Chapter 36 #2
Alex shook violently on the table, body arched, restrained, soaked in sweat. His eyes fluttered open in broken pulses of consciousness, but they didn’t see. They twitched. Rolled. Like something inside was trying to find a way out.
Dr. Vance clutched the edge of the tray, eyes locked on the monitor as his vitals surged further into the red. She was halfway to the drawer to administer a second stabilizing dose of amiodarone when Monroe’s voice rang out behind her.
“Step back.”
Sybil turned. “Don’t do this. He won’t survive another injection.”
Monroe was already striding close, flanked by Maddox and two techs. She didn’t look at Sybil. She looked only at Alex like a surgeon eyeing a specimen on a table, not a man.
“He’ll either survive,” Monroe said calmly, “or he’ll teach us what failure looks like.” “Maddox,” she added without turning, “restrain Dr. Vance.”
Before Sybil could move, Maddox was behind her. His arm locked around hers, wrenching them behind her back. He wasn’t rough, but he wasn’t gentle either. It was mechanical. Protocol. Obedient.
“Don’t do this,” Sybil growled, struggling. “Monroe, don’t do this to him!”
But Monroe was already preparing the syringe. The vial shimmered with that same neon yellow fluid—X-23-R.
She gestured, and the techs moved, nervous but compliant. They positioned Alex on his side, forced his spine into alignment, and one of them whispered, “I’m sorry,” under his breath.
Monroe aimed the needle in with a clinical snap, watching as Alex’s back seized beneath her hands. The monitor screamed, heart rate spiking. Oxygen levels crashing. His body convulsed like it was trying to escape its own skin. A ragged sound tore from his throat—raw, wet, almost inhuman.
Sybil shouted over it all, “You’ll kill him!”
Monroe didn’t flinch. She withdrew the needle slowly, shucking off her gloves.
“If he dies, don’t destroy the body,” she said, turning toward Maddox.
“I want a full postmortem—neural structure, organ degradation, spinal mapping.” Then, to Maddox again, she said flatly, “Watch her. Don’t let her help anyone above minimum care. ”
She started walking away.
“I swear to you—if he dies in here, if one more neural synapse fails, I will drag this entire program into the light. You think no one’s watching, but you’re wrong,” Sybil screamed.
Monroe ignored her. “Oh, and Elias,” she called over her shoulder. “When he returns, send him straight to me. I want to debrief him myself.” She retired to her private quarters, seemingly satisfied with the day's cruelty.
The silence that followed was dense and uneasy. Sybil sat near Alex on a wall-mounted stool, doing what little she was allowed—oxygen monitoring, fluid drips, nothing proactive. Not enough to save him.
Alex’s breathing was ragged now, shallow, too slow. His overheated body convulsed. Then, the door opened. Elias Ward stepped inside like a shadow slipping through a crack in a wall. Clean clothes. Calm face. An expression Sybil couldn’t read, except in the eyes—they burned.
Maddox stiffened. “Elias.”
“I was summoned,” Elias said, voice perfectly neutral. “Apologies. I was conducting off-site observations. Unapproved, I admit. But nothing of consequence. I’m back.”
Maddox nodded slowly. “Monroe wants to see you right away.”
Elias gave a small nod. “Of course. I’ll leave in a bit.”
Maddox didn’t press. They sat in silence for another ten minutes before Maddox yawned and stood, watching Sybil. “I’m tired. I can handcuff you to the wall or your bed. Your choice.”
Elias had remained leaning against the wall, arms crossed, silent. Then, smoothly, without a word, he stepped forward and jabbed a needle into Maddox’s neck with fluid precision. The man’s eyes widened just for a second before his knees buckled and he crumpled unconscious to the floor.
Sybil gasped.
Elias moved to her, pulled a keycard from Maddox’s belt, and unlocked Alex’s restraints. “We need to move. Now.”
Sybil stared at him, still frozen. “You came for him.”
Elias nodded once. “He doesn’t deserve what’s happening. And you don’t deserve to die here trying to stop it.”
She hesitated, her eyes flicking to the doors. “What about the other subjects?”
