Rex, Robot, and the battle-hardened GDA strike team surged forward as the tide shifted. The undead froze mid-charge, as though a hidden switch had abruptly halted their advance. Opportunity sparked through Rex's veins.
"Now," he barked with a curt nod.
Explosions roared like thunder. Laser beams screamed through the haze, slicing zombies apart with surgical precision. Flesh seared. Skulls splintered. Through the chaos, the heroes pressed on, relentless, calculated, deadly.
"No clue what stopped them," Rex yelled, jamming a live charge into a staggering corpse's mouth. "But I'm not questioning free kills!" With a vicious swing, he hurled the bomb-laden zombie into its pack.
BOOOOM!
The blast ripped the horde into ash and mangled limbs. Silence hung briefly before the rhythmic crack of resumed gunfire filled the void.
At the lab's core, Robot loomed in his upgraded body. Wires coiled into his skull, synapses firing with each command as he piloted his drone, a towering, armored bringer of death, with unrestrained glee.
"HAHAHAHA… let's dance!" he howled, eyes flaring.
The drone responded. Hydraulic pincers crushed a zombie's skull like paper, then launched the severed head like a missile, obliterating another undead with a sickening crunch.
Robot's grin stretched wide. "Direct hit. Engaging carnage protocol…"
A hidden compartment in the drone's arm slid open, revealing a spinning chain blade. Metal teeth blurred into motion.
RUMBLE… BZZZTTT!
It lunged, slicing through flesh from hip to shoulder, unleashing a crimson torrent. Robot vaulted off a shattered skull, flipping into the chaos.
Time slowed as he watched the chain blade pierce another zombie's chest, its final wail drowned by the spray of blood painting the drone in savage streaks.
The last zombie, dragging half a body, tried to crawl away. The drone's foot descended.
SQUELCH.
Silence returned, broken only by distant moans. Another wave approached.
Robot tilted his head, chest heaving. "Bring them on."
Nearby, Santana crouched beside William's unconscious form, her trembling fingers tracing his pale features. His breathing is steady, she thought, relief softening the sharp tension in her expression.
"Sleep tight, William," she whispered, pressing a gentle hand to his forehead. In the blink of an eye, she disappeared with a resounding WHOOSH, leaving a crackle of lightning in her wake.
Outside the lab, Devin's voice came through the comms, sharp with urgency: "Rex, watch your six! Zombie inbound!"
Rex spun around, heart racing as a snarling undead lunged for his neck. Adrenaline surged through him, and then lightning struck.
Santana materialized mid-air, electric currents rippling around her, cobalt eyes blazing with fierce determination. Not today. Her hand shot forward.
SHNK!
Her palm plunged through the zombie's skull, shattering bone with a gruesome spray. The creature crumpled lifelessly around her arm.
Rex stumbled back, his voice trembling with shock and gratitude. "Th…thanks, Santana! I owe you one."
She withdrew her hand, the bones in her arm knitting back together with a soft crackle, and offered him a curt nod.
Then she became lightning once more, streaking across the battlefield in a feral, electrifying dance. From above, she looked like a stormborn warrior, weaving through the horde of zombies as if they were mere obstacles in her celestial pinball game.
Together, Rex, Santana, and Robot formed an unstoppable triad. Rex methodically retrieved more explosives from their container, spat a glob of blood onto the floor, and surveyed the grisly chaos of the corridor.
"Sector clear?" Robot's voice crackled through the comm-link.
Santana's aura shimmered above, electricity sparking at her fingertips. "Clear for fifty meters, but there's activity at the outer doors, sounds like another breach." She leapt gracefully from a crumbling support beam, landing in a crouch beside Rex.
Rex rolled his shoulders, gripping his weapon tightly. "Then let's move. We hit that breach before they flood in."
Robot vaulted off a workbench with a mechanical whirr. "Pathway optimal. Follow my lead." He tapped his drone's chassis twice, triggering it to unfold into reconnaissance mode, camera units lifting off its shoulders and darting ahead.
The trio advanced in tight formation: Robot in the center, Rex to the left, and Santana gliding above. Overhead lights flickered erratically, casting eerie, shifting shadows. Each step they took echoed ominously, a signal to any lurking undead.
At the corridor's end, jagged double doors loomed, torn asunder. Beyond them, crimson-stained tiles and guttural moans hinted at the horrors waiting inside.
