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Chapter 11: No Way Out
The laughter behind the door was wrong. It wasn’t human—it was layered, distorted, shifting between voices as if dozens of mouths spoke at once. Wallace’s breath came out ragged.
“We don’t have much time,” Mercer whispered.
Vanessa paced. “So, what’s the plan? How do we actually blow this place up?”
Wallace turned to Patel. “The backup generators. If we overload them, it should trigger an explosion big enough to take down the plant.”
Patel frowned. “That’s a hell of a should.”
Mercer sighed. “It’s not just the generators. This plant was built decades ago. There are buried fuel reserves below us—if we can rupture them and ignite a spark…”
Wallace nodded. “Then we don’t just blow up the plant. We turn it into a crater.”
The pounding on the door grew louder.
Patel swallowed. “Then let’s move. Before those things figure out how to break through.”
The group rushed down the corridor, heading toward the control room. The air felt different now—thicker, more alive. The very walls seemed to pulsate, like something deep inside the plant was waking up.
As they neared the control room, Mercer stopped short. “Wait.”
She pointed at the floor.
A trail of black sludge led into the next room. It shimmered, shifting, moving like it was breathing.
Vanessa grimaced. “Please tell me that’s just oil.”
Then, the sludge moved.
A shape rose from it—a human head, its features stretched, its jaw far too wide. Its blackened eyes locked onto them.
Then it screamed.
Wallace didn’t hesitate—he fired another flare. The thing burst into flames, thrashing as it collapsed back into the sludge. The fire spread along the black trail, illuminating more things shifting in the shadows.
Patel kicked open the door to the control room. “Inside! Now!”
They dove inside as more creatures crawled from the walls.
Mercer slammed the door shut, bolting it. “We don’t have long.”
Wallace ran to the control panel, flipping switches. The screens flickered, showing vital systems still active.
“I can override the cooling systems,” Mercer said, typing rapidly. “That’ll cause a thermal surge and—”
Something slammed against the glass window of the control room.
The group froze.
Outside, in the dim emergency lights, figures stood in the hallway, watching them. Their bodies twitched, their mouths moved, whispering in a language that didn’t belong to this world.
Wallace turned to Mercer. “Do it. Now.”
Mercer’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “Overriding safety protocols—shutting down emergency systems—”
The lights flickered—then turned red.
A computerized voice echoed through the facility.
“WARNING: CORE MELTDOWN INITIATED. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY.”
A low rumble shook the floor.
The things outside the window stared—then they started laughing again.
Wallace grabbed Vanessa’s arm. “We have to get to the river. Now.”
Chapter 12: The Burning Escape
The entire plant shuddered as explosions ripped through the lower levels. The air turned thick with smoke and heat.
The things outside the control room weren’t running.
They were watching.
Vanessa shivered. “Why aren’t they leaving?”
Patel grabbed a pipe. “Because they know something we don’t.”
Mercer pointed down the hallway. “The loading bay is that way. If we can get outside, we have a chance.”
Wallace pushed the door open—just as one of them lunged.
It grabbed Patel’s arm.
He screamed as black veins crawled up his skin, the infection spreading instantly.
Wallace fired his flare gun directly into the creature’s head. It exploded into a mass of writhing tendrils, but it was too late for Patel.
His body convulsed. His eyes darkened.
Vanessa clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, God.”
Patel looked at them—just for a second. His last second.
Then he whispered, “Run.”
And then he turned.
Mercer shoved Wallace forward. “Go! Before we all end up like him!”
They sprinted down the hallway, Patel’s twisted form shrieking behind them.
The plant was collapsing. Walls cracked, metal beams fell, and fire raged along the corridors. The infected didn’t seem to care. They stood in the flames, their bodies blackening, but they didn’t die.
They were evolving.
Mercer kicked open a door, revealing the loading bay. “There’s a boat downriver! If we can—”
A shadow fell over them.
Wallace turned.
It was standing in the fire.
The first one. The thing from the underground chamber.
It was changing.
No longer just human—its body was elongating, its limbs stretching, its skin splitting open to reveal something that should never exist.
And it smiled.
“We are many.”
Wallace pulled Vanessa toward the exit. “MOVE!”
They sprinted outside just as the power plant exploded.
The force threw them into the air. The world turned to fire.
Chapter 13: The Black Tide
The blast knocked Wallace unconscious.
When he woke, he was floating in the river.
The sky was dark. The fires of Palatka still burned in the distance.
Vanessa and Mercer were on a nearby dock, coughing, barely alive.
Wallace swam to them, dragging himself onto the pier. His body ached, his skin burned, but he was alive.
The power plant was gone—nothing left but a crater.
But something was wrong with the water.
It was black now.
Thick. Viscous. It clung to the shore like tar, rippling unnaturally.
Wallace turned to Mercer.
Her face was ashen.
Vanessa choked out, “Tell me we stopped it.”
Mercer didn’t answer.
Instead, she lifted her sleeve.
Black veins crawled up her arm.
Wallace’s stomach dropped. “No.”
Mercer looked at him, her expression hollow.
“It’s in me.”
She clenched her fist. Her fingers twitched unnaturally.
Then, from the river, something rose from the black water.
A hand.
Followed by another.
And another.
The things in the river had not died.
They had multiplied.
Vanessa’s voice was barely a whisper.
“…We didn’t stop anything.”
The river itself moved, shifting, coming toward them.
And from the depths, they heard the laughter.
To be continued…