The Safe Zone - Reckoning (Book 2)

Chapter 10: Masks of Authority

Lena:

The air in the Forgotten City was oppressive, as if the weight of history pressed down on us, a heavy, suffocating shroud. It wasn't just the ruins that loomed around us—the once-great towers that had crumbled into dust and the remnants of a world long gone—but the ghosts of the truth we had uncovered. Zara's final words echoed in my mind, weaving into every breath I took.

"The Directive... it's already in motion."

I couldn't shake the image of her lifeless body from my mind, the blood pooling beneath her as she whispered her last confession. Zara had betrayed us, but in the end, she had been a pawn—another victim of the Directive's far-reaching hand. She had been desperate and scared, and now, she was dead. And we were left with the aftermath.

I tried to steady my breathing as we moved deeper into the Forgotten City, but my heart wouldn't stop pounding. Ethan was beside me, his face set in that grim, determined mask he always wore when things got bad. I didn't have to ask to know his mind was racing like mine. The revelations about the Directive—that they were controlling both sides, the Enforcers and the resistance—had turned everything upside down.

Who could we trust now? Who was pulling the strings, and how far did their influence reach?

We had found the lab and uncovered the truth about the Directive's plan to reshape humanity, but now we had more questions than answers. Zara's warning—about the war that had already started—felt like a ticking time bomb that could go off at any moment. And here we were, standing in the middle of it, blind to what was happening around us.

"We have to figure this out," I muttered under my breath, my eyes darting between the buildings around us as we moved. "We need to know who's really in control."

Ethan glanced at me, his jaw clenched. "And we need to stay alive long enough to do that."

The city was eerily quiet, the silence that set my teeth on edge. I had always hated silence. It made me feel vulnerable and exposed. Out here, the quiet wasn't a comfort. It was a warning. The Enforcers could be anywhere, and after what we'd discovered in the lab, I knew they wouldn't stop until they erased every trace of what we learned.

I forced myself to focus, pushing down the swirling thoughts that threatened to overwhelm me. We were heading toward the city's center, where the last of the Forgotten City's inhabitants had been driven underground, hiding from the Enforcers' constant surveillance. Callum's intel had pointed us here—another pocket of resistance, but now, I wasn't sure if we were walking into an ally's arms or straight into a trap.

Zara's betrayal had shattered the last threads of trust I had left. Every face we passed, and every shadow that moved in the corner of my vision felt like a threat.

"What do you think the scientists will tell us?" I asked, my voice hushed as we approached the underground entrance that Callum had marked on the map. "Do you think they're part of it?"

Ethan's expression didn't change, but I saw the flicker of doubt in his eyes. "I don't know. But we don't have a choice. We need answers, and this is our only lead."

I nodded, swallowing the bitter taste of fear that had lodged itself in my throat. He was right. We were running out of time, and the longer we waited, the closer the Directive came to completing their plans.

I wasn't sure if we'd survive long enough to stop them.

Ethan:

The entrance to the underground facility was hidden behind the crumbling facade of an old subway station, its rusted gates barely visible beneath the layers of grime and debris that had accumulated over the years. I crouched low, eyes scanning the shadows for any movement. The Enforcers had been here recently. I could see the faint traces of their presence in the scuffed footprints in the dirt and the faint scent of exhaust from their vehicles.