By morning, the moonlight red was gone.
But Liam couldn't forget it.
He sat outside the barracks in the early haze of dawn, a protein bar half-eaten in his hand. The world might've ended, but protein bars were still trash.
Maya walked over, flipping a switchblade between her fingers.
"You're sweating," she said without looking.
Liam wiped his forehead. "Didn't sleep well."
"Another dream?"
He nodded. "Saw the Red Moon again. And someone wrapped in chains."
Maya stopped flipping the blade.
"That symbol," she said. "The chained man. I've seen it before."
"Where?"
She pulled a folded page from her back pocket. Burnt edges. Bloodstains. Hand-drawn symbols.
She pointed.
There, among scribbled notes and ritual diagrams, was the same image from his dream: a man shackled, blindfolded, with rot leaking from his hands.
"It's from a cult I fought months ago," she said. "Called themselves The Bloomed. Said the chained one was the key to the 'New Genesis.'"
Liam's skin crawled.
"They knew about the Red Moon before it rose?"
"They called it 'The First Bloom.'"
[SYSTEM UPDATE – Red Moon Chain Progression: 21%]
> Cult Identified: The Bloomed
Linked to Subject: "Rot Prophet"
Note: Not all Prophets are enemies. Some are… chosen.
They were summoned by Commander Sera shortly after.
Inside the command room, she had her arms crossed over a dusty map. A younger officer—barely twenty—stood beside her, clearly nervous.
"We're sending out a small recon team to a nearby medical vault," Sera said without preamble. "Abandoned lab, west sector. Old research there might hold a key to slowing mutation."
Maya tensed. "You're sending us?"
"I'm sending you, your boy, and whoever else can run," she replied, gaze hard. "Because none of our people have survived the last four attempts."
Liam raised a brow. "You're not sugar-coating it."
Sera chuckled. "Sugar's a luxury in a meat world."
She slid a chip across the table.
"A data core. If you find the vault and slot this in, it should auto-download whatever's still functional. Bring it back and maybe… just maybe… we can slow the rot."
"What about a cure?" Liam asked.
She hesitated—just a second.
"Let's not dream too big."
[Main Quest Updated – "Cure Fragment: The Vault Run"]
> Objective: Reach the abandoned lab and recover data
Side Objective: Identify origin of "The Bloomed" graffiti at the vault
Reward: +600 XP, Cure Fragment 1/5, Access to System-Aligned Weapon Node
They set out at noon.
Liam, Maya, and Artemis—Lila stayed behind with a few of the kids in Sanctuary's inner clinic. She was still healing from a twisted ankle.
"You'll come back, right?" she asked, holding Liam's hand tightly.
"We always do," he lied.
The lab was only a few miles out.
Getting there was the easy part.
What they found was something else entirely.
The building was three stories of shattered glass and fungus-covered walls. The biohazard symbol still glowed faintly on the door.
But it wasn't empty.
Rotting corpses lay in neat rows in the entrance hall—some strapped to gurneys. Some fused to walls.
Artemis covered her nose. "Something else has been living here."
And then they heard it.
A wet sound.
Clicking. Gurgling.
Something moving… on the ceiling.
"Eyes up!" Maya hissed.
A mass of pale limbs and rotten faces shifted above them. Not a zombie.
Not even a Deviant.
This was something worse.
[System Alert – First Contact: Hive-Class Mutation]
> Enemy Detected: "The Broodmass"
Class: Aberrant-H
Weakness: Fire, Disruption, Psychic Overload
Status: Territorial
Behavior: Consumes undeveloped rot and births drone variants
"RUN!" Maya shouted.
But Liam had already sprinted for the terminal.
He jammed the chip into the port.
[DOWNLOADING: 19%... 34%...]
The ceiling-creature screamed—a mass of mouths all crying in unison.
Artemis fell to her knees, clutching her skull.
[Psychic Overload Detected – Vision Imminent]
He was in the lab again—but before the fall.
Scientists screamed. Test tubes shattered. A patient broke containment—his blood glowing green.
The Bloomed cult knelt at the doors, chanting. Injecting themselves. Letting the rot in willingly.
> "You made us gods," a voice said. "Now you'll burn for it."
Liam's hands shook.
Artemis gasped beside him, whispering words in another language.
The download hit 100%.
Maya grabbed his arm, and they ran.
The Broodmass lunged—but Maya threw a molotov she'd scavenged earlier.
Flames caught.
The creature screeched, flailing wildly as the roof began to collapse.
They made it out just as the second floor crumbled behind them.
Ash rained down.
They didn't stop running until they hit the treeline.
Back at Sanctuary Nine, Sera took the data chip silently.
Her eyes flicked between them. "You did good."
"What the hell was that thing?" Liam asked.
"Something the last government left behind," she said bitterly. "They tried to weaponize the infection. Failed. Hard."
"Why didn't you tell us that before we went?"
"You wouldn't have gone."
Maya took a threatening step forward. "You're using us."
Sera didn't blink. "And you're alive. So I'd say it worked out."
That night, Liam couldn't sleep.
He kept hearing the Broodmass.
Kept hearing that voice in the vision.
He sat in the courtyard alone, looking at the sky.
The moon looked paler tonight. Almost… washed.
Artemis joined him after a while. "You saw it too, didn't you?"
He nodded.
"You saw the ones who let the rot in."
"They were human once," Liam whispered. "Now they're gods in their own hell."
Artemis took his hand. "You can stop them."
"No," he said softly. "We can."
She leaned her head on his shoulder.
And for the first time in days, the system didn't whisper.
It just pulsed.
Quiet.
Waiting.