The deep hum of a heavy electric motor thrummed through the floorboards, vibrating up through the soles of her shoes and shaking her teeth.
Alexandra opened her eyes to total darkness.
Her head throbbed with a dry, miserable ache, the kind that usually came from staring at a laptop screen until three in the morning.
She had been in her bedroom, trying to navigate a Chinese Himiko Toga fanfiction through a broken Google Translate window, when an annoying pop-up ad blocked the next chapter.
She clicked around looking for the close button, hit what looked like a confirmation prompt…
and then her screen went black.
She reached out instinctively, expecting her desk or the familiar, sticky frame of her bedpost.
Her fingers scraped against cold industrial steel instead.
“Ugh, direct hit to the temporal lobe…” she muttered.
Her voice came out raspy and thin.
She blinked hard, trying to clear the static from her eyes.
The dark was not complete.
Emergency lights flickered red in the distance, stretching long shadows across a massive metal room.
She wasn’t in her bedroom.
She lay flat on her back on a metal deck inside a moving train car.
And she wasn’t alone.
Shapes stirred around her in the gloom.
Someone groaned near the far wall—a heavy, chesty sound—and a few yards away, a woman coughed, pushing herself up with a rustle of fabric.
Then a voice cut through the dimness, dry, sharp, and entirely unbothered.
“Welcome to the game, rookies.”
Alexandra sat up fast, brushing long blonde hair out of her eyes.
A broad-shouldered man in a dark jacket leaned against a pillar near the far bulkhead.
He held a lit cigarette between two fingers.
The tiny orange cherry lit up a harsh, scarred face and a pair of eyes far too calm for a moving train full of confused strangers.
“Take a good look around,” the man said.
He took a slow drag and exhaled a cloud of blue smoke into the chilly air.
“You’re bad off, but you aren’t dead. Not yet. Though if you don’t listen very carefully to what I’m about to tell you, that’s going to change in about five minutes.”
Alexandra froze.
Her fingers hooked into both straps of her backpack, which was pulled tightly over both shoulders.
Wait, she thought.
Wait, wait, wait.
The scarred man, the industrial train, waking up among panicked strangers, the cold warning…
It felt like a script she had read online, translated through the surreal haze of a nightmare.
No way.
She looked past the man toward the back of the car.
Six men and women stood there in dark tactical gear, holding submachine guns with the practiced ease of active-duty mercenaries.
Near the center of the group stood a tall Black man with a commander’s posture, a rigid jawline, and the cold eyes of an officer conducting an insertion.
James “One” Shade.
Right beside him stood Rain Ocampo, looking aggressive and ready to shoot something.
Alexandra’s jaw went slack.
Her brain did a violent, sickening flip.
Terror Infinity.
It wasn’t a fanfic.
It wasn’t a hyper-realistic VR mod.
She was sitting on the floor of the underground train heading into the Hive, listening to Zhang Jie give his opening speech to a batch of doomed rookies in the Resident Evil scenario.
Ice water crashed down her spine.
The initial thrill of recognition vanished, replaced by a cold, sharp spike of absolute terror.
She knew what was coming.
The Hive was a subterranean death trap full of weaponized neurotoxins, skinless quadrupedal bio-weapons, and thousands of reanimated corpses trying to pull the meat off their bones.
I’m just an ordinary civilian, she thought, her mind racing in wild circles as she gripped her backpack straps until her knuckles turned white.
Why am I here?!
“Hey! You!” A middle-aged man with broad shoulders and a thick neck pushed himself off the floor, his face red with anger.
He looked like he drove a rig for a living.
“What the hell is this? Who are you people? Is this some kind of sick joke? I was literally just at home—”
“Shut up if you want to keep breathing,” Jie snapped.
His voice dropped an octave, cutting the trucker off instantly.
“You’re in God’s Dimension now. You clicked that prompt on your computer screen—the one asking if you wanted to understand the meaning of life, if you wanted to really live. You clicked ‘YES’, and now you’re here.”
Zheng Zha—a sharp-looking man in a business suit—frowned, looking back and forth between Jie and the armed mercenaries at the back of the car.
