January 29, 3070
My eyes blink open, and awareness slithers in like a cold whisper, unfurling slowly through my mind. Any remnants of sleep evaporates as reality quickly sinks its claws in.
The night had been anything but restful. After the chaos of the day, we found a semblance of safety in the kitchen, though the tension was palpable. Nara was too exhausted to be of any help, her eyes heavy with fatigue like the others. So we decided to just clean the kitchen, get a few mattresses out from the quarter room, helped the staff to cook sufficient meals for all of us and called it a day.
I look at the little boy bundled besides me. I made sure Vinay stuck to me as soon as I returned. He told me he had a lot of questions and I answered quite a few truthfully. I couldn't sleep at all until I was sure he was asleep. The ocassional trembles made me frown and I made sure to comfort him every time.
What I had noticed was that his eyes, though, still carrying fear, he wasn't as scared as before.
I adjust the blanket on him and head towards the bathroom to freshen up. I take my coat with me because I need to clean it. There is dried blood there and it's disgusting.
Once I am done taking care of my hygiene and my belongings, I grab the laptop and sit against the wall besides Vinay. I had made sure to charge it completely before sleeping.
I had also debugged my algorithms and realized that Nara was not needed anymore. I had figured out the code to breach the Access System and that spoke tons. I work well under pressure.
But the one thing that made me hesitate to process it was the lack of knowledge of what's actually happening outside. The last thing I needed was to make things worse, to invite more chaos into this already crumbling world. And given that a few high level necrogens are also missing from the lab, yeah, I did not need more of this shit.
There was one more thing.
A folder titled 'Death'.
It had been gnawing at the back of my mind all night, a nagging voice telling me that Dr. Rajbhar had left something there for me to find in that. A game is never just a game without clues, after all.
I sigh, a sick feeling settling in my stomach but before I could delve into its contents, Zuri walks over to me with some snacks.
"Thank you," I say as she places the tray down in front of me.
"Don't mention it," she sits in front of me, her eyebrows furrowed and eyes worried. "Everyone's scared."
"Of course they are," I reply, my tone dismissive. I am no saviour so why does everyone here expect me to give them sympathy. All evening yesterday, it was all "Iris, did you find something?"; "The institution will protect us. Right, Iris?"; "I have a family, Iris."; "I want to live, Iris."
And it's not just that but constant whimpering and tears too. Like I get it you'll ar escared but for goddamn sake, stop bothering me!
Zuri's face contorts into one of irritation as she frowns, her hands folded. "How can you be so detached? Don't you feel anything? They are counting on you."
I met her gaze, unblinking. "I see."
She huffed in frustration and left, and I finished my meal in silence. The food was tasteless, but it did its job. With Zuri gone, I grabbed the laptop and retreated to the quarter room at the back of the kitchen, needing the solitude to clear my head. But as I stepped inside, I found Nara and Bhavya in the middle of a heated argument.
"I'm warning you, Bhavya," Nara's voice was low and dangerous, her eyes blazing with barely contained fury. She turns to me and then to Bhavya. "Don't be foolish."
She leaves without saying anything to me and I get a weird feeling. But so early in the morning with already being annoyed, I couldn't bring myself to care about whatever was going on between them.
"You're awake," I turn as Bhavya leans against the wall. "Did you sleep well?"
"Leave me alone," I said flatly, brushing past him.
He looked like he wanted to say more but thought better of it. With the door locked behind me, I finally had the solitude I craved. The folder titled 'Death' was still open on the screen, waiting for me. I took a deep breath and opened it again. Inside were numerous files — videos, case studies, reports — all a mix of horrors that no one should have to witness.
The first video I opened was of an experiment. The camera focused on a young woman strapped to a table, her eyes wild with terror. Men in lab coats hovered over her, their faces obscured by masks, their voices cold and detached as they discussed her vitals.
She screamed as they injected her with something, her body convulsing violently. The screams grew louder, more desperate, until they became nothing but raw, animalistic cries of pain.
I harden my eyes and then click on the next video. This video showed a man, unmasked, submitting a report. Another video cuts to a child, undergoing a similar procedure. The child's eyes rolled back in his head, blood pouring from his nose as he begged for mercy.
There was none.
Each video was worse than the last, each one dragging me back to the times when they found us — my mother, my father, my brother, my entire community. We were all taken, our lives destroyed.
They called it evolution.
And all because we fought against them. But it was them who started it. They took people from our community away. Pregnant woman, infants, children, elders, adults basically everyone.
There were ten lakh of us when we had moved to Cisden from Shemaya twenty six years ago.
We were only six hundred left now.
