Treatment Plant – Core Chamber
The service tunnel opened into the core chamber—a massive circular space with a reactor-like structure at its center, glowing faintly with chemical waste and pulsing on backup power.
Jack stood framed in the haze, the quad-barrel rocket launcher slung across his back like he meant to drag it through hell itself. His M4 hung heavy but ready in his grip.
Rebecca stayed close, steadying him whenever his steps faltered as they pushed deeper into the plant. The jury-rigged flamethrower was strapped across her back, along with four spare rockets for the launcher—her burden nearly as heavy as Jack's, though she carried it without complaint.
The System flickered across Jack's vision, a grim reminder:
[Viral Survival System Notice]
Cellular Lockdown (Tier 1) – ACTIVE
Time Remaining: 00:25:22
Jack ignored the countdown, jaw tightening as he scanned the chamber ahead. His voice was raw but steady.
"Then we move fast. Blow this place sky-high and get out."
Rebecca's eyes caught the faint glow of a central console near the reactor core. She hurried forward, fingers flying across the keys, navigating the dimly lit menus.
Failsafe protocols online.
Containment breach detected.
Meltdown override accessible.
Her heart leapt. There it is.
Rebecca slammed the authorization key. The console screeched with static before spitting out a new line of text:
ERROR 04X – BIOSAFETY LOCK ACTIVE
Meltdown protocol restricted. Override bound to active bio-organism control node.
Rebecca's eyes widened. "What? No—no, no, no!" She keyed the command again, harder, but the same error screamed back at her.
Backing away from the console, her voice shook. "Jack… It's tied to him. Whoever's controlling this place—they linked the failsafe to their body. Unless he's destroyed, this plant won't blow"
Jack staggered over, pulling the extra rockets from her pack. A painful smile twisted across his face. "Figures. He wouldn't let us just torch his whole nest."
A sound cut him off—a wet, sucking hiss.
The vents overhead burst open. Leeches poured from the ceiling, writhing together into a pulsating mass that slithered across the platform. They twisted upward, shaping into arms, torso, and finally a face—something grotesquely human.
Marcus solidified before them, his expression stretching into a grotesque smile.
"My will commands this hive," he hissed, his doubled voice wet and echoing. "This is my work, and you think you can burn it away?" His gaze slid to Jack, venom dripping from every word. "Then you'll have to kill me first."
Jack leveled his M4, fingers tense on the trigger. "I've had enough of Umbrella's freaks."
Marcus chuckled, the sound wet and layered. "You think I'm one of their toys? Don't insult me. I'm the genius they betrayed—their nightmare returned."
Rebecca raised her pistol, jaw tight. "No. You're just another monster."
Marcus spread his arms wide as more leeches poured from the walls and vents, crawling toward them in black tides. His grin widened, body rippling as leeches writhed beneath his skin.
"You can't burn what I am. Every drop of me is legion. Every vein, a hive."
Rebecca steadied her stance, pistol raised in one hand, the flamethrower gripped tight in the other. Her voice was steady despite the tremor in her gut.
"Legion or not… you still bleed."
The swarm lunged.
Leeches poured forward like a living tide, a thousand snapping jaws hissing in unison. Rebecca fired her pistol, each shot cracking through the chamber. Muzzle flashes lit the dark, rounds bursting clusters of leeches into black ichor, but more surged forward to fill the gaps.
"Left!" Jack barked.
Rebecca spun, firing again, dropping another cluster before it could swarm her legs. The wave didn't slow—it split, climbing the walls, scuttling across the ceiling.
Jack's M4 roared beside her, short controlled bursts cutting swaths into the tide. "They just keep coming!" he growled.
Marcus strode forward through the swarm, untouched by bullets shredding his hive. His smile never wavered, even as firelight reflected off the leeches crawling across his body. "You're wasting your strength, Subject #199. You can't kill the hive. You can't kill me."
Rebecca's chest tightened. The swarm was circling them, closing from all sides. She flicked the lighter on her sprayer and hissed through her teeth. "Jack—down!"
He dropped low as Rebecca unleashed a torrent of fire. Flames washed across the walls, ceiling, and floor, igniting dozens—hundreds—of leeches in a screeching blaze. The swarm shrieked as charred husks fell in clumps. The air reeked of burning flesh and chemicals.
Marcus's torso buckled under the fire, his chest collapsing inward, leeches popping in bursts of black ichor. His doubled voice cracked into a screech. "You can't—"
Rebecca pressed forward, the nozzle steady. "Watch me."
She unleashed the last of the canister. Fire roared brighter, devouring what remained. Marcus screamed as his body collapsed into a thrashing pile of burning leeches. The swarm writhed, shrieked, and then fell still—hundreds of charred husks twitching as they burned out.
Silence hit the chamber, broken only by the hiss of fire eating through chemical stains on the floor. Rebecca dropped the empty sprayer, her shoulders heaving. Smoke curled from the blackened wreckage.
Jack pushed himself upright, his voice hoarse but steady. "Is it dead?…"
The pile twitched. Leeches slithered from the husks, reforming the outline of Marcus's head. His voice returned, twisted and furious.
"ENOUGH! I am… eternal."
Jack groaned, gripping his ribs as he raised his M4 again. "Becca… remind me to keep my damn mouth shut whenever we fight these freaks."
The husk reknit, leeches crawling back over bone like a rising tide. Marcus's face reformed larger this time, his features stretched and slick with a hundred crawling mouths. He rose, not like a man but like a mountain of living slime, eyes two fever-bright pinpricks of light.
"FOOLISH," the voice bubbled from the mass, layered with a thousand whispering crawls. "You scorch the surface and think to stop the hive?"
Jack's body screamed with warning: the VSS timer bleeding down, his muscles burning with fatigue. But his eyes locked on one thing. Deep inside Marcus's chest, exposed for the briefest moment in the shifting swarm, pulsed a sickly, glowing node—Umbrella's failsafe lock, the heart of the hive.
Rebecca gasped. "Jack—the node!"
Jack didn't hesitate. He dropped the launcher, slung the M4 to his side, and yanked his combat knife free.
Marcus roared, the hive lashing at him in writhing cords, teeth snapping, claws slamming into his chest. Jack staggered but pushed forward, boots sliding through slick ichor.
Marcus bellowed, "You think a blade will stop me?"
Jack's voice tore out raw, guttural: "Only one way to find out!"
He drove the knife deep into the pulsing node.
Marcus shrieked, a thousand voices screaming in unison. The hive convulsed, leeches exploding outward as Jack twisted the blade, ripping the node apart. Black ichor burst across the floor like acid.
Rebecca turned back to the console, hammering the keys as the error vanished and a new message appeared:
BIOSAFETY LOCK DISABLED.
MELTDOWN SEQUENCE ENABLED.
The alarms wailed louder, red light bathing the chamber in a pulsing glow.
Jack staggered back, knife dripping with black ichor. His chest heaved as Marcus's collapsing body dissolved into shrieking, dying leeches.
Rebecca looked back at him, her voice breaking. "Jack—we did it. Now we run!"