Ryan grabbed Adam’s shoulders.
“Adam! Look at me! Fight it!”
Adam’s black eyes stared through him. Dark veins spread across his face, and his fingers tightened around Ryan’s wrist.
A deep voice emerged from his mouth.
“THE PRISON IS OPENING.”
Ryan felt the golden energy inside his chest weakening.
Father rushed toward the control panel. “The organism is controlling Adam through the second symbol! Ryan, you must break the connection!”
“How?”
“Your golden energy can separate him from the heart, but it will expose you to Daniel!”
Daniel laughed from across the chamber.
“Your father always finds another child to sacrifice.”
His enormous tendrils slammed into the floor. The shockwave threw Father away from the controls.
Zara rushed to help him.
“Captain! Protect the panel!”
Hamza, bleeding from his forehead, raised his rifle and fired at the approaching infected. “I’m running out of ammunition!”
“Then keep them away with whatever you’ve got!” Zara shouted.
Ryan turned back to Adam.
“We can still stop this together.”
Adam suddenly raised his hand. A black blade formed from his palm and moved toward Ryan’s chest.
Ryan didn’t move.
“Adam, I won’t fight you.”
The blade stopped inches from his heart.
For a moment, Adam’s expression changed. His eyes flickered between black and gold.
“Ryan...” he whispered. “Run...”
Then Daniel screamed.
A black tendril shot from his chest and wrapped around Adam’s neck. Adam was dragged toward him, tearing his hand away from the second symbol.
The golden circles went dark.
“NO!” Father shouted. “If the connection breaks, the containment system will collapse!”
Ryan released a burst of golden energy. The tendril burned away, and Adam crashed onto the floor.
Ryan knelt beside him.
“Stay with me, brother.”
Adam struggled to breathe.
“Don’t let... him... use my body.”
Meher’s voice crackled through the radio.
“Ryan! There’s another way! The system can work without sacrificing either subject, but someone must enter the heart chamber and manually reverse its energy flow!”
Father looked horrified.
“That chamber is inside the organism. Nobody who enters can come back unchanged.”
Ryan slowly stood.
“Then I’ll go.”
Zara grabbed his arm.
“You can’t do this alone!”
Ryan looked at her. “Keep Adam alive. Whatever happens, don’t let Daniel reach the seventh lock.”
Daniel’s body began splitting apart. Beneath his black skin, hundreds of golden eyes opened.
The red heart in his chest started beating faster.
Then the laboratory walls displayed a message:
SEVENTH LOCK ACTIVATION: 90%
Ryan turned toward the monstrous creature.
But before he could move, Adam caught his hand.
His eyes were golden again.
“Brother,” Adam whispered, “there is something you don’t know about our father.”
Ryan froze.
Adam looked toward Father.
“He didn’t create us to save humanity. He created us to give the organism a family.”
The red heart stopped beating.
Then it opened.