– Salicis Daves

  Sector 3, after Dr. Lúcios reactivated the communicators.

  The sector was crowded with people—mostly employees who did not work in the medical area.

  Everyone was seeking refuge there, pressing themselves against the walls, speaking in low voices, some trembling. That was the most fortified area of the complex. We hadn’t had any incidents there… yet. Even so, the tension was suffocating.

  But without the cameras, without reconnaissance drones, and without any external data, we were essentially blind. We had no idea what was happening in the other sectors.

  The overload had taken everything down, reducing the entire complex to a silent and dangerous labyrinth.

  After Mr. Crox ordered me to assemble a unit for reconnaissance, I gathered my squad.

  I managed to gather only twelve soldiers; many men from Unit 1 had chosen to stay with their families and friends, trying to protect them however they could.

  Even so, twelve was better than nothing.

  We divided the group into four teams.

  And, for the first time since everything began, I felt that we were walking straight into the complete unknown.

  After splitting up, we headed for the elevator that led to Sector 1. I could see the tension stamped on the faces of the men and women beside me. No one knew what condition the sector was in… whether there were injured, missing people, or something worse. And the people in comas? How were they without preservation support? Would they survive?That was the scenario that tormented me the most.

  When we arrived at Sector 1, the elevator doors opened, revealing a heavy stench of blood and flesh. Our entire bodies reacted instantly. The wider the doors slid apart, the more the horror before us revealed itself.

  Mutilated bodies.Blood splattered across the walls.Deep gouges in the metal, as if something had torn through the corridor itself.

  At that moment, I began to question the decision to divide the squad. I had no idea what had caused this. According to the information I had received, the attack had only occurred in the external area of the sector.So… what caused this?

  Had something infiltrated the complex?

  The sound of the communicator snapped me back to reality. Three calls at the same time—probably the other teams had encountered the same situation. I needed to gather everyone immediately. We didn’t know what we were about to face, and maybe four people wouldn’t be enough.

  When I answered the calls, my suspicions were confirmed: everyone was frightened and confused by the internal state of Sector 1.

  After speaking with them, we agreed to regroup in the cafeteria. It was the best location, since it was in the center of Sector 1.

  As we moved forward, we reached the medical area and saw that some rooms were locked. I knocked on one of them—no response. I entered the security code to unlock it.

  The scene inside turned my stomach.

  There was blood everywhere, as if something had exploded inside the room. In the corner, there was a woman, young, around her thirties.

  I approached.

  She was sitting on the floor, with blood covering the entire front of her face. Whatever it was, that blood wasn’t hers…

  Her blood was pooled beside her, running from her wrist. In her other hand, she was holding a scalpel.

  Looking closer, I realized that most of the blood was on the preservation capsule. I couldn’t understand how someone could… explode like that.

  Aline, the youngest in the group, couldn’t take it. When she saw the grotesque scene, she started to feel sick. We spent some time trying to calm her down. I used that moment to inform the rest of the teams through the transmitter.

  Tulis, the leader of one of the other three squads, reported that he was trying to unlock one of the rooms, but it seemed jammed. Then I heard the voice of a soldier in the background… desperate… followed immediately by the sound of gunfire.

  The call was cut off.

  I tried to call again, but got no response.

  I ordered the other two squads—whoever was closest—to immediately investigate Tulis’s situation.

  My mind was in chaos. I needed to report this to the general urgently.

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  After receiving my report, the general told me to be careful and informed me that Mr. Lúcius was finishing repairs on the artillery drones.

  After we finished bagging the woman’s body, we withdrew and marked the door. We continued down the corridors in silence, each step echoing heavily against the metal. A short distance ahead, I noticed another room. The door was slightly ajar, but the external panel had been destroyed, making it impossible to open it fully.

  That was when we heard movement inside.

  My heart started racing.Was it a survivor trying to hide… or the thing that had caused all that destruction?

  The room was completely dark. We split the team into two groups: one would guard the entrance, while the other would go in. Kharib and I would enter first; Clary and Fagus would cover the rear.

  I pointed the flashlight through the gap in the door, but the light didn’t cut through the darkness. Kharib forced his way in first, sliding through the narrow opening, and I followed right behind him.

  As soon as we entered, we saw that the lid of the preservation capsule had been broken from the inside. There was no body there. Nothing. An emptiness that froze my spine.

  As I was turning to leave, I noticed puncture marks on the wall—irregular, deep perforations. I followed the trail with the flashlight. The marks climbed upward… all the way to the ceiling.

  Everything happened too fast.

