Chapter 11 - The Underground Ward
The floor sealed.
Sarah struck the metal panel with both fists.
“Bring him back!”
Mercer pressed a hand against his bleeding shoulder.
“Your son is being moved to a secure surgical ward.”
“He did not consent.”
“His legal guardian did.”
“I am his legal guardian.”
Mercer looked at Daniel.
“So is his father.”
Sarah turned.
Daniel lay face down beneath a guard’s knee.
“You signed it,” she said.
Daniel did not deny it.
“You signed Ethan into the trial.”
“He’ll die without it.”
“And he could die because of it.”
“He has days, Sarah.”
The words stopped her.
She looked toward Dr. Reeves.
“Is that true?”
Reeves avoided her eyes.
“How many days?”
“His cardiac markers have deteriorated,” he said. “Without intervention, perhaps a week.”
Sarah felt grief and rage collide inside her.
Mercer approached the wall panel.
“The procedure could save him.”
“What does it require?”
“Stem cell extraction from Noah, followed by a modified Halcyon sequence.”
Noah stepped back.
“You told me it was a blood donation.”
Mercer did not look at him.
“The extraction is more extensive.”
“Will it hurt him?” Sarah asked.
Dr. Reeves answered quietly.
“There is a risk of permanent neurological injury.”
Noah went pale.
Sarah looked at Mercer.
“You planned to sacrifice one boy for another.”
“We planned to advance medicine.”
Daniel managed to throw one guard aside. He struck the second with his elbow and grabbed a fallen security badge.
“Sarah, the lower ward connects to the old service tunnels.”
He threw the badge toward her.
She caught it.
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
The honesty surprised her.
Daniel pointed toward the eastern door.
“But trust that Victor will kill every witness in this room when the procedure is finished.”
Mercer’s expression confirmed it.
Margaret pulled a fire alarm lever.
Sprinklers erupted across the laboratory.
Smoke barriers dropped between Mercer and the others.
Sarah, Margaret, and Noah ran through the eastern door.
Daniel remained behind, fighting the guards.
Sarah looked back once.
Daniel shouted, “Find Room 6!”
The stairwell descended six levels below the hospital.
At the bottom, they entered a tunnel lined with abandoned medical equipment.
Noah struggled to keep pace.
Sarah noticed blood on his sleeve.
“What did they do to you?”
“They took bone marrow twice.”
“You need treatment.”
“Ethan needs it more.”
Sarah stopped and faced him.
“You are not less important because he is sick.”
Noah stared at her.
No one had ever told him that.
They continued.
A sign on the wall pointed toward WARD H.
The circle-and-line symbol appeared beneath it.
Inside Ward H, rows of empty beds stood under flickering lights.
Children’s names had been scratched into the walls.
NOAH.
MILA.
JONAS.
SEVEN.
Margaret found a blood trail leading toward a steel door.
Beyond it was an observation room.
Ethan lay inside a glass surgical chamber.
Doctors prepared instruments around him.
A countdown appeared above the door.
19:42.
Noah pointed toward the neighboring chamber.
Someone was strapped to another bed.
A man wearing a black hood.
Sarah saw half of a silver heart hanging against his chest.
May you like
Her son.
Subject Seven.
