Chapter 15 THE COUNTDOWN CHANGED

The red lights outside the warehouse flashed again.

Lena stood completely still.

Adrian Vale remained near the entrance, watching her and Ethan as if he already knew what they were going to do.

“How much time?” Ethan asked.

Adrian looked at the device in his hand.

“Eleven months.”

Lena's stomach dropped.

“Until the apocalypse?”

“Until the first collapse.”

“That isn't what happened before.”

“I know.”

Ethan stepped closer. “Then explain.”

Adrian's eyes moved to the silver mark on Ethan's wrist.

“Your return changed the sequence.”

Lena shook her head. “We didn't cause it.”

“No,” Adrian said. “But you changed something that was never supposed to change.”

He turned the device around.

A digital timeline appeared.

ORIGINAL EVENT: AUGUST 9, 2026

Then another line appeared beneath it.

CURRENT PROJECTION: APRIL 17, 2024

Lena stared.

“That's impossible.”

“It was,” Adrian replied. “Until you woke up.”

Silence filled the warehouse.

Lena remembered the first timeline.

The fever.

The hospitals.

The panic.

The military checkpoints.

The darkness.

The bridge.

Ethan.

She had believed she had three years.

Now she had less than one.

“We need supplies,” she said.

Ethan looked at her.

“Now?”

“Especially now.”

Adrian almost smiled.

“You're still thinking like a survivor.”

“I am a survivor.”

“No,” Adrian said quietly. “You're something the world has never seen before.”

Lena ignored him.

She turned to Ethan.

“We need the lodge secured. Food for at least two years. Water storage. Generators. Solar panels. Medical supplies. Fuel. Seeds. Tools. Communication equipment.”

Ethan nodded.

“Already started.”

Lena blinked.

“When?”

“While you were investigating Aurora.”

He pulled out his phone.

Several transfers appeared on the screen.

Warehouses.

Farmland.

Construction companies.

Security equipment.

Water systems.

Solar suppliers.

Lena stared at him.

“You've been preparing?”

“I told you,” Ethan said. “I believe you.”

Something inside Lena loosened.

In her first life, she had prepared alone.

This time, she wasn't alone.

Then Adrian interrupted.

“You're preparing for the wrong enemy.”

Ethan's expression hardened.

“Then tell us what we're preparing for.”

Adrian placed the black drive on the table.

“The fever isn't the beginning.”

Lena's eyes narrowed.

“What is?”

“The fever is a symptom.”

The warehouse suddenly felt colder.

Adrian continued.

“Aurora discovered something beneath the original research. Something biological. Something that shouldn't have existed.”

“Where?” Ethan asked.

“Seven locations.”

He tapped the drive.

Seven coordinates appeared.

New York.

Alaska.

Brazil.

South Africa.

Japan.

Norway.

And one final location.

Lena stared at it.

There was no country name.

Only coordinates.

UNKNOWN.

“What happens at those locations?” she asked.

Adrian looked directly at her.

“They wake up.”

A loud metallic crash echoed outside.

Everyone froze.

Ethan immediately moved in front of Lena.

Adrian reached beneath his jacket.

Another crash.

Then another.

Someone was trying to enter the warehouse.

Lena's silver mark began glowing.

Her vision blurred.

For a second, the warehouse disappeared.

She saw a city covered in darkness.

Cars abandoned in the streets.

Buildings burning in the distance.

People running.

Then she saw something else.

A massive underground door.

Seven symbols were carved across it.

One symbol was glowing.

The same silver symbol on her palm.

Lena gasped and returned to reality.

Ethan grabbed her shoulder.

“What did you see?”

“Something underground.”

Adrian's face changed.

“Where?”

“I don't know.”

The warehouse doors shook.

Ethan looked toward the entrance.

“Whatever is outside, we can't stay here.”

Adrian nodded.

“There is another exit.”

He moved toward a wall and pressed his palm against a small metal panel.

A section of concrete opened.

Lena stared.

“A secret tunnel?”

“Aurora built this warehouse.”

“Of course it did,” Ethan muttered.

They moved quickly.

Ethan stayed beside Lena while Adrian led them underground.

Behind them, the warehouse doors finally burst open.

Footsteps echoed above.

Lena heard several voices.

“Search everything!”

“Find the drive!”

“They can't have gone far!”

Ethan looked at Adrian.

“You brought us here knowing they would come?”

Adrian didn't answer.

That was enough.

Ethan stopped walking.

“Adrian.”

The older man turned.

“You have ten seconds to explain why those people are after us.”

“They aren't after you.”

“Then who?”

Adrian looked at Lena.

“They're after her.”

Lena's heart stopped.

“Why?”

“Because you're not the only person who came back.”

The tunnel lights flickered.

Lena felt the silver mark burn against her skin.

Then another light appeared farther down the tunnel.

A person stood there.

A woman.

She was wearing a white Aurora coat.

She slowly raised her head.

And smiled.

“Lena Carter,” she said.

“You really don't remember me?”

Lena stared at her.

She had never seen the woman before.

But Ethan suddenly stepped backward.

His face had gone pale.

“Sarah.”

The woman smiled wider.

To be continued...