The emergency lights flickered briefly before plunging the hospital into a near-total darkness. A soft whine, like a dying breath from deep within the building's mechanical lungs, echoed in the hallway as if the hospital itself had just given up.
Eve clutched the sides of the table, her breath trembling. She had been reviewing notes from the hidden lab with Finn and Williams when the power cut off. Across the room, Finn's laptop screen dimmed to black, erasing the schematics he had been analyzing.
"Shit," he muttered. "We're blind."
From the hallway, Edward's voice rang out sharply, followed by the sound of something crashing. "Hey! What the hell is going on?"
"Everyone stay calm!" Williams ordered. His tone, always composed, now carried the weight of urgency. "Gather in the common room. Now."
One by one, the students made their way there, led by the dim glow of battery-powered lanterns and phone flashlights. Shadows stretched monstrously on the walls, making even their own forms feel alien. Rika clung to Eve's arm, her small frame shaking.
Finn was the last to enter, slamming the door shut and sliding a chair under the knob.
"The cameras, security doors… everything's down," he reported. "There's no grid activity. It's like someone cut the power deliberately."
"Or something," Franklin added grimly. "This thing, the hybrid… it's smart enough to know light is our advantage."
There was a beat of silence.
Rika broke it softly. "So… we're trapped in the dark with it."
Outside the door, the hospital groaned, pipes shifting, the
occasional drip of a broken valve echoing like footsteps. Then came the sound none of them wanted to hear: a soft scrape, like claws against metal, above their heads.
Jonah stiffened. "It's in the vents again."
Franklin pushed up his sleeves. "We need to think, not panic. Finn, can we reroute power somehow?"
Finn rubbed his forehead. "Possibly. The generator core is beneath the lab level, but the maintenance corridors are dangerous. We don't even know if it's still intact. The hybrid may have damaged it."
Eve sat up straighter. "Wait, what about the auxiliary panel we saw in the schematics? The one behind the old surgical theater? Could we activate localized power from there?"
Finn nodded slowly. "Yes… we could potentially light up key areas, like the security room, some hallways, maybe even the stairwell."
Williams stood. "Then we go. In pairs."
"No," Rika said suddenly, surprising everyone. "Don't split up. Not again."
The memory of Jonah, of how he disappeared, hung heavy in the air. There is still no sign of him, so they don't know if he is still alive or not.
Franklin sighed. "She's right. We go as one."
The journey through the pitch-black halls was nightmarish. Even the flickers of their flashlights did little to dispel the oppressive sense of being watched. The walls seemed to sweat, the air thick with the scent of metal and something more primal, something alive.
At one point, a loud crash from behind made Rika scream, and Williams dropped into a defensive stance. But it was only a falling gurney, disturbed by a gust from the vents.
"Don't get jumpy," Franklin said, trying to keep morale up. "We've survived worse nights in med school. Remember Professor Kutu's dissection quiz?"
"No one died during that quiz," Finn muttered.
They finally reached the surgical theater, a once-gleaming room now turned into a cold tomb of dusty glass and rusting equipment. In the far wall, concealed behind an oxygen canister shelf, lay the panel. Finn knelt beside it and opened the casing.
"Circuits are fried," he said. "But the backup terminals are intact. Give me five minutes."
As he worked, Eve kept watch. Her hands trembled, not from fear, but from the building pressure of being helpless for so long. She didn't want to be the girl who cowered anymore.
A sound came from above.
Not the usual clatter or soft scurry. This was slow. Deliberate. Heavy.
Finn didn't look up. "Just a bit more—"
A panel in the ceiling burst open.
The hybrid dropped like a shadow incarnate, landing in the middle of the group. For a moment, it was frozen, a monstrous blend of flesh and chitin, humanoid yet wrong. Its black eyes flickered with an inhuman intelligence.
Williams grabbed a metal tray and swung. It bounced off the creature's shoulder with a sickening clang. The hybrid barely flinched.
Rika screamed as the hybrid lashed out, knocking Edward off his feet. He skidded across the floor and slammed into a wall.
"Run!" Franklin bellowed, grabbing Eve by the arm.
Finn finished reconnecting a final wire and flipped a switch.
Light.
A few panels above them sputtered to life, casting sickly yellow beams into the room. The hybrid recoiled slightly, hissing like steam escaping from a ruptured pipe.
"Move!" Williams ordered. "Back to the hallway!"
The group scattered, Eve and Franklin dragging Edward, who was groaning but alive. The hybrid did not follow. It retreated into the vent it came from, crawling backward like an insect into the dark.
They reached the hallway, gasping for breath. "It… didn't chase us," Rika whispered.
"It doesn't like the light," Finn said. "We have leverage."
Franklin looked back toward the surgical room. "But it also knows where we are now."
Williams nodded. "We need to move fast. With partial power restored, we can reach the security hub. We found a safe room."
Eve looked up at the flickering light overhead. "This place is becoming its nest. If we don't outsmart it soon… we're all going to end up like staff."
No one spoke. Even Edward, though injured, looked more haunted than hurt.
They moved in silence, a unit forged in blood and terror, into the half-lit corridor that would either lead them to hope or to the next trap.