Hidden Enemies | The Prime Archives #2 ✓

bonus chapter: victor

Victor's blue eyes snapped open, his heart jackhammering away in his ribcage.

Breathing heavily, he whipped his head around to see the frantic pulsing of the alarm connected to his computer set up in the corner of his bedroom. Sweat trickled down his warm skin as he carefully climbed out of the sheets.

With his brows furrowed and his lips pulled into a tight sneer, he made his way over to the array of screens ahead of him. He pressed a button on his broken keyboard. One of the screens hummed to life, presenting a grainy image of the security cameras he had posted around his quarters.

The security system wasn't supposed to be going off. There was no reason for it to be.

No one knew he was here—except for Bella. But Bella was still sleeping in their bed, oblivious to whatever was happening outside.

For the past year, he had been running from Atlas. Sometime during his exile, he met Bella. In fact, she had saved him.

Had it not been for her, he would've been captured by Atlas and thrown in The Vault for the rest of his miserable life. Had it not been for her, he would have ended it before they got the chance to.

She made the shame, loneliness, and pain he carried on his shoulders a little more bearable.

Apart from his late mother, she was the only person who saw him for who he was and not as the monster everyone portrayed him to be. He wasn't Apex—the ex-bioterrorist who helped ruin the world. He wasn't Victor Shaw—the prodigal son of Pearce Shaw, the Director of Atlas.

To her, he was still the little boy who loved the beach and the sunsets along the coast of California.

She saw him for him. She accepted all of his flaws. She loved him.

When they decided to run off together, hopping from state to state and motel to motel, he vowed to keep her safe. No matter the cost. His jaw clenched as he redirected his attention back to the fuzzy security cam footage on the desk near his bed.

The camera that set off his alarm was the one stationed out front. Squinting, he spotted someone in a dark blue Atlas hoodie with their hands in their pockets standing on his doorstep. A white van was parked on the dirt road behind them.

Victor blanched. The blood in his veins turned to ice.

How did they find us?

His fingers flew across his keyboard as he initiated the lockdown protocol on the house—which was really just a glorified shack one earthquake away from sliding into the Pacific Ocean. But it was cheap; and the previous owner was a conspiracy theorist—hence the lockdown protocol.

It was also in the same town he grew up in.

As the doors began to lock themselves and the metal shudders guarded the windows, Victor heard Bella stirring in the bed.

He paid her no mind, as his eyes were still glued to the security cam footage.

Atlas shouldn't have been able to find them there. They had been laying low for months, living the shadows and keeping their exposure to the outside world as limited as possible. Not paper trails, no internet presence. They didn't even have cable TV in the house. The only time he left his shack and the secluded area it was built in was to get groceries and supplies.

How had they found him?

Exhaling slowly, he urged himself to calm down. Getting worked up would only make things worse. If things popped off, he needed to have a clear head. He had to keep Bella and himself safe.