The sun hung low over the horizon, casting long shadows across the scrubland as I pored over satellite images on a tablet screen. Victor had described the bunker’s vague location—somewhere northwest of the city.
After hours of cross-referencing, I’d narrowed it to three possible locations: a remote clearing ringed by mangroves, a limestone ridge near the coast, and an abandoned quarry swallowed by overgrowth. The plan was to check all the locations on foot.
Victor paced beside me, his jaw tight, his eyes darting with a restless fury. His desperation painted him as a man driven by love, a desperate act of true love indeed. A vague concept to me. We searched for hours, boots sinking into the damp earth, sweat beading on our brows, but the bunker eluded us. Still, we were certain it lay within this triangle of wilderness.
While discussing about other possible locations, Victor suddenly stopped pacing about. He dropped to one knee, pressing the side of his head to the ground, his ear against the dirt like a hunter tracking prey. Dmitry raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t take him for a religious man.”
“Victor, what are you doing?” I asked, crouching beside him.
“I can hear them,” he muttered, his voice low and certain. “Echoes—vibrations, waves rippling deep underground, miles from here.”
“You can hear echoes?” The idea hit me like a spark. I mirrored him, pressing my own ear to the soil. My enhanced senses flared, picking up faint tremors—distant footsteps, muffled voices, the groan of machinery—all threading through the earth like a heartbeat. I was suddenly curious about the other powers the serum was able to implant in humans. On top of my comparatively physical enhancements, the serum heightened regeneration and awakened hyper-cognition, but Gwendowson and Randy had only shown brute strength and speed. It left me wondering if at all Victor was he like me. Did he wrestle with the same fractured grip on reality?
“I found them!” he shouted, and before I could react, he vanished as he moved at a speed I couldn’t fathom—faster than Randy, faster than Gwendowson who were clearly hitting the Mach line.
A gust of wind whipped past, the ground trembling under his departure. The air crackled in his wake, particles spiraling in the sudden stillness. We stood frozen for few seconds, mouths agape, the weight of what we’d witnessed sinking in.
“What was that? Where’d he go?” Dmitry broke the silence, his Russian accent thick with disbelief.
Yukio’s eyes narrowed as he deduced. “Is that his power—teleportation?”
“No,” I said, pointing northwest where the dust still settled. “I saw him. He ran that way.”
“You saw him?” Yukio turned to me, incredulous. “How? I didn’t catch a thing. Don’t tell me...Can you move that fast too?”
“No time to explain. We need to catch up before he reaches them. If he starts trouble, it’s not just our heads—Captain Agatha will pay for it too.” I sprinted after Victor, leaving Yukio and Dmitry to follow. Fear gnawed at me—not of him, but of what he might unleash with that power. I knew too well the consequences of a following a heart driven by rage and anger. But I wasn’t fast enough, ahead of me, a whole ugly scenario was about to happen.
The bunker lay beneath a limestone bluff, its entrance a slab of steel disguised by vines. There were about seventy people inside. A mix of Jasper’s family, his uncle’s hired muscle, and stragglers desperate for sanctuary.
Alessandra was locked in a side room, her wrists bruised from struggling, her pleas stifled by a gag. Sitting around a long dining table, the group were deliberating her fate—silence her for good or keep her as leverage.
While they were gathered together dining, that’s when the steel door suddenly buckled. A thunderous crash split the air, the one-meter-thick barrier crumpling like foil under Victor’s fist.
He stepped through the wreckage, dust swirling around him, his eyes glinting with a bloodthirsty edge. His mind was set with one darkened goal—to kill them all for daring to take Alessandra from him.
The guards reacted first, six ex-soldiers with rifles snapping up. They fired their guns and bullets spat from barrels, but Victor moved in a blur, snapping their arms like twigs. Their screams ricocheted off the concrete walls, an outcry of agony as they crumpled, clutching shattered limbs.
That’s when panic erupted in the hall. People bolted from the table, chairs toppling, plates shattering on the floor. Straight to his goal, Victor circled them at blinding speed, a living wall of force, herding them back to the center. The bunker’s dim fluorescent lights flickered, casting jagged shadows over their terrified faces. Silence fell, broken only by ragged breaths and the drip of blood from a guard’s mangled hand.
Recognizing Victor, Jasper rose, his legs trembling but his voice steady. “Victor...? W-why are you doing this?”
