Chapter 2805: Story 2806: The Firstborn's Secret

“BRING ME MY FIRSTBORN.”

The command rolled through the underground tunnel, shaking dust from the ceiling. Ryan Malik staggered backward as the golden lights beneath the hatch flashed violently. For one terrible moment, he felt something inside his chest answer the voice.

Zara noticed his expression. “Ryan, what’s happening to you?”

“I don’t know.”

The radio crackled. Captain Hamza’s voice returned, desperate and distorted. “Ryan, listen to me. You must leave that building immediately. The facility’s lower chambers are activating.”

“What is a firstborn?” Ryan demanded. “Why is something beneath Karachi calling me that?”

Hamza hesitated.

“Captain!” Ryan shouted.

“Your father had a son before you were officially born.”

Ryan stared at the radio. “That’s impossible. I’m an only child.”

“According to your birth certificate,” Hamza replied. “But the original project records list two children.”

A gunshot echoed from the staircase. Zara turned toward the doorway as a zombie stumbled into view. Its face was covered in fresh blood, yet it did not attack. Instead, it lowered its head toward Ryan.

“Firstborn,” it rasped.

Then it drove its own fingers into its throat and collapsed.

Zara backed away. “We need to move. Now.”

Ryan looked at the open hatch. The warning scratched into the concrete seemed to burn beneath the golden light.

DO NOT TRUST THE MAN WHO CALLS YOU SON.

“If that thing knows my childhood memories, it might know the truth,” Ryan said.

“And if it wants you down there, maybe that’s exactly why you shouldn’t go.”

A metallic crash interrupted them. The staircase railing bent inward as something heavy climbed toward the second floor. The zombies had begun following again, their footsteps forming a steady, synchronized rhythm.

Ryan grabbed a flashlight and descended the ladder.

Zara cursed under her breath, then followed him.

The tunnel smelled of chemicals and rotting flesh. Thick cables ran along the walls, pulsing with golden light. At the bottom, they discovered a steel door bearing the same seven-lined symbol. A digital screen flickered awake as Ryan approached.

IDENTITY CONFIRMED: RYAN MALIK.

GENETIC MATCH: FIRSTBORN.

The door unlocked.

Beyond it stretched a vast laboratory filled with shattered glass chambers. Most were empty. One contained a human skeleton wrapped in torn medical restraints.

Ryan approached the nearest console. A recording began automatically.

His father appeared on the screen, younger but unmistakable.

“If Ryan is watching this, the containment system has failed. They will tell you that Subject Zero is a monster. They will tell you Titan One was created to control it.”

His father leaned closer to the camera.

“Both are lies. Subject Zero is not the prisoner.”

The recording glitched. Behind his father, a second figure moved inside a sealed chamber.

Ryan stopped breathing.

The figure had his face.

His exact face.

The screen flashed red.

SECOND SUBJECT: AWAKE.

A glass chamber shattered behind them.

Zara raised her rifle as bare feet touched the laboratory floor.

A second Ryan stepped into the golden light and smiled.

“Brother,” he whispered. “You finally came home.”