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The group descended the service stairs in silence, weapons ready, every sound amplified in the narrow space.
Kaplan—the team's tech specialist—was hunched over a tablet as they moved, fingers flying across the screen. After a moment, he looked up sharply.
"Captain. The Red Queen's found us. She knows we're here."
"Who's the Red Queen?" Alice asked.
Kaplan didn't look away from his screen. "Most advanced supercomputer ever built. Controls the entire Hive—power, security, life support, everything."
They continued downward, boots echoing on metal stairs. Eventually the stairwell opened into the first major corridor—sterile white walls, fluorescent lighting, and doors leading to laboratories and storage bays.
"Five hours ago," James said as they walked, "the Red Queen went rogue. Sealed the Hive, locked everyone inside, and killed them all."
"Everyone?" Alice's voice was hollow.
"Five hundred people. Scientists, technicians, security. Dead within minutes." James's jaw was tight. "My team was sent to shut her down. Permanently."
"Why did she do it?"
"No idea. Maybe external interference, maybe a malfunction. We'll find out when we access her memory core."
They moved through the level methodically, checking rooms. Many were flooded—emergency suppression systems triggered, water pooling waist-deep in some corridors. Bodies floated in the murk, pale and bloated.
At one observation window, Alice stopped. Through the glass, she could see a flooded lab. Something drifted past—a woman's body, arms spread wide, hair floating like seaweed.
Then the corpse's eyes snapped open.
Alice jerked back. "Did you see—"
But the body had drifted out of sight, and no one else was paying attention.
Marcus, walking a few paces behind, had seen it perfectly well through his telekinetic awareness. The woman was dead, yes. But not finished. The T-virus was already rewriting her nervous system, preparing her corpse for its second life.
Zombie, he thought clinically. Stage one infection. She'll be mobile within the hour.
Zombies didn't feel pain or exhaustion. They only felt hunger. Their primary sense was sound—they tracked movement and noise—but sight and smell worked too. A bite or scratch transmitted the virus instantly. Death followed within hours, then reanimation.
Marcus kept this information to himself. No point warning the mercs. They'd figure it out soon enough.
The group descended another level, following the map on Kaplan's tablet. The corridors here were colder, the air sharp with refrigeration. They emerged into a large chamber—some kind of storage bay, packed with rows of cylindrical containers. Each one was ten feet tall, wrapped in coolant tubes and covered in frost.
The temperature dropped noticeably. Everyone's breath misted.
One of the mercenaries checked his map, frowning. "This is supposed to be... Restaurant B?"
Another merc laughed. "Restaurant? This is a freezer."
"Maybe you're reading it wrong."
Matt spoke up, his voice edged with suspicion. "Or maybe this company has secrets they don't want anyone knowing about."
The mercenaries exchanged glances but didn't respond.
Marcus studied the containers with interest. He knew exactly what was inside: lickers. Umbrella's attempt at weaponizing the T-virus further. Fast, strong, heavily armored, and equipped with a prehensile tongue that could punch through steel. They could absorb DNA from victims, evolving into even deadlier forms.
The downside? Nearly impossible to control.
So Umbrella kept them frozen in liquid nitrogen, suspended in hibernation. If the power failed, though, these containers would thaw. And the lickers would wake up hungry.
James surveyed the room, then gestured. "Ryan, J.D.—stay here with the prisoners. Everyone else, with me."
Two mercenaries—Ryan and J.D.—took up positions near Marcus and Matt. The rest of the team moved deeper into the chamber, weaving between the rows of containers.
Alice lingered, drawn to one of the cylinders. She leaned close, peering through the frosted glass. Inside, something large and vaguely humanoid was visible—muscles too thick, limbs bent at wrong angles.
"What is—"
"I said stay with the team!" James barked.
Alice pulled back. "Sorry. I just... whatever's in there, it looks bad. I'm glad I can't remember it."
James's expression softened slightly. "Keep moving."
