Ethan was sitting in a train compartment, reviewing the files that Spectro had sent him before helping him escape. He knew he was being followed, but for now, the train was a temporary refuge. In front of him, the laptop screen displayed encrypted documents and fragments of information that he had already begun to analyze.
He knew that incidents like Silver Ridge were not unique. They had occurred before, even decades ago, and continued to happen afterward. Perhaps, at that very moment, another incident was taking place somewhere. However, one thing was clear: the information had always been suppressed. Silver Ridge was an exception, a case where something went wrong and the details leaked to news outlets and forums. But the other incidents remained buried under vague or nonexistent official explanations.
As he reviewed the files, Ethan remembered what had happened with Emily. His sister had been on vacation with their parents in several African countries before heading to Switzerland. He hadn't been able to join them because he was preparing to enter university. That's when he received the call. A small village where his parents and sister were staying had been attacked by terrorists. According to the authorities, no one survived.
What was strange was that they found the bodies of everyone, including his parents. But it didn't seem like they had been killed with conventional weapons. There were no bullet wounds or clear signs of physical violence. The most puzzling part was that Emily's body was never found. Ethan tried to investigate, but every door he opened led to a dead end. Officially, everything was attributed to a "terrorist attack." There were no further answers.
Since then, he became obsessed with finding out what had happened to his sister. In his early investigations, he found clandestine forums on the dark web where villages near the mist were mentioned. In those places, all the inhabitants died, but there were no official reports or news about it. At most, condolence letters would arrive for relatives in other places, saying it had been an industrial accident, a terrorist attack, or an airplane crash. Nothing added up.
Ethan knew the mist was connected to all of this. And now, as he reviewed the files on the train, he began to see patterns. Similar incidents, carefully hidden, connected by the same shadow: the mist.
The train kept moving, but Ethan barely noticed the landscape. In front of him, on the laptop screen, a new file appeared that Spectro had sent while he was fleeing. It was classified information, marked with top-secret labels and dated exactly twenty years ago: March 15, 1994. The sender's name stood out clearly: Bastian Bennett.
The letter was addressed to someone known as "The Custodian." In it, Bastian warned about the experiments conducted with creatures captured during incidents related to the mist. The words were harsh and filled with urgency:
"The experiments are spiraling out of control. If they continue down this path, there is a risk that our facilities will be destroyed. What we are attempting to do here goes beyond the aberrations we have seen so far. I formally request that you contact Umbra Division and send their strongest resonants to contain the situation before it's too late."
Ethan frowned as he read. The terms "resonants" and "aberrations" appeared repeatedly, though he wasn't entirely sure what they meant. However, something hit him like a lightning bolt: Bastian Bennett was Rachel Bennett's grandfather, the journalist he had been anonymously contacting.
He remembered how, at first, he had decided to reach out to her because he thought she was special. Rachel had been fired from her job as a journalist for insisting on investigating the truth behind Silver Ridge, an obsession she shared with him. At the time, Ethan didn't know anything about her family connection. He simply felt that she could be a valuable ally, someone who understood the importance of uncovering what had really happened.
Now, thanks to the files recently sent by Spectro, Ethan discovered that Rachel was Bastian Bennett's granddaughter. It felt like an unexpected stroke of luck. Everything made sense: her determination, her ability to seek answers even when the world tried to silence her. Her grandfather had been involved in the same experiments that Ethan was now investigating. This was no coincidence. It was an opportunity to dig deeper into the truth.
"That's why I sent her the files," Ethan thought. He saw her as a potential ally, someone who might understand the magnitude of what was happening. But he never imagined the messages could be traced so quickly. Now Rachel was also in danger, and he himself had caused it.
As he processed this information, the train passed through a dark tunnel. The lights flickered briefly, and Ethan felt a chill run down his spine. Something wasn't right. He remembered hearing stories on clandestine forums about how corporations constantly monitored any information leaks. If they had found his trail, they surely already knew about Rachel.
Suddenly, his phone vibrated. It was an encrypted message from Spectro:
"They've detected your signal. Change your route. Geneva is a trap."
Ethan gritted his teeth. "Too late," he thought. He had already sent Rachel there. If Geneva was a trap, then she was in danger too.
He reviewed the files again. He found something else in Bastian's letter: it mentioned a specific location, a place where experimental facilities had been built decades ago. It was labeled "Facility K-17," near Geneva. According to the documents, the facility had been officially abandoned, but there were rumors that it was still operational underground.
The train emerged from the tunnel, and Ethan looked out the window. In the distance, he could see the first lights of Geneva. He knew he couldn't stop now. He had to find Rachel and uncover what was happening at that facility.
------------------------
While Ethan continued on his way to Geneva, Rachel was already in the city. She had decided to stay in a small, discreet hotel to avoid drawing attention. She knew the area a little from the vacations she used to spend there as a child, at her grandparents' house. However, after her grandfather's death, the house had been left abandoned, filled with memories she preferred to avoid.
But now, with the files that had been sent to her and the clues beginning to surface, she decided to visit the house. Upon entering, she was met with a disheartening surprise. Everything was in disarray: furniture overturned, drawers scattered across the floor, old papers strewn everywhere. It was clear that someone had been searching for something. The strange part was that, despite the mess, nothing seemed to be missing. Her grandmother's jewelry, some valuable objects, and even an old wall clock were still in their places.
"It wasn't a robbery," Rachel thought as she surveyed the scene. "They were looking for something specific."
What was most puzzling was noticing that the disorder wasn't recent. While some areas appeared to have been searched recently, others showed signs of having been disturbed years ago. There were layers of dust accumulated on certain objects, as if they had been ignored for a long time, while others were clean or freshly moved. This didn't make sense. Who had been there before, and why had they returned?
Suddenly, she remembered something from her childhood. Her grandfather used to go down to the basement frequently, always making sure to close the door behind him. Once, when she was little, she followed him without him noticing. She saw him activate a hidden mechanism in one of the walls, revealing a secret entrance. When her grandmother caught her spying, she simply said, "Don't tell anyone about this, Rachel."
Intrigued, Rachel went down to the basement. The air was heavy with humidity and smelled of old wood. She carefully searched the walls, vaguely recalling where she had seen the mechanism. After several minutes, she found a small, almost imperceptible bump on one of the wooden panels. When she pressed it, a dull thud echoed in the confined space, and part of the wall slid to the side, revealing a hidden room.
Inside, the atmosphere was different. Though covered in dust and cobwebs, the place seemed to have been used as an office. There was a rusted metal desk, several overturned chairs, and documents scattered across the floor. In the center of the room, an old computer emitted a faint hum, as if it still had some residual power. The screen flickered weakly, displaying a message:
"Enter access code."
Rachel frowned. She had no idea what the code could be. She looked around, searching for a clue among the scattered documents. Most of them were yellowed and filled with technical terms she didn't understand. However, something caught her attention: several of them mentioned experiments related to "resonants" and "aberrations."
Unconsciously, her hand went to her left wrist. There, she wore a bracelet that her grandfather had given her when she was a child. She had never known exactly what it meant, but she had always considered it special. The bracelet had seven numbers engraved on it: 3-7-4-9-2-1-6.
"Could this be the code?" Rachel thought, hesitantly.
She approached the computer and slowly typed in the numbers from the bracelet. When she pressed "Enter," the screen lit up completely. An encrypted file began to load, accompanied by a message:
"Welcome, Rachel Bennett. The secrets of Facility K-17 are within your reach. Proceed with caution."
The room fell silent, save for the constant hum of the computer. Rachel felt a chill run down her spine. She knew she had just opened something that perhaps she shouldn't have touched.