"There always is."

Riku's words hung in the air like a curse.

No one answered him. The silence that followed was thick, heavy—like the air itself didn't want to move. The faint hum under their boots hadn't stopped. It was slow, steady, rhythmic—almost like breathing.

Ichika rubbed her arms, glancing toward the sealed stairwell. "So… what, we just wait until that thing breaks through?"

"No," Riku said. "We get ahead of it."

Sato frowned. "You're suggesting going deeper?"

"That's where it came from," Riku replied. "If we don't find what's powering this place, we'll be trapped when the generators fail."

Suzune crossed her arms. "And when the power dies, those containment locks might open automatically."

Riku nodded once. "Exactly."

Miko exhaled shakily. "You're saying the only way to keep everyone safe… is to go into the level marked Do Not Open?"

"Pretty much," Ichika muttered.

Sato didn't argue long. He'd seen enough to know hesitation got people killed. "Fine. You'll need backup. I'll send four men."

Riku shook his head. "No. Just two. Keep the rest here to guard the others. If we fail, you seal this level and don't open it for anyone."

Sato's expression hardened. "Even if it's you?"

"Especially if it's me."

No one liked that answer. But no one could argue with it.

An hour later, the team was ready again.

Riku, Suzune, Ichika, and Miko formed the main group. Two soldiers—Reyes and Tanaka—followed behind, both armed with suppressed rifles and extra flares.

They returned to the blast door at the B3 stairwell. The metal was dented from the inside now, faint claw marks dragging across the surface. Something had hit it—hard.

Riku motioned for silence and pressed his ear to the steel.

Nothing.

No breathing. No scraping. Just the low mechanical hum beneath everything.

Suzune adjusted her headset. "Power grid's still active on lower floors. Maybe separate from this one."

"Means someone built redundancy," Riku said. "Or something's keeping it alive."

Ichika sighed. "Man, you really know how to make bad news sound tactical."

He smirked slightly. "Ready?"

"Never," she muttered, cocking her shotgun.

Riku signaled Reyes. "Manual crank."

The soldier nodded, grabbing the lever wheel beside the door. It screeched as he turned it, the pressure seals releasing one by one. The metal slab rose slowly, grinding through debris wedged in the track. The moment the gap was wide enough, a cold draft swept past them again.

Flashlights on. Rifles up. They stepped into the stairwell.

B4.

The descent was longer this time. The walls changed from steel to concrete—thicker, reinforced. Every ten meters, emergency lights flickered weakly.

At the bottom, a sign barely clung to the wall:

B4 — CORE RESEARCH / CONTAINMENT PRIME

Suzune scanned it with her light. "Containment Prime. So this was the central lab."

Riku moved forward. "Then that's where we'll find answers."

The door to B4 wasn't locked—it was destroyed. Something had punched through it from the inside, tearing it outward. The hallway beyond was a mess of twisted metal and dried black fluid that shimmered faintly under their beams.

Reyes crouched, touching the floor. "This blood's old. At least a few years."

Ichika muttered, "Great, so maybe the thing down here's just bones now."

No one laughed.

They advanced slowly. Every corner was another risk. Every shadow looked wrong.

Halfway down the hall, Miko noticed a trail—a line of bloody handprints smearing across the wall, leading deeper inside. Some small, some large. Some too distorted to be human.

"Riku…" she whispered.

"I see it," he said.

The trail ended at a set of double doors labeled CONTROL CENTER. One of them hung off its hinge. Through the gap, they could see blinking lights—still operational terminals.

Riku entered first, rifle sweeping the corners.

The room was huge, lined with dozens of monitors and data consoles. Most of the screens displayed error codes, but one section still showed video feeds—grainy, looping footage of various labs and corridors. Some of the cameras were pitch black. Others showed only shattered glass and flickering lights.

Suzune moved to the central console, wiping grime from the display. "Looks like an access hub for all floors. I can try to get into the system."

"Do it," Riku said. "Ichika, watch the hall."

Ichika nodded and leaned against the door frame, eyes scanning the corridor beyond.

Suzune began typing. The screen scrolled through long strings of code before settling on a series of options.

SYSTEM STATUS

Power Grid: Stable (Secondary Source Active)

Containment Locks: Partial

Biohazard Level: Critical

Active Entities: 1 (Unknown)

Suzune frowned. "There's something still active down here. Just one."

"Could it be that big one we saw?" Miko asked.

"Doubtful," Suzune said. "This reads like an automated record. Meaning whatever's alive is registered in the system."

Riku's gaze hardened. "Then it's either the source of all this… or something worse."

He leaned over her shoulder. "Can you locate it?"

She navigated through a few screens. A crude map appeared—four chambers branching off the main corridor: Observation, Containment Core, Generator Room, and Vault Access.

A red dot blinked slowly in the center of the "Containment Core."

"That's it," Suzune said quietly. "That's our target."

They followed the map.

The deeper they went, the stranger it became. The walls here weren't just concrete anymore—they'd been overtaken by something organic. Veins of black, root-like tissue spread along the corners, pulsating faintly with dull light.

Miko covered her mouth with a sleeve. "Oh god… is that growing?"

"Don't touch it," Riku said immediately. "Biological spread. Could be infectious."

Reyes's voice was tight. "This isn't infection. It's infestation."

The corridor widened into a circular antechamber before a massive sealed gate—the "Containment Core." On the door, painted in fading white:

WARNING: PRIMARY SPECIMEN — ACTIVE QUARANTINE. DO NOT UNSEAL.

Ichika groaned softly. "You're kidding me. Every door in this place says that."

