The air inside the isolation room was suffocating—a cold, sterile prison reeking of sharp disinfectant. The spotless steel walls reflected the dim neon lights, creating the illusion of an endless space, a premature grave. Axel sat frozen at the edge of the metal bed, his blank eyes fixed on the cold floor. On the bed next to him, Carter, with uncontrollable, jittery movements, kept biting at his nails, his face a roadmap of unrelenting anxiety. Logan stood rigid near the tightly shut steel door, occasionally peering through the small, reinforced window, as if hoping to glimpse a flicker of hope amidst an ocean of uncertainty.
"They're treating us like lab animals," Carter finally muttered, his voice cracking through the suffocating silence. "After everything we went through back there... this is the thanks we get?"
Logan let out a long breath, but his gaze didn't move from the door. "We knew the risks, Carter. They don't know what we really brought back from that island."
"But we didn't bring anything!" Carter snapped, his voice rising, laced with desperation. "We survived! We're not monsters like… like those things!"
Axel finally lifted his head, his weary eyes meeting Carter's panicked gaze. "They don't believe that."
Nova's image returned to him—her terrifying smile, her lips stained crimson with fresh blood—haunting him. Could traces of the island's horror still cling to them? Something unseen, yet deadly, hiding inside their bodies? The thought sent a chill racing down his spine.
"What are they going to do to us?" Carter whispered, his voice now low, thick with a fear deeper than physical harm.
Logan turned, his eyes serious and steady. "If they really believe we're infected… they won't take any chances. We heard what the man in the white coat said."
Death. The word remained unspoken but hung heavy in the stale air, so real and inescapable. They had escaped the grasp of terrifying creatures on that remote island, only to face another lethal threat in the middle of the ocean, under the suspicious gaze of those who were supposed to be their rescuers.
Suddenly, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed down the corridor, growing steadily closer. The tension in the room spiked. Carter held his breath, his body rigid. Logan assumed a useless defensive stance, weaponless. The steel door creaked open slowly with a grinding groan, revealing two uniformed men identical to those who had greeted them on the ship's deck. Behind them stood the man in the white coat—expressionless, cold, and professional.
"Time for further examination," the man said flatly, his voice devoid of emotion.
They were examined again with advanced, intimidating medical equipment. Sharp needles pierced their skin, extracting blood and other bodily fluids. Axel felt the white-coated man's cold gaze fixed on him with unsettling intensity. There were no friendly questions, no reassuring explanations—only suspicious stares and sterile procedures, as if they were dangerous specimens instead of survivors of unimaginable trauma.
After what felt more like a scientific interrogation than a medical checkup, they were returned to their steel cell. Hours crawled by in tormenting slowness, filled with biting anxiety and choking uncertainty. Axel couldn't shake Nova's image from his mind. Had she fully transformed into one of those monstrous beings? Or was there still a faint whisper of humanity calling his name from the depths of her memory?
Night fell once again, cloaking the ocean in vast, endless darkness. Through the tiny cold window, Axel could see the black void devouring all light. Suddenly, the memory of a dark shape in the water earlier that evening resurfaced. That strange feeling—something watching them from the depths—refused to leave him.
As the silence of night thickened, Axel heard faint sounds from outside their room. Not normal footsteps, but something dragging, scraping—unnatural movement along the metal corridor. Ssssh… ssssh… The sound grew closer, making the hairs on his neck stand up and his heart pound harder.
Carter and Logan heard it too. They exchanged tense glances, filled with questions that had no answers.
"What is that sound?" Carter whispered, his voice trembling.
Logan slowly shook his head, his eyes locked on the sealed steel door. "I don't know. But it doesn't sound like anything good."
The scraping stopped just outside their cell door. Then came a soft thump, tuk, followed by the slow drip of a thick liquid hitting the steel floor. Tess… tess… A familiar stench—the sickly scent of blood—began to seep through the door's crevices, filling the stale air.
A colder, sharper fear than anything they'd felt on the island gripped Axel's heart. There, they had faced visible enemies—vicious, grotesque creatures. Here, in the middle of the vast ocean, they were up against something unseen, something that might have already slithered into the bowels of this ship, crawling in the dark like a nightmare made real.
Suddenly, the neon lights above them flickered erratically, klip… klap… klip…, before dying out with a sharp pletak, plunging them into suffocating darkness. Carter's panicked scream shattered the tense silence.
"What the hell is happening?!" he cried, his voice choked, terror in every syllable.
Axel groped through the pitch black, his hand searching for Logan. "Logan—your weapon!"
"I don't have anything, Axel!" Logan snapped, frustration and fear colliding in his voice. "They took everything during the inspection! Even my pocketknife!"
In the thick, pressing darkness, the scraping and dripping returned—closer, clearer. Ssssh… tess… ssssh… tess… Axel could feel an unnatural chill wrapping around them—not the cold of steel, but the cold of something alive that shouldn't be. Something terrible, something deeply wrong, was happening just outside.
Then came a deafening BANG! against the steel door, followed by a piercing metallic screech. KRIEEEEK… The door shuddered violently, its hinges screaming in protest.
"They're coming!" Carter whispered, hopelessness bleeding through every word.
Axel's heart pounded wildly in his chest—thud… thud… thud…—pumping adrenaline through his veins. They had escaped one unthinkable hell, only to be trapped in another, darker one. And this time, there was no jungle to hide in, no cliffs to take cover behind. They were trapped in the middle of the vast sea, in a cold metal cage, awaiting a fate far worse than death.
In the choking dark and despair, Axel remembered Nova's smile again. The final one he'd seen on that bloodied shore—a smile that now felt like a cold curse, a sign that their bond, no matter the distance or the changes, would never truly be broken. That the island's horror would keep chasing them, slipping into every shadow, even out here in the endless ocean.
And out there, in the unending darkness of the sea, Axel felt that same cold presence he'd sensed when he saw the shadow in the water. Something unfinished. Something that wouldn't let them go. Whispers from the deep dark called out, huuush… huuush…, promising a terror far greater than anything they'd ever imagined.
They had left the island, but the island had not left them.