After they finished recording the unnerving mutants inside the cryogenic tomb, the team's mood turned heavy.
"Let's move," Calista said, breaking the silence. "The target equipment is in the core laboratory area. We get what we need and leave this damn place immediately."
No one objected.
Daryl gave the hideous monster in the nearest cryochamber one last look, then silently tightened his grip on his crossbow.
Shane's eyes were dark and brooding. He was clearly still thinking about his plan to "destroy the monsters."
The team regrouped and withdrew from the massive cryogenic sample repository along the same path they had taken in. Behind them, the heavy airlock door slowly closed, as if sealing hell away once more.
But unease had already lodged itself in everyone's heart like a disease they could not shake.
Following the map, they turned into the corridor leading to the Level B6 core laboratory area.
The design here was noticeably more high-tech. The walls were made of smooth synthetic material, and the ceiling held a more complicated network of pipes and cables.
But the same dead silence and chaos remained.
Several walls were marked with obvious bullet holes. Here and there on the floor were spent shell casings, along with more splattered bloodstains that had long since dried black.
"Looks like they did put up some resistance here." Bossie crouched down, picked up a 9mm pistol casing, and examined it closely.
"But not on a large scale," Leah added, her gaze sweeping over the surroundings. "More like a sudden, localized outbreak that was quickly suppressed... or assimilated."
As Calista moved forward, she pieced the scene together in her head.
An accidental leak in some laboratory?
A researcher suddenly mutating?
Security personnel rushing in, only to run into monsters made from their former colleagues in these narrow corridors?
The bloodstains and bullet holes might have been what remained of that brief, desperate clash.
But why had the entire facility gone silent in the end?
Had some kind of lockdown protocol been activated, or had something even more terrifying cleaned everything up?
Her thoughts were cut off by a faint scraping sound from the corner ahead.
"Eyes up!" Leah snapped, raising her gun instantly.
Almost the moment she spoke, three figures staggered out from around the corner.
They wore dark blue tactical vests, broken helmets on their heads, and gun straps across their bodies. They were Sentinel Station security personnel.
Unlike the researcher walkers from before, these security walkers were just as rotten, but their movements seemed slightly more coordinated. They had even retained a faint instinct from armed patrol duty. One of them was still dragging a baton in its hand.
"Careful. These guys might be different," Daryl said quietly, his crossbow already aimed at the lead one's head.
Calista understood. They might be slightly unusual walkers, like Jenny.
The fight broke out in an instant.
"Whoosh!"
Daryl's crossbow bolt struck the eye socket of one security walker with perfect accuracy, but it only swayed and did not drop right away. Instead, it snarled and charged faster.
"Shit, their skulls are harder!" Turner cursed. The suppressed pistol in his hand opened fire at once.
"Tap, tap, tap!"
The bullets hit the walker's tactical vest with dull thuds, slowing it down but failing to kill it.
Another security walker stiffly swung its baton at Mike. Mike sidestepped, and the baton smashed into the metal wall with a piercing clang.
Turner did not dare let his machine gun rip in such a narrow corridor, so he stepped in and slammed the butt of his gun hard into the walker's knee.
With the crack of breaking bone, the walker dropped to its knees, but it still waved its arms, trying to claw at him.
The third walker lunged straight at Calista and Leah in the middle of the formation.
Leah moved to meet it, stabbing forward with her dagger, but the walker blocked it with its armored forearm, producing a harsh scrape of metal.
"They've retained some training memory! Watch for blocks!" Leah warned sharply. She dropped low and swept its legs out from under it.
Calista immediately followed with a kick, stomping hard on its neck. At the same time, she drove her dagger into its temple. Black blood sprayed out, and only then did the walker stop moving.
Carver used his agile footwork to circle to the side of the walker Turner had knocked down. A throwing knife flashed from his hand and pierced cleanly through its ear canal into its brain.
On the other side, Mike and Bossie finally worked together to bring down the most stubborn security walker, the one that had been shot in the head with a crossbow bolt. Mike used his entrenching shovel to hack open half its skull by force.
The fight ended quickly, but it had taken far more effort than dealing with the researcher walkers before.
Everyone stood there panting lightly, looking at the three well-equipped corpses on the floor, their mood even heavier than before.
"These security guards... even after turning, they still seem to have kept some muscle memory and combat instincts," Bossie said grimly.
Calista wiped the foul blood from her dagger, her doubts growing heavier.
The fall of this facility was definitely not as simple as a virus leak.
These trained security personnel had not been able to stop it. Worse, they had been rapidly "converted" themselves and had retained part of their combat ability.
This felt more like a planned, or perhaps out-of-control, biological weapons test.
Just as her thoughts churned and the team prepared to move on, a piercing alarm suddenly exploded without warning.
"Woo!"
The sound was not coming from their current area. It came from the direction of the Level B7 cryogenic sample repository they had just left.
Red emergency lights flashed wildly along with the alarm, staining the entire corridor the color of blood.
"What's going on?!"
"Where's that alarm coming from?!"
"The sample repository! It's coming from the sample repository!" Danny shouted in panic.
The sudden change snapped everyone's nerves taut. They instinctively searched for cover, weapons pointing in every direction, thinking they had come under a new attack.
Amid the chaos, Calista's gaze shot straight toward Lorenzo in the corner.
On that face, usually lazy and mocking, there was now a clear, vicious grin of success.
It was Lorenzo.
He absolutely knew the frozen monsters had been released.
"Goodbye, you naive idiots!" Lorenzo violently broke free from Leah's grip while she was distracted for a split second by the alarm. He slid backward, heading for an emergency access door a few meters away, where a green "EXIT" sign was glowing.
"Enjoy the feast with my new pets!"
He was fast.
But someone else was faster.
Just as Lorenzo turned and his finger was about to touch the access switch, a figure closed in like a ghost.
Calista pushed off the ground and lunged straight at Lorenzo.
The smug grin on Lorenzo's face had not even fully faded before it turned into shock and disbelief.
He had not expected Calista to react so quickly, so decisively.
"You...!"
He only managed to get out one syllable.
Calista's left hand had already seized the hair at the back of his head and yanked hard.
The force threw Lorenzo off balance, completely exposing his neck.
"I told you. There won't be a next time."
...
If you'd like to support my work and unlock advanced chapters, you can follow me on p-@-treon.
p-@-treon/GhostParser (50 Chapters Ahead)
You can also follow as a free member to read a few advanced chapters.