Chương 66: 65: Amalgation VI

The boy slowly raised both bound hands as far as the chain allowed.

"Easy, easy. We're not enemies." The girl nodded toward Amalgation.

"Actually... thanks?" She grimaced at the corpse.

"That thing was a real creep. You killed it?" Neither of them could quite hide the tremor in their voices. Their eyes kept drifting to the blood coating Katherine, the ruined corridor and the corpse she'd left behind. They were trying very hard to stay calm. Katherine tightened her grip on Harmony. She forced herself to breathe. They weren't attacking. They weren't the people who had taken Butter from her. Butter wouldn't have wanted her killing innocent people.

"Answer the question." The two exchanged a glance.

"We're Steppers," the boy said.

"In training," the girl corrected. Katherine frowned.

"Steppers train?" Both blinked.

"Yeah?" the girl said.

"You thought we just... spawned?" Katherine hesitated.

"Kind of." The silence that followed was almost comical.

"Wow," the boy muttered.

"No," the girl agreed.

"That's actually kind of adorable." Her eyes narrowed at Katherine.

"Your fighting style is really weird." The boy nodded.

"Seriously. It's completely unprofessional."

"You spit in my eyes," the girl said flatly.

"You kicked me in the groin," the boy added.

"Then you elbowed his knee," the girl continued. The boy rubbed his throat.

"You don't fight like anyone we've ever trained with... but somehow it works." Katherine's expression never changed.

"I started fighting today." Silence.

"What?" the boy said.

"Today." The two stared at her, unsure whether she was joking. Katherine's grip tightened.

"What were you doing here?" The boy shrugged as much as the chains allowed.

"Finished training."

"Grabbed food," the girl added.

"Came down here to chill. Our dorms are way too monitored. This place is mostly surveillance-free." Katherine stared. That explained why this section had felt so devoid of security. Anywhere else, a dozen Steppers would've been on her before she could blink.

"You have dorms?"

"…Yeah? There are dorm buildings, game buildings too, and swimming pools." She looked between them.

"There are... buildings? And swimming pools?" The girl nodded.

"This place is huge. Five underground floors. Each one's bigger than a city block." The boy laughed.

"You've only seen this hallway?" Katherine slowly nodded.

"…I woke up today." Both Steppers stared.

"…Wait." The boy frowned.

"You're... not one of us at all? I thought you were an engineering student or maybe a scientist in training."

"No."

"So why are you here?"

"I escaped."

"From where?"

"The Apis pods." The two slowly looked at each other. The girl mouthed, What are Apis pods? The boy mouthed back, I don't know. Why would a human be in an Apis pod? Katherine's expression hardened.

"You've lived here... and you didn't know where Apis comes from? They take them from humans in pods." The boy shifted awkwardly.

"Well... I mean... we were born here. They don't exactly give orientation tours of the restricted research floors." The girl took over.

"It's kinda like... you eat burgers your whole life without knowing how they're made. We're Steppers, not engineers. We've never even seen the pod chambers." The boy frowned.

"Wait, now that I think of it... what are our burgers made of? Could be rat meat for all we know."

"Not now." Katherine's voice cut through the silence.

"What is Apis?"... The two exchanged a glance.

"…Energy?" the boy guessed.

"It powers the facility," the girl added. Katherine's jaw tightened.

"No." She looked directly at them.

"Apis is made from dreams. They kidnap people, especially children, keep them trapped in pods, and harvest their dreams until there's nothing left." The girl's face drained of color.

"…Really?" The boy stared at her.

"Ain't no way."

"I'm serious." Neither spoke. Their eyes drifted toward the corridor, then back to Katherine, both visibly shaken.

"…No," the boy muttered.

"No... there's no way." Anger welled inside Katherine. How could they not know? Then another thought stopped her. Most people knew what phones were. Most had no idea where the lithium and cobalt inside them came from, or the child labor used to mine them. They bought imported brands every day without ever seeing the beginning of the supply chain. She took a slow breath. They didn't know. She had to stop blaming them. After several long seconds, Harmony unwound itself.

The chains slipped away from both of them before shrinking back into Katherine's hand.... Neither one ran. Instead, they cautiously approached Amalgation's corpse. Neither looked at Butter. Their eyes instinctively avoided the bloodstained body, and neither asked what had happened. Katherine could see the calculation behind their silence. Whatever had happened here, they were smart enough not to pry. The dead Abomination was horrifying, but comprehensible. Butter wasn't. The girl looked down at the stitched corpse.

