Chapter 5 - ZERO MEANS ZEROEthan attacked the door.
Nothing.
He kicked it again.
The metal didn't move.
Emmie began coughing.
“Stay with me,” Ethan said.
Mercer watched from the other side of the glass partition.
“You cannot stop what is already scheduled.”
“Open this door.”
“No.”
“Open it!”
Mercer looked at the countdown.
00:02:11
Then he walked away.
Ethan turned to the screens.
There had to be a control panel.
Something.
Anything.
He scanned the room.
Emergency release.
Power breaker.
Medical cabinet.
A red switch marked AIRFLOW.
He pulled it.
Nothing.
Then Emmie whispered:
“The badge.”
“What?”
“The doctor.”
Ethan looked at the floor.
Mercer had dropped something.
A plastic access card.
Ethan grabbed it and swiped the main panel.
The lock clicked.
He pulled Emmie through.
They ran into the corridor.
“Which way?” Ethan asked.
Emmie pointed.
“Left.”
“How do you know?”
“I've been here before.”
They ran.
A door opened into a larger room.
Three children were inside.
Alive.
Terrified.
One boy was asleep beneath a blanket.
A girl sat clutching a stuffed fox.
Another little boy stared at Ethan.
“You came.”
Ethan stopped.
“You know me?”
The boy shook his head.
“Not you.”
He pointed toward Emmie.
“She told us someone would come.”
Emmie looked stunned.
“I didn't know if he would.”
“Who?”
“The man from the picture.”
Ethan's heart skipped.
“What picture?”
The girl raised the stuffed fox.
Inside its torn seam was another photograph.
She handed it to Ethan.
It showed a younger Ethan standing beside his brother.
A decade earlier.
On the back was a date.
And a sentence:
THEY CHOSE THE WRONG BOY.
Ethan stared.
His hands began shaking.
“My brother…”
Emmie whispered, “They were looking for him.”
The countdown reached:
00:01:07
A siren began.
The building trembled.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Ethan grabbed the children.
“We're getting out.”
“There's no exit,” the boy said.
“There has to be.”
“They sealed it.”
“How?”
The boy pointed upward.
“From outside.”
Then the lights died.
Emergency lamps flickered red.
A voice echoed through the facility.
Vivian.
“Ethan, listen carefully.”
He froze.
“If you leave the building before the countdown ends…”
A pause.
“…the doors remain locked.”
Ethan shouted, “Then what happens?”
Her answer came softly.
“Everything inside burns.”
Ethan looked at the children.
Then at Emmie.
Then at the clock.
00:00:41
He spotted a maintenance ladder.
Above it was a ventilation shaft.
Too small for him.
Large enough for Emmie.
“Emmie.”
“No.”
“You have to go.”
She backed away.
“No. Not without you.”
“You're going first.”
“They'll be waiting.”
“Maybe.”
She looked at him.
“Then why are you smiling?”
Ethan looked upward.
Because he had just noticed something.
A second countdown.
Different screen.
Different number.
00:17:00
He stared.
“This isn't the purge.”
“What?”
“The building isn't counting down to destruction.”
Ethan pointed.
“The real countdown started after we entered.”
The children stared.
“So what is seventeen minutes?”
Ethan's expression hardened.
“I don't know.”
Then a hidden door opened.
And someone walked through it.
A woman in a hospital coat.
May you like
Vivian.
Smiling.
