The heavy security partition sealed shut with a final metallic thud, plunging the narrow service alcove into a tense, suffocating quiet.
Matt Addison hit the cold concrete wall hard and slid down until he was crumpled against the base.
Damn it.
Damn it all.
He clamped both hands over his right thigh, pressing his palms hard against the torn muscle where Spence’s bullet had punched clean through earlier.
There was no lead trapped inside—just a burning exit wound that flared with every beat of his heart, soaking his trousers in hot, sticky blood.
A ragged hiss escaped his teeth, and his vision grayed at the edges as raw agony spiked up his spine.
Through the thick steel and reinforced glass of the partition, the distant, guttural roars of the Infected vibrated through the floorboards—a constant, sickening reminder that stopping was a death sentence.
Move.
You have to move.
He bit his lip until his jaw ached, hooked his fingers into a rusted wire rack bolted to the wall, and hauled his dead weight upward.
He threw his weight onto his left leg, letting out a stifled groan as his injured right thigh took even a fraction of the load.
Every movement felt like dragging a limb through crushed glass.
Favored leg dragging with every agonizing step, he pulled himself deeper into the maze of disused corporate offices, praying to whatever was listening that he could find a place to hide before whatever was hunting down the corridors caught his scent in the dark.
Alice Abernathy and Alexandra Pierce broke away from One and Kaplan in the confusion, their flight desperate, boots slapping steel floors with the stench of decay hot on their heels.
The Red Queen’s voice guided them down a narrow service corridor.
Just as the pursuing horde closed in, the blast door at the end hissed down and hit the frame with a resounding clang, cutting them off.
The roars of the creatures were instantly muffled, though still chillingly audible through the thick metal.
Alexandra leaned against the now-sealed door to catch her breath, then turned to Alice.
“How do you feel?”
I hate running, Alexandra thought.
Her pulse hammered in her throat, and panic sat cold in her chest.
She looked down at her hands.
The grip on her sidearm was solid.
No tremor.
No hesitation.
Good.
Alice pushed a damp strand of hair from her face, her chest heaving.
“Tired. Scared.” She swallowed hard, her eyes wide.
“But… okay. That AI… it saved us?”
Alexandra nodded, already scanning their surroundings as her breathing began to regulate.
They were in a section of the facility made up of disused offices, clear of standing water.
Papers lay scattered across the floor, equipment was overturned—signs of the earlier chaos.
Alice stirred beside her, staring past her shoulder.
“Alexandra…?”
Before Alexandra could turn, the Red Queen’s voice echoed from a nearby speaker.
“Infected Canines detected. Aggressive. Caution advised.”
“Dogs?!” Alice gasped.
A low growl erupted behind them, followed by the frantic scrabbling of claws.
A massive, blood-soaked Doberman lunged out of the dark, its fur matted with gore and chunks of flesh missing from its flanks, its jaws wide in a silent snarl.
Her body raised the pistol, relying on instinct and spatial awareness.
Bang!
A single shot cut through the room.
The dog’s head snapped back, exploding in a spray of corrupted tissue and bone before the body collapsed short of Alexandra’s feet.
Alexandra lowered her weapon and turned fully to see Alice standing with the handgun Alexandra had handed her earlier, her arm extended, a wisp of smoke rising from the barrel.
Her face was pale, but her eyes were steady.
Relief…
surprise…
and damnit, she stole my shot.
Damnit, Abernathy.
“Yeah. Fine,” Alexandra said aloud, giving Alice a measured look.
“Nice shot.”
More growls echoed through the space.
Two more infected dogs, equally gruesome, boiled out from behind overturned desks.
“Red Queen! I thought you had these things contained!” Alexandra snapped at the nearest camera lens.
“Containment protocols for Canine Holding failed due to bio-agent degradation of physical barriers,” the AI responded flatly.
“Canines display enhanced aggression and structural compromise capabilities. Containment is no longer viable. Eliminate threat.”
Useless AI.
Alexandra brought up her shotgun and fired twice.
The blasts echoed harshly in the enclosed room.
Both dogs took the spread to the head and went down hard.
“You okay?” Alexandra asked, watching Alice.
Alice still held the pistol, her breathing ragged, but her arm remained locked.
She saw the strain on Alice’s face, but also a flicker of grim resolve.
Alice wasn’t just surviving; she was fighting back.
This wasn’t the terrified woman from the mansion.
“Yeah,” Alice nodded, lowering her pistol.
“Let’s go. Anywhere but here.”
Alexandra reloaded her shotgun with quick, practiced motions.
“Still nothing?” she asked, referring to Alice’s memories.
Alice shook her head, her expression tinged with frustration.
“Nothing. Just… flashes sometimes. Nothing that makes sense.”
They moved deeper into the office section, picking their way around overturned furniture and scattered files.
The air was thick with the smell of decay and stale paper.