"…Still ugly." The boy shuddered.

"I always hated that thing. We'd hear the experiments at night sometimes. Sometimes it laughed." This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. The girl nodded.

"Sometimes... people screamed." Neither of them moved any closer.

"…How did you even kill it?" the boy muttered, almost to himself. The girl swallowed.

"That thing wasn't just another experiment." She kept staring at the corpse.

"They used Amalgation to test regeneration, conceptual resistance, and pain tolerance. New experiments had to survive contact with it long enough to heal. If you couldn't... you weren't worth keeping." The boy grimaced.

"We'd heard it had already killed dozens of unfinished experiments that way." His voice grew quieter.

"Experiments powerful enough to devastate entire cities."

"Some of them didn't even survive a single punch," the girl said.

"Some only got touched." She rubbed her own arm unconsciously.

"One touch from Haemoglobin... and you were basically gone."

"There was a standing warning," the boy added.

"'Under no circumstances is physical contact with Amalgation permitted.'" He let out a hollow laugh.

"As though anyone would've volunteered." The girl's eyes remained fixed on the stitched corpse.

"It wasn't just because it was strong." She spoke almost in a whisper.

"It was an Abomination."

"Haemoglobin's effective range was measured in countries," the boy said quietly.

"If it ever stopped holding back... it could probably touch the ground and misalign every human across an entire country."

"People."

"Buildings."

"Vehicles."

"Everything." The girl exhaled slowly.

"Just... screaming heaps of flesh and twisted rubble." Silence settled over the corridor again. The boy looked from the corpse... to Katherine.

"…And you killed it." Katherine said nothing. Her expression didn't change. She simply stood there, Harmony hanging at her side, her thoughts drifting back to Apis. The pods. The children. Butter. None of it mattered anymore. Not how strong Amalgation had been. Not what it had been capable of. It was dead. Apis wasn't. Neither spoke for a while. The revelation still hung over them.

"Should we tell someone?" the boy asked quietly. The girl looked at him like he'd lost his mind.

"And say what? That the thing powering the entire facility comes from kidnapped people?"

"…Yeah."

"We'd probably disappear before lunch." He fell silent.

"Besides," she said, "most people wouldn't care." Katherine frowned.

"What?" The girl shrugged uneasily.

"This place is heaven for most of us. Free food. Free housing. Free education. Medical care. Technology that's thousands of years ahead of the surface." The boy nodded.

"Some Enforcers straight-up refuse to go back unless it's for missions. They'd rather live here."

"We've been up there a few times," the girl admitted.

"I didn't like it."

"Me neither," the boy said.

"Everything felt... slower. Different." He scratched the back of his neck.

"People were so... weak."

"…And fat," the girl added. He nodded.

"Seriously, I didn't even know people could get fat until I went up there. Down here, being fit is just... normal." The girl frowned.

"I heard people still die giving birth up there." Katherine said nothing.

"…That's terrifying," she continued quietly.

"It never happens here. Regenerative medicine takes care of everything before it can."

"People still get sick too," the boy added, disbelief creeping into his voice.

"Like... from diseases." He shook his head.

"I thought those were just things we studied in history." The boy shrugged.

"So when we went up there..." He hesitated.

"It felt like we'd walked into the past." Silence settled over the corridor once more. Katherine understood. Comfort had made the truth invisible. The girl's eyes drifted to Harmony resting in Katherine's hand.

"... That thing's pretty handy." Katherine glanced down at the dark wooden nunchaku for a moment, then gave a small nod.

"Yeah."

"Never seen a weapon like it," the boy admitted.

"Looks simple... but it definitely isn't." She finally broke the silence.

"What were you actually doing down here?" The two exchanged another glance before looking back at her. The boy cleared his throat.

"…We were gonna make out." The corridor fell silent. Katherine stared at them.

"Leave."

"Huh?"

"Leave." She looked toward the endless halls stretching deeper into the facility.

"I'm going to destroy this place... including your Apis farms." Her gaze shifted back to the pair, cold enough to make the air feel heavier.

"And if I see either of you again..." She tightened her grip on Harmony.

"... I kill you." The words weren't shouted. They were a promise. The girl nodded slowly.

"…We understand." The boy shrugged, though the shock still lingered on his face.

"I mean... good luck?" The girl offered Katherine a small nod. Without another word, they turned and jogged back the way they'd come.

