Chapter 14 : The Price
The stairs spiraled upward through reinforced concrete, emergency lights casting shadows that seemed to move with malicious intent.
Rain half-carried me up the first flight. My legs were functional but unreliable, threatening to buckle with each step. The stomach wound had closed to an angry red scar, but the healing had drained something fundamental from my reserves.
"Kaplan!" Rain's voice echoed up the stairwell. "We've got Harrison! And company behind us!"
A head appeared at the landing above—Kaplan, his face pale but determined. "How much company?"
"Enough that we need to move."
We reached the landing. Kaplan was standing beside a junction box, tools scattered at his feet. Alice crouched nearby, her borrowed weapon trained on the stairs below. Her eyes found mine as we approached.
"You're alive," she said.
"Apparently."
"How?"
"The short version or the long version?"
"The short version."
"I killed the Licker, walked through a tunnel full of zombies, and discovered I can make them do what I want." I paused. "Sort of."
Alice processed that. Her expression didn't change—she'd already moved past surprise into something like acceptance. We were both freaks now. The specific nature of our freakishness was just details.
"The train?" I asked.
"Dead. Power coupling failed. Kaplan's trying to get the mansion's backup generators online so we can access the elevator."
"How long?"
Kaplan looked up from his work. "Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen."
The shuffling sounds from below were getting louder. I reached out with my senses, mapping the signatures. Twenty at least, more coming. The control I'd exerted in the tunnel had faded, and I wasn't sure I could manage it again without passing out.
"We need to hold this position." I looked at our group. Rain, Kaplan, Alice. Matt and Spence huddled near the wall, both looking like they'd rather be anywhere else. "Where are we on ammunition?"
"I've got half a magazine." Rain checked her weapon. "Maybe fifteen rounds."
"I've got a full clip." Alice's voice was calm. "Picked up an extra from the armory."
"I have a gun," Matt offered weakly. "But I'm not... I mean, I can shoot, but..."
"Stay behind us." I turned to Spence. "You?"
He shook his head. No weapon. No skills. No value except as a liability.
And he's the one who caused all this. The virus thief who started an apocalypse.
I pushed that thought aside. Dealing with Spence could wait. Right now, survival mattered more than justice.
"Alright. Rain, Alice, you're on the stairs. I'll provide backup when I can. Kaplan, keep working. Everyone else, stay out of the way."
"You're barely standing," Rain objected. "You can't—"
"I can do enough."
The first zombie appeared at the bottom of the stairwell. Rain's MP5 chattered—three rounds, precise bursts. The zombie's head snapped back and it tumbled down the steps.
More followed. Always more.
Alice moved to the landing's edge, firing with the same unconscious precision she'd shown throughout the night. Her body was remembering skills her mind couldn't access—combat training, threat assessment, the thousand small decisions that separated soldiers from civilians.
I watched her work, seeing echoes of my own transformation. The enhanced reflexes. The unnatural accuracy. The way her wounds were closing faster than they should.
We're the same. Whatever Umbrella created, whatever the T-Virus is supposed to do, we're both examples of it.
A zombie slipped past their fire, reaching the landing. I intercepted it, knife finding skull with an efficiency that surprised me. My arms were shaking, my vision blurred, but the strike was perfect. Muscle memory from two lifetimes, combined with whatever enhancement flowed through my blood.
"Harrison." Rain's voice cut through the gunfire. "Behind you!"
I spun. Another zombie, this one in a security uniform, had emerged from a side passage I hadn't noticed. Its hands grabbed my shoulders, its mouth opened to bite.
I slammed my forehead into its face.
The impact staggered it back. My knife followed, punching through its eye socket. The body dropped.
"There's another route," Kaplan shouted. "They're coming from a maintenance tunnel!"
"Can you seal it?"
"Not without stopping what I'm doing!"
I turned to Matt. "You wanted to be useful? Block that tunnel. Push furniture, debris, whatever you can find."
He hesitated for half a second, then moved. Spence followed—finally contributing something, even if only because he had no choice.
The stairwell below was filling with corpses. Rain and Alice were holding the line, but ammunition was finite. Every burst brought them closer to empty magazines and hand-to-hand combat against numbers that would overwhelm them.
I reached for the connection I'd found in the tunnel. The thread that linked my virus to theirs.
Pain stabbed through my skull. Fresh blood poured from my nose. The connection formed—weaker than before, frayed at the edges.
Stop.
The zombies on the stairs froze. Not all of them—maybe half. The others continued climbing, unaffected by my command.
Alice and Rain focused fire on the ones still moving. I held the others in place, the strain threatening to split my head open. Seconds felt like hours. Each heartbeat was a separate battle.
The moving zombies fell. The controlled ones remained still.
Go back. Down the stairs. Away from us.
They turned. Shambling, stumbling, they descended. Not quickly—their bodies weren't built for coordination—but steadily. Away from the landing. Away from us.
I released the connection and collapsed.
Darkness ate the edges of my vision. Sound became distant, muffled. I was aware of hands grabbing me, voices shouting, but the details wouldn't resolve into meaning.
"—losing too much blood—"
"—heal, right? Like before—"
"—give him space—"
The darkness pulled harder. I let it take me.
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