Survivor

12:16 — Remote post of the Elite Forces, Floor 118

The control room smelled of cold coffee and pent-up tension.

On a large screen, a grainy drone feed showed the roof of the old Lipent University, now quiet, covered in dust and dark debris.

There was no movement.

"What could have happened...? I can't see anything," asked Cass, leaning toward the monitor, her hands resting on the edge of the table.

"It looks like they managed to suppress the beast," replied Grant from the back of the room, his arms crossed over his chest.

He was standing by the window, staring blankly at the gray landscape below. His voice was flat, controlled, but his posture was rigid, as if any unexpected movement might break him.

"Do you think Seth… is alive?" Wes asked from a chair, rocking slightly.

He had been silent for several minutes, watching the screen with unusual concentration.

"He has to be!" Cass turned to Wes, her eyes shining with a mixture of hope and fear.
The reflection of the monitor danced across her face.

Wes brought a hand to his chin before replying.

"I thought the smoke flare meant Seth was okay... but they still haven't told us anything. Not a word from the Elites... nothing."

Grant slowly straightened up and moved toward the center of the room, his footsteps barely making a sound on the metal floor.

"Calm down," he said, looking first at Wes, then at Cass. "We just have to wait. The Elites are fast; they're efficient. If they got there on time..."

"What if they didn't make it in time?" Cass interrupted, her voice trembling slightly. "What if it was already too late?"

"Don't think about it."

"That's easy for you to say when you weren't the one who stayed behind!"

Cass clenched her fists, frustration pouring out of her. "You seem very relaxed, knowing that this was all your fault, Grant."

Grant didn't respond immediately. He took a deep breath, as if the air in the room was scarce.

"I know how much blame I bear," he said finally, looking her straight in the eye. "And the only thing I want right now is for Harper to get out of there alive, so I can look him in the face and apologize. There's nothing else on my mind right now."

Cass hissed, shaking her head.

"This isn't just about Harper! What if he hadn't stayed? Who would have? You? With your shattered hand? Or Wes, without his equipment? Or me, exhausted? We left a rookie to die for us!"

FWOOOSH!

The door to the room burst open.

A young woman, with headphones hanging around her neck and a tablet in her hand, entered with quick steps. It was Yuki, the communications operator.

Her usually serene face showed an expression of contained relief.

"Guys," she said, stopping in front of them. "I just got confirmation. Marc's team completed the rescue mission. It was successful."

Wes jumped up, the chair spinning behind him.

"Really?"

"What about Seth Harper?" Grant asked, approaching. "Is he alive?"

Yuki nodded, a small smile appearing on her lips.

"Yes. He's alive. But he's seriously injured. They're taking him to Lipent Medical Center on the 63rd floor. It will take a while to stabilize him."

Yuki looked at the three of them.

Grant, his shoulders now a little less tense, but his eyes heavy with something unspoken. Wes, relieved but still pale. Cass, who had let out a long, shaky sigh, her hands still clenched.

"It's alright," Yuki said, her voice softer. "Incidents like this... happen. You're still students. The important thing is that you all survived. Learn from this, don't dwell on it."

She put her tablet in a pocket of her uniform.

"I'm leaving now. If you need anything else, you know where to find me. Get some rest."

Yuki left the room, leaving the door ajar. A different kind of silence filled the space, one less charged with fear and more filled with questions.

Cass was the first to break it.

"If only they knew," she said, almost to herself, "that we broke the rules. That we went beyond the limits of the mission, just for a beast core…"

"Cass!" Wes looked at her, this time with a harsher tone. "What are you trying to accomplish by saying these things? Do you want them to revoke our team's license? Have us expelled from the academy?"

Grant raised a hand, calming him down.

"Leave her alone, Wes. She's right. She never agreed with what we did. She has every right to say so."

Cass looked directly at Grant, without blinking.

"It's easy to take responsibility after the fact. But just look at the results of your great plan, Grant. Mira ended up in the hospital with an injured shoulder. Seth is seriously hurt. Was it worth it? Was a core worth that?"

Grant frowned, but didn't look away.

"I'm not going to deny my guilt. But even if we had followed the mission to the letter, there was no way to know that a Class B beast was there. No recent reports indicated it."

He turned his gaze to the monitor, and he paused, the ghost of his father's expectations hanging in the air.

"One way or another, we would have run into it. And without being prepared, maybe... maybe we'd all be dead."

Wes nodded slowly.
"Grant has a point, Cass. It was an accident. There was no way to know that thing was there."

Cass looked away, fixing her gaze on the floor. The anger in her eyes began to subside, giving way to something more tired, more sorrowful.

"That's the only reason I might... I might forgive you someday, Grant. But that doesn't change the fact that you put everyone's life at risk for a trophy. Just for a meaningless core."

Grant took a step forward, not threateningly, but as if he wanted to close a distance that was not physical.

"Meaningless...? I don't expect you to forgive me. I just hope you understand that this is how it is. The plan wasn't mine alone. Deep down, we all wanted to go further. We wanted that rank, that recognition. And as questionable as my decisions were... the risk is always there. On every mission. On every sortie. We knew that from the start—and we chased that core."

Wes remained silent, thoughtful, as if those words were echoing inside him.

Cass glanced at the clock on the wall. The digital numbers read 12:28.

"Let's not continue with this," she said, rubbing her eyes. "I... plan to go visit Mira, to see how she's doing. What are you guys going to do?"

Wes took his cell phone out of his pocket. The screen had several notifications from his family.

"I'm going home. My parents are... well, you can imagine. Hysterical. I need to calm them down."

FWOOOSH.

Grant picked up his backpack from the floor, where he had left it hours earlier. He lifted it with a sharp movement.

"I'm going to visit Harper. As soon as possible."

Cass looked at him.

"Do you think they'll let you in? They said he's in serious condition."

"It doesn't matter. I'm going. Even if it's just to leave something. So... so he knows we haven't forgotten him."

Wes nodded.

"Well... see you later, then."

They left the control room one by one, each carrying a different weight, yet all sharing the same fragile relief: Seth Harper was alive.