At that moment in the underground laboratory, Anna was bandaging the wound in Irina’s shoulder.
They had run directly into CT reinforcements earlier and exchanged fire.
The T side had gotten the worse of it, leaving several bodies behind before managing to withdraw.
“Andrey’s team really is different from the rest of those useless bastards.
This operation is turning into a serious pain.” Anna pulled the bandage tight.
Irina’s expression did not change once throughout the process, which even Anna found a little unsettling.
Irina had fallen into thought.
They had arrived with fifty-three people.
Only thirty-one remained.
Their recent firefight with CT had accounted for very few of those losses.
The real damage had come from the monsters and the labyrinthine underground environment.
Breaking into the basement might have been a terrible decision.
Now even fighting their way back out of the institute would be difficult.
Then again, Andrey on the other side was probably trapped down here too.
That, at least, might count as good news.
And that was exactly the case.
Andrey was dealing with a headache of his own.
They had made it into the underground laboratory, but the zombies had inflicted heavy losses.
He had watched Li Yun’s combat footage from Helgen, but most of his operators had not.
Several had fallen victim to the shock of their first encounter.
A single scratch or bite that seemed minor at first had turned them into zombies not long afterward.
Andrey had been forced to shoot the infected men himself once it became clear there was no saving them.
Then, after linking up with survivors underground, they had run into Irina’s T-faction strike team.
Two more operators died in the exchange of fire.
Worse still, communications were completely blocked down here.
Several members of the unit had become separated during the retreat, and there was no practical way to search for them now.
The team’s morale had plummeted.
Gerard changed the magazine in his weapon, worry written all over his face.
He was concerned not only about their chances, but also about David Black, who had been separated from them.
In an environment like this, the odds were not kind to any of the missing men.
“Rest for a few minutes, then we find a way out.
If we stay down here, forget rescuing anyone else—we may be wiped out ourselves.”
After weighing the risks, Andrey decisively abandoned the plan to push deeper.
This was no game.
Better to withdraw and prepare for whatever came next than lose everyone here.
The other operators immediately acknowledged the order.
Then another deafening roar thundered through the underground complex.
Heavy footsteps came charging through a sudden cloud of black smoke.
Meanwhile, Li Yun and Natasha were moving rapidly through the basement.
Both could tell that the number of zombies around them was steadily decreasing.
Not long earlier, they had heard an intense firefight.
It was probably CT against T, but they had no way to know which side of the battle held the people they were searching for.
The moment Li Yun heard voices ahead, he and Natasha switched off every light on their bodies.
Keeping as low a profile as possible, they slowly emerged from the passage, then used the surrounding obstacles as cover while approaching the group ahead.
Once they were close enough, Natasha’s exceptional eyesight finally let her identify them.
[T-faction personnel.
The woman dressed like that should be Irina.]
Natasha whispered the information to Li Yun.
He nodded.
The two slowly backed away, preparing to take another corridor and continue searching for Andrey’s group.
Then a scream tore through the basement.
Irina snapped her gaze toward the sound.
A small, slender arm had punched completely through one of her subordinate’s chest and lifted the muscular man—dozens of kilograms of dead weight—high into the air.
For a moment everyone stared, stunned enough that they forgot to shoot the enemy none of them had even noticed.
As blood from the impaled man ran down the creature’s arm and across its body, they finally saw what it really was.
It looked like a little girl—exactly the sort of child no one would ever have considered dangerous under ordinary circumstances.
She let out an eerie laugh and casually hurled the corpse away.
Irina immediately raised her pistol and fired, but the girl-shaped monster sprang aside with astonishing agility and dodged the bullets.
Her speed and jumping ability far exceeded anything Irina had expected.
Combined with the darkness, it made properly aiming at her almost impossible.
Ironically, the burst of gunfire revealed Li Yun and Natasha as they were withdrawing.
Anna immediately shouted for the others to fire at them.
While Li Yun pulled Natasha through the incoming shots, he reached behind himself and took out a high-explosive grenade.
He pulled the pin and threw it straight at them.
As Li Yun glanced back one last time, however, the flash of the explosion lit the corridor—and his eyes met Irina’s across the distance.
He could tell Irina was looking straight at him.
Li Yun badly wanted to draw his pistol and see whether he could put a bullet through her head from here, but reality won out over impulse and he let the chance go.
“CT rats…
Forget it.
Withdraw!
We completed our objective and we’ve rested long enough.
Staying any longer is too dangerous.
We’re getting out of here.” Irina understood just as well that remaining underground would probably end with her entire force wiped out, so she immediately ordered a retreat.
Li Yun and Natasha charged down a corridor in the opposite direction.
Fortunately, after only a few turns, they finally found Andrey’s team.
Unfortunately, Andrey’s unit was in the middle of a vicious firefight.
Wave after wave of zombies hammered their defensive line.
Li Yun immediately brought Natasha into the fight and added their weapons to the continuous stream of fire.
“Li Yun!
You made it.” Gerard did not stop shooting, but the sight of Li Yun still steadied him.
The two of them had fought their way in alone, yet somehow they looked to be in much better condition than Andrey’s group.
“You guys are in pretty rough shape.” Li Yun kept firing while watching the black fog ahead.
These zombies were already evolving special abilities with alarming competence.
What came next?
Heavy Zombies?
Once they blunted the horde’s advance, Li Yun immediately shouted to the people around him.
“You want to stay alive, right?
Then move!
Get back aboveground, reach the roof, and leave by helicopter.”
He told Natasha to take the lead and guide the others out along the route they had used.
Even if they met zombies on the way, this group had enough firepower to carve open a path.
Li Yun stayed behind with Andrey and several others to cover the retreat.
Just as he prepared to fall back himself, instinct saved his life.
Li Yun dodged on reflex.
A razor-sharp hand swept past close enough to brush his body, nearly tearing straight through his tactical vest.
That near point-blank exchange finally gave him a clear look at what had attacked him.