Concrete Jungle || Bad Omens || Noah Sebastian

Epilogue

Noah was breathing heavily, with Elise limp in his arms, her frail, unconscious body feeling as if it weighed a ton. In front of him, the masked man who led them all stood coldly watching, unmoving. Behind him, a line of other masked men, armed and ready to act. The thin line between dragging him back or killing him was written in their eyes, visible even behind those black, impenetrable masks.

The leader took a step forward. “Noah,” his voice was low, calm, as if everything was under control. “Stop. There’s no way out for you.”

Noah felt trapped. The forest loomed behind him, but the armed men had surrounded him. He couldn’t run with Elise in this condition. He wouldn’t make it with her, but he would never abandon her.

“Noah, you know we won’t let you leave.” The man in charge took another step forward. “We’re prepared to bring you back, dead or alive. And it’s not just you we’re talking about.”

Noah clutched Elise closer. He looked at her pale face, her chest barely rising with each shallow breath. There was no time. Elise wouldn’t survive another day in that place. Their experiments had destroyed her, and now she was dying in his arms.

“Noah,” the man’s voice grew colder, “do you really think you can escape? Do you think we’ll let you go that easily?”

Noah didn’t respond. His mind raced, desperately searching for a way out. Something indefinable was holding him still. Something wasn’t right. He had seen them act without hesitation before, with ruthless efficiency, yet now there was a strange slowness in their movements. The masked men seemed to be waiting for a signal that never came.

“Noah, surrender,” the man continued, his tone growing impatient. “We can still save Elise. Bring her back inside, and we might try to heal her.”

Noah felt a blind rage rise within him. Heal her? They were the ones who caused her suffering, who made her like this. Their promises were poison.

He glanced beyond the leader, assessing the distances between himself and the henchmen, studying their movements. They seemed ready, yet none raised their rifles, no one took the first step. Were they waiting for something? The hesitation in those well-trained ranks was an anomaly, and that realization burrowed into Noah’s mind like a worm.

“Noah,” the man repeated with a calmness that felt almost forced, “don’t do anything foolish.”

His words seemed to hang in the air, as if they already knew the outcome of this scene. What if they did? Noah wondered. What if this was all a setup?

The forest beckoned, a safe haven where he could disappear. The cold night air burned in his lungs, but his body remained still. Why weren’t they shooting? The doubt grew inside him, a visceral feeling that made him hyperaware. The men surrounding the masked leader gave no sign of acting, almost... waiting.

This was his moment.

Noah tightened his grip on Elise, and with a sudden, swift movement, he bolted backward toward the trees. His legs moved faster than he thought possible, as Elise’s weight became an extension of his own body. Behind him, a sharp order broke the silence, but no one followed him immediately. The sound of his footsteps pounded in his mind as he charged through the trees, not once looking back.

The crack of branches underfoot was the only sound he heard. No gunshots. No running feet. No one seemed intent on stopping him.

He ran until his lungs were on fire, until the forest grew denser, almost oppressive, and the outline of the facility was a distant memory.

The silence of the woods was almost surreal, broken only by the rustling of leaves stirred by the wind. Noah turned again toward the direction he had come from, trying to understand. His chest heaved from the effort as a thousand thoughts raced through his head.