(Written by Rohit Malhotra)
The cold inside the bunker was no longer just physical. It had settled in their bones, in their thoughts, in their silence.
Ronin's flashlight beam remained fixed on the wall where the alien symbol had appeared — a single eye circled in ash, with three jagged lines beneath it. No one had drawn it. No one had seen who did. But it was there. Fresh. Pulsing with something unseen.
"It's not a warning," Ruby whispered, her breath visible in the chilled air. "It's a mark."
Diamond stepped forward cautiously, weapon drawn. "A mark for what? Death?"
No one answered.
Then the vent above them creaked.
Everyone turned sharply.
The sound was slow and deliberate — metal bending, something dragging itself inside the narrow duct. It wasn't loud, but it was steady.
"Whatever it is," Johny muttered, aiming his gun toward the ceiling, "it's moving toward us."
Ronin's eyes scanned the vent line. "It's not just crawling... it's feeling its way. Like it knows."
A sudden gust of wind shot out from the vent, dousing their flashlights briefly. The darkness that followed wasn't just black. It felt alive.
Then came a voice.
A whisper. Faint. Alien.
But it spoke in English.
"Ronin... you hear us now."
Everyone froze.
Ronin's heartbeat thundered in his ears. "What the hell was that?"
The voice came again, clearer this time, as if the duct itself was breathing it:
"You opened the signal. You brought us in."
Mia stumbled backward, her face pale. "That voice... it knew your name."
Ronin's throat went dry. He glanced at the others, but no one had answers.
"This is impossible," Jimy whispered. "We shut down the signal days ago."
"Or we thought we did," Ruby said grimly.
The symbol on the wall began to shimmer. Dimly. Faint pulses of bluish light emerged from its center.
"It's reacting to the voice," Diamond said, slowly lowering her weapon. "This isn't just a mark. It's a receiver."
Ronin stepped closer, against better judgment. The closer he got to the symbol, the louder the whisper became in his head.
"You were the first. The first to hear. The first to believe."
Suddenly, a memory stabbed through his mind — not his own. A desert. A tower buried beneath sand. Screams. A blinking red light. And silence.
He fell to his knees, grabbing his head. "They're showing me something!"
Ruby and Johny rushed to his side, but the whispers grew louder. This time, they all heard them. And it wasn't just one voice anymore.
It was many.
"We are memory. We are the watchers. We are the forgotten."
The vent above them bent inward with a loud clang. Something moved. Fast. Heavy. Hungry.
"Weapons up!" Diamond shouted, now in full combat mode.
Ronin staggered up, blinking rapidly. "They're not attacking... not yet. They're observing. Testing us."
Suddenly, the main screen in the bunker lit up on its own.
A black-and-white feed appeared: the Northern Tower. The camera zoomed into a corridor where... a figure stood.
"Is that... a survivor?" Mia gasped.
"Wait... no," Ruby said, narrowing her eyes. "Zoom in."
The figure looked human, dressed in a ragged uniform, but the head... it turned unnaturally. Too fast. Too smooth. The face... was Ronin's.
"That's impossible," Johny whispered. "You're right here!"
"It's not me," Ronin said. "It's a mimic."
The figure on the screen raised its hand... and pointed directly at the camera.
The screen went black.
And the vent above them exploded.
A creature dropped down — not fully visible, cloaked in shadows, shifting like smoke and metal. It landed with a sickening squelch and rose tall. Too tall.
The whispers stopped.
Now there was silence.
Until it spoke aloud:
"We are here. Let the remembering begin."
---
The creature didn't move, but its presence rippled through the air. Its body constantly shifted — bones turning to wires, flesh turning to glass. No form stayed longer than a few seconds.
Ronin stepped forward, trembling but focused. "What... are you?"
It tilted its head unnaturally. "We are echo. We are you, before you forgot."
Mia backed into a corner. "Ronin, it's mimicking your voice now..."
"No," he said quietly, eyes widening. "It's not mimicking. It's merging."
Before anyone could speak, the symbol on the wall pulsed again — faster. Ronin felt it calling him, not physically, but mentally. Memories he never lived flickered before him: a giant chamber beneath the Earth, men in suits screaming in a language he didn't know, a countdown. And at the center — that same eye symbol, embedded in ancient stone.
"These aren't just invaders," Ronin whispered. "They've been here before. Buried. Forgotten. Waiting for... remembrance."
The creature stepped closer, its voice now layered — like many speaking through one throat. "We were sealed when you sealed your past. But the signal... you broke the lock."
Ruby lifted her gun. "You're not taking him."
"Not him," it said. "All of you."
Suddenly, the room darkened. Not because of power loss — but because light itself was being swallowed. The edges of the bunker blurred. Time bent.
Jimy screamed. A second vent exploded. Another shadow dropped.
Then another.
And another.
They were surrounded.
Ronin shouted, "Circle formation! Don't let them isolate us!"
Diamond took charge, firing a warning shot that passed through one of the creatures — but it didn't fall. Instead, it flickered and reappeared behind her. Johny turned and managed to slice it with a plasma blade, but even then, it barely reacted.
"We're not fighting physical beings," Ruby said. "They're made of something else. Memory. Echoes."
"Then how do we kill a memory?" Mia cried.
Ronin's voice came steady. "You don't. You overwrite it."
He rushed to the terminal and slammed in the code that began the signal — but in reverse.
"You said I brought you in," Ronin said aloud. "Then I can send you back."
The symbols on the screen began to distort. The creatures hissed. The one nearest to Ronin shrieked and turned to vapor — pulled backward into the vent like smoke.
One by one, the others followed — howling, collapsing into their fragmented forms and vanishing into the ducts, the walls, the shadows.
And then — stillness.
Only the hum of power returned.
The symbol on the wall cracked... and faded.
Ronin fell to the ground, exhausted, his fingers trembling. "We didn't stop them. We delayed them."
Ruby crouched beside him. "How long before they come again?"
Ronin stared at the wall.
"That depends on how long we can forget."
2025 Rohit Malhotra. All Rights Reserved.