Chapter 56: Extinction

The Company didn’t exist on any map.

Buried beneath layers of abandoned infrastructure and misdirected ownership, it sat in silence, sealed away from the world above. No external signals, no unnecessary staff and absolutely no paper trails. Just steel, reinforced concrete, and the quiet hum of machines waiting to be given purpose.

And at the center of it....Felix.

He stood alone in Observation Room Three, staring through the thick pane of reinforced glass into the chamber beyond. His reflection stared back at him just as intensely, eyes darker than they used to be, something behind them constantly calculating, constantly moving.

He hadn’t slept, that much was obvious not that it mattered anymore.

Sleep was a luxury for people who still believed tomorrow would look like today. Behind him, the door slid open with a low mechanical hiss.

Abel stepped in. He didn’t announce himself. Didn’t need to. Felix already knew he was there.

"You’ve been down here all night," Abel said.

Felix didn’t turn, "Time moves differently when extinction is involved."

Abel’s jaw tightened slightly. There it was again, that word, that certainty.

’Extinction.’

Felix spoke it like it was already happening. Like it was inevitable.

Abel walked further into the room, stopping a few steps behind him, "You’re pushing too fast," he said.

"No," Felix replied calmly. "We’re already too late."

Abel exhaled slowly, forcing himself to stay composed.

This was the problem. Every conversation with Felix now felt like standing on the edge of something unstable. One wrong word, one wrong push, and everything would collapse.

"You said we needed data," Abel continued. "Time to understand what we’re dealing with. Controlled progression."

Felix finally turned, "And while we’re understanding," he said, "people are changing.... Dying becoming things they don’t even recognize."

"That doesn’t justify rushing into irreversible decisions." Abel pressed.

Felix stepped closer, his expression sharpening, "Everything about this is irreversible."

Silence settled between them.

Abel held his gaze.

"For the first time," he said slowly, "I’m starting to question whether you actually care about saving people... or just proving that your theory works."

That landed hard.

Felix didn’t react immediately but something shifted in his posture, it was only subtle.

"You think this is about ego?" Felix asked quietly.

"I think," Abel said, "you’ve already accepted the idea of losing humanity and that makes you dangerous."

Felix let out a quiet breath, almost a laugh, but there was no humor in it.

"I’ve seen what happens when we don’t act," he said. "Have you?"

Abel didn’t answer. Felix stepped closer still, lowering his voice, "I’ve watched people beg for help while their bodies turned against them. I’ve seen them lose control, lose identity, lose everything that made them human."

His eyes locked onto Abel’s, "And the worst part? They didn’t get a choice."

The room felt colder. Abel swallowed, but his voice stayed steady, "And your solution is to what...take that choice away in a different way?"

Felix didn’t hesitate, "My solution is to give them a chance to survive."

"At what cost?" Abel asked.

Felix didn’t answer immediately because that was the question.

The one neither of them could avoid, the one neither of them had a clean answer to.

Finally..."Everything," Felix said.

Abel closed his eyes for a brief moment. There it was, the line. The one you couldn’t come back from.

When he opened them again, something had changed.

Not outwardly, not enough for Felix to notice immediately but internally...

A decision had begun to form.

"You’re asking me to help you rewrite human biology," Abel said. "To gamble the entire species on a theory we don’t fully understand."

Felix said nothing.

"Do you even hear yourself?" Abel continued. "This isn’t just science. This is control. Authority over what it means to be human."

Felix’s expression hardened, "And doing nothing is what? Moral?"

"No," Abel said. "It’s cautious."

Felix shook his head, "It’s cowardice."

That did it.

Abel stepped forward, the calm finally cracking.

"Don’t you dare," he said, voice low but sharp. "Don’t you dare reduce this to fear. You think I’m scared of making hard decisions?"

Felix didn’t back down, "I think you’re scared of making the wrong one."

The silence that followed was suffocating. Neither of them moved, neither of them looked away.

Two men standing on opposite sides of the same impossible problem.

Finally, Abel spoke again much quieter now. More controlled, "That’s the difference between us," he said. "You’re willing to act without certainty. I’m not."

Felix tilted his head slightly, "Yes your right...im sorry, i was imdeed too into it."

Elsewhere, far beyond the facility’s hidden walls—

A screen flickered to life.

Coordinates blinked softly against a dark interface. To a single point which was stationary.

"Signal confirmed," a voice said.

The room was dim, illuminated only by the glow of monitors and shifting data streams. Figures moved in the shadows, quiet, efficient, detached.

