Olivia's POV
So, the first phase of our plan: take all the records from Anika's lab.
Not the main lab. Vince thought that one was buried deeper, more protected, and only people like Jonathan Patterson knew about it. But this lab was real enough. It was working, active, and packed with documents, footage, and evidence that could blow everything wide open.
The silence in the tunnel felt alive. Each echo of our footsteps sounded like the past coming back. The concrete walls, covered in mould and old stains, curved around us like the ribs of a buried animal. I stayed close behind Vince, matching his pace as he led us through the underground maze, his grip steady on the flashlight that swept across the path ahead. Sebastian shadowed me, occasionally steadying me with a hand to my back.
We were here.
The lab Vince had whispered about, the one buried beneath fake permits and sealed off to the world. The place where they did it. The experiments.
My hands were shaking.
"Left hallway leads to the primary lab," Vince muttered. "Security systems should still be running on backup, but Luke's working from the van. He'll have remote access in ninety seconds."
Sebastian nodded, glancing at his watch. "We get what we came for, and we don't split up."
"I know," I said, my voice sharper.
Vince halted at a rusted steel door, scanning an old badge through a cracked panel. It blinked red, then green.
The door groaned open like something alive.
Fluorescent lights buzzed to life. I stepped inside and immediately wished I hadn't.
Rows of empty glass chambers lined the walls. They were too small for adults. A faint smell of bleach and decay still lingered in the air. Medical trays, syringes, and shredded straps were tossed across metal counters.
"God," I breathed.
"This was one of the emotional stimulus labs," Vince said grimly. "They tested extreme response conditioning here. Crying, isolation, affection deprivation."
"And we were supposed to be the control group," I whispered.
"No," Sebastian said beside me, his voice low and hard. "We were always part of the experiment."
We moved deeper. Screens blinked awake as Vince powered on the central server. "Luke, talk to me."
"I'm in," Luke's voice buzzed through our earpieces. "Internal firewall's a dinosaur, but it's clunky. Look for a directory called ECHO_Prime/InternalFootage. They logged everything. Even test failures."
"Copy," Vince replied, fingers flying over the keyboard. "Pulling drives now. Give me five."
While he worked, I moved toward a row of drawers labelled Psych Level – Group A. I opened one—and froze.
Files.
Labelled with names.
Children.
Each manila folder was stamped with subject IDs and dates. I found one: "Subject 018 – Aaron Mathew."
My blood turned to ice. I flipped it open.
Heart rate charts. Audio logs. Screenshots of surveillance footage.
Lines and lines of text detailing emotional reactions, sleeplessness, and panic levels.
They recorded everything.
YOU ARE READING
To Start Over (Book 1)
RomanceAt first, it might seem like a cliché. As the story unfolds, though, secrets surface, and it becomes something deeper than expected. She learned to blend in, moving through life unnoticed. That changed when he noticed her. She kept her guard up. He...
