Chapter 10 - THE FIRST CHILD
Room Zero was not a room.
It was a person.
Daniel found the answer in the tapes they had carried from the flooded archive.
One recording had no date and no M designation.
The label read ZERO.
They played it through the farmhouse laptop while the countdown continued.
Static filled the speakers.
Then Adrian Marrow’s younger voice began speaking.
“Subject Zero remains viable after forty-one years.”
Sarah stopped the recording.
“Forty-one years?”
Daniel checked the tape casing.
“It was recorded twenty-five years ago.”
“Then Subject Zero would be sixty-six now.”
He pressed play.
Adrian continued.
“The subject demonstrates cellular aging inconsistent with chronological age. Tissue samples retain regenerative behavior. Her reproductive cells remain viable.”
A woman cried in the background.
Sarah recognized the voice from her earliest memories.
The woman screaming behind glass.
Adrian spoke again.
“Future embryos will be derived from Zero’s line. The M series will test adaptive inheritance through controlled environmental pressure.”
Sarah felt sick.
Daniel paused the tape.
“Subject Zero was the source.”
“The source of all of us?”
“Possibly.”
Sarah thought of Evelyn’s age.
Gray hair.
Approximately mid-sixties.
The same age Subject Zero would be now.
“She isn’t just an employee,” Sarah said.
Daniel nodded.
“Evelyn is Zero.”
On the live feed, Evelyn drove through a tunnel while Noah and Lily remained behind the partition.
The portable monitor beside her transmitted a steady heartbeat.
Sarah spoke into the open connection.
“You were the first subject.”
Evelyn’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“I was the first survivor.”
“My father used your genetic material to create us.”
“He used everyone.”
“Why are you helping him?”
“I am not.”
“You took my children.”
“To keep them away from Margaret.”
“Then bring them back.”
“I cannot.”
“Why?”
“Because Adrian is not the person activating the capsule.”
Sarah looked at Daniel.
“Who is?”
Evelyn glanced at the portable monitor.
“This device is receiving a signal from inside my body.”
Dr. Mercer heard her through Reyes’s phone at the hospital.
He moved closer to the speaker.
“Do you have an implanted cardiac monitor?”
“I have something older.”
“A Marrow capsule?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Forty-one years.”
Mercer spoke urgently.
“The signal may be relaying through her implant. If we shield it, we can stop the activation.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“You cannot shield what is already connected.”
“What does that mean?” Sarah asked.
Evelyn looked into the camera.
“The capsules communicate with one another.”
The implant inside Evelyn was transmitting to the capsule inside Vanessa.
But there was another signal on the network.
A third heartbeat appeared on the portable monitor.
Then a fourth.
Then twelve.
Each line was labeled with an M designation.
M-One.
M-Two.
M-Three.
Some showed no pulse.
Others displayed active rhythms.
M-Seven flashed beside Sarah’s name.
The device had detected her.
M-Eight showed two separate heartbeats.
One belonged to Elias.
The other belonged to Vanessa.
M-Seven showed three.
Sarah.
The fetus inside Vanessa.
And someone else.
Sarah stared at the third rhythm.
“What is that?”
Evelyn’s voice trembled.
“The second embryo was transferred months ago.”
“To whom?”
“I don’t know.”
The countdown reached three minutes.
Daniel scanned the network map displayed on the laptop.
Each active capsule produced a location signal.
Evelyn’s moved through the tunnel.
Vanessa’s remained at the hospital.
Sarah’s signal came from the farmhouse.
She had never known a capsule remained inside her.
The third M-Seven signal appeared less than a mile away.
Daniel enlarged the map.
It came from beneath the farmhouse.
They looked down simultaneously.
A dull impact sounded beneath the kitchen floor.
Then another.
Someone was below them.
Daniel found a concealed door under the table.
The engraved necklace opened it.
Cold air rose from the darkness.
Sarah descended first despite Daniel’s protest.
At the bottom was a medical chamber.
The room contained a hospital bed surrounded by life-support machines.
A pregnant woman lay unconscious beneath a white blanket.
Her face was hidden by an oxygen mask.
Sarah approached slowly.
The woman’s abdomen showed a pregnancy much further advanced than Vanessa’s.
Beside the bed, a chart displayed the designation M7-E2.
The missing embryo had been implanted in her.
Sarah reached for the chart.
The patient’s name had been covered with black ink.
Daniel examined the machines.
“She has been here for months.”
“Who is she?”
The countdown reached two minutes.
The woman’s eyes opened.
She looked directly at Sarah.
Then she lifted a weak hand and removed the oxygen mask.
Sarah staggered backward.
The woman had her face.
Not merely a resemblance.
The same eyes.
The same mouth.
The same small scar beneath the chin.
She looked like Sarah ten years younger.
May you like
The woman whispered two words.
“Hello, sister.”
