Monday – 12:9 P.M. | Hollow Bridge Labs – Sector 3
Rick looked around as the lights shifted from dim yellow to deep red.
"Red level protocol…" Ava murmured. "It's not just lighting. It means activation. Controlled environment. We're in a live zone now."
Clang.
The sound echoed from the hallway. Footsteps. Slow. Steady.
Ava raised a pipe. Rick picked up a metal panel, makeshift shield in hand.
Then they saw him.
A young man. Pale skin. Bald. Ragged hospital pants. His eyes — twitching slightly — like a hard drive rebooting.
He stopped and tilted his head at them.
Then said:
"Subject 3. Confirmed."
12:11 P.M. | Experimental Wing – Observation Chamber
They moved cautiously as the boy backed away into the light.
Rick noticed something: his movements were unnatural, jerky — like muscle memory was broken into segments.
"He's like… stuck in some kind of loop," Ava whispered. "He's not attacking. He's reacting."
Rick stepped closer.
"We're not here to hurt you. I'm Rick. This is Ava. We were part of the—"
"Initiation Pattern Incomplete," the boy snapped. "Run simulations. Remove variance."
Then suddenly — the boy screamed and slammed his head against the wall.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Rick lunged forward. "Stop! Hey—stop!"
But the boy collapsed.
And from the wall, a projector activated.
A face appeared — pixelated, distorted. Robotic.
> "Subject 3 has failed the retention matrix. Preparing termination sequence."
12:17 P.M. | Scramble For Escape
"We can't let them kill him." Ava had already yanked open the panel behind the projector.
Rick grabbed the boy — light as paper — and hoisted him over his shoulder.
The ceiling vents hissed. Gas release.
Ava jammed the terminal with a cable. "Buying us 60 seconds. Move!"
They ran through the hallway, the red lights flashing in tempo with the alarms.
"He's shaking. They built seizures into the failsafe," Rick said between breaths.
"We'll fix it later. Right now, we get out."
12:25 P.M. | Back in the City – Ava's Dorm Rooftop
They laid Subject 3 on a blanket under a tarp.
He was breathing — shallow but stable.
Ava injected a saline dose and a stim to stabilize his nervous system.
"His real name's Kieron Marrow," she said, checking his file. "He was a freshman five years ago. Went missing. They claimed he dropped out."
Rick nodded grimly. "He didn't. They locked him inside the lab."
They sat in silence, watching the boy sleep.
Ava looked up. "What if there are more like him?"
Rick stared at the sky, clouds rolling like silent watchers.
"Then we find them."
Final Scene – Hollow Bridge HQ | Command Deck
The six directors stared at the live feed of Subject 3 being rescued.
The man in the center clenched his fist.
"So they want to play the hero arc. How sentimental."
A younger assistant spoke carefully.
"Do we… shut them down?"
The man turned.
"No. We raise the stakes."He pressed a red button on the control deck.
The words lit up across every monitor:
> "ACTIVATE SUBJECT 9: CODE NAME – 'WIDOW.'"