Chapter 124
Zara sat hunched over her desk in the cold, sterile lab, the low hum of machines providing a constant backdrop to the rising tension in her chest. She hadn’t meant to work late, but the file she’d received from her anonymous tipper had left her unable to stop reading. The more she dug into the documents, the more the horrific pieces of the puzzle began to click together.
The base’s research into the MIT virus—mutation-induced transmission—had always been framed as a necessary evil, a method to develop vaccines, a weapon, a cure for something they weren’t fully prepared to fight. But what she was reading now... it wasn’t what she’d been told.
As she scanned through the latest file, the shaky, hastily written notes from her informant painted a picture of something much darker than she could have imagined. The experiments they had conducted with the MIT virus weren’t just about creating super-soldiers or trying to control the spread of the zombie plague. They were trying to control the very essence of the virus. Genetic manipulation, cellular modification, and, worst of all, the use of live human subjects.
Zara’s hand shook as she turned the page. The images accompanying the notes were blurry, dark, but it was clear what they showed: test subjects, all humans, their bodies contorted and twisted by the virus. Some of them looked like they were no longer even human, their faces grotesque, almost alien, eyes wide and unfocused, mouths open in silent screams.
No one had told her about this. No one had ever mentioned that they might have created something worse than zombies. She’d always believed the MIT virus was just an unfortunate byproduct of war, a biological accident, but now... now, it seemed deliberate. The things in the base—those experiments—were no longer human. They weren’t zombies, not in the traditional sense. They were something else.
Zara exhaled sharply, rubbing her eyes in disbelief. If these things got out, if the base was compromised and these creatures were unleashed, the world wouldn’t be facing just a zombie outbreak—it would be facing a new kind of nightmare.
Her thoughts spun in a million directions, the urgency to share this information clawing at her. There had to be a way to stop it, to warn someone, anyone. But who could she trust? That Evelyn woman seemed reliable but she hadn’t been able to talk to her. But what if she was also in on it? Zara found it hard to believe that the higher-ups didn’t know about what was going on in their base.
The hairs on the back of her neck prickled as an unfamiliar, cold presence filled the doorway.
Zara’s head snapped up, her breath catching in her throat as her eyes locked on Harker, standing in the shadowed doorway with that infuriating smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.
She hadn’t heard him enter, hadn’t even sensed him until he spoke. She eyed the shadows at his feet, trying to not think of how it seemed like mist curling around him.
"What the hell do you want now, Harker?" she snapped, her voice betraying her nerves as she pushed herself back in her chair.