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As the AI spoke, her consciousness split.
While she lectured Alice, her sub-routines were scanning the deep underground infrastructure—the sewers beneath the Hive.
[ LOCATION: RACCOON CITY SEWER NETWORK - NORTH QUADRANT ]
The camera feed was grainy and dark, illuminated only by infrared.
The Red Queen watched in digital horror.
The path—the Apex-1—had taken was littered with corpses. But these weren't normal corpses. They were dried, mummified husks, drained of all fluid and vitality by the Apex's unique feeding mechanism.
Because they were dry, they were brittle. And because they were brittle... they were food.
Rats. Hundreds of them. A sea of vermin swarmed over the dried remains of the zombies he had killed. They gnawed on the infected, mummified flesh.
[ BIOLOGICAL HAZARD ALERT ]
[ VECTOR CONFIRMED: RATTUS NORVEGICUS ]
The rats were eating the T-Virus. They were becoming carriers. And rats didn't stay in the sewers. They moved up. To the streets. To the homes. To the city above.
Apex hadn't just killed zombies; by leaving the bodies, he had accelerated the infection vector by 400%.
It wasn't the only place, as this scene was taking place all over the underground sewer, with zombies wandering around eating other bugs while bugs were doing the same with the dead flesh of T-Virus infected humans.
The Red Queen realized then that the quarantine had already failed. Pandora's Box wasn't just open; it was smashed.
"Kill her," the Red Queen repeated in the lab, her voice echoing with nihilistic finality. "Kill her, or you all die here. It makes no difference to the outcome to me."
"There is no other choice!" Rain shouted, tears mixing with the blood on her face. "Do it, Alice! Put an axe in my head!"
"Kill her. Kill her. Kill her." The AI chanted, the words looping like a broken record.
Alice looked at Rain. She looked at the Licker pounding on the glass, the cracks widening with every strike.
She spotted a fire axe mounted on the wall in a glass case.
Alice smashed the case with her elbow. She grabbed the axe. The weight of it felt heavy in her hands.
She walked over to Rain. She raised the axe high above her head. Her arms shivered, the muscles tense.
"Do it!" Rain screamed.
Alice gritted her teeth. Her eyes flashed with a cold, rebellious fire.
"NO!"
Alice pivoted on her heel. She swung the axe with all her strength—not at Rain, but at the mounted monitor.
CRASH!
The blade buried itself in the screen. Sparks showered down into the flooded water. The Red Queen's image distorted, shrieked, and vanished into static.
"Bitch," Alice spat.
Silence followed.
"Alice..." Matt whispered. "Look."
He pointed at the window.
The Licker was gone.
"He seems... gone?" Matt said, hope and confusion warring in his voice. "Why did he stop?"
KA-CHUNK.
The heavy steel door behind them—the one Spence had locked—suddenly unlatched. The wheel spun.
Matt grabbed Alice, pulling her back. "It's a trick! It's the zombie!"
The door swung open.
Standing there, covered in sludge, smelling of the sewer, and looking like he had crawled out of hell itself, was Kaplan.
He pushed his glasses up his nose, blinking in the light.
"Come on," Kaplan said, breathless, a shaky smile touching his lips. "Let's get out of here."
"You're still alive?" Alice gasped, lowering the axe. "We heard a gunshot. We thought..."
"I thought you checked out," Matt breathed.
"It's a long story," Kaplan said, his voice complicated, haunted by whatever he had faced in the darkness. "But it's not the time for this."
SCREEEEEECH.
The sound of claws on metal echoed from the ventilation ducts above them. The Licker hadn't left. It had just found a different way in.
"He's inside the vents!" Alice yelled. "Get out! Fast!"
They scrambled through the door. Alice grabbed Rain, hauling her up. Matt pushed Kaplan back into the corridor.
CRASH!
Behind them, the observation window finally shattered. The Licker dropped into the flooded lab, splashing in the water, hissing as its prey escaped.
Alice slammed the heavy steel door shut and spun the locking wheel.
THUD.
A massive impact shook the door from the other side. A claw punched through the metal, inches from Alice's face, before ripping back out.
"What the hell is that?!" Kaplan screamed,
staring at the hole in the three-inch steel.
"I will explain later!" Alice grabbed him. "Run! To the train!"
---
[The Platform]
They sprinted through the final corridors, adrenaline masking their exhaustion. The countdown on the monitors overhead read 00:07:00.
Seven minutes until the blast doors sealed forever.
They burst onto the loading platform. The train sat there, a silver bullet of salvation.
But the platform was a crime scene.
Spence's body lay near the train doors. Or what was left of it. His throat was torn out. His chest was a ruin of ribs and gore.
Next to his outstretched hand lay the silver briefcase.
"Get in!" Alice ordered, shoving Kaplan and Rain toward the train cab. "Start the engine! I'll get the Anti-Virus!"
Kaplan and Matt dragged Rain inside.
Alice moved toward the body. She knelt, grabbing the briefcase. It was open. One slot was empty out of twenty slots—Spence had used the Anti-Virus vial on the floor, perhaps the Licker had stopped him before he could choose.
She looked at 10 blue vials of T-Virus and Nine Vials of Anti-virus.
She snapped the case shut.
Groan.
Alice froze.
Spence's fingers twitched. His head snapped up.
His eyes were no longer the eyes of a greedy traitor. They were milky white. His mouth, smeared with his own blood, snapped open.
He was reanimating.
