Chapter 22: The Thirteen

"Rask, hey now" Gio said, his voice steady despite the blinding headache throbbing behind his eyes. He kept his hands visible, palms open, stepping slowly toward the mutineers. "Put the weapon down. We’ve been through too much to start killing each other."

"Shut up, kid," Rask snarled, his bone-spikes trembling with adrenaline. "You don’t know what it’s like. You’re not a prisoner. You’re not a slave to the city. You don’t get to tell me to stand down while Darwin marches us into a grave."

"He’s not marching you anywhere if you walk away now," Gio tried again, glancing at the three prisoners flanking Rask. Their hands were shaking. They were terrified, but fear made people unpredictable. "Just take the supplies. Go back. But don’t shoot anyone."

For a second, Rask hesitated. His eyes flickered toward the shattered pods, toward the exit, toward the dark tunnel beyond.

Then, one of the civilians in the back, a young man who had been quietly vomiting from fear made a sound. A soft, choked sob.

Rask spun toward the noise. "Shut up! Shut the hell up!"

The civilian flinched, raising his hands. "I’m sorry, I—"

Rask fired.

The plasma bolt tore through the sterile air and struck the young man in the chest.

There was no scream. Just a wet, abrupt silence as the civilian collapsed backward, his tactical suit smoking. Blood pooled across the pristine white tiles, stark and horrifying against the clean floor.

A collective gasp ripped through the room. Melody’s hands flew to her mouth. Lloyd’s eyes widened in pure horror.

Rask stared at the body, his chest heaving, his weapon still raised. The silence that followed was suffocating.

Darwin moved.

He didn’t raise his plasma rifle. He didn’t bark an order. He simply walked forward, stepping past the stunned soldiers, and stopped in the middle of the room. His bionic arm hung loose at his side. His left eye, the one with the mechanical pupil, tracked the blood pooling on the floor before slowly rising to meet Rask’s gaze.

"You may go," Darwin said. His voice was completely devoid of anger. It was flat. Clinical.

Rask blinked, his weapon lowering slightly. "What?"

"You heard me," Darwin said. "Take your weapons. Take whatever supplies you can carry. You are dismissed."

The mutineers exchanged confused, suspicious glances. Rask’s jaw tightened. "This is a trick."

"It is not," Darwin replied. "You are no longer under my command. Leave."

For a long moment, no one moved. Then, slowly, one of the civilian recruits, a woman with hollow, exhausted eyes stepped out from the huddled group. She looked at the dead man on the floor, then at Darwin, and finally at Rask.

"I’m going with them," she whispered.

Another civilian stepped forward. Then another.

Nine civilians in total moved toward the exit. Beside them, three more prisoners who had been too afraid to openly mutiny finally gathered their nerve and slipped away from the main group, joining Rask’s side.

Thirteen people.

They grabbed what they could carry and walked toward the vault’s entrance. Rask cast one last, venomous look at Gio before disappearing into the dark corridor.

Gio stood frozen. His mind raced. They were walking straight back into the tunnels. Straight back toward the E-Rank serpent.

"Commander," Gio said, his voice tight. "Why did you let them leave?"

Darwin didn’t answer. He turned on his heel and walked toward the wall beside the vault’s entrance. He raised his bionic hand and pressed his metallic palm against a recessed panel.

CLANG.

The massive circular blast door slid shut with a deafening, hydraulic thud. The heavy locks engaged, sealing them inside.

Panic erupted instantly.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Blaze roared, his hands igniting with fire. "You just locked us in!"

"Open it! Open it right now!" Melody shouted, her claws extending.

"Quiet," Darwin ordered.

The word wasn’t loud, but it carried the weight of an executioner’s axe. The squad fell silent.

Darwin stepped away from the door. "Breathe. All of you. If I wanted you dead, I would have simply let the serpent eat all of you."

He walked to the far end of the laboratory, stopping before a section of the wall that looked completely identical to the rest. He pressed his bionic fingers against the seamless metal.

"Authorization: Alpha-Actual. Code: Velithari-Seven."

The wall hummed. A hidden console illuminated, casting a soft green glow across the floor. The metal panels slid apart, revealing a descending staircase that plunged deep into the earth.

A cool, stale breeze drifted up from the passage.

"There is your exit," Darwin said, turning to face the squad. "The vault was never the destination. It was merely the gateway. Move."

A wave of relief washed over the recruits, but it was quickly overshadowed by a cold, sinking dread.

Gio stared at the open passage, then looked back at the sealed blast door.

Thirteen people were out there.

They had walked back into the dark, armed with stolen plasma weapons and blind, desperate hope. And Darwin had simply let them go.

"Commander," Gio said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper. "The serpent. It’s behind the bulkhead. If it breaks through..."

"Then the thirteen will be dead," Darwin interrupted, his tone completely flat. "Or they will fight. Or they will run. It no longer concerns us. Our mission continues forward."

He didn’t look at Gio. He didn’t look at the dead civilian on the floor. He simply turned and walked toward the descending staircase.

The squad followed in silence.

Melody walked beside Gio, her tail wrapped tightly around her waist, her ears flattened against her skull. "He knew," she whispered. "Gio, He knows they are walking into a death trap, and he just... let them."

"I know," Gio muttered.

Lloyd was ahead of them, his hands clenched into fists. "He didn’t even try to stop them. He just... dismissed them. Like they were trash."

Gio didn’t respond. His mind was working through the pieces, fitting them together into a picture he didn’t want to see.

Darwin had known about the vault. He had known about the bioengineered guard dogs. He had known about the secret passage leading deeper into the earth.

Yet he just let it all happen.

He had let thirteen people walk into a monster’s jaws because they were no longer useful to him.

What is this mission really for? Gio thought, his chest tightening. What are we walking toward?

They ask ended the staircase, the darkness swallowing them one step at a time. The air grew colder, heavier, carrying a faint, metallic scent that reminded Gio of blood.

Behind them, the vault was sealed. The mutineers were gone.

And ahead of them, Commander Darwin’s bionic arm caught the faint green glow of the passage lights, his mechanical pupil scanning the darkness with cold, unwavering focus.

Gio followed him, but his hand never left the grip of his plasma handgun.

For the first time since the expedition began, he wasn’t sure if the monsters in the wasteland were the only things he needed to fear.

Some of them walked on two legs.

And they wore the uniform of the city.