Chapter 6 - I had forgotten how loud an old house could be.Pipes rattled.
Floorboards creaked.
Windows shook in the wind.
Everything became an alarm.
We moved through the back hallway.
Elena carried a compact pistol.
I had two weapons.
Neither felt sufficient.
“How many?”
“Ten outside.”
“More coming?”
“Yes.”
“Rex?”
“He's in the underground facility.”
“What facility?”
“The original Echo site.”
“Where?”
Elena shook her head.
“You won't believe me.”
“Try.”
“Beneath the town.”
I stopped.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“The Rusty Spur.”
I thought about the diner.
The basement.
The pool table.
The old building.
I remembered the symbol on the soldier's wrist.
Everything connected.
The Vipers weren't guarding the town.
They were guarding the facility.
The diner wasn't random.
I had been brought there.
The people waiting inside had not been targeting Rex by coincidence.
They had known I would stop.
They had been observing me for months.
The entire encounter had been staged.
“Wait.”
I looked at Elena.
“Butch.”
“Yes.”
“He attacked me.”
“He had to.”
“Why?”
“To test whether you remembered your training.”
I stared at her.
“You're telling me the fight was a test?”
“Part of it.”
“And the gunmen?”
“Also a test.”
I laughed.
It sounded insane.
Then I heard a gunshot downstairs.
We both froze.
Another.
Then shouting.
Elena looked at me.
“They're inside.”
I opened the back door.
Cold night air hit us.
We ran.
Bullets tore through the walls behind us.
We cut through the woods.
No lights.
No road.
Just mud beneath our boots.
Elena stumbled.
I caught her.
Blood soaked her side.
“You're hit.”
“Grazed.”
“That is more than a graze.”
She smiled.
“You haven't changed.”
“I changed eleven years ago.”
“No.”
She stopped.
“You changed before that.”
“What does that mean?”
She looked at me.
“You were already Subject 04.”
“I was a soldier.”
“You were recruited before you joined the unit.”
I stared at her.
She continued.
“You volunteered for Echo.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I would remember.”
“That was the point.”
We reached an old maintenance tunnel.
Elena opened the rusted door.
Stairs descended into darkness.
“Where does this go?”
“Under the diner.”
My stomach tightened.
She handed me a small flashlight.
“Once we enter, we don't come back the same.”
“Where's Rex?”
“At the end.”
We descended.
The tunnel smelled of concrete and oil.
We walked for several minutes.
Then we heard something.
A scratch.
A bark.
Rex.
I ran.
The tunnel opened into a massive underground room.
Steel cages lined the walls.
Old computers blinked.
Generators hummed.
And in the center stood Rex.
He was chained to a steel platform.
His eyes locked onto mine.
I moved toward him.
“Rex.”
He pulled against the restraints.
A man stepped from the shadows.
General Marcus Vale.
Older.
Gray hair.
Same cold eyes.
I raised my weapon.
He smiled.
“You finally came home.”
I aimed at his chest.
“You took my dog.”
“He was never yours.”
I tightened my grip.
Vale looked at Elena.
“You should have stayed dead.”
She raised her weapon.
“I tried.”
Vale sighed.
Then pressed a button.
A screen behind him activated.
A video appeared.
Eleven years ago.
A village.
Smoke.
Gunfire.
Six soldiers running.
Rex charging.
Then me.
Holding someone in my arms.
Someone I didn't recognize.
Vale looked at me.
“That is the memory you were never allowed to keep.”
I stared at the screen.
The camera zoomed in.
The person I was holding was not an enemy.
Not a stranger.
May you like
It was my brother.
And he was still alive.
Related Stories
