Ch. 4: The First Warning
Aryan and Meera raced through the dark tunnel until they finally reached the forest behind the observatory. Both of them were exhausted, but they knew stopping for too long wasn't an option.
“What was that place?” Meera asked, trying to catch her breath.
“I don‘t know,” Aryan replied. “But whoever those people are, they’re after the radio.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the old radio inside his backpack switched on by itself.
Static filled the air.
Then the mysterious voice returned.
“Warning… You are being watched… Trust no one… Eclipse is closer than you think…”
The transmission ended.
Meera looked around nervously.
“It feels like someone is following us.”
The next morning, Aryan searched online for Project Echo and the abandoned observatory.
Most of the records had disappeared.
Only one old newspaper article remained.
It mentioned that forty years ago a secret scientific experiment had ended in disaster. Several researchers had vanished without a trace, and the government sealed the observatory forever.
Before Aryan could read further, the webpage suddenly disappeared.
“Access Denied.”
Someone had remotely deleted the article.
Later that evening, Aryan received a text message from an unknown number.
“Destroy the radio immediately if you want to survive.”
His hands began to shake.
“I never told anyone about the radio,” he whispered.
Suddenly, a black SUV stopped outside his house.
Two people wearing dark suits stepped out and slowly walked toward the front gate.
“They found us,” Meera whispered.
Without wasting another second, Aryan grabbed the radio and escaped through the back door.
The two friends disappeared into the narrow streets as the strangers chased them.
That night, they hid inside an old warehouse on the edge of the city.
At exactly midnight, the radio came alive once again.
This time the voice was different.
It sounded exactly like Aryan.
“If you‘re hearing this… I’m you… From the future.”
Aryan froze.
The impossible had just become real.