The laboratory trembled as Daniel’s monstrous body rose above the floor. Black tendrils stretched from his back, piercing the ceiling and spreading through the facility.
Ryan struggled to stand.
“Father! Tell us where the central symbols are!”
Father pointed toward two golden circles beneath the control panel.
“Those are the heart controls. Ryan, you must touch the first symbol. Adam must touch the second. But once the system activates, one of you will have to give up everything.”
Adam pushed himself away from the wall. Golden blood dripped from his forehead.
“Everything? What does that mean?”
Father looked down.
“It means the system will drain one subject’s life energy to seal the heart. The other will control the organism from inside the containment network.”
Ryan stared at Adam.
“Then I’ll make the sacrifice.”
“No!” Adam shouted. “You always get to decide everything. I won’t let you choose my fate again.”
Before Ryan could answer, Daniel screamed.
A shockwave swept through the chamber. Hamza was thrown against a broken console, while Zara barely managed to grab a metal railing.
“Ryan! Hurry!” she shouted.
Daniel turned his black eyes toward them.
“Do you really think you can lock me away again?”
His chest opened like a giant mouth. Inside it, a glowing red heart pulsed beneath layers of black flesh.
Meher’s voice crackled through the radio.
“Ryan, listen carefully! The central heart is connected to every infected person in Karachi. If Daniel reaches the seventh lock, the entire city will become part of him!”
Ryan looked at the two symbols.
“Then we activate the system now!”
He placed his hand on the first circle.
Golden light exploded beneath his palm.
Adam approached the second circle, but suddenly stopped. Dark veins crawled up his arm, and a strange voice whispered inside his mind.
“Do not trust him. Your brother will sacrifice you.”
Adam looked at Ryan.
For a moment, the old hatred returned to his eyes.
Daniel smiled.
“He knows the truth, Ryan. Father created you to control the heart. Adam was created to die for you.”
Father shouted, “Don’t listen to him!”
Adam’s hand trembled above the symbol.
Ryan extended his free hand.
“Adam, we may have been created for different purposes, but we are brothers. This time, we choose our own future.”
Adam slowly placed his palm on the second circle.
The entire facility erupted in golden light.
A massive mechanical sound echoed beneath the floor. Seven symbols appeared around the chamber, and six began glowing.
The seventh remained black.
Then a terrible scream came from Daniel.
His tendrils pulled away from the walls, revealing hundreds of human faces trapped inside his body.
One of them looked exactly like Ryan’s mother.
“Ryan...” she whispered. “Don’t close the door. I’m still alive.”
Ryan froze.
Father’s expression changed.
“That’s impossible...”
The seventh symbol suddenly began turning.
And from beneath the laboratory, another voice spoke.
“THE FIRST SACRIFICE HAS ALREADY BEEN CHOSEN.”
Ryan looked at Adam.
Adam’s eyes had turned completely black.