*Rumble* *Thud*
Zayn, Alex, and Frankie tumbled to the floor directly below. It plunged several meters free before landing on the hard floor with a thud.
"Ouch, what was that? Why is the concrete floor so brittle? Are you all okay?" Frankie held his head and immediately stood up.
"I'm fine, thanks for my heavy armor. How about you, Zayn?" Alex removed the debris from the surroundings. He protects Zayn's fall, but he's unsure of the situation because it's so dark.
"I'm fine. Luckily, these bags and suitcases are fine. We might be able to find the zombification cure with this." The first thing Zayn checked and made sure of was his luggage.
Frankie tried to turn on the flashlight, but it was broken. He took a spare flashlight, and luckily it was still on. Yet, the scene before him was shocking. "What the-"
Alex and Zayn checked what Frankie was observing. They were then surprised by what greeted their gaze.
They fell into a room like a large warehouse filled with many brownish-green roots that spread all over the room's walls.
Frankie then glanced up. A hole in the concrete ceiling there seemed to be caused by damaging roots. "Wow, I thought we fell because of your doubled weight, Alex. However, I was wrong. It wasn't because of you, but those roots."
"Hey, I only weigh a little over a hundred kilos. And, this metal armor and big ax doesn't multiply my weight." Alex rolled his eyes.
"That's about seven meters. We can't jump back there, can we?" Zayn looked up, and they couldn't go back to basement two.
"We're looking for the emergency generators, right? Well then, let's try searching this place. We're in basement three." Alex rubbed his head.
"Yeah, let's get this over with quickly before the source of the bad feeling hits. Zayn, can you hear some noise with your supernatural powers? The power generator is definitely making noise." Frankie looked left and right. He only found the roots, and no danger was detected.
"Okay, I'll give it a try. Just give me a few seconds." Zayn closed his eyes and put his hands near his ears.
He concentrated by focusing all his focus on his sense of hearing. The place was tranquil then, and he could hear a faint engine noise in the distance.
To confirm his location, he prostrated himself and put his ear on the floor. However, the voice was not transmitted from below. So, the generators are in basement three, on the same floor as their current location.
"I found the source of the engine noise. Likely, it's the emergency generators that powered the malfunctioning reactor. We're heading that way." Zayn pointed in a direction and rushed there.
"Yeah, as expected for our leader, Zayn. He knows where we are going, haha. I'm not afraid to get lost." Alex laughed dryly and put his big axe on his shoulder before rushing after Zayn.
"..." Frankie looked back for a moment. For some reason, he sensed something was stalking them from there for a moment. However, he immediately rushed after Zayn and Alex.
The engine noise grew louder as they approached what was thought to be the generator's room. The temperature also feels hotter. However, many monsters, like black lizards, nest around the heat source.
Zayn, Alex, and Frankie move in the dark to avoid attracting the attention of the giant zombified lizards. They only relied on the faint light from the lamp around the generator room.
"Leave those lizard zombies to us. We will test our new weapon on them."
"It won't take long. Please wait a moment."
Alex and Frankie whispered close to Zayn before rushing to deliver a simultaneous surprise attack on the lounging monsters.
"Grr!" The giant zombified lizards were alarmed by the sudden approaching dangers. They immediately took a position to eliminate the threats to their nest.
However, a sword slash instantly decapitated the lizard that first noticed the danger.
"Ha!" Alex swung his large axe and charged toward the lizards' encirclement.
*Slash* *Bam* *Bam* *Bang!*
Zayn watched his friends aggressively exterminate those giant zombified lizards. Compared to the last week in their fight against the zombies, maybe this was the first time he felt they had the upper hand in the face of an invasion of zombified creatures.
"Kuh, these lizards are really strong. Twenty-two giant lizards, huh..." Alex wiped his sweat. He was already tired of eradicating the surrounding monsters in the shortest possible time.
"That's because of your big ax and heavy armor. Your role should be a tank, not a fighter. Look, I'm barely sweating." Frankie rubbed his bald head and smirked.
"A tank that does damage. That's not bad. You need to grow some hair if you want to be a cool swordsman, Frankie." Alex gestured for Zayn to come closer.
"I'm fine. The best hairstyle is bald." Frankie shook his head. He then went near the steel door and split it in half with a slash.
Sure enough, the room was filled with many power generators and produced a heat that attracted cold-blooded creatures.
