Chapter 87: Resonance

 

The Catacombs. The Nullifier Chamber. 12:45 AM.

HUMMMMMMM. The sound was felt before it was heard. The massive brass tuning forks of the Nullifier began to vibrate. Dust fell from the ceiling. The skulls lining the walls rattled in their sockets like chattering teeth.

Harper stood at the console, her hand impaled on the needle. Her veins were glowing violet. She screamed as the machine drew bio-energy directly from her blood to calibrate the frequency. [ RESONANCE: 40%... 45%... ]

"Hold them back!" Sebastian roared.

He stood in the center of the room, facing the horde of Hollows. He didn't fire his gun. It was empty. He raised his hand. His skin was turning grey. Blue crystal shards were pushing through the pores of his knuckles. The infection was accelerating. The closer the machine got to the Source's frequency, the more the virus inside him reacted.

"HALT!" Sebastian commanded. His voice wasn't human. It was a digital, distorted growl.

The front row of Hollows froze. Their glowing blue eyes flickered. They were confused. Two voices were in their heads. Thorne's voice: Kill them. Sebastian's voice: Stop.

---

[The Reflection]

Above the chaos, Dr. Thorne’s hologram flickered. He looked amused. "Impressive, Sebastian," Thorne’s voice boomed. "You are tapping into the Hive Mind. You feel it, don't you? The unity." "But look at your hand. You are crystallizing. If you use that power one more time... you will become a statue. Just like me."

Sebastian looked at his arm. It was stiff, heavy. The blue crystals were spreading up his forearm. "I'd rather be a statue than a slave," Sebastian gritted his teeth.

He grabbed a frozen Hollow by the neck and threw him into the oncoming wave. CRASH.

"Jack! How much longer?" Sebastian yelled.

"The gauge is stuck!" Jack fired his last shotgun shell. BOOM. "It's at 60%! It needs more power!"

---

[The Overload]

At the console, Harper dropped to her knees. "I... I can't..." she gasped. The machine was draining her life force. Her vision was blurring. Her heart was fluttering. She was the Key, but the door was too heavy.

"Harper!" Sebastian tried to run to her, but a massive Hollow tackled him. They rolled on the bone-covered floor. Sebastian punched the creature, shattering its ribcage, but the crystals on his own hand cracked and bled blue fluid.

"She is dying," Thorne’s hologram laughed. "The Nullifier requires a sacrifice. A life for a life."

"No," a soft voice whispered.

Catherine.

She wheeled her chair through the battlefield. She ignored the monsters. She ignored the gunfire. She rolled up to the console where her daughter was collapsing.

"Mom?" Harper whispered, blood trickling from her nose.

"You did good, baby," Catherine smiled. Her eyes were clear. No madness. Just peace. "But this part... this part is for the creator."

Catherine reached out. She grabbed Harper’s hand and pulled it off the needle. Harper fell back, gasping, the connection broken.

Then, Catherine slammed her own hand onto the spike. STAB.

---

[The Swan Song]

[ DNA MATCH CONFIRMED: PRIME SOURCE. ] The machine roared. Catherine wasn't just a carrier. She had been injected with the raw virus 30 years ago. She lived with it. She adapted to it. She was the Original Battery.

"Mom! No!" Harper tried to crawl to her.

"Stay back!" Catherine commanded. Her voice amplified by the machine. She looked at Sebastian, who was struggling to stand. "Take care of her, Wolf," Catherine said. "Or I will haunt you."

She closed her eyes. And she began to hum. One last time.

Sur le pont d'Avignon...

The machine screamed. The tuning forks glowed white-hot. [ RESONANCE: 100%... 120%... MAX. ]

A pulse of sonic energy exploded from the device. It wasn't a sound. It was a frequency of cancellation.

ZWWWWWWWUM.

The pulse hit the Hollows. They didn't explode. They simply... stopped. The blue light in their eyes went out. They collapsed like puppets with cut strings.

The pulse hit Sebastian. He screamed as the crystals on his arm shattered into dust. The virus inside him was neutralized, forced into dormancy. He fell to the ground, unconscious but human.

The pulse traveled through the earth. Through the bedrock of France. All the way to Avignon.

---

[The End of the Source]

Underground Crypt. Avignon.

Inside the sealed chamber, the Meteorite was glowing like a sun. Thorne stood before it, his body half-consumed by crystal, bathing in the radiation. "Beautiful," he whispered. "Perfect."

Then, the wave hit. The Nullifier's frequency struck the crystal lattice of the alien stone. CRACK. A hairline fracture appeared on the meteorite. Then another. Then a million.

"No..." Thorne reached out. "NO!"

SHATTER. The meteorite exploded. Not into fire, but into dust. Inert, grey dust. The blue light vanished. The connection was severed.

Thorne screamed as the energy holding his mutated body together dissipated. He crumbled, turning into a pile of calcified ash on the floor of the tomb.

---

[The Silence]

Paris Catacombs.

Silence returned to the City of Bones. The Nullifier powered down, its brass pipes cooling.

Harper crawled to the console. "Mom?"

Catherine sat in her wheelchair. Her hand was still on the needle. She looked like she was sleeping. But her chest was still. The violet light in her eyes was gone.

"Mom..." Harper touched her face. It was cold. She buried her face in her mother's lap and wept. The sound echoed through the endless tunnels of the dead.

Sebastian limped over. He put his hand on Harper’s shoulder. He didn't speak. He just stood there, guarding them in their grief.

Jack took off his cap. Dr. Braun bowed his head.

They had won. The Source was destroyed. The virus was inert. But the cost was laid out before them. A mother’s love, paid in blood.

(End of Chapter 87)