At the rear, Cassian fired in clean, asured shots. Each pull of the trigger dropped a target. Then he moved fast and efficient, closing the gap with the team before taking another position and firing again.
"Don’t get carried away," Cade said over the comms. "Watch your ammo. We still have to deal with sothing much worse."
After fifteen minutes of constant fighting, the group finally arrived at the base of the tallest skyscraper, and what they saw made them stop.
The entire building was almost completely covered in thick, dark, root-like flesh. It wrapped around the structure like a living thing, spreading outward across the city as if everything had originated from this point.
"There’s no way in from the outside," Kael muttered.
Cade did not reply. Without hesitation, he pulled the launcher from his back and fired.
The projectile slamd into the roots. The impact burst like tearing flesh, and a section of the mass exploded outward, leaving behind a jagged opening.
Cade lowered the launcher, unfazed. "Mission target is here. We go in."
He stepped forward at once and entered through the opening. The others following right behind him.
...
From nearby rooftops, multiple pairs of eyes watched them enter.
Variants, more than ten crouched in the shadows of surrounding skyscrapers. They didn’t move to attack. Instead, they watched... and waited.
Slowly, twisted grins spread across their faces.
...
Inside the skyscraper, the team moved carefully. They had expected resistance, mutants, swarms of infected but there was nothing.
Only silence and the roots. They covered everything. Walls, floors, even parts of the ceiling. Thick strands of dark flesh stretched across the space, pulsing slowly.
"What the hell are these..." Cassian muttered under his breath. He crouched slightly and cut into one of the bulging roots.
The mont it split open, a dark, sticky substance oozed out, thick and slow as Cassian tried to touch it.
"Don’t," Cade said quietly. "Don’t do anything unnecessary."
Cassian pulled back imdiately, wiping the blade as the team pressed forward, deeper into the silent, living structure.
"Captain," Lyra called softly, getting his attention. "That thing we’re after... the one controlling the infected. What if we can’t take it alive?"
Cade stayed silent for a mont, thinking as they moved. Then he answered, his voice calm. "If we can’t capture it alive, we kill it and take samples."
She nodded, didn’t ask more, and moved on.
The team moved through the dark halls, flashlights cutting through the shadows. Outside, distant roars and howls echoed, sending faint vibrations through the walls.
.....
Near the edge of the city, another fight was taking place.
"Damn those special agents... what are they trying to do?" Jaxon muttered under his breath as he fired from the rear, dropping a bald infected charging at them. It fell, but more took its place right after.
Natasha and Na-rin turned instantly, raising their pistols and firing in controlled bursts. Cindy and Isabel stayed in line, moving with them as they covered each other.
"Hold formation," Jaxon called out, steady despite the pressure. "We fall back slowly."
They moved as one, step by step, maintaining distance while thinning the pursuing infected.
.....
Back inside the city, Cade’s team had finished sweeping the building.
"Everything points upward," Kael said quietly, glancing at the patterns of growth along the walls.
Lyra wrinkled her nose slightly. "Yeah... whatever this is, it’s definitely up there."
As they climbed higher, the changes beca impossible to ignore. The air grew thick, heavy with a rotting stench that clung to their throats. The walls were no longer just walls, veins of dark, fleshy growth spread across them, pulsing faintly and connecting into a dense, tangled web.
The closer they got to the top floor, the more alive the building felt.
Not long after, they arrived at a sealed door, if it could even be called that. It was completely overtaken by thick, web-like flesh, tangled with pulsing roots.
"Raya, get us inside," Cade said quietly.
Raya gave a small nod. "Step back."
The team shifted away without question. She pulled out a compact, high-tech charge and tossed it forward as it latched onto the surface with a sharp click.
A rapid series of beeps followed... Then the door and the surrounding wall erupted, flesh and debris tearing apart in a violent blast.
The squad raised their rifles, flashlights snapping on as they approached the opening. Cade moved in first, the others close behind.
Their boots echoed softly against the ground... Thump. Thump.
The sound mixed with sothing else. A slow, wet pulsing that ca from deeper inside.
Then they crossed the opening and froze.
"What the hell..." Lyra muttered, her voice barely steady.
The entire room was covered in flesh. Above them, where the roof had partially collapsed, hung a massive cocoon. It was torn open, rotting ford from hardened flesh, bone, and what looked like fused human remains.
At the center of it all... sothing stood.
It towered at least four ters tall, its body wrapped in layers of hardened, blackened flesh. Four thick legs supported its weight as its bloated torso rose and fell in a slow, unnatural rhythm.
From its back and sides, long tendrils stretched outward, dragging across the ground with wet, dragging sounds. They moved on their own, twitching, the tips opening and closing with soft, clicking noises.
Then it moved. Its head turned slowly toward them. The sides of it peeled open, thin layers of pale flesh stretching outward, trembling at the slightest sound.
Its face... There was no face.
Eyes ford and sank across its surface, appearing and disappearing at random. So stayed open, staring, unblinking, and watching.
Cade’s voice was sharp, devoid of emotion. "Kill it." He already had his launcher up, there was no way they were taking sothing like that alive.
The team reacted instantly. Gunfire erupted, explosives were thrown, and within seconds, everything they had, bombs, bullets, rockets were unleashed toward the creature.
But before the barrage could reach it, a thin layer of pale flesh stretched outward from its body, folding over itself like a shield.
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