"Obedience doesn't give freedom. It gives silence. And here… silence weighs."
— Daily Disciplinary Instruction, ACC Module-94, Beta Level
The light didn't wake him up.
It only prompted him to get up.
Varek sat on his metal bunk while the loudspeakers repeated the same message every morning:
"Wake up. 4:00. Formation in three minutes. If you hear a voice that isn't yours, report immediately."
The concrete ceiling dripped with moisture. The mattress was harder than guilt, but he never complained.
No one did in Module 94.
There were forty of us.
There were thirty-two left.
Varek put on his ACC jacket, checked his boots, his service knife, the chip at the base of his neck.
Everything was in order.
Except his head.
He dreamed again of the woman in the white hallway.
He never had a face.
But today... today he spoke to him.
"Don't forget, Varek. You weren't one of them."
Formation – Intermediate Yard
Everyone lined up.
The guards looked at us as if we were already sick.
One of the boys from the previous group disappeared the night before.
No one asked.
No one looked at his empty bunk.
Captain Sarn appeared with the same dry voice:
"New day. Clean or burned. Is that clear?"
We all nodded.
Varek felt the itch again.
A kind of electricity under his skin.
As if someone was moving inside his body without his permission.
"Unit 47," Sarn said, pointing a tablet at him. "Extra check. Your eyes are very... unstable."
It wasn't a question.
Two soldiers took him by the arms.
He didn't struggle. But his jaw tightened.
"If you enter the medical block and don't come back in 24 hours… officially, you were never here."
They whispered that.
But deep down, everyone knew it.
Medical Area – Level 2
The place smelled of old disinfectant.
The walls were riddled with fingernail marks.
And behind a curtain, someone was praying through sobs.
An unnamed doctor hooked him up to a terminal.
"Are you having strange thoughts?"
"No."
"Have you had dreams about people you don't know?"
"No."
"Have you seen colors that don't exist?"
Varek looked at her.
She didn't respond.
They drew blood.
They injected him with something that burned.
And as she left, the terminal flickered.
Just for an instant.
Just for him.
Subject 03 – Resonant activity detected.
Reactive mnemesis – critical latency.
He didn't know what it meant.
But that night, Varek didn't sleep.
And for the first time in as long as he could remember,
he wanted to escape.