Early the next morning, Rick, Shane, and Glenn were led by Amy to an inconspicuous door.
That was the entrance to the Hive.
The door opened, revealing a corridor that stretched downward.
The walls on both sides were metallic, the overhead lighting was soft and uniform, and there was a red Umbrella Corporation logo every few meters.
"Follow me."
Wu Fan walked in front, his pace steady and unhurried.
The four of them entered the corridor, and the door behind them closed automatically.
After walking for about two minutes, the corridor suddenly widened, and the view before them opened up.
Rick stopped in his tracks.
Shane stopped as well.
Glenn's jaw dropped.
They were standing in a massive space with a dome over a dozen stories high, surrounded by glass curtain walls.
Through the glass, they could see the landscape of high-rise buildings outside—office buildings, shopping malls, streets, and traffic; everything looked so real, so normal.
"This..."
Glenn rubbed his eyes: "Aren't we underground?"
Shane walked up to the glass wall and reached out to touch it.
The cold sensation told him this was a screen, not a real window.
But the image was too realistic—the angle of the sunlight, the movement of the clouds, the silhouettes of distant buildings, and even flocks of birds flying by.
"It's fake."
He said, his voice laced with disbelief: "It's all fake."
Rick looked around, remained silent for a few seconds, then looked at Wu Fan: "What exactly is this place?"
"The Hive."
Wu Fan said: "The underground facility of the Umbrella Corporation. We are currently on the entrance level, and we are heading to the helipad."
He didn't explain further and continued walking forward.
The three of them followed behind him, looking around the whole way like country folk visiting the city for the first time.
Passing through the glass wall area, they entered a new corridor.
This corridor was wider than the previous one, and the lighting was brighter.
The walls on both sides had no decorations, only security doors and red warning lights every twenty meters.
"A helicopter pad?"
Glenn's eyes lit up: "Underground?"
Wu Fan didn't answer.
After walking for about five minutes, they reached the end of the corridor.
A massive metal door appeared before them, with a striking yellow warning sign printed on it—[Danger: Aircraft Operation Area][Unauthorized Entry Prohibited].
Wu Fan swiped his ID card on the access panel.
The metal door slid open slowly.
A gust of air rushed toward them, carrying the scent of aviation fuel.
The four of them walked inside.
Then, everyone stopped in their tracks.
It was a huge circular space, at least two hundred meters in diameter.
The dome was very high, covered with some kind of metal structure—like a lid that could be opened.
In the center of the space, a gray helicopter was parked.
SA330 Puma.
A medium-sized transport helicopter, eighteen meters long, with a rotor diameter of fifteen meters.
The streamlined fuselage, the sturdy landing gear, and on the mounting points on both sides—
Glenn gasped.
"Are, are those missiles?"
He pointed at the weapons mounted on the fuselage.
On both sides of the cabin, there was a pylon, each carrying four anti-tank missiles.
Below the nose, there was a three-barreled cannon, its pitch-black muzzle pointing straight ahead.
"Anti-tank missiles."
Wu Fan nodded: "Eight of them, with five hundred rounds of ammunition for the cannon."
Shane stared at the helicopter, unable to speak for a long time.
He was a cop, not a soldier, but he knew what this configuration meant—this wasn't just some ordinary transport helicopter; this was an armed-to-the-teeth aerial gunship.
Rick walked over to the helicopter and reached out to touch the metal strut of the landing gear.
The cold sensation told him it was real, not a hallucination.
He turned around, looking at Wu Fan with a complex expression.
"What exactly... is the Umbrella Corporation?"
Wu Fan met his gaze and said calmly: "When you need to know, you will know."
At this moment, a mechanical roar came from above.
The four of them looked up.
The metal structure of the dome was moving slowly.
The massive cover plates slid open to the sides, revealing a gap.
Sunlight poured down through the gap, casting dazzling spots of light onto the helipad.
[Ready! Ready!] A mechanical female voice rang out.
[Concealment facility opening—]
The sunlight grew increasingly intense.
The crack grew larger and larger.
Finally, the overhead was completely open, revealing the azure sky.
Wu Fan turned around and looked at the three men: "What are you standing there for? Get on the helicopter."
He climbed into the cabin first.
Rick took a deep breath and climbed up after him.
Shane and Glenn exchanged a glance and followed.
The cabin door closed.
The ground shook once, and the Puma rose as if it were in an elevator.
Wu Fan wasn't idle either; he began warming up the engines. The rotors started to spin, faster and faster, emitting a roaring, whooshing sound.
The Puma slowly ascended.
Passing through that open gap, through that brief moment of darkness, and then—
Sunlight rushed toward them.
Five hundred meters outside the CDC, there was a clearing that had originally been covered by a forest.
At this moment, the forest had vanished—wiped clean by the system, leaving only level ground.
The ground suddenly split open, and a massive metal platform slowly rose.
On the platform sat a gray-green helicopter.
The rotors spun at high speed, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The Puma rose from the platform, hovered for two seconds, then tilted its fuselage and flew toward the CDC.
Outside the CDC fence, a security guard on patrol was the first to notice the abnormality.
He looked up and saw a black shadow rising from the distant forest.
"What is that?"
He rubbed his eyes.
The black shadow grew larger.
It was a helicopter.
A real, genuine helicopter.
"Hey!"
He shouted: "Look!"
Everyone looked up.
The helicopter roared over their heads, low enough that they could see every detail on its fuselage.
The gray paint job, the streamlined fuselage, the missiles on the pylons on both sides, and that menacing cannon below the nose.
Someone with sharp eyes pointed at the logo on the fuselage and shouted: "Umbrella! It's the Umbrella Corporation logo!"
The crowd erupted.
"Our company has a helicopter?"
"Holy crap! And missiles too!"
"What kind of god-tier company is this?"
Merle stood in the crowd, smoking a cigarette, squinting as he watched the departing helicopter.
He recognized it—it must be the helicopter Wu Fan and the others were using for this mission.
He remembered yesterday in the office, when Wu Fan said he was going to look for the refugee camp in Atlanta.
He had been worried about the boss's safety, but now it seemed that worry was completely unnecessary.
What kind of danger could there be for a helicopter carrying eight missiles?
He exhaled a puff of smoke, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
"Boss is really fucking awesome."
Andrea stood in the center of the training ground, head tilted back, watching the helicopter disappear into the distant skyline.
She suddenly remembered what her sister Amy had said to her yesterday—"The BOSS treats you pretty well," "You need to work hard," "Don't let the BOSS down."
At the time, she thought Amy was just comforting her.
Now she understood a little.
This company was much bigger than she had imagined.
Inside the helicopter.
Glenn pressed against the window, looking at the shrinking CDC below, excited like a child.
"That's so fucking cool!"
He shouted: "I've never ridden in a helicopter before! I didn't expect my first time to be in one with missiles!"
Shane leaned against the cabin wall, looking at the scenery outside the window, lost in thought.
Rick sat next to him, silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke: "Shane."
"Yeah?"
"Do you think... who exactly is this Wu Fan?"
Shane turned his head and looked at him.
"I don't know."
He said: "But one thing is for sure—"
He paused.
"Following him, we might actually be able to survive."
Rick looked at him, trying to read something from his face.
But Shane had already turned his head away, continuing to look out the window.
In the distance, the skyline of Atlanta was becoming clearer.
There, they would find what they were looking for.
And perhaps, dangers they never expected.