(Written by Rohit Malhotra)
Ronin's phone buzzed as the plane began its descent over the misty mountains of Himachal Pradesh. A single message from an unknown number appeared on screen:
"Keep your eyes closed during the descent. It hides in light."
He stared at it, heart pounding. The phone had no signal, no internet — yet the message had arrived.
He looked over at Ruby, who sat next to him, gripping her seat. Her face was pale, but her eyes were determined. They hadn't spoken much since boarding the flight. They both knew that this trip wasn't a journey — it was a return.
The moment the wheels touched down on the narrow hilltop runway, both of them felt it — the air was heavier here. The mountains looked alive, like they were holding their breath.
An hour later, they were in a rented jeep, driving along a narrow forest road toward the coordinates from the mysterious message. The deeper they went into the woods, the weaker their phone signals became — until they disappeared completely.
"I remember this place," Ruby said suddenly, staring at the trees. "But I don't know how."
Ronin nodded. "Same."
The trees grew taller, denser. Shadows fell longer even though it was mid-afternoon. The GPS stopped working five miles before the actual spot, so they parked the jeep and continued on foot, using an old hand-drawn map Ruby had found folded inside one of the ZSRD files.
After almost an hour of hiking through the thick forest, they saw it — a tall iron gate, half-buried in vines, rusted shut. Beyond it, a concrete building stretched sideways into the ground, like a bunker trying to disappear into the earth.
A faded board on the gate read:
Zero Sky Research Division – Sector 12B
Authorized Personnel Only
Ronin pushed the gate. It groaned, but opened.
The moment they stepped through, the air changed.
It wasn't just colder.
It was watching.
---
Inside, the facility smelled of old metal and rotting wires. Emergency lights blinked dimly along the floor, though there was no electricity. Somewhere, a low humming echoed — like the remnants of a machine that refused to shut down.
"This place shouldn't have power," Ruby said.
"I don't think it's electricity," Ronin whispered.
They moved through the main corridor, past rusted doors and broken glass. On one wall, someone had written with red paint — or was it blood?
"We opened the sky. The sky looked back."
Ruby felt a chill crawl up her spine.
They reached a sealed door at the end of the hallway. Above it, a scanner blinked — astonishingly still active.
Ronin stepped forward. Before he could touch it, the scanner lit green.
"Welcome back, Subject R-43," a voice said from the speaker.
The door hissed and slid open.
Inside, a vast underground lab lay dormant, frozen in time. There were glass tubes — some broken, some intact. Computers covered in dust. Chairs still turned toward screens that no longer glowed.
And in the middle of the room — a giant circular platform with six stone pillars, each engraved with alien symbols. The same ones from Ruby's drawings.
"They brought us here when we were kids," Ruby whispered, stepping slowly toward the platform. "I remember now. They made us stand on those symbols… They said we were the only ones who could activate them."
Ronin touched one of the pillars. It vibrated faintly under his palm.
"They weren't trying to reach the sky," he said slowly. "They were trying to open it."
Just then, the screens around the room flickered on — even though there was no power. A central monitor displayed static, then stabilized into a grainy image.
A woman's face appeared.
Grey lab coat. Cold eyes.
It was the same woman from Ruby's memory.
"If you're seeing this… the sky crack has begun to spread," she said in a recorded message. "Project Zero Sky was never about communication. It was a doorway. And we… we let something through."
She paused, looking as if she knew they were watching.
"We trained ten children. You and Ronin were the strongest. You both have the genetic code to close the gate — or open it permanently."
Ronin stepped back. "What gate?"
The woman answered as if she heard him. "The one that connects this world to theirs."
The screen went black.
Suddenly, one of the sealed glass tubes at the side of the room hissed.
They turned.
Inside the tube, something moved.
Ruby took a step forward.
A shape — humanoid, tall, but with no clear face — floated in the fluid. Its fingers were too long. Its skin was translucent. And its eyes, though closed, pulsed with faint blue light.
"That's not human," Ronin breathed.
"It's not dead either," Ruby said.
A loud screech echoed from somewhere deeper in the facility.
They weren't alone.
Ronin grabbed Ruby's hand. "We need to get out. Now."
But before they could move, the platform in the center began to glow. Each pillar lit up with the symbols — the same ones from Ruby's sketch. A circle of light formed beneath their feet.
And then, they weren't in the lab anymore.