Rex raised a hand, signaling a halt. He readied a concussion grenade, his voice steady. "On three. One… two…"
"Wait." Santana's sharp tone cut through the tension. Her gaze locked on a ventilation shaft high on the wall. Organic sludge oozed from the grate, tendrils writhing unnaturally.
Before anyone could react, half a dozen zombie limbs burst through the grate, dragging down grotesque fungal creatures fused to undead hosts. Their twisted forms slithered forward, releasing clouds of spores that hung in the air like a toxic mist.
Rex's jaw tightened. "Spore-fused zombies… a new variant."
Robot's optics flared crimson. "Anomaly detected. Avoid direct contact. Potentially lethal contagion identified."
Santana's jaw tightened. "We finish them before they finish us." She surged forward, lightning crackling in her wake. A burst of electricity severed the first creature's grotesque head from its swollen body. Spores erupted into the air, and she flinched as the toxic cloud grazed her armor.
Rex lobbed his grenade, the detonation incinerating spores mid-flight. Shards of mutant appendages showered the corridor.
Robot's drones swept the scene, analyzing toxin levels. "Activating sonic disruptors." High-frequency pulses radiated from each drone, dismantling the fungal network. Tendrils shrank back, their corrupted tissue crumbling into fragile debris.
A spore-beast charged through the sonic barrage, its maw gaping wide as it lunged for Rex's throat. He narrowly avoided the attack, slamming the shotgun butt into its skull. The fungus-riddled head detonated, spraying walls with gore and spore residue.
Santana vaulted overhead, raining down a tempest of lightning bolts. Each strike targeted precise vulnerabilities, her movements sharp and deliberate. Still, spores clung stubbornly to her sizzling armor.
Robot advanced methodically, adjusting the drone's cutting blade mid-stride. "Umbilical clusters identified!" He plunged the rotating blade into the nexus where flesh fused with fungus, shredding the monstrosity with mechanical precision. Gyrations tore the beast apart from within.
The air was thick with spore-laden smoke. Rex's visor filtered most of it, but it burned his eyes. He clenched his jaw, the acrid tang of smoke merging with fungal ash.
"Fall back!" Robot bellowed. "Spores are reaching critical levels!"
They scrambled toward the lab's threshold as the airlock doors roared to life.
Santana slammed her palm against the control panel, WHOOSH, the doors sliding shut with a decisive seal. A sharp hiss filled the room as the atmosphere began purging.
A tense pause. Decompression and atmospheric flush in progress.
Moments later, the pressure equalized with a sharp pop. Rex gasped for air, his body trembling as adrenaline coursed through him.
Wiping sweat from his brow, Rex muttered, "That was way too close."
Robot scanned the now-cleared corridor. "Contamination contained. However, spore mutants adapt quickly."
Santana's frown deepened, resolve hardening her features. "We need a permanent solution. This lab is our best hope." She flicked a stray spore from her gauntlet. "Locate the control core and shut it down."
Rex gave a firm nod. "Right behind you."
With determination blazing brighter than any explosion, they charged back into the fray.
But just as they reentered the corridor, a spore zombie lunged at Rex, sinking its jagged teeth into his calf. The creature tore a chunk of flesh away, sending Rex crashing to the ground.
Rex's scream reverberated through the corridor as he thrashed under the crushing weight of the spore-beast. Its grotesque jaws locked onto his leg, fungal tendrils burrowing deep into his flesh.
Santana landed with a flash of movement, unleashing a bolt of lightning that surged through the creature's spine. The impact hurled it off Rex, splattering black rot across the walls, but the damage was already done.
"Son of a—!" Rex snarled through clenched teeth, gripping his calf as a searing burn coursed through his veins. Something alive was writhing beneath his skin, spreading fast.
Robot's drone latched onto his thigh just above the wound, deploying an array of surgical instruments, clamps, cauterizers, and a bone saw with a whirring, razor-sharp edge.
"No time," Robot said flatly. "Infection is systemic. Fungal spread approaching the femoral artery."
Rex's eyes went wide. "You're cutting it off?!"
"Correct. Remain still."
"WAIT—!"
VRRRRRR—
The saw tore into his leg, ripping through muscle and bone with merciless precision. Pain exploded in Rex's vision, turning everything red as he screamed, his fists pounding the floor.