Suzune approached the control terminal beside it. "Lock's different here—old mechanical with digital failsafe. If the power's still feeding it, I might be able to bypass it."

Riku checked his watch. "Five minutes. After that, we leave."

Suzune got to work. Sparks hissed as she cut into the panel, wires snapping under her tools. The others kept a tight perimeter.

Then the hum in the walls changed.

It grew louder. Deeper. Closer.

Reyes spun toward the tunnel they came from. "Movement."

"Contacts?" Riku asked.

"Multiple," Reyes hissed. "Fast."

"Fallback position," Riku ordered immediately.

They formed a semicircle facing the corridor. The sound was unmistakable now—footsteps, wet and uneven. Dozens of them. The lights flickered, and silhouettes appeared in the distance.

Shapes. Crawling, twitching, dragging themselves along the floor.

Ichika cursed. "They're coming from the upper level!"

"Then that means—" Miko started.

"—the big one's awake," Riku finished.

Suzune didn't stop working. "Almost got it!"

"Make it fast!"

The creatures burst into view—thin, pallid things that looked like half-melted people. Their skin was translucent, their movements jerky, driven by instinct alone. They screeched as they charged.

"OPEN FIRE!"

Gunfire filled the chamber. The air shook with echoes. Ichika's shotgun boomed, shredding the first two. Reyes and Tanaka fired short, controlled bursts, dropping several more. But for every one that fell, another crawled over the corpses.

Miko reloaded with shaking hands. "There's too many!"

"Hold line!" Riku barked. "Suzune! Now would be nice!"

"Got it!" she shouted—and slammed her palm onto the console.

The massive gate hissed, locking mechanisms disengaging. A shockwave of cold air burst outward, forcing everyone to shield their faces. The door groaned and slid open halfway.

Behind it wasn't darkness. It was light.

A white glow pulsed from inside the chamber—steady, rhythmic, like the heartbeat of a giant.

Riku blinked through the haze. "What the hell…"

The room beyond wasn't a lab. It was a reactor. Tubes of bioluminescent fluid ran into a central cocoon suspended by steel cables. Inside that cocoon—something moved.

Suzune stared, frozen. "That's the power source. It's not a generator—it's alive."

The creatures outside shrieked louder, as if reacting to it.

Riku gritted his teeth. "Then we shut it down."

He stormed into the chamber, motioning for the others to cover him. The cocoon's surface was semi-transparent, pulsing faintly. Inside, the silhouette of a human figure was visible, curled and motionless—but enormous, at least three meters tall.

At the base, a control node flickered with faint light. Riku knelt beside it, brushing dust away.

PRIMARY POWER CORE: ACTIVE

Host Status: STABLE

Neural Network Connection: ONLINE

Miko gasped. "It's wired into the whole bunker. Maybe even the ones above."

"So if we kill it…" Suzune said slowly, "…the power grid dies. The doors unlock. Everything wakes up."

Riku's jaw tightened. "And if we leave it alive, it keeps this entire place running—including whatever's mutating down here."

He looked at the screen, then at the pulsating cocoon. "We don't have a choice."

"Riku—" Suzune started.

He raised his rifle and fired into the node. Sparks exploded, cables snapping. The hum in the walls turned into a scream—metallic, inhuman, echoing through every floor of the bunker.

The cocoon split open.

A wave of pressurized air slammed into them, throwing everyone backward. Riku hit the ground hard, ears ringing. The light dimmed—and then a shape stepped out of the cocoon, dripping with black fluid.

It was human. At least, it used to be.

Pale skin stretched over muscle, veins glowing faintly with blue light. Its eyes were white—no pupils. Its chest rose slow, deliberate.

Ichika whispered, "That's… a person."

The figure looked at Riku. When it spoke, its voice was layered—like several voices speaking at once.

"Why… did you wake me?"

No one answered.

It took a step forward, the floor groaning under its weight. "You are… not authorized."

Suzune raised her rifle. "Neither were you."

She fired.

The round hit its shoulder and did nothing. The creature turned toward her and moved—too fast. It blurred across the floor, grabbing Suzune by the arm and slamming her into the wall. Metal bent from the impact.

"SUZUNE!" Miko screamed.

Riku charged, swinging the butt of his rifle into its head. It barely flinched. Ichika unloaded her shotgun into its chest at near-point blank, blasting it back a few feet.

Reyes threw a frag grenade downrange. "Fire in the hole!"

The explosion shook the chamber. Smoke filled the air. When it cleared, the creature was gone.

Riku helped Suzune up, blood running down her lip. "You good?"

She coughed, nodding. "Still breathing."

Then the wall behind them cracked.

The creature emerged again, crawling from the rubble like it had never been hurt. Its wounds were already closing.

Miko's voice broke. "It's healing!"

Riku's mind raced. "We're leaving. Now."

They sprinted for the exit, firing behind them to slow it down. Bullets sparked off its regenerating skin. The hallway beyond was chaos—more infected crawling in, the whole bunker shaking from the overload below.

"Up the stairs!" Riku shouted.

They reached the stairwell, Reyes and Tanaka covering the rear. The creature roared again, the sound shaking dust from the ceiling. It was following, but slower now, as if weakened by the overload.

Riku slammed the door controls at B3. "Seal it!"

Suzune hit the switch. The heavy doors groaned shut just as the creature reached them, slamming its claws against the steel. The impact dented the metal but didn't break through.

For now.

Riku backed away, chest heaving. His rifle was nearly dry. Sweat mixed with soot and frost on his face.

Ichika leaned against the wall, shaking her head. "So what the hell was that thing?"

Riku looked back at the sealed door.

"The reason the world ended," he said quietly.

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