Chapter 5 - We ran toward the scream.The sound echoed through the abandoned wing, high and sharp.
Sarah nearly slipped.
Jax was already ahead.
He reached a locked isolation room.
The scream stopped.
I opened the door.
Empty.
No woman.
No blood.
No patient.
Only a speaker mounted in the ceiling.
A recording.
Someone had played it to lure us there.
I turned toward Evan.
He looked unsurprised.
“They always do that.”
“Who does?”
“Dr. Voss.”
“How do you know so much?”
Evan looked down at his dinosaur.
He slowly unzipped the toy's back.
Inside was a tiny plastic memory card.
I stared.
“What is that?”
“My brother gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Before they took him.”
I took the card.
My radio had no signal, but the old computer terminal in the room still had power.
I inserted it.
A video opened.
The image was shaky.
A room.
Seven children sitting on the floor.
A man in a white coat stood in front of them.
His face was hidden by shadow.
A voice spoke.
“Tell me who came for you.”
The children remained silent.
The man held up photographs.
Police officers.
Doctors.
Parents.
Then he showed a photograph of me.
My own face.
The date on the screen was three weeks earlier.
I froze.
The voice asked:
“Would you trust him?”
One child whispered:
“Yes.”
The man turned.
“Why?”
“Because of Jax.”
The video stopped.
Sarah looked at me.
“What does that mean?”
“I don't know.”
I replayed it.
This time I noticed something in the background.
A whiteboard.
Seven names.
Six had been crossed out.
The seventh was:
EVAN COLLINS
Next to it:
TRANSFERRED.
I turned to the boy.
“Transferred where?”
He shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Then Jax began growling.
He stared at the computer.
I moved closer to the screen.
A second video appeared automatically.
It showed the hidden ward.
But the timestamp was from forty minutes in the future.
I stared at the clock.
The footage showed me entering the red room.
It showed Sarah beside me.
It showed Evan standing behind us.
Then a fourth person entered.
A man in a dark coat.
He raised a handgun.
I saw myself turn.
The video ended.
I checked the timestamp again.
Forty minutes.
Not real.
Prediction.
Or a recording prepared in advance.
Either way, someone knew what was going to happen.
Evan pulled my sleeve.
“That's why they brought you here.”
“Who?”
“You.”
He looked directly at me.
“You're not here to rescue us.”
“What?”
“They need you to open the last door.”
I felt my stomach tighten.
“What last door?”
Evan pointed toward the floor.
“Below this one.”
“There are no more levels.”
He shook his head.
“There are.”
“How many?”
“Three.”
My radio suddenly crackled.
A dispatcher shouted through static.
“Unit 214, respond.”
I grabbed it.
“This is 214. Go ahead.”
Silence.
Then a voice spoke.
My voice.
“Do not bring the child outside.”
I froze.
Sarah looked at me.
“That wasn't the dispatcher.”
I knew.
It was my voice.
Recorded.
Or copied.
Then the lights went out.
Jax barked once.
A gunshot echoed from somewhere downstairs.
May you like
And Evan screamed:
“They found us.”
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