Arthur lunged backward as a chunk of white-hot scrap metal tore through the door frame. The beast was not just hacking at the barrier. It was melting it. He spun on his heel and sprinted down the narrow corridor, his heart hammering against his ribs like a frantic drum. The floor beneath him gave way to a shallow, shimmering pool of dark liquid. He splashed through the standing water, his boots skidding on the slick concrete.The System interface flared into life in his peripheral vision.[WARNING: HIGH VOLTAGE DETECTED][ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD: ELECTRIFIED GROUND][MISSION: NAVIGATE THE BASEMENT WITHOUT SUSTAINING CRITICAL DAMAGE]"Great," Arthur spat, his breath hitching in his throat. "Just perfect."He looked down. The water was vibrating. Tiny sparks jumped between the exposed wiring of a wall panel that had been sheared off during the initial containment failure. One misstep and he would be fried. He clutched his mop handle, his knuckles white. The beast behind him let out a guttu

"If she dies, we are trapped here forever."Arthur stared at the monitor. The feed showed Ulya pressing her back against a reinforced glass partition while the creature paced in front of her. It was a mass of shifting, oily flesh, its movements jerky and unnatural. Arthur looked at the door, then back at the screen. His hands gripped the edge of the security console until his knuckles turned white."She has the codes," Arthur said, his voice flat. "If we go, we die in the lower levels. If we stay, we starve. We go.""Are you insane?" Cochos hissed, backing away toward the corner of the room. "Look at that thing! It is a Hunter-class specimen. It will rip you apart before you even take a step."Arthur ignored him. He grabbed a heavy wrench from the maintenance kit beneath the console and shoved it into his belt. He checked the display again, mapping the shortest route through the ventilation shafts. It would take them directly above the lab."Stay here if you want," Arthur said. "But t

Arthur swung his mop handle with a wet, rhythmic thud against the skull of the nearest beast. The creature buckled, its translucent skin tearing under the force of the reinforced plastic. Behind him, Ulya let out a sharp cry as a claw sliced through the sleeve of her lab coat, drawing a thin line of crimson across her forearm. Cochos had retreated into a tight crouch, his hands covering his head as the glass vats continued to shatter around them, releasing a cacophony of hisses and clicking jaws."Move toward the terminal!" Arthur shouted, his voice straining to be heard over the rising chaos.He didn't wait for a response. He lunged forward, grabbing a discarded heavy-duty glass shard from the floor. The creatures were fast, their movements fluid and predatory as they navigated the slick lab floor. One of them leaped at Arthur, its jaw unhinging to reveal rows of needle-like teeth. Arthur pivoted, slamming his shoulder into the creature to knock it off balance, then jammed the shard

"That is the final experiment," Imara whispered. "And it has been waiting for its meal."Arthur did not wait for the creature to emerge. He looked at Ulya and Cochos, his eyes wide and burning with a desperate, frantic clarity. The holographic projection of Imara stood perfectly still, her artificial smile never wavering as the blast doors began to slide open with a deafening grind of metal on metal."We have to move, now!" Arthur yelled, shoving his mop handle into the floor gap to prevent the door from fully locking."The data drive," Cochos stammered, pulling the silver object from his pocket. "She wants this. If we give it to her, maybe she lets us pass!""She wants you dead, you idiot!" Ulya grabbed Cochos by the collar and hauled him back toward the only available exit, a narrow ventilation shaft that had popped open when the floor shifted. "She is just playing with us!"Arthur looked toward the opening blast doors. A massive, shadowy limb, thick as a tree trunk and covered in p

The metallic grip tightened around Arthur’s neck, dragging him deeper into the viscous, green chemical bath. The acid burned his skin, stinging his eyes until he could barely see through the murky liquid. Arthur thrashed, his boots kicking at the heavy, sunken chassis of the Boss unit. He reached out with both hands, clawing at the machine’s shoulder plate. It felt like trying to shove a boulder. The unit was dead, but its death throes were mechanical. Its arm continued to clamp down with the rigidity of a hydraulic press.Arthur’s lungs screamed for oxygen. He reached into his tool belt, his fingers brushing against a jagged piece of debris he had jammed there earlier. It was the shard of reinforced glass he had used to breach the control panel. He grabbed it and jammed it into the Boss unit’s elbow joint. The glass shattered, but the sharp tip wedged into a secondary servo. The grip loosened just enough for Arthur to suck in a frantic, bubbling breath of chemical fumes. He kicked of