جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

“I was sitting beside him and accidentally caught a glimpse. It looked like an internal layout of our base, especially the core laboratory and the ventilation ducts. Those sections were marked in great detail.”The air froze.Margaret’s expression changed completely.Panic and rage crashed through me. I struggled to stand, but the restraints did not budge.“That was route information I needed for the mission!”“Ethan, what the hell are you trying to do?”Ethan suddenly stumbled half a step back, looking terrified.“Examiner! He’s losing control! This kind of sudden, irrational rage and aggression really does resemble the psychological symptoms of a mid-stage mutation infection.”Margaret’s gaze fell on my face, twisted with anger.Then she nodded, picked up her communicator, and spoke in a firm voice.“This is Level Three Examiner Margaret Leedon. I am initiating a red-alert review procedure for Falcon Squad Captain Rowan Hale. Reason: high-risk contamination risk, abnormal b

“Serena Vale?!”Ethan’s face turned paper-white in an instant. He stumbled back two steps, his back slamming hard against the observation window.“No… impossible… How could she…”I shoved past Captain Ward and charged toward the quarantine-room door. The electromagnetic restraints had only just come off, and the cold bite of the metal still lingered on my wrists.“She volunteered to enter the core laboratory,” I shouted without looking back, “because she was the only person in the entire base who could accurately interpret the zombie king’s vital-sign data.“She was the only one who could tell me exactly where to inject the inhibitor once I got inside.”Ethan’s lips trembled. He seemed to want to say something, but no sound came out.I spun around, grabbed him by the collar, lifted him off his feet, and slammed him hard into the glass.Bang!Spiderweb cracks spread across the observation window.“Do you have any idea,” I ground out from deep in my throat, every word tasting o

The pain cleared my head for one brief instant.The inhibitor.I had to find the inhibitor first.I kept retreating while firing. The alloy rounds tore into her body, splattering dark green fluid. She let out a pained shriek, and her attack slowed slightly, but the wounds healed at a visible speed.The torn flesh knitted back together.New skin spread over the damage.An ordinary mutant could never regenerate that fast.Serena…No.It had already evolved to Stage Two.I fired as I backed away, my peripheral vision sweeping wildly over every corner of the lab.Serena’s monitoring station had been in the northeast corner. There was a separate console there, used specifically to store the inhibitor injector and spare rounds.She had told me before that the injector was always kept in a refrigerated case. The temperature had to stay below fourteen degrees Fahrenheit.The console was still there.But the refrigerated case had been overturned. Its body was warped, and the lid w

Her eyes turned completely gold.Her hand swept out and knocked the injector from mine.The silver-white gun spun through the air, struck the wall, and bounced to the floor.The inhibitor leaked from the damaged chamber, the clear liquid seeping little by little into the cracks in the ground.“No!”I threw myself toward it like a madman, trying uselessly to scoop up the liquid.But the inhibitor was gone.The injector’s chamber was empty. Only a few drops clung to the edge.Behind me came a low growl.I slowly turned around.It stood before me.No.She stood before me.Serena.But there was nothing human left in her eyes.She tilted her head and looked at me. The corners of her mouth slowly stretched open, revealing rows of sharp fangs.Stage Three.Complete mutation.I looked at her.Countless memories flashed through my mind.The first time she reported to Falcon Squad, she had tripped over the threshold and fallen flat on the floor. The first thing she said after

“She…”“She was my daughter,” he cut me off. “But she never allowed me to interfere with her work. Entering the core laboratory was her choice. Staying behind to collect data was her choice too.”At last, his voice trembled.“The last time she contacted me, she said… she said she liked someone. She said once this mission was over, she was going to tell him.”He lifted his head and looked at me.“Do you know who she meant?”I tightened my grip around the badge and did not answer.He looked at me for a long time.Then he stood and patted my shoulder.“Recover well,” he said. “The base still needs you.”He walked to the door, then stopped without turning back.“Serena… she was stubborn from the time she was little. Once she set her mind on something, nothing could pull her back.“I suppose the person she chose was the same.”The door closed.I sat alone in the reception room, holding the badge and the note.There was another line written on the back of the note.I had only