The laboratory remained illuminated as if it were always daytime, indifferent to the chaos spreading through the city outside. Screens displayed graphs, thermal images, urban maps marked in red. The air was heavy, thick with tension and accumulated exhaustion.
Hamilton stood at the center of the main room, arms crossed, eyes fixed on a panel showing the creature's last known contact point near the club.
— I want every sector focused on this — he said, without raising his voice, yet with a firmness that silenced any doubt. — Ninety percent of the lab's total dedication. Specialized ammunition. No distractions.
Michael nodded, already typing commands into a side terminal.
— I'll alert the specialists in materials, ballistics, and molecular density — he replied. — But Commander… — he hesitated for a second — pure carbon bullets may not work the way we expect. The required density is extremely specific. If we miss—
Hamilton slowly turned to face him.
— Then make sure you don't miss.
Michael held his gaze for a moment. There was no room for discussion. He nodded again.
— Understood.
Michael hurried out, calling other scientists through the communicator, while Hamilton remained alone for a few seconds. The silence was broken only by the constant hum of machines.
He took a deep breath and activated the radio.
— Albuquerque. Status.
The response came with interference, but still clear enough.
— This is Albuquerque… I'm moving. Injured, but mobile. The creature… — there was a pause — it retreated. Went into the darkness between the buildings. It didn't follow us.
Hamilton closed his eyes briefly.
— You did the right thing by pulling back. Survival is the priority now. Extraction is on the way.
— Copy that, sir.
The radio went silent.
Hamilton placed his hands on the table, staring at the distorted reflection of his own face on a powered-down screen. Everything he feared was being confirmed. That wasn't a common enemy. It didn't follow common rules. It didn't die the way something should die.
— This is already out of control… — he murmured to himself.
A few blocks away, Davincci and Elloysa were running as if the air itself were chasing them.
Their lungs burned. Their legs trembled. The street felt endless, the buildings too tall, too close, as if they were closing in around them.
— Wait… — Elloysa gasped.
They turned into a narrow passage between two abandoned buildings and finally stopped. Davincci leaned against the wall, trying to catch his breath. Elloysa bent forward, hands on her knees, her entire body shaking.
The silence there was almost worse than the screams and gunfire from before.
Suddenly, Elloysa collapsed.
She sat down on the ground, pulling her knees to her chest, burying her face in her arms. The sobbing came hard and uncontrolled, as if everything she had been holding back finally broke loose.
— I… I saw those people… — her voice came out shattered — that monster… and my mom… she still hasn't come back…
Davincci knelt beside her, his heart still pounding.
— Elloysa… — he said softly, trying to stay calm — we're alive. That's something.
She lifted her face, eyes red.
— If I hadn't gone into that alley… if I had listened to you…
— I warned you it could go bad — he said, without harshness, just honesty. — But there's no point thinking about that now.
She looked away, guilt written all over her face.
— What if my mom… — the sentence died before it could finish.
Davincci took a deep breath and placed a hand on her shoulder.
— We don't know anything yet. — He spoke more slowly, grounding her. — Let's go home. First that. Then we figure out the rest.
Elloysa wiped her face with her sleeve, still shaking, but nodded.
They stood and continued walking, slower now, alert to every shadow, every distant sound. The city felt different after what they had seen — more hostile, more wrong.
When they finally reached Elloysa's street, she suddenly stopped.
— Davincci… — she whispered.
He turned.
Elloysa was staring ahead, eyes wide. For a second, fear surged back with full force.
Then she saw more clearly.
— Mom…?
Mary was there, standing on the sidewalk, her face tired but intact. Her hair slightly messy, her bag hanging from her shoulder. Alive.
Elloysa didn't think. She just ran.
— MOM!
Mary barely had time to react before the impact of the hug. She held her daughter tightly, confused but immediately relieved.
— Hey, hey… calm down — she said, running a hand through Elloysa's hair. — What happened?
Elloysa cried again, but this time it was different. It was relief. Release.
Davincci stopped a few steps away, feeling his legs finally give a little. The fear was still there, but something inside him loosened.
