That same night, far outside the city, alarms screamed through an underground laboratory.
UNIT B-5 HAS ESCAPED.
Red emergency lights flooded the hallways.
Security teams rushed everywhere.
Scientists panicked.
And somewhere deep underground, a girl ran barefoot through steel corridors.
Her body was covered in strange markings and measurement tattoos.
Her head had been shaved short.
Her eyes looked wild.
Broken.
Dangerous.
Her name wasn't a real name.
Only a label.
B-5.
She escaped through the upper levels of the facility while security searched the lower floors.
She killed when cornered.
Moved like an animal.
Faster than human.
Then, for the first time in her life, she reached the outside world.
Cold night air touched her skin.
Ocean wind.
Freedom.
She stared at the sky like she had never seen it before.
Because she hadn't.
To escape the hunters behind her, she jumped into the freezing ocean.
And kept swimming.
Toward California City.
Toward Lucian.
Toward fate itself.