Elias’s face darkened. “I will come back,” he vowed, “and when I do, this place will crumble. But right now, if we don’t get him out of here, there won’t be anything left to save.”
She looked at Alex, pale and shaking, barely hanging on. She nodded.
“Gather whatever meds you need. No more than five minutes,” he said.
“I have programmed a loop override. They will believe he is still in that bed. I’ve dispatched the guards to Med Bay 24 for a belligerent subject.
When they go inside, the airlock will seal.
It will take hours before they can get out. Their comms will be dead.”
Sybil stared at Elias before she grabbed vials, injectables, supplies.
Her hands shook, but her focus was razor-sharp.
She scrawled instructions on how to use the meds on a piece of paper, including it inside the package.
“Your father raised you to be a very smart and good man. You fooled them all, but I always believed you were smart.”
As Sybil worked, she watched Elias disconnect the monitors, cap Alex’s IV and remove the catheter collecting urine.
Carefully, he wrapped Alex’s naked body in a warm wool blanket.
Then he lifted Alex effortlessly, holding him close, and removed the oxygen, supporting his head like something fragile against his chest.
When she finished gathering supplies, Elias was waiting at the door, Alex in his arms. “Let’s go,” he said.
They disappeared into the dark halls of the facility unseen. But not for long. “Dr. Vance, I promised my father. Next time I return, I will be saving those left. And I’ll end it.”
The corridors of the facility were deathly quiet, the hum of fluorescent lights overhead the only sound accompanying Elias as he moved with Alex.
Alex was unconscious, shivering, fevered, his breathing shallow and uneven.
His weight wasn’t an issue for Elias, but occasionally he convulsed.
What mattered now was time. Every second counted.
Dr. Vance trailed behind, clutching a small black med case packed with the only vials she could get her hands on—stabilizers, anti-seizure doses, neural decompressors. Not enough to save him, but maybe enough to hold him together.
At the edge of the facility near the service exit, Elias paused. Sybil could see his every sense was on high alert, reading the rhythm of the facility—the shift schedules, the camera rotations, the proximity of guards.
“Take this.” Sybil thrust the med case beneath one of his hands. “It’s not everything he needs, but it’s what I could get.”
He nodded once, accepting it, and carefully adjusted Alex in his arms.
Sybil looked at him, her face taut with conflict. “He needs a hospital.”
Elias glanced at her, saying nothing.
“Your mother told me about the woman your father trusted. You’re taking him to her,” she said, softer. “To Charlotte Everhart. Your father trusted her. I think he cared for her.”
Elias’s silence confirmed it.
Sybil stepped closer. “Good. He needs a mental anchor. Someone who’ll fight for him when he can’t. You can’t give him that. But she might.”
She turned, unlocking the final door. The cool night air drifted in, thick with the smell of pine and earth. Freedom waited just beyond the trees. “Go. Now,” she urged.
Elias hesitated. “You need to come with me. They’ll hurt you.”
Sybil shook her head. “No. I’m not leaving the others. Monroe will kill them the second she suspects a breach.”
“She already suspects.”
“Then let me buy you some time.” She pulled a small autoinjector from her coat and pressed it to her own neck.
“What are you…?” Elias stared through wide eyes.
“She’ll assume I fought back but was overpowered. You forced me to open doors for you. It keeps me close to the other subjects and off her radar, at least for a little while. She’ll know you’ve skirted the cameras and other security.”
Elias watched her for a long second. “You’ll wake up to chaos. She’ll be furious I took her prize project.”
She gave a small, humorless smile. “I’ve been in chaos since your father left this place.” Her fingers hovered over the trigger. “Go. Get him out. Give her back the man she loves.”
She looked down at Alex’s face—pale, drenched in sweat, lips parted as he struggled for breath. Her voice broke just slightly. “And tell her… I tried.”
Elias nodded once.
Then she pressed the injector. Her knees buckled. Elias leaned his hip against her as she sank, gently slowing her descent to the floor. Already, her eyes were fluttering closed.
She whispered, “Save who you can…”
Elias stood to his full height, adjusted the med pack, and moved into the night with Alex held close.
Then darkness took her.