Page 8 of Glass Rose
Then, abruptly, it stops. The sudden silence, somehow, worse than the noise.
“Is she…” he trails off.
A low moan answers him, but more distant. She’s moving away.
“I’ll make this right,” I whisper.
“You can’t.”
“I have to.”
“She was already gone.” Alex’s voice lacks its usual charisma. Just raw fear. “Some things can’t be fixed, Sofia.”
The worst part is, I know he’s right. But it doesn’t stop the crushing guilt that settles over me like a shroud. I did this. I brought them here. I exposed the facility without understanding what I was really exposing.
“But you can getusout of here,” he says.
We climb the stairs in silence, the only sounds our ragged breathing and the distant wail of alarms. At the next level, I lead us into a monitoring station. The walls are lined with security screens showing different sections of the facility.
What I see stops my heart.
Chaos. Pure, unfiltered chaos.
In the cafeteria, a janitor tears into a security guard’s throat. In the west wing labs, three researchers huddle behindan overturned desk while infected subjects pound against the door. In the main lobby, a group of night shift workers make a desperate stand with improvised weapons, only to be overwhelmed by a tide of shambling figures.
This isn’t contained to our sublevel.
And where the fuck is Henry?
“It’s spreading.” I run my hands through my hair, strands coming loose from my ponytail. “Too fast. The containment protocols should have stopped it, but there are too many points of failure. Too many Infected. And not enough people to stop it because it’s the effing middle of the night. We’re gonna die if we don’t get out.”
“How do we get out?” Alex cuts me off, his voice hardening. “There must be an exit plan.”
The horror builds with each screen I scan for a safe exit. Where could we walk through? There! “Through the auxiliary labs, then up the maintenance shaft to the surface. Most are at the entrance or taking the normal emergency exit route.”
“Then let’s move.”
My feet carry me automatically while my brain spins. R-naught factor of at least 6, maybe higher with direct fluid transmission. Incubation period accelerating—Mia turned in what, three minutes? That’s impossible unless—oh god, they must have modified the protein coat structure beyond what I saw in the data, or transmission over bite is way more potent. Mortality rate 100%. Survival odds… fuck, survival odds minimal, even with immediate evacuation protocols. If this gets past the facility perimeter, if it reaches the homeless encampment two miles east, if it hits the city water supply—extinction-level event within weeks.
None of it good. Not a single number that doesn’t spell catastrophe.
But the thing that is gnawing at me the most—how did it escape our sector? The alarm triggered instantly. Was thereanother breach point? Or had someone else been conducting unauthorized tests, and that’s why the test subjects were still there?
None of it makes sense!
We reach a junction where the corridor splits three ways. I hesitate, trying to orient myself. Was it right or left? The middle?
“This way.” I point to the right passage. “Should lead to the auxiliary labs, then the maintenance shaft.”
Alex nods, following close behind me. We take three steps before a scream echoes from somewhere ahead of us. Human, terrified—then abruptly cut short.
“Maybe we should try another way,” Alex says.
“There is no other way.” I retrieve my keycard, gripping it like a talisman. “This is the only route that bypasses the main research floors.”
The screaming starts again, closer now, accompanied by the sound of footsteps. Someone’s coming our way. Fast.
“Hide.” Alex pulls me into a supply closet and leaves the door cracked open just enough for us to see through.
