Patient Zero: Messiah of Thorns

Chapter 1

Nico pressed the button on the radio clipped to his left shoulder. His voice was hoarse, barely a whisper muffled by the stuffy filter of his respirator mask. "Sarah, do you hear me? I'm inside the Chicago Mall. Sector four pillar."

Static crackled in his ear for a moment before a woman's voice replied from the device. "I hear you, Nico. But your signal's cutting in and out. What's the situation? Have you found the regulator yet?"

Nico glanced down. Red tendrils snaked across the cracked marble floor, looking like giant veins pulsating beneath an inch-thick layer of dust. A sharp, putrid stench—a mix of decaying corpses and overly sweet floral perfume—pierced through his mask's filter. Nausea twisted his gut. "Not yet. But those damn roses are everywhere, Sarah. I think the Red Rose is blooming upstairs."

"Don't joke, Nico! If that rose blooms, the airborne spores will increase tenfold. Get out of there immediately if you don't find the regulator in five minutes!"

"I know the risks, damn it!" Nico snapped quietly. His back pressed tightly against a cracked concrete pillar. A jewelry store sign above his head creaked, swaying gently in the wind that blew in from the gaping hole in the glass roof. "Without this regulator, our bunker's filtration system dies tomorrow morning. Do you want us to suffocate to death, choking on our own blood?"

Silence hung in the air for a moment. "...Damn it. Okay, find the thing. But Nico, don't use 'it'. Promise me?" Sarah sounded extremely anxious, her voice trembling slightly.

Nico didn't answer. His eyes were fixed on the dark corridor ahead. The sound of sharp claws scraping on ceramic ripped through the silence, like a knife dragging across glass. One. No, two. Nico tightened his grip on his jumbo-sized, serrated wrench. The heavy steel felt cold, yet his palms were sweating. The sharp teeth welded to the side of the wrench reflected a faint, dim light. Heat began to creep up from the base of his spine, a sensation he knew all too well and despised.

"Two Stalker Bloomers in the corridor ahead," Nico whispered into the radio.

"Don't engage! Nic? Nico! Are you still there?"

"I have to get past them, Sar. The control panel is right behind them." Nico took a deep breath, trying to hold the oxygen in his lungs as if it were liquid gold. "Come on, Nico. Focus."

A Stalker Bloomer emerged from behind the shadow of a clothing boutique pillar. The creature might once have been a friendly male sales clerk, but now its head had burst open, blooming into grotesque, pulsating crimson petals. A jagged row of human teeth protruded from between the petals, wet with toxic nectar. The creature trembled, sniffing the air with jerky movements.

Nico froze. His nerves were taut. A drop of sweat fell from his forehead, slid past his mask, and hit an empty soda can right beside his boot.

Clink.

"Damn it," Nico cursed inwardly.

The Stalker shrieked—a high-pitched wail that tore at his eardrums—and lunged with impossible speed. Nico rolled to the side just before the creature's claws slammed into the concrete pillar, shattering it to pieces.

"Die, you bastard!" Nico yelled. He swung his heavy wrench with all his might.

CRUNCH!

The solid, serrated metal slammed into the Stalker's neck, crushing its bone structure and spewing thick, dark red fluid that smelled like rotten vinegar. The Stalker reeled, but from the second-floor balcony, a second Stalker leaped without warning. The creature's weight slammed into Nico's back, throwing him to the floor with brutal force. His respirator mask was nearly torn off.

"Aargh!" Nico groaned as its long, sharp claws ripped through his thick leather jacket, scoring the skin on his back until it bled. The stinging pain immediately ignited a fire in his spine. The heat was unbearable, like molten metal being injected directly into his bone marrow.

"Nico! What's happening? I heard screaming! Nico, answer me!" Sarah's voice on the radio exploded with panic.

"Get off... me!" Nico screamed. His words weren't directed at the monster on his back, but at something thrashing within his own flesh. A wild power he had long suppressed with fear was now demanding release.

CRACK!

The loud ripping sound of his leather jacket, followed by the shifting of ribs, created a horrifying symphony. Something was forced out from inside Nico's body. A bone-chilling cold, coupled with burning pain, spread rapidly. From behind Nico's shoulders, two crimson crystal thorns burst out, piercing skin and flesh with terrifying speed, extending almost a meter into the air.

The crystal thorns moved like stiff tentacles, impaling the Stalker on his back, lifting the creature into the air like a pile of trash before smashing it against the boutique's glass wall, shattering it to pieces.

Nico staggered. His hands braced against the cold floor. He coughed violently, spitting up a thick, reddish fluid mixed with saliva. His vision blurred, the edges of his eyes now glowing bright red in the gloomy darkness of the mall. Every muscle fiber spasmed, as if he had just been thrown from a tall building. His brain churned, primitive instincts screaming wildly.

"Sarah... I... I used it again," Nico whispered. His breath hitched, his voice hoarse and heavy, like grinding stones.

There was a long silence from the radio. "Nico... are you still conscious? Are you okay?"

"I don't know," Nico stared at his own palms. His fingernails had elongated and blackened, red veins stood out clearly beneath the skin of his arms, pulsating with his wild heartbeat. "I feel... stronger. But I also feel lost. It's like something's chewing my brain from the inside. My muscles ache all over, Sarah. This is insane." He tried to focus his mind, fighting against the overwhelming pull of instinct.

"Listen to me, Nico! Don't give in to the mutation! You have to get that regulator and come back now! We can't lose you!"

