Chapter Five: Tangled Ties

Raizel's breath caught in his throat as the basement's light revealed the captives behind the makeshift bars. His eyes widened with realization as he recognized the faces of an old woman and a young man. "No... it can't be," he whispered, the weight of the revelation settling heavily on his shoulders.

His hands trembled as he fumbled through the documents scattered across a nearby table. Family pictures emerged, and Raizel's eyes fixated on a particular image—the doctor, the old woman, the young man, and a third figure, noticeably absent in the basement.

"He had another son," Raizel muttered, his mind racing to piece together the puzzle. The realization that the doctor's family had been torn apart in the chaos of the outbreak struck him like a blow. He sank to the cold floor, absorbing the gravity of the situation.

"Why were they down here?" he questioned aloud, his voice reflecting the turmoil within.

His gaze shifted to the broken glass wall on the other side of the basement. The sight sent shivers down his spine as he saw a bed surrounded by multiple strings, each tied as if to restrain someone. "What was happening here?" he wondered, scanning the room for answers.

Vaccines, test samples, and injections lay scattered on tables, accompanied by the eerie presence of CCTV cameras. Raizel approached the monitors, his eyes narrowing as he saw footage of the captive family. The doctor, seemingly torn between duty and despair, had conducted experiments on his own kin.

A mix of horror and sympathy overwhelmed Raizel as he grasped the extent of Dr. Hernandez's desperate attempts to understand and combat the outbreak. "What drove him to this?" he murmured, unable to comprehend the depths of the doctor's torment.

As he scrutinized the CCTV footage, Raizel's eyes widened in shock. On one of the screens, he saw the missing son—escaping the confines of the house. "He got out," Raizel exclaimed, a surge of hope and dread intertwining within him.

The basement, once a chamber of secrets, now echoed with the cries of those who had suffered within its walls. Raizel stood at the crossroads of the doctor's tragedy and the son's escape, torn between unraveling the mysteries and confronting the reality of a family torn asunder by the undead apocalypse.