Elias's heart raced, the emergency radio still trembling in his grip. Those words echoed in his head, cold and haunting: "You were never supposed to wake up."
His breath caught. What did it mean? Who was watching him? And why did it feel like the entire city was holding its breath, waiting for him to make a move?
He crouched in the shadows of the maintenance room, the thin beam of his flashlight flickering across crumbling subway walls. The air was damp, heavy with the stench of mildew and rust. Water dripped somewhere, a slow, rhythmic tap that only made the silence heavier.
He had blocked the door with a bench, but it felt useless. Whoever—or whatever—had found him on the rooftop wouldn't be stopped by wood and metal.
He had to keep moving.
His hands shook as he tightened the straps on his backpack. He took a slow, deep breath, peering through the crack in the door. The subway station was a graveyard. Rows of dead turnstiles stood like tombstones, their screens dark and broken. A subway map clung to the wall, its edges curled and peeling.
Elias moved quietly, his steps light on the tiled floor. Each sound seemed to echo, swallowed by the darkness.
He needed answers. And the voice on the radio was his only lead.
A low hum filled the air. Soft. Almost alive. It crawled under his skin, sending a chill up his spine. He turned toward the tunnel, where the tracks disappeared into shadow.
He knew he shouldn't go in there. But he had no choice.
Gritting his teeth, he stepped onto the tracks and entered the tunnel. The hum grew louder, vibrating through the ground, through his bones. He kept one hand on the wall to steady himself. The floor was uneven, shifting beneath him, as if the city itself was alive, breathing.
Then, he saw it.
A faint, pulsing glow seeped from an opening up ahead. The tunnel widened, leading into a vast underground chamber.
Elias stopped, his heart pounding.
The walls were no longer brick and concrete. They were smooth, metallic, bathed in an eerie blue light that seemed to pulse like a heartbeat. Thick cables snaked along the walls, disappearing into the shadows.
In the center of the chamber stood a massive cylinder, covered in screens that flickered with strange symbols. Symbols he didn't understand.
This wasn't part of the subway. This was something else. Something alive.
He moved closer, his body screaming to turn back, but his feet kept moving. He needed to know.
The radio in his backpack crackled, a burst of static breaking the silence.
"You're getting too close."
Elias spun around, flashlight slicing through the dark. No one was there.
"Turn back. Now."
His hands tightened on the radio. "Who are you? What is this place?"
Silence.
The screens on the cylinder flickered, and a cold, mechanical voice echoed through the chamber:
"SUBJECT 117: UNAUTHORIZED MOVEMENT DETECTED."
Elias's blood turned to ice. He wasn't alone.
The hum grew louder, a deep vibration that shook the floor. The walls throbbed, the cables twisting like veins under skin.
Then, from the shadows, came a sound. A low, chittering noise that echoed through the chamber—inhuman, mechanical, hungry.
Elias's heart seized. Something was waking up.
He turned and ran. His legs burned as he raced back toward the tunnel, his breath coming in sharp, ragged gasps. Behind him, the air trembled, a presence rising in the darkness.
The tunnel walls began to move. The metallic surfaces shifted, sliding forward, sealing off the path behind him. It wasn't just a tunnel. It was alive.
Elias ran faster, the light from the subway station growing closer. The walls crept after him, closing like a mouth ready to swallow him whole.
He leaped onto the platform just as the tunnel sealed shut, the sound of metal grinding against metal echoing behind him.
Silence.
Elias stumbled back, chest heaving, his eyes locked on the wall that had once been an open tunnel. It was solid now, seamless, as if the passage had never existed.
The radio crackled. A different voice this time. Urgent. Familiar.
"Elias. Listen carefully."
His heart jumped. He pressed the radio close, his voice shaking. "I'm listening."
A pause. Then, the voice whispered:
"You're not the last human."
His blood ran cold. "Who are you? Where are you?"
Silence. Then, a heavy sigh.
"You need to leave the city. Now. Before they find you."
Elias looked at the sealed wall, then at the empty station around him. Whoever was on the other end of that radio knew what was happening. They knew about the thing beneath the city. And most terrifying of all...
They knew him.
His eyes drifted to the old subway map on the wall. His heart stopped.
The stations weren't labeled with names anymore. Just numbers. And at the center, where the heart of the city should be, was a single word:
AWAKENING.
His stomach tightened. The hunt wasn't over.