Chapter 5 - In The Dark
The pitch-black room felt like a concrete coffin closing tightly around us.
Dr. Reed grabbed a small tactical flashlight from the surgical cart and clicked it on, casting a pale, narrow beam across the floor.
"Can you stand up?" she whispered, sliding a heavy steel scalpel into the pocket of her scrub top.
I nodded weakly, swinging my legs over the edge of the examination table despite the lingering burn in my abdomen.
The heavy pounding on the steel door stopped, replaced by the terrifying screech of a plasma torch cutting through the metal lock.
Bright orange sparks cascaded down the dark stairwell like a deadly waterfall.
"He is cutting through the hinges," Dr. Reed hissed, wrapping her arm tightly around my waist to support me.
We moved as quickly as we could toward the rear emergency exit, navigating through a maze of dark medical corridors.
The air grew instantly colder, smelling strongly of old concrete and stagnant water.
"Anna, you cannot run from me forever," Aaron's voice echoed loudly over the facility's battery-powered intercom system.
"If you leave with her, the parasite will die, and the necrotic tissue will poison your bloodstream within hours."
I clamped my hands over my ears, entirely refusing to listen to another one of his psychological manipulations.
We reached a heavy metal door at the end of the hall, but the electronic keypad was completely dead.
"Damn it," Dr. Reed cursed, aggressively pulling at the useless handle.
A massive, deafening crash echoed from the main entrance as the heavy steel door finally fell inward.
Heavy, measured footsteps began walking slowly down the dark corridor toward our exact location.
"Hide in the supply closet," Dr. Reed ordered, shoving me into a small, windowless room and closing the door just a crack.
I held my breath in the terrifying darkness, watching through the tiny crack as Dr. Reed stood her ground in the hallway.
Aaron emerged from the shadows, holding his pistol in one hand and a high-powered flashlight in the other.
"Where is my incubator, Natalie?" he demanded, raising his weapon directly at her chest.
Instead of answering, Dr. Reed suddenly threw her heavy tactical flashlight straight into his face and lunged at him with the scalpel.
The gun went off with a deafening roar, and the flash briefly illuminated the hallway in blinding white light.
I clamped my hand over my mouth to stifle a scream as I backed away into the deepest corner of the dark closet.
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My back violently bumped into a person sitting perfectly still in a wheelchair right behind me.
"Hello, Anna," Sylvia whispered in the dark, her voice dripping with pure malice.
