The entire basement vibrated as if something enormous had begun to move beneath the floors.
Red warning lights strobed violently, painting the walls in flashing blood-red hues.
WUUUOOOOO—WUUUOOOO—WUUUOOOO!
The alarms screamed louder.
Aiden pressed his palm against the cold steel wall to steady himself. "What does it mean… they're waking up?"
Rourke didn't answer immediately. His gaze locked on the far hallway, where sealed steel doors trembled under heavy impacts—each bang louder than the last.
THOOM!
THOOM!
CRAAAACK!
"Aiden," Rourke said slowly, "Project Abraxas wasn't a small experiment. It wasn't about one mutant… or ten."
Aiden's blood chilled. "How many?"
Rourke met his eyes.
"Two hundred and seventeen."
Aiden felt the floor sway beneath him.
Before he could speak, a guttural roar ripped through the air—deep, primal, layered with suffering and rage.
Aiden's heart hammered.
That sound didn't belong in any world.
"Why now?" he demanded. "Why are they waking up tonight?"
Rourke's eyes narrowed.
"You already know."
Aiden shook his head. "No—"
"Yes." Rourke stepped closer. "They're reacting to you."
The metal hallway shook again.
Aiden clenched his fists. "Why would they react to me? I'm not—"
"You're the prime," Rourke cut in.
"The original host. The first stable mutation. Your awakening sent a biological shockwave through every dormant subject."
Aiden stared at him, stunned.
He wanted to deny it—wanted to scream that this wasn't real—but the truth was written in every instinct screaming inside his skull.
He felt it.
A pull.
A resonance.
Like invisible threads connecting him to the creatures behind those doors.
His mutation…
was calling to them.
And they were answering.
Rourke pointed toward the trembling steel doors. "When those open, they won't just attack anything. They'll come for you."
Aiden stepped back. "Why me?"
"Because you're their alpha," Rourke said.
"And their executioner."
Before Aiden could respond, the hallway lights flickered violently.
BOOM!
One of the containment doors ruptured outward, sending metal chunks flying. Smoke and sparks filled the air. A massive silhouette stepped out—muscular, deformed, covered in branching black veins that pulsed like roots beneath the skin.
Its eyes fixed instantly on Aiden.
And it growled.
Aiden felt a wave of instinctual dread crackle through him—but underneath it, something else surged.
A low, powerful hum spread through his bones.
Aiden's vision sharpened.
His pupils narrowed.
His chest thrummed with unnatural energy.
Another roar sounded behind the first creature.
Then another.
And another.
Three massive infected emerged, each different—one with elongated arms dragging across the floor, one with an exoskeletal back, one with jaws wider than a human skull.
Rourke stepped back. "We need to retreat."
"No," Aiden said.
Rourke blinked. "No?"
Aiden took a breath.
His senses exploded with clarity.
Every heartbeat.
Every movement.
Every breath from the infected.
He could sense them all.
"I can feel them," Aiden whispered. "They're connected to me somehow."
"That's exactly why we RUN," Rourke hissed.
Aiden shook his head.
Calm.
Cold.
Unshaken.
"They're unstable. If they leave this floor, the hospital won't survive."
Rourke opened his mouth to argue—
ROOOAAARRRR!
The first infected charged.
Aiden stepped forward instead of backward.
His muscles coiled.
His breath slowed.
His vision tunneled into predatory focus.
The creature swung a massive claw.
Aiden ducked under it and drove his fist into its ribcage.
The impact cracked bone.
The creature stumbled back.
The other two attacked at once.
Aiden jumped back as a mutated fist destroyed the floor tiles. Another claw slashed his chest—but healed instantly.
His instincts surged.
Blood roared through his veins.
Silver pupils flashed.
Aiden dashed forward with blinding speed, grabbed the second creature's jaw, and smashed its head into the wall. It groaned and fell.
The third infected roared and leapt.
Aiden spun, sweeping its legs with an inhuman kick that sent it crashing down the hall.
Rourke stared—jaw slightly open.
"You're synchronizing with the mutation… impossible…"
Aiden ignored him.
His body wasn't fighting.
It was reacting.
Flowing.
Almost… evolving.
The first infected charged again.
Aiden met it head-on.
He seized the creature's arm—
twisted—
and slammed it into the floor so hard the tiles shattered.
The infected let out one last pained breath—
then went silent.
Aiden stood over the corpse, breathing evenly.
Rourke stepped forward cautiously. "Aiden… your strength… it doubled in minutes."
Aiden swallowed. "I can feel it. Something growing. Something waking up inside me."
Rourke's expression darkened.
"That's not your power growing," he said quietly.
"It's your control slipping."
Before Aiden could respond, the entire floor beneath them pulsed—
like a heartbeat.
A massive, guttural roar echoed from deeper underground.
A roar stronger than all the others.
Rourke's face went pale.
"That's Subject One."
Aiden frowned. "And what am I?"
Rourke met his eyes.
"You're Subject Zero."
The roar sounded again—closer.
Something huge was coming.
And whatever it was…
…it was coming for Aiden.