We all descended into our own hell of earth made of colossal slabs of concrete. The slabs lined the walls as the unnerving hum of water rushing and bubbling behind each of the cold walls, gave each of them an unsettling predator like growl.

As we fumbled into the dimly lit depths, the air grew colder and the room we just entered seemed damp (probably due to the massive amounts of water all around us considering we were stood inside the heart of Pine Wood Valley's hydro-electrical dam). Dampness seeped through my clothes and onto my skin, making me shiver slightly.

The three of us each filled with our own reserved foreboding fear, begrudgingly entered a large room within the dam. The room had the same gentle hum as the rest of the dam and the air was filled with the same damp air that consumed everywhere else.

The room was large and built out of the same large concrete blocks, the room rang out with the occasional drips of cold water delicately onto the floor. The room felt lonely, as if one solitary room had been abandoned by the entire world lost to depravity. In the darkness we edged closer to the side of the room when a small light shone out from Patricia's pocket and two simultaneous buzzing sounds echoed around the room.

Patricia reached into her pocket and retrieved her cell phone and flashed a glance at it taking in the information on it meanwhile I traced the origin of the second buzzing. I looked around the room and concentrated hard.

Left?

No.

Right?

No.

Forward?

No.

Up?

No.

Down?

No.

Behind?

Yes.

I pivoted desperately to see...nothing.

I focused again where was the sound coming from?

Left?

No.

Right?

No.

Forward?

No.

Up?

No.

Down?

No?

Behind?

Yes. Once again.

I spun slower this time to see nothing again. Then I looked directly over my shoulder and remembered the backpack I was wearing. 

Raising my hand up behind my back I felt around the pockets of my backpack, I let my hand rest on each of the pockets individually to test each of them. Eventually, I found where the buzzing was coming from so I tugged the zipper down allowing access inside the pocket and retrieved the object that was buzzing, but as I did I heard a beeping an unsettling beeping from the familiar PTD but I looked over at my two companions and remembered their identities as participants and quickly forgot about it.

The object I retrieved was my mobile phone with a message from a familiar number that I recognised as I had it saved into my phone as a contact.

The message was from Lizzie Kincaid the daughter of a participant, Kara Kincaid. I thought to myself 'had Kara gotten hold of Lizzie's phone?'

Patricia flashed a look in my direction after glancing down at her own phone her expression was one of confusion and concern, "look at the message on your phone!" She commanded in a quiet assertive tone masked with an empty hollowness.

Steadily, I opened up the message filled with a foreboding sense of dread. My eyes scanned the screen and after reading I was also confused, the message read 'SAY CHEESE!'

Looking back at Patricia a slight look of confusion spread between us both and eventually to Sean and he stepped forward to look at the message and Patricia stepped forward to also look at the message on my phone. As we did a small click rang out inside the shroud of all-consuming darkness that surrounded us.

Suddenly, a new message popped up on the screen of my phone, it was a photo message. The message was still loading indicated by a spinning circle on the loading picture.

We all waited in complete silence for the picture to load, we were all so quiet I could hear my own heartbeat thundering in my eardrums as tension grew and a single bead of sweat fell from my forehead.

Finally, the picture loaded and it felt as though my heart dropped from my chest down to the heels of my feet. The picture was of three familiar faces crowded round each other, it was me, Patricia and Sean in the dam room that we were just stood in. It was then I remembered the faint click and my head shot up and I reached for my baton Sean and Patricia moved back readying themselves.

Suddenly, light ripped through the darkness as we saw bodies lying on the ground. The bodies included people that I had forgotten about (maybe an unforeseen side effect of using Philip's memory box). I saw Michael (who Shadow had placed in a coma) lying on the floor seeming dazed, and Elliot Anderson (the twin brother of Sean who Shadow also placed in a coma) also dazed but seeming more so than Michael.

