Global Awakening: Apocalypse Ender's Chronicle Chapter 1315: Fiona’s Search

Gerald had forgotten how long he had been trapped inside the laboratory.

At first, he had counted the days.

Then the hours.

Eventually, he stopped counting altogether.

There was no sunlight in the underground facility, no clock on the walls, and no one who ever bothered to tell him what day it was. The only thing that remained constant was the cold metal bed beneath his body and the machines surrounding him.

He couldn’t even remember the last time he had stood on his own feet.

Gerald slowly opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling.

A faint mechanical hum filled the room.

It was always there.

Even when the machines weren’t actively doing anything to him, they continued operating in the background, processing data, monitoring his body, and occasionally injecting something into his veins.

He had once been an ordinary survivor.

That was the part Gerald remembered most clearly.

Before everything happened, he had been living inside a small shelter with his younger brother and several other survivors. He wasn’t a powerful fighter or an important figure. He had simply been doing his best to survive.

He had worked in the shelter’s maintenance team, repairing generators, reinforcing walls, and helping keep their limited equipment running.

It wasn’t a glorious life... But thanks to that, he was able to survive the Zombies.

Then, some humanoid machines appeared and captured them!

At first, Gerald and the other survivors thought they would be able to escape with their skills.

But they were brought to an island filled with abandoned structures that appeared to have been built by an ancient civilization.

More importantly, there were no zombies around...

Still, the humanoid machines weren’t ordinary robots.

They moved with a terrifying rhythm like that of a human...

Gerald and the others had tried to escape, but it failed... He could only remember seeing a mechanical arm pierce through his brother’s chest.

Gerald’s breathing became heavier.

That was the last time he had seen him alive.

After that, Gerald could no longer recall how he had been dragged to the facility...

They placed him on this very bed... They performed scans, and then, they began modifying him.

Gerald had screamed during the first procedure.

He had begged them to stop... He had promised anything if they would let him go but the machines never responded.

They didn’t hate him or even enjoy hurting him.

That somehow made everything worse.

To them, Gerald wasn’t a person... He was a specimen.

Something that could be opened, modified, measured, and rebuilt.

The first changes had been subtle... His blood became strangely metallic, thin lines began appearing beneath his skin and then his bones started changing.

His right arm had once been replaced with a mechanical structure before the machines eventually decided that the transformation wasn’t stable enough and removed it again.

His nervous system had been connected to several artificial components.

They had implanted strange devices near his spine.

They had altered his organs...

And eventually, something began growing from his body that no human should ever possess.

Gerald’s eyes slowly moved downward.

Two long tongues rested beside his face.

They had grown from his mouth several days ago.

At least, he thought it had been several days.

He didn’t know anymore since they moved independently whenever he became frightened or excited.

"Please... Just kill me..." Gerald hated them.

But there was nothing he could do. They continued experimenting on him, and soon, he had a long, thin tail that had also grown from the base of his spine.

It was covered in dark scales and ended in a metallic-looking tip.

Gerald didn’t understand what the machines were trying to turn him into.

Half human... Half machine.

Perhaps something else entirely.

He had stopped trying to understand as all he wanted was to die.

But even that had been taken from him.

The machines wouldn’t let him die.

Whenever his body became too weak, they repaired him... Whenever his organs began failing, they replaced them... and whenever he lost consciousness, they woke him again.

Gerald had once prayed that someone would find him.

Eventually, he stopped praying.

No one was coming... Or at least, that was what he believed.

A strange sound suddenly echoed through the laboratory.

Clang!

Gerald’s eyes widened.

Something was happening outside.

The mechanical humming that had filled the facility for so long suddenly began disappearing.

One machine after another went silent.

Gerald stared toward the laboratory entrance.

"What...?"

Another metallic sound echoed through the corridor.

Then, there was silence.

Gerald’s heart began beating faster.

He had never experienced true silence inside this facility before.

The machines were always moving, always watching, always working.

But now...

Nothing.

A few seconds later, the door opened slightly.

Gerald instinctively tensed.

He expected another robot... Instead, something small crawled through the opening.

A rat.

Gerald stared at it in confusion.

The rat carefully entered the laboratory and looked around...

"Huh?"

Gerald almost laughed.

Of all the things that could have found him...

A rat?

"Go away," Gerald whispered weakly.

The rat suddenly looked toward him.

"Are you still in mind?"

Gerald froze as his eyes widened.

"...You can talk?"

"Of course."

The rat’s whiskers twitched.

Gerald stared at it for several seconds.

He had seen many strange things during the Apocalypse, but a talking rat was still enough to leave him speechless.

Then, for the first time in what felt like an eternity, Gerald felt something other than despair.

Hope.

"You’re... not one of them?"

"No."

The rat climbed onto the metal equipment beside his bed.

"I’m looking for survivors trapped inside this facility."

Gerald’s lips trembled.

"Survivor... T-that’s me... I’m Gerald. I’m a human before the experiments. Believe me."

"I see... Are there other Survivors?"

"I don’t know... Try to find the others in different chambers..."

"Well... I didn’t find any... I’ve been searching for hours. You’re the only one alive, I think."

Gerald frowned, but it was also possible that the others died from the experiment and he was the lone Survivor.

Soon, his eyes were slowly filled with tears.

"Please get me out of here."