Chapter 27 Regroup
Regroup
They’d been mapping for over an hour when Maddie stretched and yawned. “I hate to break up the strategy session, but we can’t stay here forever.”
Levi looked up from the journal, his eyes burning from studying Dr. Faine’s cramped handwriting by the single bare bulb. They made real progress—identifying several key areas where the structure’s automated systems converged, potential weak points in the containment design.
But we still don’t have an exit strategy. The journal showed how to navigate some of the shifting architecture, but nothing about getting out.
“She’s right,” Jasper said, rolling his shoulders to work out the kinks. “We need to move while we still have some energy.”
“Where to?” Levi asked, closing the journal and tucking it back into his jacket.
“The atrium,” Maddie suggested. “It’s the most central location, and if Tyler or Owen are still alive, that’s where they’d probably head.”
If they’re still alive.
“The main structural support runs through there, too,” Jasper added, studying their crude map on the floor. “If we want to understand how this place really works, that’s where we’ll find answers.”
Asher had been silent during their planning, standing behind Levi and Jasper as they worked. Now he spoke up, his voice carefully neutral. “Splitting up didn’t work well for the others.”
“We’re not splitting up,” Maddie said firmly. “We stick together, no matter what.”
They gathered their supplies and prepared to leave their small sanctuary.
Levi pulled out Dr. Faine’s journal one more time, flipping to a blank page and quickly sketching the location of the safe room—third floor, east wing, behind the false wall near the old maintenance shaft.
He added notes about the separate electrical system and the hidden door mechanism.
In case I need to find this place again.
He felt a pang of regret as Jasper sealed the hidden door behind them—this might be the last safe space they’d find.
The passages outside felt different than before. The flickering lights seemed dimmer, and the automated sounds in the walls had taken on a more urgent rhythm. The sanitarium knew they were moving again.
It’s been waiting for us, Levi thought with growing unease. Letting us rest so we’d have more energy to run.
They made their way through the maze of passageways, using Dr. Faine’s notes to navigate the shifting architecture. Twice, they had to backtrack when passages rearranged themselves, but gradually they worked their way toward the center.
They were maybe fifty feet from what should have been the atrium entrance when they heard it.
“Help! Somebody help me!” Owen’s voice echoed from somewhere ahead. Desperate, terrified, but definitely alive.
“Owen!” Jasper shouted back.
“We have to help him!” Maddie grabbed Jasper’s arm.
Without waiting for discussion, both of them took off running toward Owen’s voice.
“Wait!” Levi started after them, but Asher’s hand clamped down on his wrist like a vice.
“Let them go. It’s obviously a trap.”
“Owen!” Jasper’s voice was getting farther away as he and Maddie disappeared around a corner.
Levi tried to pull free of Asher’s grip. “We have to follow them. If Owen’s alive—”
“Owen’s probably dead,” Asher snapped. “And now they will be too.”
But I might need them. The NPCs weren’t just people to protect—they might be essential to solving this nightmare. What if the structure required multiple people to operate certain systems? What if escape was only possible with a full team?
“Help! Please, I can’t—” Owen’s voice cut off.
“We’re going after him,” Levi insisted.
“No, we’re not.”
Levi took a breath, knowing he was about to cross a line he couldn’t uncross. But if he was right about needing the NPCs, he had to try something desperate.
“If you ever want to touch me again, and you want me to touch you back,” he began, “we’ll follow them and help.”
Asher went very still. The predatory focus that was never far from the surface sharpened to laser intensity. “What did you say?”
“You heard me.” Levi felt sick, but he forced his voice to stay steady. “You want cooperation instead of just taking what you want? This is what it costs.”
For a moment, Asher just stared at him. Then that slow, satisfied smile spread across his features.
“Deal,” he said immediately, releasing Levi’s wrist. “Let’s go save your friends.”
Oh God, what have I done?
There was no time to regret the offer.
“This way,” Levi said, following the direction they ran. “I can hear—”
He stopped as they rounded the corner.
Jasper was maybe twenty feet ahead, frozen in place in the middle of the passage. Maddie stood a few feet behind him, her hand over her mouth in horror. Jasper wasn’t alone.
The thing holding him was an amalgamation of flesh and metal, a monstrosity with multiple arms jutting from its torso at impossible angles, each one ending in claws that had been sharpened to razor points.
Its face was a patchwork of different skin tones, held together with crude stitching that wept constant fluid.
Where its eyes should have been, clockwork lenses whirred and focused with clicking sounds.
One of its clawed hands was buried deep in Jasper’s throat, fingers wrapped around his windpipe.
“Help... me...” Jasper gasped, blood frothing from his mouth.
The horror’s clockwork eyes swiveled toward them, then it flexed its claws.
Jasper’s windpipe tore free in a spray of arterial blood. His eyes went wide with shock, then empty, as his body went limp in the monstrosity’s grasp.
“No!” Maddie screamed, but Asher was already pulling them backward.
They turned and sprinted back the way they came, Maddie sobbing as she ran. The passage behind them was no longer empty. The crawling creatures from before were hauling themselves across the ground, their breathing apparatuses wheezing and clicking in horrible harmony.
“This way!” Levi pointed to a side passage that hadn’t been there before.
They ran down the new path, strobing lights overhead like a broken heartbeat. Behind them, the sound of pursuit was getting closer—the wet slapping of the crawlers, and something heavier moving with them.
The passage ahead split into three directions. Without time to consult the journal, Levi chose the middle path and—
The floor gave way beneath their feet.
A trap, Levi thought with crystal clarity as he fell. We ran right into a—