Chapter 3 - The children were hiding beneath an abandoned railway bridge.Rainwater poured through cracks in the concrete overhead.
The little girl, Emma, was asleep against the boy's shoulder.
The youngest boy, Noah, was curled beneath a piece of cardboard.
The baby lay between them.
Her name was Lily.
At least, that was what the boy called her.
He had found her eleven days earlier inside a locked metal room beneath a building that officially did not exist.
He had never known where she came from.
Only that people had been afraid of her.
The boy's name was Michael.
He was twelve years old.
And he had learned not to trust adults.
Especially adults who wore white coats.
He looked toward the street.
Black cars were passing.
Too many.
"We can't stay here."
Emma woke.
"Where do we go?"
Michael didn't answer.
Noah sat up.
"I'm hungry."
Michael looked at the last piece of bread.
He broke it into three pieces.
Then handed the largest piece to Emma.
She pushed it toward Lily.
"She's a baby."
Michael shook his head.
"She can't eat bread."
"Then we eat it for her."
Noah laughed weakly.
For a moment they almost felt normal.
Then Lily opened her eyes.
All three children froze.
Her eyes were strange.
Gray.
Almost silver.
She looked directly at Michael.
He whispered:
"What?"
Lily raised her tiny hand.
She pointed toward the darkness.
Michael turned.
Nothing.
Then he heard footsteps.
He grabbed Emma.
"Run."
They crawled from beneath the bridge.
A flashlight swept across the concrete.
A man's voice shouted:
"They're here!"
Michael grabbed Lily and ran.
Emma followed.
Noah stumbled behind them.
They sprinted through the rain.
A vehicle turned into the alley.
Headlights flooded the street.
Michael pushed Emma toward a narrow opening between two buildings.
"Go!"
They squeezed through.
Noah fell.
Michael went back for him.
A hand grabbed his coat.
He twisted violently.
A man in black pulled him backward.
Michael screamed.
"LET GO!"
The man slapped him.
Lily started crying.
Then the strangest thing happened.
The man's hand began shaking.
He looked down.
Lily's fingers had touched his wrist.
The man froze.
His expression changed from anger to terror.
"She's awake."
Michael kicked him.
The children ran.
They didn't stop until they reached a church.
An old woman opened the side door.
She took one look at them.
Then looked at Lily.
Her face went white.
"No."
Michael held the baby tighter.
"You know her?"
The woman stepped backward.
"Where did you find her?"
"In a laboratory."
"What laboratory?"
"Saint Mara's."
The old woman crossed herself.
"You must never say that name again."
Michael stared.
"Why?"
The woman looked toward the street.
"Because they listen."
Michael lowered his voice.
"Who?"
She answered:
"The people who built her."
At the Vale mansion, Jonathan sat in front of a wall of medical scans.
Fourteen years of failure.
Fourteen years of paralysis.
And now something was changing.
His neurologist, Dr. Samuel Reed, stared at the latest scan.
"This doesn't make sense."
Jonathan remained still.
"Explain."
"The damaged nerves in your lower spine are showing activity."
"How much?"
Samuel swallowed.
"Enough to suggest regeneration."
Jonathan looked at him.
"Can nerves regenerate after fourteen years?"
"Not like this."
"What caused it?"
Samuel looked at Jonathan.
"You already know."
Jonathan thought about the baby.
"No."
Samuel pointed at the scan.
"Something activated them."
"Can it happen again?"
"I don't know."
Jonathan stood up.
Both doctors in the room screamed.
Jonathan froze.
He was standing.
For less than two seconds.
Then his knees collapsed.
Samuel caught him.
Jonathan stared at his own legs.
His eyes filled with tears.
Not sadness.
Rage.
Because somebody had taken fourteen years from him.
"Find the children."
Samuel stared.
"Why?"
Jonathan looked at him.
"Because the baby isn't healing me."
He remembered the voice on the phone.
She's proof.
"She's waking something that was already inside me."
That night, Jonathan reviewed every record from the accident.
At 2:13 a.m., he found the missing page.
A handwritten sentence.
PROJECT ECHO: SUBJECT VALE SUCCESSFUL.
Below it was a name.
LEAD RESEARCHER: EVELYN VALE.
Jonathan stopped breathing.
His dead wife wasn't just connected to the project.
She had led it.
Then the security system activated.
One red light after another flashed across the mansion.
Daniel appeared in the doorway.
"Sir."
Jonathan looked up.
"What?"
"The front gate camera just detected someone."
"Who?"
Daniel placed a monitor on the desk.
A man stood outside the mansion.
Old.
Thin.
Holding a black umbrella.
Jonathan stared at the screen.
His blood went cold.
The man's face had not changed much in fourteen years.
Dr. Adrian Kane.
The doctor officially declared dead twelve years ago.
Kane looked directly into the camera.
Then he lifted a piece of paper.
Four words were written on it.
May you like
SHE WAS NEVER YOUR DAUGHTER.
The screen went black.
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