After my eyes finally adjusted I could see that Sean had rushed over to his brother and I finally saw two more figures in the newly illuminated room: the first was Shadow who seemed to be fully awake (or at least partially conscious) while the final figure was also familiar to me...it was Lizzie Kincaid.

I looked at Lizzie and noticed she was the only one out of the four people tied up who had another restriction on her body, it was a heavy use of dark grey tape around her mouth and the back of her head matted in her hair. Instantly, I rushed over and Patricia followed me we assisted our friends.

Lizzie was crazed as seen in her eyes wild with fear and Shadow snapped back to reality and mumbled what seemed to be my name. After a few seconds audible words echoed from Shadow's mouth "help me up please!" He commanded as he motioned to his rope bound hands.

I reached to my belt and grabbed my combat knife and began to cut through the thick bindings and as I did Shadow seemed to flinch away from the blade seemingly afraid. His reaction made me wonder 'why would a vigilante be afraid of a combat knife, or why would he lock away the knife in a chest?' Nonetheless I cut the rope completely off and through his mask he gave an appreciative smile.

Shadow rose to his feet and slipped into another room away from me. I followed at his heels leaving Sean and Patricia to look after Elliot, Michael and a clearly distraught Lizzie.

Shadow moved into this new room stumbling slightly as he leant on a solid  metal desk with a keyboard built into it, in front of a wall with a few large screens built into it.

Shadow relied heavily on the leaning on the metal desk as his legs seemed to be extremely weak. "Are you alright to walk?" I asked him.

His head lifted up to face me and he gave a meek smile, "yeah I'm alright but can I ask you something Alexis?" He questioned in return using his same gruff tone.

"Yeah, ask me anything. What do you want to know?" I responded confused by Shadow's request, meanwhile at the back of my mind I still wondered what had happened to Shadow inside the dam.

Shadow tapped a few keys on the keyboard until the screen built into the wall flashed into life with many over lapping documents obscuring each other. "Does the name Ni-key mean anything to you?" Shadow questioned as he leaned on the solid keyboard for support.

I shook my head and replied with "no, no I haven't. Should I?" My response reflected my inner confusion.

He tapped on the computer then response to me "well according to these files the company- or organisation- or group behind the End of days killing game is called The Ni-key Project" he explained vaguely.

"What do you mean? Who is- or what is The Ni-key Project?" I questioned back.

Shadow sucked in a breath and spoke clearly, "well The Ni-key Project seems to have been based off the idea that humans can develop or evolve or become more than the average human. Whoever created the project found a certain genetic trait that when activated by a certain chemical compound activates an enhancement in the genetic trait creating 'powers' if that makes sense."

"B- but how does all this power stuff relate to me?" I replied stuttering out of pure confusion.

Shadow shifted uneasily before he responded grabbing his side where his ribs were. "Well I believe that everyone in the killing game was also part of The Ni-key Project, so last year do you have any memory gaps Alexis?" He questioned.

I responded immediately to Shadow's question "well no time-" I cut myself off and thought back to last year and how much I couldn't remember last year. "I don't know" I finally whispered.

"Don't worry Alexis I already have the proof that you were apart of the project" as Shadow responded he tapped the keyboard and pulled up an information document on me.

My world was frozen the document had my name, age, gender and everything about me along with a picture of me. The Ni-key Project knew everything about me! But on the document one section enticed me a section titled 'Enhancement'.

Under the section 'Enhancement' the following was written on the screen:
'Survival instinct'

I started to ponder what that meant when I remembered all the impossible things I had done: stopped Tom Anderson from killing me, saved Patricia from the river flash flood, fought off Mister Crow multiple times, not broken down after my father told me about my mother's suicide and not fallen into shambles throughout everything I had been through since the killing game started.

Before I even had time to process the whole revelation about The Ni-key Project I heard a familiar voice echoing from the other room "HA HA HA HA HA HA HA so where are you! My darling Fox!"

He had found me.

The man I should hate but I just couldn't.

I was frozen.