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...
The corridor stretched deeper and darker, lit only by the faint green glow of emergency exit signs.
The team moved forward again, with Leah and Mike alternating point and rear guard as they advanced, covering each other step by step.
"Huh—"
A walker wearing a tattered white lab coat suddenly lurched out of a door labeled "Archives," nearly colliding with Mike.
Thud.
Mike reacted instantly. His left arm knocked aside the reaching hand while the dagger in his right hand drove upward in one brutal motion, piercing through the walker's jaw and straight into its brain.
The walker twitched once and collapsed.
The whole exchange made almost no sound.
Another one staggered out from a break room and was dropped by Leah with a precise shot to the head.
Every step forward felt like walking through a minefield. The tension was enough to make their scalps prickle.
Dr. Jenner's forehead was soaked with cold sweat, but he held his backpack tightly, silent and keeping pace.
Finally, a door marked "Laboratory" appeared at the end of the hallway.
The door hung slightly open, and the room beyond was pitch black.
Leah signaled. Mike kicked the door open, and Leah entered first, sweeping the room quickly with her weapon.
Chaos. Absolute chaos.
The large observation window was shattered. Expensive equipment had been shoved over and smashed apart. Computer screens were broken.
Tables and chairs were scattered everywhere. Dried chemical reagents of various colors stained the floor and walls in ugly blotches.
A thick layer of papers covered the ground, smeared with unknown slime and footprints.
In the middle of the room, a sophisticated-looking blood analyzer lay overturned.
The screen was cracked like a spiderweb. The metal casing had been crushed inward, exposing delicate internal components. It was clearly beyond repair—nothing more than a pile of expensive scrap.
"No… no, no, no!"
Dr. Jenner's face drained of color the moment he saw it. A desperate groan escaped him as he nearly collapsed.
All hope seemed to shatter along with that screen.
"Fuck," Mike muttered quietly, scanning the rest of the room.
Just as despair began to settle over them, Turner suddenly whispered sharply.
"Hey! Look there—under that rack!"
He pointed to a corner of the room where a heavy metal storage rack had been partially pinned down by an overturned filing cabinet.
Something was underneath.
Leah didn't hesitate. She gestured for Mike to cover her as he carefully stepped through the debris toward the rack.
He motioned for Turner and Wells to help.
Together they carefully shifted the heavy filing cabinet just enough to move it aside.
Dust drifted down.
On the bottom shelf of the rack lay a much smaller device—clearly older and more compact.
A portable blood analyzer.
Its casing was gray-white plastic with several scratches, and the buttons looked worn, but the device itself appeared intact, as though it had simply been overlooked and left there.
Dr. Jenner's eyes lit up with almost manic excitement. He lunged forward, dropping to his knees and reaching for the machine.
Just as his fingers were about to touch it—
"Hrrgh—!"
A hoarse growl sounded right beside his ear.
From the narrow gap between the rack and the wall, a heavily decomposed hand suddenly shot out—gray, slick, and rotting.
It clamped tightly around Dr. Jenner's wrist.
Jenner nearly jumped out of his skin, letting out a sharp cry.
He looked up and met a pair of cloudy, lifeless eyes.
A walker had somehow been pinned between the fallen filing cabinet and the wall.
Most of its body was trapped.
Only one arm and its head could move, and now its foul mouth stretched open as it tried to bite the living flesh inches away.
"Dr. Jenner!"
Leah reacted instantly.
"Shit!"
She swung her weapon toward it—but the angle was bad.
And Dr. Jenner's reaction shocked everyone.
Instead of pulling back in panic, he reached forward with his free hand toward the analyzer.
"My equipment! That's mine!"
It was like he'd lost his mind.
The walker's grip tightened painfully around his wrist, rotten fingernails digging into his skin—but Jenner's eyes were locked on the machine.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Leah snapped, unable to fire without risking hitting him.
At the critical moment, Mike moved.
He rushed forward without firing his weapon.
Steel flashed.
His combat knife drove cleanly through the walker's temple.
Fast. Precise. Brutal.
The walker froze instantly, its grip loosening as it went limp.
Dr. Jenner yanked his hand free. A dark bruise already formed around his wrist, smeared with foul slime.
He didn't even look at the dead walker.
Instead, he grabbed the analyzer and lifted it down.
Ignoring the dust, he wiped the screen and ports with his sleeve, his fingers shaking as he checked the power switch and sample slot.
"God! Doctor, are you insane?!" Felipe said, pale as a sheet. "You almost got bitten over that thing!"
"You serious? That old junk?" Mike frowned, staring at the unimpressive device. "This thing looks even worse than the one at the CDC."
Dr. Jenner panted.
"This is the Bio-Scan 2000! A prehistoric model! Poor accuracy, slow speed—it can only run about a dozen basic tests…"
"But! It's simple and durable! Look—it's not broken! It might still work!"
"As long as we can power it up, I can at least run preliminary screenings and comparisons. For now, that's enough!"
His eyes burned with obsession, as if he hadn't just nearly died.
Mike wiped his blade and slid the knife away.
"Fuck… crazy nerd doesn't value his own life," he muttered.
Leah frowned as well—but they didn't have time to argue.
The noise they had made was already too much.
Just then—
"Hrrgh!"
From the corridor outside, the area they had cleared moments earlier suddenly filled with the sound of footsteps and guttural growls.
And they were getting closer.
Their noise—Jenner's shout and the sound of moving the filing cabinet—had drawn walkers from other parts of the building.
"Shit. We've got company."
Turner peeked outside, then pulled back immediately, his face pale.
"They're coming from both ends of the hallway! A lot of them!"
"Mission accomplished. We're leaving. Now."
Leah didn't hesitate.
"Mike, Wells—take point! Turner, with me—protect Dr. Jenner! Felipe, stay close! Don't fall behind!"
...
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