Chapter 14: Upheaval

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Bjorn’s movement halted.

In an instant, his face, flushed red by the setting sun, turned deathly pale—then darkened as the light was blocked.

A mobile task force appeared at the crest of the slope.

These soldiers, who had raced all the way here to provide emergency support to Facility 031, were fully armed and festooned with incendiary explosives intended to deal with the “Doomsday Seed.” The setting sun behind them cast their shadows across the slope, shrouding Bjorn’s face.

Kappa-3, “The Gardeners,” had arrived.

“Active target sighted!”

“Suspected facility employee. Infection cannot be ruled out.”

Several red laser dots settled on Bjorn’s face. At last, his wits returned.

“I’m Bjorn, deputy to the facility director!” He kicked away the briefcase he had dragged behind him but had not managed to push outside the door. “The ‘Doomsday Seed’ is about to enter its second phase! Hurry!”

With his eyes bloodshot, he certainly looked like a loyal employee who had devoted himself utterly to his duty.

That was right. He had merely violated procedure by remaining alone in the control room. He had not defected. He had not betrayed the Authority!

All he had to do was wait a little longer. Once the “Doomsday Seed” brought down the entire facility, the briefcase would be destroyed along with it, and there would be no evidence left to prove his betrayal.

Bjorn vaguely understood that this was nothing more than self-consolation, but driven to the brink of collapse by one unexpected turn after another, he clung to the thought as if it were a lifeline.

“Fall back! Get out from beneath the gate and maintain a safe distance!”

Following their instructions, Bjorn crawled back into the darkness.

Impossible! The task force couldn’t have arrived this soon! My calculations were correct. There was still time. My plan was perfect. I would succeed. I—

Blood pounded against his eardrums, blurring his vision.

He had no idea about the unpleasantness that had arisen between the Field Operations Division and the Intelligence Division over the past few days, nor did he know that the former had consequently adjusted the internally published operation schedule, deliberately creating a delay of several minutes.

Amid the rumbling of the gate, a figure appeared in Bjorn’s bloodshot eyes.

Although the sun was about to set, the light from outside still illuminated a stretch of pitch-black corridor.

Bjorn saw the temporary worker try to brace herself against the gate for support, only to fall again because of the injuries she had sustained earlier. She was terrified out of her mind and had not realized that the gate had opened only two handspans—far too little for anyone to pass through.

A thought suddenly rose in Bjorn’s mind.

Yes. Compared with a high-ranking member of the Authority like himself, wouldn’t a temporary worker make a much more suitable traitor?

As he watched her shakily rise and take two steps deeper into the facility, the thought expanded through his mind with lightning speed.

That was it. An inexperienced student was the easiest sort of person for those claiming to be members of a secret organization to manipulate. This student had gained access to an Authority facility, so they had set their sights on her, tempting her with recruitment and a promising future. All she had to do was offer a token of allegiance, create a little chaos, and the New World would open its arms to her…

Bjorn believed the thought.

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Before the gate opened wide enough for those outside to see what was happening within, he lunged for the briefcase on the floor, swung it like a hammer, and brought it down on the temporary worker.

I haven’t betrayed anyone! None of this was my doing!

It was you! All of it was you!

The temporary worker had been staring in terror toward the depths of the facility. When Bjorn seized the briefcase, she caught sight of his movement in a daze, but still failed to react in time. She threw up her arms in panic to block the blow. The heavy briefcase struck her and drove her back several steps before she fell.

Bjorn dragged the case after her, caught up, and raised it high above her, bringing it down toward her head.

With a dull thud, the case struck the ground beside her skull.

He had missed.

Amid the dying sunlight and the surrounding uproar, the two figures grappled. The briefcase was shoved far away in the struggle. Bjorn took a kick to the chest and answered with a punch. The difference in weight between the two sexes gave him the upper hand. The gate’s thunderous roar sounded like a summons to death, driving him at last to press forward with unprecedented murderous intent and clamp his hands around the throat before him.

“Stop!”

Someone nearby was shouting—possibly 9013. For some reason, the other party had not come over to interfere.

