GTAG Chapter 91: Experimental Material
The sloping road ahead stretched downward, nearly ten meters wide, coated with layers of dust.
If this place had not been abandoned, such thick dust would never have gathered here.
Tap, tap, tap—
Three sets of footsteps echoed in the cavernous pit, sending unease crawling into their chests.
The passage was suffocatingly dark and deep.
Hank and Claire, whose eyes had long adapted to low light, could still make out their surroundings. They were better off.
Alice, however, could only see where her flashlight beam touched. Everything else was swallowed by shadow, and the psychological pressure weighed on her like lead.
If she were an ordinary woman—without years of experience surviving horrors—she would have already broken down.
They walked on, not knowing how long, until finally they spotted something different ahead. Human structures.
Through the cracked walls and decayed patterns, they realized—this was Umbrella's base.
For a moment, relief surged. They wanted to cry.
God knows how long they had wandered through that pit. Finally, they had reached the end.
"It looks like this place was attacked by some kind of creature… just like the other bases," Alice said, studying the gouges across the walls, the marks of tentacles or blades.
Hank grunted in response. He already suspected this trip would yield nothing.
If Alice was right, this was supposed to be Umbrella's most critical stronghold.
If even this one had fallen, the others were surely gone too.
The thought left Hank bitter. He had expected more from Umbrella—the so-called masterminds behind the apocalypse. And yet, they had been wiped out so easily?
Alice, meanwhile, stood beneath a gaping fissure in the ceiling. The cut looked as though it had been carved by a giant blade.
What kind of creature had struck Umbrella with such force?
Was this really the work of Umbrella's own bioweapons?
Doubt clawed at her mind.
Regardless, they decided to comb through the base. Maybe some valuable records could be salvaged.
But instead of answers, they found opposition—mutated bio-weapons still lingering.
After destroying the last of them, silence claimed the base. Only corpses remained.
No—there was something else. Humans, asleep in suspension pods.
"Who are these people?" Claire asked, staring at the tanks.
"No idea," Hank replied.
"Maybe they're important Umbrella staff."
"Or… the rich who bought tickets to the so-called New World."
The voice came from nowhere, all too familiar to Alice.
"Red Queen!"
A holographic projection of a young girl appeared.
"You just mentioned the New World. What do you mean by that?" Alice demanded.
"Let me explain instead."
Another projection materialized beside the Red Queen. Unlike the child, this one took the form of a gentleman lounging on a sofa, wine glass in hand.
"Before the outbreak, these people were placed here in slumber, waiting for the dawn of the New World," he said smoothly.
His eyes swept over the group, finally resting on Claire. The weight of his stare made her frown in disgust.
Hank, meanwhile, scanned the chamber for the source of the projection, intent on destroying it.
The gentleman paid no mind and continued.
"The so-called New World arrives after the apocalypse. Once the virus burns itself out, when there are no more zombies, humanity will inherit a new paradise—one without limits, brimming with resources."
Alice's eyes widened. A realization crashed into her.
"You don't mean—"
"That's right. The outbreak wasn't an accident. It was inevitable."
"You maniacs!" Alice's rage boiled over. She emptied her magazine into the hologram. Bullets passed harmlessly through, accomplishing nothing but venting her fury.
"Let's find explosives," Hank said coldly. "We'll bring this place down."
After failing to locate the projectors, he gave up. But he had no intention of sparing those in the pods. To him, they were already dead.
The gentleman watched them walk away, making no effort to stop them. He couldn't. The base's defenses had been annihilated long ago, its remaining bio-weapons eradicated.
He had only appeared out of boredom, frustrated at the slow progress of the T-virus serum. Encountering Alice and Hank was entertainment.
And watching their fury had lightened his mood considerably.
The Red Queen cast him a strange look. She knew that without his interference, Alice and Hank might have assumed Umbrella was finished.
Now, thanks to him, they would hunt Umbrella to the ends of the earth, refusing to rest until it was destroyed.
She didn't warn him. In fact, she welcomed his self-destructive arrogance.
Neither Hank nor Alice carried much in the way of explosives. Hank relied on his own strength, while Alice had burned through her stockpiles long ago. Only a few kilograms of dynamite remained in her car—far too little to demolish the entire facility.
So they resolved to travel to another city to gather more explosives before returning.
That search took over a month. Alice's skill at making her own explosives saved them, but the delay was unavoidable.
By the time they returned, the base was unchanged. The sleepers remained in hibernation.
It seemed Umbrella had abandoned them.
Perhaps Umbrella had never intended to care for them at all. Their approval for hibernation had been nothing more than a scam to take their money.
Even if Alice and Hank did nothing, Umbrella would eventually use them as experimental material.
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