XEN24

I gasped awake, choking on thick, acrid smoke. My ears rang, a high-pitched shriek piercing through the distant sound of roaring flames. My body refused to move, pinned beneath something heavy, my mind struggling to break free from the suffocating haze of unconsciousness.

Where was I? What happened?

Then it hit me—the explosion. The lab. The NBCR going critical.

I was supposed to be dead.

My breath came in ragged, uneven gulps as I blinked through the blinding glow of scattered fires. The heat seared my skin, but the cold realization in my chest burned even deeper. I had been at the center of it. The blast should have torn me apart, left nothing behind.

And yet, I was still here.

Pain surged through my body, sharp and unbearable. I clenched my teeth, trying to push myself up—only to realize I couldn't. My body felt wrong, broken. The weight pressing down on me sent fresh agony through my spine, but when I looked down, my stomach twisted in horror.

Blood. My own. A dark pool beneath me, soaking into my torn clothes.

Then my breath hitched. My legs—no, they weren't there. They were trapped, crushed beneath a fallen metal shelf, the same one that once held our most dangerous chemicals.

Panic clawed up my throat, but before I could even process the nightmare I had woken up to, I heard it.

"Jamal! Please! Answer us!"

Their voices were frantic, desperate. Eliana? Steven? Scott?

I tried to call out, but my voice failed me. The world spun, my vision darkening again, and I barely had time to wonder—

How the hell was I still alive?

Hours later

(Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom)

[3:34 pm]

"Doctor, is he going to be alright?"

"Doctor, please tell me what's going to happen to my boy. Let me see him!"

"Madam, please. We are doing everything we can to preserve the life of your son, but seeing him now would not be advisable."

"Nonsense! I want to see my boy this instant! Let me through!"

Oh, my dear mother… what is to become of her when she sees the shape I'm in? She had no idea how bad it was, only that I'd been hurt, and she'd rushed to the hospital as quickly as she could.

The doctor tried in vain to stop her, but she charged past him, slamming into his shoulder as she pushed through.

My mother burst through the ward doors. She ran to me, her eyes wide, but still unaware of the devastation she was about to face. I was lying there, wrapped in hospital sheets, from my chest down to where my legs used to be.

By then, I had regained some consciousness, hearing the commotion as she made her way to me. I was awake, but too weak to move.

"Jamal, my dear, are you alright? You had me so worried when I heard the news!"

"Mom, I'm… I'm alright," I said, my voice trembling.

"Oh, good Lord, don't scare me like that again!"

She always held my hand when we had heart-to-heart conversations, or when she was anxious. But this time, she couldn't find my hand beneath the sheets. She pushed the fabric aside, and the shock hit her all at once. Her eyes went wide in horror.

She gasped, then collapsed into my father's arms as he rushed in, catching her just before she hit the floor. He froze stoned, as the sight of my body engulfed his senses.

For the first time I saw my father's face damped with tears, my old man was as stiff as a rock, he had a way of concealing his pain but this time he could not control himself, he burst into tears.

The doctor, who had been trying to keep the situation under control, couldn't hold back his own tears as he watched my parents crumble.

"Please, give them a moment," he said softly. "We need to attend to him."

My parents were escorted out, their sobs echoing down the hall. As they left, the doctor turned back to me, his face grim.

"I know this is hard to process, but we have to move quickly," he said, preparing to leave the room.

Before he stepped out, I managed to ask, "What about my friends? The others from the lab… how are they?"

"They're… in better shape than you. But… there's something strange about your condition. You all have abnormalities, things we haven't seen before. We need to transfer you to a hospital with better facilities. You're not the only one—your friends, too…" His voice trailed off, the unease in his eyes too clear to ignore.

I could feel my pulse quicken. "Abnormalities?" What did he mean by that? What was happening to us?

As I drifted in and out of consciousness, my mind raced. The thought of what lay ahead gnawed at me, but the darkness of sleep pulled me under.

Some hours later

When I awoke, I found myself in an unfamiliar room. The sterile white walls and the sharp beeping of machines told me I was still in a hospital, but everything else felt… wrong.

A team of men in black suits surrounded me, their eyes cold and calculating. They had the look of government agents, the kind you see in movies, only these men felt real—too real.

They weren't alone. A trio of scientists stood nearby, each one wearing a lab coat with an emblem I couldn't quite make out. My vision was still blurry, but I knew something was wrong.

The agents seemed to be waiting for something. One of the scientists—the lead one, I guessed—leaned in close to the doctor. They whispered, but I could still hear a few words clearly enough.

"The boy is coming with us."

My heart skipped a beat.

The agents closed in around me, and I could feel their presence like a suffocating cloud. This wasn't good. Something was about to go horribly wrong.

I tried to move, to break free, but my body betrayed me. I was strapped down to the bed, my limbs too weak to resist. I could barely even lift my head.

One of the scientists rushed forward, holding a syringe filled with a glowing liquid. It pulsed with an eerie light. Before I could react, the needle was in my arm.

My vision blurred further, my body growing heavy as if lead had replaced my bones.

"Get him ready," one of the agents murmured coldly, the words echoing in my ears.

The scientists nodded in unison, their faces emotionless as they prepared whatever was next for me. The liquid burned through my veins, and I could feel my senses slipping away.

Several hours later

When I woke again, the world around me had shifted. I was no longer in the hospital I remembered. This room was more clinical, more controlled, as if it belonged to a high-security facility.

The government agents were still here, standing by the door like silent sentinels, but now they were joined by more doctors in white coats. They seemed to be watching me closely, their eyes filled with curiosity, caution… and something darker I couldn't place.

"Jamal, can you hear us?" a doctor asked, his voice calm but firm.

I nodded, my throat dry, my mouth parched. "What's going on?" I rasped.

The doctor hesitated, then spoke in a low, cautious tone. "You and your friends have been exposed to something… unprecedented. We don't know what exactly, but your DNA is changing. It's… evolving."

My heart pounded in my chest, and I struggled to sit up, but my body screamed in protest.

"Changing?" I croaked, my voice shaking. "What do you mean?"

The doctor's expression darkened. "We don't know how to stop it yet, or what the final result will be."

I looked at my hands, half-expecting them to be morphing into something unrecognizable. They still looked like my hands—battered, bruised—but normal.

"What about my friends?" I demanded.

The doctor's eyes flicked to a monitor on the wall, showing the vital signs of my friends. "They're… stable. For now. But we need more time. We need to run more tests."

My mind raced. What had we unleashed in that lab? What was happening to us? What would be the cost of our curiosity?

I stared at the ceiling, the weight of the unknown pressing down on me. The answers I sought seemed just out of reach, like a fog that wouldn't lift.