Chapter 17
Chapter 17: The Fracture
I grabbed Mark's twitching, clammy hand, forcing his right thumb down onto the glowing blue glass of the biometric scanner. The system chimed softly.
BIOMETRIC CONFIRMED. OVERRIDE TERMINAL UNLOCKED.
"Aborting download," Ellen commanded, hitting a sequence of keys.
The glowing blue sensors around Sophie’s head suddenly flared bright red, and a harsh warning alarm began to blare throughout the entire facility. WARNING: DATA TRANSFER INTERRUPTED. NEURAL CORRUPTION IMMINENT.
Sophie let out a piercing, high-pitched scream—a sound that ripped through my soul. Her back arched off the chair, her small hands clenching into fists as the IV line filled with a dark, contrasting fluid.
"Sophie!" I cried, throwing myself over her, trying to hold her down as the machinery whined around us.
The digital screen flickered wildly, the progress bar freezing at 94%. The red text flashed repeatedly: PARTIAL ARCHIVE RETAINED. SYSTEM LOCKED.
Suddenly, the heavy steel doors of the main entrance began to slide shut as the facility went into automatic lockdown. Red emergency lights bathed the white room in a bloody hue.
"We have to go, now!" Dr. Aris shouted from the doorway. "Security is clearing the lower levels with lethal force! They aren't going to let anyone leave this room alive!"
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Ellen ripped the remaining sensors off Sophie’s head and scooped her small, limp body out of the chair. Sophie’s eyes were closed, her face deadly pale, a thin trickle of blood running from her nose.
We sprinted out of the lab, leaving Mark convulsing on the floor behind us, his masterpiece shattered.
