He checked his watch. "We have ninety seconds."
My blood went cold. "What happens if we don't make it?"
"The building floods with knockout gas. Everyone inside goes unconscious. Then..." He swallowed hard. "Then Sienna's people come collect whoever's left alive."
Behind us, the door's bar cracked. A gray hand reached through the gap.
"RUN!" I yelled.
We ran.
My broken body screamed with every step. Aria supported me on one side, Asher on the other. We rounded one corner. Then another.
There—the main exit! Heavy metal doors with a green light above them.
As we watched, the light turned yellow.
Sixty seconds.
We pushed harder. My legs felt like jelly. Blood filled my mouth. Didn't matter. Had to reach those doors.
Fifty seconds.
Marcus was in the lead now, his longer legs eating up distance. Luna right behind him.
Forty seconds.
"Come on!" Marcus reached the doors, his hands on the push bar. "We're going to make it!"
Thirty seconds.
I stumbled. My legs gave out.
Aria and Asher caught me, but we lost precious time.
Twenty seconds.
"Leave me," I gasped. "Save yourselves."
"Shut up," Aria said fiercely. "We're all getting out or none of us are."
Ten seconds.
We were five feet from the doors.
The light turned red.
The doors began closing.
Marcus jammed his body between them, using his enhanced strength to hold them open. His face twisted with effort. "Go! I can't hold this long!"
Luna dove through. Then Dr. Park.
Five feet became three feet as the doors closed despite Marcus's strength.
"Now!" Marcus roared.
Aria and Asher threw me forward. I sailed through the shrinking gap, hitting the ground outside hard enough to see stars.
Aria jumped through.
Asher dove.
The doors slammed shut.
On Marcus.
His scream cut through the night.
I scrambled up, ignoring my pain. Through the door's small window, I could see Marcus trapped from the waist down. His face was gray with agony.
Behind him, the creatures had reached the hallway.
"No no no!" Luna pounded on the door. "Marcus! MARCUS!"
He looked at us through the glass. Blood trickled from his mouth. But he smiled.
"Get them out of here, Kael," he said quietly. "That's an order."
"Marcus, we're not leaving—"
"You don't have a choice." He pulled something from his pocket. A grenade. Where he'd gotten it, I had no idea. "I'm about to blow this door. You need to be far away when I do."
"Please," Aria begged. "There has to be another way!"
"There isn't." Marcus's smile widened. "But hey, at least I get to go out saving my best friends. That's pretty cool, right?"
The creatures were twenty feet behind him now. Ten feet. Five.
"GO!" Marcus screamed.
Asher grabbed Aria. Luna grabbed Dr. Park. I forced myself to run on shaking legs.
Behind us, I heard Marcus's last words: "For the pack."
The explosion threw us forward.
When I looked back, the exit was gone. Just flames and rubble.
And Marcus with it.
Luna collapsed, sobbing. Dr. Park stared at nothing. Aria buried her face in my chest.
I held her as my own tears fell.
We'd escaped.
But the price was too high.
Far too high.
Then my phone buzzed. A message from an unknown number.
I opened it with trembling hands.
The message was a video. It showed a massive auditorium filled with students strapped to tables. At least five hundred of them. All unconscious.
Sienna appeared on screen, her face bruised from Dr. Park's injection but very much alive.
"The Genetic Purity Summit begins in twelve hours," she said. "I'll enhance all of them simultaneously. Create an army you can't possibly stop." She leaned closer to the camera. "Marcus died for nothing. Your friend's sacrifice bought you what? A few hours? Come to the summit if you want. Watch me win."
The video ended.
And I realized with horror that our nightmare wasn't over.
It had only just begun.