(1) Echoes of the Mark & Supermarket Siege
The words *Reaping Sequence - No. 97* echoed in Lin Mo's skull like a death knell, chilling him to the bone despite the residual heat from the Blood Crystal pulsing through his veins. The surge of power – muscles thrumming with energy, senses preternaturally sharp – was undeniable, yet it felt tainted, overshadowed by the icy grip of unknown designation. Who marked me? Why?
"Lin Mo! Are you alright?!" Su Ting's shrill voice cut through his spiraling dread. She hovered near the wrecked SUV, her face pale, eyes darting between him and the darkness beyond the garage entrance. Her hand was clenched tightly over her pocket, the smaller Blood Crystal a constant, dangerous temptation.
He shook his head, forcing the terrifying implications down. Survival first. Answers later. "Fine," he rasped, his voice rough. "Find keys. Get this thing running." He gestured at the heavy-duty SUV. Its robust frame and high clearance seemed their best bet against the chaos outside.
Su Ting scrambled towards the driver's side, peering through the shattered window. Lin Mo moved towards the garage entrance, the reinforced roll-up door partially crumpled, offering a jagged view of the street beyond. The hellscape from above was now ground zero. Fires raged unchecked, casting monstrous, dancing shadows. The cacophony of screams, gunfire (sporadic and desperate), and bestial roars was deafening. Shapes – some fleeing, many pursuing – moved through the smoke and ruin.
Suddenly, a different kind of commotion erupted from a building diagonally across the street – a small, well-lit 24-hour supermarket, its windows now mostly shattered. Fluorescent lights flickered erratically inside, illuminating a scene of frantic struggle.
"Help! Someone! PLEASE!" A woman's scream, raw with terror, pierced the din.
Lin Mo's enhanced hearing picked up the snarls and wet tearing sounds from within. His gaze sharpened. Through the broken front window, he saw figures scrambling behind overturned shelves. At least three mutated forms – fast, spindly things with elongated limbs and snapping jaws – were methodically hunting them down. Among the survivors, two stood out: a young woman with glasses, frantically trying to barricade a collapsing aisle with boxes, and a burly man near the entrance, his back against a shattered freezer. The man moved with a soldier's economy, but his left arm… it ended not in a hand, but in a cluster of thick, ivory-colored bone spurs, jagged and deadly.
"Lin Mo! Keys!" Su Ting hissed, jangling a set triumphantly. She followed his gaze, her eyes widening at the supermarket carnage. "We... we have to go! Now! Before those things notice us!"
Lin Mo hesitated for only a heartbeat. Leaving them was practical. Smart, even. But the image of the soldier with the mutated arm, fighting back against impossible odds, resonated. He also saw the flickering sign above the market's entrance: "First Aid Section - Rear." Antibiotics. Painkillers. Supplies they desperately needed. It wasn't just altruism; it was resource acquisition.
"Get in the driver's seat. Be ready to move," Lin Mo commanded, his voice low and hard. Before Su Ting could protest, he was moving, a silver-tinged shadow slipping through the crumpled garage door and sprinting low across the debris-strewn street.
(2) The Veteran and the Medic
Lin Mo moved with the unnerving silence and speed granted by neural acceleration (a faint copper tang still lingering from the garage cables). He reached the shattered supermarket window just as one of the spindly mutants lunged at the woman with glasses, pinning her against a shelf stacked with canned goods. She screamed, raising a fire extinguisher like a club in a futile gesture.
Lin Mo didn't hesitate. Iron Claws erupted from his right forearm in a flash of silver light. He vaulted through the window frame, landing amidst broken glass, and drove the claws deep into the mutant's exposed spine. It shrieked, a wet, gurgling sound, before collapsing.
The woman gasped, dropping the extinguisher, staring at Lin Mo and his gleaming metallic appendage with a mixture of shock and dawning hope.
"Back!" Lin Mo barked, shoving her towards the relative safety of the overturned shelves where another terrified civilian cowered. He spun to face the remaining two mutants converging on the burly man at the entrance.
