The campus was empty.
Not abandoned.
Just… waiting.
I walked through the main gate, hands visible, drive in my pocket.
She was on the mezzanine, overlooking the atrium.
Black suit.
Hair pulled back.
Eyes like ice.
“Kael,” she said.
Her voice echoed off the glass.
“You’re harder to kill than I remembered.”
“Funny.
I was thinking the same about you.”
She smiled.
“Give me the drive.”
“Why?
So you can extract your assets and leave the rest to burn?”
“So I can control the narrative.” She stepped down the stairs.
“You don’t understand what’s happening.”
“I understand enough.”
“No.” She stopped three feet away.
“You understand nothing.
This isn’t an outbreak.
It’s a reset.”
“Of what?”
“Everything.” She tilted her head.
“And you’re not the only one who woke up early.”
My blood went cold.
“Don’t believe her.”
Ije’s smile widened.
“Ask your nurse friend how she really got that scar on her arm.”
Rhea went silent.
I looked at Ije.
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing,” Ije said.
“We just… accelerated her timeline.”
She raised her hand.
Two snipers appeared on the balcony above.
“Drop the drive,” Ije said.
“Or she dies.”
I looked at the radio.
Then at Ije.
And I made my choice.