Chapter 5 – Subject #17: The Original Never Died
Ethan collapsed onto the wet grass, clutching his head as memories crashed into his mind like waves.
The cemetery disappeared.
The rain disappeared.
For a brief second...
He was five years old again.
Twenty-Three Years Earlier
A white underground laboratory.
No windows.
No clocks.
Children wearing identical gray uniforms sat silently in rows.
Each wore a bracelet.
No names.
Only numbers.
#08
#11
#15
#17
A little girl with curly blonde hair quietly slipped Ethan half of her sandwich.
"You have to eat," she whispered.
"If you're weak... they take you downstairs."
Ethan looked toward a giant steel door at the end of the hallway.
Every child feared it.
No one who entered ever returned.
Present Day
The pain finally stopped.
Ethan opened his eyes.
Richard Hale stood only twenty feet away.
"So..." Richard said calmly.
"You remember."
Ethan slowly stood.
"You lied."
Richard shrugged.
"I omitted the unnecessary parts."
"You experimented on children!"
"We perfected children."
"You murdered them!"
"We improved humanity."
The words made Ethan sick.
Grace's Final Gift
Grace, barely alive, reached into her pocket.
With trembling fingers she handed Ethan a tiny brass key.
"There isn't... much time..."
Ethan knelt beside her.
"What does this open?"
She smiled weakly.
"The room they feared most."
Richard's confident expression vanished.
"No..."
He stepped forward.
"Take the key from him!"
The armed men rushed toward Ethan.
Without thinking, Ethan grabbed a broken marble statue and hurled it at the nearest attacker.
It smashed into the man's face.
Chaos erupted.
The cemetery exploded into violence.
Gunshots cracked through the rain.
Walter suddenly appeared behind one of the guards, swinging an old shovel with surprising strength.
The waitress from the diner screeched into the cemetery parking lot in an old pickup truck.
"Ethan! MOVE!"
Bullets shattered the windshield as Ethan dove into the truck.
The engine roared.
They sped away just as Richard calmly watched them disappear.
He wasn't angry.
He smiled.
Because he knew exactly where Ethan was going.
Three Hours Later
Deep inside an abandoned military complex hidden beneath the forest...
The brass key fit perfectly into an ancient steel elevator.
The doors groaned open.
Walter looked pale.
"I prayed this place had been destroyed."
The elevator descended...
One floor.
Five floors.
Ten floors.
Twenty floors underground.
The doors opened.
The hallway was frozen in time.
Dust covered abandoned computers.
Medical beds.
Broken wheelchairs.
Children's drawings still hung on the walls.
One drawing stopped Ethan cold.
It showed two little boys holding hands.
They looked identical.
Underneath, written in childish handwriting:
"Me and My Brother."
Ethan's heart pounded.
"I had a brother..."
Walter lowered his eyes.
"You had more than that."
The Archive Room
Inside hundreds of steel filing cabinets...
Each labeled with a number.
Subject #01.
Subject #02.
Subject #03...
Until—
SUBJECT #17
Ethan pulled open the drawer.
Inside lay a thick medical file.
Across the cover, stamped in red:
CLASSIFIED
Below it...
One sentence.
STATUS: REPLACED
His hands trembled as he opened the first page.
Patient Name:
ETHAN DANIEL CARTER
Status:
ORIGINAL
Next page.
Patient Name:
ELIAS HALE
Status:
GENETIC REPLACEMENT
Ethan stared in disbelief.
"Elias..."
Walter closed his eyes.
"That's the name Richard gave you after he stole you."
Ethan's breathing became shallow.
"So... who am I?"
Walter answered quietly.
"You are Ethan."
"But the man who raised you..."
"He spent twenty-five years convincing the world you were someone else."
The Locked Door
At the end of the laboratory stood one final room.
Its heavy steel door had no handle.
Only a fingerprint scanner.
Above it...
One faded warning.
SUBJECT #17 – ORIGINAL
DO NOT OPEN
Walter stepped back.
"No one has entered that room in twenty-five years."
The lights suddenly flickered.
Then—
A calm female voice echoed through the abandoned laboratory.
"Identity confirmed."
"Welcome home... Ethan Carter."
The steel door slowly unlocked with a deep metallic click.
As it creaked open...
Cold air poured into the hallway.
Inside the dark room...
Someone was breathing.
Slowly.
Steadily.
A chair turned toward the doorway.
A man stepped into the light.
He looked exactly like Ethan.
Same face.
Same eyes.
Same scar.
Even the same voice.
The stranger smiled.
Then spoke the words that shattered Ethan's reality forever.
"I've been waiting twenty-five years..."
May you like
"...for you to come take my place."
END OF CHAPTER 5
👉 Chapter 6: The two identical men face each other for the first time. One is the real Ethan Carter... but the other claims he is the only survivor—and only one of them can leave the underground laboratory alive.