The soldier was holding his own, remarkably. He wielded a heavy metal pipe salvaged from a display stand. His movements were economical, powerful, fueled by desperation and ingrained training. He ducked under a swipe of talons, countering with a brutal swing of the pipe that shattered the knee of one attacker. But the second mutant, seeing Lin Mo's intervention, changed course, leaping over a checkout counter towards him with terrifying agility.
Lin Mo met it head-on. Neural acceleration flared. The mutant's leap became a languid arc. He sidestepped with contemptuous ease, Iron Claws lashing out in a silver blur, severing its head mid-air. Black ichor sprayed the lottery ticket machine.
The soldier finished off the crippled mutant with a crushing blow to its skull with his pipe. He straightened, chest heaving, sweat and grime streaking his face. His eyes, sharp and wary beneath a heavy brow, locked onto Lin Mo's retracting claws and then scanned his face. There was no fear, only intense assessment and a deep-seated exhaustion.
"Thanks for the assist," the soldier grunted, his voice gravelly. He gestured with his mutated left arm – the bone spurs flexed slightly. "Name's Zhang Tie. Was 3rd Mechanized Infantry." He eyed the dissolving silver nanites vanishing into Lin Mo's skin. "That some new Army tech? Never seen anything like it."
Before Lin Mo could answer, the woman with glasses stumbled forward, trembling but composed. "Th-thank you," she stammered, pushing her cracked glasses up her nose. Her lab coat was stained but identifiable. "I'm Su... no, wait, I'm Dr. Emily Chen. Virology research fellow at City University Medical Center." She glanced nervously at the corpses. "Are there more? We were trying to get supplies when... when they broke in..."
"Lin Mo," he introduced himself curtly. "No time for introductions. We have a vehicle across the street. Grab what you need from the first aid section. Fast. This noise will draw more." He noticed Zhang Tie subtly shifting his weight, his gaze constantly scanning the shattered exits. This man knew combat, knew danger.
Zhang Tie nodded grimly. "Kid's right. Move it, Doc!" He grabbed a discarded backpack and started shoving bandages, antiseptic, and painkillers from a nearby display into it. Emily Chen hurried towards the rear, where the sign for the pharmacy section glowed dimly.
Lin Mo kept watch at the shattered front, his senses straining. Su Ting was visible in the SUV's driver's seat, her knuckles white on the steering wheel, eyes wide with fear as she watched the street. The flickering lights inside the supermarket cast long, distorted shadows. The air reeked of blood, spilled groceries, and ozone from damaged electronics.
(3) The Fever & The Hard Choice
They regrouped near the pharmacy counter, Emily stuffing antibiotics and sterile dressings into another bag. Zhang Tie had secured water bottles and some high-calorie energy bars. The other civilian, a middle-aged man clutching a bloody arm, whimpered softly near the entrance.
"We need to go," Lin Mo urged, sensing movement in the shadows deeper within the store. A low growl vibrated through the floor.
Suddenly, Su Ting, who had been hovering near Lin Mo, looking pale and shaky, let out a low moan. She swayed, clutching her head. "Hot... so hot..." she mumbled, her skin flushed an alarming red. Sweat beaded on her forehead, plastering strands of hair to her skin.
Emily Chen was instantly at her side, medical training overriding fear. She pressed a hand to Su Ting's forehead and neck. "High fever! Dangerously high! Did she get bitten? Scratched?"
"No," Lin Mo said tersely, his gaze locked on Su Ting's tightly clenched pocket. "But she has one of those crystals. A small one. She touched it."
Emily's eyes widened in dawning horror. "Blood Crystal contamination? Early stage symptoms can mimic severe infection..." She looked desperately at the ransacked pharmacy shelves behind the counter. "I need broad-spectrum antibiotics! Augmentin, Ciprofloxacin... but the cabinet..." She gestured helplessly at the heavy, reinforced steel pharmacy cabinet door. Its lock was mangled, likely by Zhang Tie's pipe earlier, but the thick door itself remained stubbornly shut, wedged slightly ajar but impossible to pry open fully by hand. The needed drugs were tantalizingly visible on the shelves inside.