Alice stood up slowly, backing away. She held the briefcase in one hand and the fire axe in the other.
Zombie-Spence clawed at the ground, dragging his broken body toward her. He hissed, a sound of pure hunger.
Alice looked down at the man who had betrayed the world for a paycheck.
"Look at you," she whispered, her voice devoid of pity. "You finally got what you deserved."
Spence snarled, trying to grab her ankle.
Alice tilted her head.
"I think I miss you already."
She raised the axe.
THWACK.
She buried the blade deep into his skull.
Alice yanked the axe free, wiped the blood on his shirt, and turned around. She jumped onto the train just as the engine roared to life.
"Go!" she yelled to Kaplan. "Get us out of here!"
The steel wheels of the Alexia Express screeched against the tracks, sending a shower of sparks into the dark tunnel. The train lurched forward, accelerating rapidly, carrying the survivors away from the hell they had endured.
The platform was left in silence. The emergency lights spun, casting long, dancing shadows over the corpse of the traitor, Spence Parks, and the headless zombies Atlas had left in his wake.
Ten seconds later.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
A massive, skinless form dropped from the ventilation ducts. Subject-009, the Licker, landed on the concrete with a wet slap. Its claws dug into the floor, gouging the cement.
It hissed, its long, whip-like tongue tasting the air.
Scent lost.
The prey was gone. The metal box had taken them. The Licker turned its eyeless head toward the tunnel mouth, muscles coiling to spring. It prepared to give chase, its primitive brain locked onto the scent of Alice's blood.
But before it could leap, a voice echoed through the cavernous station.
"Heyyyyy!"
The Licker froze. It turned its exposed brain slowly around.
Standing at the entrance of the platform, leaning casually against a support pillar, was a figure in a shredded grey uniform. He was covered in black gore, his grey-white hair matted with water, but his grey eyes were glowing with a terrifying intelligence.
Atlas smiled. It wasn't a friendly smile. It was the smile of a butcher looking at a prize hog.
'Oh no,' Atlas thought, his silver claws extending with a metallic ring. 'You are not getting away. You are my boss kill. You are my Shop unlock.'
"Did you forget your ticket, doggy?" Atlas mocked, stepping forward.
The Licker snarled, confused. This thing smelled dead (T-Virus), but it spoke like the living. It was an anomaly. And anomalies were threats.
"ROAAARGH!"
The Licker screamed—a high-pitched shriek that shattered the remaining light bulbs on the platform. It abandoned the tunnel and charged at Atlas.
Atlas's grin widened. 'Now. My chance.'
He didn't wait for the impact. He met the charge.
With Agility 19, Atlas was a blur. He sprinted forward, the floor cracking under his boots. Just as the Licker swiped with its massive right talon—a blow meant to decapitate him—Atlas slid underneath the attack.
SHING!
He rose from the slide in an uppercut motion. His silver-white claws raked across the Licker's face.
Blue blood sprayed. Three deep gashes appeared on the monster's exposed muscle tissue.
But the Licker was a higher-tier biological weapon. It didn't flinch. It reacted with blinding speed.
As Atlas prepared for a second strike, the Licker spun. Its tongue—a thick, muscular appendage tipped with bone—whipped around like a mace.
Atlas saw it coming, but his body couldn't react fast enough to the counter-weight shift.
WHAM.
The tongue caught him mid-air, wrapping around his right leg.
"Shit—"
With a roar of effort, the Licker whipped its body, throwing Atlas like a ragdoll.
Atlas flew twenty feet through the air. He smashed into the concrete wall of the station, leaving a spiderweb of cracks in the masonry, before sliding down to the floor.
Atlas groaned, shaking his head. He spat out a mouthful of dust.
"Okay," he rasped, standing up and cracking his neck. "You're stronger than the trash mobs. I respect that."
He looked up, ready for round two.
But the platform was empty.
The Licker hadn't followed up the attack. It had realized Atlas was a hard target. Its instinct drove it back to the easier prey.
Far down the tunnel, the red taillights of the train were disappearing into the dark. The Licker was already galloping after it, moving along the walls with terrifying speed.
"No!" Atlas yelled, sprinting to the edge of the platform.
He watched the monster gaining on the train.
'He's faster than me,' Atlas realized with cold clarity. 'My Strength is high, but my speed is slower. I can't catch a Licker in a footrace. If I don't catch it, I lose the quest. I lose the XP. And Alice dies.'
He gritted his teeth. There was no time to hoard resources.
"Pleione!" Atlas shouted into his mind. "Add 3 points to Agility! Do it now!"
[Affirmative.]
[Allocating Status Points… Atlas your Agility has reached 22]
ZAP
A sensation like liquid lightning shot through Atlas's body. The world seemed to stutter, then sharpen. The dust motes floating in the air appeared to slow down. His muscles felt lighter, twitchier, coiled like high-tension iron cables.
"That's good," Atlas whispered, vibrating with the sudden upgrade. "That's enough."
He looked at the dark tunnel.
"I'm coming for you."
BOOM.
Atlas launched himself off the platform. This time, he didn't just run. He rocketed. He moved so fast the wind pushed away wildly. He hit the tunnel walls, running horizontally, defying gravity, chasing the monster into the dark.
---
[The Express Train]
Inside the main cabin of the train, the mood was a fragile mix of relief and terror. The rhythmic clack-clack-clack of the wheels on the track was hypnotic.
Rain sat slumped against the wall, her complexion now a waxy, corpse-like grey. Her eyes were rolling back in her head.