Chapter 29: Book One & Two: Chapter 29: The Mechanical Arm in the Security Section

The two slung their weapons over their shoulders and headed straight for the security section.

“The garage aboveground should fit five cars, but there are only two vans. Do you think any researchers managed to escape?”

It was possible. Otherwise, how had the scavengers found this place?

Linglan took an ID badge and held it against the scanner in the security section.

[Access sealed.]

Sealed?

Linglan tilted her head. After looking around, she lifted a panel and found an emergency manual release.

As she gripped the valve with both hands, the Mother Entity’s voice came over a nearby speaker.

“You can’t go in.”

Fuling looked puzzled. “Are there monsters locked up inside?”

“Yes. Under the protection protocol, you cannot enter this area.”

There was nothing more they could say.

“If you have nothing to do, please rest in your room or tour this facility.”

Fuling asked, “What happened in the Class III leak?”

The Mother Entity didn’t answer.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” Fuling furrowed her brows.

“Whoo~”

Linglan stroked her head to comfort her. Since they needed the Mother Entity’s help, they couldn’t afford to be rude.

Everywhere but the security section was open to them.

Scattered equipment sat on the racks in the lab. The eyepieces had been removed from the microscopes, and the circuit boards had been burned out of every computer.

Empty jars sat in the freezers in the pathology lab. Petri dishes were stacked neatly into little hills…

Every trace of what had happened here had been completely cleaned up, as if the Mother Entity were trying to hide something.

Only the bullet holes everywhere remained, silently telling their story.

Linglan grew less and less certain, beginning to wonder whether her memories of the Mother Entity were wrong.

She glanced at Fuling, who had fallen silent, and began to have second thoughts. She didn’t want to put the person she loved in danger.

The Mother Entity probably didn’t mean them any harm. She had had plenty of opportunities to attack the two of them while they were defenseless, but apart from keeping them out of the security section, she had done nothing unusual.

Her refusal to talk about the disaster here might simply mean she didn’t trust them.

Forget it. We’ll wait until eight, get the genes, and leave right away.

Linglan was thinking when a man walked into the pathology lab. He held a towel in one hand and a microscope in the other, polishing its lens with the cloth.

If a researcher saw this, his blood pressure would skyrocket.

…

Linglan suddenly stopped. She stared at the man’s face.

His dark, lean features were weathered by the elements. His hands were rough and cracked like a dried-up riverbed. There was no way a man like that could be a staff member here.

And yet he wore a researcher’s badge, while carrying the stink of the dead.

Wait!

The village beyond the mountains clearly showed signs of having been fortified by survivors. There must once have been a settlement there. Now it was empty, and the people without badges had gathered here instead.

Linglan realized something was wrong. She quickly began checking the people in the lab one by one with Fuling.

A girl who looked far too young. A man with a tattoo showing at his collar…

Every one of them wore a white coat. At a glance, they’d blended right into life at the lab.

No. A lot of the people here are survivors who escaped from the city!

Linglan lowered her eyes and pretended to remain calm as she led Fuling to the central area.

She glanced at a “researcher” who was resting. Fuling understood at once. She casually drew him into conversation and took his ID badge.

Then the two followed him toward the exit, watching as he pressed his hand against the scanner.

Nothing happened.

“What’s wrong?”

He scratched his head and pressed the scanner again and again.

In the silent central area, all that could be heard was the scanner’s error beep.

Is the door locked?

Linglan pushed past the man and swiped her own badge.

BEEP.

A vine slipped out of the scanner and curled toward Linglan—

[Class III containment breach in the experimental zone. Improved Entity has escaped its chamber. Initiating evacuation protocol.]

An alarm sounded through the speakers. The “researchers” still wandering around the facility jumped to their feet and rushed toward the dormitories.

The alarm repeated again and again. The two stood there, stunned and unsure what to do.

The next moment, the lab’s exit opened.

“Ling!”

Fuling crouched to run, but a hand pressed down on her shoulder. A loud gunshot rang in her ear.

Linglan drew her pistol and shot the “researcher” beside her through the head. Black pus and pieces of skull sprayed out as the corpse crumpled to the ground. Its lifelike skin began to dissolve, finally breaking down into countless fibers.

A zombie lay on the ground, its face torn open.

“That was a disguise?!”

Fuling pulled the assault rifle from her back and chambered a round, only to see Linglan running toward the security section.

She followed at once. A second later, she understood why.

There were still a group of zombies outside the underground lab!

The open door wasn’t an exit. It was meant to lure them into the stairwell and trap them there.

Ling reacted so quickly!

Linglan had already reached the manual release and was trying to force the door open. Fuling could hear the thudding from the stairwell behind them.

It was the sound of a horde of zombies charging.

Linglan wasn’t a physically enhanced mutant. She struggled to turn the valve.

Suddenly, a hand knocked hers aside. A blur flashed before her eyes, and the valve turned smoothly and quickly, opening the sealed door.

The security section was pitch-black. Fuling swept her flashlight over the area with her rifle.

Vines… So many vines they nearly covered the entire floor.

The girl’s pupils contracted violently. Then a hand grabbed her by the elbow, and Linglan dragged her into the monster’s room.

By then, the zombies, their disguises gone, had flooded into the lab. Fuling didn’t even have time to worry about what was behind her. She raised her rifle and fired.

Without her ability to help, it was hard to control the rifle’s accuracy on full auto.

Her expression turned cold. Fuling switched to short bursts.

The zombies in front dropped one after another, but the horde showed no sign of thinning. In just two seconds, they had reached the door.

Linglan checked that nothing dangerous was coming through the corridor, then raised her gun and aimed behind them.

There were around seventy zombies in the horde. They had to take them out first!

Suddenly, something unexpected happened.

The vines on the floor began to move. Their target wasn’t the two girls—they were forming a wall to separate them from the horde.

Ground-Binding Type?

Fuling immediately turned her rifle toward the vines. Her finger pressed the magazine release. She flicked her right hand to drop the magazine, then smoothly replaced it.

Click! Click! Click!

The lights turned on one after another, drawing closer as they illuminated the area claimed by the sea of vines.

Their hearts nearly leapt into their throats. Back-to-back, they watched for danger on every side.

“There!”

Fuling suddenly shouted. Linglan followed her gaze and saw a mechanical arm slowly emerge.

No. Looking closer, she saw countless fibers extending from its socket, wriggling as they dragged the arm forward.

“Looks like you two had a falling-out with it.”

The mechanical arm spoke in the sweet voice of a little girl.