Apocalypse: Insurgence

Chapter 12: The Hollow

Xammy, Jenna, and Malik trudged onward, the suffocating mist pressing in from all sides. Despite Malik's injury and their exhaustion, a sense of urgency fueled their steps. Protocol Zero loomed over them like a dark shadow, heightening their awareness of every twisted vine, every unnatural sound surrounding them.

After hours of disoriented wandering, the fog finally lifted enough to reveal something extraordinary. There, tucked away within the barren desert landscape, stood the shadowed outline of a heavily fortified structure-the one place spoken of only in conspiratorial whispers: Area 51. Its stark, sterile walls rose from the ground, towering over the team like a sentinel. Xammy exchanged a glance with Jenna and Malik; even in their weakened state, they all understood that whatever answers they were seeking might lie within.

Navigating closer, they stumbled upon a hidden access tunnel, unguarded but emitting a low hum. It was a calculated risk, but they knew they were out of options. Xammy carefully led them inside, staying close to the walls as they moved through the darkened corridor, each step echoing against the metallic floors.

The passage opened into a vast underground hangar, filled with abandoned files, strange machinery, and maps detailing regions that had been blacked out on any known map of the world. Xammy's eyes scanned the documents, heart pounding as she pieced together fragments. One map, in particular, drew her gaze-it depicted the Earth's crust, showing intricate pathways spiraling downwards to a central landmass labeled simply: Pangaea.

As the reality sank in, Malik whispered, "Hollow Earth... it's not just a myth."

Xammy's hand instinctively tightened around her aunt's notebook, now a hidden treasure she hadn't yet explored. She felt the weight of her aunt's presence here, as if guiding her toward the truth. This place-the files, the maps, the secrets-was part of a legacy she was only beginning to understand.

Buzz-Buzz-Buzz-

Suddenly, the air crackled with the static of a radio transmission. Xammy quickly grabbed her communicator. A familiar voice, clear yet laced with tension, cut through: "This is Command. We've tracked your location. Preparing extraction in ten minutes. Retrieve what files you can."

Heart pounding, Xammy signaled Jenna and Malik. They hurriedly collected as many files as they could carry, stuffing them into their bags. But just before they turned to leave, Xammy hesitated, her gaze lingering on the map of Pangaea. Her aunt had spent her life searching for answers here; this map felt like her aunt's final legacy, a mystery she was now obligated to unveil.

With the files secure, they made their way to the extraction point, where a helicopter descended from the thick, swirling clouds above. As they climbed aboard, Xammy cast one last look at Area 51's concealed depths, feeling the weight of the government's secrets pressing on her like a suffocating fog.

---

Back in the Global Union facility, the team was treated for their injuries, confined to medical rooms under tight surveillance. The files they had gathered were confiscated immediately upon their return, vanishing into the hands of higher authorities. As they recuperated, Xammy felt a growing sense of unease, a nagging doubt about everything she'd been taught. Protocol Zero, Hollow Earth, Pangaea-if these secrets were real, what else had the government hidden?

Lying in the sterile, white room, Xammy pulled out her aunt's notebook, her fingers tracing its worn cover. The truth lay within these pages, and she was determined to uncover it, no matter the cost.

---

Back in her quarters, Xammy sat alone, the only sound the faint hum of fluorescent lights. She held her aunt's notebook, feeling its well-worn cover and the weight of the secrets it contained. Taking a deep breath, she flipped it open, revealing pages filled with tightly scrawled handwriting, sketches, and charts. It read like a diary-her aunt's personal log, detailing experiments and discoveries too dangerous to be shared openly.

The first entries described her aunt's initial work on a microbial organism recently discovered in melting glaciers. "An ancient strain, one with unknown origins," she wrote. At first, these microorganisms seemed inert, mere remnants of a forgotten era. But as her aunt experimented with them, applying different environmental stimuli and exposing them to modern compounds, she noted an astonishing development: the microbes began to adapt. Over time, they demonstrated behaviors resembling intelligence, forming cooperative colonies, even responding to her aunt's interventions as if they were evolving purposefully.

Then, Xammy's heart raced as she reached a section marked with a red ribbon-her aunt's account of the "accident." One night, while attempting to isolate and document the adaptive traits of these microbes, a containment seal broke. The microorganisms, exposed to certain chemicals in the lab, underwent an unprecedented transformation. Her aunt described witnessing the microbes linking together, forming threads that grew into fungal networks, and then branching out to mimic the complexity of plant roots. The result was a parasitic fungi of frightening adaptability-organisms that could override the biology of anything they touched, embedding themselves into hosts and growing stronger with each new victim.

In a later entry, Xammy's aunt wrote of how ancient civilizations might have encountered a similar organism. Her research hinted that this microbe wasn't new; it had been part of a catastrophe thousands of years ago. Ancient records recovered from distant, submerged ruins described an epidemic that decimated entire populations. Civilizations, once thriving, turned to ash as a mysterious infection swept through their ranks. There were myths of a single, controlling heart deep within the Earth, a central "brain" of this parasitic network that held sway over all connected life.

These ancient peoples, sensing the peril, had fought back, launching desperate attempts to destroy the entity. According to her aunt's notes, they failed. Unable to kill it, they resorted to sealing it away, trapping the parasitic network-and the continent it had consumed, Pangaea-within the Hollow Earth. They constructed intricate barriers and seals, burying the threat beneath layers of bedrock to prevent it from spreading to the surface world.

A chill ran through Xammy as she read the final entry. Her aunt's handwriting was jagged, hurried. "The Global Union must never open these doors. This is more than science. This is survival." It was as if her aunt knew the horrors hidden below, the cost of reawakening the sealed civilization and the parasitic heart within.

Closing the notebook, Xammy's hands shook. The weight of her aunt's knowledge was staggering, and with each revelation, a deeper fear gnawed at her. This wasn't just about containment breaches or rogue fungi-it was a relic of an ancient world, a warning from history that the Global Union had blindly ignored.