No Place Left to Run

The lab was silent, except for the faint hum of dying fluorescent lights. The gang stood frozen, staring at Dr. Elias Monroe as Jess’s mother’s voice still echoed from Leanna’s phone. The weight of the revelation settled on Jess like a lead blanket.

She wasn’t changed. She wasn’t randomly selected. She was made. The words felt unreal, like reading a conspiracy theory on some forgotten message board. But the expression on Monroe’s face told her everything—he had known. He had known the truth and had chosen to help them anyway.

"I was part of it," her mother had said. Part of what? A researcher? A puppet? My handler?

Jess barely had time to process before the walls seemed to shake with a deep, echoing boom.

Monroe’s eyes widened. "They found us."

A second explosion rocked the building, sending dust cascading from the ceiling. The overhead lights flickered wildly, casting eerie, shifting shadows along the walls.

Ryan snapped to attention. "We need to move. Now."

Monroe ran to a locked cabinet and wrenched it open, shoving a stack of files into Leanna’s hands. "Take these. It’s all I have left." His face was grim. "And run."

The hall outside erupted with gunfire.

"Go!" Monroe roared.

Leanna grabbed Jess, yanking her toward the emergency exit. The others followed, sprinting as the metallic clack-clack of boots echoed down the corridor. They barely made it past the research bay when the first armed men burst through the front doors.

Jess stole a glance back. They weren’t soldiers.

No military insignia. No government uniforms. These men wore sleek, black combat gear, unmarked, their faces concealed behind tactical visors. Corporate. She barely had time to register the realization before a bullet whizzed past her ear.

"Get to the trees!" Kevin shouted, shoving Hannah forward as they barreled through the rusted emergency exit. They plunged into the dense forest behind the lab, lungs burning, feet pounding against the soft earth. The thick undergrowth made it nearly impossible to run in a straight line, but it also made them harder to track.

Jess risked one last glance back.

Dr. Monroe stood at the entrance of the lab, defiant. The lead agent—the one who had fired at them—raised his weapon. A single shot rang out. Monroe crumpled. Jess didn’t scream. She didn’t stop. She just ran.

*******************************************

The car ride was suffocatingly silent.

They had made it back to their vehicle a mile from the lab and driven for hours, taking backroads and stopping twice to make sure they weren’t being followed. No one spoke. No one even breathed too loudly. The weight of what had happened sat heavy on all of them.

Monroe was dead. The files in Leanna’s lap were all they had left of him.

Jess sat curled in the passenger seat, knees pulled to her chest, staring blankly out the window as the trees blurred past. She felt *nothing*. Not fear, not anger—just a vast, empty space inside her where something used to be.

Leanna was the one who finally broke the silence. "We can’t go back to the Airbnb."

"They probably raided it already," Olivia murmured. "They know who we are. Where we’ve been staying. We’re being hunted."

Kevin, driving, flexed his hands on the steering wheel. "So what’s the plan? We just keep running?"

Ryan’s voice was low. "We find Jess’s mother."

Jess flinched, her fingernails digging into her arms. "She’s part of this. She’s one of them—"

Leanna shook her head. "Maybe. But she’s also the only person left who might have answers."

"Or she might turn us in the second she sees us," Kevin snapped. "We have no idea where her loyalties lie."

"She didn’t sound like she wanted this," Hannah added quietly. "Maybe she tried to get away from it. Maybe that’s why she left."

Jess swallowed hard. She wanted to believe that. She needed to believe that. Because if her mother had been lying to her this whole time. If she had been nothing more than an experiment, then who the hell was she?

******************************************

They pulled into the parking lot of a lakeside bungalow motel just before sunrise. It was the kind of place that smelled like mildew and regret, the neon VACANCY sign buzzing unevenly in the damp morning air.

Jess sat on the bed in their small, one-room rental, staring at the floor as the others moved around her. She barely noticed Ryan speaking to the motel clerk. Barely heard Olivia whispering to Leanna about what if Monroe was the only thing keeping us alive?

She was unraveling. She hadn’t even realized she was shaking until Leanna sat beside her, pressing a warm hand to hers. "Jess. You’re safe. We made it."

Jess let out a strangled breath. "No. We’re not. They want me. They need me alive to complete whatever the hell they started. And now you’re all tangled up in it too. I did this to you."

Leanna squeezed her hand. "No, you didn’t. They did this. And we’re going to fight back."

Jess laughed bitterly, the sound hollow. "How? By running forever? Hiding in shitty motels until they decide I’m not worth chasing anymore?"

"No," Ryan said from across the room, arms crossed. "By finding out what the hell they actually want. By finding your mother."

Jess exhaled shakily, rubbing at her face. "And what if she’s one of them?"

Ryan’s expression was unreadable. "Then we decide what happens next."

A long silence stretched between them. Then, finally, Jess nodded.

"Alright. Let’s find her."

Leanna let out a breath, reaching for the stack of files Monroe had given them. "Then let’s start with these."

Jess closed her eyes as the others got to work, her mind spiraling through fragments of memories she wasn’t sure were hers. A white-walled room. The sound of a heartbeat monitor. A hand brushing through her hair.

“She’s just a child.”

Her own voice, whispering back from the past.

“I don’t want to disappear.”