Inferno

Raina's eyes suddenly snapped open. She unconsciously sat up straight, knocked lightly on the car window, and said indifferently, “I’ve heard of it. Didn’t the second Miss Carrington announce that VIREXIN had been successfully developed and was about to hit the market…”

Mr. Shaw’s lips trembled and turned pale as he hurriedly interrupted, “No, no, no! The reason I called you is to tell you that the clinical trials for VIREXIN were a total failure. Its effects are nothing like we expected. Of the dozen or so clinical trial patients, not only did none of their conditions improve, they all developed severe complications…”

Just thinking about the crazed patients in the glass lab sent a shiver down Mr. Shaw’s spine.

Raina paused her tapping on the window. “So?”

Mr. Shaw gritted his teeth and said heavily, “VIREXIN cannot be approved for market release! Using that stuff on patients is no different from… from killing them!”

The pill itself was toxic. Recklessly applying it to human subjects was essentially treating human life as worthless. Raina hadn’t expected Mireille to be so bold—daring to test it on living people despite the unclear medicinal effects.

Raina asked calmly, “What do you want me to do?”

Mr. Shaw said, “Stop the launch of VIREXIN! After all, Vireon Labs belongs to you, the eldest Miss. Mireille, she’s nothing more than—”

He stopped abruptly. Then came the sound of something heavy crashing over the phone—followed by the line going dead.

Raina’s brows furrowed slightly. Her instincts told her something had happened to Mr. Shaw. She turned to Leif and said, “Mr. Vexley, please—”

But Leif cut her off. “The address.”

Raina froze for a couple of seconds, then quickly gave the address of Experimental Base No. 1. Leif keyed it into the GPS, slammed the brakes for a quick U-turn, and sped toward the facility.

...

At the same time, inside Vireon Labs’s Experimental Base No. 1:

Mr. Shaw and a few others were locked inside one of the labs. The specially reinforced metal door sealed them in tightly. Mireille’s people were guarding outside. No one trapped inside could escape, even if they had wings.

All the labs in Base No. 1 were transparent. The one where Mr. Shaw and the others were being held was directly across from the testing chamber holding the clinical trial patients.

At that moment, over a dozen people in white protective suits and gas masks entered the testing chamber, trying to subdue the patients.

But those who had taken VIREXIN were all showing varying degrees of stimulation. Their mental states were unstable—practically frenzied. At the sight of people entering, one patient immediately charged forward.

They appeared frail and in agony, but possessed a shocking amount of strength. Veins bulging, one patient grabbed an incoming worker by the throat and began biting like a wild beast—

Arms, neck, palms, face—

Every part that could be bitten was torn into. Blood splattered across the patients’ faces. Yet instead of retreating, they only grew more hysterical, shrieking, howling, and laughing maniacally—like demons let loose from hell.

On the other side of the glass, the researchers froze in horror.

One man dug his fingernails into the glass, face pale as death.

Another broke into a cold sweat, blood vessels bursting in his eyes.

“What the hell… what the hell are those things?!” someone shouted, slamming a fist against the glass.

But the specially reinforced window didn’t budge.

Unwilling to give up, the man grabbed a chair and smashed it against the glass with a loud bang. The force rebounded and tore his hand open, leaving his arm numb—but he barely seemed to feel the pain. His trembling hands lifted the chair again and resumed smashing.

“Don’t just stand there—help! Everyone help smash the damn thing!!”

At last, the others snapped out of it. One by one, they scrambled forward to join in, picking up anything they could and pounding on the glass.

Though usually as weak as bookworms, in that moment, adrenaline gave them a burst of strength.

After several minutes of desperate smashing, a thin crack finally appeared in the window.

“Faster—over there… who the hell started a fire?! It’s burning!! SMASH IT!!” Mr. Shaw screamed, voice hoarse and shaking with panic.

The skin of his palms had torn open from the impact, blood dripping down the chair, but none of them had the time to care about pain.

In the testing chamber across from them, someone had started a fire. It spread rapidly, turning the entire zone into an inferno.

“It’s hot, it’s hot—so hot!! It burns!!”

“Help! HELP! PLEASE!!”

“My body’s on fire! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts—”

“Help us! Somebody help—!”

—

CRASH—!

The glass finally shattered. Someone kicked a massive hole into it.

But no one cheered. Everyone silently dropped their chairs and stools, rushing toward the testing chamber instead.

Mr. Shaw had always cared about appearances. Though still in his prime by age, in that moment, he looked a decade older. His whole body was shaking like a dying old man.

The distance to the other lab was only a few steps, yet he stumbled and fell repeatedly, face bloodied from the impacts.

Even though they were trying to save the others, deep down, they all knew…

It was too late.

BANG! BANG!

Inside the blazing chamber, some of the patients—engulfed in flames—slammed against the glass window, still alive, still fighting for life.

Outside the main metal door, several researchers rammed their bodies against it, despite the searing heat.

Mr. Shaw stood just outside the chamber, legs giving out as he collapsed to his knees. Clutching his hair in both hands, he screamed inside:

Someone—just kill me already!!

Then, someone walked up behind him, looking down with a sneer.

“The lab caught fire. As the person in charge of Base No. 1, Mr. Shaw, do you really think you can shoulder this responsibility?”

Mr. Shaw jerked upright. He staggered forward a few steps and nearly fell again, face covered in blood and eyes blazing with fury for the first time.

With trembling hands, he seized the speaker’s collar, screaming in rage:

“Why?! Mireille, why the hell did you do this?! Aren’t they human too?! Why did you kill them?! Why didn’t you just kill us too?! Mireille—you’re not even human! You’re worse than a beast!”

***