The sirens wailed louder.
Elias and I sprinted through the collapsing corridor. The red glow of the countdown followed us like a curse.
"Where are we even going?" I yelled.
"The extraction point. But we have to go underground first," he shouted back.
Underground?
Wasn't this already the nightmare?
We reached a steel hatch. Elias kicked it open, revealing a tunnel staircase spiraling down into darkness.
"I don't think we have a choice," he said.
I nodded—and jumped first.
The air grew colder the deeper we descended.
And then… silence.
We stepped into a room filled with monitors—flickering images of kids, classrooms, experiments.
My blood ran cold.
In the center of the room was a single chair.
Strapped to it was a man.
Barely conscious.
Gray in his beard. Blood on his shirt. Wires taped to his temples.
He looked up slowly.
And whispered, "Amara?"
I froze.
That voice.
That face.
"No…" I whispered. "That's impossible."
Elias looked between us, stunned. "Who is he?"
My knees buckled. "He's my father."
The man struggled against the restraints. "They told me you were dead. That I failed. That you never made it out."
Tears clouded my eyes. "They told me you left."
He shook his head weakly. "I was trying to protect you. They found out I'd hidden files. They turned me into their leverage."
I stepped closer.
And that's when I saw it—tattooed on his wrist:
PROJECT ECHO: FOUNDER #01
I gasped.
"You started the Echo Project?"
He looked away.
"Not like this. It was supposed to help children with memory trauma. But then they took it. Weaponized it. They used you…"
"…As a lab rat," I whispered, finishing the sentence for him.
He nodded, tears in his eyes.
"They created a failsafe," he said. "A clone, in case you broke free."
"ΔX-14," I muttered.
His eyes darkened. "She's not just your clone, Amara. She's my corrupted version of you. Programmed to replace the real one. She's everything I swore I'd never allow."
Elias whispered, "Then why is she still after us?"
My father looked up slowly, trembling.
"Because they activated her final protocol. And she's not working alone."
A door behind us hissed open.
I turned, heart pounding.
A man stepped in. Tall. Dressed in black. No face. Just a mask.
He raised a weapon—and pointed it at my father.
"No!" I screamed.
But it was too late.
A shot rang out.
Blood.
My father slumped.
Elias tackled the masked man, but he disappeared into smoke.
I crawled to my father, clutching him as he gasped for air.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "There's a key… to stop her…"
His hand slid into mine.
A glowing chip. Labeled E13-VX.
Then… silence.
He was gone.
---
The monitors behind us flickered wildly.
Elias stood, breathing hard. "We need to get out of here—now."
But I couldn't move.
Not yet.
Because on one screen… was a live feed of the clone.
And beside her?
The masked man.
Removing his hood.
My breath caught.
Because the face underneath was someone I knew.
Someone I trusted.
Someone I loved.