Chapter 12 - The Hospital Under the Mountain
Claire woke in a white room.
Her wrists were secured to a chair.
Across from her, Rebecca and Dr. Warren were unconscious.
Jordan was gone.
Lily was gone.
A glass wall separated the room from a laboratory corridor.
Beyond it, medical staff moved quietly beneath bright lights.
A symbol was painted on every door.
Not the Meridian circle.
A triangle containing a single black eye.
Claire pulled against the restraints.
A woman entered the observation room.
She wore a green coat.
Up close, the resemblance to Melissa was even stronger.
The scar above her right eyebrow was pale and narrow.
“Where is Lily?”
“Safe.”
“Who are you?”
The woman sat opposite Claire.
“My name is Helena Vale.”
“Rebecca’s sister?”
“Rebecca’s twin.”
Rebecca stirred behind them.
Her eyes opened.
When she saw Helena, she stopped breathing.
“You died.”
“No. Miriam kept us separate.”
Rebecca struggled against her restraints.
“You worked for Meridian.”
“I survived Meridian.”
“Where is my granddaughter?”
Helena looked at Claire.
“Our granddaughter.”
Claire felt a wave of disgust.
“You took blood from Lily.”
“To monitor her.”
“You injected her.”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Helena’s expression became unreadable.
“Rose.”
Claire stared at her.
“Rose is a child.”
“Rose has lived inside this facility for seven years. Meridian trained her to follow instructions.”
“Where is she?”
“With Lily.”
Helena activated the glass wall.
It became a screen.
Lily lay inside a medical chamber while Rose sat beside her.
Rose looked thinner than in the photograph. A metal band encircled her wrist.
Lily was awake.
The girls were speaking, but Claire could not hear them.
“What do you want?” Claire asked.
“Anna’s reversal formula.”
“You already took the vial.”
“The vial was incomplete.”
Dr. Warren woke.
He looked at Helena.
“You were the one who altered Anna’s protocol.”
“I finished it.”
“You turned treatment into dependency.”
“I made it controllable.”
Rebecca lunged against her restraints.
“You experimented on children.”
“So did Miriam. So did Anna. So did you, Samuel.”
“I tried to stop it.”
“You tried to hide from it.”
Helena faced Claire again.
“Lily’s response is unique. The reversal protocol did not merely suppress the activation. It began repairing the altered genetic expression.”
“Then let her go.”
“We need to understand why it worked.”
“You will not touch her again.”
Helena smiled faintly.
“You still believe you are negotiating.”
An alarm sounded in the corridor.
Staff began moving quickly.
Helena stood.
“What happened?” Claire demanded.
A guard opened the door.
“The Mercer girl left the chamber.”
Helena turned toward the screen.
Lily’s bed was empty.
Rose stood alone beside it, staring directly into the camera.
Then the screen went dark.
Emergency lights activated.
Somewhere beyond the glass, a child screamed.
The observation room door unlocked automatically.
Dr. Warren freed himself using a broken piece of plastic from his chair.
He released Claire and Rebecca.
They entered the corridor.
A guard lay unconscious near the elevator. His wrist band was missing.
Rebecca pointed toward a trail of blood on the floor.
“Lily?”
Dr. Warren examined it.
“Too dark. Probably an adult.”
They followed the trail to a stairwell.
Jordan emerged from below holding a stolen access card.
“I thought you were dead,” Claire said.
“They separated me. Rose unlocked my room.”
“Where is Lily?”
“She said she was taking her to the surface.”
The facility shook.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
A recorded voice announced evacuation procedures.
Helena appeared at the far end of the corridor with two guards.
“Stop them!”
Claire, Rebecca, Dr. Warren, and Jordan ran down the stairs.
They passed three underground levels.
Each contained laboratories, patient rooms, and locked archives.
On the lowest level, they found rows of empty beds.
Names were printed on the walls.
Many matched children from the Meridian list.
At the final stairwell door, Rose waited.
Lily leaned against her.
Claire rushed forward.
Lily wrapped both arms around her.
“Mom!”
Claire checked her chest port and feeding tube.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Rose held out a small metal drive.
“This has the location of every Meridian facility.”
Jordan reached for it.
Rose pulled back.
“There’s a condition.”
Claire looked at the frightened girl.
“What condition?”
“You take me with you.”
A gunshot struck the door beside Rose’s head.
Helena descended the stairs.
Rose pushed the drive into Claire’s hand.
Then she slammed her wrist band against the emergency panel.
Steel doors dropped between them.
Claire, Lily, Rebecca, Jordan, and Dr. Warren were sealed on one side.
Rose remained with Helena on the other.
“Rose!” Lily screamed.
Through the narrowing gap, Rose looked at Claire.
“Find my mother.”
May you like
The doors closed.
An explosion shook the mountain.
