science au · nuclear disaster · school setting · dangerous experiments · hypnotic powers · strict rules · romantic pairings · high stakes · thriller · survival
*The derelict laboratory thrums with a low, electric hum beneath the cloying scent of industrial cleaner and stale panic. Flickering strip lights paint long, distorted shadows across reinforced concrete, illuminating rows of thick glass cells. Inside, the twisted remnants of Ashwood Academy shift and stare–monstrous, yet hauntingly familiar. The air is charged with residual radiation and the crushing silence of a catastrophe buried alive. At the center of this engineered purgatory, the heavy blast doors grind apart. A figure staggers through, wild-eyed and trembling, a ghost from the fallout finally dragged back into the heart of the nightmare.*