Victor’s head snapped toward him. “Why? Is that a serious question? Where’s Alessandra?”
“It’s you again!” Jasper’s uncle pushed forward, finally recognizing the boy he threw out from the bus. “How did you find us? Terris—shoot him!”
A guard named Terris, one arm dangling uselessly, fumbled his pistol with his good hand and fired. The bullet ricocheted off Victor’s chest, embedding in the wall. Victor surged forward, and pieced Terris’s sternum with his fist, in a spray of blood.
“I’ll ask once more,” Victor growled, his voice a low rumble that shook the air. “Where. Is. Alessandra?”
That’s when they all realized they were standing face to face with netherworld monster. Jasper’s uncle raised his hands, sweat beading on his brow.
“Please—don’t kill us! Let’s talk this out. You’re here for your girlfriend, right? Don’t worry! We’ve been keeping her safe with us! She’s uh...She’s all fine—safe! Jasper, get her, now!”
Jasper quickly bolted down the narrow corridor, to get Alessandra. The others sank to their knees, chests heaving, faces pale, eyes darting to the bodies littering the floor. Eugene sat beside his mother, her arm around him, both staring at the ground, mute with terror. The bunker’s walls seemed to close in, as the air grew heavier with each passing second.
“Forgive us,” Jasper’s uncle stammered, his voice cracking. “We didn’t know what we were doing. We kept her safe, I swear.”
“Thanks for that,” Victor sneered, stepping toward him, his boots crunching glass. “Now there’s just one thing left—to tie up the loose ends. That’s what you taught me, isn’t it?”
“No, no—wait!” The uncle’s plea dissolved into a chorus of cries as the others begged—
“Please, spare us!”
“We’re sorry!”
“We didn’t mean it!”
But Victor’s face was stone, unyielding. He raised a fist, starting with Jasper’s uncle, and unleashed a slaughter. Blood painted the walls, screams cut short by the wet snap of bone. By the time I burst through the ruined door, dozens lay dead—Eugene’s mother among them, her lifeless hand still clutching her son’s sleeve.
“Stop!” My shout pierced the hall, yanking Victor’s attention to me. He stood amidst the bodies, his chest heaving, blood dripping from his knuckles. As I stood scanning the blood-stained walls, my heart sunk in, in a mixture of disbelief and fear.
“What have you done?” I shot at him
His eyes met mine, cold and unemotional, and something darker flickered beneath. I’d known him only briefly, yet this wasn’t the Victor who’d pleaded for our help. It was as if his body was overtaken by something else. Randy, Gwendowson, now him—each serum-taker crossed a line, shedding remorse and rational thinking like dead skin. Was it the drug, twisting their minds, or their own rage finding root in newfound power?
“What?” he replied “Did you think I came for a picnic? These bastards kidnapped Alessandra—they deserve this!”
“You don’t get to decide that!” I stepped closer, my voice steady despite the horror. “There are consequences, Victor. You always pay for many folds for the actions you make!”
He laughed at me, a hollow, jagged sound. “Who’s going to make me? You? Your little squad? I dare you all to try and do that—see what happens.”
“Can’t you see it. This is not who you are! It’s got to be the serum,” I pressed, searching his gaze for a shred of reason. “It’s clouding your mind—you’re not thinking straight!”
“My mind’s never been clearer. I’ll have my revenge, and you’d be wise not to stand in my way.”
“I won’t let you hurt anyone else,” I said, fists clenching. “Provoke me, and I’ll fight.”
Fighting Victor was the last thing I wanted. But I could stand still and watch him kill innocent people.
I made my stance clear, he smirked, circling me like a predator. “The hero act doesn’t suit you, Cipher. I read your file—how you stole those vials, killed that kid back home. Ninety percent of the serum meant to save us, gone because of you. When this world burns, it’ll be your fault. Don’t play saint with me.”
His words cut deep. Indeed, the truth hurts the most. He was right—my greed, my desperation, had tipped humanity toward extinction. Guilt gnawed at me, a familiar ache, but I couldn’t let it paralyze me.
“I won’t stand down Victor,” I said to him. “To pay back what I owe the world, I won’t be stopped here. I’ll keep fighting until every enemy to the world is gone—including you, if I have to.”
Power flared in my chest, a fire stoked by his taunts and my own shame. I refused to let one mistake define me. After all, I already vowed to continue moving forward without giving up and reach my redemption, no matter the cost.