Chapter 15 - Frank had spent his entire life believing every problem had an end.A storm ended.
A fight ended.
A fishing trip ended.
Even grief eventually changed shape.
But some things did not end.
They waited.
Frank stood in his tiny aluminum boat, staring across the lake at Dr. Adrian Vale.
Vale stood calmly on the black vessel.
He looked exactly the same as he had three months earlier.
Same coat.
Same smile.
Same cold eyes.
Beside him stood several armed men.
Frank's hand moved toward the radio.
Vale raised a loudspeaker.
“You look disappointed.”
Frank shouted:
“I was hoping you'd fallen into a hole.”
Vale laughed.
“Close.”
Frank stared.
“What do you want?”
Vale looked toward the water.
“Mina.”
Frank shook his head.
“Forget it.”
Vale smiled.
“You don't understand.”
“I understand perfectly.”
“You think the laboratory was destroyed.”
“It was.”
“You think the network died.”
Frank said nothing.
Vale's smile widened.
“It didn't.”
Frank felt cold.
The water beneath him began to move.
Mina appeared beside the boat.
Her eyes were red.
Vale looked at her.
“You were designed to survive.”
Mina growled.
Vale continued.
“But you became something more.”
Frank raised his voice.
“She doesn't belong to you.”
“No.”
Vale looked directly at Frank.
“She belongs to herself.”
That surprised Frank.
Vale continued.
“That's why I need you.”
Frank frowned.
“What?”
“You know how to close the door.”
Frank stared.
“You're still trying to open it.”
Vale shook his head.
“I'm trying to finish what you started.”
Frank's expression hardened.
“There is nothing down there worth saving.”
Vale smiled.
“Wrong.”
He pressed a button.
The water behind him exploded.
The giant creature emerged.
But it was different now.
Its metal implants were gone.
Its skin was glowing.
Its eyes were no longer red.
They were blue.
It looked directly at Mina.
Mina answered with a clicking sound.
Frank watched them.
“You've changed it.”
Vale nodded.
“It changed itself.”
Frank looked down.
The lake beneath him was glowing.
Patterns spread across the water.
Symbols.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
A message.
Frank could almost read it.
Then Mina spoke.
“Frank.”
He froze.
“What?”
“Open.”
Frank shook his head.
“No.”
Mina stared at him.
“Not for him.”
Frank understood.
The creature beneath the lake was not asking to escape.
It was asking to come through.
Something was waiting on the other side.
Something larger.
Something older.
Frank looked at Joseph's boat approaching from the east.
Emily was with him.
Joseph shouted:
“Frank!”
Frank turned.
Joseph held up a folder.
“WE FOUND THE ORIGINAL FILES!”
Frank shouted:
“What do they say?”
Joseph's face was pale.
“They weren't researching immortality!”
Frank stared.
“Then what?”
Joseph stopped his boat beside Frank.
He opened the folder.
Inside was an old photograph.
Frank took it.
The picture showed a group of scientists standing beside Blackwater Lake.
The date was seventy-two years earlier.
In the background was the lake.
And beneath it was a symbol.
The same symbol Frank had seen in his nightmares.
Joseph pointed to a handwritten note.
Frank read it.
THE LAKE IS NOT A CONTAINER.
Frank's eyes moved lower.
IT IS A DOOR.
Then beneath that:
DO NOT LET THE OTHER SIDE REMEMBER US.
Frank looked up.
“What does that mean?”
Joseph shook his head.
“We don't know.”
Vale laughed from across the water.
“I do.”
Frank turned.
Vale raised a second photograph.
“This isn't the first lake.”
Frank's blood ran cold.
Vale explained.
There were others.
Five.
Maybe six.
Around the world.
Ancient sites where strange biological anomalies had been discovered.
Each site had been sealed.
Each one was connected.
Blackwater Lake was only one piece.
The experiments had accidentally created a network between them.
Mina wasn't just a successful specimen.
She was a key.
Frank looked at her.
“What are you?”
Mina stared at the water.
“I remember.”
Frank whispered:
“What?”
Her eyes turned blue.
“The first.”
The lake exploded.
A massive wave rose.
Everyone screamed.
The black boat was thrown sideways.
Joseph grabbed Emily.
Frank held the side of his boat.
Mina vanished beneath the water.
Then the entire lake began rotating.
A giant whirlpool formed.
At its center was a black hole.
Inside it was darkness.
And then a hand emerged.
Not a fin.
Not a claw.
A human hand.
Frank stared.
Another hand followed.
Then another.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Human hands crawling out of the water.
Joseph shouted:
“FRANK!”
Frank grabbed Emily's arm.
Vale stopped smiling.
For the first time, he looked completely terrified.
The hands climbed higher.
People began emerging.
Old people.
Young people.
Men.
Women.
Scientists.
Soldiers.
Every person whose memory had been stored in the network.
Frank stared in horror.
“They're not dead.”
Joseph shook his head.
“No.”
“What are they?”
Joseph whispered:
“Memories made physical.”
Mina surfaced in the center of the whirlpool.
She looked up at Frank.
Her voice echoed across the lake.
“Frank.”
He stood.
“What?”
She looked toward the darkness.
“They are coming.”
Frank stared.
“Who?”
Mina slowly turned.
“Everyone.”
The sky darkened.
Birds fled the trees.
The water rose higher.
The black boat disappeared.
Vale screamed something no one could understand.
And far beyond Blackwater Lake, in distant oceans and hidden underground facilities, machines began turning on.
One by one.
Five locations.
Then ten.
Then dozens.
Across the world, ancient doors began opening.
Frank looked at his brother.
Joseph looked back.
Emily grabbed Frank's hand.
Mina disappeared beneath the water.
Frank took one final look at his tiny fishing boat.
Then he picked up his rod.
Joseph stared.
“Seriously?”
Frank tightened his grip.
“What?”
“We're facing whatever the hell is coming through that lake, and you're bringing a fishing rod?”
Frank smiled.
“It has worked before.”
Joseph laughed despite himself.
The lake began to roar.
Frank looked into the darkness.
“Let's go fishing.”
The surface exploded.
And from beneath the lake, something enormous opened its eyes.
The last thing Frank heard before the world disappeared into light was Mina's voice.
“Remember me.”
May you like
Then the screen went black.
TO BE CONTINUED.