And that spoke enough.
I forced myself to keep watching, even as my vision blurred with tears I refused to shed. I had to see this, had to see what I was up against.
I was in the middle of reading a case study of subject 15A5 when there is banging on the door, jolting me out of my thoughts. I quickly shut the laptop, shoving it into a bag I found in the supply cupboard, and grabbed an iron rod that had been stashed beneath the bed.
Opening the door cautiously, I was met by Vinay, his body trembling, his eyes wide with fear. He quickly hugs me, his voice trembling as much as his hands. "They're… attacking each other!"
I pushed past him, my heart sinking as I saw the chaos unfolding in the kitchen. People were attacking each other, their faces twisted in pain and rage. A few of them had already turned, their skin pale and eyes dead, while others lay on the ground, twitching and screaming as the infection took hold.
And just as quick, Bhavya was in front of me. "We have to move, now!" he shouted.
I picked Vinay in my arms, holding him tightly as we made our way to the exit. Karan was already there, fumbling with the lock that had been secured from the inside. Nara stood alert, and Bhavya was ready to fight anyone who got too close. My grip tightened on the rod as more of the infected turned and stumbled towards us.
Bhavya's axe was swift, cutting through one of them with a sickening crunch. I noticed that the gun he had been carrying yesterday was gone.
I don't know if it's just me but this feels very orchestrated.
From what I learned from the case studies and a few reports, these blue-eyed necrogens are Level 2 necrogens and show immediate symptoms and in a few minutes, turn. Which is why The Lab sees them of no value.
There was no mention of The Lab anywhere, neither in the videos or the case studies or the reports but that organization is the subject of all my suspicions. NEUN may have underground laboratories but the main deal is The Lab.
One of the infected slipped past Nara, heading straight for me. I switch off all the thoughts running in my mind and just swing the rod with all my strength, first at his leg, knocking him off balance, and then at his face. The impact shatters his skull partially, blood splattering across the floor.
Karan finally breaks the lock, and we all rush outside, with him and another girl I didn't know leading the way. Zuri and Elsa were in the middle, holding knives, while Bhavya and Nara covered the rear.
"Storage room." I pat Karan on the back and he nods, following my words without any look or question.
But it wasn't easy. More people managed to escape the kitchen, their screams drawing more of these blue-eyed irritants towards us. The air was thick with panic and fear, but I kept my emotions in check even though these screaming humans gnawed the hell out of me.
Karan, however, voiced his irritation, loud and clear. "Really loving this uni experience, not gonna lie."
Everyone bursts into chuckles and giggles. My lips twitch before I compose myself. Karan shoots me a glance, hoping for some sort of reaction, but when I give him a cold expression, his own amusement vanish, replaced by a clenched jaw.
With some more dodging and a lot more fighting, we somehow make it to the storage room. It was cramped, too small for all of us, but at least we were safe for the moment.
I set Vinay down on a chair before grabbing a chair for myself and turning the laptop on.
"You need my help?" Nara asks and I shake my head no.
There was one last video remaining titled Subject 13A9 and then I'd be done. While everything in this file has been awful, it's also been invaluable, shedding light on truths I had known but never seen. But I couldn't share this with anyone here.
Not even Nara.
I can't help but think of the warning she gave Bhavya earlier. Her words, the way she spoke them—there was a gravity in her tone that I hadn't heard before, a seriousness that made me take notice. Nara doesn't spook easily, so if she was warning Bhavya about something, then it means there's more going on than what meets the eye. I have to consider the possibility that she's onto something important, just like him.
Or maybe she is with him. Who knows?
That thought lingers, gnawing at the edges of my trust. I wish she wasn't, though. It feels hypocritical of me, but at least I'm honest with myself about it. If Nara is in league with Bhavya, it complicates everything. I've always prided myself on being able to see through people, to understand their motives. But with Nara, it's different. There's a part of me that wants to believe she's on my side, that she's not just another player in this twisted game.
But am I just fooling myself? Maybe.
I hover over the file, and then, with a deep breath, I click it. The screen flickers to life, and what meets my eyes instantly freezes me in place. My breath catches in my throat as images, both hauntingly familiar and excruciatingly vivid, flash across the screen. The room, filled with the muted tension of exhaustion and fear, falls into a suffocating silence.
There they are. My family. My father, his face bruised and bloodied, being mercilessly beaten. My mother's screams echoing but I can't see her. The scene is a nightmare I've relived a thousand times, yet here it is, playing out in front of me like some grotesque spectacle.
