Chapter 17: The Transformation

~Brown~

I turned off my heavy truck's engine, unlatched the door, and stepped down into the light red drizzle. My boots sank into the damp gravel, and my right hand rested heavily on the holstered gun at my hip.

Before I could even take two steps toward the bunker's security panel, a rustle echoed from the tree line. Two soaking-wet figures came scrambling out from behind a jagged rock near my perimeter fence. They were caked in red mud, their clothes torn, breathing so hard their chests heaved in the cool air.

It was Mavel and Ginger. They had clearly been lurking in the shadows, shivering in the drizzle while waiting for my truck to show up.

"Brown! Oh my god, Brown, we finally found you!" Mavel shouted, staggering toward me with a desperate, frantic look on his face. "We’ve been waiting out here in the cold for hours! Please, you have to let us in! Look at what's happening out there—people in the city are tearing each other apart and eating human flesh! If you leave us out here in this red rain, we’re going to die!"

Before I could even open my mouth to answer, the System's icy blue window popped up directly in front of my vision:

⁠[SYSTEM ANALYSIS INITIATED...]⁠

⁠[FOREIGN CHEMICAL DETECTED IN SUBJECT MAVEL’S BLOODSTREAM.]⁠

⁠[ALERT: PHYSICAL ANOMALY DETECTED. SUBJECT'S BROKEN FIBULA AND TIBIA ARE COMPLETELY REGENERATED.]⁠

My eyes dropped down to Mavel’s legs. Just days ago, his leg was completely shattered, forcing him to limp and drag his body along the ground. Now, he was standing perfectly straight on both feet, bouncing back and forth without even a flinch of pain.

I narrowed my eyes, looking him dead in the face. "How is your leg suddenly healed like that?"

Mavel waved his hand dismissively, forcing a bright, greasy smile. "Oh, that! It's a miracle, Brown! We found this flyer stuck to the mud in the city—some emergency relief poster. We went down to an old facility in the Harbor District, and some guy gave Ginger a special shot for me. I injected it, and my broken bones just snapped right back together! Look, don't worry about what happened back at the precinct cell, Brown. I forgive you completely! I get it—people get crazy and paranoid when the world goes to hell. I’m not even mad that you locked us up and drove off. I’ve forgotten all about it! Let’s just go inside, lock the blast doors, and get back to how things used to be between us."

I stared at him, a cold wave of disgust washing over my stomach.

"Forgive me?" I scoffed, letting out a sharp, breathless laugh. "That's rich coming from a guy who literally screamed from his cell that the second he got out, he was coming straight for me!"

Mavel’s fake smile instantly froze. The color drained from his lips, his mouth staying half-open.

Before he could pull together another lie, the System's red danger lights flashed furiously across my retinas:

⁠[CRITICAL DANGER ALERT: SUBJECT MAVEL HAS BEEN INJECTED WITH A PROTO-MUTAGEN.]⁠

⁠[WARNING: WHEN HE FULLY MUTATES, HE WILL BECOME AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS ZOMBIE LORD WITH IMMENSE PHYSICAL POWER AND COMMAND ABILITIES.]⁠

⁠[DIRECTIVE: DENY ENTRY TO MOUNT IRONWOOD FORTRESS IMMEDIATELY. YOU MUST AVOID HIM AT ALL COSTS!]⁠

My heart thudded hard against my ribs. Mavel wasn't just infected with the base virus; he was turning into an apex monster. He was playing the soft, forgiving ex-boyfriend just to fool me into hitting the gate remote.

"I'm not letting you into my fortress, Mavel," I said flatly, taking a firm step back toward the side of my truck. "Neither of you."

Mavel’s warm, desperate front shattered into pieces. His brows dug down, his face twisting with sudden rage. "What?! Brown, stop playing your stupid games! It's raining red water out here! People are dying!"

"Look at your face, Mavel," I said, my voice quiet, hard, and steady. "What you took wasn't a cure for your bones. You were tricked. That injection is actively mutating you into a Zombie Lord right now."

"Shut up! Stop lying to scare me!" Mavel sneered, taking an aggressive step toward me. "There's nothing wrong with me! I feel stronger than I've ever felt in my life!"

"Mavel..." Ginger gasped suddenly.

She had been standing right next to him, but now her voice was trembling with sheer, unadulterated terror. She grabbed his wet arm, her eyes wide as saucers. "Mavel... your eyes. Oh god, look at your eyes!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Mavel barked, violently shoving her hand off his coat.