"Are we carrying bombs or grenades? We blow up this room and run away. A fire might break out." Zayn heaved a subtle sigh.
"I only have one grenade." Frankie pulled out a grenade from his bag.
"Good, that's enough. We'll prepare to run away and throw the grenade inside." Zayn nodded.
Everyone then left for a safe distance, then Frankie pulled the trigger of the grenade before throwing it into the generator room. "Run for your live!"
*Boom!*
An explosion occurred, burning the generators and creating several aftershocks. A small fire broke out, but it didn't spread all over the place because the majority of the room's materials were made of non-combustible concrete and metal.
Zayn and his friends ran as fast as they could to get away from the generator's room. However, they instead returned to the original place where they had fallen.
"Let's proceed forward. We need to find a fire escape ladder or something to the top floor." Zayn sees a large hole in the ceiling and invites everyone to move on.
"..." Frankie felt that there was danger waiting for them ahead, but they couldn't turn back because the other path was full of fire.
Zayn noticed the roots getting bigger and bigger as they got deeper into the direction they were headed. He did feel a sense of danger there, but somehow he felt they would be fine if they went through this path.
A laboratory room is present at the end of the corridor. They could find several open doors leading to no one knowing where. However, the roots spread all over the place.
"What plant is that?" Zayn asked in wonder as his attention was focused solely on the giant glowing flower in the corner of the room.
He pointed his flashlight there. It was a dull sky-blue flower, but it bloomed brightly and thrived in the darkness.
*Rustle* *Rustle*
The flower reacted to the sudden light, and the roots moved slightly.
"Turn off your flashlight." Frankie immediately turned off Zayn's flashlight.
He then signalled to leave this room immediately and head towards one of the open paths.
Zayn, Alex, and Frankie crept away from the blue flower that glowed in the dark. Fortunately, the dim light made them feel enough to see and escape from there.
Unfortunately, the exit they chose turned out to lead to a deep dark abyss.
"Down there is probably the place where the Experimental Laboratory of Virus X exploded. We'd better get away from here. The road is buried. It's a dead end. We'll take the other exit." Zayn looked up and spoke in a whisper-like voice.
Alex and Frankie just followed closely behind. They returned to the previous room and sneaked away from the massive glowing flower to the other path.
"Roar!"
A loud roar echoed from the other corridor. The bright orange-red light seemed to be approaching fast.
"!?" Zayn was alarmed. He could see several giant reptiles wrapped in blankets of fire, rushing in a fury.
"We're getting out of here right away!" Frankie ran to the other open door. It would be unfavourable if they got involved in a fight here.
Zayn and Alex rushed off, but Alex's feet accidentally got caught by the roots and got stuck there. He was afraid to amputate his leg if he tried to cut the roots with his big axe.
"My leg's stuck! You guys go first." Alex put down his axe and tried to free his leg, but the roots were so heavy.
"Roar!" The roar of the angry reptiles drew closer.
"Frankie, please cut the roots." Zayn immediately returned to help Alex, but he wasn't strong enough to lift the heavy roots.
"!!!" Frankie tried to rush back to help Alex, but the roots suddenly moved, causing him to lose his balance.
*Rumble!*
The building shook as if it had been shaken by a strong earthquake. Alex threw his big axe at the exit, and then Zayn helped him to stand as his leg was no longer stuck.
"Roar!"
The fire reptiles entered the lab room, and a violent shock occurred as soon as the massive glowing flower detected a fire approaching so close and burned its roots.
*Rumble!*
The great shock occurred once again. Frankie gave a gesture to quickly head to the exit.
Alex glanced at Zayn, then at the approaching giant fire reptiles. The massive glowing flower's roots will probably tear down the entire basement three soon, and he intends to throw Zayn into the only available exit, where Frankie waits.
Unfortunately, the floor collapsed first before that happened.
"Alex, thanks for everything. However, I can't let you fall here." Zayn mustered all his strength at that one moment. He threw the heavy Alex into the exit with all his supernatural powers. "Ha! Get out of here right away and take those items to the government scientists. They might be able to find the cure. Live for me and stop this zombie virus!"
*Rumble!*
The floor immediately collapsed, but Zayn no longer had the strength to move. He fell and gave his close friends a final smile before disappearing into the abyss of darkness with the massive glowing flower and the giant fire reptiles.
"Zayn!!!" Alex shouted loudly.