The words echo strangely underground.
“What?” Lucas asks quietly.
“To erase things.”
Tears spill down her cheeks now.
“They’d hurt us… then play the same songs during sedation until eventually the memories stopped feeling real.”
My chest tightens so violently it hurts.
That’s why she freezes when certain melodies play.
Why music keeps triggering emotional fractures she doesn’t understand.
Jesus Christ.
Gabriel looks sick now too.
“Wu refined the process,” he says quietly.
“But it started long before him.”
Hannah stares at the glowing light beneath the steel door.
“They’re still doing it.”
A scream suddenly erupts from somewhere beyond the walls.
Child.
Young.
Raw terror.
Everything explodes into motion.
Russ raises his rifle instantly.
“We breach.”
No hesitation now.
No debate.
Lucas moves left.
Mason right.
Gabriel draws his sidearm.
I pull Hannah behind me automatically.
Her hand clamps onto my jacket.
“Clay—”
“You stay behind me.”
