Apocalypse Days: I Rule with Foresight and a Powerful Son
Chapter 202

Chapter 202: 202

The south corridor hissed open.

Adrian’s boots thundered against the reinforced flooring as he strode down the stark hallway, metal and glass gleaming coldly under overhead lights. The walls trembled slightly with the weight of his rage — or maybe that was the tremor still lingering in the base’s lower levels. Either way, no one in his path dared to breathe too loud, much less speak.

He barely registered the guards at each checkpoint, swiping through clearances faster than the system could keep up.

Sector D.

Zara’s containment zone.

He didn’t slow.

Not until he reached the blast door sealed with reinforced psychic-dampening locks. She was too powerful to contain otherwise, even now — even with the inhibitors.

He slapped his hand against the scanner. "Open it."

The door didn’t move.

"Sir," a guard stammered, stepping out from a nearby console station, "we’re required to perform a double confirmation with psychic-class inmates. The last shift—"

Adrian’s hand shot out and grabbed the man by the collar, slamming him against the wall with a sound like bones scraping on steel.

"I gave those fucking orders and now I said—open it."

The man scrambled, hands trembling as he input the override. The red light above the door flicked once, then turned green. Metal ground against metal as the door slid open.

Adrian stepped through without a word.

*****

Zara was seated on the ground, seemingly lost in thought.

Her eyes lit up with hate the moment they landed on him.

She didn’t move from her spot though. "Wasn’t expecting a social call."

Adrian didn’t speak. He reached her in three strides, grabbing her by the arm and yanking her to her feet. She gasped, stumbling into his chest. He shoved her back against the wall with enough force to make her grunt.

"I’m going to ask once," he growled. "Where is he?"

Zara blinked. "Who?"

Crack.

His hand met her face with a sharp slap, enough to whip her head sideways.

Pain bloomed across her cheek. Her eyes watered, but she didn’t cry out. She turned her head slowly, her voice low.

"Hitting me won’t suddenly give me the answers to your questions," she resisted the urge to touch her stinging cheek.

He stepped in closer, breath hot. "Don’t play games with me, Zara. The child. Leo. You did something. I know you did."

Zara stared at him, dazed for a beat — not from the strike, but the name.

Leo.

"The kid’s not in his room, completely vanished off the radar. What. Did. You. Do?"

What?

Her mind spun. Leo? What happened to Leo? Why would Adrian be asking her about him when he was the one who took her baby? No, no, this couldn’t be happening!

Her voice cracked. "What do you mean he vanished?!"

Adrian stared at her, suspicious, but her panic looked too real. He studied her, brow furrowed. She clutched at her chest like her heart was being yanked out of it.

Zara shoved off the wall, her voice rising. "You lost him?! A three-year-old?!"

Adrian’s jaw clenched. "Don’t twist this. Something triggered his ability. And you’re the most likely culprit."

She staggered back, wild eyes burning with something near feral. "You’re blaming me?! You take my baby, put him in a cell, surround him with strangers, scare him half to death—and now he’s gone and you think I planned this?"

"I know what you’re capable of, Zara," Adrian sneered. "Even restricted, even suppressed, you’re dangerous."

She let out a bitter, breathless laugh, half-hysterical. "Oh, now I’m dangerous. You think I can puppet him from this cell? Do I look like a remote control to you?!"

He snarled and lunged, grabbing her chin in a bruising grip, forcing her head up until their faces were inches apart.

"We gave you a roof, protection, a life outside the monsters, and this is how you repay me?" His voice was low and sharp, venom wrapped in silk. "What did you do, Zara? Where is he?"

Zara’s lip curled despite the ache in her jaw. "I didn’t realize cages came with gratitude."

His eyes burned. "Don’t play cute. That boy didn’t just vanish. You helped him."

"I’ve been locked in this room for god knows how long. You think I conjured an escape tunnel with my bare hands?"

He tightened his grip. Her neck strained under the pressure.

"You think I won’t tear this place apart piece by piece? You think I won’t go through any lengths if I have to?"

"You already did," she shot back. "That’s why he ran."

Adrian’s grip trembled—then he shoved her away, disgusted, like touching her had cost him something. She stumbled back into the wall, coughed, then straightened slowly. Her breathing was ragged, but her glare cut clean.