“God’s Dimension? What are you talking about? Is this a kidnap setup? Who are those soldiers?”
“They’re mercenaries. Umbrella Corporation,” Jie said.
He tossed his cigarette butt to the floor and crushed it under his boot.
“Right now, they think we’re security personnel assigned to this team. As long as we don’t do anything stupid, they’ll ignore us. But listen up: this is a horror movie. Specifically, Resident Evil 1.”
Beside Zha, a woman with sharp eyes—Lan—stiffened.
Near her, a high-school-aged kid—Li Xiaoyi—began to tremble, backing away toward the wall.
“A… a movie?” Xiaoyi squeaked.
“That’s impossible. Movies aren’t real!”
“It’s real enough to rip your head off,” Jie said coldly.
“You survive the scenario, you get points. You want to go back to your normal life permanently? That’s fifty thousand points. You die here, you die in real life. Zombies give minimal points. Stronger mutated hazards—like Lickers—give more. But for you rookies, the main goal isn’t hunting. You just get one thousand points for surviving the movie. Keep your head down and stay alive until the main plot ends.”
Zha’s eyes widened as he did the math in his head.
“Fifty… fifty thousand points? If we only get one thousand points per movie, that means we’d have to survive fifty horror movies just to go home?!”
“Fifty movies?!” Xiaoyi choked out, pale.
“Nobody could survive fifty of these!”
“Then you better start fighting to survive the first one,” Jie said curtly.
Alexandra remained tucked low against the bulkhead, ducking her head behind her blonde hair.
Don’t talk, she warned herself firmly.
Do NOT open your mouth.
If you start spouting meta-knowledge, Jie is going to think you’re a threat and put a bullet in your head.
She knew how this universe worked.
The veterans were paranoid, and the system was brutal.
If she acted like a walking walkthrough guide, she wouldn’t survive long enough to see the zombies.
She had to keep her head down and survive.
The train screeched as the brakes engaged.
Heavy steel wheels ground against the rails, throwing everyone sideways.
Alexandra braced her hands against the deck until the motion died down, then pushed herself up to her feet.
At the front of the car, James “One” Shade racked the bolt of his submachine gun with a loud clack.
“Team, lock and load,” One commanded.
He didn’t even glance at the rookies; to him, they were just extra baggage logged into the system.
“We’re entering the Hive. Standard sweep-and-clear protocols. Kaplan, get the main door override ready.”
The heavy train came to a final, shuddering halt.
The hydraulic doors hissed open, revealing a dark station platform built out of raw concrete and steel plates.
“Move out!” One barked.
The mercenaries spilled out of the train in double-time, weapons raised, sweeping flashlights across the empty station.
Jie gave the newcomers a wicked grin.
“Time’s up,” he said, stepping toward the open door.
“Keep up, stay close, and don’t lag behind. If you fall more than a hundred meters away from the main team, you’ll find out what happens when God decides you’re out of bounds.”
Zha hesitated, turning to Lan and the truck driver, Mu Gang.
“We should stick together. Whatever this is… those guys have guns. Going out there alone is suicide.”
Alexandra hoisted her backpack securely onto her shoulders and fell into step right behind the group as they moved through the open doors.
Ahead of them, a woman in a red dress leaned against a concrete pillar, holding her head as if dealing with a massive migraine.
Alice.
One walked right up to her, his tone crisp and professional.
“Report, ma’am. The defense system executed a nerve gas release inside the facility. Memory loss is a primary side effect. Do you know who you are?”
Alice blinked, looking at the soldiers, then at the ragtag group of civilians trailing behind them.
“I… I don’t…”
Alexandra kept pace ten feet back, her heart hammering against her ribs as she watched the conversation.
It’s really her, she thought, her brain short-circuiting for a second.
It’s actually Alice.
Okay, stay focused.
We are literally about to enter the murder bunker.
The group funneled into a long, dimly lit access corridor leading toward the primary blast doors of the Hive.
The air grew rapidly colder, carrying a faint chemical smell of ozone and wet rust.
