Pandemic

Dual Strain Industries

08:22 Hrs, September 13th

Hydra, Sublevel 5

Dean placed his foot on the elevator roof and quietly stepped to the side to let the man above him climb down. He pulled out his rifle and pointed it down into the elevator to lend some protection. The next man stepped onto the elevator with a strange metallic sound, then a loud bang.

Instinctively, Dean whipped out his flashlight and directed it at the sound. There his soldier lay sprawled across the floor, a shattered flashlight at his side. "You tripped on your own flashlight and broke it, while attracting everything down here to us. Do you want to die?"

"Sir. It's not mine." The soldier pulled out his undamaged flashlight to prove it as he stood up.

Dean scanned the area with his own flashlight and found a military grade rifle laying next to his feet. "Looks like someone was here before us. Hurry up. We have no idea what Klutz over here just pissed off. Stay sharp."

"I'm not a klutz." The man defended.

"Okay Klutz. I believe you." Dean said distractedly, staring into the elevator through the hole in the top. Should I sneak down quietly and risk ambush, or should I just jump down loudly and hope for the best? He looked over to Klutz, who was still fretting over his new name. Well he already attracted everything down here, no point in trying to be stealthy now. He jumped down with a large thud, holding his flashlight against the barrel of the rifle so that he could both see and shoot. "All clear."

One by one each member of C Squad jumped down and readied their weapons. They became slightly nervous when they began to notice the sheer number of Alpha Prime claw marks on the walls.

"We go through as fast as possible. Every second we waste could be catastrophic. Let's go." They ran into Sublevel 5, the cones of light darting all over the room frantically, expecting what they knew hid in the darkness. There was nothing. The room was empty save for several partially destroyed tables and a shattered cryostasis tank. Two doors lay crumpled against a wall, torn off their hinges haphazardly.

"Guess not all of the doors are magnetically locked." Klutz commented.

"Probably only the Lab Grid." Dean added.

"We found the staircase." Three men pointed their lights down the terrifyingly bloody staircase.

"Everyone in. I'll go first." Dean had no idea why he had volunteered himself but he followed through with his word and stealthily crept down the gruesome stairs that led to sublevel 6, Klutz and the remainder of C Squad trailing close behind.

The Guillotine Squad hid defensively in the corner by the locked door, waiting for the Adult to strike. They knew it was there. They could here it scuttling throughout the tunnels, but they never knew which tunnel.

"What's taking C Squad so long?" A civilian posed the question on everyone's mind.

"If they died then we're sitting ducks."

"Shut up." Steve barked, determined to keep some sort of hope alive. "They may not be my men, but they'll sure as hell go out with a bang. We'll know if they don't make it." As if on cue a loud metallic bang echoed throughout the facility.

"Oh god. We're screwed." Another civilian cried out.

A roar cut in from behind, accompanied by a scream. "Someone just got dragged into that tunnel!" The shocked woman pointed to one of the many tunnels in the wall that flanked their position.

The situation was at its breaking point. "Everyone in the center of the room now!" Steve ordered, somewhat happy that he could finally give orders. Squads B and E encircle the civilians and protect them at all costs!" As the order was executed flawlessly he turned to Michael. "You and me are gonna keep an eye out on the ceiling directly above the group. None of the men are gonna be smart enough to keep one eye forward and one eye above so we have to make it our job. Got it?"

Michael nodded. "Do you think Olivia's okay?" He asked desperately.

Steve looked down, trying to decide whether to be dishonest or brutal. "Have you ever known anyone to have survived a sandstorm? She's dead. We need you focused right now. All our lives depend on it." At that he looked at the elaborate formation of tunnel in the ceiling and, to his relief, so did Michael.

Dean reached the bottom of the bloody staircase and peered into sublevel 6. The scene was grotesque. Blood and glass was everywhere. Overturned tables were shredded apart, chunks of dried flesh adhering to them. Just as much blood was on the ceiling as the floor, along with a severed leg that was plastered against it. It was as if sublevel 6 had been put through a meat grinder.

"What's it look like down there?" One of the soldiers asked.

Dean was at a loss for words. "See for yourself." Reluctantly he stepped into the room to allow the entry of the rest of C Squad.

One by one each of them stood aghast in horror before letting the next one in. "Do you thi-" Klutz began.

"Definitely. This is the work of Alpha Prime." Dean finished. "Or, at the time it was probably Silverstrain. C'mon, let's find the staircase to the Main Computer. It should be around here somewhere." They scanned the walls quickly for any sign of a doorway. There was nothing but a torn up table leaning up against the wall vertically. "Check behind it."

Two men stepped forward and pried the table loose from the glue-like blood on the wall. It suddenly broke free and shattered into woodchips when it hit the floor. A heavily decayed body was revealed guarding a door. The body was severed in half, yet the dried blood held both halves against the door making the corpse look whole.

Dean winced slightly. "Knock the corpse off and open the door."

Disgustedly the two soldiers tore the top half off and threw it off to the side.

"Good enough." Dean interrupted, seeing the doorknob. "Just open the door."

One of the men attempted to, but it wouldn't budge. "It's locked."

"Don't state the obvious. Just break it open."

"Yes sir." The two men began to smash the butt of their rifles against the top of the doorknob. On the ninth try the doorknob collapsed to the floor and the door slowly creaked open. Sure enough, another staircase was revealed.

Dean quickly walked down the final staircase and entered the Main Computer room. "You guys just guard the entrance." He said, noting how impossibly small the room was. All of the computer screens were black except for one. It was in Command Prompt and in white lettering it said, "Terminate 'Hydra Quarantine Program'?" Below, it said "yes" and "no". Dean clicked on "yes". Suddenly all the other screens came to life, slowly rebooting themselves. The lights began to flicker to life throughout the area, then blared in extreme brilliance. The soldiers shielded their eyes as they turned off their flashlights.

"You did it Dean." Klutz cheered from above.

"I guess I did." Dean whispered, unable to believe that they succeeded. Quickly reality set in again. It was not over. He moved over to one of the other computers that looked user friendly. He clicked on "My Computer" and pressed Ctrl+F so that a search bar came up. He typed in "Zephron". After several minutes of internal searching the computer spat out its results. Sifting through the results Dean found what he was looking for. "Zephron Storage Update". He quickly clicked on it and read the file.

On September 9th the entire supply of Zephron will be moved to Laboratory Grid Synchron for analysis and beta testing as a potential biological weapon. The update recording this storage change will appear in The Core systems on September 10th.

Must've been the day of the quarantine because the Central computers showed nothing about this when we hacked them the other day. Dean turned and jogged up the stairs. "Time to go. We've got everything we need." A roar struck through the silent facility.

"Alpha Prime." Klutz whispered.

"Our luck's run out." Dean whispered. A second roar pierced the silence, this one quieter than the first. "Maybe not. It sounds like it's going for the bulk of the Guillotine Squad. They might buy us the time we need to complete the mission. Let's hurry to the transit tunnel. There's no time."

"But isn't that right underneath the Lab Grid?"

"We'll die just as gruesomely as these scientists did if we don't act now." Dean indicated the severed leg on the ceiling. "Let's move."