Chapter 16: East Containment Area

  Edward’s plan had failed.

  He hadn’t accounted for the brittle ventilation grating. He hadn’t predicted the steep drop or the crash that echoed like a siren through the facility. They’d landed hard—metal clattered, echoing violently down the corridor of what looked like a vast, empty prison. But it wasn’t empty.

  Not entirely.

  Mira pulled herself up first. Her instincts kicked in fast as she yanked Kai closer to her. The boy trembled slightly in her arms, and she didn’t blame him. Kai clenched his head suddenly, his fingers digging into his hair as if trying to press something away. A strange wave of random, scattered thoughts—foreign and wild—flooded his mind. His eyes squeezed shut, and his breathing hitched. Instinctively, he suppressed it, forcing the sensation down until it vanished. The entire room was dim and cold, lit only by flickering ceiling lights. Then, the sounds began.

  Bang.

  BANG.

  BANG.

  Then voices. Some moaned. Some shouted unintelligible words, garbled like broken radios. Some of them… sounded human. Others didn’t.

  Edward scanned the place rapidly, his internal systems whirring. Rows of metallic doors lined each side of the corridor. Some doors were plain and dull, but others had glowing stripes—blue, yellow, red. It was from those color-coded doors that the sounds came.

  “They’re containment cells…” Edward muttered under his mechanical breath.

  Mira and Kai inched backward until their backs touched the cold wall. The noises persisted, scraping at their nerves. Whatever was behind those colored doors, they were agitated—awake. Mira tightened her grip on Kai. If the doors opened, there would be no escape. The only "safe" place was the empty cells… but entering one would trap them with no way out.

  Minutes dragged by. The noises eventually dulled, though they never truly stopped. Edward, still attached to Kai’s arm, felt the boy’s heartbeat thundering. Sweat soaked through his shirt. Edward checked Kai’s vitals, then Mira’s. Exhaustion. Fear. But no serious injuries—for now.

  “Let’s move,” Edward whispered through the earbuds.

  The children stood. The corridor stretched endlessly before them, shrouded in a sickly dim glow. The air felt heavier with each breath, dense with the scent of rust, metal, and something rotten that lingered from behind the sealed doors. As they moved forward, a distant sound—a low, choked whimper—escaped from a red-striped door on their right, followed by a sharp scratch, like claws on steel. From the left, behind a yellow-marked cell, came a wet, gurgling moan that rose to a feverish pitch before abruptly cutting off.

  Kai winced, clutching his head as his thoughts grew cloudy—like trying to think through fog or a drunken haze. Something foreign pressed in on his mind, but he instinctively shoved it down. The feeling faded, leaving him lightheaded and sweating.

  They passed doors marked with faded warnings—scratches, dents, and scorch marks telling stories they didn’t want to know. The hallway curved slightly, revealing doors that were bolted shut with external clamps and handwritten caution signs, some smeared with old blood. One door had been welded shut entirely, metal buckled inward as if something massive had tried to burst free.

  Finally, after what felt like hours, they stopped.

  A single door with a blue stripe… slightly ajar.

  They tiptoed forward, shoes silent against the steel floor. As they advanced through the corridor, a glimmer of light caught Mira’s eye—a door was cracked open. Light spilled from a cell with a blue stripe.

  A faint voice drifted out.

  High-pitched. Mumbled. Gibberish… but somehow childlike.

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  They froze.

  Edward moved slowly toward the edge of the door, extending a thin lens around the frame. His mechanical eye adjusted in the low light. Inside sat a small, hunched figure. It wore a tattered grey cloth that resembled a dress, and from beneath it, tufts of brown fur protruded. Two long rabbit-like ears twitched at every sound.

  Edward blinked. The creature looked emaciated—its skin sunk against bones, frail and barely breathing. Toys were scattered across the room, and the painted walls gave the room the look of a nursery. But it was no child. A thick metal collar circled its neck, chained to the wall.

  The creature whispered to itself. Mumbled songs? Nonsense syllables?

  Mira pointed silently toward the keypad on the other side of the door. Maybe Edward could close it if he moved fast.

  No time.

  Edward slithered across the floor and linked into the keypad. A soft beep rang out.

  The creature flinched. Its ears perked up sharply, and it turned.

  Eyes. Human eyes.