Heavy industrial pipes snaked along the ceiling, dripping cold condensation onto the concrete floor.
Alexandra walked near the middle of the pack.
To her left, an overweight man who had woken up near the back of the train was huffing loudly, sweat slicking his forehead as he tried to keep pace with the swift stride of the mercenaries.
“This is crazy,” the fat man wheezed, wiping his nose with his sleeve.
“This is a joke. I’m leaving. I’m going back to the train.”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Jie called back over his shoulder without slowing down.
“Screw you!” the man yelled, stopping dead in his tracks.
“I didn’t sign up for this military crap! I’m going home!”
Alexandra glanced back over her shoulder as she kept walking down the ramp.
The man stood near the entrance of the corridor while the rest of the group continued onward.
100 meters, Alexandra remembered instantly.
The boundary rule.
“Hey,” Zha called out, stopping to look back at the lagging man.
“Wait! You shouldn’t stay behind alone!”
“Let him go,” Jie said flatly, checking his watch.
“He’s already past eighty meters. Watch what happens.”
The overweight man took several angry steps farther back toward the station platform.
Suddenly, he froze.
His hands flew to his throat.
His eyes bulged as a muffled choking sound tore from his chest.
Before anyone could shout, his body twitched violently, and he collapsed onto the concrete like a sack of wet flour, utterly motionless.
Xiaoyi let out a high-pitched shriek, stumbling backward.
Even Zha went pale, taking an involuntary step back toward the group.
“That’s the rule,” Jie said, his voice dropping into a harsh register.
“Stay within one hundred meters of the main storyline group. You step out, God erases you. No warnings. No second chances.”
Alexandra swallowed hard, her mouth bone-dry.
Okay.
Note taken.
Do NOT fall behind.
She immediately closed the gap between herself and Lan, practically walking on the woman’s heels.
They reached a wide observation corridor lined with thick glass panels looking into flooded research laboratories.
The column of soldiers and civilians slowed as Kaplan squeezed past to check the locked door ahead.
The overhead fluorescent tubes flickered violently before going dark, leaving only the amber glow of emergency strips near the floor.
As Alexandra walked along the glass wall beside Matt Addison, her eyes caught a blonde girl in the reflection.
She slowed her pace slightly, keeping up with the group while staring sideways at the glass.
The girl was pretty.
Very pretty, actually.
Alexandra tilted her head as she took another step forward.
Who is the hot chick?
She glanced over her shoulder at the people walking right beside her.
Nobody blonde.
Alexandra looked back at the glass as she kept moving.
The blonde girl was still there, moving alongside her.
“Hmmm.”
She turned her head again, more deliberately checking the crowd around her.
Still nobody.
She looked back at the glass pane.
“Wait, can she only be seen as a reflection?”
She leaned slightly closer while maintaining her stride, studying the face in the panel.
The stranger had long blonde hair and features Alexandra didn’t recognize at all.
Alexandra frowned.
“Wait. Where am I?”
She glanced at the dark corridor ahead, then back at the glass.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Did I turn into a vampire?”
That seemed ridiculous.
Then again, she was currently inside an underground laboratory from Resident Evil, so normal logic was already out the window.
She reached up and ran her fingers through her hair as she walked.
The blonde girl in the reflection copied the movement exactly.
Alexandra paused mid-stride.
“Huh.”
She looked at the reflection again.
“How am I supposed to get my hair done if I can’t see my reflection?”
On the other side of the glass, inside the dark, submerged laboratory, a shadow moved.
A face slammed against the inner window right beside her with a wet THUD.
It was a woman in a lab coat—or what was left of one.
Her skin was greyish-blue, peeling away from her jaw to expose dark gums and blackened teeth.
Her eyes were milky white, staring blankly straight through the glass.
Alexandra knew the zombie was in the laboratory.
She had read about it.
She had pictured it.
It didn’t matter.
“HOLY CRAP!” Alexandra shrieked at the top of her lungs.
She didn’t just step back; she launched herself backward like a startled cat, her sneakers slipping on the slick floor.
