EPISODE 13
THE MAN WHO NEVER ESCAPED
The dead version of Elias smiled slowly.
Its rotten skin cracked around the mouth.
Don’t let them hear you breathing, it whispered.
The emergency lights flickered violently overhead.
For one horrifying second, Elias noticed something impossible.
The corpse standing before him wasn’t fully solid.
Parts of its body glitched like unstable reflections.
Its face shifted between different ages.
Young.
Old.
Decayed.
Then normal again.
The footsteps in the darkness kept getting closer.
Hundreds of them.
Running through the underground corridors.
The faceless creature tightened its grip on Elias’ arm.
“We have to move now.”
Elias stumbled backward.
What ARE those things?
The creature looked toward the darkness carefully.
Its stolen face twitched unnaturally.
They were exposed too long.
A loud metallic scream echoed somewhere deep below the facility.
The entire hallway shook violently.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Far away, heavy security doors began slamming shut one after another.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
Like something massive was moving underground.
The dead Elias suddenly stepped closer.
Its pale eyes locked directly onto him.
You still don’t remember the final test.
Another painful flash exploded inside Elias’ mind.
White laboratory walls.
Scientists shouting.
A giant circular machine glowing beneath the facility.
And inside the machine
Darkness.
Not empty darkness.
Moving darkness.
Alive.
Elias heard his own voice again inside the memory:
What happens if the corridor stays open?
Someone answered nervously:
Then reality starts copying itself.
The memory shattered instantly.
Elias grabbed his head in pain.
No…
The faceless creature dragged him down the hallway.
You were the first human to enter the corridor, it said.
You came back different.
The lights flickered again.
This time Elias saw movement behind the glass windows lining the corridor.
People watching him.
Scientists.
Doctors.
Security guards.
All smiling silently.
None of them blinking.
Then every head turned together to follow him.
Elias froze.
They’re still alive?
The creature answered softly:
Not anymore.
Suddenly every monitor inside the hallway turned on by itself.
Static filled the screens.
Then a recording appeared.
The date displayed:
OCTOBER 14 CONTAINMENT INCIDENT
A younger Elias stood inside the laboratory wearing a security badge.
His face looked exhausted.
Terrified.
The recording glitched repeatedly as alarms screamed in the background.
Then the younger Elias spoke directly into the camera:
If anyone finds this… do not trust the copies.
Behind him, people were running through the facility in panic.
The lights flashed red.
Something screamed somewhere off-camera.
Not human.
The younger Elias continued speaking quickly.
We thought the corridor was a bridge.
His breathing became uneven.
“But it wasn’t.”
The camera shook violently.
It’s a mouth.
Static exploded across the screen.
Then the recording returned for one final second.
Long enough to show something standing behind Elias in the laboratory.
Tall.
Thin.
Its body bent the wrong way.
Its face completely smooth.
No eyes.
No mouth.
Only endless black skin stretching downward like liquid.
The recording ended instantly.
Every screen went black.
The hallway became silent.
Even the footsteps had stopped.
Elias stared at the dark monitors.
That thing…
The dead version of Elias slowly nodded.
It was the first one.
Suddenly
The loudspeaker crackled overhead again.
Sector C lockdown failed.
A new voice replaced the automated system.
Calm.
Cold.
Human.
Dr. Vernon.
Elias stopped breathing.
He recognized the voice immediately.
Impossible.
It belonged to Director Hale.
The man who died the night of the experiment.
The speaker hissed softly.
You finally came back.
Then every locked door in the corridor slowly opened together.
Inside each room
More copies stood waiting.
Different versions of Elias.
Some injured.
Some old.
Some wearing lab coats.
One version was covered entirely in blood.
Another looked almost skeletal.
All of them staring silently toward him.
The real Elias backed away in horror.
No…
Then every copy spoke together.
We remember what you did.
The facility lights suddenly died again.
Darkness swallowed everything.
For several seconds—
Nothing moved.
Nothing breathed.
Then Elias heard soft footsteps directly beside him.
A familiar voice whispered near his ear.
You should have left us buried under the corridor.
The lights flashed back on.
The faceless creature was gone.
The dead Elias was gone.
Now Elias stood completely alone.
Except for one thing.
At the end of the hallway
A child stood motionless beneath the red emergency lights.
Small.
Barefoot.
Wearing a hospital gown.
Its face hidden by darkness.
Elias felt his blood turn cold.
Because the child was holding something in its hand.
A photograph.
Slowly
The child lifted it toward him.
It was a picture of Elias standing beside the circular machine years earlier.
And next to him
Was the same child.
Smiling.
On the back of the photograph, someone had written:
SUBJECT ZERO WAS NEVER HUMAN.
Then the child smiled slowly.
And Elias finally remembered where he had seen him before.
Not inside the facility.
Not inside the photographs.
But standing beside the machine…
The night the corridor first opened.
The same night humanity accidentally brought something back that had been waiting long before them.
And this time
It finally remembered his name.