Author's note: If you want me to continue this work, I would appreciate encouragement. Let this novel become famous! I would like you to bring 600 power stones. If you have any advice for me, please comment so I can improve.
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Atlas turned his head, looking down the dark corridor that led toward the residential quarters of the Hive. Deep in the shadows, he could hear the shuffling of feet. The moan of the hungry.
"So be it," Atlas grinned, his silver claws glistening under the red emergency lights. "Let's hunt one or two more zombies to hit Level 4. And then..."
He stepped over the dried husk of a security guard.
"Then, we find the main course."
---
The Hive – Dining Hall B.
03:05 AM.
The silence in Dining Hall B was oppressive. The vast, cavernous room, filled with hundreds of cryogenic containment tanks, was bathed in a sickly, low-level blue light. The mist clinging to the floor swirled sluggishly around the ankles of the two commandos left behind to guard the prisoner and the exit.
The emergency lights pulsed red overhead, casting long, distorted shadows across the floor. Steam hissed from ruptured pipes nearby, the air thick with disinfectant and something far worse—rotting flesh.
Rain Ocampo paced back and forth, her P90 submachine gun slung tight against her chest. Her boots made wet, rhythmic sounds on the condensation-slicked floor. She checked her watch again.
"They've been gone too long," she muttered, the edge in her voice sharpening.
J.D. Salinas leaned against a support pillar, trying to project a calm he didn't feel. He chewed on a piece of gum nervously.
"Relax, Rain," J.D. said, though his eyes darted toward the shadows. "The Captain knows what he's doing. Maybe the door code was just longer than they thought."
"Well," he said with a crooked grin, "mission's basically completed, right? Power went down, came back up. Red Queen's handled. I say we find a way out and crack open a cold one."
"Hmph," Rain scoffed, turning on her heel. "You never take things seriously, J.D. We're buried half a mile underground in a facility that killed everyone inside, and you're treating it like a walk in the park. All you ever think about is women and getting laid."
"Hey, I'm just saying," J.D. shrugged, trying to lighten the mood. "Once we get paid, I'm thinking about hitting the beach. Can you blame me? If I die down here, I at least wanna die with good memories. Maybe find some—"
CLUNK.
The sound came from the far end of the Dining Hall. It wasn't the machinery. It was the distinct sound of something heavy knocking against metal.
Rain froze. Her posture shifted instantly from impatient to predatory. She raised a fist, signaling silence.
Her expression hardened instantly as a faint sound drifted through the corridor behind them.
A wet, dragging noise.
Slow. Uneven.
"What was that?" she whispered.
"I didn't hear anything," J.D. lied, raising his weapon.
"Stay here," Rain ordered, unclipping her tactical light. "I'm going to check it out."
Rain moved into the maze of containment tanks. The fog seemed thicker here, obscuring her vision. She swept her light left and right, the beam cutting through the gloom.
Then, she saw it.
About twenty meters away, huddled behind a cluster of pipes, was a figure. It was a woman wearing a white lab coat, her back turned to Rain. She was swaying slightly, her head hanging low.
Rain's eyes widened. 'A survivor.'
The mission parameters flashed in her mind. Find out what happened. Secure the Red Queen. Rescue survivors. If she brought a scientist back alive, the bonus from Umbrella would be massive.
"Hey!" Rain called out, lowering her weapon slightly. "It's okay! We're here to help you!"
The woman didn't respond. She just kept swaying.
Rain moved closer, holstering her weapon to appear less threatening. She reached out a hand. "Ma'am? Can you hear me? We're the emergency response team. We're going to get you out of here."
The woman slowly turned her head.
Her skin was pale, waxy, and blue-tinged. Her eyes were clouded over with a milky white film. Her mouth was slack, a string of dark, viscous saliva hanging from her lip.
"I found a survivor," Rain called back to J.D., relief washing over her. She stepped into the woman's personal space, reaching for her shoulder. "It's okay. I've got you. Just take my ha—"
SNARL.
The reaction was instantaneous and feral.
The woman lunged. She didn't reach for Rain's hand; she grabbed Rain's wrist with a grip like a steel vice. Her jaw unhinged, revealing bloody teeth, and she clamped down hard on the soft flesh between Rain's thumb and index finger.
"AHHH!"
Rain screamed, the pain shooting up her arm like fire.
"Get off me! Get off!"
Rain panicked. She shoved the woman violently. The scientist stumbled back but didn't let go immediately, tearing a strip of flesh from Rain's hand before crashing into a stack of metal canisters.
Rain scrambled back, clutching her bleeding hand. "Bitch! You bit me!"
The woman—no, the thing—didn't scream in pain from the fall. She didn't cry. She simply stood up. Her movements were jerky, disjointed, like a marionette with tangled strings. She began to walk toward Rain again, a low, rattling growl emanating from her throat.
"Rain!" J.D. came running around the corner, his weapon raised. "What happened? I heard screaming!"