  And a mouth, dry and cracked, formed a word. The creature’s eyes lock with the children—rational, intelligent, and sorrowful. For a moment, both the children and the monster stood frozen, staring at one another through the narrowing gap. The creature’s lips moved, forming a word without sound. A silent mumble, but clear enough to read.

  "Sorry."

  No voice accompanied it. Just the movement of its lips.

  Then the door sealed shut, cutting them off.

  The door sealed. The corridor fell into silence again.

  Kai stood frozen and stared into the door. Mira grabbed his hand and gently pulled him along. They walked faster now, not daring to look back. When they finally reached the corridor’s end, Edward unlocked the heavy exit doors. They stepped into a wide-open, circular chamber.

  The East Main Transportation Room.

  It was vast. Massive double doors lined the walls—likely more containment rooms. In the center, a heavy-duty transportation elevator loomed. Crates, cages, rusted vehicles, and strange equipment were scattered across the area. One side of the room opened into a large tunnel, stretching deep underground.

  Edward checked his internal map. “If we take the tunnel,” he whispered, “we can circle around the east sector and reach Kwon from the north. It’s longer—but it’ll avoid the monstrous sheep that guards the east upper level.”

  Edward informed the children. Both children nodded and moved toward the nearest transport vehicle. But then…

  A voice crackled to life.

  “There you are…”

  It came through the speaker systems. The sound was grainy, distorted. Male? Female? Hard to tell.

  “I’ve been looking for you,” the voice said sweetly.

  They froze.

  “Hello, children. It’s nice to have visitors.”

  A faint, eerie background noise bled in from the speakers—like someone whimpering in pain. It echoed beneath the voice, subtle but constant, twisting the atmosphere into something even more unsettling.

  Mira’s skin crawled. She looked around and spotted the blinking lights of cameras overhead.

  She spoke aloud, trying to keep her voice calm. “Who… are you?”

  There was a pause.

  “Ah, I can't hear you, can I?” the voice continued, now muttering to itself like a lunatic caught in a loop, the words trailing off into incoherent rambling.

  Edward whispered urgently through the earbuds. “It’s watching us. The cameras.”

  Mira scanned the ceiling. Too many lenses. Too many to deactivate.

  “I couldn’t help but notice… you’re lost. I could help,” the voice said before abruptly continuing in a strange rhythm.

  Mira tightened her grip on Kai’s arm.

  “But I need your help first,” the voice added. “Give me that equipment on the boy’s arm.”

  Kai clutched Edward tightly.

  “Hmm?” The voice’s tone turned sour.

  Edward’s voice filled their ears. “Run. To the vehicle.” He began a sharp countdown: "Five... four... three..."

  The voice softened. “How did you get in here anyway? It’s supposed to be locked…”

  The children bolted.

  They dove into the nearest vehicle. Edward immediately tried to interface with it. The engine sputtered—then roared to life.

  But it didn’t move.

  Edward froze. “It’s… hydraulic?! This thing isn’t electric!”

  The voice laughed. “What devious little things…”

  Then, sirens blared. The doors to the containment cells began to open. Screeches echoed from deep within. Heavy footsteps. Claws. Growls. Mira turned pale as she looked behind them.

  “Pedal! Pedal!” Edward shouted.

  Kai, jolted by fear, slammed his foot down. The vehicle lurched backward into a pile of crates. Debris rained over them.

  “Damn it!” Edward growled.

  He needed to think fast. The whir of his arc reactor spinning up echoed in his chest like a ticking clock. Circuits hummed. Then—an idea, sudden and wild, struck him like lightning.

  He pulsed energy into his arc core, overcharging it. A sharp pulse exploded from his body—an EMP. Lights burst and died. Cameras went dark. The speakers were silenced—even the earbuds in Mira and Kai’s ears shrieked with static before falling from their ears to the floor, lifeless.

  Pain shot through Edward’s body. His circuits fried at the edges, but he ignored it.

  “Mira! Change the gears! Kai, push!” Edward's voice crackled slightly with static electricity going through his body.

  The old machine wasn’t affected by the EMP—it groaned as gears shifted. Edward moved his stiff mechanical arm to the steering wheel and aimed the vehicle toward the tunnel. With one final jolt, the vehicle surged forward.

  They crashed through a rusted fence and roared into the tunnel—into the darkness ahead.

  Behind them, the monsters screamed as the doors fully opened.

  And the mysterious voice was left behind in the static.