The rest of the room goes completely still, as if everyone collectively holds their breath, unable to process the horror they are listening to. No one dares to move, to speak, as the reality of something unknown sinks in. Even the air feels heavy, thick with the weight of shared dread.
And then, there's me. My younger self, crumpled on the ground, powerless. A man's boot presses down on my back, forcing me into the dirt as he smokes a cigar. His face — etched into my nightmares, the face I've been hunting all this time — fills the screen. The camera zooms in as he bends down, his hand snaking through my hair, yanking my head up so the camera can capture my terrified, tear-streaked face.
And just as my younger self's face comes into full view, the screen goes black. The laptop shuts down, plunging us all into darkness. The abruptness of it is jarring, like being torn out of a trance. But even in the darkness, no one moves. No one breathes. The silence is thick, oppressive, as if the room itself is too stunned to react.
Vinay, who had been clinging to my leg for comfort, suddenly feels like a burden. I push him away gently, needing space, needing to breathe. But the air around me feels like it's made of glass, sharp and suffocating.
I walk to a corner, my legs shaky, my vision blurred by unshed tears and memories that claw at my sanity and sit down, curling into myself as I bow my head, the weight of the past pressing down on me like a physical force.
The others remain frozen, their eyes still wide, their breaths shallow. Bhavya, who had been right next to the laptop, is the first to break the silence, his voice shaky as he asks Nara what happened. His words echo in the room, but they're distant, like they're coming from another world. Nara, her own shock barely concealed, explains that it must be a setup, but even she sounds uncertain, like she's grasping for something to say, something to make sense of the incomprehensible.
Although, her words are just noise, background static to the storm raging in my mind. The darkness, the memories, they threaten to swallow me whole. I can feel the room spinning, the edges of my vision going dark as the horror of what I've just seen sinks in. My family, the pain, the helplessness — it's all too much.
But when that familiar creeping feeling starts to crawl up my neck, I know this is no place to drown in my past. The weight of what I've just seen presses down on me, but I push it back, force it into a box where it can't paralyze me. This isn't the time to lose myself in memories, no matter how much they claw at me. There are people counting on me; I am counting on me.
All I know is the darkness, the overwhelming need to shut it all out, to escape this nightmare.
But I can't.
Not now, not ever.
So I force myself to breathe, to push back the haze of memories. The world slowly comes back into focus, and although the darkness inside me threatens to consume, I force it to only linger.
And it's then when I hear the loud banging of the door. I lift my head and see that everyone has taken their stance. So, I shake my head one last time and grab the iron rod, make sure that Vinay is behind me and clench my jaw.
"I am going to kill these motherfuckers," Karan whispers from besides me and I clutch the rod tighter. Or I might just use it to smash his skull. And believe me when I say that I can get creative.
The banging stopped suddenly, followed by a heavy thud. I sensed something was wrong, and was about to shout a warning when Karan grabbed Bhavya and pulled him away from the door just as it was broken open. And there, standing in the doorway, were the CORPS.
I recognized the leader immediately. He was the one who had been there outside the Neun auditorium, the one who had looked on as everything was ruled out as an attack by the reprobates. He was also the guard outside Dr. Rajbhar's office, the one I had winked at, playing the game as I always did.
His eyes scanned the room, landing first on me and he moved to walk in but stopped. His attention was now on Karan and Bhavya, who were in a compromising position on the floor, Bhavya having fallen on top of Karan in the rush. Both of them scrambled to get on their feet, their ears turning pink.
The corp tilted his head, then shook it slightly before looking at me.
"We're here to protect you," the CORP said, his voice even and authoritative.
I raised an eyebrow, skepticism evident in my expression. "Protect? That's rich."
He didn't react to the sarcasm. "Dr. Rajbhar sent us," he elaborated, his tone making it clear that he wasn't here to joke around.
A bitter laugh escaped my lips. "This is hilarious," I muttered, shaking my head. I started to walk past him, not caring if he tried to stop me. But as I moved forward, he blocked my path, his large frame imposing and unyielding.
"I'm not running away, big guy," I said, my voice dripping with mock patience. "Let's go meet your Dr. Shanaya Rajbhar."
For a moment, he hesitated, studying me as if searching for something beneath the surface. Whatever it was he found — or didn't find — seemed to satisfy him, because he stepped aside, allowing me to pass. The others fell in behind me, Nara and Bhavya still shooting uneasy glances at the CORPS, while Zuri and Elsa clung close to each other, their faces pale with fear.
Karan just stuck close to me with Vinay in his arms.
One thing running in my head was simple. Meet Dr. Rajbhar, get my answers at any cost and then get out of this institution. Alone.
Because honestly, fuck all of them.