Still Breathing

Chapter 26

The Price of Survival

The Lazarus Core Lab was a cavernous space, all gleaming metal and harsh fluorescent light. In the center of the room stood a massive containment tank, its glass walls frosted over with a spiderweb of ice crystals. And there, standing before it with a look of cold triumph on her face, was Dr. Eliza Rayne.

Rose felt a chill ripple down her spine that had nothing to do with the subzero temperatures. This woman, this monster in a white lab coat, was the architect of all their suffering. The mastermind behind the nightmare that had consumed their world.

"Dr. Rayne," Sebastian said, his voice tight with barely controlled rage. "It's over. We know everything. The virus, the experiments. You're finished."

Dr. Rayne laughed, a sound like shattering glass. "Oh, you foolish children. You have no idea what you've stumbled into. Project Lazarus is just the beginning, a single cog in a machine of glorious chaos."

She spread her arms, a mad, fervent light in her eyes. "Can't you see? The world was stagnant, decaying. We sought to free it, to birth a new era of strength and ruthlessness. And you...you will be the first to witness the dawn of that new world."

With a gesture, she summoned a phalanx of armed security personnel, their weapons trained on the survivors. Rose's heart sank. They were just a bunch of college students, armed with makeshift weapons and sheer desperation. They couldn't hope to win a firefight against trained professionals.

But Dr. Rayne wasn't done. With a wicked smile, she pressed a button on the control panel before her. The containment tank hissed open, a gush of frigid air billowing out. And from the depths of that icy mist...shapes began to emerge. Lurching, shambling shapes, with milky eyes and gaping mouths.

Zombies. The fresh, vicious products of Dr. Rayne's twisted experimentation.

"You see?" the doctor crowed, safe behind a wall of reinforced glass. "The power of science, of progress unshackled from petty morality! These are the soldiers of the future, the enforcers of the new world order. And they hunger for flesh..."

The zombies staggered forward, their movements jerky and unnatural. The security personnel backed away, their faces pale with fear. Even they, with all their weapons and training, were no match for the virulent horror of the undead.

Rose and her friends clustered together, hearts pounding, minds racing. They were trapped, caught between the remorseless force of the zombies and the pitiless gaze of Dr. Rayne. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

This was it. The end of the line.

But as Rose looked around at the faces of her friends, her family...she saw no defeat there. No surrender. Only a grim, unshakable resolve, a determination to go down fighting, to make their last stand mean something.

Max squared his shoulders, his jaw set. "We're not going to be your guinea pigs, you psychotic bitch. We're going to stop you, even if it's the last thing we do."

Dr. Rayne sneered, her face a mask of contempt. "You're welcome to try, boy. But you'll only die tired."

With that, she released the zombies, a tide of gnashing teeth and grasping hands. The survivors met them head-on, Tobias' discordant battle cry ringing out as they clashed.

It was a desperate, brutal melee. Rose lashed out with her knife, feeling the sickening crunch of blade meeting bone. Beside her, Nina swung a fire extinguisher, caving in skulls with each whistling arc. Max and Margot fought back to back, a seamless unit of slashing blades and pummeling fists.

But for every zombie they put down, two more seemed to take its place. They were being overwhelmed, driven back by the sheer, relentless press of rotting bodies.