Chapter 824 - 826
They moved out an hour before midnight, slipping through the city like ghosts. The streets were empty, curfews enforced by drones that patrolled the skies in slow, mechanical circles. They reached the outskirts of Blackridge just before two a.m., the ruins of the city rising like broken teeth against the stormy sky. The air was thick with static, and Jude could feel the hum of power buried deep beneath their feet.
The entrance was hidden beneath a collapsed church. They moved the rubble carefully, revealing a rusted steel door embedded into the stone floor. Elira keyed in the code, and the lock hissed open with a sound like escaping breath.
Inside, the facility was colder than expected. The lights flickered to life as they stepped in, revealing corridors lined with pipes and wires that pulsed faintly with residual power. The place smelled of mold and dust and old secrets.
They made it through the first two security checkpoints without issue. Elira’s codes still worked, which meant they hadn’t purged the system yet. But as they entered the third chamber, the walls shook. A siren wailed in the distance.
"They know we’re here," Darren muttered.
"No," Elira said, her face pale. "It’s not them. It’s it."
Jude froze. "What?"
Elira turned slowly. "The thing that’s been watching us. It’s here."
Jude felt it then, like a pressure in the back of his skull, a whisper he couldn’t quite hear. He took a step back. "We need to move."
They ran.
Through corridors that twisted and pulsed like veins, through security gates that closed too late, through rooms filled with the corpses of the past. And behind them, always, the feeling of being watched. Of being followed.