75. Clay
Clay
“HANNAH!”
My voice tears through the reactor chamber.
Pointless.
The alarms drown everything now.
The entire bunker is coming apart around us.
Concrete crashes from the ceiling.
Steam floods the corridors.
The core pulses brighter beneath the reactor shields like a dying star.
And Hannah is down there alone.
Russ grabs my shoulder hard.
“Clay.”
I shove him off instantly.
“I’m going after her.”
“You won’t make it back up.”
Don’t care.
I move toward the reactor ladder anyway.
Gabriel physically blocks me.
“If you go down there now, both of you die.”
Rage explodes through me so fast I almost hit him.
Almost.
But then—
through the steam below—
I hear Hannah’s voice crackle over the comm.
“Gabriel, I found the override wheel.”
Thank God.
Gabriel immediately grabs the terminal mic.
“Okay listen carefully.”
“You have to manually vent coolant pressure first.”
Below us, reactor light flashes violently through the chamber.
The heat alone rising from the lower level feels inhuman.
How the hell is she still standing down there?
Hannah’s breathing sounds rough over comms now.
“There’s radiation leakage everywhere.”
Wu laughs weakly from the floor beside Russ.
“She won’t survive long enough anyway.”
Russ calmly points his rifle at Wu’s head.
“Keep talking.”
Wu smiles blood through his teeth.
“You think she’s saving children.”
“A new facility will replace this one before sunrise.”
I step toward him slowly.
Every instinct in me screaming violence.
“Where?”
Wu just smiles wider.
No answer.
Fine.
We’ll get it from the files later.
Because he’s not leaving this bunker alive.
Gabriel’s voice sharpens into the comm again.
“Hannah, rotate the override wheel clockwise until pressure drops below critical.”
Metal groans violently from below.
Then Hannah gasps through clenched teeth.
“It’s stuck.”
No.
Gabriel types frantically at the console.
“The system warped from heat damage.”
Russ looks down toward the lower chamber.
“How much time?”
Gabriel checks the countdown.
00:01:09
My blood turns to ice.
Not enough.
Not enough time for anything.
“Hannah,” Gabriel says carefully, “you may need to force it manually.”
A terrible silence follows.
Because we all understand what that means.
The wheel’s jammed.
And the pressure behind it is catastrophic.
Below us—
I hear Hannah brace herself.
Metal SCREAMS through the comm.
She’s trying to force the wheel open.
The reactor chamber shakes violently again.
Then suddenly—
Hannah cries out in pain.
My heart stops.
“HANNAH!”
Steam erupts upward from the lower chamber vents.
Gabriel pales instantly.
“She got hit with vent pressure.”
Wu smiles again from the floor.
I’m going to kill him.
Not maybe.
Not later.
Now.
I grab him by the collar and drag him upward hard enough blood sprays from his wounded legs.
“Tell me how to stop it!”
Wu studies me calmly despite the pain.
“You can’t.”
I slam him into the reactor railing.
Hard.
“You don’t get to decide that anymore!”
For the first time—
Wu finally loses his composure completely.
“Humanity needs control!”
He screams it.
Actually screams.
Years of obsession breaking apart right in front of us.
“Without order people destroy each other!”
Russ watches him coldly.
“No.”
A pause.
“People like you do.”
Below us—
metal suddenly CLANKS violently through the chamber.
Gabriel spins toward the monitor.
“The coolant wheel moved!”
Hope slams into me so hard it physically hurts.
Pressure levels begin dropping slowly across the reactor screens.
Not enough yet.
But moving.
“Hannah keep going!” Gabriel shouts.
The response comes weak through the comm.
“I’m trying…”
God.
She sounds exhausted.
The countdown flashes:
00:00:42
The bunker starts collapsing faster now.
Huge chunks of ceiling crash into the reactor chamber.
Emergency lights burst overhead.
Steam and smoke fill the air.
Wu suddenly starts laughing again.
Broken.
Unstable.
“You’re all going to die here.”
Maybe.
But not those kids.
Never those kids.
Gabriel suddenly shouts:
“Pressure stabilizing!”
“Almost there!”
Then—
the lower chamber alarms abruptly change tone.
Sharp.
Urgent.
Different.
Gabriel freezes.
“Oh no.”
“What?” I snap.
His face drains completely white.
“The lower chamber is sealing.”
No.
NO.
The reactor containment doors begin closing around the lower core chamber beneath us.
Automatic lockdown.
Once sealed—
nothing gets back out.
“Hannah RUN!” I roar into the comm.
Below us—
through steam and reactor light—
I finally see her climbing toward the ladder.
Fast as she can.
But the containment doors are closing faster.