The elevator groaned to a halt, gears grinding as it settled on another floor deep beneath the training facility. The grated doors screeched open to reveal a new corridor—wider, colder, with the stench of chemicals rolling out like a tide.
Rebecca helped Jack forward, his weight dragging heavily on her shoulder.
"This is the deeper part of the facility," Jack muttered. He adjusted his grip on the M4, vision flickering as the System snapped across his sight in a red flash:
[Viral Survival System Notice]
Cellular Lockdown (Tier 1) – ACTIVE
Time Remaining: 00:59:12
Jack's jaw tightened. Less than an hour left before his body shut him down.
Rebecca steadied him as they pressed forward, her eyes sweeping the walls. Massive glass vats loomed in the dark, most shattered, their contents long since rotted. Others still glowed faintly, twisted shapes drifting inside like half-formed nightmares.
The corridor widened into a control chamber. Terminals flickered weakly on backup power, their screens spiderwebbed with cracks. Rebecca eased Jack against a console, his breath ragged, before rushing to the nearest terminal.
She keyed through the menus, fingers flying over the keyboard. Lines of data scrolled past:
Shipment: Cerberus units transferred to Raccoon Forest perimeter testing.
Shipment: Leech-based organisms to Treatment Plant disposal for "reclamation."
Note: Proto-Tyrant prepared for live combat assessment.
Her stomach twisted. She kept digging—shipment manifests, supply logs, project directives. Weiss's name stamped across half the entries.
But each file she pulled spat errors: CORRUPTED. MISSING SECTORS. DATA LOST.
Rebecca cursed under her breath, jamming a floppy into the drive and saving what fragments she could. Enough to expose Umbrella's hand—but nowhere near enough to burn the company outright.
Behind her, Jack groaned, wiping sweat from his face. He pushed himself upright, rifle in hand, his body swaying like he was drunk.
"How much longer?" he rasped.
"Not much." She glanced at him, chest tight. Jack looked feverish, but his body wasn't down for the count yet.
"Rebecca, grab what you can. We don't have the time," Jack said, worry flickering in his eyes.
She hesitated, staring at the corrupted files still blinking across the screen. "But—"
"Now," he snapped, his voice cracking under the strain.
Rebecca yanked the floppy free, sliding it into her pack. She turned to help him—and froze.
The lights guttered. A cold wind swept through the chamber, though no vents stirred.
Then came the sound.
A wet, sucking hiss.
Leeches spilled from the ceiling grates, writhing in a mass that pulsed and twisted like living tar. They swarmed across the floor, pooling into a shape. Arms. A torso. A face—half man, half swarm.
Rebecca staggered back. "My God…"
Jack raised his rifle, though even he looked shaken. "What the hell—"
The figure smiled, its skin shifting as leeches slithered beneath the surface.
"Umbrella's children… such clumsy thieves," it hissed. Its voice carried two tones, human and inhuman layered together. "You twist my work. You steal my legacy. And when it unravels, you run."
Its grin widened, sharp with malice. "Isaacs is already gone, scurrying like the rat he is. Spencer has abandoned this place. And you…"
The figure's eyes slid to Jack, lingering with something between disgust and recognition.
"Subject #199. A corruption that still walks. How revolting."
Jack's jaw tightened. "Guess I'm harder to kill than you thought."
The swarm pulsed, leeches sliding off the figure's shoulders and squirming across the floor, their bodies leaving black trails in the cracks of tiles.
Rebecca's fingers clenched around the flamethrower's grip, knuckles white. "Jack…" she whispered. "That's not human."
Marcus tilted his head, the grin never fading. "Human? No. Humanity is weak. Fragile. Easily broken. But leeches… they endure. They adapt. They thrive. I gave them my will, my mind, my purpose. I am perfection."
He spread his arms as the swarm rippled, leeches crawling up his body to form armor-like plating across his chest. His eyes glowed faintly, fever-bright.
Rebecca raised the flamethrower, voice trembling but steady. "All I see is another Umbrella mistake."
