NOVEL NEXT Chapter 15.4: The Doll In The Box
[SCARLETT'S POV - Present Day, Vault Terminus]
The corridor air shifted with residual energy from whatever had just happened in Jin's quarters. My fingers traced the pommel of Honor at my hip, the familiar grip grounding me as I moved away from Shūmei's door. That girl's perfume still clung to my nostrils, like sweet flowers hiding their rot.
Time to assess the real situation.
I made my way to the Command Center, boot heels clicking against metal flooring in a rhythm that helped organize my thoughts. The vault's recycled air carried distinct scents from different sections—machine oil from the manufacturing level, green growth from hydroponics, and underneath it all, that particular staleness of filtered oxygen that never quite felt right in your lungs.
The tactical display hummed to life at my approach, bathing the room in blue-white light that made my shadow dance across the walls. I pulled up the personnel files, studying the eight faces that had emerged from those pods just hours after Jin had somehow accelerated their revival.
I needed to assess our resources. With the eight specialists, we had:
- Elena: Weapons manufacturing and modification. Could upgrade our defenses and create specialized tools for crawler elimination. Her perfectionism meant everything she built would be flawless, but her obsession with lethal efficiency could lead to dangerous weapons if not properly guided.
- Lin: Food production and medicinal plant cultivation. Critical for long-term survival. Her connection to plants was almost supernatural—she might be able to develop crops that could grow in the vault's limited light conditions. Her nurturing nature made her the perfect person to maintain our food supply.
- Maya: Fortification design and structural reinforcement. Could turn the vault into a true fortress, creating choke points and defensive positions. Her adrenaline-seeking nature made her fearless in the face of danger, but she might take unnecessary risks if not properly supervised.
- Shin: Medical expertise and biological research. Could treat injuries and study the crawlers to find weaknesses. Her ethical flexibility was concerning—she might experiment with dangerous biological enhancements if given the chance.
- Amirah: Communication and diplomacy. Essential for coordinating our efforts and potentially contacting other survivors. Her multilingual skills and cultural knowledge would be invaluable for rebuilding society. Her competitive nature could be channeled into productive rivalries rather than conflicts.
- Anna: Architectural redesign and space optimization. Could expand our living areas and create more efficient layouts. Her perfectionism meant she'd redesign spaces endlessly until satisfied, but her vision could transform the vault from a shelter into a home.
- Luna: Resource management and economic planning. Could stretch our supplies and ensure fair distribution. Her mathematical mind would optimize every aspect of our survival, but her cheerfulness might clash with the harsh realities of our situation.
- Yuki: Psychological support and morale maintenance. Crucial for maintaining mental health in isolation and constant danger. Her spiritual approach provided comfort, but her ability to read people's emotions could be both a blessing and a curse—she might see truths others preferred hidden.
Eight specialists, each one a piece of a survival puzzle. The Builders—Elena, Maya, Anna—would create our defenses and infrastructure. The Nurturers—Lin, Shin, Yuki—would care for our bodies, minds, and spirits. The Connectors—Amirah and Luna—would manage our resources and relationships. Together, they formed a complete ecosystem for survival.
But something nagged at me—a feeling like looking at a chess board with a missing piece.
I pulled up the cryo-bay schematics. Fifteen pods total. Jin had been in Pod 001. Sera in 003. Clara in 004. Rosa in 005. I'd been in 007. Shūmei in 009. That left nine pods for the eight awakened specialists.
My blood chilled.
One pod is still occupied.
"How did we miss this?" I muttered, fingers flying across the display. The chaos of eight simultaneous revivals, Jin's entity problem, the Crawler attacks—we'd been too overwhelmed to do a proper count.
Pod 015. Still sealed and active.
I needed to get to Pod 015, to assess the situation firsthand.
As I moved toward the cryo-bay, my mind raced through possibilities.
---
At the cryo-bay, Scarlett's nose wrinkled as she moved deeper into the chamber, her mind cataloguing every detail while her boots clicked against frost-slicked metal.
The eight revival pods they'd opened earlier stood empty, their interiors still foggy with residual preservation mist. But her count had been off. Fifteen pods total. Six from their original group, eight specialists Jin had somehow awakened simultaneously. That left one.
Pod 015 sat in the corner like a forgotten present, and the closer Scarlett got, the more wrong it felt. Where the other pods had clean white medical markings, this one bore warnings in languages she barely recognized—Russian, Japanese, and something that might have been ancient Sanskrit. Black and red biohazard symbols overlapped with text that her translator app couldn't parse.
