Victor paced back and forth in the control room, his mind racing in circles. Each step echoed against the cold, metallic floor, the sound sharp in the oppressive silence of the room. His heart pounded, his chest tight as panic clawed its way to the surface. He couldn't afford to lose control now, not with so much at stake.
His thoughts were a chaotic swirl. The display room was supposed to be a triumph. A testament to human evolution. Instead, it became a slaughterhouse. He clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms. The images of mangled corpses and blood-streaked walls were seared into his mind.
"They're all dead," he whispered to himself, his voice trembling. "Every last one of them."
Victor stopped pacing and gripped the edge of a nearby console, staring blankly at the monitors in front of him. The gravity of the situation was crushing. The massacre hadn't just claimed any lives—it had taken the world's most influential leaders: politicians, military officials, and public figures. The very people funding his research.
His breath came in shallow gasps. There's no way out of this. No escape.
"Dr. Hallow," a voice broke through his thoughts, low but insistent.
Victor raised a hand, his tone sharp. "Not now."
"But sir—"
"I said, not now!" he barked, turning to glare at the security guard who had spoken. His voice was louder than he intended, his frustration spilling over.
The guard didn't flinch. Instead, he pointed to one of the monitors, his expression grim. "Sir, you need to see this."
Victor's frown deepened, but something about the guard's tone made him hesitate. Reluctantly, he turned to look at the screen the man was gesturing toward. As his eyes focused on the feed, his stomach twisted.
Five figures now stood in the display room.
"What...?" Victor's voice trailed off. His heart skipped a beat. "There were only three evolved humans in there. Who are the other two?"
The guard's face was pale. "They were corpses, sir. Dead just minutes ago. But they stood up."
Victor's breath hitched as he moved closer to the screen. "Zoom in," he ordered, his voice low and urgent.
The technician complied, and the camera feed shifted to focus on the two new figures. Victor leaned in, his pulse racing. Unlike the evolved humans, these new figures moved clumsily, their steps unsteady as though their legs might buckle at any moment. Their pale, blood-streaked skin glistened under the harsh lights, and their eyes—clouded and lifeless—stared ahead with an unsettling emptiness.
"They're not like the evolved," Victor muttered, his mind racing to make sense of what he was seeing. "They're weaker... slower. Almost like..."
"Zombies," someone whispered behind him, the word heavy with dread.
Victor shook his head, trying to suppress the growing sense of terror. "No. No, that's impossible."
Before he could continue, another voice called out. "Sir, the count is increasing!"
Victor turned back to the screen, his stomach sinking as he saw the scene unfold. The five figures became ten. Then twenty.
"What's happening?" he demanded, his voice rising. "Why are they all standing up? Who are they?"
"They're all the corpses from the display room," the guard replied, his voice tight with fear. "Every single one of them is rising."
Victor's hands shook as he stared at the monitor. The lifeless bodies that had littered the room moments ago now moved with a horrifying, unnatural rhythm. Their heads lolled to one side, their jaws slack, but they moved nonetheless, shuffling aimlessly across the blood-soaked floor.
"Why aren't the evolved attacking them?" Victor asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
No one had an answer.
Victor's gaze remained fixed on the screen as his mind raced. The evolved humans, who had previously been the source of terror, now stood eerily still in the center of the room. Their crimson eyes glinted as they watched the corpses rise, but they made no move to attack.
"I need an audio feed," Victor said abruptly, his tone sharp. "Now."
The technicians hesitated, their hands hovering over the controls. There was an unspoken fear that activating the audio would only make things worse. But Victor's glare left no room for argument. One of them finally nodded and restored the audio feed.
What followed was a sound that sent chills down every spine in the room.
The corpses emitted guttural, otherworldly noises—groans and wheezes that seemed to scrape against the walls of the control room. Their jaws snapped open and shut mindlessly, their teeth clattering together like macabre wind-up toys.
The sounds were inhuman, a hollow symphony of decay and death. The corpses shuffled across the room, their movements slow but relentless.
The room fell silent, save for the haunting noises coming from the speakers.
Victor's chest tightened as he watched the scene unfold. The corpses moved without purpose, their aimless wandering a stark contrast to the calculated violence of the evolved humans. Yet there was something unsettling about their presence, something Victor couldn't quite put into words.
"What are they doing?" someone whispered.
Victor shook his head, his eyes never leaving the screen. "They're not attacking," he said, his voice shaky. "They're... just wandering."
The haunting sounds of snapping jaws and dragging feet continued to echo through the speakers. Victor's mind raced, trying to piece together what was happening. The experiment had shown no signs of this behavior—no aggression, no reanimation of the dead.
"What have we unleashed?" Victor whispered, the weight of his words pressing down on him like a vice.
The screen flickered as more and more bodies joined the growing crowd in the display room. The corpses moved aimlessly, their grotesque forms swaying and staggering.
The scientists and guards in the control room stood frozen, their faces pale with fear. No one spoke, no one moved.
Victor slumped into his chair, his head in his hands. The horrifying scene on the monitor felt like a nightmare, one he couldn't wake up from.
And in the center of it all, the three evolved humans stood silently, their crimson eyes gleaming with an unnerving calm as they watched the corpses shuffle around them.
For the first time, Victor felt truly powerless.