Frozen Eden
...****************...
The emergency lights bathed the corridors in crimson.
Scientists fled toward evacuation shelters while armed security teams rushed in the opposite direction.
Adrian pulled his arm free from Elias's grip.
"What escaped?"
Elias's voice was unusually tense.
"Not here."
"You keep saying that! Every answer is 'not here' or 'later.'"
"Because if you know too much too soon..." Elias met his eyes. "...you'll become a target."
Before Adrian could respond, gunfire echoed through the eastern wing.
The Black Tide Syndicate had breached the station.
---
The Attack
Masked figures dressed in white winter camouflage stormed the laboratory.
Their leader raised a rifle.
"Take the DNA samples!"
"Kill anyone who resists!"
Researchers screamed as glass shattered.
Dr. Noah Quinn pushed a young assistant beneath a laboratory bench just before a bullet tore through the room.
Elsewhere, Dr. Kai Morgan transformed an operating room into an emergency ward, treating wounded scientists as explosions shook the building.
Outside, a blizzard swallowed the island.
No help could reach Eden.
---
The Secret Elevator
Elias led Adrian through a hidden passage behind the CEO's office.
At the end of the corridor stood an elevator with no buttons.
Elias placed his palm against the scanner.
A mechanical voice spoke.
"Welcome back, Director Frost."
The wall slid open.
The elevator descended far below Level Nine.
Adrian frowned.
"I thought Level Nine was the deepest floor."
"It is..."
Elias paused.
"...officially."
The display stopped.
LEVEL X
"No records mention this floor," Adrian whispered.
"They're not supposed to."
---
The doors opened.
Instead of laboratories, they found a vast underground cavern beneath the glacier.
Ancient stone pillars rose from the ice, covered with symbols no one could read.
In the center stood a crystal lake glowing with soft blue light.
The air itself seemed alive.
Adrian felt his heartbeat quicken.
"This... isn't man-made."
"No," Elias replied quietly.
"We built the research station around it."
At the edge of the lake lay the skeleton of a creature larger than a blue whale, with enormous wings frozen in crystal-clear ice.
"What is it?" Adrian whispered.
"We don't know," Elias admitted.
"We've been trying to answer that question for twenty years."
---
A faint splash echoed across the lake.
Both men turned.
The water rippled.
Then a shadow moved beneath the glowing surface.
Not the skeleton.
Something alive.
It was watching them.
Without warning, a deafening roar shook the cavern.
The ice cracked beneath their feet.
From the darkness came a low, familiar voice.
"So..."
"You finally brought him here."
Adrian spun around.
A lone figure stepped out of the shadows.
Older than Elias.
His face was scarred.
His eyes were filled with grief.
He looked directly at Adrian.
"...You've grown up."
Adrian's breath caught in his throat.
He recognized that face instantly from childhood photographs.
It was his father.
End of Episode 4
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...♥╣[-_-]╠♥...
...(◍•ᴗ•◍)❤...
...♡(> ਊ <)♡...
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