章 16: Chapter 12 - The T-Virus

After the earlier discussion, the trio of Zeel, Alice, and Matt began running through the corridors in search of the others. It was one thing to be trapped underground, but it was another thing to be trapped underground clueless.

They needed Kaplan if they had any chance of escape.

Not too long later, Zeel and the others finally met up with the rest of the group: Spencer, Rain, Kaplan.

Kaplan seemed depressed, Rain seemed agitated, and Spencer still retained his ever-cautious attitude.

"So what's the escape plan. That way or this way?" Zeel asked while shaking Kaplan.

Kaplan seemed a bit unresponsive, but the longer Zeel shook, the more Kaplan came back to his senses.

While shaking Kaplan, Zeel always kept his senses centered on Rain. He could hear her slowing heartbeat, he could feel the slow stagnation of her blood flow.

He considered killing Rain immediately but knew that such a thing would turn Alice against him. She was the type to wait until there was no other choice before doing something morally ambiguous.

"Right behind us," Rain said mockingly even though she was currently leaning on Spencer for support.

"What about this door?" Alice asked stepping between Rain and Zeel.

Zeel closed his eyes and focused his senses on the door, but shook his head in confusion soon after.

"That door has something behind it, but it's not exactly a zombie," Zeel replied.

Kaplan stared at the door and started running a program on his tablet.

"They're waiting out there too," Kaplan said.

"And that way?" Matt asked pointing towards The chamber of The Red Queen.

"It's a dead end. There's no way out of the Queen's chamber," Kaplan replied a bit urgently as he would rather go get eaten by zombies than head back into the lair of that mad AI.

"The best person to ask if there is a way out of the Queen's chamber is the Queen herself right?" Zeel asked since it was the most logical course of action given the current situation.

Even if Zeel was sure the Red Queen would also attempt to kill them, at least she would do it in a systematic way that would be easily predicted.

The Zombies, however, are unpredictable, erratic beings, who are just shells of their former human counterparts.

"Yeah, and I got word they're gonna lock off this place in an hour. We don't have much of a choice other than to either stay here or to make a deal with the devil," Kaplan stated which caused everyone to recoil in shock.

Kaplan only had access to this information after James died.

"Containing the incident is the only fail-safe plan they had... against possible contamination," Kaplan stated.

"And you're only telling us this now when we're trapped half a mile underground?" Rain said with an elevated voice, staggering as she was too sick to even raise her voice to such a high degree.

"We should turn her back on since she'll know a way out of here," Zeel said as he entered the corridor James' body still laid in finely cut pieces of flesh.

Unknown to the group, Zeel was interested in turning on The Red Queen for an entirely different reason.

The Red Queen being shut off meant that all-important information was wiped from the database. However, Zeel could still manage to program a backdoor into Umbrella's system if The Red Queen was turned on.

"That homicidal bitch killed my team," Rain said as she tiptoed around the cut-up corpse of her former captain.

"Your dumb leader killed your team I told him not to go in," Zeel said as he further elaborated "Everyone here was dead the moment they stepped foot into this facility. Well, everyone apart from Alice and me,"

"Isn't condemning us, the same as condemning yourself?" Rain replied a bit gloatingly.

Zeel completely ignored Rain's comment as he gestured to Kaplan and said "Make sure to keep a failsafe of our own, okay Kaplan?"

Kaplan nodded getting the gist of what Zeel meant.

Kaplan began working on the computer core for The Red Queen. After a while of fixing the motherboard, and adding the connections necessary for the core of the Red Queen to restart, the computer once again went live.

Zeel held his head since the frequency fluctuations caused a mad headache to his booting nanites. Zeel could feel his consciousness waning some more, but pushed the sensation back once more.

"All right, the circuit breaker is disabled. This time if I hit the switch, she won't be able to shut down. She's gonna fry," Kaplan added still hesitating if this was the best move they could make at a time like this.

Something about The Red Queen just rubbed Kaplan the wrong way.

The Red Queen slowly rebuilt her projected body in front of everyone.

"Ah, there you are," Zeel said "Even though you are a bit primitive, I still appreciate the uniqueness of your program,"

The Red Queen stared at Zeel for a couple of seconds before deciding to shift her priority.

"Things, I gather, have gone out of control," The Red Queen stated almost as if she is gloating at the group's misfortune, but all the while her eyes didn't leave Zeel.

"Give me that fucking switch right now. I'm gonna fry your ass," Rain said with her usual short temper.

Rain's growing aggressive nature was a testament to just how much the Zombie's bite was affecting her.

"I did warn you, didn't I?" The Red Queen said finally removing her eyes from the body of Zeel.

"The T-virus was a major medical breakthrough, although it clearly also possessed highly profitable military applications. Even in death, the human body still remains active.

Hair and fingernails continue to grow. New cells are produced and the brain itself holds a small electrical charge that takes months to dissipate. The T-virus provides a massive jolt, both to cellular growth and to those trace electrical impulses.

Put quite simply, it reanimates the body. It doesn't fully bring it back to life. The subjects have the simplest of motor functions. Perhaps a little memory. Virtually no intelligence.

They are driven by the basest of impulses. The most basic of needs. The need to feed. Severing the top of the spinal column or massive trauma to the brain are the most effective methods,"

"Why did you kill everybody down here?" Alice asked as the question had been bothering her all along.

Even if the infection spread, it could never affect every part of the facility at exactly the same time. measures should have been taken to preserve those in areas that lacked the infection.

"The T-virus escaped into the air conditioning system and an uncontrolled pattern of infection began. The virus is protean, changing from a liquid to airborne to blood transmission depending on its environment.

It's almost impossible to kill. I couldn't allow it to escape from this facility. Even if it was just a potential infection I had to treat it as a fact since that is what I am programmed to do," The Red Queen answered with utmost certainty in her course of actions.

"So kill everyone in the facility regardless of infected or not since you didn't want to take the risk?" Zeel asked knowing this was not ideal for such an AI.

The programming of The Red Queen should allow it to kill everyone only after taking live samples. This meant alive, uninfected, human male or female would be kept alive for further study.

The mere fact that The Red Queen did not activate such a protocol gave zeel the feeling that this entire matter was likely orchestrated.