Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 856 - 858

Chapter 856: Chapter 858

Tamir sat nearby, whittling a piece of wood with a blade far too sharp for casual use, but his hands were steady. Rhea lay wrapped in blankets on a cot not far from them, her body still weak from the last raid. She hadn’t spoken since that night, but her eyes watched everything. Jude knew she was still there. Just quiet. Always quiet.

They couldn’t stay here much longer. Their presence was known now, and although the last strike had crippled one of Ascendia’s major hubs, it had also provoked them. Satellite feeds confirmed increased patrols in nearby sectors, security drones deploying in tight grids, and new units being airlifted in under the guise of "reconstruction assistance." They were tightening the noose, preparing for something. Jude had seen this before, when the enemy realized they couldn’t control the fire, they smothered the entire forest. And they were the forest.

Elias returned that night. Mud on his boots, torn sleeve, but intact. His face was older now, weathered by guilt and missions that had taken more than they gave. He approached the fire slowly, nodding to Tamir, who gave a quiet grunt in return. Jude met him halfway.

"You’ve seen it?" Elias asked.

Jude nodded. "They’re building something east of Talserra. Too big for a standard base. Power grids are overloaded. Supplies moving in every three hours. We think it’s a fallback site. Possibly a control center."

"It’s not just a base," Elias said, voice low. "It’s a hive. They’re calling it Aeon Facility. It’s where they test the second-generation control tech. Not just kids anymore. Adults too. Volunteers and abductees. No more memory wipes. Full personality reprogramming. And they’ve managed to stabilize it."

Jude’s jaw tightened. "How many?"

"Over three hundred subjects. Maybe more. We don’t know how many made it through the trials, but the ones who did, they’re not like us anymore. They don’t remember who they were. And they obey orders without hesitation."

Rhea stirred in her sleep, and both men paused, watching her as her brow furrowed briefly before relaxing again.

"We need to end this," Jude said finally.

Elias nodded. "We will. But not with brute force. That facility’s underground. Reinforced. We need to get inside, destroy the mainframe, and leak everything. All the footage. All the data. Once the public sees what’s been happening..."

"They’ll deny it," Jude muttered. "Or twist it."

"Not this time. I have contacts. Ones who’ve been waiting for real evidence. This is it."

For the first time in weeks, Jude allowed himself a moment of hope. It was brief, cautious, but real. The plan took shape quickly over the next few days. Infiltration routes, diversionary attacks, extraction teams. Tamir volunteered to lead the strike force. Jude refused at first, but Tamir didn’t back down. He argued his case clearly, he was fast, efficient, and had more field experience now than most of the others. Jude relented, reluctantly, assigning two of their best operatives to him.

Rhea insisted on coming too. She could walk again, though still fragile. Jude wanted to say no, but she only looked at him with that quiet, stubborn resolve of hers, and he knew it was pointless.

On the night of the mission, rain fell again, just like it had the night Mina died. The team split into three groups, diversionary, infiltration, and tech extraction. Jude and Rhea were part of the third, heading for the core server beneath the facility. Elias stayed above with a remote ops team, managing comms and backup protocols.

The Aeon Facility was buried beneath a fake research center, high-tech, clean, guarded by security drones disguised as maintenance bots. The outer defense was tougher than expected, but the diversion worked. Explosions rocked the southern wall, and most of the guards scrambled to respond. Jude’s team slipped inside through the maintenance tunnel beneath the power grid. Rhea guided them, tablet in hand, eyes darting across schematics and energy readings.

They reached the server room within sixteen minutes. No alarms. No contact.

That was the first sign something was wrong.

Jude and Rhea entered the chamber, its walls humming with soft blue light. In the center stood the mainframe, a sleek monolith of data and power, humming like a heartbeat. Rhea moved fast, plugging into the terminal, initiating the download sequence. Jude stood watch, checking each entry point, each shadow.

Then the lights went red.

A door slammed shut behind them, followed by a hiss, gas. Rhea covered her face with a scarf immediately, tossing Jude a small vial. He bit the cap off, drank it. Antitoxin. Not perfect, but enough to slow the effects. Voices crackled over the intercom, distorted, mechanical, but familiar.

"Hello, Jude."

He froze. That voice, it wasn’t possible.

"You shouldn’t have come back."

Rhea’s fingers flew over the interface, trying to override the lockdown. Jude backed to her side, weapon drawn, eyes scanning the room. A panel slid open, revealing a chamber, glass, thick and clear.

Inside it stood a boy. No older than Tamir.

"Do you know him?" the voice asked. "You should. He’s yours."

Jude’s heart dropped.

"No name. No file. Just DNA. One of many left behind in the early years. We found him. Raised him. Improved him."

The boy opened his eyes. They were pale blue, like ice. Empty.

"He’s not yours anymore. He belongs to the program."

The chamber began to open. Rhea completed the data dump and yanked the drive free.

"Jude," she whispered.

He raised his weapon. The boy stepped out. Calm. Graceful. Efficient.

"Stand down," Jude ordered.

The boy didn’t flinch.

A fight broke out, fast, brutal. The boy moved like nothing Jude had ever seen, countering every attack with terrifying precision. Rhea tried to help, sending a voltage surge through the floor, but it barely slowed him. In the end, it was Rhea who found the solution. She triggered the internal lockdown, sealing the boy behind the containment field again.

"He’s not gone," she gasped, bleeding from a cut on her cheek. "Just stalled."

They ran.