Nico looked up. In the deeper darkness of the corridor, dozens of red eyes began to glow, one by one. Hordes of Bloomers throughout the mall had been awakened by the commotion.

"They're coming. So many of them," Nico struggled to his feet. His legs trembled violently, feeling as light as cotton yet as heavy as lead. The crystal thorns on his back vibrated, emitting waves of heat that burned away his remaining energy. "I guess I'll be working overtime tonight, and probably won't get paid."

"Nico, don't be crazy! Run! You can't fight that many in your condition!"

"I can't. If I run, they'll follow me all the way to the bunker," Nico adopted a fighting stance. The wrench in his right hand now pulsed with a strange reddish glow, as if the metal had become an extension of his mutation. He was no longer just defending; he chose to confront them. "My breath is already ragged. But I have no other choice. All of you... come on!"

The world in Nico's eyes shifted into shades of blood red. His brain boiled, filled with primal instincts demanding violence. He no longer thought about fighting techniques. His body moved on its own, a brutal, automatic reaction. He charged forward, swinging his wrench with strength impossible for an ordinary human.

Every impact of the serrated metal crushed a Bloomer's skull. Every slash of the crystal thorns from his back tore through the monsters' flesh as if they were made of wet paper. Nico grabbed a monster's head, muscles in his arm twitching violently, and crushed it to pulp. Blood and spores flew through the air, clinging to his respirator, which now looked like a demonic mask. He spun, struck, tore, as if the mutation were a peak predator feasting, and Nico merely a passenger in his own body. A strange hunger spread through every nerve, an emptiness demanding to be filled.

Five minutes of slaughter felt like a torturous eternity. After the last Bloomer fell with a gaping hole in its chest, Nico staggered. He stood amidst piles of shattered corpses, surrounded by the suffocating stench of ozone and putrid blood. The thorns on his back retracted, sinking back into his flesh with a pain that made his vision go white.

He collapsed to his knees. He coughed up thick blood, staining the marble floor, which was now a red pool. Overwhelming nausea filled his stomach. His body felt empty, his energy completely drained to zero.

"Nico? Answer me! Are you alive? I heard explosions and screams! What happened?!" Sarah's voice on the radio was broken by suppressed sobs.

"I... got the thing," Nico crawled towards the control panel with his last ounce of strength. Every movement felt like lifting hundreds of kilograms, his brain throbbing with pain. He tore open the panel with still-trembling hands, pulling out the voltage regulator that was his main objective. "I got it, Sarah. The cost... it was really high. Not just money."

"Good. Now get out of there. Your signal's fading fast! The air in there must be toxic by now!"

Nico stumbled out into the freezing Chicago night air. His steps were heavy, he swayed, his legs felt like lead. He leaned against the shattered glass door of the mall, feeling the cold concrete creep up his weakened body. He raised his left arm under the pale moonlight. The crimson veins had passed his elbow, slowly creeping towards his shoulder. Towards his heart.

"Sarah, the veins have reached my shoulder," Nico whispered faintly. His voice sounded desperate. "I don't think I have much time left."

On the other end of the radio, Sarah choked. "Don't say that, Nico. We'll find a cure. You just need to get back first. Hurry!"

Suddenly, a deafening roar of engines shattered the silence of the night sky. Nico looked up. His still slightly reddened eyes caught a sharp flash of light plummeting from behind black clouds. A small research plane lost control, one of its wings striking the top of a skyscraper before it crashed and exploded in an industrial area not far from his position.

BOOM!

The massive explosion shook the ground beneath his feet. Flames shot high into the sky, illuminating the ruins of the dead city. Through the flames reflecting off the damaged plane's fuselage, Nico saw a glowing logo: Aegis Pharma. His heart beat faster, not from pain, but from a powerful urge. Old vengeance stirred.

"Sar, a plane crashed. Aegis Pharma logo," Nico reported. He swallowed, his throat feeling dry and burnt.

"Aegis Pharma? Nico, ignore that! You need to get back to the bunker now! That regulator is priority number one! Your body is at its limit!"

Nico stared at the distant flames. The human part of him screamed to go home and save himself. But the red part—the mutation within him—felt a different, primitive urge. Curiosity mixed with a hunger for new resources or even... fresh meat. A whisper in his mind told him to check the wreckage. Answers about what was happening to his body, or even the key to getting revenge on the bastard company possibly responsible for all of this, might be there. This wasn't just an urge, but a difficult decision, risking the last vestiges of his humanity for burning hope and rage.

"There are people there, Sarah. If it's an Aegis Pharma research plane, maybe they have something about the vaccine. Or at least info about what's really happening to me and why that bastard company is involved," Nico tightened his backpack straps. The regulator was safely tucked inside. Ignoring the survival logic screaming at him to retreat, Nico began to move forward.

His steps faltered. His vision occasionally blurred to black, but he forced his legs to keep moving towards the source of the fire. He stumbled, almost falling several times, but pushed his body onward, guided by the blazing inferno and the whispers of rage in his mind. "I'm going to check it out. Keep the bunker doors locked until I get back."

"Nico! Damn it, Nico! Come back!"

Nico switched off his radio. Silence fell once more. He ran through the oppressive darkness of Chicago, towards the flames on the horizon. The hope he carried was now tainted by the thorns on his back. In the cold night, Nico let the internal battle between man and monster within him become the compass guiding his faltering, increasingly burdened steps.