The Reality of Corruption

Lucy slept fitfully on a battered cot against the far wall, her newly elongated teenage limbs spilling over the edges. In quieter moments, Elias might have remembered how she once curled into a tiny ball at night, clutching her plush turtle. But those days were gone. A single flickering light illuminated the safehouse’s reinforced walls, where sleek, built-in scanners shimmered at any hint of movement. High in the corners, small repair drones hovered, occasionally darting forward to inspect cracks or wiring.

A faint buzzing from a half-broken monitor on the wall provided the only other sound. The screen looped grainy propaganda from the Chronos-controlled network—praising General Ivanov’s “leadership,” warning of “terrorist rebels,” and urging citizens to report suspicious activity. Elias caught glimpses of red text announcing entire districts “secured” by Chronos forces. It made his stomach churn.

In the center of the room, Sofia sat at a narrow metal table, posture tense. She flipped through a slim digital pad that projected dull-hued holograms: notes, images, fragments of data. Heavy lines beneath her eyes betrayed exhaustion, but her fingers moved with cold determination, as if every tap and swipe carried life-or-death weight.

“Chronos isn’t just corrupt,” she said quietly, not looking up. “It’s a machine of terror, designed to crush anyone who resists.”

She angled the pad so Elias could see. Dark photographs flickered: deserted alleys strewn with bodies, half-collapsed homes, missing-person bulletins stabbed into bullet-riddled walls. Elias tightened his grip around the dented metal cup he held. If Lucy weren’t half-asleep behind them, he would have cursed aloud.

“What do you mean… terror?” he asked, forcing calm into his voice.
Sofia exhaled slowly, setting the pad down. A faint beep from the embedded scanners signaled it had registered her movement.

“Ivanov treats human lives like currency,” she murmured. “He rules by fear—public executions, forced disappearances, entire villages wiped out if they protest. I’ve seen his logs… it’s chilling.”

She spoke with unsettling composure, as though listing crimes too numerous to count. That cold steadiness only sharpened the horror. Elias felt his pulse hammering in his throat.

Keeping one eye on Lucy—who stirred in her restless sleep—Sofia began quietly:

“He’ll execute a mother in front of her children if her husband speaks against Chronos. Families vanish overnight, leaving nothing but bloodstains and bullet holes. And the worst part? It works. No one dares raise their voice again.”

She swiped to another holographic image: a cluster of bodies blurred out by digital artifacts, but small enough to be children.

“He’s also tested time-distortion on kids, forcing them into ‘missions’ they can’t survive. He calls it ‘necessary sacrifice.’”

Elias’s gut twisted. He thought of Lucy, once so full of laughter, and bile rose in his throat. Sofia saw his anguished look and lowered her voice, glancing toward Lucy:

“I… I knew a woman who tried to blow the whistle on him. When she came home, she found an urn on her doorstep with her family’s remains—no explanation, just a warning that she lived because Ivanov allowed it. Imagine the message that sends.”

A silence fell like a dead weight. Outside, a faint hum of patrol drones passed overhead. Elias clenched his jaw. Lucy could easily have been one of those children, had the time anomaly killed her outright.

Suddenly, a soft whimper from the cot. Lucy stirred, blinking groggily at the corroded ceiling. Elias rushed over, setting a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Dad?” she mumbled, voice raspy with fatigue.
“I’m here,” he replied, forcing a reassuring smile. He refused to let her see just how shaken he was.

Lucy rubbed her eyes, sitting up halfway. The sleeves of her hoodie hung awkwardly from her elongated arms. She glanced around, noticing the silent drones and glowing scanners.

“What are those?” she asked, pointing at a slim, disc-shaped drone in the corner.
“Repair drones,” Elias said softly. “They fix cracks, watch for intruders… not much else. They’re everywhere in this city.”

Lucy managed a faint smile. “They look… weird. Kinda creepy but almost cute.”

Elias let out a hushed laugh, though sadness pricked at him. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a tiny plastic figurine—an old dinosaur keychain Lucy once loved.