The observation panel fogged with each breath as she leaned close. Inside, through the crystalline preservation fluid, floated something that made her instincts scream.
A girl. Who looks like a teenager, she has a petite small body. Skin so pale it was nearly translucent, with blue veins visible like delicate artwork beneath. Her hair floated around her in the suspension fluid—white as fresh snow, impossibly long.
But it was the bio-readings that made Scarlett's hand drift to Honor's grip.
**[VITAL SIGNS: ERROR - MULTIPLE SIGNATURES DETECTED]**
**[SPECIES: HUMAN... RECALIBRATING... HUMAN-ADJACENT]**
**[GENETIC MARKERS: 47% HOMO SAPIENS, 31% VHNDS, 22% UNKNOWN]**
"What the hell were they thinking?" Scarlett muttered, as adrenaline flooding her system.
The pod's control panel was different too. Where the others had standard Phoenix Protocol interfaces, this one showed something called "Project Chimera" in faded text. Most of the data was corrupted, century-old files degraded beyond recovery, but one line stood out:
**"Designated Breeding Partner: Phoenix Protocol Subject 001 - Jin Tsurugi"**
"Oh, that's not good."
Before Scarlett could back away, her elbow bumped the emergency release. The ancient mechanism, already stressed from a century of operation, interpreted the contact as authorization.
The pod hissed.
"No, no, no—"
Preservation fluid drained with a sound like hungry throats swallowing. The girl inside twitched, her fingers moving first. Then her eyes opened.
Crimson. And the pupils—vertical slits that dilated and contracted as they focused on Scarlett's face.
The pod door swung open with a cheerful chime that felt wildly inappropriate. The girl stepped out with movements that were graceful.
She stood barely five-foot, delicate as spun glass, wearing a preservation suit that clung to her petite frame, emphasizing her doll-like proportions. When she smiled, her canines were just a bit sharp and long, perfect white against pale pink lips.
"Good morning!" Her voice was bright and cheerful, with an odd formal quality. "Status report: Eve-001 successfully revived. Checking my mission now." Her head tilted, white hair cascading like silk. "You're not Jin Tsurugi."
"No," Scarlett said carefully, hand still on her sword. "I'm Scarlett Kendrick."
"Scarlett Kendrick." The girl—Eve—rolled the name around like she was tasting it. "Hmm, not in my files. Proceeding with secondary objectives then." She took a deep breath, and Scarlett could smell it, sweet enough to make her teeth ache. "So, where's Jin Tsurugi? I need to get started on the baby-making stuff right away."
"I'm sorry, what?"
Eve pulled up a holographic display from absolutely nowhere, text scrolling in her crimson eyes like she was reading from internal files. "Okay, so mission parameters are pretty clear: Find Jin Tsurugi, make babies with him, get rid of any competition, save humanity with our superior genes. Simple, right?" She smiled brighter. "It's basically a foolproof plan!"
"That's... that's insane."
"Oh, I get that a lot!" Eve laughed, a tinkling sound. "The scientists always said I was 'intensely focused' rather than crazy, but honestly, what's the difference?" She leaned forward conspiratorially. "Between you and me, I think they were just being nice. Some people can't handle a girl who knows what she wants, you know?"
The cryo-bay doors hissed open, and Elena Kozlov entered, her gray eyes immediately locking onto the new arrival. "Scarlett, we heard the revival alert—" She stopped, taking in Eve's appearance. "What is that?"
"That's so rude!" Eve pouted, looking genuinely hurt for exactly two seconds before brightening again. "I'm Eve! Well, Eve-001, technically, but that's so formal, don't you think? Just call me Eve! I'm basically a super genius at making babies!" She pulled out what looked like a small notebook from nowhere. "Adding to the list of people I might need to eliminate. Priority: Medium, I guess."
Elena's hand went to her weapon. "She's infected. Look at her eyes, her skin—"
"Not infected!" Eve corrected cheerfully. "Enhanced! They took this super deadly virus and mixed it with Jin's family DNA and put it all in me when I was just a tiny embryo! Pretty cool, right? I'm basically completely stable!" She paused, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Mostly stable. Ninety-three percent stable, which rounds up completely! That's what I always say anyway."
More footsteps echoed as the other awakened specialists arrived, drawn by the commotion. Lin Xu gasped when she saw Eve, her botanical knowledge immediately recognizing something wrong in the girl's biology. Yuki took one look and stepped back, her spiritual senses screaming warnings.