At least… for now… they were safe.
The camera would slowly pull away from the scene, leaving the three of them under the weak streetlight, while somewhere in the city, something moved silently between dark buildings.
Elloysa clung to her mother so tightly it felt like she was afraid to let go and have her disappear. Her face was buried in Mary's chest, her breathing uneven, her entire body trembling.
— I thought you had… — her voice broke between sobs — I was so scared… you didn't come home… you didn't answer…
Mary didn't respond right away. She simply ran her hand slowly over Elloysa's hair, a gesture that should have been comforting. Davincci watched from a few steps behind, trying to catch his breath, his heart still beating too fast.
Elloysa took a deep breath, trying to calm herself with that familiar touch.
But something was… wrong.
The caress on the top of her head didn't feel exactly human. There was too much pressure. Too many hard points.
She frowned.
The nails.
They were long. Too long. Thin. Sharp.
So sharp they lightly scratched her scalp.
A chill ran up Elloysa's spine.
Slowly, with a knot forming in her throat, she pulled her face back and looked up.
The world seemed to stop.
Mary's face was… distorted.
Blood streamed from her eyes in thick, dark lines, like inverted tears. Blood flowed from her mouth as well, her lips cracked and torn, as if something had forced a smile from the inside out.
For a second, Elloysa just stared, unable to understand.
— Mom…? — the word came out as a broken whisper.
Mary's eyes moved. Focused on her.
And then, slowly, she smiled.
The smile stretched beyond what was normal. Too wide. The skin around her mouth began to tear, splitting the corners of her lips as blood poured down, revealing too many teeth — too white, too numerous.
Elloysa let out a strangled scream and stumbled backward.
— NO!
Davincci reacted on instinct. He grabbed Elloysa's hand from behind, hard.
— RUN!
They took off.
The sound behind them wasn't human. It was a mix of heavy, unnaturally fast footsteps, irregular breathing, and a strange dragging noise, as if something inside the body was moving wrong.
Elloysa ran without looking where she was going. Tears blurred her vision. Her chest burned. Her legs screamed.
Even so, she glanced back for a second.
Mary was chasing them.
But she wasn't running like a person.
Her body pitched forward grotesquely, her arms moving awkwardly, the sharp nails reflecting the weak streetlight. The smile was still there. Fixed. Open. Bloody.
— DON'T STOP! — Davincci shouted.
They turned a corner sharply. The sound of footsteps behind them continued.
Davincci pulled Elloysa harder, then let go.
— Keep running! — he said quickly, breathless — DON'T LOOK BACK!
— What?! — Elloysa barely managed to respond.
— I'll find something! Anything! — He was already turning right. — TRUST ME!
Elloysa tried to speak, but fear swallowed every word. She kept running, her body at its limit, slipping into narrow alleys, dodging trash bags, stumbling, almost falling.
The air barely entered her lungs.
Her vision darkened at the edges.
Her heart felt like it was going to explode.
She no longer knew if she was running from the creature… or from what she had just lost.
Suddenly—
BANG.
BANG.
BANG.
Gunshots.
Elloysa flinched so hard she almost fell. She stopped abruptly, pressing herself against a building wall, her chest rising and falling uncontrollably.
Another shot echoed down the street.
Then… silence.
The heavy silence that comes after something irreversible.
With difficulty, she turned around.
Mary's body lay on the asphalt, motionless, deformed in a way Elloysa couldn't bring herself to look at for long. Blood slowly spread across the ground, forming a dark stain that reflected the weak streetlight.
Elloysa felt her legs give out.
Then she lifted her gaze.
Davincci stood a few meters ahead.
He held an AR-15 with both hands, still pointed downward. Another identical weapon lay on the ground beside him. His hands trembled. His face was pale. His eyes… filled with guilt.
He looked at Elloysa as if begging for forgiveness without saying a single word.
— I… — his voice broke — I didn't have a choice…
Elloysa didn't respond.
She just looked at the body on the ground… then at Davincci… and then everything inside her collapsed at once.
The world no longer made sense.
What had started as worry had ended in something far bigger, far darker.
And irreversible.