Echoes from the Island (Episode-4) -Md Uzzal Hossain

The shard on Rayyan’s nightstand pulsed like a living thing.

Each glow came with a faint sound: ‘thrum, thrum’, like the heartbeat of something vast beneath the earth. Rayyan couldn’t sleep. His mind raced with Liana’s words, the image of his own Echo smirking back at him, and the chilling message from the shard:

“Phase Four Initiated. Global Integration commencing.”

For the first time, the fight was no longer trapped on an island or in an underwater facility. It was stretching outward. To the world. To everyone.

And Rayyan was right in the middle of it.

The next morning, Rayyan met Liana at the old train station on the city’s edge. It had been abandoned for years, the tracks rusted, the ticket booth covered in graffiti. Yet when Liana pressed the shard against one of the rusted gates, it shimmered—and slid open.

Inside, Rayyan gasped.

The old station wasn’t empty. It had been transformed. Screens lined the walls. Maps glowed with blinking points across the globe. And kids, dozens of them, moved between consoles, repairing devices, scribbling notes, and watching the skies through hacked satellites.

Liana smiled faintly at his wide-eyed shock. “Welcome to the Haven.”

One boy with curly hair and sharp eyes stepped forward. “Subject 17,” he said firmly. “We’ve been waiting.”

Rayyan blinked. “Do I know you?”

The boy shook his head. “Not yet. I’m Zayden. Subject 12. But we’ve all seen your footage. The Core collapse. The Mirror smashes. You’re proof we can fight them.”

Rayyan’s stomach twisted. “Wait, footage?”

Zayden tapped a console. A screen lit up with grainy clips: Rayyan battling through illusions, smashing the Mirror Core with Liana, and even waking up on the fishing boat.

“They’re always watching,” Liana explained softly. “But their eyes can be turned against them. We intercepted their feeds. Now, we use their surveillance to find each other. To build this resistance.”

Rayyan felt a strange mix of pride and dread. He wasn’t alone anymore—but that meant the danger was bigger than ever.

Zayden pointed to the glowing world map. Red dots pulsed across continents.
“Every dot is a facility. Islands. Domes. Underwater labs. Mirror chambers. All connected. But the largest signal comes from here.”

He tapped the North Pole.

“The Arctic?” Rayyan asked.

“Yes. Deep beneath the ice. That’s where the World Layer is.”
“The what?”

“Their final system,” Liana answered. “A machine that overlays their false reality onto the real one. Not just for kids anymore. For everyone. Imagine a world where no one knows if they’re free or programmed. Where families, friends—entire cities—could be replaced with Echoes. And no one would notice.”

Rayyan’s heart pounded. “That’s impossible.”

Zayden shook his head. “It’s already begun. News glitches. Disappearing landmarks. People remembering different versions of the same event. They call it ‘Integration’. Soon, the line between reality and simulation won’t exist.”

Rayyan’s throat went dry. “Then how do we stop it?”

The Haven had been preparing for months. Kids from all over the world—Brazil, Japan, Kenya, and Norway—each had their own story of survival, each carrying scars from Biograte’s twisted tests.

Together, they had pieced together a plan: infiltrate the Arctic base, shut down the World Layer, and expose Biograte to the outside world.

But it wasn’t simple.

“The World Layer isn’t guarded by drones,” Zayden explained. “It’s guarded by us.”
Rayyan frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Echoes of us. Copies built to anticipate our every move. They know our fears, our instincts, and our thoughts. To face them is to face ourselves.”

The words hung heavy in the air.

Rayyan remembered the smirk of his Echo in the Mirror Core. The way it had felt like looking into his own shadow.

Could he fight that again on a global scale?

That night in the Haven, Rayyan lay on a cot staring at the shard. Suddenly, it pulsed again. A hologram flickered into the air.

It was Aarav.

His face was bruised, his voice raw, but his eyes burned with fire.

“If you see this, I’m alive. I’ve made it to the edge of the World Layer. But it’s worse than we thought. They’re not just copying us; they’re experimenting with memories. Deleting, rewriting, inserting false ones. I don’t even know what’s real anymore. But I know one thing.”

The message cut, static tearing his words apart. Then a final phrase was burnt onto the shard:

“Trust nothing. Not even yourself.”

Rayyan gripped the shard tight, his heart hammering. Aarav was alive, but he was trapped.

And if Biograte could rewrite memories, then…

A sickening thought chilled him.

What if some of the kids here in the Haven weren’t real either?

The next day, Zayden gathered the group. “It’s time. The shard has synced with the World Layer’s signal. If we move fast, we can breach their ice facility before Integration completes.”

Dozens of kids cheered, fierce and ready. But Rayyan stayed quiet. Aarav’s warning echoed in his head: Trust nothing. Not even yourself.

As the resistance boarded an old cargo plane converted into their transport, Rayyan caught his reflection in a frosted window.

For just a moment, just a flicker, his reflection’s lips curled into that same smirk he’d seen in the Mirror Core.

But Rayyan hadn’t smiled.

His chest tightened. Was it just his imagination, or was the Echo already inside him?

High above the frozen ocean, the cargo plane roared toward the Arctic. Kids huddled in the dim light, clutching scavenged gear, eyes burning with determination.

Rayyan sat among them, clutching the shard, heart heavy with dread.

Liana leaned closer. “We’ll find Aarav. We’ll stop the Layer. Together.”
Rayyan nodded. But inside, doubt gnawed at him.

Because if he couldn’t trust even himself, how could he lead anyone else?

Far below, under miles of ice, the World Layer pulsed awake. Its colossal voice echoed into the void:

“Integration at 64%. Prepare Mirror Army deployment.”

And in one of its frozen halls, a pod hissed open.

Inside stood a boy with Rayyan’s face.

Eyes glowing faint green.

Ready to replace him.

To be continued…