They filed through Restaurant B and into an adjacent control room. Banks of computer terminals lined the walls, most of them dark. At the far end was another door—reinforced, with a biometric lock.
"That's it," Kaplan said, pointing at the door. "The Red Queen's core is behind there."
The team got to work, Kaplan connecting his laptop to the security panel while the others stood guard.
Back in Restaurant B, Marcus extended his awareness through the facility. He could feel everything—the mercenaries working in the control room, the zombies shambling in distant corridors, the Red Queen's camera systems tracking them all.
He knew what was coming next. The laser corridor. Several mercs were about to die.
Marcus did nothing.
These people were strangers. Professionals doing a job they'd signed up for. He had no obligation to save them. The T-virus outbreak was already global in the original timeline—millions dead, civilization collapsed. A few more casualties here wouldn't change anything.
Besides, fewer witnesses meant more freedom to act.
Matt shifted uncomfortably beside him, glancing at Marcus. "You're awfully calm."
Marcus opened one eye. "Panicking wouldn't help."
"Fair point."
Ryan and J.D., the two mercs guarding them, were poking around the containers curiously, trying to peer through the frosted glass.
In the control room, Kaplan's fingers flew across his keyboard. "Got it! Defense grid is down. Door's opening."
The reinforced door slid aside with a hydraulic hiss, revealing a corridor beyond. Stark white walls, perfectly clean, stretching about thirty feet to another door at the far end.
James entered first, rifle up. The lights activated as he stepped inside—motion sensors, probably—flooding the corridor with harsh white light.
He tensed, but Kaplan's voice crackled over comms. "It's just automatic lights, Captain. You're clear."
James advanced cautiously to the far door. He pulled a small device from his vest—some kind of decoder—and attached it to the lock panel.
"Decoder's in place," he reported.
Back in the control room, Kaplan's screen lit up with encryption protocols. His fingers flew. "Working on it... got it!"
Click.
The far door unlocked.
James tested it, pushing it open a crack. Beyond was a small chamber, dimly lit, with a cube-shaped server bank in the center. The Red Queen's physical core.
"Team, move up," James ordered.
Four mercenaries entered the corridor, weapons ready. Alice started to follow, but James held up a hand. "Stay there."
Alice stopped at the threshold, frustrated.
Marcus, watching through his telekinetic senses, shook his head internally. Wrong move, James. If Alice was with you, the Red Queen couldn't touch you. She has rules about harming Umbrella employees.
But James didn't know that. None of them did.
The moment the last mercenary entered the corridor—
SLAM.
Both doors crashed shut simultaneously.
"What the hell?!" someone shouted.
James spun, slamming his fist against the control room door. "Kaplan! What just happened?"
In the control room, Kaplan's face had gone white. "I—it's some kind of dormant defense protocol. Opening the doors triggered it. I'm trying to override—"
"Open the damn door!"
"I'm trying!"
Alice and Spence pressed against the glass window, staring into the corridor. The trapped mercenaries were spreading out, searching for another exit.
"Defense system activated," a calm synthetic voice announced.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
An alarm began to pulse.
"Kaplan!" James's voice was tight. "Open this door now!"
"Working on it!"
Inside the corridor, one of the mercs pointed. "Captain—what is that?"
At the far end of the corridor, a thin line of red light appeared. It stretched horizontally across the width of the hallway, perfectly level.
Then it started moving toward them.
"Down!" James shouted. "Everyone down!"
The mercenaries dropped, but the laser was already moving fast. One of them—a young guy Marcus didn't know the name of—went prone, but not quickly enough.
The beam sliced through his fingers.
He screamed, clutching his hand. Blood sprayed across the white floor.
"Medic!" James yelled. "Rain, get over here!"
No response.
James looked up.
Rain, the female medic, was still standing. Her eyes were wide, locked on something. Her body was completely rigid.
"Rain?" James's voice cracked. "RAIN!"
She didn't move.
(End of Chapter)