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At the train station by the Hive's entrance, Alice's suit sealed itself back around her body as a dozen Lickers hit the ground, lifeless.
She jumped onto the train car and spotted a silver metal case that had already been forced open.
The contents were intact—except for two missing vials.
Alice's head throbbed as she stared at the viral samples and their antidotes. She pressed a hand to her temple as flashes of research memories surfaced.
"What… is this?" she muttered.
Her mind conjured fragments of rabbits being injected with the serum, but beyond that, nothing.
There was no time to dwell on it. She hit the button on the case and it sealed shut again.
Clutching the box, she climbed into the train's cockpit and slammed the start switch.
The train rumbled to life, crawling forward into the dark tunnel.
Minutes later, it emerged at the far exit.
Alice stepped off with the silver case in hand, walking quickly toward the light. But the moment she crossed the threshold, her legs gave out and she collapsed to the ground.
The suit liquefied, peeling away from her body and slithering back into the tunnel like some black tide.
The massive door closed behind it.
Then, from a separate passage, another set of doors opened.
Men in hazmat suits strode out and lifted Alice's unconscious body, carrying her away.
…
Meanwhile, Jack had shed his human form once again, slithering as black liquid back toward the train. With time no longer pressing, he could finally hunt for a new host.
Why leave Alice behind?
Simple—if she kept the suit, Umbrella would never capture her, and she'd never be injected with the virus.
Besides, he still had unfinished business inside the Hive.
Either way, this separation was necessary. When he reunited with Alice, she would no longer be the same—she would be something far greater, fused with the virus.
That was when they would be whole again.
Jack oozed forward, frustrated by how slow liquid travel was. Just as he was grumbling about the pace, a strange sound echoed from the tunnel.
"What now?"
He stopped, suspicious. Could someone else have escaped the Hive?
Alice had fought her way out on her own. But who else could possibly survive?
The noise grew louder until a dark shape burst out of the tunnel.
A Licker.
"Tch. I was hoping for something interesting. Still… you showed up at just the right time."
Jack's disappointment faded as the creature stalked up to him, sniffing. It lowered its head close.
In that instant, Jack surged outward, wrapping the monster in a mass of black fluid. Within moments, the Licker was gone, consumed—and Jack stood again, reborn as Venom.
He rolled his neck once, then turned and bolted back down the passage, heading straight for the Hive once more.
…
Anyone who's seen the final Resident Evil movie knows the truth: deep beneath the Hive, Umbrella kept rows of high-ranking executives frozen in cryostasis.
They'd long foreseen the end of the world. Down there, safe in their icy coffins, they waited for the apocalypse to burn itself out.
It was their private Noah's Ark, built only for the rich and powerful.
They didn't care who lived or died above ground. All that mattered was their own survival.
A nest of parasites who would let the world rot as long as they themselves were spared.
When Jack returned to the Hive, the place was already crawling with zombies, wandering aimlessly in every direction.
Strangely enough, none of them attacked him. Even when he walked right past, they acted like he wasn't even there.
Without slowing down, Jack strode past the shambling corpses, heading straight for the main power room.
With no electricity running, it would take an enormous effort to pry open the underground passage by brute force. Restoring the Hive's power grid came first—then he could use the system to reopen the tunnels below.
He soon reached the power supply chamber. Inside, more zombies shuffled aimlessly. His arms morphed into gleaming blades, and he cut them down without hesitation.
A minute later, the room was silent, corpses littering the floor. Jack walked up to the emergency backup generator and switched it on.
One by one, the Hive's lower levels flickered back to life, until the entire complex hummed with power again.
Satisfied, Jack turned and made his way toward the central control room.
Minutes later, he arrived in a chamber with three computers set up in the middle.
Anyone who'd seen the final chapter of this story already knew—the hidden elevator to the Hive's lowest level was right here.
Jack approached the consoles. His suit shifted, liquefying and extending several tendrils that burrowed into the computers.
The monitors flashed with distorted code. Lines of encrypted data scrolled across the screens until one by one, they all displayed: Access Granted.
The entire floor shuddered, then slowly sank downward.
Jack didn't move, standing calmly as the room descended like an enormous lift shaft.
The deeper it went, the more it resembled a colossal tower, stretching down with no visible end. Each level housed rows upon rows of cryogenic pods, every one containing a sleeping human.
This wasn't just a facility. It was a Noah's Ark, built for the powerful and the privileged.
"....."