On the central display, a name appeared.

’Felix Ainst.’

"Movement pattern stabilized," another voice added. "Subject has remained in one location for approximately eighteen hours."

A pause then..."Cross-reference with known associates."

Data shifted, Images appeared...connections were formed with red string.

One name highlighted.

’Abel.’

A figure stepped forward, watching the screen carefully.

"Interesting," they murmured.

"Do we move?" someone asked.

The figure remained silent for a moment, "No."

The word was calm and certain, "Not yet."

The others waited.

"Let him work," the figure continued. "If he’s building something... we want to see it finished."

"And if he succeeds?"

A faint smile, "Then we take it."

The screen flickered again, zooming in slightly on the blinking signal.

Back in the facility... Felix had returned his attention to the observation window.

Inside the chamber, equipment stood ready. Tubes, monitors, containment restraints. Everything prepared for a process that hadn’t yet begun.

Abel watched him carefully now.

Studying.

Evaluating.

For the first time, he wasn’t just seeing Felix as a partner.

He was seeing him as a variable.

An unpredictable one.

"You’ve already planned the first phase," Abel said.

It wasn’t a question.

Felix didn’t deny it.

"Yes."

"Without approval."

Felix glanced back at him.

"We don’t have time for approval."

Abel nodded slowly.

"Of course," he said. "Why involve oversight when you can just decide for everyone?"

Felix frowned slightly.

"You agreed to this."

"I agreed to explore it," Abel corrected. "Not to rush into implementation."

Felix turned fully now.

"And when exactly were you planning to implement?" he asked. "After how many studies? How many models? How many simulations while people die?"

Abel didn’t flinch.

"As many as it takes to avoid creating something worse."

Felix’s eyes narrowed.

"You’re still thinking like this is controllable."

"And you’re acting like it isn’t," Abel shot back.

"Because it isn’t!"

The words echoed slightly in the enclosed space.

Felix stepped forward again, intensity rising.

"This isn’t a lab experiment with clean variables and predictable outcomes," he said. "This is chaos. And the longer we pretend we can control it, the worse it gets."

Abel’s expression hardened.

"And the moment we stop trying to control it," he said, "we lose everything."

Another silence. This one quieter was heavier.

Felix looked away first not in defeat but in thought, "I’m starting Phase One," he said finally.

Abel’s chest tightened slightly, "Without my approval?"

Felix didn’t answer directly, "I’m not asking for permission," he said.

Abel studied him for a long moment.

Then nodded once slowly, "Understood."

Felix turned back to the glass. He didn’t see it, didn’t notice the shift.

The decision settling into place behind Abel’s calm expression because in that moment...

Abel stopped thinking like a partner and started thinking like a safeguard.

"If you proceed," Abel said quietly, "I want full data access, every single result and every variable."

Felix nodded, "Fine."

"And I want control over most of the operations."

A slight pause. Felix hesitated hust for a second. Then, "Agreed."

It was small but it mattered because control meant oversight and oversight meant limitation and limitation meant options.

Abel turned toward the door, "Get some rest," he said.

Felix let out a faint, humorless breath.

"I’ll sleep when this genetic code works." he said looking into a microscope.

Abel stopped at the doorway, "That’s what I’m afraid of."

Then he left. The door sliding shut behind him with a soft hiss.

Felix stood alone again, watching.

Down the corridor, Abel walked in silence his expression unreadable but his mind....Anything but calm.

He moved quickly now, turning into a secured access hallway.

A panel lit up as he approached, "Authorization required."

Abel placed his hand against the scanner, "Abel Johnson....Override clearance."

A pause. Then, "Access granted."

The door slid open.

Inside, the room was smaller,much darker, separate from the main systems.

A private terminal.

Abel stepped inside and activated the console.

Data streams flickered to life, facility schematics, access controls and security layers.

He stared at them for a moment.

Then began typing because the decision had already been made.

"If Felix is right," he murmured to himself, "this saves humanity."

His fingers paused briefly over the controls.

"And if he’s wrong..."

He didn’t finish the sentence, he didn’t need to.

His hand moved again. Inputting commands quietly.

Locks, restrictions, failsafes because if Felix crossed a line. Abel intended to be the one who stopped him.

No matter what it cost.

Above them, unseen, unheard the world continued.

Unaware of the decisions being made beneath its surface.

Unaware of the line being drawn between survival and something else entirely.

And somewhere, far away. A blinking signal marked the beginning of something that would change everything.

They just didn’t know it yet but they would....jSoon..