  When I raised the light, I saw something clinging to the ceiling—and in that same instant, the creature leapt straight onto Kharib.

  The impact was brutal.

  They rolled across the floor in a whirlwind of limbs and screams. The creature was small, maybe around 1.30 meters tall, but that didn’t matter: it was agile, strong, and completely unnatural. It had only functional upper limbs, moving like an animal, and some kind of tail that ended in a harpoon. Its face was a distorted human blur—misplaced eyes, an elongated jaw, strands of disheveled hair falling over its forehead. A mistake of existence itself.

  I couldn’t shoot. Not without hitting Kharib.

  I drew my knife without thinking. I lunged forward and slashed the creature’s back with force. Its skin was thick, but the cut opened a deep gash. It screamed—a rough, muffled sound—and released Kharib, retreating quickly away from him.

  I pulled Kharib back. He seemed conscious, despite the scratches and a puncture wound near his abdomen.

  “It’s nothing…” he said, still out of breath.

  I shouted for the rest of the team to enter. Within seconds, everyone was inside, weapons aimed at the creature, now cornered in a tight space, trembling between rage and desperation.

  Together, we finished it quickly.

  Three shots.Then silence.

  After the situation was under control and Kharib had received first aid, I could finally breathe a little.

  My mind spun in spirals. First, the previous room covered in blood coming from inside the capsule. Now, this capsule broken—and the creature, alive inside it.

  A conclusion formed against my will.

  Something I didn’t want to believe.Something that was becoming impossible to deny.

  Maybe nothing had come in.Maybe… something had come out.

  By the looks on the others’ faces, I realized I wasn’t the only one thinking that.

  We bagged the creature’s body and moved on. Its weight, even lifeless, caused a discomfort I couldn’t explain—as if touching the fabric of the bag was touching the very origin of the problem.

  As soon as we finished, I called the other teams on the communicator. My voice came out steadier than I actually felt:

  “From now on, no one opens any doors. Don’t force anything. Wait for the rest of the team before taking any action.”

  They agreed, but I could hear swallowed fear in their voices. Panic was spreading among us, silently, like an invisible gas.

  We continued down the corridor lit only by emergency lights. The lights flickered, and the metallic smell of blood seemed worse with every step. I tried to stay focused, but my mind insisted on connecting the pieces:The blood coming from the capsule… the broken capsule… the creature clinging to the ceiling.Every detail pushed the same conclusion into my head—and into everyone else’s.Maybe nothing had entered. Maybe something had escaped.

  I was already preparing what I would say when we met the other teams, when something interrupted my thoughts:A soft, metallic ding echoed through the corridor.

  We all froze at the same time.

  The sound of an elevator going up.

  I exchanged looks with the team. No one had been informed of anything. No team was using the elevator. And by protocol, no one should have been using it.

  The elevator kept rising…Sector … Sector 3… Sector 2…Until the number 1 lit up in red.

  I raised my weapon. The team did the same.The air grew dense, heavy, as if the entire corridor was waiting for the revelation.

  “Positions!” I whispered, my throat dry.

  The elevator stopped.Absolute silence.

  The internal panel crackled.The doors began to slide open… slowly…Opening a narrow gap…White light spilling out from the sides…

  And there, in that frozen instant, we all had the same thought:

  Who—or what—was about to step out of there?

  – LUNA HELEN

  The elevator was slower than usual, and the oppressive silence only increased the sensation that time itself had stalled.

  The same question hammered relentlessly in my mind: What is he really?An ally… or just another enemy who hasn’t shown his claws yet?

  When I realized that the elevator was passing straight through the other sectors and would soon reach Sector 1, my heart began to race.

  I remembered the horror I had lived through there.All those people in comas… all of them should have awakened after the preservation support failed.

  When the light indicating “SECTOR 1” turned on, my chest tightened.I wasn’t ready to see that again.

  I held Erick’s hand.He squeezed back—and despite trying to appear steady, his fingers were trembling.He was just as terrified as I was… he was only hiding it better.

  The elevator gave one final jolt.The doors began to slide open with a slow, metallic hiss.

  And then—light.

  So much light.

  Lights flooded into the elevator all at once, blinding me for a second.Instinctively, I raised a hand to my face, and I heard rapid movement, coordinated footsteps, and the dry sound of weapons being raised.

  When my eyes adjusted, I finally saw them:

  Soldiers.Four of them.All aiming their weapons directly at us.

  For a moment, I felt the air leave my lungs.

  The only thing I could do was raise my hands slightly, trying to show that I wasn’t one of those… monsters.

  Completely motionless… but with the feeling that, at any second, everything could explode.