CHAPTER 3 — THE WAKE-UP
CHAPTER 3 — THE WAKE-UP
The SUV doors slammed shut outside.
More men arrived.
Surrounding the building.
Alex grabbed Emma’s arm.
“There’s no time. They found you.”
“WHO ARE THEY?!”
“The people who buried your identity.”
Emma shook her head violently. “I don’t even remember serving in the military!”
Alex hesitated.
Then said:
“That’s because they wiped you.”
A loud explosion shook the hallway.
The front door blew open.
Men in black tactical gear stormed in.
Alex pushed Emma behind him.
“Stay behind me.”
“You’re protecting me now?! You’re the one stalking me!”
“I never stalked you,” he snapped. “I was assigned to bring you back if you ever resurfaced.”
Emma froze.
“Bring me back from what?”
Alex looked at her.
Then said the line that broke everything:
“From being one of them.”
Flash of memory.
A battlefield.
Blood.
A voice shouting her call sign:
“LENA, WE NEED EXTRACTION!”
Emma gasped.
“No… that’s not me…”
Alex caught her before she fell.
“It is. It always was.”
Gunfire closer.
Alex dragged her toward the back exit.
“There’s a choice,” he said.
“What choice?!”
“Run again… or finish what you started seven years ago.”
Emma looked at her shaking hands.
At the burning hallway.
At the men hunting her like she was a weapon.
Then she whispered:
“…What was I?”
Alex answered:
“The one they couldn’t control.”
She grabbed his hand.
“Then I’m done running.”
FINAL ENDING — SYSTEM REACTIVATED
A hidden server deep underground came online.
Unknown protocols activated.
SUBJECT: LENA VAUGHN
STATUS: RETURNED
DIRECTIVE: AWAKEN
Emma stood in the burning hallway.
And for the first time…
She didn’t feel afraid.
She felt remembered.
Alex whispered:
“Welcome back.”
And somewhere in the dark…
May you like
Someone answered:
“She was never supposed to wake up.”
