Backstory
In the year 3000, a global solar catastrophe erupted on the Earth’s surface, which became the primary cause of the planet’s hydrosphere evaporating. The surface transformed into a scorched desert devoid of moisture, prompting humanity to voluntarily relocate the entire civilization underground. People constructed a high-tech industrial world within the upper rocky caverns, hoping to live there forever. Despite significant advancements in biotechnology, the cities were grim, cramped, and lacked living nature, and furthermore, the underground water sources began to deplete rapidly.
In the year 3001, the S.E.V.E.R. corporation made a radical decision—to build a secret complex deeper still, within unknown tectonic caverns where, according to researchers, the last relict glaciers were located. In 2101, mass migration to the deep-level base and the project «The Chrysalis» were launched. Millions of people entered the chambers, planning to awaken in a reborn world after several centuries.
Alongside everyone preparing for cryopreservation were twelve-year-old twin sisters, Ellie and Maya. Despite their identical appearances, they were completely different. Ellie was a stern, composed, and cold girl who never cried and silently controlled everything around her. She practically pulled Maya—a modest, timid, but very sweet and gentle sister—by the hand, as Maya was terrified of the bunker’s darkness. Ellie personally checked Maya’s chamber, sealed the airtight door behind her, and only then lay down in her own. After some time, the other capsules also sealed, and all of humanity sank into sleep.
Anomalous Hatch
Centuries passed. In a secluded, completely de-energized sector of the base due to a power failure, an emergency pressure release activated in several capsules. Some doors opened, including Maya’s chamber. Over the centuries, drought had permeated even the depths. Automated systems, lacking maintenance, malfunctioned; the nutrient bio-gel in the capsules dried out and mutated. To save the tissues of the sleeping inhabitants from complete dehydration, the system initiated forced evolution—crossing human DNA with subterranean insects.Maya was the first to emerge. In the pitch black, her outline was barely visible. Transformed beyond recognition, Maya still retained her former personality: she flinched in fear at every sound and moved with extreme caution. Driven by instinct, the creature crept out of the ruined medical block, vanishing without a trace into the labyrinth of wild caves.
Following Maia from the neighboring failed capsules, other creatures began to rise and recede into the darkness.
Zero level
After some time, the main bunker program activated. People awoke whose capsules were intact; among the survivors was Ellie Zamza. Waking up, she did not succumb to the general panic—her face remained cold and resolute. Ellie deliberately approached the neighboring chamber where her sister was housed, but there she saw only shattered glass and remnants of a strange mass. Maya was nowhere to be found…
Panic swept through the entire base. People realized a terrifying truth: there was no water in the base at all; the pipes were empty, and the planet had not recovered. Frightened soldiers rushed from the upper levels into the sector. They began dragging crates of ammunition, claiming that the lower levels of the bunker were overrun by hideous, unknown gray monsters who had snatched away those who woke up first. While the rest of the people screamed, Ellie watched them silently, secretly clutching a device in her hand that resembled a membrane «bell.» The deranged crowd began constructing barricades from rusted iron sheets and barbed wire, preparing for a silent siege…
Deep Sector
A few more hours pass. The armed squad must venture into the darkness and descend into the wild tectonic caverns beneath the base to locate the underground reservoirs. Decisive Ellie, meanwhile, slips in behind the squad, picking up distant sounds using that same translucent «bell.»
The squad moved across rusted bridges and rocky ledges when suddenly the light from the flashlights caught strange movement on the walls and pipes. The people froze: hundreds of gray, insect-like creatures sat on the rocks, silently staring into the void. The soldiers raised their automatic rifles with cries, preparing to destroy the monstrosities.
The Wings
Ellie felt revulsion, unable to discern what she was facing—her sister or a monster that had devoured her. Breathing heavily, the heroine took a step forward. The creature was not attacking; it was only shyly making a short, achingly familiar movement—trying to hide behind Ellie’s shoulder from the bright glare of the lamps.
Ellie threatened the others: «Don’t shoot!» Stunned, the soldiers started shining lights on the other creatures, and the others began noticing engagement rings on their altered hands, scraps of clothing, and cherished belongings. The terrible truth began to dawn on the humans: a centuries-long drought had mutated gel into capsules, and the bunker had forcibly restructured their families into a new species to save them from thirst. The men lowered their automatic weapons and began to weep.
What truly makes a person human—their fragile, familiar body, or the willingness of someone who remains the same to remember who you were? And if the human form must be sacrificed to save the species, where does the line lie between evolution and complete extinction?
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