Zhang Tie slammed his mutated fist against the cabinet door. It barely dented. "Solid steel. Won't budge." He looked at Su Ting, now shivering violently, her eyes glassy, then back at Lin Mo. His expression hardened, pragmatic and cold. "Look, kid. She's burning up. Even if we get the drugs, no guarantee. And dragging a feverish liability through that?" He jerked his head towards the hellscape outside. "Weighs us down. Gets us all killed. Sometimes you cut the anchor."
Emily gasped. "You can't mean that! She needs help!"
"I mean survival," Zhang Tie retorted, his voice low and harsh. "I've seen it. Weak links get chains snapped. Better one falls than the whole squad." He met Lin Mo's gaze squarely, no malice, just the brutal calculus of a soldier who'd faced hard choices before the world ended. "Leave her."
Lin Mo looked at Su Ting, slumped against a display rack, her breath coming in short, ragged gasps. He remembered her fear, her greed, her stealing the crystal. She was a liability. Zhang Tie's logic was sound. Ruthless, but sound.
But he also remembered her scream in the office, the shared terror of the initial outbreak. Leaving her felt like surrendering a piece of his own humanity to this monstrous new world. And the Blood Crystal... it was his fault she had it. He hadn't stopped her.
"No," Lin Mo said, the word flat, final. He stepped towards the jammed pharmacy cabinet. "We get the drugs."
"How?" Zhang Tie demanded, frustration edging his voice. "Even with that fancy arm of yours, that door's inches thick!"
Lin Mo didn't answer. He placed his right hand flat on the cold steel door. He closed his eyes, focusing. The silver nanite swarm responded instantly, surging beneath his skin, flowing down his arm. This time, he didn't command them to form weapons. He commanded them to consume.
ZZzzzzzrt—!
The now-familiar, unnerving sound of metal dissolution filled the air. Silver particles swarmed over the point where his hand met the steel, etching into the surface with terrifying speed. Smoke curled as the reinforced steel door began to visibly thin, disintegrating into fine metallic dust absorbed by the ravenous swarm. Lin Mo concentrated, directing the nanites to carve a precise, widening hole around the lock mechanism and hinges, avoiding the valuable drugs inside.
Zhang Tie watched, his jaw slackening, the pragmatic soldier momentarily stunned by the sheer impossibility of it. Emily Chen stared, a mix of scientific fascination and primal awe warring on her face.
Within thirty seconds, a large, jagged opening had been carved through the thick steel door, edges still glowing faintly red-hot. The shelves laden with vital medications were fully accessible.
"Get what you need. Now," Lin Mo ordered, retracting the swarm. His arm felt heavy; consuming that much dense steel in such a controlled manner was taxing.
Emily didn't need telling twice. She lunged forward, grabbing boxes of Augmentin, Ciprofloxacin, syringes, and saline solution. "This... this should stabilize her if we can get her fever down and fight any secondary infection..."
Zhang Tie said nothing, his expression unreadable as he watched Emily work. He hoisted his pack, his mutated arm flexing slightly. The momentary truce forged in combat felt strained.
(4) Whispers from the Void & Uneasy Alliance
They moved quickly. Lin Mo half-carried, half-dragged the semi-conscious Su Ting. Zhang Tie took point, pipe ready, his soldier's instincts guiding them through the shattered supermarket exit, scanning for threats. Emily helped the wounded civilian. Su Ting stumbled out into the chaotic street, the roar of the inferno and the chilling screams hitting her like a physical blow. She whimpered, burying her face in Lin Mo's shoulder.
The dash across the street to the waiting SUV was a blur of adrenaline and terror. Shapes moved in the smoke, drawn by their movement. A lone, dog-like mutant lunged from an alley, only to be smashed aside by Zhang Tie's powerful swing. Lin Mo covered the rear, Iron Claws flashing once to disembowel a shambling humanoid that got too close.
Su Ting scrambled into the back seat with Emily and the wounded man. Zhang Tie shoved his pack in and climbed into the front passenger seat, slamming the door. Lin Mo jumped into the driver's seat, slamming the stolen key into the ignition. The powerful engine roared to life.