It was nothing short of divine assistance.

No one would believe the word of a containment object that had voluntarily escaped. He would become the sole witness.

It was a perfect plan. Everything could still be saved. Everything—

A wrench slammed into the side of Bjorn’s head, striking his temple dead-on.

The blow was heavy and precise, carrying every ounce of force Robin usually used when wrestling with malfunctioning equipment.

The deputy director’s body lurched sideways and collapsed. Blood streamed from his nose and mouth as he lay on his back, twitching.

The wrench he had carried all this way to fight the monsters had finally found its purpose.

Robin coughed several times. He had no time to look at the exposed traitor, nor did he notice the device resembling a jack that someone had placed beneath the gate. He merely tightened his grip on the wrench, hauled himself to his feet, and charged toward the depths of the facility on the surge of adrenaline that had just risen within him.

“Hang in there!”

The “jack” beneath the gate roared into motion, forcing the massive barrier upward until it stood a person’s height.

The chaos inside the facility immediately unfolded before the soldiers.

The man who claimed to be the deputy director lay barely alive on the floor, a tablet and a briefcase scattered beside him.

A disheveled woman, wrench in hand, was running toward the depths of the facility.

A screaming man was struggling sideways with something, while roiling shadows closed around him.

As the lights blazed on and drove back the darkness, a scene from hell appeared before the soldiers.

A horde of monsters, absent from the containment registry and still draped in scraps of clothing, emerged from the depths of the corridor like a writhing tide of exposed flesh.

The mobile task force were the Authority’s elite. They had already assumed combat formation, and at the sight of this scene they immediately leveled their weapons, each taking aim at the nearest monster. Several others drew flamethrowers and explosives and prepared them for use.

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Ray had no idea what these things were. They resembled victims infected by a zombie virus, but they were not quite the same. Before the lights went out, he had seen what appeared to be thick, swollen veins covering their bodies, writhing like snakes crawling across their skin.

The noise of the gate had startled them. In the blink of an eye, the things burst from the office and filled the corridor.

Ray tried to affect them with his own ability, but it was useless. He futilely used his body to block the monsters before him, hoping only to hold them back for a moment—to give the gate time to rise and Robin a chance to escape…

When that employee attacked Robin, he had been unable to spare himself. The monster in front of him bit down on his arm.

All he could do was scream and desperately shove it away.

Then, all at once, he felt the ground vanish beneath him.

Two clawed pincers locked around his ribs and lifted him into the air with unimaginable strength.

He pounded frantically at them, trying to wrench free his other arm, but only made the pain worse. The monster no longer bothered with him. Others streamed past on either side, charging toward the exit.

Ray turned his head and saw Robin and a group of people dressed as soldiers rushing toward him.

Were those the mobile task force?

Thank goodness. Reinforcements had arrived. They were saved—

Wait!!!

From the resolute, unstoppable way everyone ran, Ray sensed something familiar.

Yes. Though he had done his utmost to turn his body sideways toward the enemy, his back was now exposed to them—streaked with blood yet still impossibly flawless. The sight alone radiated an endless sense of reassurance and comfort, its image branded onto every soldier’s retina in the beam of the flashlight.

A few members of the task force resisted the “queue effect” and tried to re-form their suppressive line. But as their comrades charged without hesitation into the depths of the facility and vanished into the mass of monsters, those deprived of heavy-fire support were instantly knocked down and swallowed by the advancing creatures.

Gardeners Team Two had come to suppress the “Doomsday Seed.” They had considered the possibility of a “zombie virus” breaching containment, but the unknown monsters before them, combined with memetic contamination, had never entered the operation plan.

Faced with such carnage, Ray could do nothing but scream.

Robin and the other members of the task force formed a line behind him with wooden expressions, utterly unaware that death was racing alongside them.

“Wake up! Stop lining up! Run! Use your guns!”

Though he knew it was useless, Ray still struggled to rouse them.

He tried to kick Robin away behind him, but Robin simply dusted off the corner of his clothes and returned to his place in line.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry!

He was going to get them all killed.

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