Sounds of a struggle broke out nearby—grunts, impacts, and a man’s voice shouting in panic.
“Lisa! Lisa!”
Alexandra froze, holding up a hand to stop Alice.
Rounding a corner, they found him.
Matt Addison was on the floor, struggling beneath a female Infected, wincing as he favored his bloody right leg where Spence’s bullet had torn straight through the muscle.
The Infected woman was pale, her clothes tattered lab wear, her jaws snapping for Matt’s throat.
Lisa.
Alexandra brought up her shotgun to clear the line, but Alice fired first, her hand steady despite her exhaustion.
One shot.
The Infected woman’s head snapped back, her body going limp as she collapsed onto Matt’s chest.
Matt lay there panting, the dead weight of his sister pressing down on him, his face contorting as the movement jostled his wounded thigh.
“Thank you,” he gasped out, pushing the body off.
Alexandra watched the spent casing bounce across the floor tiles.
Another one, she thought, watching Matt lie under the dead weight of his sister.
I should be glad she shot…
I am glad.
She turned her eyes toward the dark corridor, giving Matt privacy while her fingers tightened around the shotgun forend.
She grimaced, setting her shoulders against the wall.
Damn dogs.
She glanced back toward Alice.
She’s really good, Alexandra admitted.
Very, very good.
Matt pushed himself up, visibly favoring his injured leg and hissing softly through his teeth as he put weight on it.
He looked down at Lisa’s body with a look of profound grief that cut through his relief, gently adjusting her position and brushing a strand of hair from her face with tender care.
“You… you knew her?” Alexandra asked, keeping her eyes on the corridor.
Matt’s lip trembled.
“Yes. My sister.” He looked at Lisa’s still face, then back at them.
“She’s… Lisa.”
Alice stared at Lisa’s face, then at Matt’s grief.
A sudden wave of dizziness hit her—flashes of memory, disjointed images of sterile rooms, masked figures, the smell of chemicals, and the muffled sounds of experiments.
She pressed a hand to her temple and swayed on her feet.
Alexandra noticed her distress and stepped closer, her voice dropping.
“Alice? You okay?”
Alice shook her head, trying to clear the lightheadedness.
“Just… flashes.”
Alexandra turned back to Matt, her expression hardening.
“Matt Addison. Police officer, you said?” She eyed his civilian clothes and his bloody leg.
“You don’t exactly scream ‘cop.’ Kaplan’s ID check seemed pretty trusting.”
Matt let out a breath, pressing his hand against his bleeding leg before running it over his face.
“He was.
Too trusting.
I’m not police.
I…
I have a record.
Couldn’t get hired by Umbrella.
I’m from an environmental watchdog group.
A radical one.
We heard rumors…
about Umbrella’s bio-weapon research here.
Unspeakable experiments.
We wanted proof.
To expose them.”
He looked back down at Lisa’s body, his voice thick with sorrow.
“I couldn’t get in, so Lisa volunteered. She got a job here. Found someone on the inside who agreed to help her get the evidence out. We had a plan. A meeting.”
Alice looked up from Lisa’s body, her eyes distant, her voice soft, almost a whisper, like someone speaking in their sleep.
“The appointment… with Lisa… that was me.”
Alexandra stood quiet.
Alice was the contact.
The pieces fell into place, though not as neatly as they had in the movie she remembered.
Too much had already changed.
Rain was alive.
J.D.
was alive.
Matt was here.
Spence had been exposed before he ever made it to the train.
Right.
Spence was Alice’s partner.
Note to self: Rewatch horror flicks once back
She glanced toward the dark hallway leading deeper into the facility.
She remembered enough from the original story to know what Spence had been trying to do.
He had released the virus, intended to steal the samples, and planned to escape on the train.
But this wasn’t the movie anymore.
She had already forced the Red Queen to identify him, he’d damaged the control system, and now he’d escaped on his own.
And Rain’s been bitten.
Alexandra’s stomach tightened.
She’s part of my quest.
One of the four.
The thought of the four-thousand-point reward came immediately after, but she set it aside.
I’d want to save her even without the points.
That was what mattered.
The points were just a convenient reason not to hesitate.
Her eyes flicked briefly toward Matt.
And what about him?
She remembered enough from reading the novel—even through that barely readable machine translation back then—to know how God’s Realm operated.
Altering canon gave side rewards.
Saving non-essential characters or changing fixed fates usually triggered hidden point bonuses at scenario completion.
But Matt wasn’t in her official quest log, and his leg was ripped open because she’d disrupted Spence’s timeline.
Maybe that counts for something when the score settles.
Maybe it doesn’t.
She was in total sandbox territory now.
The translation had never covered a run where Spence got exposed this early, and she wasn’t about to stand in a dark hallway trying to calculate hidden system payouts.
Her attention returned to the immediate threat.
Rain first.
