“MOVE!”
Gunfire erupts from above.
The hallway detonates into chaos.
Clay. Move.
I grab Hannah hard and throw both of us behind reinforced medical barriers as automatic weapons shred the corridor.
The teenage boy gets clipped immediately.
Blood sprays across the white floor.
The girl drags him behind cover on instinct despite his protests.
Despite the conditioning.
Because somewhere deep down—
humanity survived.
Gabriel fires upward at the turrets.
Russ destroys another with controlled bursts.
Sparks rain across the corridor.
The bunker shakes violently again beneath us.
Harder this time.
The reactor countdown is accelerating.
Emergency lights flash across terrified faces.
Smoke fills the hallway.
And through it all—
Wu calmly speaks.
“Attachment always corrupts efficiency.”
Hannah rises beside me with fury burning in her eyes.
“No,” she says.
The girl looks toward her from behind cover.
Hannah’s voice hardens.
“It’s what makes us human.”
And for the first time since we entered Ascension—
the conditioned children hesitate to obey Wu.
68
