Rhea violently shoved four-year-old Perrin into a dark, cramped cavity

Kiernan hit the roof of the elevator car with a heavy thud, the metal groaning under his weight. He didn't pause. He dropped through the maintenance hatch into the car, kicked open the lower doors, and rolled out into Sub-basement Level Two just as a hail of gunfire erupted.

Bullets sparked off the metal elevator frame, whining past his ears. Kiernan dove behind a concrete pillar. The sub-basement was a massive, cavernous space lined with reinforced glass cells, looking more like a black-site prison than a hospital wing. Red emergency lights bathed the corridor in a hellish glow, and the automated voice of the purge system echoed mechanically:

"Incendiary protocol initiated. Six minutes to ignition."

Four mercenaries advanced slowly down the hallway, laying down suppressive fire. Kiernan took a deep breath, visualizing the geometry of the room. He leaned out from the pillar and fired three rapid shots. The first guard went down with a shot to the chest. Kiernan rolled across the open floor, dodging a burst of automatic fire, and shot the second guard in the knee, then the shoulder.

"Covering fire!" the third guard screamed, throwing a flashbang.

Kiernan turned his head and covered his eyes, but the blast still disoriented him, ringing in his ears. Blindly, he charged forward through the smoke. He tackled the third guard to the ground, disarming him in a brutal grapple, and used the man’s body as a shield as the fourth mercenary hesitated. Kiernan raised his weapon and fired twice. The corridor fell deadly silent, save for the blaring countdown.

"Five minutes to ignition."

Kiernan scrambled to his feet, ignoring the searing pain in his ribs where a bullet had grazed his vest. "Sarah!" he screamed, sprinting down the corridor, looking into the dark, empty cells. "Sarah!"

"Kiernan...?"

The voice was incredibly faint, raspy, and broken. It came from the very last cell at the end of the hall.

Kiernan ran to the reinforced glass door. Inside the dim, freezing cell, chained to a steel bed by her ankle, was Sarah. She was bone-thin, wearing a tattered gray hospital gown, her blonde hair matted and her skin pale. But it was her. Her beautiful, terrified eyes looked up at him through the glass.

"Sarah... Oh my God," Kiernan choked, tears welling in his eyes. He slammed his fists against the reinforced glass.

"Kiernan, you came," she sobbed, dragging herself toward the door as far as the heavy chain would allow. "I knew you would. I told her you would find me."

"I'm going to get you out. Step back!" Kiernan shouted. He aimed his pistol at the electronic lock mechanism and emptied the rest of his magazine into it. The glass spider-webbed, and the lock sparked and smoked, but the heavy magnetic seal didn't budge.

"Three minutes to ignition."

"It won't open, Kiernan," Sarah cried, placing her thin hand against the shattered glass. "The purge protocol... it seals the doors. You have to leave. Please, save yourself. Take care of Perrin."

"I am not leaving without you!" Kiernan roared, frantically searching the dead guards for explosives. He found a breaching charge on the belt of the squad leader. "Get under the bed, Sarah! Now!"