"Try not to die!" the boy called over his shoulder. The girl looked back one last time.

"And... seriously." She pointed a thumb toward Amalgation's ruined corpse.

"Thanks for killing the creepy one." She grimaced.

"No, really. Thank you."

"That thing used to chew on its own arms because it liked the taste of itself." The boy shivered.

"Yeah... we saw it once."

"It'd tear chunks out of its own legs," the girl continued, wrinkling her nose.

"Then just... stand there smiling while everything grew back."

"It could regenerate forever," the boy muttered.

"There wasn't even a point trying to hurt it." The girl shook her head.

"It was a real proper weirdo." The boy snorted despite himself.

"Ugliest thing in the whole facility." The girl nodded once more toward Katherine.

"So... thanks." They turned and disappeared into the corridors, their footsteps gradually fading into the distance. Katherine remained alone once more. She looked down at Butter, then toward the darkness ahead. Somewhere in this facility... The wolf was still alive. — Captain Alaric Vale stood alone in the briefing room, idly rolling a steel dart across his knuckles. The room was immaculate. Weapons lined one wall. Operational maps covered another. Pinned beneath a dozen knives hung a list of names.

Most already bore thick black lines through them. Thunk. Bullseye. Alaric gave a faint nod.

"Shame." A man knelt in the centre of the room, wrists bound behind his back, his face swollen so badly it was almost unrecognisable.

"Captain…" Alaric selected another dart without looking at him. The prisoner swallowed hard.

"It was a mistake." Thunk. Another perfect bullseye.

"Well." He reached for another dart.

"You won't make it again." The prisoner's face lost what little colour remained.

"No… please…" Alaric spoke without raising his voice.

"Stepper Seven."

"Yes, Captain." She stepped forward without hesitation, scarred grey-and-red tactical armour draped over a broad, powerful frame. Short auburn hair framed a weathered face with a crooked nose and tired, broken brown eyes that had long since forgotten sympathy.

"Take him downstairs." The prisoner lurched against his restraints.

"No! Please! I can fix this! Give me one more chance!"

"You already had one." She seized him by the collar and dragged him across the polished floor. His heels scraped desperately against the metal as his pleas echoed through the chamber until the heavy blast door sealed shut behind them. Silence returned. Thunk. Another dart buried itself dead centre. Alaric poured himself a cup of coffee. It tasted dreadful. He drank it anyway. Three measured knocks disturbed the quiet.

"Enter." The blast door slid aside. Two Steppers hurried inside, both breathing hard. Their uniforms were scorched, one still wearing dried blood across the side of his face. They saluted.

"Captain." Alaric didn't turn around.

"Yes?"

"Emergency report from the Nest." Another dart left his hand. Thunk.

"Well?" The younger Stepper hesitated.

"Clock breached the Nest."

"And?"

"He extracted approximately nineteen Abominations." Silence.

"The containment sectors collapsed."

"The vaults are empty." The second Stepper swallowed.

"And… nearly ten Prototype assets were taken as well." The room remained perfectly still. Alaric regarded the dartboard for several long seconds before selecting another dart. Thunk.

"And?" The younger Stepper blinked.

"Sir…"

"I heard you."

"Almost twenty Abominations…"

"Yes."

"And nearly ten Prototypes."

"Yes." Another dart rolled lazily between his fingers.

"If an entire Nest couldn't stop one rather unimpressive intruder…" Thunk.

"…then they deserved to fail." Neither Stepper answered. Alaric calmly sipped his coffee.

"Clearly our experiments remain insufficient."

"Sir?"

"Improve them."

"They… escaped."

"No." His correction was immediate.

"They were taken."

"A different outcome entirely." Only then did he turn toward them. He wasn't particularly tall. Nor broad. Dark hair combed with almost obsessive precision. A spotless uniform without a wrinkle. Grey eyes devoid of irritation, fear or excitement. Only quiet evaluation. It somehow made him far more unsettling.

"You're interpreting this as a security failure." His gaze settled on them.

"It isn't. It's a manufacturing failure." He walked toward the exit, taking another sip of the awful coffee without so much as a grimace.

"If a single individual can stroll into our most secure facility and leave carrying our property, then either our opponent is extraordinary... or our products are inadequate." He rested a hand against the door.

"I refuse to believe the latter." Before leaving, he glanced back.

"One more thing." Both Steppers straightened instinctively.

