The Safe Zone - Ascension (Book 4)

Chapter 18: Mind Games

Ethan:

A sharp, blinding light burned into my eyes, searing the edges of my mind. My thoughts were scattered and fragmented, and I couldn't understand where I was. I wasn't dead. But I wasn't alive either—the chamber—the signal—Lena. I had touched the console and overridden the signal, but something happened. I was still here. Floating in a sea of static, disconnected but not gone.

A high-pitched hum filled my ears, dulling my senses. My body was heavy and distant as if I still had a body. I could feel its weight, like an echo in the back of my consciousness, but my control over it had slipped away.

Where am I?

Suddenly, memories crashed down on me like waves—Lena's tear-streaked face, the Overseer's voice, the countdown ticking down to zero. And then—nothing. Or something more than nothing. I couldn't place or reach it, but the memory of those last moments clung to me ferociously.

A voice—a deep, hollow sound—cut through the white noise. It wasn't external, but it wasn't mine either. It echoed inside my mind, pulling at my thoughts, and I felt a familiar cold dread coil through me.

"You cannot escape, Ethan."

The voice was dark and smooth, like the caress of icy fingers across my brain—the Overseer. I could feel him, a looming shadow in the corners of my mind, watching, waiting. He wasn't just present; he was inside me. I had done precisely what he wanted—linked myself to the Directive's network. And now he was there, watching, controlling.

"I've been waiting for you," the Overseer's voice whispered, and this time, I felt it ripple through every neuron in my brain as if he was threading himself into the very fabric of my thoughts. "Your sacrifice is noble. But useless."

I tried to speak, tried to push against the pressure bearing down on me, but the sensation was overwhelming. I couldn't move, couldn't react. It was like being submerged in thick, inescapable fog.

"You've made this easier, you know," he continued, his tone almost amused. "I must admit, I didn't expect you to hand yourself over so willingly."

I struggled against the weight of his voice, against the overwhelming presence that was the Overseer. He was inside the network. I was inside the network. There was no boundary between us. But I wasn't ready to give in. I hadn't come this far to fail. Not after everything Lena and I had fought for.

"Lena..." I forced her name through the cloud of static in my mind. Her face was the only clear thing left, the one beacon I could hold onto in this growing storm of control. I had to get back to her.

But the Overseer's presence tightened like a vice around my thoughts, squeezing out every sliver of resistance. "She cannot save you. Just as you cannot save her."

Images flickered before my eyes. I wasn't sure if they were real or part of the network's twisted manipulation. I saw Lena still in the Overseer's chamber, her hands frantically working the console as she fought against the time slipping through her fingers. Her eyes were wild, desperate, filled with a deep, gnawing fear. She was alone.

And I had left her.

I tried to fight back and grasp some control, but it felt like my thoughts were being pulled apart, scattered like dust in the wind. I was losing myself, slipping into the darkness that surrounded me.

"Stop fighting it, Ethan," the Overseer's voice slithered into the edges of my mind, wrapping around my memories. "I can show you peace. I can show you the truth."

Suddenly, the world shifted. I wasn't in the static void anymore. I was standing in a place I knew all too well—a street from my past, before the war, before the Safe Zones, before the Directive's shadow had fallen across the world. The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows over the quiet suburban neighborhood. It looked... normal. Untouched by the chaos that had torn the world apart.