"In Section B of the lower hold, close to the emergency control center in Section A," Guard B said.
"Good," the black-clad leader nodded. "What's your name?"
"Call me Clark. I was an engineer at BW," Guard B replied.
"BW, huh…" the leader mused nostalgically. "Familiar place."
"Listen, Clark, this ship's done for. Take us to Section A to activate that emergency protocol, and we'll get off this damn ship."
"What? The ship's done for? Why?" Guard A interjected.
"See that thing from the vent?" the leader said calmly. "It came from the upper decks. If one got through the sealed gates, the upper levels are crawling with them."
Guard A opened his mouth, but Clark clamped his hand over it. Clark nodded to the leader. "I'll guide you to Section A, but it won't be safe."
"My team will keep you as safe as we can," the leader said, then ordered his men, "Tell Teams B and C to regroup at the cargo hold gate. We're—"
Guard A raised a hand. "Quiet. Listen…"
The leader frowned, pausing. The air stilled. With power out, only the eerie red emergency lights glowed in the lower hold.
A faint sound came from the cargo hold—like an elevator door opening, followed by chaotic footsteps, not human. Then, silence.
All heads turned stiffly to the cargo hold gate. In the darkness, beyond the emergency lights' reach, a scaly green head emerged, its orange eyes glinting with a dull, eerie glow…
---
Li Yexing and Lilith navigated the ship's corridors, infected growing in number. They crawled from corners and vents, relentless. Their MP5 ammo ran dry quickly. Following Li Yexing's lead, Lilith scavenged a pistol from an infected guard's corpse, easing their ammo shortage.
After a not-too-grueling fight, they reached the captain's quarters, locked by a keycard. Li Yexing was ready.
"Kick it, Lilith."
She took a deep breath and smashed the door down with a familiar crack of hinges.
The room was pristine—wooden desk, bookshelf, bed. A shotgun under a deer head mount caught Li Yexing's eye. He grabbed it, slinging it over his shoulder, and found two boxes of shells in the desk drawer, pocketing them. "Find anything?" he asked Lilith, who was searching the bookshelf.
"Nothing," she replied.
They tore the room apart, finding only a large-caliber revolver and some bullets. Li Yexing, unconvinced, hunted for hidden mechanisms—piano keys, pushable boxes, light switches, anything.
"Yexing… weird," Lilith said, watching him scramble.
"Strange, why's there nothing?" he muttered. "Is it really on the captain, crawling through vents?"
If the infected captain had escaped via vents, the massive Orianna was a needle-in-a-haystack problem. Then it hit him: when the chaos started, the kitchen, after the control room, was hit first. The captain's infected form likely fled there through the vents.
It wasn't a perfect theory, but with no better options, he'd try. The problem? The banquet hall.
Who knew how many infected were there now?
"We might need to hit the banquet hall," he told Lilith. "We'll play it by ear. If it's too much, we'll find another way."
She nodded, and they backtracked.
The path they'd taken was now bloodstained. They encountered a fleeing noble in a suit, neck gashed, leaking blood and water like he'd been doused. Seeing their guns, his pale face lit up like they were saviors.
"Help… help me! The banquet hall's full of monsters—"
Li Yexing shot him through the forehead. Blood sprayed, and he collapsed, confusion frozen on his face.
More escapees screamed from the hall, trying to reach their locked rooms. With no power, their keycards were useless. They fled upward, as if distance from the hall meant survival.
Li Yexing knew none would escape tonight. No cell signal, no distress calls from the powered-down ship. The Orianna's two-to-three-day Mediterranean cruise gave the infected plenty of time to drain the survivors dry.
After a trek, they reached the banquet hall.
Without lights, the once-lively hall was grim. Blood and stains marred the carpet, spilled wine and food littered the floor. At least twenty infected roamed—some clustered, sucking on corpses; others wandered aimlessly. Spotting Li Yexing and Lilith, a few charged with eerie cries. They dispatched them with pistols, but most stayed focused on their meals, ignoring the intruders.
"Ammo's tight. Avoid direct fights," Li Yexing whispered. They crept past feeding infected, checking their uniforms for the captain. Finding none, they crossed the hall to the kitchen corridor.
The long, exposed corridor was lined with bloody handprints, the floor slick with blood and white slime. A bad spot—easy to get pinned. Li Yexing quietly shut the hall door to block pursuit.
Guns ready, they moved slowly, their steps squelching in slime. They reached the kitchen.
Inside, it was chaos—food strewn about, a fire still burning, blood and slime everywhere, a shriveled corpse on the floor.
No infected.
Li Yexing eyed the vent, dripping blood and slime.
"Where's that bastard?"
A clatter came from the vent. They raised their guns, nerves taut. The vent shook, spraying blood and slime. Li Yexing grimaced.
The shaking stopped.
A slime-covered figure dropped from the vent. Li Yexing's sharp eyes caught it—the captain's uniform.
Gun raised, Li Yexing eyed the captain, covered in slime and blood but showing no infection signs.
Panting on the floor, the captain looked up at the guns. "Don't shoot! I'm human—"
Li Yexing fired, dropping him instantly.
"Search him," he told Lilith.
All he needed was the captain's keycard. Human or monster, it didn't matter. If infected, the bullet was mercy. If not, it was a quick end. No lifeboat ticket for him either way.
Li Yexing approached, reaching for the captain's pocket. Then, chaos.
The captain grabbed his arm, his grip unyielding. Li Yexing struggled as the captain, bullet hole oozing, muttered, "Save me… please…" Lilith rushed forward, stomping his arm, snapping it. Li Yexing fell back, scrambling up, cold sweat dripping as he stared at the captain.