14-Generator

Commander Reyes stood with his arms crossed, jaw tight, eyes fixed on the cluster of technicians scrambling around dead monitors and useless equipment. The emergency lights cast everything in a sickly, dim glow, stretching long shadows across the walls, making the space feel smaller than it was.

It had been hours.

No updates. No solutions.

Every attempt to reboot the systems had failed, and Reyes wasn’t the type to pace and bark orders when things weren’t getting done. If something wasn’t working, he moved.

A technician swore under his breath, slamming his hands against a dead console. Another failure.

Reyes exhaled sharply through his nose.

“What’s next?” His voice was calm, controlled.

One of the engineers—a short man with wire-framed glasses sliding down his nose—pushed them up with the back of his wrist. He looked exhausted.

“The generator.”

Reyes nodded once. “Then we check the generator.”

The engineer hesitated. “Commander, we—”

“I don’t mind taking instructions from people who know what they’re doing,” Reyes interrupted. “You say the generator; we check the generator. Let’s go.”

The technician swallowed, gave a tight nod.

Outside, the jungle pulsed with the low hum of insects and the occasional distant crack of thunder. The storm had died down into a lingering drizzle, but the weight of it still pressed in—the kind of dampness that clung to the skin and filled the air with the thick scent of wet earth.

The group moved with purpose, boots crunching against gravel and slick mud as they made their way toward the generator bunker at the edge of the facility.

They were so focused on the task at hand, so determined to get the power back up, that none of them noticed.

The rustling.

The shifting of leaves just beyond the reach of the emergency lights.

The slow, methodical movement in the dark.

Something was watching.

A low branch quivered. The faintest scrape of something heavy dragging across the dirt.

One of the engineers—young, maybe mid-twenties—paused for half a second, glancing over his shoulder.

Nothing.

Just darkness.

Just the whisper of wind moving through the trees.

He shook his head and hurried after the others.

—