The morning came gray and soundless.
Fog clung to the trees, pooling thick around the ridge where they'd slept.
Chris was the first to move. He slid from the truck seat, rifle slung, pistol holstered. Every joint ached from another night of half-sleep. He stretched once, scanning the valley below.
Harrow Point was waiting for him, three concrete blocks hunched together under a haze of smoke. No wind. Not even birds. The whole place looked like it had been exhaled and forgotten.
Valez joined him, rubbing his eyes. "You sure we're doing this in daylight?"
Chris nodded. "Yeah. I'm not walking into that at night."
Jess leaned against the truck door. "Fine by me. I'd rather see what's trying to kill us."
They ate quickly, just a few bites of canned fruit and jerky. Then came the quiet checking of equipment to make sure all is accounted for.
Chris cycled the bolt on his rifle, the cracked scope glinting in the sun.
Three mags for the pistol, fourteen rounds for the rifle,but it would have to do.
Valez tapped his own sidearm. "Three each. That's it. Make it count."
Dev frowned. "Can't believe I'm missing the days when we ran out of gas instead of bullets."
Elara stood by her truck, the chain on her case glinting faintly. "The Main entrance is on the west side, but the maintenance tunnels connect behind containment, and are usually locked so it should be safer there."
Chris nodded. "Then that's our way in."
They descended the ridge quietly, boots crunching against gravel and weeds. The air changed halfway down, smelling not foul exactly, but thin, like the oxygen had been pulled out of it.
The front gates were twisted inward. A sign hung half-bent from one chain:
HARROW POINT: RESEARCH DIVISION
LEVEL 4 CONTAINMENT / AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
Jess stepped over a melted section of fence. "Authorized. Great. Guess we're employees now."
Inside, the courtyard was scattered with old vehicles, with mostly being sedans and small transport trucks, all burned out.
The ground was littered with ash and bone dust, like someone had left remains in the open and rain had washed them smooth.
"Jesus," Dev muttered.
Chris didn't reply. He could see faint footprints in the dust, they seemed to be too clean, too
Elara guided them toward a cracked side door. The security scanner beside it flickered weakly as she pressed her old keycard to the reader.
It beeped once, uncertain, then the lock disengaged.
"That's not supposed to work anymore," she whispered.
"Take the win," Valez said.
The hallway beyond smelled of old paper and rot. The floor was streaked with black fluid that had long dried, spiderwebbing through tiles. Half the lights buzzed dimly.
Chris motioned with two fingers
move slow, eyes up.
They advanced room by room, clearing as they went. Dust rose in faint beams of light slicing through cracks in the ceiling.
In the first lab, overturned tables and broken glass covered the floor. A skeletal arm lay between two microscopes, still wearing a decayed lab sleeve.
Jess bent down, voice low. "Tell me that's not moving."
It wasn't. Until it did
The arm twitched once a dry click of bone on tile, sounded as if it was jerking upright af if it was trying to stand.
"Nope. Nope, nope" Dev kept saying
Chris kicked the leg, sending it crashing against the wall. The Bone splinted into for lack of better terms bone confetti.
"Stay sharp," Valez muttered. "It seems we have a new horror to add to our list."
They reached the main corridor. At the far end, something, moved slow and rhythmic.
The sound of bone striking concrete.
Chris raised his rifle. "Contacts. Two o'clock."
Shapes emerged from the fogged, they seemed to be skeletal, but moving too smoothly. Their bones were bleached, polished almost. Hollow sockets glowed faint green, faint veins of light pulsing through hairline cracks in the skulls.
The first one stepped into the light. No flesh. No noise but the grind of joints.
Dev whispered, "You gotta be kidding me."
Valez lined his pistol. "Aim for skulls."
The first shot rang out, Jess's, shot instantly holding to end this fast, but her bullet flew inbetween the skeletons ribs . Chris fired next, His round shattered its spine clean through. The thing crumpled instantly, bones scattering.
The others broke into motion, walking at a brisk walk towards them arms out reached.
"Close range!" Chris yelled, after noticing that these creatures were pitiful compared to what they have faced.
Jess swung her wrench as one approached her, catching it in the jaw, its skull detaching. Valez cracked another across the temple with the tire iron, which resulted in a satisfying popping sound.
Dev stomped one as it crawled toward him, cursing under his breath. "Why the hell do they move like that, this might actually be easy!?"
Elara stayed behind, clutching the wall, eyes wide, watching the things move with methodical focus, not rage. Like they were studying their own killers.
In seconds, the hallway fell quiet again. Piles of bone dust scattered across the floor.
Valez wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "They weren't just here randomly, I feel like.
Chris nodded, breathing hard. "Then it seems we are on the right track."
Elara swallowed, voice low. "That's where he would be."
Jess looked over. "Who's he?"
Elara hesitated. "Dr. Magnus Holt. My supervisor. He headed the necrosis division. He wanted to bridge biological death with controlled reanimation."
Dev snorted. "So you're saying we just killed his interns?"
Elara didn't answer.
They moved again, deeper, the lights dimming the farther they went.
Chris could feel the shard pulsing hotter now not in the alarm, but awareness.
Like it recognized something familiar inside these walls.
As they reached the central chamber door, the hum beneath the facility seemed to come alive, it was no longer mechanical, but rhythmic.
A voice echoed faintly through the intercom. Calm. Educated. Almost kind.
"It's been so long since I've had visitors."
Elara froze. Her face went pale.
"Tell me… which of you carries the fragment?"