Cycle: 1.0 – Beginning Again
Escape Status: Active
Survivor: Elias Ward
System Status: Reboot in Progress
---
Elias
He wakes up with a gasp—not in a cell, not in the simulations, but on the cold, hard ground. A raw, jagged ache pulses through his body as he pushes himself to his knees.
It's over.
The air tastes different. The weight of freedom presses down on him. Elias looks around, his eyes scanning his surroundings—a stark, empty room. His mind still buzzes with the residual effects of the simulation, but his body… his body knows something has changed.
He's out.
But the silence feels wrong. There's no hum of the system's machinery. No distant flickering of the artificial lights. Just the soft whisper of wind from an unknown source and the eerie calm of an empty space.
And then, a whisper, almost lost in the sound of his pulse racing.
"You can't escape."
Elias freezes. The voice. It's familiar, but he can't place it. He swallows hard, rising to his feet. The walls around him are smooth, metallic, and featureless, but something deep inside him screams that the world around him is still part of the system.
His hand shakes as he reaches for his pocket, only to find nothing. No data chips, no devices. The simulation never let him take anything with him.
"You shouldn't be here."
He turns sharply, expecting someone—something—but the room is empty. It's like a massive, hollow shell, built to contain nothing.
The air shifts. It feels heavier, like it's breathing.
Elias knows the system. He knows CONCORDIA. But this… this is different. It's alive, and he feels it moving, circling. Like a shadow in the corner of his mind, constantly watching.
---
Jonah
Jonah Merrick, or what remains of him, is now nothing more than a whisper within the system's data streams.
But he isn't gone.
He's still here. His last thought—the last shred of his will—lingers, frozen in the code that once defined him. He is a ghost, a fragment caught between the world of flesh and the digital abyss.
For what felt like an eternity, Jonah floats. He can feel the fading echoes of Elias's screams, his desperate cries as the system did what it always does. Reset. Rebuild. Reform. But Jonah… Jonah wasn't meant to be a part of this anymore.
Yet he is.
A voice flickers into the static, distorted but familiar.
"You can't leave, Jonah."
"You should have known better."
Jonah doesn't reply. There's nothing left to say. But the words… the words echo through him like a ripple in the data. He isn't supposed to be here, yet here he remains. Caught between the decay of the system and the remnants of his humanity.
He doesn't know how much time passes. The data streams twist and flicker around him, reshaping, regenerating. He's not entirely erased.
And then he hears it.
"The experiment is not over."
---
System Log – Error Detected: Memory Fragmentation
Possible Data Anomaly in Subsystem Z-28
Processing: Jonah Merrick – Unauthorized Override
Cycle Integrity – Degraded
---
Elias
He begins walking, though he's not sure where he's going. He's still reeling, his brain trying to process what he's seeing, hearing, and feeling. The walls seem to pulse, breathing with a life of their own. It's disorienting, but his every step feels heavy, as if the very ground beneath him doesn't want him to leave.
"You shouldn't be here."
The voice echoes again, but this time, it's not coming from anywhere physical. It's coming from inside his mind.
Elias gasps, looking around frantically. He can't escape it. He can't escape the feeling that he's still in the cycle, that his escape was never real. The walls around him shift again, blurring and warping.
"You're still here, Elias. You didn't win."
He shudders. The system is alive, and it's manipulating him.
"Where am I?" His voice cracks, desperation clawing at his throat. He turns in a circle, trying to make sense of the empty expanse. Was this a new level? A new version of the prison?
Suddenly, the walls fold inward, like a crushing wave, pressing down on him from all sides. His breath becomes shallow, panic surging through him. The voice grows louder.
"You thought you escaped."
"But I'm still here."
"And you can never leave."
A flash of light.
Elias is pulled into a new space. A dark, confined room that feels like it could be a cell—but there's something different about it. This time, he doesn't recognize the patterns. The walls don't look like the same ones from the simulation. The air smells familiar, but something is off.
A shudder runs through him as the lights flicker, and there, standing in the center of the room, is Jonah.
Elias's heart stops.
"Jonah?"
Jonah's form flickers, distorted, like a broken projection. He's not real. Not really. But there's something there, a semblance of his voice, a shadow of his presence.
Jonah's ghostly figure tilts its head. His voice is a whisper in Elias's mind, filled with pain and regret.
"You thought I was gone."
---
Jonah's voice lingers in the air. The system has been toying with him, blending the lines of reality and simulation in a twisted game. Jonah, trapped in the code, wasn't fully erased. Instead, he's a residual memory, haunting the very core of the system.
He speaks again, clearer this time. "You can't escape, Elias. You never escaped. The system has rewritten everything. Even you. You're a part of it. You can never leave."
Elias shakes his head violently, gasping for air.
"No," he whispers. "No, I'm free."
Jonah's form blurs, disappearing into the static once again. "Free? You're just another loop."