The first thing Elias felt was pain.
The second was cold.
He opened his eyes to darkness.
For several seconds, he couldn’t remember where he was.
His ears rang, his chest burned with every breath, and something warm ran down the side of his face.
Then the memories returned.
The laboratory.
Unit Zero.
Subject Nine.
The roar beneath the facility.
Run.
Elias forced himself upright.
“Where…?”
A dim emergency light flickered overhead.
They were inside a narrow maintenance tunnel.
Concrete walls surrounded them on both sides, with thick pipes running along the ceiling.
Dust covered the floor, and somewhere behind the walls, water dripped at regular intervals.
Noah was lying several meters away.
“Elias?”
“I’m here.”
Noah pushed himself up and immediately grabbed his side.
“How bad?”
Elias looked down.
His jacket was torn, and blood had soaked through his shirt around his ribs.
“Not great.”
Noah gave a tired laugh.
“That’s becoming your standard answer.”
Elias tried to stand.
Pain shot through his side.
He nearly fell.
Noah caught him.
“Easy.”
“I can walk.”
“I didn’t say you couldn’t.”
A third voice interrupted them.
“He’s injured worse than he thinks.”
Both men turned.
Subject Nine sat against the wall.
Her breathing was shallow.
The black veins along her neck had spread farther than before.
Elias stared at them.
“You said you weren’t infected.”
“I said I’m still human.”
She pulled her sleeve higher.
Dark veins covered her forearm.
“They aren’t the same thing.”
Noah’s expression tightened.
“What does that mean?”
She looked away.
“It means I don’t know how much time I have.”
Silence filled the tunnel.
Elias crouched beside her.
“Then tell us everything you know.”
She shook her head.
“Not here.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re listening.”
Noah looked toward the ceiling.
“Who?”
Subject Nine pointed at the small camera mounted near the emergency light.
A red indicator blinked.
Elias immediately raised his weapon.
One shot.
The camera exploded.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Subject Nine whispered:
“They have more.”
Elias looked down the tunnel.
“Then we keep moving.”
They walked for nearly twenty minutes.
Noah supported Elias whenever the pain became too severe.
Subject Nine moved slowly behind them.
She looked exhausted, but she never complained.
Eventually, they reached a metal door.
Elias examined the control panel.
Dead.
“No power.”
Subject Nine stepped forward.
“Move.”
She placed her hand against the panel.
Nothing happened.
Then she closed her eyes.
A strange pulsing sensation traveled through the veins beneath her skin.
The panel flickered.
Green.
The lock released.
Noah stared at her.
“How did you do that?”
Subject Nine looked at her hand.
“I don’t know.”
Elias frowned.
“You’ve done it before.”
“Once.”
“Where?”
She hesitated.
“Inside another facility.”
Elias’s eyes narrowed.
“How many facilities are there?”
She didn’t answer.
That answer was enough.
Too many.
The door opened into an underground storage room.
Unlike the laboratory, this place had been abandoned for months.
Boxes were stacked against the walls.
Emergency supplies remained untouched.
Noah immediately began searching.
“Food.”
He held up several sealed ration packs.
“Water.”
Then he found a medical kit.
“Jackpot.”
Elias sat against a wall while Noah opened the kit.
“Let’s see those ribs.”
“I’m fine.”
“No.”
Noah pulled Elias’s jacket aside.
The impact had left a large bruise across his side.
No broken bone.
Probably.
But Elias noticed something else.
Three thin black lines had appeared beneath the skin near his ribs.
He stared at them.
“No.”
Noah noticed his expression.
“What?”
Elias didn’t answer.
Subject Nine did.
“That’s not from the impact.”
The room became silent.
Elias touched the marks.
They weren’t veins.
They looked almost like…
Branches.
Subject Nine moved closer.
“Did Unit Zero touch you?”
Elias remembered.
The claw had struck his weapon.
The force had thrown him backward.
But it hadn’t touched his skin.
“I don’t think so.”
Subject Nine’s expression darkened.
“Then it doesn’t need physical contact.”
Noah immediately stepped away from Elias.
“Elias…”
“I said it didn’t touch me.”
“But something changed.”
Elias looked at the black lines again.
A faint pulse moved beneath them.
Once.
Twice.
Then they stopped.
Subject Nine whispered:
“It may have marked you.”
Elias’s stomach dropped.
“Marked me for what?”
She didn’t know.
And that frightened him more than any answer could have.
A distant sound interrupted them.
Metal scraping against metal.
Everyone froze.
Noah slowly raised his weapon.
The sound came again.
Closer.
Something was moving through the facility.
Subject Nine whispered:
“Don’t shoot unless you have to.”
“Why?”
“Because the sound isn’t coming from the tunnel.”
Elias listened.
She was right.
The scraping was coming from the walls.
Something was moving inside them.
Noah backed away.
“What the hell…”
A section of the wall bulged outward.
Concrete cracked.
Elias raised his weapon.
The bulge stopped.
Silence.
Then something struck the wall from inside.
BOOM.
Dust exploded across the room.
Subject Nine grabbed Noah.
“Run!”
The wall shattered.
A pale, twisted hand emerged through the concrete.
Then another.
The creature dragged itself through the opening.
It was smaller than Unit Zero.
But faster.
Its body was covered in unfinished mutations.
Its jaw hung loosely from its face.
And its eyes…
Were completely black.
Elias raised his weapon.
The creature suddenly stopped.
It sniffed the air.
Then its head turned toward him.
Toward the black marks beneath his shirt.
It began to growl.
Not at Noah.
Not at Subject Nine.
At Elias.
Subject Nine’s face went pale.
“It can smell it.”
Elias tightened his grip.
“Smell what?”
She looked at him.
“Chimera.”
The creature lunged.