Home / Before the Zombie King Hatched, They Locked Me Up / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of Before the Zombie King Hatched, They Locked Me Up: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

“I have emergency authorization for Operation Dawn, issued directly by High Command. The target is red-level, top priority.”“I’m ordering you to open the gate now!”I tried to wrench my arm free from the guard holding me.The guard captain’s hand was like an iron clamp, unmoving.“Captain Hale, last week, the North District outpost was wiped out because of a wound that had ‘already been treated.’”“Seventeen people. Only one survived, and he’s still losing his mind in quarantine.”“Captain Hale, I can’t take that risk.”I understood what he meant.I knew he wasn’t trying to make things difficult for me. He was only doing what he believed was right.But if this dragged on any longer, it really would be too late.Once the zombie king awakened, the entire base would fall.Including him.“This way, Captain Hale.”Two guards seized my arms and dragged me toward the quarantine corridor.My gaze locked on Ethan, who stood only a few steps away.His face was pale, and his voice

Chapter 2

“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

Chapter 3

'Countdown: 5 minutes and 55 seconds.'Ethan did not leave.He walked up to the observation window and looked at me in silence.The fake fear and concern on his face faded away like the tide.All that remained was a look of smug satisfaction.“Why?”My voice was hoarse and dry, yet it sounded unusually clear inside the quarantine room.Ethan raised an eyebrow and stepped closer.“Why? Captain Hale, you’re actually asking me why?”He gave a mocking laugh, his voice coming clearly through the speaker vent.“From the first day I joined Falcon Squad, you looked down on me. You thought I only got in because my father is Deputy Minister Cross. You thought I was useless. A burden.”“Was I wrong?” I said coldly.Ethan Cross.The precious son of the military district’s deputy minister.That connection was how he had gotten into Falcon Squad.His arrogance.His laziness during training.The way he instinctively hid behind others during missions.I had tolerated all of it.As l

Chapter 4

“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

Chapter 5

I kept my gun low.The safety was already off.From behind the door came a low, heavy breathing, like the rumble inside some enormous creature’s chest as it inhaled and exhaled. Every few seconds, it was accompanied by a grating scrape of bone that made my teeth ache.It was feeding.The thought flashed through my mind, and my stomach churned.Serena.I forced myself not to think of that name.Not to think of the last time she had contacted me, waving at me through the screen.“Captain Hale, just go. I’ll keep an eye on the data from here. I guarantee that by the time you get in, I’ll know exactly where its weak point is.”Her eyes had curved into crescents when she smiled. Her protective mask had been pushed up onto her forehead, revealing a face that still looked softer and younger than it should have.The supreme commander’s daughter should have been safely stationed in the rear command center.Instead, she had insisted on going to the front line.On entering the core la

Chapter 6

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

Chapter 7

“You’re lying!” Ethan screamed hysterically. “You just want to kill her. You want the credit. You want to be the hero. Serena is dead, and that makes you the prime suspect. You’re trying to destroy the evidence!”I could hardly believe what I was hearing.At a time like this, that was still what he cared about?Behind me, it moved.This time, it was even faster.So fast I only had time to turn sideways.Its claws stabbed into my left shoulder, piercing through muscle and bursting out through my back.Agony swallowed me whole.I let out a muffled groan, my right hand still gripping my gun. I aimed at its head, but I could not pull the trigger.It leaned close to my face, its nostrils flaring as if it were sniffing something.Those gold-red eyes were less than four inches from mine.Then it stopped.It blinked.In that instant, I saw Serena.It really was Serena.Tears welled in her eyes, mixing with the blood and grime as they fell onto my face.Her lips trembled, and a

Chapter 8

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

Chapter 9

“Where is she?”The woman froze for a second.“Who?”“Serena! The researcher!”The woman’s expression grew complicated.After a few seconds of silence, she said, “During the twenty-six hours you were unconscious, the cleanup team entered the site.”I stared at her.“The core laboratory was completely destroyed. The explosive yield was too great, and all the explosives in the storage room detonated with it. The entire area… didn’t contain any intact remains.”A buzz filled my head.“But,” the woman continued, “while clearing the wreckage, they found something.”“What?”“A sealed metal box. It was made from the highest-grade protective material, designed to keep the contents intact under extreme heat and pressure. Your name was engraved on the outside.”She turned, took a palm-sized metal box from the bedside table, and handed it to me.The surface was scorched, but the box itself was intact.With trembling hands, I took it, found the switch, and opened it.Inside was a me

Chapter 10

“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

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