“Remember this?” he asked, handing it to her. “You used to pretend it was a baby raptor following you to school, back when you were so scared to go inside on your first day.”

Lucy’s eyes lit up, her fingers tracing the chipped paint on the tiny dinosaur. “Yeah… I remember. I cried that morning, and you said this little raptor would keep me safe.”

“You calmed down so fast,” Elias recalled, “you ended up comforting me instead.”

They shared a fragile smile, momentarily forgetting the bunker walls and flickering lights. Lucy held the dinosaur close, blinking away tears. In that tender pause, Sofia approached, careful to keep her tone measured in front of Lucy.

“We… we were just talking about the people who control this place,” Sofia said quietly, crouching so Lucy could hear but not be overwhelmed. “They’re behind what happened to you. They’re… dangerous.”

Lucy’s brow furrowed. “The same man… the one who does those awful things? Ivanov?”

Sofia’s gaze flicked to Elias before she nodded. “Yes. He leads Chronos. And we think he caused your time bubble, or at least his experiments did.”

Lucy swallowed, staring at the dinosaur keychain in her palm. “I just… want to be me again,” she whispered.

Before anyone could answer, a muted beep overhead announced activity at an external terminal. Sofia moved swiftly to a small monitor, scanning a grainy camera feed of the alley outside. Only a lone trash drone scuttled by, no threat detected.

“This used to be a black-market workshop,” Sofia said, gesturing around at the integrated scanners. “Body scanners in the walls, repair drones overhead… it’s safer than the streets.”
Elias exhaled, studying the cold concrete. “Safer is relative. But it’s a fortress compared to anything else we’ve seen.”

Sofia reached for a battered folder at the table. She hesitated, eyeing Lucy, then set it down unopened. “Time’s short. If we’re going to confront Ivanov—or steal from him—we need to understand the reach of his system.”

She spared Lucy the ugliest specifics, focusing on the broader picture:

Public Executions as lessons, aired relentlessly on state-run broadcasts.

Disposable Orphans molded into deadly tools under accelerated training.

Experiment Rooms in hidden facilities, where captives were forced into brutal acts for “research.”

“He demands total submission,” Sofia concluded. “No one is safe. If we want a real chance for Lucy, we can’t rely on official channels.”

Elias nodded grimly, resting a protective arm around his daughter. He caught the fear in Lucy’s eyes and steered the subject away from explicit horrors.

“Lucy,” he said softly, “remember those vacations at Greenwater Lake? We’d skip stones until the sun went down.”
A flicker of a smile danced on Lucy’s lips. “Yeah… you said I had a good arm even though I missed half the time.”
“One of my favorite weekends,” Elias murmured, “just us and the water. No watchers, no drones.”

That memory wrapped them in brief warmth. Sofia let them savor it, grateful for a moment’s reprieve from the oppressive reality.

The shortwave radio near Sofia’s makeshift lab cracked with static, shattering the calm. All three froze. Lucy hugged her turtle closer.

“Sofia,” hissed a voice through the interference, “it’s Anna. Are you there?”
Sofia leapt to adjust the frequency. “Yes. I’m here.”
“No time for pleasantries,” Anna’s voice snapped. “I’ve got a lead on a Beta Stabilizer. No guarantees, but it’s our best shot.”

Lucy straightened in her chair, heart pounding. Elias’s fists clenched in anticipation.

“Where and when?” Sofia asked, fighting the tremor in her voice.
“Tonight, midnight. Old transit tunnel off West 72nd,” Anna replied before a burst of static cut her off. “…Need you alive, so come with minimal backup. If it’s a trap, we’ll know soon enough.”

Elias and Lucy exchanged urgent glances. A possible Stabilizer. Could it be real, or a setup?

“We’ll be there,” Sofia said sharply. “But watch your back. Chronos is everywhere.”
“They always are,” Anna replied. “Just don’t be late.”

The line clicked dead. The overhead monitor sputtered, rolling out frantic news of “rebel infiltration” in the northern blocks. Sofia hurriedly muted it, shielding Lucy from the anxiety-fueled broadcast.

