Free Web NovelChapter 220: Chapter 220 - The Laboratory
A few of them gasped as the door opened.
Inside was a lab.
White floors stretched ahead, clean and polished, with overhead lights running in straight lines across the ceiling. Glass rooms stood on both sides, full walls from floor to ceiling.
No one in sight.
Iyisha slowed as they stepped in, her boots echoing against the floor as the smell reached her, sharp and sterile.
Sounds carried through the space.
Faint and uneven.
Cries.
Moans.
Iyisha turned her head, trying to place it as her eyes moved from one glass room to another.
She stepped closer to one and tapped the glass. It didn’t move.
Inside, the bed was empty, straps hanging loose at the sides, with trays of tools and medical equipment left arranged nearby.
Iyisha pulled her hand back and looked ahead.
The hallway stretched further in and turned out of sight.
They moved forward, slower now, following the sound.
"Anthony—" a woman beside her called as she ran to a glass room and slammed her hands against it.
A man inside turned at once and rushed forward, naked, hitting the glass as soon as he saw her.
"They’re here!" someone shouted.
Others saw it and moved at once, lowering their guns as they spread out and checked each room.
"Wait," Arnulf said.
No one stopped. Everyone frenzied by the confirmation.
Iyisha stood for a second, her chest tight as she watched them scatter. They’re here. Cena is here.
Inside one room, a man rushed to the glass. "Karen!" he shouted, his voice muffled as the woman fumbled with the panel.
Iyisha’s chest tightened as the thought hit her. Cena is here, somewhere in this place.
Iyisha looked at Malcolm. "Let’s split. Find the medicine. I’ll take Marybeth and look for Cena."
"How about me?" Aljun asked.
"Find 1359," she said, then paused. She knew how hard that would be in a place this large where the medicine could be anywhere, but she also knew how these labs were organized and how drugs were shelved.
She knew she could find it faster.
But she couldn’t stay.
Her hand stayed at her side.
Malcolm stepped closer and took it. "We’ll find it," he said. "Go find her."
She held his hand for a second, then nodded.
She turned and ran with Marybeth, moving deeper into the lab as rows of glass rooms passed beside them, empty beds and equipment left in place as they searched.
"Wait," Marybeth said, grabbing her arm. "What does she look like?"
Iyisha slowed. "She looks like—"
She stopped.
One room ahead stood out from the rest, larger and set slightly back. Its glass was thicker, framed in reinforced steel.
A man was strapped to the bed.
Iyisha slowed.
He was too big for it, bigger than anything she had ever seen. His muscles pushed against his skin, thick and heavy, stretching the restraints as his body strained against them.
The frame had been extended, metal plates joined to hold his body in place.
Straps locked his arms and legs down, wide and tight across his skin. They held, but just barely.
Machines surrounded him on all sides. Panels lit up as his body moved, readings jumping with every pull against the restraints.
He thrashed.
The whole bed shifted with him.
Iyisha stepped closer. Dark veins ran along his skin as he strained against the restraints.
"What the hell is that?" Marybeth said.
She remembered the files in Manhattan, the notes she didn’t understand then.
"So this is what they’re fucking doing," Marybeth said, her hand hitting the glass. "Instead of finding a fucking cure." ƒгeewebnovёl.com
The man jerked again, the restraints rattling against the frame.
Iyisha pulled back. "Come on."
She grabbed Marybeth and moved, pushing deeper into the lab.
Rooms lined both sides, full glass walls showing everything inside. Some were empty, beds stripped and ready, straps hanging loose. Others held bodies locked down, some still, some moving, some making low sounds that didn’t stop.
Iyisha moved past them, fast. Her eyes jumped from one room to the next, scanning faces, scanning bodies, checking again before she moved on.
Not her.
She didn’t slow.
Another room. Another body. Arms straining, chest heaving.
Not her.
Iyisha stepped closer to the next one, too close, pressing near the glass just to see the face. She pulled back hard.
Not her.
She moved faster.
"Cena," she called, louder now.
Her voice echoed down the hall.
She turned to the next room, then the next, her head snapping from side to side as she checked both ends, not trusting one look, not trusting anything.
Not here.
Her breathing broke, coming faster as she moved, her steps uneven as she pushed forward, missing nothing, checking everything.
"Cena!"
She ran now, stopping only to look inside, then moving again, faster each time, her chest tight as the rooms kept coming.
"It’s not opening!" a TAL member shouted.
Iyisha stopped.
She turned back.
People crowded the doors, hands hitting panels, fingers pressing anything that would respond. Others slammed against the glass, trying to force it, trying to break it.
Nothing moved.
"Open it!" someone shouted.
"Try the panel again!"
"I am— it’s not working!"
Voices rose over each other.
Shots of panic.
Marybeth reached her side and looked. "Shit."
Iyisha bit her lip, her eyes locked on the doors as more hands pushed in, more people trying, some hitting the glass harder now, harder than before.
"Back up!" someone yelled.
No one listened.
A man struck the glass with the butt of his gun. It didn’t crack.
Another tried the handle again. It didn’t move.
The noise built around them.
Shouts.
Commands.
Fear slipping through.
Iyisha stood there, her chest tight as she watched them try, over and over, and get nothing back.
Iyisha turned away from the noise. "Come on," she muttered to Marybeth, already moving.
She went back to the rooms.
Faster now.
She checked one, then the next, her hands hitting the glass as she leaned in to see, her eyes searching faces, searching bodies.
Not her.
Her breathing broke.
"Cena," she called, her voice shaking now.
Nothing.
She wiped at her face with the back of her hand and moved again, her steps uneven as she reached the last stretch, the rooms thinning out as the hall curved ahead.
"Cena!"
Marybeth stayed close, checking the opposite side, moving just as fast, trying to keep up with her.
Iyisha stopped at another room, pressing close, her breath fogging the glass as she searched.
Not her.
She stepped back.
Her shoulders shook.
Then she froze.
At the curve ahead, guards came into view, moving in formation, guns raised, boots steady as they advanced toward them.
"God," Marybeth said, lifting her gun.
Iyisha didn’t move at first.
She looked at the last few rooms ahead.
Cena could be there.
Just a few more.
Her hand tightened around her gun.
Then shouts came from behind.
More guards.
Moving in from the other side.
"We’re surrounded," Marybeth said.
Iyisha stood there, caught between the rooms ahead and the guns closing in, her chest tight as her grip trembled, her eyes fixed forward as if she could still reach her.
