Mutation: A leap in genetics

"Sometimes the apocalypse doesn't come with fire.It comes with a whisper… from inside your blood."— Dr. Sylas Morrow (Recovered Audio Log: Unknown Location)

1. The Dream That Wasn't a Dream

Kael's eyes fluttered open, drenched in sweat. But the room wasn't warm.

It was silent.

Too silent.

Even the humming of the wall conduits had ceased — as if the facility itself had been holding its breath.

His mind reeled from the dream he couldn't forget.

He had been walking inside a vast spinal column, the walls lined with mirrors — but every reflection showed someone else's face. A face that was his, yet not. Some younger. Some broken. Some… feral.

But one reflection lingered longer than the rest.

It smiled at him.

And whispered:

"You're the last one. Don't pretend to be the first."

Kael bolted upright.

The child—Eva, the oldest of the three—stood at his door.

"I saw it too," she said.

2. Ava's Blood Cries Out

Ava had not spoken in 36 hours.

She remained in the tower ruins, staring into the static bursts of the old communications array. But her body was undergoing… changes.

Her eyes had taken on a faint glow — not visible directly, but reflected in glass or metal.

Veins traced subtle bioluminescent patterns up her neck.

She bled light when she cut herself.

Rhea monitored her vitals constantly, but the readings were absurd — heart rate, zero. Blood pressure, unreadable. Yet Ava moved, breathed, spoke.

And worse — she began to hear things.

At 02:47 hours, she turned to Rhea and whispered:

"There's something alive inside the frequency."

"What frequency?"

"The one that came when we stopped listening."

3. Kael's Origin Fractures

Kael returned to the cryo-vault in secret.

He needed to know.

His file — the one Rhea uncovered — hinted that he wasn't the original. Or at least, not this version.

But the vault had answers. Hidden behind a retinal lock only he could open.

Inside, row after row of clones floated in suspension tanks.

Not test subjects.

Copies.

All of him.

Different stages. Different expressions. Some smiling, some screaming, some missing limbs.

His stomach turned.

On one tank, etched in frost, were the words:

Kael-0X. PRIMARY INTEGRATION SUCCESSFUL. VESPERA KEY BOUND. DO NOT REPLICATE.

He stared at the word "VESPERA."

That name had been haunting his dreams.

And now he knew why.

He wasn't carrying it.

He was it.

4. Rhea's Betrayal Begins

Rhea sat in the observatory, staring at surveillance loops from every corner of the compound.

But her eyes weren't on the screens.

They were on the override key in her palm.

The one she hadn't told anyone about.

The one that could activate the Neural Cutoff Protocol — a failsafe designed to shut down any subject bound to the Seed genome, including Kael, Ava…

…and herself.

Because she had begun to change too.

Just slower.

Subtler.

She hadn't bled in days. Her sleep was filled with whispers in her own voice. She remembered things from before she was born.

And most frightening of all — she found a mark on her hip. A spiral. Burned into the skin.

Same as Kael's.

Same as the children.

"I was part of this before I joined," she murmured.

"Or maybe I was never supposed to."

5. The Children's Game

The three Seed children had stopped speaking to the adults.

They now spent hours — sometimes entire days — drawing circles on the floor in overlapping chalk.

Concentric. Rotating.

Each child would sit in one ring, and the others would hum in strange, dissonant harmony.

Kael tried interrupting them once.

He blacked out.

For three hours.

When he woke, the children were sitting beside him. One touched his chest.

"You don't belong here anymore," she said.

Kael croaked, "Where do I belong?"

Another child responded without looking at him:

"In the place between species."

6. Signs of the Outside

News began filtering in through scrambled frequencies.

Cities across the globe reporting sky-wide aurora storms, even in equatorial regions.

People falling unconscious after hearing a soundless pulse no one could record.

Genetic markers activating in newborns across five continents.

An entire village in Greenland vanishing — all that remained were their shoes, arranged in circles.

Rhea decoded one emergency broadcast from a dead satellite.

It simply said:

"We triggered it. Evolution didn't wait for us. It chose itself."

Kael leaned against the wall, breath shallow.

"They're not coming for us," he whispered.

Rhea asked, "Who?"

Kael looked toward the child drawings on the floor.

"We're what they're running from."

7. Ava's Vision

Ava collapsed without warning.

Her body convulsed violently, then stilled.

When she opened her eyes again, they were pitch black.

She stared into nothing for ten minutes, not blinking, not breathing.

Then she screamed.

Not a sound of fear.

But a beacon.

Every screen in the compound lit up with a word:

"VESPERA PRIME: ONLINE"

Kael ran to her side, grabbing her shoulders.

She didn't look at him.

She spoke in a layered voice, one Kael recognized as both Ava and someone else — a voice from his dreams.

"The key has turned. The second genome is awake. Prepare the hosts."

And then… Ava smiled.

"You always thought this war would be against others."

"You were wrong."

"It's you against what you were meant to become."

8. Internal Fractures

Rhea snapped.

That night, she confronted Kael in the main corridor. Alone.

She raised a pistol — one of the last functional weapons.

"I saw the files, Kael. You're not human. Not anymore."

Kael didn't flinch.

"No one here is."

"I haven't changed."

Kael tilted his head.

"Then why does your blood smell like metal?"

Rhea hesitated.

"You said we were in this together."

"We are," Kael replied. "But only one of us gets to lead what comes next."

She lowered the weapon… slightly.

"What if I don't want to lead?"

Kael stepped closer.

"Then you'll be led."

9. The Tower Pulse

Midnight.

The transmission tower — silent for days — roared back to life.

A thunderous pulse erupted across the compound, short-circuiting lights and sensors.

The children stood in the tower's remains, arms outstretched.

A new symbol burned into the ground beneath them.

A perfect trinary helix.

Rhea stared at the pattern.

"What is that?"

Kael's voice cracked.

"That's not human DNA."

"That's theirs."

"It's how they mark territory."

10. Kael's Message

Kael locked himself in the broadcast chamber.

For the first time, he transmitted a signal — not outward, but inward.

To something beneath the ice.

To the original vault beneath the compound.

He spoke only two words:

"Wake them."

END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

To be continued .....