In his isolated chamber, Kael felt the chaos like a physical presence, a suffocating wave of fear and despair. His heart hammered against his ribs, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The blue interface before his eyes, though still present, seemed to flicker, overwhelmed by the sheer, raw energy of the surrounding pandemonium. He clenched his fists, a cold dread seeping into his bones. This was it. The world had truly come for them.
Then, a voice, clear and calm despite the roaring chaos, resonated directly within his mind. It was not a sound he heard with his ears, but a thought, a presence that settled into the core of his being. The voice was surprisingly familiar, a soothing anchor in the storm of his terror. "Stay calm, Kael. Do not panic."
"Who… who are you?" Kael thought, his terror momentarily overshadowed by the sheer strangeness of the internal communication. He instinctively glanced around his isolated chamber, searching for a hidden speaker, a camera, anything. But there was nothing. The voice responded instantly, a calm ripple in his thoughts, "That does not matter, Kael. What matters is survival. Yours. And theirs." A fleeting image, a flash of a crimson-skinned brute, a pale figure with glowing blue lines, and a delicate face with a cosmic eye, flickered through his mind.
"Who are those?" Kael thought, a jolt of confusion overriding his fear. He recognized Estelle, her features still distinct despite the subtle shimmer around her forehead in the fleeting vision. But the other two... the red-skinned figure and the one covered in blue light... they were utterly alien, terrifyingly unfamiliar. A cold dread still clung to him, but the voice's steady presence was an undeniable anchor. It was the only calm thing in a world gone mad. He found himself listening, despite the inherent distrust.
"Focus. The power outage has unlocked your chamber. The door is compromised. You must move. Now."
Kael hesitated, his mind racing. Why listen to this disembodied voice? What if it was a trick, another mutant, a hallucination born of the meteor's influence? But then he remembered the screams, the indiscriminate gunfire, the terror. Staying put meant certain death or recapture. The voice, for all its mystery, offered a path.
"Go. To the main corridor. Follow the energy signature. It will lead you out."
He gritted his teeth, a decision made. Survival. That was the only currency now. He pushed himself off the cot, his limbs still stiff but responding. He was acutely aware of the thin, coarse fabric of the hospital gown he was wearing, a stark and vulnerable contrast to the chaos he was about to step into. He approached the reinforced door of his chamber, which now stood ajar, a sliver of the chaotic, red-lit corridor visible beyond.
Stepping out, Kael was immediately assaulted by the full horror of the breach. The main corridor was a scene of utter carnage. Emergency lights flickered, casting grotesque shadows that danced over the bodies strewn across the polished floor. Some were mutated individuals, their forms twisted into nightmarish shapes, lying still with multiple bullet holes riddling their flesh. Others were Brazilian soldiers, their crisp uniforms now torn and bloodied, their bodies bearing savage claw marks and gaping wounds that spoke of a brutal, close-quarters struggle. The air was thick with the metallic tang of blood, the acrid scent of burnt ozone, and the lingering, sickly sweet smell of mutated flesh.
He moved cautiously, his senses heightened, the blue interface before his eyes flickering with unreadable data, a constant, silent companion. He stepped over a soldier, his face frozen in a rictus of terror, his weapon still clutched in a death grip. Further down, a small, multi-limbed mutant child lay motionless, its strange, iridescent skin dulled by death, a single bullet hole marring its forehead. Kael felt a pang of something akin to grief, a chilling reminder of the innocence lost in this brutal new world.
"Left. Now." The voice was firm, guiding him through a maze of shattered equipment and overturned carts. He pressed on, his eyes scanning for movement, his ears straining for any sound beyond the distant, fading screams that now felt like echoes from a dying nightmare. The facility was a labyrinth of death, but the voice seemed to know every turn, every hidden passage, each step a calculated risk through the slaughter.
He followed the internal guidance, turning through a series of increasingly deserted corridors, until a faint, cool breeze touched his face. Ahead, a heavy, blast-proof door, designed for cargo, stood ajar, leading to what looked like a service tunnel. Hope, a dangerous, fragile emotion, flickered within him, a desperate ember in the vast darkness. He was almost out.
He pushed the door open fully, revealing a dark, subterranean tunnel that led upwards, towards a faint, bruised light. He scrambled through the opening, his heart pounding with a desperate surge of adrenaline. He was free.
But as he emerged from the tunnel's mouth, stepping onto the cracked, ash-covered ground of the ruined world, the faint light above was abruptly eclipsed. A colossal shadow fell over him. The ground trembled with a low, rhythmic thrum that vibrated through his very bones. Kael looked up, his breath catching in his throat, a gasp of pure, unadulterated terror. Heading directly for him, its massive, segmented body undulating with terrifying speed, was a creature of pure nightmare. It was a worm, but unlike any Kael had ever imagined. Its head was a grotesque, chitinous maw, ringed with multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth, its skin a mottled grey-green, slick with some unseen fluid. It was enormous, easily the size of a small building, its monstrous bulk displacing the air around it with an audible whoosh, and it was bearing down on him, its single, cyclopean eye, a malevolent crimson orb, fixed on him with predatory intent.