"Do not interrupt me again with reports of breaches. There are enough competent people in this headquarters that an army could force its way through the front gate, and not one of them would leave alive. If news reaches me, it means every layer beneath me has already failed." His voice never rose.

"I have no interest in supervising incompetence." He adjusted one sleeve with meticulous care.

"Recover whatever remains. If Clock kills them, they were never worth preserving. If they survive..." A faint smile touched the corner of his mouth.

"... they'll become exceptionally valuable specimens." He stepped into the corridor, the blast door sealing shut behind him. Neither Stepper moved. After several seconds, the younger one finally spoke.

"Does anything actually surprise him?" The other continued staring at the empty corridor where Captain Alaric Vale had disappeared.

"I don't think that's the right question anymore." He swallowed.

"I think we should be asking what kind of place creates someone like him." — Captain Alaric Vale walked through the eastern academy corridor with one hand behind his back and a cup of coffee in the other. The chatter died before he reached the doors. An instructor spotted him through the glass. His face drained of colour.

"Captain on deck!" The training hall exploded into motion. Chairs scraped. Books snapped shut. Nearly two hundred trainee Steppers formed ranks so quickly that several collided before standing perfectly still. Silence swallowed the room as every instructor snapped into a salute. Alaric entered without acknowledging anyone. His grey eyes swept across the hall. Dorm inspection day. He hated dorm inspection day. People became anxious. Anxious people made mistakes. Mistakes wasted his time.

He moved between the rows, unhurried. Nobody dared follow. Nobody dared breathe too loudly. One trainee swallowed. Another shifted his weight by barely an inch. Alaric stopped.

"Name."

"Jackson Mercer, sir."

"You moved."

"Yes, sir."

"I know." He continued onward, inspecting beds, lockers and equipment. Everything existed for a reason, and everything belonged somewhere. He opened the first locker. Uniforms folded perfectly. The second. Immaculate. The third. His brow creased. One shirt had been folded with the sleeves tucked underneath instead of over. He closed the locker. The silence somehow deepened. An instructor hurried over.

"Captain, I'll have it corrected immed..." Alaric raised one finger. The man stopped speaking.

"You inspected these dormitories yourself?"

"Yes, Captain."

"And approved them?"

"Yes, Captain." Alaric slowly surveyed the room.

"If Commander Zeinai had walked into this hall... you would all be dead." The words struck harder than any scream.

"You've mistaken cleanliness for discipline. A uniform can be folded. A floor can be scrubbed. A bed can be made." His gaze settled on the instructors.

"Complacency cannot." Silence lingered for a moment before his voice cracked across the hall.

"For heaven's sake! Is this the standard you intend to defend the Syndicate with?" Even the instructors lowered their eyes.

"Disappointing." He stopped before a young trainee.

"Step forward." The boy obeyed instantly.

"Your name."

"Nathan Rowe, sir."

"You noticed the locker."

"Yes, sir."

"You said nothing." Nathan swallowed.

"I... assumed the inspection had already been completed."

"You assumed."

"Yes, sir." Alaric nodded once.

"One person's assumption becomes everyone's failure." He opened a drawer beside a bunk, withdrew a simple utility knife and placed it into Nathan's palm.

"You will remove one finger. You may choose which one." The hall became utterly still. Nathan stared at the knife as his breathing turned ragged. One instructor stepped forward on instinct.

"Captain..." Alaric looked at him. The instructor immediately retreated into silence. Several seconds passed before Alaric spoke again.

"Do you know why I let you choose?" Nathan slowly shook his head.

"Because leaders are punished twice. They endure the pain. Then they spend the rest of their lives remembering the choice that caused it." He gently folded Nathan's fingers around the handle.

"Remember this feeling." The room waited. Nathan closed his eyes, drew a slow breath, then lowered the knife.

"I understand, Captain." Alaric studied him for a long moment before taking the knife back and returning it to its sheath.

"You do." Relief swept through the dormitory, though nobody dared show it. Alaric faced the instructors.

"You believed I valued the finger. I value the decision." His eyes drifted across the room one last time.

"Tomorrow's inspection begins at zero six hundred. If I find this standard again..." He left the threat unfinished. He did not need to finish it. Every instructor saluted so sharply their sleeves cracked.

"Yes, Captain." Alaric took one final sip of his coffee. It was still terrible. Without another word, he walked out. Only after the blast door sealed behind him did anyone in the hall remember to breathe.