He whirled around toward my truck and leaned right up against the dark side window to look at his reflection. In the tinted glass, his face was contorting. The white sclera of his eyes was being swallowed up by an unnatural, pitch-black liquid. Thick, swollen purple veins were expanding outward across his temples and crawling up his neck like black spiderwebs.

Mavel stumbled back from the truck, staring at his hands in horror before his shock turned into pure, unbridled fury. "No... no! It’s just a reaction! It’s just the medicine working through my veins!" He walked towards Ginger reached out to her.

Seeing the ink-black liquid swallowing Mavel's eyes, Ginger let out a horrified shriek. "Get away from me!" she screamed, violently backing away from him. "Get off me!"

She completely turned her back on Mavel, stumbling through the mud straight toward me. She reached out her shaking, muddy hands, her eyes wide, wild, and desperate as she tried to scale her way toward the driver's side door of my truck.

"Brown! Please, take me! Just take me!" Ginger begged, her voice cracking as tears cut clean streaks through the red mud on her cheeks. "Look at me! Look at my skin! I didn't take any injection! I didn't take anything at all! I'm completely clean, I swear to god! I don't know what's happening to Mavel, but I have nothing to do with it! Just let me in! Leave him out here, just save me!"

Mavel’s head snapped toward her, his black eyes blazing with utter betrayal and hatred. "Ginger, you backstabbing bitch!" he roared.

I didn't budge. I looked at Ginger's frantic, tear-streaked face and kept my gun raised. "No, Ginger. You brought him here. I'm not opening these gates for anyone."

"Brown, please!" Ginger sobbed, her desperation turning into sheer panic as she realized she was going to be left outside in the red rain with a mutating monster.

With nowhere left to run and no other option to survive, Ginger's terror flipped into ruthless desperation. She glitched back toward Mavel, looking at him with wild eyes.

"We have to get the remote!" Ginger yelled to Mavel, her voice shrill. "She has the gate keys on her belt! Take them from her!"

"Give me those damn keys!" Mavel roared.

His voice didn't sound human anymore—it was a heavy, guttural rumble that vibrated right through the damp air. He lunged forward like a rabid animal, targeting my tactical belt. Ginger jumped in from the side at the same time, reaching frantically for my pocket to grab the remote while Mavel tried to pin my shoulders against the side of the truck.

I braced myself instantly. Having absorbed combat instincts from the infected host in the garage, my mind reacted automatically—I executed a sharp pivot, dropping my weight and driving a flawless counter-elbow straight toward Mavel's chest to break his balance.

BANG.

It felt like striking a wall of solid steel.

Despite the precise martial technique and raw force behind my strike, Mavel didn't even sway. Even with the new combat skills sharpening my reflexes and my heavy physical build backing me up, it wasn't nearly enough to overshadow his raw, monstrous power. He brushed off my strike like a minor annoyance, his hands clamping onto my shoulders like iron vices. His grip crushed straight through my heavy tactical jacket, slamming my back hard against the metal door of my truck.

He's unbelievable... my combat skills aren't even enough to offset him!

Panic shot straight to my brain. Mavel hadn't even fully turned yet—his transformation was only halfway through—and he was already shrugging off my martial counters and effortlessly overpowering me. My mind spiraled in terror: If my new combat skills and heavy frame can't even hold him off right now, what is he going to be like when the mutagen fully takes over? Will I even stand a chance against him then?!

Just as Ginger reached for my remote keys and Mavel raised a hand to crush my throat, a deep, heavy voice cut through the foggy red drizzle from the rocks above:

"You heard the lady. She doesn’t want you in her fortress."

Mavel froze mid-lunge. Ginger gasped, dropping her hands and stumbling backward.

Standing atop a massive granite boulder just a few feet away was a massive figure built like a brick wall. He was toweringly tall, impressively broad-shouldered and handsome, and clad in heavy tactical gear, with a combat knife strapped securely to his muscular thigh. It was the man from Pier 44—Razor.

The System immediately flashed a vibrant blue alert right in front of my face:

⁠[TACTICAL OPPORTUNITY DETECTED: INDIVIDUAL "RAZOR" PRESENT.]⁠

⁠[RECOMMENDED ACTION: USE RAZOR’S INTERVENTION AS AN ESCAPE ROUTE TO GET SAFELY INSIDE MOUNT IRONWOOD.]⁠