Bzzzt... Bzzzt...
Pushing open the half-shattered glass door, the group cautiously entered the passage leading to the laboratory.
Neatly severed wires spat sparks across the floor.
At the sight of the dried blood in the corridor, everyone instinctively quieted their breathing.
There were no bodies, but the scene made it easy to imagine what had happened.
Someone had been caught by an Aberrant here. In desperation, they had clawed at the wall, only to be dragged away as food, utterly helpless against the monster.
Terrified fingers had been scraped raw, leaving long trails of blood across the wall.
"Careful... I think... I think I hear something."
"Right beside the door..."
Clang... Clang...
Metal struck metal at irregular intervals. A ventilation shutter, perhaps, or something else.
Keeping his voice as low as possible, He Zheng crouched and moved forward, his head constantly turning toward the sound.
Ahead, they could already see the second door into the laboratory. Through glass covered in bloody handprints lay an office area.
Overturned desks and chairs littered the floor in broken pieces. On one desk lay a shriveled thigh, half eaten.
From its shape, it seemed to have belonged to a woman.
"There..."
Behind He Zheng, Ye Lin gently tapped his shoulder and directed his attention to the desk on the far right.
Perhaps the Aberrants had no interest in anything that wasn't flesh. Beside a floor strewn with scraps of meat, a computer with several screens and connected data cables sat intact on the desk.
The entire base had lost power, but if the computer had a backup supply, they might still find useful information.
Understanding what Ye Lin meant, He Zheng slowly straightened and approached, his right hand clenched around the fire axe.
The handle had snapped in two. He had replaced it with a length of steel pipe.
It was awkward to use, but he hadn't found a better weapon.
"Ah..."
A pained groan broke the silence, jarringly loud.
Startled, He Zheng looked back. It had come from Hu Jia.
Hu Jia trembled all over. Realizing his mistake, he hardly dared breathe. With a miserable expression, he hurriedly clamped a hand over his mouth.
He hadn't meant to make a sound. His leg just hurt too much.
When they ran through the acid, a splash had burned through his trousers, leaving a wound half a finger deep in his leg.
He could barely walk properly. But terrified of being abandoned, he hadn't dared mention it the entire way.
Perhaps disturbed by his voice, the regular clanging abruptly stopped before He Zheng could glare a warning at him.
Everyone's hair stood on end. He Zheng instinctively whipped his head around to look through the glass door.
The dim office beyond seemed to conceal a deadly threat.
Yet, to his surprise, nothing happened, even after they waited tensely for half a minute.
"Go in..."
Pressed against the wall with his pistol held sideways, Ye Lin mouthed the words, signaling He Zheng to keep moving.
Their time was limited. They had no idea how far they still were from the core area. Lingering here would only make things more dangerous.
He Zheng nodded. After a brief hesitation, he drew a deep breath and charged forward at full speed, just as he had before.
Remembering where the sound had come from, he swung the axe with all his strength the instant he pushed the door open.
Bang!
Push the door. Sidestep. Swing. Fall back.
A textbook sequence of movements, all aimed at empty air.
He Zheng stared at the duct hanging from the ceiling to the floor beside the door. Embarrassment flashed across his face.
Well, shit. There was nothing there.
The clanging had definitely come from this spot.
But now he could see that a ventilation duct had fallen loose. Airflow made its dangling strap tap against an alloy panel every so often.
"Fuck. False alarm...!"
Before He Zheng could relax and wave the others over, something at the edge of his vision made his expression change. His whole body went rigid.
What was that?!
On the wall behind him to his right was another painting, like the murals they had seen before, "pasted" onto the surface.
A glaring, vivid red.
But this one was different. The painting stuck to the wall was a woman whose abdomen had been slit open and gutted.
Her chest had been opened too. Her ribs had been forced outward, pulled back to either shoulder blade like wings.
Her hair hung between the ribs, resembling black feathers.
A red ring smeared in blood above the corpse's head encircled her rotting face like an angel's halo.
Her eyes had not been gouged out. The dead white eyeballs, with no visible pupils, stared straight at him like a vengeful ghost.
The image hit him so hard that his scalp prickled, his head buzzed, and he froze.
The earlier murals had been so large, made from so many bodies, that they almost felt unreal. This was different. Seeing an entire person turned into a painting was too much!
"Hiss!"
In that brief moment of paralysis, a piercing screech erupted overhead.
He had almost no time to react. It was like a trap.
A gaping, blood-red mouth appeared directly above him.
Its fishlike jaws stretched to their limit, densely packed teeth descending toward his head like the blades of a grinder!
"He Zheng!"
Outside the door, Ye Lin shouted, trying to snap him out of it.
That mouth belonged to an Aberrant. It had been hiding in the ventilation duct!
He Zheng's instincts had been right. The monster had simply known how to conceal itself!
Bang!
Without hesitation, Ye Lin fired. Flame burst from the muzzle of his Type 77.
The distance wasn't great, but with no time to aim, he couldn't be certain of putting both shots into its eye.
A tenth of a second later, a dull metallic impact rang out. A small burst of blood erupted from the Aberrant's gills.
The second bullet grazed its eyeball, trailing blue pus.
"Eeeee!"
The Aberrant shrieked in pain, its descending jaws faltering.
At the same time, He Zheng came to his senses and twisted his head aside with everything he had, scrambling out of the lethal bite's path.
He had no time to thank Ye Lin. Once he got up, he bolted straight for the door.
It wasn't that he didn't dare face the monster. Their last encounter had taught him that his strength couldn't kill an Aberrant. He could only create a chance for Ye Lin to shoot its eye!
"Brother He! Dodge left!"
Thud!
The Aberrant dropped to the floor, its body weighing hundreds of pounds. It screeched and sprang after He Zheng.
At Zhang Tie's warning, He Zheng threw himself forward, dodging the sweeping claws without looking back.
Scrambling upright, he sprinted and yelled.
"Ye Lin! Three seconds! I'll chop its leg when I reach the door!"
"You shoot!"
With one hand missing, he couldn't hold the monster back the way he had last time.
His plan was to reach the glass door and use the terrain to restrict its movement.
The glass wouldn't stop it, but the steel frames on either side were thick enough. If he could injure one of its legs, Ye Lin would have a chance to aim.
"Got it!"
No wasted words. Ye Lin held his breath, concentrating with everything he had.
He was almost out of ammunition.
It took two bullets striking the eye together to destroy the Aberrant's brain. With only three rounds left, he effectively had one chance.
If he failed to kill it, they would all die!
As though realizing He Zheng could not be allowed to die, Zhang Tie rushed forward first. An Ke followed with a long piece of tubing that looked like a steel bar clutched in her arms.
She couldn't do much, but she could at least interfere with the Aberrant a little.
The countdown began.
Three...!
Two...!
One...!!
"Duck!"
As the count reached its final second, He Zheng spun around just before the glass door.
Facing the oncoming Aberrant, he roared and swung the fire axe like a sledgehammer, putting every ounce of strength into a sweeping blow to the right!