The Sprinter's claws tore through the dusk, aimed at Chen Mo's throat!
Time crystallized. Chen Mo recognized her—a track team star, spikes still laced to her shoes, muscles cable-tight under taut skin. The school emblem on her left breast was a bloody smear.
Instinct overrode thought. Chen Mo rolled sideways. Claws grazed his ear, drawing blood. A meat cleaver swung from the flank—Zhao Qiang roared as it bit into the Sprinter's shoulder!
CLANG!
The blade sank half an inch, rubbery resistance. The thing backhanded Zhao Qiang's wrist. Bones cracked like dry twigs.
"Blind it!" Chen Mo yelled.
Lin Wei thrust her phone flashlight at the Sprinter's eyes—
BUZZ!
It recoiled, pupils clouding white. Zhao Qiang wrenched free, wrist bent at a sickening angle.
"Run! Lab building!" Chen Mo charged with the axe.
They sprinted past the fountain. Floating corpses bobbed like preserved specimens. The Sprinter shook off disorientation, gave chase on all fours—twice human speed!
"Inside!" The e-sports boy shoved open a side door. Chen Mo barred it with his axe handle. Glass exploded as the Sprinter's arm punched through, black nails clawing three centimeters from Chen Mo's eye.
"Basement entrance behind dissection lab!" Zhao Qiang led through gritted teeth.
The hallway reeked of formaldehyde and decay. Blood dripped from lab plaques: Bio-Specimen Vault, Virus Culture Room. A headless corpse in a lab coat swayed from a sprinkler head.
"Culture room—breach!" Lin Wei yanked Chen Mo back.
The Level 3 biohazard door hung ajar, oozing yellow slime. Inside—dozens of corpses cocooned in fungal threads, chests pulsing. At the center, a tumorous mass throbbed, veins mapping its surface like rivers.
"Evolving…?" Su Qing gagged.
The mass split! A wail like a dying infant shredded the air. All cocoons shuddered in sync.
"Seal it!" Chen Mo and Zhao Qiang slammed the door. Lin Wei doused the hinges in alcohol and lit it. Flames licked fungal strands. The tumor hissed in agony.
Footsteps closed in. Zombies shambled from both corridor ends, eyes veiled in identical fungal film.
"Hive-mind control!" Lin Wei whispered. "That tumor is a proto-nest!"
Trapped. The e-sports boy pounded the wall. "We're dead…"
Chen Mo's eyes locked on the emergency map. A red line marked: Dissection Lab ↔ Underground Passage (via Specimen Storage).
"Storage has a back exit!" Chen Mo pointed. "Zhao Qiang lead! Lin Wei prep flash! Su Qing—acid, clear the path!"
"Half bottle left…" Su Qing trembled.
"Aim for eyes! Not to kill!" Chen Mo ripped off the map, shoved it at her. "Think!"
They bolted for the dissection lab. Fungal zombies closed in with jerky precision.
An autopsy table blocked the door. A sheet covered a human-shaped lump. Zhao Qiang flipped it one-handed. The sheet slipped—
A half-dissected corpse opened its eyes. Its thoracic cavity yawned, organs replaced by braided mycelium. Its spine arched like a vine!
"Live specimen!" Lin Wei dropped her scalpel.
The fungal corpse lunged at Su Qing. Chen Mo's axe severed its spine, splattering yellow fluid. The lower half entangled Su Qing's ankle with intestine ropes!
"Get it off!" She screamed, kicking.
The e-sports boy snatched her acid bottle, smashed it over the thing's skull!
SSSSS—
White smoke erupted. The skull melted. He hauled Su Qing free, but mycelium snaked up his calf.
"Go!" He tossed Chen Mo the bloody USB drive. "Live… for the data!"
Fungal threads constricted, biting into flesh. Zombies breached the fire door.
"No!" Chen Mo lunged.
"GO!" The boy hurled his Zippo into the alcohol pool.
KA-BOOM!
The blast flung four survivors into the dissection lab. Fire swallowed the corridor. The fungal tumor screeched ultrasonic agony. Chewing sounds echoed beyond the door.
"His name… Liu Rui." Zhao Qiang bound his shattered wrist. "E-sports MVP… carried my rank last week…"
Chen Mo clenched the USB. Its edge drew blood.
Refrigerators hummed. Formaldehyde tanks floated dismembered limbs like dumplings in broth. The back door was chained shut, lock rusted solid.
"Need a key." Lin Wei searched a corpse's lab coat. "Probably in the duty room…"
A flashlight beam cut through the duty room window! A face pressed against the glass—empty sockets wept pus.
"Counselor Zhang…" Su Qing hid behind Chen Mo. "He died on duty last night… body was still here…"
Counselor Zhang's hand smashed through the glass! Dangling from his fingers—a triangular brass key!
"Got this!" Zhao Qiang swung a skeleton frame at the window. Glass shredded the corpse's arm, but it gripped the frame.
"The key!" Chen Mo reached for the ring.
Counselor Zhang's jaw unhinged to his ears. Centipede-like mycelium shot from his throat at Chen Mo's wrist!
Lin Wei's scalpel flashed. Severed mycelium sprayed foul juice. Chen Mo ripped the keys free.
The back door creaked open. Stale, wet air rushed out.
Steps descended into pitch black. A scraping sound pulsed from below like a heartbeat.
"Down there?" Su Qing quaked.
Zhao Qiang's flashlight beam hit the stairs—
Blood smears dragged across concrete, vanishing around a corner. Crude red letters screamed from the wall:
"IT WAKES"
Chen Mo wiped blood and slime from his face. Gray tracery now climbed to his elbow, numbness spreading like ants. His father's log entry surfaced:
"What sleeps under the ice… is older than viruses."
He stepped into the dark.