The silence that followed the deafening lockdown alarm was worse than the blare itself. The halls of the hospital had gone eerily quiet, save for the occasional flicker of failing fluorescent lights and the soft hum of machinery. Shadows stretched long and strange across the linoleum floors as Williams led the group into the west wing, keeping to the edges.
"We shouldn't split up," Williams said, his voice low but firm.
"No one said we would," Franklin replied, the edge of panic still clinging to his words. "But we need to figure out what the hell is going on. The security systems locked us in. Phones are jammed. And what the hell is that specimen 7."
Edward nervously tapped on a dead cell phone screen, muttering, "No signal, no Wi-Fi. It's like we're in a blackout bubble."
Rika clung to Eve, her wide eyes scanning every corner. "Did anyone see what it was? The thing that escaped?"
Finn, usually calm, was pale. He looked at the security terminal printouts in his hand, the ones Dr Kellerman gave him from the isolation wing. "Something from the sublevels. The file referenced a... 'Specimen 7.' It was under high- security isolation. Whatever it is, it's loose. Maybe what Edward saw."
Jonah hovered behind them. "Why were we even allowed here if this kind of stuff was going on? This place... it's not just a hospital."
They stopped at a T-junction near the research wing. To their left, red emergency lights pulsed against a sealed corridor labeled "Biospecimen Containment." On the right, an old elevator door groaned and dinged slightly ajar.
That's when they heard it, scraping. Metal against tile. A dragging sound.
Everyone froze.
"Get behind me," Williams ordered. He stepped forward, placing himself between the sound and the rest of the group.
The door to the stairwell burst open. A hospital security officer, one they hadn't seen before, stumbled into the hall and his eyes wide with terror. His shirt was soaked in blood, his breathing ragged. He didn't make it far before he collapsed, revealing the horror that had stalked him.
It was specimen 7, the hybrid.
Seven feet tall, skeletal yet muscular, with dark, glistening skin pulled taut over warped humanoid features. Its elongated jaw was partially open, revealing a grotesque array of jagged teeth. Tubes jutted out of its spine like exposed veins, pulsing with a dim blue light.
For a heartbeat, it simply stood there. Then it lunged.
The students screamed. Williams tackled the nearest crash cart, shoving it into the hallway to block the creature. Franklin grabbed a fire extinguisher and flung it toward the hybrid with all his strength. It collided, exploding in a cloud of white mist, temporarily blinding it.
They ran.
Back toward the main atrium, down narrow halls and past darkened rooms. The hybrid's shriek echoed behind them, an unholy screech that seemed to rattle the very walls. When they reached a break room, Williams slammed the door shut and wedged a chair beneath the handle.
They were all gasping.
"I swear it was exactly what I saw. Holy fuck, It tore that guy apart!" Edward shouted, pacing back and forth.
Rika was crying silently. Eve leaned against a cabinet, hands trembling. "It wasn't... human."
Finn stared at the fire alarm panel. "It didn't trigger the biohazard suppression systems. It was supposed to. I read the protocols. If it got out, this entire wing should've gone into sterilization lockdown. Nothing happened."
Franklin's face darkened. "They didn't want to stop it. They just wanted to contain it. Maybe... maybe they wanted to see what would happen."
"No," said Eve quietly. "They lost control. They're gone.
The adults… they're either dead or hiding." "Then we're on our own," Jonah added grimly.
A sudden pounding rattled the door. Not the hybrid, something weaker. A hand. A voice.
"Please—please let me in! It's Doctor Kellerman!"
Williams cautiously opened the door. A pale, middle-aged man in a bloodstained coat stumbled inside. He was wounded, dragging one leg behind him, but alive. "It's out... You saw it, didn't you?"
Franklin stepped forward. "What the hell is that thing and what happened to the isolation wing?"
Dr. Kellerman looked at them, hollow-eyed. "It was human once. An experimental hybrid, part regenerative genetics, part neural interface. Meant to withstand any environment. Built for resilience, survival, and intelligence. We called it Specimen 7. But we pushed it too far. It didn't just evolve... it learned."
He slumped into a chair.
"Where are the other staffs?" Williams asked.
"Dead. Some locked themselves in the basement labs. Others ran. But it's hunting. It can mimic sound, it can track pheromones. It kills to learn. It already knows how to bypass some of the firewalls in the system. Soon, it'll control this place."
A cold silence filled the room.
Eve spoke softly. "There has to be a way to stop it." "There might be," Finn said. "The reactor core is in the
lower levels. If it's damaged or overloaded—"
"You could trigger a meltdown," Dr. Kellerman finished. "But you'd have to access it manually. And no one's gotten near the lab level since it escaped."
"That's suicide." Franklin whispered.
Rika, still pale, finally spoke. "What... what did it do to that guard?"
Kellerman swallowed. "It doesn't just kill. It experiments. It's fascinated by pain, anatomy. The more it sees, the more it changes."
The weight of it all began to settle on the group.
"I'm going to find a way out," Jonah said, almost to himself. "There has to be an override, a failsafe. We can't be trapped here forever."
"No signal, no power, no backup," Edward muttered. "It's like we've been erased."
The pounding returned, but this time not from the door.
It came from the vents above. Everyone looked up.
Finn whispered, "It's in the walls."
They backed toward the hallway, keeping low, staying close. The hospital, once sterile and quiet, had become a death trap.
As they slipped through the corridors in search of another safe haven, the lights flickered again. And from far away, yet far too close, came the hybrid's scream.