Her elbow clipped Matt Addison’s shoulder, sending the activist stumbling sideways into Kaplan, who scrambled to draw his sidearm with a loud curse.
“Target! Target!” Kaplan yelled, raising his pistol toward the dark window.
“Hold your fire!” One bellowed, stepping between Kaplan and the glass, his flashlight beam pinning the dead face pressed against the pane.
“It’s contained. The glass is reinforced. Stand down!”
Matt Addison gripped his bruised shoulder, staring at Alexandra in absolute disbelief.
“Are you insane?! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”
Alexandra was flat against the opposite wall, her hands clasped over her mouth, her chest heaving as if she had just run a marathon.
Her wide eyes were locked onto the corpse behind the glass, which was now uselessly slapping its dead hands against the thick pane.
“It… it was right there!” Alexandra squeaked out through her fingers, her voice jumping an octave.
“It has terrible skin! It’s super gross!”
Lan stared at her, stunned, while Zha let out a breath, rubbing his temples.
“It’s… it’s dead,” Zha muttered, though his hands were shaking.
“Or… it looks dead. What is wrong with this place?”
Jie chuckled under his breath, giving Alexandra a passing glance.
“Get used to it. That’s just the baseline.”
One turned toward the group, his eyes narrowing as he evaluated the panicked civilians.
“Keep moving,” he commanded sharply.
“Kaplan, interface with the door. The Red Queen has locked down the lower sectors. We need access to the primary stairwell.”
“Working on it, Commander,” Kaplan said, pulling out a ruggedized terminal and plugging a cable into the door control panel.
“The AI is actively resisting. It’s like she knows we’re here.”
Alice walked up to One, her brow furrowed.
“Who is the Red Queen?”
“The Red Queen is the state-of-the-art artificial intelligence that controls the Hive,” One explained smoothly.
“She monitors the entire facility. Environmental controls, security, research containment. Right now, she’s in full defense mode.”
While One explained the facility mechanics to Alice and the mercenaries, Jie stepped back toward the surviving newcomers, motioning for them to gather in a tight circle near the base of the stairwell doors.
“Listen to me,” Jie whispered, keeping his voice down.
“This is where the real test starts. The Hive is full of those things. But as long as you stay close, listen to orders, and don’t panic like idiots, this scenario is actually pretty light. We have armed mercenaries taking the lead. You keep your heads down, you survive, and you collect your thousand points.”
Zha took a deep breath, trying to process the overwhelming flow of impossible facts.
He looked around the circle at the remaining newcomers.
“If we’re going to survive this… we need to know who we’re working with. My name is Zheng Zha. I’m an office supervisor at a logistics firm. I don’t have any combat training, but I can pull my weight.”
Lan nodded quietly, her composure returning despite her pale face.
“Call me Lan. I’m a writer. Fiction. I was traveling, looking for… inspiration, I suppose. I clicked a strange pop-up ad on my laptop, and then I woke up on the train.”
Mu Gang rubbed the back of his neck with a heavy hand.
“Mu Gang. Long-haul driver. I was at home, playing online games and complaining about my family when that damn window popped up on my screen. I thought it was a game invite.” He spat on the floor.
“Guess I was wrong.”
Xiaoyi, the teenager, hugged his arms tightly around his chest, his eyes darting nervously toward the dark corridors.
“I’m… I’m Li Xiaoyi. I’m a high school student. I was getting picked on at school… I just wanted something different. I wanted to be strong.” He swallowed nervously, looking at Zha.
“If… if we get out of here… if we get points… can we really get strong?”
“If you live,” Jie said curtly.
Finally, all eyes turned to the blonde girl leaning against the cold metal wall, still clutching the straps of her backpack like a lifeline.
Alexandra blinked, realizing it was her turn.
She straightened up, clearing her throat, and offered a weak, slightly crooked smile.
“I’m Alexandra Pierce,” she said.
“I’m American. I’m from California. I’m a drama student.”
She paused, glancing briefly toward the dark corridor beyond the group.
“I was at home before I ended up here.”