"Open fire! Now!" Leah was the first to raise her gun.
The muffled bursts of suppressed weapons rang out at once.
A wave of bullets struck precisely toward the mutant's torso and head.
The team did not panic. Almost in unison, they aimed at the joints that looked relatively fragile and the fleshy tumors on its head.
The dense fire hit the Black Fire mutant's body with dull, wet impacts, punching through its oily-looking skin and splattering viscous bodily fluid. The color was strange, and it was corrosive. When it hit the floor, it hissed and sizzled.
But the Black Fire mutant did not collapse like an ordinary walker. Instead, it let out an even sharper screech.
Its swollen, deformed body suddenly rolled to the side with agility that seemed to defy physics, avoiding most of the follow-up shots. At the same time, its enormous claw swung out with astonishing force, slamming straight toward Carver at the front.
Clang!
Carver raised the blast shield in his left hand and took the hit head-on.
The tremendous force drove him half a step backward, leaving several deep gouges across the shield. The edges even showed signs of melting. Like its bodily fluid, the claw itself was corrosive.
"Watch the corrosion!" Carver growled. He steadied himself, raised the gun in his right hand, and opened fire again.
This time, he aimed at the Black Fire mutant's relatively thin supporting lower leg, where the shape of a human leg could still barely be made out.
At the same time, Michonne moved.
Taking advantage of the moment when the Black Fire mutant attacked Carver, she cut in from the rear flank. Her katana flashed coldly as she drove it hard into the joint where the mutant's swollen torso connected to its twisted arm.
Sssht.
The blade slipped in, but the resistance felt unnaturally sticky, as if she had stabbed into a thick mixture of rubber and grease.
The Black Fire mutant let out a roar, and its other, still ordinary rotting arm whipped backward.
Michonne had already pulled away, narrowly avoiding the strike.
When she drew the blade out, it hissed faintly. Looking closely, a tiny white spot had appeared near the tip.
"Damn it all!" Michonne cursed, rare for her. She put the sword away with visible pain in her eyes and raised her gun again.
Daryl's crossbow bolts flew silently. Several shots in a row buried themselves one after another in the Black Fire mutant's shoulder blade.
The repeated impacts against the same spot caused the mutant's movements to lag for an instant.
"Concentrate fire! Hit the head and joints!"
Leah saw that the Black Fire mutant was gradually being forced back under sustained fire and could not break through the fire net to close the distance. She stepped forward a few paces and increased the pressure from her submachine gun.
Turner, Wells, and the others opened fire from the flanks. Bullets wove into a visible net, and brass casings scattered across the floor.
The Black Fire mutant was ferocious, but under such dense, accurate fire, it finally could not hold on.
The largest hole in the tumor on its head was blown open by a precise burst from Mike. It burst with a wet pop, spraying a large amount of yellow-green pus.
Immediately after, a burst from Carver completely shot through one of its supporting legs.
The Black Fire mutant collapsed with a roar. Its swollen, bulky body still convulsed violently, and its tentacle kept clawing at the floor, leaving corrosive marks behind.
Leah fired the final few rounds, ending its struggle completely.
A large amount of thick, foul-smelling bodily fluid flowed from the wounds and slowly spread across the floor, giving off a faint sizzling sound.
The fight had been short but fierce. The team quickly checked themselves and the surrounding area.
"Anyone injured? Any damage to your chemical protective suits?" Leah asked urgently.
"No damage!"
"I'm fine!"
The answers came one after another.
Shane carefully avoided the corrosive bodily fluid on the ground and quickly scanned the mutant's remains and the surrounding air with his instrument.
"This thing's bodily fluid is highly corrosive. Volatile toxic substance concentration spiked for a moment, but it's dropping. We need to move through this area fast!"
The team quickly bypassed the mutant's corpse and the contaminated area.
Their first encounter had ended cleanly, but everyone's heart sank.
The Black Fire mutant was not as tough as the Wildfire mutant at Sentinel Station, nor was it as fast, but its bodily fluids were corrosive, which made it far more troublesome to deal with than expected.
And in this confined, complex, contaminated environment, if they ran into several at once...
"Command, Task Force reporting.
We encountered and eliminated one Black Fire mutant near the coordinate point. Confirmed traits include high durability, agility, and corrosive bodily fluids.
No casualties on our side. Chemical protective suits intact. Some ammunition expended. The team is continuing toward the Central Control Room."
Leah's report left the command side silent for a brief moment.
"...Copy. Black Fire mutant threat characteristics confirmed. Be extremely careful. There may be more than one of these things!" Calista's voice had tightened.
"Understood."
The team moved on, the atmosphere even heavier than before.
They used hand signals and light signals for silent communication more frequently now. Aside from brief necessary reports, the radio channel remained quiet.
After advancing roughly another hundred meters and passing through a fire door marked by signs of violent damage, the Spearhead Task Force entered the main corridor leading to the Central Control Room.
The contamination here was even more disturbing.
The dark-brown deposits on the walls had almost joined into one continuous mass, forming protrusions like fleshly tissue. In some places, mucus was still seeping out at an extremely slow pace, chilling to look at.
There was less dust and debris on the floor. In its place was a smooth, dark glaze.
The sweet, rotten smell in the air was more obvious now. Even through their chemical protective suits, they seemed able to faintly catch a trace of it.
Even stranger, some of the instrument panels and indicator lights along both sides of the corridor would occasionally flicker with weak, irregular flashes, or give off crackling static sounds.
"The electromagnetic interference is getting stronger." Shane looked at the screen of the detection instrument in his hand, where the readings were jumping constantly and beginning to lose accuracy. "We're approaching the strong interference source. Personal electronic devices may start becoming unstable."
As if to prove his words, a faint electrical hiss came through Leah's headset. It was still light, but the signal was already starting to degrade.
"Command, Task Force reporting. We have entered the outer main corridor of the Central Control Room.
Environmental interference has increased significantly. We expect to reach the core interference source area soon. Communication quality is beginning to drop."
Leah's report came through somewhat broken by static.
"Cop... keep... reporting..." Calista's reply was also streaked with interference.
Leah signaled the team to halt, then made several hand gestures, telling everyone to check their weapons and respirator supplies and prepare for a high-interference environment.
Then she took a deep breath and pointed to the tightly shut alloy door at the end of the corridor. The main entrance to the Central Control Room.
"Jonathan, prepare to breach. Carver, Mike, cover the rear. Michonne, left flank. Daryl, right flank.
Everyone else, follow in echelon formation. Shane, the moment the door opens, assess the contamination level inside."
Jonathan took a small directional explosive device from his backpack and began attaching it to the key points around the lock and hinges.
The others quickly moved into advantageous positions, their gun barrels aimed at the door and anywhere a threat might emerge.
Just as Jonathan was setting the explosive charge, something suddenly changed.
A low hum, so deep it almost fell beyond human hearing yet made their organs resonate with it, rang out without warning.
It felt as if the foundation of the entire Singularity Polymers facility was shaking.
At the same time, the screens of every electronic detection device were instantly swallowed by frenzied static and garbled symbols. Indicator lights flashed wildly, then went completely dark.
A sharp, piercing shriek erupted in the team's headsets.
Then there was complete silence.