Chapter 12: The Original’s Choice
The countdown continued.
02:59:47
The numbers on the screen moved slowly.
Almost calmly.
Like the machine wasn’t counting down to the destruction of lives.
Like it was simply waiting for an appointment.
Thomas Reed pushed himself off the floor.
His breathing was heavy.
His face looked older than ever.
Not because of his age.
Because he knew what was coming.
I stared at the screen.
MERGE PROCESS STARTING
Only one version survives.
The sentence repeated in my mind.
One version.
Not everyone.
Not all of us.
One.
I looked at Thomas.
“What does it mean?”
He didn’t answer.
“Thomas.”
He looked at me.
“The original has always known this moment would happen.”
“Who?”
Thomas looked toward the dark hallway.
“Subject Zero.”
The child.
My original self.
The one who had been hidden for thirty years.
The one who could control everything.
I shook my head.
“He’s a child.”
Thomas’s expression became serious.
“No.”
A pause.
“He only looks like one.”
The underground speakers suddenly activated.
A voice filled the room.
A child’s voice.
My voice.
“You still underestimate me.”
I froze.
Thomas immediately looked up.
“Subject Zero.”
The voice laughed softly.
“Still calling me that?”
The lights flickered.
A screen turned on.
The child appeared.
Standing inside Room 214.
Thirty years ago.
But now the footage was different.
He wasn’t just standing there.
He was watching us.
Through the camera.
Impossible.
“He can access the archive.”
Thomas whispered.
The child smiled.
“I can access everything.”
I stepped closer to the screen.
“Why are you doing this?”
The child looked at me.
Not Thomas.
Me.
“Because I am tired.”
“Tired of what?”
“Being forgotten.”
The words were quiet.
But full of anger.
“For thirty years, everyone celebrated your existence.”
He pointed at the camera.
“The successful patient.”
“The miracle.”
“The one who survived.”
My chest tightened.
“But nobody remembered me.”
I stared.
“You were the original.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you leave?”
The child’s expression changed.
For the first time, sadness appeared.
“Because they were afraid of me.”
The screen changed.
A new recording appeared.
Thirty years ago.
The laboratory.
Doctors surrounding the child.
A young Sarah.
My mother.
She was crying.
“Please.”
The doctor shook his head.
“He’s unstable.”
Sarah looked at the child.
“He’s my son.”
The doctor replied:
“He is not the problem.”
A pause.
“He is the reason the copies work.”
My breathing stopped.
The recording continued.
A scientist explained:
“Subject Zero has an unusual ability.”
“What ability?”
“He maintains consciousness stability.”
Sarah looked confused.
“Meaning?”
The scientist answered:
“He is the source.”
The screen froze.
Source.
The word hit me.
I looked at Thomas.
“Source of what?”
Thomas whispered:
“Every copy.”
The child’s voice came through the speakers.
“They took pieces of me.”
“They created versions.”
“They created you.”
I looked away.
A painful truth was forming.
Maybe I wasn’t the person I thought I was.
Maybe my entire life was borrowed.
The child continued:
“But there was one thing they couldn’t copy.”
“What?”
“My memories.”
I frowned.
“You have them.”
The child smiled.
“No.”
A pause.
“They have yours.”
The room became silent.
“What does that mean?”
The child looked directly at me.
“You were given a life.”
A pause.
“But I was given the pain.”
The words hit harder than expected.
I saw images.
A child alone.
A hospital room.
Machines.
Doctors.
Years of experiments.
The original wasn’t the monster.
He was the first victim.
The countdown continued.
02:30:00
Thomas stepped toward the speaker.
“Stop this.”
The child looked at him.
“You knew.”
Thomas looked away.
“You knew what would happen if they created copies.”
“Yes.”
“And you let it happen.”
Thomas’s face changed.
“I tried to stop it.”
The child laughed.
“You tried after my mother died.”
Silence.
My body froze.
“My mother?”
The child looked at me.
“Yes.”
“Sarah?”
He nodded.
“She died protecting you.”
A strange pain moved through my chest.
A memory appeared.
A woman holding me.
A voice whispering:
“Promise me you’ll live.”
I covered my face.
I remembered.
Not everything.
But enough.
My mother.
The hospital.
The experiments.
The fear.
Then another memory came.
A door opening.
My mother standing outside the laboratory.
A doctor holding a syringe.
A voice saying:
“Erase the copy.”
The copy.
Me.
I opened my eyes.
“What did they do?”
Thomas looked at me.
“They tried to remove you.”
My heart stopped.
“But failed.”
“Yes.”
The child spoke:
“Because I stopped them.”
Everyone froze.
“You?”
The child nodded.
“I saved you.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
The child looked sad.
“Because you were the only person who ever treated me like a person.”
A pause.
“You were my brother.”
The word hit me.
Brother.
Again.
The same word Elizabeth used.
I looked at the countdown.
02:00:00
“So why are you trying to kill me now?”
The child looked away.
“Because I know what happens next.”
“What?”
He answered:
“The board will restart Project 214.”
Thomas’s face changed.
“They’re still alive?”
The child nodded.
“They never left.”
A new screen appeared.
A map.
Saint Mary’s Hospital.
Below ground.
Hundreds of rooms.
Hundreds of experiments.
The hospital wasn’t just a hospital.
It was a machine.
A machine built around Room 214.
The child continued:
“They want all copies merged.”
“To create what?”
The child looked at me.
“One perfect human.”
The words were terrifying.
“And you?”
The child smiled.
“I refused.”
The countdown reached:
01:59:59
Then another message appeared.
EXTERNAL OVERRIDE DETECTED
The child’s expression changed.
“What?”
Thomas looked at the screen.
“No…”
A new user appeared.
Someone had taken control.
Not the child.
Not Thomas.
Not Daniel.
A new name.
The system displayed:
ADMINISTRATOR ACCESS
SARAH CARTER
My blood froze.
“My mother?”
Impossible.
The speakers crackled.
A woman’s voice filled the underground room.
Older.
Tired.
But unmistakable.
“Hello, my son.”
I stopped breathing.
Because my mother…
The woman I believed had been dead for years…
Was speaking to me.
The voice continued:
“I know you have questions.”
A pause.
“But there is something you need to understand.”
The screen changed.
A live camera feed appeared.
A room beneath the hospital.
Inside was a woman.
Older.
Connected to machines.
Alive.
Sarah Carter.
She looked directly into the camera.
Then she said:
“The child you call the original…”
She looked at the screen.
“…is not my son.”
Everyone froze.
The child’s face changed.
For the first time…
Fear appeared.
Sarah whispered:
“The real Subject Zero died thirty years ago.”
A pause.
“And the thing pretending to be him…”
The lights went out.
Her final words echoed through the darkness:
May you like
“...is the reason this hospital was built.”
End of Chapter 12
