"Morning, J3091." Said one Max clones, carrying their books to safety into the vault. He was hurrying and was not waiting for a reply before storming away.
The seventh citadel had assigned themselves a letter and name so they would not get confused. It took them the whole year, but they still got confused or made mistakes. Each letter — from A to Y — got a color assigned and a number from 1 to 4000. The letters were not hard, as they printed them on each side of the suits they made, while the color-coding for the letters was a little harder to memorise.
"Good morning, D182." J3091 answered. He was also hurrying, not making sure his reply reached D182. Then he came across a group that was taking a break from their hard work, drinking coffee and talking about things that crossed their minds: "The captain asked for you, A24. It sounded urgent." J3091 told them and almost fell to the ground due to exhaustion.
A24 nodded: "Sure thing. Going to the bridge right away." And he walked away towards the elevators.
"You good, J3091?" One of them asked. He put his cup down and helped J3091 into the seat A24 left and another one served him a cup. "Slow and steady." He said, patting him on the shoulder.
J3091's breath relaxed and he could talk once more: "Thank you!" He muttered and took a sip of the coffee. "Eh! That is way too bitter. Did you not put any sugar in this?" He complained and scanned the table for the sugar and milk.
"Well, we did not know your tastes, so we just let you do that." One of them said.
"We are the same person with the same taste, asshole." He answered him, "Go fuck yourself."
"Glady." The reply came without a moment of time in between the reply and the insult, "Want to help me with that? We are the same person after all." He took a sip of coffee and smiled weirdly at J3091.
On the bridge A24 just walked out of the elevator: "Here I am."
"Finally, it took you long enough." The captain said. His number was A1. "There is a weird sound coming from the lower districts and, fearing another citadel was able to move early and has attacked us, we send a group of armed policemen down there. They still aren't back. I want you to call your squad and go look for them." He said with a glance over his shoulder and a tired expression.
"Right away, captain." He answered and was already entering the elevator he just left.
"And be quick. The update is in half an hour." The captain shouted towards him.
A little over 10 minutes later A24 and his squad of trained Max clones was going down the stairs to the lower districts. They had to avoid the elevators down there, if there really was an enemy, it would surely wait there or set a trap.
Armor strapped around their bodies and weapons pointed down the staircase they advanced into the lower districts. The only thing illuminated were the points they pointed their guns at, due to the flashlights strapped to them.
The group left the staircase and entered the floor on which the first group had lost contact. They advanced, their shoulders almost touching the walls.
The group on the left wall ducked down and rolled into the first room they came across, their flashlights slowly scanning the room. After they were sure nobody was inside they talked: "First room left, clear!"
They left the room and locked the door, so nobody could hide in there who was not in there already.
A few more silent minutes later, having reached the 20% mark they found a small gun. "What is this?" A24 whispered, "We found a weapon." He slowly lowered his gun and took the gun from the ground and examined it. "There is blood on the gun." He put the gun into a bag he carried on his belt and continued.
They followed an almost invisible trail of blood into a small room. They were sure it was a trap, but came in anyways. On the far left corner of the room, one Max of the first group was sitting, his gun pointed at the door and his stomach was ripped open. One could see his organs and blood was covering the ground and walls beneath him. One of his arms was wrapped around his stomach and his breathing was heavy.
A24 put his gun onto his back and hurried over. "Are you alright?" He asked, unsure about what he has to do. "How are you still alive?" He muttered and lowered his head towards the mouth of the injured one, trying to hear any type of answer. He was not breathing, this… was a corpse. A moving corpse.
He jumped up, trying to leave the room, sprinting as fast as he could: "Run!"
Then the corpse stood up as if strings were attached to his joints which held him above the floor and started shooting at the squad. The first second, before their brain had processed the command, a handful of them were shot, dropping dead like flies.
A24 rolled outside the room and threw a grenade at the corpse. It exploded, but the moment it did, the new corpses started moving. Unsure if they just survived the bullets which hit them or if whatever that was was trying to control them A24 started blasting them apart, making sure not to leave even one bullet he carried in his gun or in his bags.
The corpses stopped moving and smoke was rising from the red glowing tip of his guns. "Get out. Fast! We have to quarantine this floor." He said and hurried out of the floor with his squad.
On the stairs they paused, having blocked off the door. Their breathing was heavy and the sweat was running down their skin. A24 continued: "I will tell the captain what we found."
He hurried upwards and, after he had almost reached the top he heard guns firing down the stairs and screams echoing upwards. He ignored them: "Sorry." and continued into the elevators and entering the bridge.
"What did you find? Where is your squad?" The Captain asked, his voice shaky because A24 was sweating bullets and he looked like he had seen a ghost. "What did you find?"
"Zombies… or… something was controlling the corpses. Making them attack us." He said, breathing in deep once before continuing: "I don't know how many survived. We tried blocking it off but… I think it had another way." Then he passed out onto the floor.
The captain, annoyed, turned his attention back towards the countdown.
2…
1…
"Shit." He whispered.
INITIATING UPDATE