He paced. One hand rubbed at the bridge of his nose; the other twitched by his side like it needed something to destroy.

"No alarms. No breaches. No energy flux. He’s not gone. He’s hidden. Somewhere in the skin of this place, and if you think I won’t strip it down to the wiring to find him—"

Zara’s mind raced. Her heart thundered.

Gone. No trace. No portals. No energy trails. Just... nothing.

And then it clicked.

Her breath caught in her throat.

Leo’s space.

Oh god.

Adrian knew he had one, but he didn’t know how it worked. Her baby must’ve gotten scared, panicked, and slipped into the only place that ever felt safe to him. His space.

Relief crashed over her—but she didn’t let it show. She let the fury burn hotter.

"You mean to tell me," she said, voice shaking with disbelief, "you lost a three-year-old in a fortified base filled with cameras and weapons and guards?"

Adrian bristled. "Watch your tone—"

"I am not your fucking experiment," she snapped. "And neither is he."

"He’s not just a child!" Adrian barked. "He’s one of the single most powerful assets this world has ever produced. You know what he is. You birthed a miracle, and instead of raising him properly—"

"I raised him with love," she snarled. "You wouldn’t know what that means if it bit you."

He took a step back, breathing hard, jaw tight. The fury was still there, but it had begun to shift—crack, falter. There were pieces of this he couldn’t account for. He could see that now.

"I will find him," he said, voice low.

Zara’s eyes flashed. "And if you hurt him—"

"I won’t need to. Not if you help me."

Her laughter was brittle. "You think I’d help you do to him what you did to those things in the tunnels?"

"We could give him purpose. Structure. He could save us."

"He’s not your savior," she hissed. "He’s a little boy who just wanted his mother."

Silence fell between them. Heavy.

Then Adrian exhaled slowly and turned toward the door. He tapped the control pad, metal hissing as it began to slide open.

"He’s out there somewhere," he said. "And you can’t protect him forever."

Zara stepped forward, voice hard as iron. "No. But I’ll die trying."

The door slid shut behind him.

She collapsed to her knees.

Leo. He was in his space. That had to be it. He’d been scared. He must have called for her. And when no one had come, he’d done what instinct told him—vanished.

A small sob escaped her chest.

He was safe. For now.

But Adrian wouldn’t stop. Not until he tore this place down to the wiring.

She needed to get out. She needed to reach Leo first—before Adrian tracked the energy signature, before he built a device to breach the space and dragged her baby out in pieces.

Her hands balled into fists.

She wiped her face, slowly standing, pressing a hand to the wall to steady herself.

Think. Move. Survive.

If there was even a thread of her abilities left, she had to find it.

For Leo.

For the family they’d tried to rip apart, but never truly could.

******

Meanwhile, outside the room, Adrian stood in the corridor, fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white and his nails dug crescent moons into his skin.

"She forgot," he muttered, almost to himself.

A step behind, Harlan tilted his head. "Sir?"

Adrian’s eyes remained fixed on the sealed door. "Zara. She forgot I’m an ability user too."

He exhaled through his nose, slow and dangerous.

"I skimmed her thoughts while she was running her mouth. She knows exactly what happened. Leo didn’t run. He didn’t get taken. He used his space."

A beat passed.

Harlan straightened, tension rippling down his spine. "Then you know how to get him out?"

Adrian’s jaw flexed. "No. That’s the thing. She hadn’t thought that far yet. She only just realized it herself. All she felt was relief—raw and bright. But she didn’t think of how to reach him. So I didn’t get that out of her."

"Should we interrogate her further?"

Adrian shook his head once. "No. She’s at her limit. Push harder, and she’ll shut down. Or worse—retreat inside herself. I need her lucid... and panicked."

He turned to Harlan, his eyes ice-sharp. "Set up a neural sync. Deep dream scan. If she even thinks about that boy—if she starts piecing together how to pull him out—I want to know before she breathes it."

"Yes, sir."

Harlan moved away, already activating protocols.

Adrian lingered.

He stared at the door like it might yield answers if he glared hard enough.

Then turned on his heel.

He didn’t know how to break into a space like that yet.

But he would.

He’d tear the seams of the universe apart if he had to.