"Go! Go! Go!" Zhang Tie yelled, pointing towards a gap between two burning buildings that seemed marginally less infernal.
Lin Mo stomped on the gas. The heavy SUV lurched forward, tires screeching on debris, plowing through smaller wreckage. They fishtailed around a burning bus, the heat washing over the vehicle, and accelerated down the ravaged avenue, leaving the supermarket and its horrors behind.
For the next hour, they navigated a nightmare labyrinth. Streets were choked with abandoned vehicles, rubble, and the detritus of collapsed civilization. Fires raged unchecked. Mutants, drawn by the sound of the engine, would occasionally give chase or lunge from side streets, only to be left behind or crushed under the SUV's rugged tires. Zhang Tie proved invaluable, his knowledge of the city's layout helping them avoid major blockades, and his sharp eyes spotting threats Lin Mo might miss. He navigated with the grim efficiency of a man used to hostile territory.
Emily worked frantically in the back seat. She managed to get fluids and a dose of antibiotics into Su Ting, who alternated between violent shivering and listless stupor. The wounded civilian, introduced as Mr. Chen (no relation), had his arm bandaged.
As the immediate adrenaline faded, the oppressive silence inside the vehicle grew heavy, broken only by the rumble of the engine, Su Ting's ragged breathing, and the constant, hellish soundtrack outside.
Zhang Tie broke the silence, his voice low, staring out at the burning ruins. "Wasn't always like this. Not the monsters... but the sickness." He tapped his temple. "The red eyes. Saw it start three days ago. Barracks lockdown. Men going crazy. Not drunk, not drugged. Just... snapped. Eyes glowing like embers. Attacking anyone nearby. Command called it 'mass hysteria'. Bullshit." He spat the word. "They knew. Had biohazard teams in sealed suits hauling guys away in the dead of night. Whispers about Project 'Crimson Dawn'. Heard it from a buddy on comms duty before his eyes... well, you know." He flexed his bone-spurred arm, a grimace twisting his features. "This wasn't no accident. This was dropped on us. Delivered."
Lin Mo kept his eyes on the treacherous road, but Zhang Tie's words sank in like stones. Project Crimson Dawn. The Blood Moon. The military's foreknowledge. It confirmed his darkest suspicions. The disaster was orchestrated. The radio warning about 'New Dawn'... was it connected? A rival faction? Or just a cruel coincidence?
In the back seat, Su Ting stirred. Her fever seemed to have broken slightly, thanks to the antibiotics and fluids, but she was deeply unconscious. Her lips moved, forming silent words. Then, a thin, high-pitched whimper escaped her, chilling in its sheer terror.
"No... stop looking..." she mumbled, thrashing weakly against Emily's restraining hands. "The eye... the crack... it's watching... it sees me... sees us..." Her voice trailed off into incoherent sobs, then fell silent again, leaving a profound, unsettling chill in the vehicle.
Emily shivered. Zhang Tie frowned, glancing back. Lin Mo's grip tightened on the steering wheel. Su Ting's fevered words echoed the warning on the shattered office TV screen and the monstrous eye within the Blood Moon itself. It sees us. The sense of being hunted, observed by something vast and incomprehensible, deepened.
(5) The Bargain & The Blade
They found temporary refuge as dusk began to deepen the city's already profound shadows – a small, seemingly abandoned auto repair shop tucked behind a collapsed billboard. The heavy roll-up door was partially crushed but offered enough clearance for the SUV to squeeze inside. Zhang Tie quickly secured the entrance as best he could with debris and a heavy workbench.
Inside, the smell of oil and rubber was a strange comfort compared to the outside stench of decay and fire. Emily continued tending to Su Ting and Mr. Chen in the back of the SUV. Lin Mo and Zhang Tie stood near a workbench littered with tools, sharing a bottle of water in tense silence. The events of the day, Zhang Tie's revelation, and Su Ting's haunting words hung heavy between them.
