EPISODE 5: THE ESCAPE ## CHAPTER 1: THE SIGNAL The lights flickered at exactly 2:47 PM. Marcus was in the exercise courtyard, pacing the artificial grass under artificial light, when the fluorescents stuttered—once, twice, then darkness. Emergency backups kicked in after three seconds, bathing everything in red. This was it. He moved immediately toward the eastern wall, where Chen had told him a maintenance door would be unlocked during the confusion. Around him, guards shouted orders, prisoners milled in confusion, and somewhere in the facility, alarms began to wail. The door was where Chen promised. Marcus pushed through into a service corridor—narrow, dark, lit only by emergency strips that created pools of red light every twenty feet. "Webb!" Sarah emerged from a side passage, her face flushed with adrenaline. "Chen's people are everywhere. I don't know how many guards they've taken down, but this place is chaos." "Victor?" "He's supposed to meet us at the extraction point. This way." They ran. The corridor twisted through the facility's infrastructure—past humming generators, water treatment systems, the mechanical heart of a building that wasn't supposed to exist. Sarah led with confidence, clearly having studied the route Chen provided. Gunfire echoed from somewhere behind them. "They're fighting back," Marcus gasped. "Good. Keeps them busy." Sarah rounded another corner and stopped. "Here." The extraction...