The lights flickered in fear, stuttering like a dying breath. Growls echoed through the halls — guttural, hungry — as the horde slammed into the vault doors that kept them at bay. But the steel shuddered. And it wouldn't hold for long.
Footsteps thundered in every direction. Survivors scrambled for the rear exits, but not all of them were fast enough. Screams rang out. Gunfire followed. Then silence.
"Ugh, Ma… hate to break it to ya, but Therma's done for," Leo muttered, fingers flying over the keypad of a thick metal blast door. His goggles were cracked. His hands, shaking.
"We're not leaving." Alice pumped a fresh shell into her shotgun, blood running down her sleeves like rainfall. "Michael's still down there. We evacuate everyone."
Mika turned to Jax, her expression pale beneath her blood-spattered glasses. He met her eyes, then looked away. His grip tightened on the LMG.
"Rhea!" Hana's voice cracked through the chaos. "Where's Haruka?"
Rhea loaded her last magazine without looking up. "Outside, I think."
"Two belts!" Jax shouted, slamming a new ammo belt into the LMG. With every reload, sweat poured down his brow. "I'm running hot!"
Mika scanned the room, jaw clenched. Her medic duffel slammed against her back with every step. She inspected her SMG—only one magazine left. She hissed in frustration, slammed the mag back in, and looked up.
"The vault door's opening," she warned. "It's not going to hold much longer."
Rhea glanced at Alice, whose blood-soaked jacket dripped onto the steel floor. "How do you plan to evacuate Michael?"
"We fight," Alice said without hesitation, loading shells into her shotgun with trembling fingers. "Every last one of them."
The vault door screeched wider.
One zombie squeezed through.
Then another.
Then dozens poured in like floodwater breaking through a dam.
"I got 'em!" Jax shouted, dropping to his knees and mounting the LMG.
BRRR! BRR! BRR!
He opened fire, mowing down the first wave in bloody bursts.
"Ma! We have to leave!" Leo cried, running up to Alice and grabbing her arm. "Jax is almost dry. So are we!"
But Alice stood frozen, breathing heavy, losing blood by the second.
"No… not again," she whispered. "I can't leave Michael. Not again."
"Ma!" Leo shook her again, more urgently this time.
In the distance, the undead kept coming — wave after wave, tumbling over each other like a living bridge.
"I'm all out!" Jax roared. He grabbed Alice's shotgun and kept firing, holding the line. "Leo! Grab her! Let's fucking go!"
Mika ran to cover them as Leo and Rhea hauled Alice toward the reinforced back tunnel.
"There's an emergency generator below the lab," Mika said, panting. "Michael's safe down there. That room's sealed like a vault. We'll come back later — for him… and the rest."
Leo nodded. "Rhea, let's go!"
Jax held the line. "Mika, fall back! I'll cover, then we flank left and cover Hana."
Mika nodded and ran, bloodied machete swinging at her side.
Jax followed close behind.
But Hana stayed.
Still fighting.
Still swinging.
"Hana!" Jax yelled. "Let's go!"
"I'm not leaving Haruka!" she screamed back.
The zombies closed in fast. Too fast.
And then—
She tripped.
Fell hard.
Her own knife pierced her thigh clean through. Buried deep.
"AHHHH!" Hana shrieked in pain. She turned her head and saw the sea of undead thundering toward her.
"JAX, DO SOMETHING!" Mika screamed.
"Gun's jammed!" Jax barked back, yanking uselessly at the weapon.
Mika's eyes welled up. Hana closed her own.
A single tear slid down her cheek.
"Haruka..." she whispered.
Then—
SPLAT. SLASH. CRACK.
A blur tore through the horde.
Haruka.
Mask breathing violently. Katana dancing through flesh and bone.
He didn't hesitate.
He didn't falter.
He cut down the horde in seconds, his movements precise, mechanical — merciless.
Jax rushed out, grabbed Hana, and pulled her to safety as Mika helped drag her back.
Haruka stood frozen, back turned to the flames, chest heaving.
He glanced down at his mask.
The cylinders hissed softly. Calm.
He looked at his katana…
Nothing happened.
No spark. No power. No reaction.
Just… silence.
He exhaled. Turned. And leapt through the emergency door just as it slammed shut behind him.
They didn't speak in the truck.
The military convoy rolled out into the dead night.
Therma HQ burned behind them — a silent, glowing tomb.
Jax glanced at Haruka, who stared at his blade in confusion.
And disappointment.
Mika pressed bandages to Hana's thigh, whispering soft reassurances.
The engine rumbled.
The fire roared behind them.
And Therma was gone.
"Raito" Haruka whispered.