Chapter 18 The Covered Truth

Victor staggered through the narrow hallway, his arm draped over the shoulder of the security guard who had dragged him from the massacre. His mind raced with questions, none of which had answers. Blood painted his lab coat, his glasses were smeared with crimson streaks, and his breath came in shallow gasps. The cold, sterile lighting of the facility cast harsh shadows on the walls, amplifying the chaos that roared in his head.

The guard led him to a section of the facility Victor rarely visited—the control room. This part of the facility was reserved for oversight, surveillance, and emergency management. It had always seemed unnecessary, a precaution for a project Victor believed to be under control. Now, it was his lifeline.

The reinforced steel doors slid open with a mechanical hiss, revealing a dimly lit room filled with monitors, consoles, and personnel scrambling to manage the unfolding crisis. The air was thick with tension, the low hum of equipment punctuated by frantic voices.

"Dr. Hallow," the head of security barked, snapping Victor out of his daze. "We need to assess the situation. You have to see this."

Victor stumbled to a chair in the center of the room, his knees weak. A massive wall of monitors displayed every section of the facility, each one a window into the horror that had overtaken his life's work. The guard pressed a few buttons on a control panel, and the largest screen flickered, switching to a live feed of the display room.

Victor's heart sank.

The room where he had confidently demonstrated the fruits of his labor just hours ago was unrecognizable. Blood covered the once-sterile white floors, smeared in grotesque patterns. The mangled remains of bodies were strewn across the room, their limbs twisted at unnatural angles.

And then there were the evolved.

The three figures stood eerily still, like statues, amidst the carnage. Their pale skin was now streaked with crimson, their mouths dripping with fresh blood and shreds of flesh. Their crimson eyes burned like embers, scanning the room with a haunting stillness that was somehow more terrifying than their earlier frenzy. The silence of their motionless forms only heightened the tension; they seemed to be waiting, calculating.

Victor's legs buckled, and he sank into the chair. His hands gripped the armrests as if they were the only things keeping him tethered to reality. His breathing was shallow, his body trembling uncontrollably.

"What went wrong?" Victor muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. His mind raced through the countless hours of research, the meticulous experiments, the rigorous trials. Every variable had been accounted for. "Which part of the experiment failed?"

The room was silent save for the quiet hum of the monitors. No one dared to answer him. His team, the very people who had worked alongside him for years, avoided his gaze.

"Show me everything from the beginning of the experiment," Victor demanded, his voice cracking. "I want every detail—every log, every recording. Something must have triggered this. Something..."

As his team scrambled to retrieve data, a voice spoke up from the corner of the room. "Dr. Hallow," one of his senior assistants began hesitantly, her face pale and drawn.

Victor turned toward her, his eyes bloodshot and wild. "You know something. What happened?"

She hesitated, glancing nervously at the others. "Sir... there's something you weren't told."

"What?" Victor's voice was sharp, his patience thinning. "What are you talking about?"

The assistant stepped forward, wringing her hands. "It was during the early stages of observation. The evolved humans had already undergone their physical transformations, but we noticed something unusual. They wouldn't eat."

Victor frowned. "What do you mean they wouldn't eat?"

"Any food we gave them—meals, supplements, even liquids—they rejected it," she explained. "It didn't matter what we tried. They would vomit everything almost immediately, and their eyes... their eyes would turn red, just like they are now."

Victor's stomach churned as the pieces began to fall into place. "And you didn't think to tell me this?" he demanded, his voice rising.

"We didn't know what it meant at the time," the assistant stammered. "But then... one of the senior lab members made a suggestion."

"What suggestion?" Victor asked, his tone dangerously low.

She hesitated, looking around at the others for support. None of them met her gaze. Finally, she continued, "He suggested we try giving them live food."

Victor's blood ran cold. "Live food?"

"Yes," she admitted, her voice trembling. "We brought in live chickens and threw them into the observation room. The moment the chickens were inside, the evolved humans... changed. They became more alert, more active. They scrambled for the chickens and tore them apart with their bare hands. They ate them raw."

The room fell silent, the weight of her words settling over everyone like a suffocating blanket. Victor stared at her, his expression one of disbelief and horror.

"And you didn't think this was worth reporting?" he asked, his voice barely concealing his rage. "You hid this from me?"

"We didn't include it in the reports," she admitted, tears streaming down her face. "We thought it was just an anomaly. We didn't want to jeopardize the project after all the years we had put into it. We were so close, Dr. Hallow! So close to changing the world. We thought... we thought it was manageable."

Victor slammed his fist on the armrest of his chair, his entire body shaking. "You lied to me," he said, his voice trembling with fury. "You lied to all of us!"

"I'm sorry," she sobbed. "We didn't know it would come to this."

Victor turned back to the monitor, his eyes fixed on the display room. The three evolved humans hadn't moved, their crimson eyes staring into the distance. The blood dripping from their mouths seemed to mock him, a grim reminder of the horrors he had unleashed.

His mind reeled as he tried to process the truth. The evolved humans weren't just the next step in evolution. They were predators. And he had been blind to it until now.

"What have I done?" Victor whispered, his voice breaking.

Behind him, the assistant wiped her tears and spoke again, her voice barely audible. "We thought we could control them... but we were wrong."