Silence descended as they absorbed Anna’s news. Elias noticed Lucy’s trembling hands and placed his palm gently on her back.

“We might finally have a way,” he murmured, voice tinged with cautious hope.
Lucy set her jaw, nodding. “I’m tired of waiting around,” she said. “I want to come with you. I know it’s dangerous, but… it’s me we’re trying to save.”

Sofia glanced at Elias, then at Lucy, torn. “Ivanov’s patrols are brutal. There could be snipers… drones… We can’t risk—”
“I’m not a baby,” Lucy insisted, eyes flashing with a mix of childish stubbornness and teenage determination. “I’m scared, but I need to do this.”

Elias exchanged a worried look with Sofia. “We’ll figure it out together, okay? First, we prep. Anna said minimal backup, so we travel light.”

They gathered gear: a meager med kit, crude masks to fool city cameras, an old data drive with Chronos research snippets. The generator rumbled ominously, and the safehouse lights flickered. Lucy clutched both her dinosaur figurine and the plush turtle, stuck between her lost childhood and a grim adult reality.

Suddenly, a thunderous rumble shook the walls. The scanners beeped in alarm. On the monitor’s grainy feed, the night sky glowed a sickly orange far off in the city, then static consumed the image.

“What was that?” Lucy gasped, heart hammering.
Elias frowned. “An explosion… maybe Chronos, maybe rebels. Either way, too close.”

Sofia checked the now-dead feed, brow tight. “The sweeps must be intensifying. Anna warned us.” Another tremor rocked the floor. One of the drones zigzagged drunkenly, trying to stabilize.

“We have to move,” Sofia whispered, voice taut. “If Chronos suspects we’re here—”
Lucy exhaled shakily, the flicker of light distorting her anxious expression.

“Dad,” she whispered, “what if… we don’t make it?”
“We will,” Elias said firmly, trying to hide his own fear. “We have to.”

A shrill beep suddenly cut through the room: a sensor picking up movement just outside. Sofia and Elias locked eyes. The safehouse was no longer safe.

On the backup feed, they spotted armored drones hovering in the alley, scanning the walls. Dust and smoke from the distant explosion drifted around them in eerie swirls.

Lucy backed away from the screen, and Elias pulled her close.
“We leave now,” he said in a low, urgent tone. “Forget midnight. We’ll find Anna, or hide if we must. Staying here isn’t an option.”

Sofia nodded, face grim. She grabbed her equipment bag, motioning for them to follow down a narrow corridor toward a rusty freight elevator that led into the sewers. Lucy’s heart hammered. She tightened her grip on the dinosaur figure as Elias guided her inside.

“This is it, Lucy,” he whispered. “No matter what, we stay together.”
“Right,” she managed, voice trembling but determined.

They traded one final glance—father, daughter, and the scientist who had once built the very research that doomed them. Overhead, the dying light buzzed, and the battered monitor sparked out in a final gasp of static. Outside, the drone hum grew louder, encroaching like mechanical vultures.

With a groaning squeal, the ancient elevator descended into darkness, leaving the flickering bunker behind. At the top, the scanners recorded their exit, uncertain whether to mark them as fugitives or prey. Beyond the walls, Chronos’s city roiled with chaos, and time was running out.

As the elevator rattled downward, a deafening crash echoed above—something impacting the safehouse roof. Lucy clutched Elias’s sleeve, eyes wide in the darkness. The power cut out in a heartbeat, sealing them in near-total black.

“We have no choice but to keep moving,” Sofia whispered, her voice seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere in the gloom.

A heavy thud reverberated through the concrete, followed by the angry buzz of drones scouring the upper floors. The three of them stood frozen, hearts hammering, until the elevator finally ground to a halt. Only then did Lucy dare breathe again, pressing the dinosaur and turtle tight to her chest.

Whatever waited above, they couldn’t face it now. Their only hope lay in reaching Anna, snagging the Beta Stabilizer, and outrunning Ivanov’s tightening grip. For Lucy—caught between a stolen childhood and an uncertain future—the next hours were her best, and perhaps last, chance at salvation.