Marcus chuckled, the sound gurgling, wet. "Umbrella feared me. That is why they killed me. But now, I will show you their folly… and erase their little experiment." His gaze cut to Jack again, revulsion plain in his eyes. "You do not deserve to exist."
Jack gritted his teeth, forcing trembling hands to tighten on the rifle. The System's timer glowed faintly at the edge of his vision—ticking down, mocking him.
Rebecca stepped in front of him before he could move. Her voice was sharp, commanding. "Stay behind me. You're barely standing."
The swarm hissed, the chamber echoing with wet slaps as more leeches rained from the ceiling. They pooled around Marcus's feet, building into writhing mounds that slithered toward them.
Jack pushed himself upright, teeth bared. "If I stand still, I'm dead anyway."
Rebecca flicked the lighter and pressed the trigger. A jet of fire roared to life, sweeping across the floor, the front line of leeches shrieking and curling away. But there were too many—skittering across the walls, the ceiling, behind them.
Jack's M4 barked, bursts of gunfire shredding clusters as they swarmed. His vision blurred with sweat, his body dragging under the weight of the lockdown. Still, he fought, every pull of the trigger keeping them alive another second.
Rebecca's voice rang out over the chaos. "He's trying to surround us—we need to move, now!"
Jack's breath came ragged, his finger numb against the trigger. "Then burn us a path, Becca!"
Marcus's laughter echoed through the chamber, wet and mocking. "Run, little rats. Run while you can. There is nowhere you can go that I will not find you…"
The floor buckled as more leeches erupted from the cracks, pressing closer despite the flames.
Jack steadied his M4, teeth gritting. "You like hearing yourself talk, don't you?"
Marcus's voice doubled, hiss layered over laughter. "I have endured death, Umbrella's betrayal, and the mockery of my students. You are nothing. An accident kept alive by Umbrella."
The swarm surged forward.
"Move!" Jack barked.
Rebecca swung up her flamethrower, sparks hissing as she triggered the sprayer. Fire belched out, rolling across the floor in a wave of heat. The leeches shrieked in unison, their bodies charring and splitting apart—only to stitch themselves back together as more poured from the vents.
"Jack, it won't hold them!" Rebecca shouted, fear lacing her voice.
Jack fired short bursts, aiming for the largest clumps. His bullets ripped holes through the shifting mass, ichor splattering across the consoles—but the holes closed seconds later, fresh leeches writhing to fill the gaps.
The swarm's face reformed, eyes burning with mockery. "You cannot kill me. You cannot kill what is many."
Rebecca grabbed Jack's arm, pulling him toward the side corridor. "We can't fight it here!"
Jack staggered with her, body dragging like dead weight, but his grip on the rifle was iron. They sprinted as best they could, the sound of leeches slapping wetly against the walls chasing them.
The swarm smashed through the lab door behind them, filling the corridor with its bulk. Dozens of leeches spilled ahead, cutting off the floor like a living tide.
Rebecca spun, flamethrower spewing a desperate jet of fire, burning a line through the advancing swarm. "Go, go!"
Jack shouldered his rifle and threw himself into the flames, cutting down what slipped past. The heat seared his face, sweat dripping down, but together they forced a path open.
The facility groaned as if in pain. Pipes burst overhead, dumping boiling steam into the corridor. Marcus's voice carried through it all, warping between a hiss and a scream:
"You cannot escape. The Hive remembers. And the Hive hungers."
They stumbled into a service tunnel, slamming the heavy bulkhead closed behind them. Leeches battered the other side, the door warping under their weight.
Rebecca dropped to her knees, chest heaving, the flamethrower nearly slipping from her hands. "We can't keep outrunning that forever."
Jack leaned against the wall, the System flickering across his vision again, the timer bleeding down.
[Time Remaining: 00:47:02]
He forced himself upright, gripping his rifle tighter. "We don't need forever. Just long enough to finish this."
Rebecca met his eyes—fear and steel braided together. She nodded once. "We've got fragments saved, but not enough. We finish the job here: grab anything else we can, then make sure Umbrella never gets this back."
Behind them, the door buckled under the swarm's assault. The leeches screeched in unison, their shrill chorus filling the tunnels.