Santana pinned him down, her expression stern but her eyes blazing with urgency. "You'll survive. But only if we act now."
SIZZLE. The cauterizer hissed against the raw stump, sealing the wound as smoke curled upward and the bleeding ceased.
Rex groaned, tears streaking down his face. "Jesus… you're not even gonna apologize?"
Robot tilted his head. "Would it facilitate recovery?"
"…Maybe."
Robot turned away. "Then: Sorry."A breathless laugh escaped Rex between ragged gasps of pain. "You suck."
Rex groaned, leaning heavily against the wall, sweat dripping from his brow. His breath came in shallow, ragged gasps as the cauterized stump throbbed with phantom pain.
"I swear," he growled through clenched teeth, "next time I see one of those mushroom freaks, I'm shoving a bomb so far up its ass it'll sprout flowers."
Robot knelt beside him, swiftly retrieving a prosthetic brace from the drone's rear compartment. "This will stabilize your weight. Mobility at seventy-five percent."
"So I can still blow things up?" Rex managed a crooked grin.
"Affirmative."
Santana stood vigilant at the sealed bulkhead, her eyes glowing faintly as arcs of lightning danced along her shoulders. "We don't have time for recovery. They're regrouping out there."
As if on cue, the doors behind them rattled, then boomed, then bent inward.
A deep, wet groan reverberated through the corridor like an impending tidal wave.
Robot's drone extended a second pair of arms, mounting twin plasma cannons on its shoulders. "Visual feed confirms over two hundred hostiles. Mutation levels unstable. Convergence imminent."
Rex adjusted the brace and pushed himself upright, his face pale but his resolve unshaken. "Good. Let's kill every last one of 'em."
Santana stepped forward, her tone decisive. "We need to lure them into a kill zone. This corridor's too tight. I can't use my full speed."
Robot's drone turned toward the adjacent bio-disposal chamber. "Sterilization bay. Automated incinerators. Sealed environment."
Santana's eyes narrowed with determination. "Trap them inside. Burn them to hell."
Rex smirked. "Now that's my kind of plan."
They moved with urgency.
Robot interfaced directly with the control panel, bypassing the locks. The doors slid open with a hiss, revealing a cavernous chamber lined with scorched walls and the skeletal remains of failed containment experiments.
They assumed their positions: Robot stood at the far wall, his drone's cannons locked on the entrance, Santana perched high above on a crackling crossbeam of voltage, and Rex, leaning heavily against a wall, carefully planted remote mines in a wide arc.
Then, the horde descended.
The bulkhead shattered inward with a screech of tortured metal. A flood of decayed flesh, fungal growths, and razor-edged limbs surged forward, eyes glowing like smoldering embers. The stench hit first, rot, bile, and spores mingling in a nauseating wave.
"NOW!" Rex bellowed.
Robot's cannons roared to life, unleashing twin beams of concentrated plasma that tore through the front ranks like a buzzsaw. Undead bodies burst into flames, writhing as they collapsed. Santana leaped from the rafters like a streak of lightning, a radiant arc of energy trailing her descent.
She landed in the midst of the second wave, releasing a surge of raw power.
KRKOOOOOM!
Dozens disintegrated in an instant. Metal glowed molten orange as ash filled the air.
Gritting his teeth, Rex slammed the detonator. "Say cheese, you bastards."
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
The mines erupted in a thunderous chain reaction, shredding the swarm and hurling mangled limbs, heads, and spores skyward. Some spore-mutants ignited mid-air, flailing as they were consumed by the inferno.
Still, the monsters pressed on, clawing, limping, and climbing over their fallen, shrieking with unrelenting desperation.
Robot advanced. "Initiating emergency sterilization protocol."
He struck the wall panel with his fist.
Flames erupted from hidden nozzles above and below, engulfing the chamber in a searing blaze. The walls glowed white-hot as moans turned to agonized screams and then to silence.
Ash drifted down like snowflakes.
Minutes ticked by before the flames receded, leaving only the dim red glow of warning lights. The chamber was a scorched furnace, filled with the shadows of charred bodies etched into the metal.
Santana exhaled heavily, her shoulders slumping. "It's done."
Rex slumped against the wall, breathing heavily. "Next time… how about we skip the whole 'losing a limb' routine?"
The robot's eyes flickered faintly. "Duly noted."