Chapter 8 - Subject 0023No one spoke.
Noah stared at the screen.
“My brother?”
His mother began crying.
Daniel looked at her.
“You knew?”
She shook her head.
“I knew there was another child.”
“Another?”
“They told me he died.”
Elias stepped closer.
“They lied.”
Noah touched the screen.
“What is his name?”
The boy answered himself.
“Evan.”
Noah’s fingers trembled.
“Why don’t I remember you?”
Evan smiled.
“Because they wanted you to forget.”
“What happened to you?”
“They kept me.”
Mara stared at Elias.
“For ten years?”
Elias nodded.
“Why?”
“Because Evan was different.”
“How?”
“He remembered everything.”
The control room door suddenly locked.
A red warning light flashed.
PURGE SEQUENCE INITIATED.
Daniel ran to the console.
“How long?”
“Three minutes.”
Mara looked around.
“What does purge mean?”
Elias answered quietly:
“It deletes the system.”
Daniel turned.
“Good.”
“No.”
Elias shook his head.
“It also kills everyone connected to it.”
Noah’s eyes widened.
“Evan!”
Daniel moved faster.
“We need to get him out.”
They traced the feed.
Sector C.
Level 4.
Mara looked at the map.
“That’s beneath the hospital.”
Elias nodded.
“No.”
“What?”
“It’s beneath the hospital that everyone knows.”
Daniel stared.
“There’s another one?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Elias looked at Noah.
“Under the hospital where your mother was declared dead.”
The words hit like a physical blow.
Noah’s mother closed her eyes.
The system began counting down.
02:41
They ran.
A hidden elevator opened.
The descent seemed endless.
At Level 4, they entered a corridor filled with glass rooms.
People were inside.
Patients.
Some unconscious.
Some awake.
One woman pressed her palms against the glass.
“Help me.”
Mara stopped.
“We can’t leave them.”
Elias shouted:
“We have two minutes!”
Mara ignored him.
She opened the first room.
Then the second.
Daniel joined her.
Noah searched the hallway.
“Where is Evan?”
A monitor flickered.
ROOM 23.
He ran.
Room 23 was empty.
Only a chair remained.
On the chair was a bloodstained shirt.
Noah picked it up.
“MOM!”
His mother rushed over.
“What?”
He held it up.
“It’s his.”
Behind them, a door opened.
Evan stepped out.
He was older than Noah expected.
Fifteen.
Tall.
Thin.
A scar crossed his throat.
No restraints.
No guards.
He smiled.
“Hello, little brother.”
Noah stared.
“You escaped?”
Evan shook his head.
“I was released.”
“By who?”
Evan looked past him.
Toward Elias.
“No.”
His eyes moved to Noah’s mother.
“By her.”
She went pale.
“I never saw you.”
“You did.”
“No.”
Evan stepped closer.
“When you visited me three years ago.”
Her face changed.
She remembered.
A hospital corridor.
A glass room.
A boy behind the window.
She had looked directly at him.
Then walked away.
Her hand covered her mouth.
“I thought…”
“That I was a patient.”
Evan smiled sadly.
“That’s exactly what they wanted you to think.”
The alarm screamed.
00:58.
Daniel shouted:
“Everyone out!”
They ran.
But when Noah reached the elevator, the doors closed.
Evan remained in the corridor.
Noah screamed:
“Evan!”
Evan smiled.
“Don’t worry.”
A voice came through the speakers.
Victor Hale.
“You can save one.”
Noah froze.
“Your brother.”
The screen displayed two doors.
One led to Evan.
One led to his mother.
May you like
Hale continued:
“Choose.”
