Chapter 5: B: The Camera’s Gaze

👉 Previous Decision: You chose Option B – Ignore the man to avoid suspicion and try to extract Subject 7’s physical chart alone during tomorrow’s shift.

Clara averted her gaze from the distraught man, her footsteps quickening. Drawing attention to herself now felt like a reckless gamble. Her priority was to secure hard evidence, not to involve herself in a public scene. The man and his file were too visible, too risky.

She went home, the image of “Subject 7” Martha Vance, and the stolen laundry cart, gnawing at her. The next morning, she arrived at Sub-Level 4 with a new plan. Avery kept the physical patient charts in a secure vault within the B-Wing, behind a retinal scanner.

During her shift, while Dr. Avery was preoccupied in the operating theater, Clara slipped away. She moved through the quiet corridors, her heart a drumbeat in her chest. She had observed Avery’s retinal scan process for weeks.

She reached the heavy vault door. Her stolen access card chimed, the retinal scanner flared green, and the massive door hissed open. Inside, rows of metal filing cabinets stood like silent sentinels. She located the cabinet for “S” subjects.

As her fingers brushed the cold metal handle of Subject 7’s drawer, a small, red light pulsed on the wall above the cabinet. A camera.

A voice, calm and detached, echoed through the vault. “Nurse Barrett. A curious choice of extracurricular activity. Did you think we wouldn’t notice?”

Clara froze. She turned to see Dr. Avery standing in the vault doorway, his arms crossed. A faint smile touched his lips.

“Your contract is terminated, effective immediately,” he announced. “And for attempting to compromise classified research… a full amnesia protocol. Consider it a necessary part of your severance package.”

Two orderlies stepped from behind him, their faces grim. Clara stumbled back, but it was too late. She felt a sharp, burning pain in her neck, and the world dissolved into a familiar, dreadful blankness.