She Belongs With Us

The corridors trembled as more alarms blared, the facility roaring to life around them. Jessica sprinted ahead, heart pounding like a war drum in her chest. Behind them, the pods continued to open, releasing nightmares built in her image.

Leanna cursed as she shoved Olivia forward. "Faster! We don’t know how many of them there are!"

Jessica risked a glance back—and felt her stomach lurch. More figures stepped into the light. Not identical, but close. Uncanny. Their faces too smooth, too symmetrical. Their eyes glowed faintly in the dim emergency lighting, scanning the corridor like targeting software.

“We need to seal them in!” Olivia shouted, already scanning for something—anything—to barricade the hall.

“There’s no time!” Leanna snapped. “Keep moving!”

Ahead, a steel door marked EMERGENCY EXIT loomed like a lifeline. Jessica slammed her hand against the keypad: Access Denied.

“No, no, no—” she hissed, jamming her thumb against the panel again. Still nothing.

“They’re coming!” Olivia cried, backing away.

Jessica’s gaze snapped to a nearby vent—narrow, but big enough. “There!”

Leanna didn’t hesitate. She dropped to her knees and yanked the grate loose with her bare hands. “Inside! Now!”

Olivia slid in first, Jessica following a breath behind. As Leanna crawled through, a pale hand shot forward—grabbing her ankle with terrifying strength.

Jessica’s breath caught. “LEANNA!”

Leanna twisted, kicking hard. The clone didn’t flinch. Its grip tightened. The expression on its face remained neutral—almost bored.

Jessica didn’t think. She grabbed Leanna’s gun, aimed, and fired point-blank through the vent bars. The clone jerked back, not in pain, but in recognition—as if recalibrating.

Leanna scrambled in. Olivia slammed the grate shut, bolting it from the inside.

The clones stared through the mesh. Expressionless. Unblinking.
One of them spoke—its voice flat, perfect, and cold.

“She belongs with us.”

Jessica’s blood ran cold. She didn’t wait to hear more.

The crawl through the vents was tight and disorienting, the metal groaning beneath them as smoke and heat pressed in from behind. When they finally emerged outside, it felt like surfacing from a nightmare. The jungle air was heavy, humid—but real.

Behind them, the facility smoldered, alarms still howling into the night. Something inside had caught fire. Maybe something had failed. Or maybe… something had begun.

Jessica dropped to her knees in the dirt, lungs heaving. They had made it out. But not clean. And not alone.