Then another thought caught her.
One, Kaplan, J.D…
They were part of the quest too.
Alexandra had no idea where they were now, or whether they’d managed to stay ahead of the Infected after the split.
This quest is a nightmare.
She swallowed.
I hope they’re doing all right.
At least they had better odds than Rain did.
One was an experienced commander, Kaplan knew the Hive, and J.D.
had already survived far more than he was supposed to.
Even with everything being harder than the original scenario, they had a fighting chance.
Rain had a bite.
Rain had a ticking clock.
Get the damn antiviral.
If Spence was heading for the Rail Hub, he was going to the same place they needed to reach.
The antiviral was there.
Rain needed it.
And if Spence got to the train first, he could take it with him or destroy their way out.
Alice noticed Alexandra’s sudden stillness, the tightening around her eyes.
“What’s wrong, Alexandra?”
“Time,” Alexandra said, her voice clipped.
“We’re running out of it. Umbrella will lock down all exits once they know the full extent of the breach. And Spence…” She didn’t need to finish the sentence.
He was heading for the train.
Alexandra looked toward the nearest security camera.
“Red Queen!” she called out.
“Can you stop Spence Parks?”
The Red Queen’s voice came through the speaker right away.
“Spence Parks is currently located three sectors ahead of your position, moving towards the Rail Hub. He is two sectors ahead of One’s team. Control mechanisms in his path are limited. Optimal interception would require the release of Class 2 Biohazards in his projected route. Probability of successful interception: 78%. Probability of concurrent Umbrella personnel contamination: 99%.”
Release Class 2 Biohazards…
She means Lickers.
Right in One’s path.
“She’s saying she can only stop him by letting Lickers loose,” Alexandra translated grimly for Matt and Alice.
“And it’ll wipe out One and his team too. No. Don’t do that, Red Queen. Just report his movements.”
“Acknowledged,” the AI replied.
“Movement tracking activated for Subject Spence Parks.”
No time for One.
No time for questions.
Just the train.
“Red Queen! Fastest path to the return train! Now!”
“Affirmative. Optimal route calculated. Utilizing Auxiliary Ventilation Access leading directly to Rail Hub Control Console. Estimated travel time: 7 minutes. Route is clear of T-Virus Infected.” Metal panels shifted overhead as an opening appeared leading into a dusty ventilation grate.
“Special passage authorized for personnel seeking urgent egress.”
Alice and Matt stared at the vent, then back at Alexandra, suspicion clouding their faces.
Looking at her young, civilian face—barely nineteen—the stark contrast between her deadly efficiency and her apparent age broke through their focus.
“Wait a minute,” Alice said, her voice betraying her doubt as she eyed Alexandra up and down.
“You’re listed on the security manifest as a hired mercenary contractor, but you move like a veteran operative and handle weapons like it’s second nature. Who the hell are you really?”
Matt nodded, leaning heavily against a desk to keep weight off his throbbing thigh, his gaze intense.
“She’s right. You don’t just survive something like this by accident. What’s your story?”
Alexandra kept her voice even, maintaining her cover.
“I’m a mercenary. Umbrella paid for security contractors, and I took the contract,” she replied flatly, giving them a guarded look.
“In my line of work, survival sharpens your reflexes real fast.”
She shrugged, walking toward the vent.
“And I read the facility blueprints when I signed on. Turns out I have a good memory.”
Alice and Matt exchanged a look.
They didn’t seem entirely convinced by her evasive answer, but the open pathway and the Red Queen’s directions left them no choice.
“Let’s go,” Alice said, her voice firming with resolve.
She glanced down at her bloody hands, then back at the vent.
Alexandra reached up, pulled open the hanging grate, and hauled herself into the ductwork.
She turned right around, reaching down through the opening.
Alice stepped underneath, grabbing Matt by the waist to push him up while Alexandra caught him by his tactical vest, taking his weight and pulling him into the shaft until he dragged his good leg over the frame.
Matt groaned as he lay flat against the sheet metal, gasping for air as Alice scrambled up behind them and pulled the grate shut.
The ventilation shaft was narrow, dusty, and stiflingly warm.
Alice crawled close behind Alexandra in the tight space, her breath warm against Alexandra’s back, while Matt dragged himself forward behind them with a heavy limp and a grimace whenever he had to use his bad leg.
The silence of the vents was unnerving after the constant noise of the Hive, broken only by their breathing and the scrape of their gear.
“That message to Red Queen… about the traitor…” Alice asked again, her voice low in the confined space.
“Did you… did you know something else?”
Alexandra kept crawling, pushing ahead, navigating by memory and structural design.
“Later, Alice,” she said, her voice tight with urgency.
“We can talk later. We just need to get to that train. Fast.”
The air in the vent grew cooler as they moved, carrying the faint smell of the outside world mixed with cold, damp metal.
The train hub was close.