Ninety Days Before The Apocalypse

The Fallen Falcon

Inside the warm living room, the low screech of static filled the quiet air. Lin Feng sat at his wooden desk, slowly turning the brass dial of an emergency shortwave receiver. The signal flickered, drowning in heavy electromagnetic interference before a harsh, breathless voice broke through the speaker.

"This is Central Command Sector Four to all active units," a radio operator stammered over the static. "The subterranean geothermal grid at Base Alpha has suffered a total structural breach. Secondary heating lines are frozen solid. I repeat, Base Alpha is compromised. All surviving personnel are instructed to initiate scattered retreat protocol. God help us all."

A high-pitched tone squealed across the frequency, followed by absolute silence.

Lin Feng adjusted his headset, his thumb tracing the smooth plastic edge of the radio. "Sector Four lasted six days longer than in my past life," he whispered to himself.

He stood up, carrying a pair of high-resolution thermal binoculars over to his thick triple-pane window. Outside, the blizzard howled against the reinforced glass, throwing dense sheets of white powder against the dark tower. Thirty floors below, the main avenue was a graveyard of buried cars, completely swallowed by six feet of dense, glittering snow drifts.

Lin Feng adjusted the binocular focus, the glowing green lens cutting through the blinding fog.

Down on the frozen highway, two blinding yellow halogen beams cut through the white mist. A massive six-wheeled armored personnel carrier was roaring down the avenue, its heavy steel plow throwing mountains of snow into the air. Its engine screeched in a high, agonizing whine, smoke pouring from its side exhaust vents.

Behind the racing vehicle, dozens of low, fast-moving heat signatures darted through the white drifts like pale shadows.

Lin Feng zoomed in on the pack. They looked like oversized timber wolves, but their fur was a shocking, seamless white that absorbed the light. Their elongated jaws dripped thick, frozen saliva, and their red eyes glowed bright against the dark snow. They moved effortlessly across the deep powder, leaping across car roofs without breaking stride.

"Frost-fang wolves," Lin Feng said softly, his grip tightening on the rubber body of his binoculars. "They emerged three weeks early."

Down below, the armored vehicle swerved wildly to avoid a buried delivery truck. Its tires lost traction on a sheet of black ice, spinning in a chaotic arc. The heavy steel plow clipped the edge of the central plaza fountain, tearing through concrete blocks before the vehicle tipped sideways and slammed directly into the frozen marble structure.

*BOOM!*

A bright orange fireball erupted from the engine bay, illuminating the dark plaza in a harsh, dancing glow. The sudden blast scattered the front pack of mutated wolves, their high-pitched howls echoing up the face of the apartment tower.

Lin Feng watched through his optical lens as the armored vehicle's hydraulic side hatch creaked open with a hiss of pressurized steam.

A figure clad in dark grey composite tactical armor dragged itself out of the burning cabin, falling heavily onto the white snow. It was a woman. Blood stained the left shoulder of her reinforced chest plate, her clear helmet visor cracked down the middle. In her right arm, she clutched a heavy, silver metallic briefcase against her chest, its central lock pulsing with a faint, steady blue light.

Four white wolves circled the burning wreckage, lowering their heavy shoulders as they prepared to pounce.

The woman rolled onto her back, her gloved left hand pulling a short-barreled automatic submachine gun from her thigh holster.

*RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!*

Muzzle flashes strobed brightly against the white snow. One beast dropped, its black blood spraying across the marble fountain, but two more lunged forward from its flanks, snapping their massive jaws toward her neck.

She kicked out with her heavy tactical boot, catching the first beast under its lower jaw, but the force of the strike pushed her backward into the snow drift. She lost her grip on her submachine gun, the weapon sliding ten feet away across the slick ice.

The remaining wolves closed in, their low growls vibrating through the cold night air.

Lin Feng stood at his window, thirty floors above the bloody scene. He lowered his binoculars, his expression completely blank. In the apocalypse, curiosity killed faster than the cold. Intervention meant drawing the attention of an entire mutated pack to his front entrance.

He turned his back on the window, taking three steps toward his quiet kitchen.

Suddenly, a loud, metallic chime echoed from his control desk.

Lin Feng stopped in his tracks. He turned his head slowly toward his secondary military monitor, which was linked to a high-frequency satellite relay.

The screen, which had been dead for seventy-two hours, was suddenly flashing bright crimson text.

*EMERGENCY BROADCAST DETECTED: CODE OMEGA.*

*AUTHORIZATION: NATIONAL DEFENSE RESEARCH DIRECTORATE.*

*PACKAGE IDENTIFIER: PROJECT HYDRA - CORE GENETIC SEQUENCER.*

*PRIORITY: IMMEDIATE RECOVERY REQUIRED.*

Lin Feng stared at the pulsing blue icon on the screen, his dark eyes widening slightly.

"Project Hydra?" Lin Feng murmured, his voice barely a breath in the warm room. "The military's bio-enhancement trial from the third year of the freeze? She has the core sequencer?"

He turned back toward the window, pulling his thermal binoculars up to his eyes once more.

Down in the plaza, the woman was pinned against the marble base of the fountain, her arm wrapped tightly around the glowing metallic case. She had pulled a combat knife from her vest, holding the blade upward with a trembling, bloody hand as the alpha wolf stepped onto the hood of the burning vehicle above her, opening its massive jaws to strike.

Lin Feng set his binoculars down on the glass table with a sharp click.

He walked over to his heavy equipment rack, stepping into his insulated tactical suit. He pulled his heavy crossbow onto his shoulder, clicked a full drum of twelve-gauge explosive slugs into his pump-action shotgun, and grabbed a pair of spiked ice-climbing boots from the shelf.

"If that case falls into the snow," Lin Feng said, pulling his black visor over his face and clicking the seal shut, "the entire city dies before spring."

He stepped out of his main living quarters, unlocked his inner vault bolts, and walked into the pitch-black hallway, his heavy boots crunching against the frozen blood of the corridor as he headed toward the roof access ladder.