Lin Mo studied Zhang Tie in the dim light filtering through a grimy skylight. The soldier leaned against the bench, his posture deceptively relaxed, but his eyes constantly scanned the shadows. His left arm, the cluster of ivory bone spurs protruding from where his forearm ended, rested on the bench. Lin Mo noticed something he hadn't before: near the base of the spurs, where flesh met unnatural bone, the skin was puckered and scarred, showing faint traces of... metallic stitching? And a subtle, unnatural gleam beneath the skin itself.
Zhang Tie caught Lin Mo's scrutiny. He gave a humorless grunt, lifting his mutated limb slightly. "Ain't pretty, is it? Part of the 'package'." He took a long swig of water. "They called us 'Red Guard'. Volunteers for 'peak human enhancement'. Promised us strength, resilience. Turns out, the peak was a cliff." He tapped the metallic-looking scar tissue near the spurs' base. "And they didn't trust us not to jump. Or run."
He lowered his voice, the gravelly tone thick with bitterness and a deep-seated fear Lin Mo hadn't heard before. "They put a failsafe in us. All of us in the program. Tiny little bastard. Right here." He tapped the metallic scar again. "Told us it was a biometric monitor. Bullshit. It's a bomb. Remote-detonated. Or set to blow if we try to cut it out ourselves. Or... if we stray too far from the designated frequencies." He looked directly at Lin Mo, his eyes hard. "That's why they were rounding up the crazies before the moon even turned. Not to help them. To contain them. Or eliminate them if they couldn't be controlled."
The implications were horrifying. Zhang Tie wasn't just a survivor; he was a walking time bomb, hunted by his own creators.
Lin Mo felt a surge of cold understanding. "The radio broadcast. Warning about 'New Dawn' being demons... it was them? The ones who did this to you?"
"Who else?" Zhang Tie spat. "They own this nightmare. Or thought they did. Now it owns them too." He gestured vaguely towards the burning city. "But they'll still try to clean up loose ends. Like me."
He pushed off the workbench, taking a step closer to Lin Mo. The atmosphere in the cramped garage shifted instantly, charged with tension. The camaraderie forged in the supermarket siege evaporated, replaced by something primal and dangerous.
"Kid," Zhang Tie said, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper. "You got those bugs. They eat metal." It wasn't a question. His eyes, devoid of their earlier pragmatism, held only desperate, burning intensity. "I saw what they did to that steel door. Like acid."
Lin Mo tensed, every sense screaming warning. He subtly shifted his weight, ready to call the swarm. "What about it?"
Zhang Tie took another step. He was close now, too close. Lin Mo could smell the sweat, grime, and faint metallic tang coming off him. The veteran's right hand hung loosely at his side, but his mutated left arm was angled slightly forward, the jagged bone spurs gleaming dully in the gloom.
"Those bugs can eat metal," Zhang Tie repeated, his voice taut with a mixture of hope and raw fear. "And I got a tiny piece of very bad metal inside me." He tapped the scarred spot on his mutated limb again, his gaze boring into Lin Mo's. "I ain't asking for charity. I saved your skinny ass and that crazy girl back at the market. Now you save mine. You get those bugs of yours... inside me... and you make that fucking bomb disappear."
Before Lin Mo could process the insane request, Zhang Tie moved with shocking speed. Not away, but forward. His right hand clamped onto Lin Mo's shoulder with bruising force, pinning him against the workbench. Simultaneously, the cluster of cold, sharp bone spurs on his left arm whipped up, pressing firmly against the base of Lin Mo's spine.
The points bit through his shirt, cold and terrifyingly sharp against his skin. One wrong move, one surge of pressure, and they would punch through flesh and bone.
"Right now, kid," Zhang Tie hissed, his breath hot on Lin Mo's face, desperation etched into every line of his weathered features. "You do this for me... or that doc and the crazy girl get to see what happens when a man has nothing left to lose."
The cold kiss of the bone spurs against his spine was absolute. The garage, the world outside, narrowed to that single point of lethal pressure and the veteran's terrified, determined eyes.
(End of Chapter 3)
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