Chapter 2815: Story 2816: The Heart Beneath Karachi

The gigantic red eye stared at Ryan from beneath the broken floor.

For a moment, nobody moved.

Then a powerful tentacle burst from the opening and wrapped around Hamza’s leg.

“Captain!” Zara screamed.

Hamza fired his weapon, but the tentacle tightened, dragging him toward the darkness.

Ryan raised his glowing hand.

“LET HIM GO!”

A golden blast struck the creature. The tentacle released Hamza, who rolled across the floor just as the opening widened.

Father grabbed Ryan’s shoulder.

“Don’t waste your power! That thing feeds on your energy.”

Ryan looked down into the hole.

“What is it?”

Father’s expression darkened.

“The heart of the organism. Everything infected in Karachi is connected to it.”

Meher’s voice crackled through the radio.

“Ryan, your father is right! The infected aren’t independent anymore. They’re receiving commands from one central source.”

A distant chorus of screams rose from somewhere above the facility.

Zara looked toward the ceiling.

“Then the entire city is under its control?”

“Not yet,” Meher replied. “But when the seventh lock opens completely, every infected person will become part of the same creature.”

Father pointed toward the narrow passage.

“We must reach the central chamber. There is a control mechanism that can weaken the organism.”

Ryan helped him walk.

Hamza followed, limping, while Zara guarded their rear.

Behind them, the red eye slowly disappeared beneath the floor.

But something followed.

They entered a long underground corridor covered with old photographs. Ryan stopped when he recognized one.

It showed his father standing beside three newborn babies in laboratory chambers.

Underneath the photograph were three names:

ADAM — SUBJECT TWO.

RYAN — SUBJECT THREE.

The third name had been scratched away.

Ryan turned toward his father.

“Who was the first child?”

Father remained silent.

The stranger suddenly appeared at the end of the corridor.

“I can answer that.”

Ryan raised his hand.

The stranger stepped closer.

“My name was Elias Malik. I was your father’s first successful experiment.”

Father shook his head.

“No, Elias. You were my first failure.”

Elias smiled.

“And yet I’m the only one who remembers what happened before the outbreak.”

Suddenly, every photograph on the corridor walls began changing. The babies disappeared, replaced by images of a ruined Karachi.

In the final photograph, Ryan saw himself standing over thousands of dead bodies.

His eyes were completely black.

Zara stared at the image.

“Ryan... what does this mean?”

Elias answered before Ryan could speak.

“It means the apocalypse has already happened once. We’re only repeating it.”

A heavy metallic door opened at the corridor’s end.

Beyond it stood the central chamber.

At its center was a massive glass tank containing a woman.

Ryan’s mother.

Her eyes opened.

“Ryan,” she whispered. “Your father didn’t rescue me.”

She pressed her palm against the glass.

“He created me.”