Li An's blood ran cold at the whisper of her own voice. You were the beginning. The words reverberated inside her head as she bolted down the flickering corridor, Qiao Lan on her heels.
The glow from the doorway flickered as Li An and Qiao Lan stepped into the supposed safe house beneath the old radio tower. The air smelled faintly of ozone and rust,a hum pulsed low through the floor a resonance too steady to be natural.
The door shut behind them with a final-sounding click.
Qiao hesitated, eyes darting across the room "Safe house, my ass."
The space was sterile and dimly lit old terminals lined the walls, cables hanging in tangles from the ceiling like mechanical, a reinforced hatch, slightly ajar, led down into a lower chamber.
Li An moved toward it, every step echoing, her fingers brushed a wall panel smooth almost warm to the touch ,the shard in her pocket vibrated subtly," Reacting."
"Something's active down here," she said quietly.
Qiao was already examining a terminal "No input It's reading us."
A screen buzzed to life behind her, casting a pale glow.
AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED.
WELCOME BACK, LI AN.
Li An froze.
Qiao turned, "This again? What the hell is going on with you?"
Li An didn't answer because she doesn't know how too.
She approached the console as if sensing her proximity, the screen changed.
SUBJECT FILE ACCESSING...
A video feed played blurry, timestamped five years ago, A sterile room, a girl strapped to a chair. Monitors. Electrodes.
It was her younger, pale ,Unmoving.
"No..." Li An whispered.
The footage continued a man in a Sanyu coat walked into frame , He inserted a green fluid vial inside her.
The girl convulsed then stilled ,her eyes snapped open, black veins spread from her temples like roots through frost.
Qiao gasped behind her "That's Virex that's when it—"
The screen cut to static.
Another message appeared.
PROJECT: VIREX GENESISPRIMARY HOST: LI ANSURVIVAL RATE: 0.01%OUTCOME: ACTIVE CARRIER—COGNITIVE MODIFICATION DETECTED
Qiao backed away "They used you ,you weren't just exposed ."You were… the origin?"
Li An couldn't breathe her knees gave slightly, catching on the edge of the console "No… no, I don't remember any of this."
"It was wiped," Qiao said, voice barely above a whisper "They erased it probably part of the protocol."
Another door hissed open automatically.
A cold blue light spilled out, illuminating rows of glass tank Inside floated lifeless bodies clones. Some malformed, others eerily similar to Li An, labels beneath each tank read: Echo Variant A / Echo Variant B / Subject Expired / Subject Reactive.
Li An gripped the edge of the doorway to steady herself.
She wasn't just part of the experiment.
She was the blueprint.
Qiao moved to her side "You're not them, Li An. You're you. Whatever they did you escaped from it."
But Li An wasn't sure she had.
The floor vibrated no, pulsed Like a heartbeat.
Then another screen came alive behind the tanks,this one showed a real-time map of the city heat signatures, movement paths, points of infection at the center was a blinking dot. Red.
It was following her movements following her since she left Sanyu.
BEHAVIORAL FEED LOOP: ACTIVE.
SUBJECT TRACKING: LI AN.
Qiao whispered, "They've been using you to predict the outbreak you're not just carrying it you're training it."
A sharp hiss snapped through the air a panel on the far wall cracked open.
A figure stepped out.
Not in a lab coat. Not military.
A child.
Hair matted, eyes silver like mercury, Pale skin laced with faint black lines veins of the virus made visible.
She looked at Li An with something like recognition.
Then she spoke, voice hollow but clear:"You're late. We've been waiting."