The Core Breach

The crimson fog didn't just drift into the laboratory this time. It surged through the broken doorway like a tidal wave, filling the white-tiled corridor in seconds.

The sweet, nauseating smell of wild berries and burnt sugar became overwhelming, cutting through the scent of bleach and formaldehyde. Through the red smoke, dozens of distorted figures came pouring into the facility. It was the mining horde from the summit, their solid red eyes glowing through the mist as they caught the scent of the living.

"The secondary seals are completely gone!" Thorne screamed, his perfectionist mask completely vanishing as he grabbed a silver briefcase from his desk. "The facility is compromised!"

"Father, get to the elevator!" Garrison shouted, scrambling to his feet from the shattered glass wall. He didn't have his rifle, but he grabbed a heavy iron stool from the corner, using it to strike the first infected miner that lunged through the doorway.

General Vance didn't look back at his son. He crawled toward the private elevator shaft behind Thorne’s desk, his bleeding hands clawing at the metal trim.

"Open it, Thorne! Use your card!"

Thorne swiped his biometric pass across the elevator panel. The titanium doors began to slide open, revealing a small, brightly lit lift cage that led straight down to the lowest subterranean escape tracks.

"Cynthia, come on!" Thorne yelled, stepping into the elevator. "We need to secure the primary data modules!"

Cynthia looked from me to the opening elevator doors. For a second, the primal hunger in her eyes clashed with the directive Thorne had programmed into her cells. She gave me one last hateful glare before turning on her heel and sprinting into the lift cage alongside the doctor.

"Wait for me!" General Vance shrieked, throwing his body across the threshold just as the elevator doors began to slide shut.

Thorne looked down at the old man with absolute coldness. He didn't reach out to pull him inside. Instead, he raised his boot and kicked the General square in the mouth, knocking him backward onto the laboratory floor just as the doors locked into place.

The lift dropped instantly, the mechanical whine fading down the shaft.

"Garrison!" I screamed, using the remote to smash an infected miner that had crawled under my table.

Garrison was surrounded by three of the beasts, his iron stool buckled from the force of his strikes. He looked across the room, his eyes locking onto mine through the swirling crimson smoke. He didn't look at his father, who was currently screaming as two miners tore at his uniform near the elevator doors.

"The drainage lines, Valerie!" Garrison shouted, ducking beneath a lunging creature and driving his fist into its jaw. "Behind the refrigeration unit! There is a maintenance hatch that bypasses the main grid!"

I scrambled out from under the table, my backpack slung over one shoulder. I ran toward the massive silver refrigerator, my boots slipping on the blood and chemical fluids coating the floor. Behind the appliance, a circular iron hatch was embedded in the concrete wall, secured by four manual rotating bolts.

"I can't turn them!" I yelled, my fingers gripping the frozen iron. "They are rusted shut!"

Garrison appeared next to me, his uniform torn and covered in the dark, blackish fluid of the infected. He grabbed the top bolt with both hands, his muscles bulging as he forced the iron to turn. The bolt snapped open with a loud metallic crack. He hit the second one, then the third, his breathing ragged and heavy.

"Get in," he ordered, slamming his shoulder against the hatch door until it swung inward, revealing a dark, dripping pipe structure that smelled of old sulfur.

"What about you?" I asked, looking back at the laboratory. The room was completely overrun now. The miners were throwing themselves against the surgical tables, their solid red eyes fixed on the remaining source of heat in the room.

"I am right behind you," Garrison said, grabbing a discarded sidearm from the floor and firing three rapid shots into the closest creature.

I scrambled through the circular opening, dropping into the cold, wet darkness of the mountain drainage system. The water was knee-deep, freezing my legs instantly, but I didn't stop. I turned around, reaching my hands out through the hatch.

"Garrison, come on!"

Garrison fired one last round into the horde, then dove through the small opening headfirst just as a dozen pale hands slammed against the exterior of the concrete wall. He grabbed the handle of the hatch from the inside, pulling it shut with a violent yank and throwing the locking bolts into place from the dark side.

The sounds of the monsters and the sirens died instantly, replaced by the heavy, echoing rush of water beneath our feet.