Chapter 196: Getting Out

The underground hordes had started moving again.

And now. The missile strikes above were driving them directly toward the containment wing.

The motion tracker continued flashing violently inside the laboratory corridor while hundreds of heat signatures spread rapidly through the underground tunnel systems beneath Beijing.

The infected were no longer wandering randomly.

They were converging.

Fast.

Ryan stared at the tracker briefly before looking toward Adrian.

"Yeah, we should probably leave now."

Nobody disagreed.

Doctor Lin tightened her grip around the secured data case while the distant screaming echoed deeper through the underground sectors.

The sounds were multiplying.

Metal scraping.

Running footsteps.

Growling.

And something heavier moving far below.

Adrian immediately pointed toward the western corridor.

"Extraction route."

The operators reorganized formation instantly.

Doctor Lin moved toward the center of the team while rear security covered the lower tunnels behind them.

Then suddenly—

The emergency lights died again.

Darkness swallowed the corridor completely.

"Night vision!"

Green-tinted visuals flooded their optics moments later.

And immediately—

The infected attacked.

They burst from both side corridors simultaneously.

Pale bodies sprinted directly through the darkness while distorted screams echoed violently through the underground halls.

"CONTACT LEFT!"

"RIGHT SIDE!"

Suppressed rifles erupted instantly.

THUPTHUPTHUPTHUP.

The narrow laboratory corridors flashed repeatedly beneath muzzle fire while infected bodies collapsed against shattered walls and overturned equipment.

One creature wearing fragments of a laboratory hazmat suit leapt directly through a broken observation window toward Doctor Lin.

Ryan reacted instantly.

BANG BANG.

The infected spun sideways through the air before crashing against the corridor wall.

Another emerged from a ceiling ventilation shaft directly above the rear operators.

"TOP!"

An operator fired point blank upward.

Blood exploded across the ceiling panels.

The team kept moving while firing.

Step.

Shoot.

Move.

The underground corridors became a running firefight as infected poured from side laboratories and collapsed maintenance sectors.

Some crawled across walls unnaturally fast.

Others sprinted in groups almost like coordinated attack animals.

Ryan noticed it immediately.

"They’re trying to cut us off!"

Adrian already saw the same thing.

Several infected intentionally bypassed the front line before disappearing into alternate corridors ahead.

Trying to intercept them.

Trying to surround them.

That alone confirmed the worst possibility.

Something underground was directing them.

Then suddenly—

A loud metallic roar echoed somewhere deeper below.

The entire underground corridor vibrated slightly afterward.

Ryan slowly looked downward.

"...Please tell me that isn’t another Hunter."

Nobody answered.

Because honestly—

Nobody knew anymore.

The operators pushed harder toward the extraction route afterward.

The farther they moved from the containment archive sectors, the more unstable the underground facility became.

Several corridors had partially collapsed from earlier missile strikes above.

Steam burst from damaged pipes overhead while electrical sparks flashed from exposed wiring.

One operator checked the navigation tablet again.

"Surface elevator shaft two hundred meters ahead!"

Adrian nodded once.

"That’s our exit."

Then the corridor ahead suddenly filled with movement.

Dozens of infected flooded through the intersection directly toward them.

But these looked different again.

Their bodies appeared bloated.

Distorted.

Large black growths pulsed beneath sections of skin while several creatures moved with horrible twitching motions like broken puppets.

Doctor Lin immediately recognized them.

"Oh no..."

Ryan glanced toward her while firing.

"What?"

"They were reactor workers."

That immediately explained the mutations.

Radiation.

The infected charged.

THUPTHUPTHUPTHUP.

The operators unleashed concentrated fire down the corridor.

Several reactor-mutated infected exploded apart beneath rifle rounds while others kept advancing despite horrific injuries.

One creature continued crawling even after losing both legs.

Another slammed directly into an operator before getting shot point blank through the jaw.

The corridor became chaos.

Blood covered the walls.

Bodies piled across the floor.

The smell of gunpowder mixed horribly with rot and burned flesh inside the enclosed underground space.

Then suddenly—

A reactor-mutated infected burst.

Literally burst.

Its swollen torso exploded outward violently.

Black infected fluid sprayed across portions of the corridor.

One operator immediately shouted—

"BIOHAZARD!"

The team pulled back instinctively.

Ryan looked toward the splattered wall.

"...Okay that’s new."

Doctor Lin’s face tightened.

"The radiation changed them."

One operator quickly checked contamination indicators on his suit.

"No breach!"

"Keep moving!"

The team resumed advancing immediately afterward while stepping over piles of infected corpses and shattered laboratory debris.

Then finally—

The extraction sector appeared ahead.

A large underground freight elevator shaft connected directly toward the ruined surface sectors above Beijing.

Several military vehicles remained abandoned nearby while emergency lights flickered weakly across the loading bay.

Ryan stared upward through the shaft.

Moonlight filtered faintly from far above.

"...Finally."

Adrian immediately activated the encrypted radio.

"Adrian to extraction aircraft."

Static crackled briefly.

Then a pilot’s voice answered.

"Extraction One receiving."

Ryan visibly relaxed slightly hearing that.

At least somebody was coming.

Adrian continued calmly.

"What’s your status?"

The pilot answered immediately.

"Two MV-22 Ospreys inbound from offshore holding pattern. Estimated arrival six minutes."

Doctor Lin blinked slightly.

"You brought Ospreys into Beijing airspace?"

Ryan answered first.

"We also brought ballistic missiles."

Honestly—

Fair point.

Far above Beijing, two MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft thundered across the ruined skyline beneath the smoke-filled night sky.

Their massive rotors angled forward in high-speed flight mode while electronic warfare systems and infrared countermeasures remained active beneath the fuselage.

The aircraft flew low.

Very low.

Because despite the collapse of civilization—

Nobody wanted to risk surviving anti-air threats or unknown airborne infected variants above the city.

Inside the lead Osprey, the crew chief monitored tactical overlays while scanning the burning capital below through side-mounted optics.

"Jesus Christ..."

Even after months surviving the apocalypse—

Beijing still looked horrifying.

Massive firestorms burned across multiple districts from the JL-2 missile strikes while huge infected concentrations moved through the ruined streets below like living tides.

The pilot’s voice entered the intercom afterward.

"Approaching extraction zone."

Back underground, Adrian’s team established defensive positions around the freight elevator bay immediately.

One operator deployed a portable motion sensor near the tunnel entrance.

The display lit up almost instantly.

Ryan slowly stared at it.

"...That’s a lot of dots."

The infected were coming again.

And fast.

The screams echoed louder now through the underground corridors.

Closer.

Much closer.

One operator reloaded quickly while breathing heavily.

"How long?"

Adrian checked the radio timer.

"Four minutes."

Ryan looked toward the dark corridor leading back underground.

"...That’s gonna feel like four years."

Then suddenly—

The lower tunnel exploded outward.

CRASH.

Concrete debris blasted across the loading bay while something massive forced its way through the underground wall.

The operators immediately raised weapons.

And slowly—

A gigantic silhouette emerged from the dust.

Bigger than a Hunter.

Far bigger.

Its body looked horribly malformed beneath layers of blackened flesh and tumor-like growths. Several elongated limbs dragged against the floor while portions of exposed bone protruded through the creature’s torso like armor plating.

And its eyes—

Completely black.

Doctor Lin’s face lost color instantly.

"...Impossible."

Ryan slowly lowered his rifle slightly.

"...Nope."

The creature roared.

And the entire underground loading bay shook violently.