Chapter 6: Blood and Broken Trust
The air in the main precinct room was thick with the stench of gunsmoke and blood. The frantic reports of the shotgun echoed uselessly against the growing tide of Precursors that had breached the front barricade. Kael roared a string of curses, firing controlled bursts from his assault rifle, dropping the mutated undead that lunged too close.
Li Wei moved with a brutal efficiency, his crowbar a blur of motion, cracking skulls and pulping the sickly green eyes of the Precursors. His enhanced senses allowed him to anticipate their movements, to slip past their clumsy lunges and deliver lethal blows. The power from the Spirit Cores sang in his veins, a dangerous and addictive symphony of strength and speed.
Old Chen, surprisingly steady amidst the chaos, used his broken mop handle to keep the weaker, shambling undead at bay, while Mei huddled behind him, her face buried in his back, whimpering softly. The other two members of Kael's group fought with a desperate ferocity, their faces grim as they realized their sanctuary had become a death trap.
The woman with the shotgun, her face streaked with grime and tears, emptied her weapon into the chest of a Precursor, the buckshot tearing chunks of flesh, but the creature still clawed at her legs with unnatural strength. Kael moved swiftly, putting a burst of rounds into its head, finally silencing it.
"Fall back!" Kael yelled over the din of gunfire and guttural roars. "To the back offices! It's more defensible!"
They retreated in a chaotic scramble, Li Wei covering their rear, his crowbar a grim reaper's scythe. He felt a grim satisfaction in his enhanced abilities, the power that had come at such a gruesome cost now a vital tool for survival.
As they reached the relative safety of the back offices, Kael slammed and barricaded the heavy door. The sounds of the Precursors pounding against the metal echoed ominously.
"Damn it!" Kael slammed his fist against a desk. "How many are out there?"
"Too many," Li Wei said grimly, his enhanced hearing picking up the relentless shuffling and moaning that permeated the building. "And more are coming."
The woman with the shotgun, whose name Li Wei hadn't yet learned, was reloading with trembling hands. "We're trapped."
"Not yet," Kael said, his eyes hard. "There's a service exit in the storage room. It leads to the alley behind the station."
"The same alley we came through," Old Chen pointed out, his voice laced with worry.
"It's our only chance," Kael retorted. "But we need to move fast."
As they prepared to move, one of Kael's men, a young man with wide, frightened eyes, suddenly staggered, clutching his arm. A thin trickle of blood seeped between his fingers.
"I… I think I was scratched," he stammered, his face paling.
A collective silence fell over the small group. The unspoken horror of infection hung heavy in the air.
Kael's face hardened. "Show me."
The young man hesitantly pulled back his sleeve, revealing a shallow but distinct scratch mark, already beginning to swell and turn an angry red.
Kael's expression turned grim. "Damn it, Marco." He looked at the others, his eyes filled with a cold resolve. "He's compromised. We can't risk it."
Li Wei felt a knot of unease tighten in his stomach. He had seen this ruthlessness before in his past life, the brutal calculus of survival that often meant leaving the weak behind.
The woman with the shotgun looked away, her face etched with a mixture of pity and fear. The other member of Kael's group, a silent, wiry man, simply tightened his grip on his pipe gun.
"Kael, he's just scratched," the woman protested weakly. "Maybe…"
"Maybe nothing," Kael cut her off, his voice cold and final. "It spreads fast. You know the drill."
He raised his assault rifle, the barrel pointing directly at the young man, Marco.
Li Wei stepped forward. "Wait."
Kael's head snapped towards him, his eyes narrowed dangerously. "Stay out of this, Li Wei. This is our way."
"He doesn't have to die," Li Wei said, his gaze fixed on Marco, whose eyes were wide with terror and betrayal. "I… I might have a way."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the remaining Spirit Core he hadn't yet consumed, the crystalline shard pulsing with its eerie light.
"This," he said, holding it out. "It gave me strength, speed… it changed me. Maybe… maybe it can fight the infection."
Kael stared at the Spirit Core, his expression a mixture of disbelief and suspicion. "What is that?"
"I… I don't know exactly," Li Wei admitted. "But it came from those things. And it made me stronger."
"You ate that?" the woman with the shotgun asked, her voice filled with disgust.
"It's how I survived," Li Wei said. He looked at Marco, whose hope flickered like a dying flame. "It's a chance."
Kael lowered his rifle slightly, his gaze still fixed on the Spirit Core. "You really think that… thing… can help him?"
"I don't know for sure," Li Wei admitted. "But isn't it better than just killing him?"
A tense silence hung in the air. The sounds of the undead pounding on the barricaded door served as a grim reminder of their precarious situation.
Finally, Kael lowered his weapon completely, his scarred face unreadable. "Alright. Let's see what your… miracle… can do."
Li Wei approached Marco, who looked at the Spirit Core with a mixture of fear and desperate hope. "You need to swallow this," Li Wei said gently. "It might taste… unpleasant."
Marco nodded weakly and opened his mouth. Li Wei placed the crystalline shard on his tongue. Marco swallowed, his throat bobbing.
They watched him in tense silence, waiting for any reaction. Marco coughed, his face contorted in discomfort. Then, he began to sweat profusely, his body trembling.
"What's happening to him?" the woman with the shotgun whispered, her voice filled with anxiety.
Suddenly, Marco's eyes snapped open, and they glowed with the same sickly green light that Li Wei had seen in the Precursors. He lunged forward with a guttural snarl.
Kael reacted instantly, his assault rifle barking, sending a volley of rounds into Marco's chest. The young man collapsed, lifeless.
A stunned silence filled the room, broken only by Mei's terrified whimper.
Kael stared at Marco's lifeless body, his face grim. "I knew it. There's no cure. Only the kill." He turned to Li Wei, his eyes filled with a cold fury. "You risked us for nothing. You're either incredibly naive or incredibly stupid."
Li Wei stared at Marco's body, a wave of guilt and horror washing over him. He had hoped… he had truly hoped. But his desperate gamble had failed, and now, trust between him and Kael's group was shattered.
The barricaded door shuddered violently as more Precursors slammed against it. They were running out of time, and now, they were divided by suspicion and the bitter taste of a failed hope. The sanctuary of wolves had revealed its true nature, and Li Wei knew that surviving this apocalypse would mean navigating not only the horrors of the undead but also the treacherous landscape of broken trust among the living.