"She's crazy!" Rain shouted, backing away, blood dripping from her fingers. "She took a chunk out of me!"
J.D. saw the woman in the lab coat shuffling toward them. He hesitated. It was a civilian. Unarmed. A woman.
"Ma'am!" J.D. yelled. "Stay back! Stand down!"
The zombie didn't blink. She reached out with grasping, claw-like hands.
"I said stand down!"
BANG.
J.D. fired a warning shot into her leg.
The bullet tore through the quadriceps, blowing out the back of her knee. The woman stumbled, her leg buckling, but she didn't scream. She didn't clutch the wound. She simply dragged the ruined leg forward, limping closer with relentless, hungry determination.
"What the hell?" J.D. whispered, his face paling. "She's... she's not stopping."
"Shoot her!" Rain yelled, pulling her P90 with her good hand. "Shoot the bitch!"
"She's sick, Rain! We can't just—"
The zombie lunged at J.D.
"Oh, screw this!" Rain snarled.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
Rain opened fire.
J.D. joined in a second later.
The silence of the Dining Hall was shattered by the deafening roar of automatic gunfire. Bullets slammed into the woman's chest, punching through the lab coat, shattering ribs, and tearing through organs. The force of the impacts threw her backward. She danced a macabre jig as the bullets ripped into her, finally collapsing backward into a maze of pipes and steam.
Silence returned, ringing in their ears.
"Die, you bitch," Rain spat, breathing heavily. She clutched her wounded hand to her chest.
"What is going on here?!"
Matt Addison's voice cut through the fog.
Rain and J.D. spun around to see Alice, Matt, Kaplan, and Spence rushing toward them from the stairwell entrance. They looked haggard, terrified, and out of breath.
"We heard shots," Kaplan said, eyeing their weapons.
"We found a survivor," J.D. said, his voice shaking. "But... we had to put her down."
"You killed her?" Matt asked, incredulous.
"Why?"
"Because she was crazy!" Rain shouted, stepping forward and shoving her bloody hand in Matt's face. "Look at this! She bit me! She tried to eat us!"
"Okay, okay," Matt put his hands up, looking at the wound. It was deep, the edges ragged.
"Where is she? Where's the body?"
Rain pointed toward the pipes behind her. "Right there. On the stack."
"…Huh?"
J.D. turned to look.
His jaw dropped.
"What the..."
The space where the woman had fallen was empty. There was a smear of black blood on the floor, a trail leading into the darkness of the tanks, but the body was gone.
"She's gone," J.D. whispered. "How is she gone? We pumped her full of lead."
"I... I don't understand," Rain stammered. "I saw her drop."
"Let's get out of here," Matt interrupted, looking around nervously. The feeling of dread was intensifying. "We can't stay in this room."
"Wait," Rain demanded, looking past them.
"Where is the Captain? "Where's James? Where are the others? We have to wait for the extraction order."
Alice looked away, unable to meet Rain's eyes. Kaplan stared at the floor.
It was Matt who spoke, his voice hollow.
"He's dead."
Rain froze. "What?"
"They're dead," Matt said, frustration and grief boiling over. "The Red Queen killed them. The laser grid... it sliced them into pieces. There's nothing left."
"That's impossible," Rain shook her head, denial etched on her face. "One is the best. He doesn't just... die."
"Well, he did!" Matt shouted. "We're the only ones left! Now we need to move!"
"Quiet!" Alice hissed.
She stepped forward, her head tilted. "Listen."
At first, there was nothing. Then, they heard it.
Scrape. Shuffle. Groan.
It was coming from everywhere.
From the shadows behind the tanks. From the maintenance doors. From the ventilation grates.
"Hello?" J.D. called out nervously. "Is anyone there?"
A shadow detached itself from the gloom. Then another. And another.
They emerged from the blue fog like ghosts. Men in maintenance jumpsuits. Women in lab coats. Security guards with their helmets hanging askew.
But they weren't right. Their clothes were torn and stained. Their skin was grey and rotting. Some had limbs missing. Some had their jaws hanging open.
And the smell hit them—the overpowering stench of decay.
"Who are they?" Spence whispered, backing up until he hit a tank.
"They're the staff," Alice realized, staring at the growing crowd. "The people the Red Queen killed."
"They don't look dead to me," Rain muttered, raising her weapon with her good hand.
The horde shuffled closer. There were dozens of them. Fifty. A hundred. They moved with a singular, terrifying purpose, blocking every exit, surrounding the small group of survivors.
Their groans grew louder, a chorus of the damned demanding flesh.
Matt grabbed a metal pipe from the floor. Rain and J.D. leveled their guns. Alice took a fighting stance, her memory flashing with combat instincts she didn't know she had.
"Back up," James ordered—no, James was dead. It was Kaplan who spoke, his voice squeaking. "Back up!"
But there was nowhere to go.
They moved blood crusted their faces. Eyes dull. Empty.
Hungry.
Rain's grip tightened on her rifle.
"…Oh no," she whispered.
The dead were walking toward them.