Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women

She walked around the room with careful curiosity, eyes scanning the walls, the old maps, the dusty shelves. Her gaze lingered on the fireplace, where a single iron pendant hung above the mantle, Jude’s old insignia, the last thing Darren had taken from the core chamber.

"Do you know why I’ve come?" she asked.

"You’re looking for the seal."

She turned, eyebrow raised. "You don’t seem surprised."

"I’ve been waiting."

"Then you knew it wouldn’t hold forever."

"I hoped it would. But hope’s never been enough."

She took a seat at the table, pulling out a small device, something sleek and silent, pulsing with soft blue light. Darren didn’t recognize the model, but he didn’t ask. She tapped it, and a three-dimensional projection appeared above it: a map of the old city, now marked with dozens of red fractures.

"This is the spread pattern," she said. "It started slow. People hearing voices. Then shared dreams. Animals moving in strange migrations. Last month, a research vessel in the southern sea picked up an anomalous signal. It matched the frequency patterns from the Helix logs."

Darren exhaled. "It’s waking."

"More than that. It’s learning."