Elijah's scream split the air like glass under pressure.
Aurora turned in an instant, instincts roaring louder than her thoughts. The warmth of her daughter's small body clutched tightly to her chest was the only thing grounding her. Blood sprayed across the sand and gravel as Elijah staggered back from the transport van, his shirt blossoming red around a gunshot wound.
"Elijah!" she shouted.
Xander was already moving, weapon raised, scanning the horizon.
"Sniper?" Aurora asked, kneeling behind the van for cover.
Xander's sharp eyes tracked something in the shadows of the treeline. "Too close for that. Someone's on the ground with us. An ambush."
Aurora clenched her jaw, placing Isla gently behind a section of the van's frame, shielding her. The child's eyes were wide, her tiny hands balled into fists against her chest.
"Don't move, sweetheart. Just stay down, okay?" Aurora whispered, brushing hair from Isla's face.
The girl nodded silently, her eyes not on her mother—but staring past her, into the trees. Her mouth parted as if about to say something, but no sound came out.
"Aurora, help me!" Xander barked, dragging Elijah behind the wrecked transport. Blood streamed down Elijah's arm and side, his breaths labored and fast.
"Is it through?" Aurora asked, pulling out the med pack from Xander's belt.
"Exit wound in the back," Xander replied, voice tight. "Clean shot, but he's losing blood fast."
Elijah chuckled weakly. "Could've been worse… could've shot my good side."
"Don't joke," Aurora hissed, applying pressure to his chest. "We're not letting you die here."
But Elijah grabbed her wrist. "Listen to me. They knew. They knew we were coming. You were betrayed."
Xander's face darkened. "No one else had the plan but us and one contact at the safehouse."
Aurora's mind was spinning, but there was no time to think.
The convoy was compromised. Their cover was blown. And Isla…
She turned back to her daughter, only to find the girl no longer crouched behind the wreckage.
"Isla!" Aurora cried.
But the child wasn't far.
She stood in the open, just beyond the fallen guards, face tilted up to the sky, hands spread at her sides as if feeling something invisible in the air.
"Isla, come back here!" Aurora said, starting toward her.
Then everything changed.
The air grew still—oppressively still. No birds. No wind. The trees swayed slightly, not from a breeze, but as if pulled… toward her.
A soft humming vibrated through Aurora's teeth. She blinked and steadied herself. The ground felt… alive.
"What the hell—" Xander muttered.
Isla's eyes had turned glassy. Not glowing, not unnatural—but far too old for a child. Her lips moved, forming silent words.
Around her, reality shifted.
Guards—still crawling from the wreckage—screamed.
One dropped his rifle, clutching his ears, blood gushing from his nose as he convulsed on the ground.
Another simply stopped breathing mid-step and collapsed, eyes frozen open in horror.
"What is she doing?" Xander asked.
"She's… broadcasting something," Aurora whispered.
Elijah coughed, eyes barely open. "The resonance… it's the frequency… She's not just gifted. She's awakened."
Aurora rushed to Isla, kneeling down and grabbing her by the shoulders. "Sweetheart, stop. It's okay. You're safe now."
The humming ceased in an instant.
The pressure lifted from the air.
Isla blinked—and it was like watching a storm vanish behind her eyes.
"I didn't mean to," she whispered.
"I know," Aurora said, pulling her into her arms. "You didn't do anything wrong."
Xander approached slowly. "We need to go. Now. If they tracked her signal, we've got minutes."
Aurora lifted Isla in her arms and turned back to Elijah.
"You're not dying here," she said again, more fiercely this time.
"You'll have to carry me," Elijah groaned. "And I'm not as light as her."
"I've dragged deadweight before," Xander said, slinging Elijah over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Elijah hissed in pain. "Damn you and your hero complex."
"Shut up and bleed quieter."
The group moved into the woods, fast and low, weaving through overgrown paths toward the extraction point. They were supposed to meet a drone drop five clicks out. With the EMP still jamming signals, they'd have to carry the wounded manually.
Aurora led the way, pistol drawn, Isla tucked against her hip.
Xander followed, eyes sweeping the trees, Elijah groaning on his back.
Behind them, the convoy burned.
Smoke curled into the evening sky like a funeral pyre.
They reached the ridge after 40 minutes of climbing. Xander dropped Elijah behind a ridge wall and collapsed next to him.
Aurora handed Isla a small water pouch and turned to Xander. "We need to talk about what happened."
"Agreed," he said.
"She did something out there. Not just panic. She did something."
"She shut down their nervous systems," Elijah muttered from the ground. "A frequency discharge. It's in her blood. In her brain."
"You knew?" Aurora hissed, turning to him.
"I suspected," Elijah said. "The research facility that created the Alpha Series… they were playing with harmonic wave technology—biologically based signal generators. Living transmitters. That's why they kept her alive. She was the only child who survived phase three."
Aurora looked down at Isla, who was staring at her feet, silent.
"What else?" Xander demanded.
"If they find out she's alive," Elijah said, "they won't stop coming. Not for her. Not for you. And not for anyone near her."
Xander stared into the distance.
"I'll kill anyone who tries," Aurora said. "I swear on everything I've left."
"You'll have to," Elijah said. "Because they just got proof she's still active. And trust me—someone was watching that ambush."
Aurora clenched her fists. "We're going off-grid. Total blackout."
"And then?" Xander asked.
She looked at him, eyes blazing. "Then I find out who betrayed us… and I burn everything they built."