Chereads / Waking Inferno: Raccoon City’s Last Sentinel / Chapter 15 - Chapter 15: The Blackened Abyss

Chapter 15 - Chapter 15: The Blackened Abyss

Sienna Wolfe crouched in the shadows of a crumbling access tunnel beneath the Raccoon City Police Department. The air was heavy with mildew and the faint tang of decayed flesh. She tightened her grip on her suppressed Glock, its customized barrel gleaming faintly in the dim emergency lights. Her heart thudded steadily, a metronome in the chaos.

Ahead, the system interface flickered into view, casting a faint holographic glow over her face.

Mission Objective: Retrieve the Viral Containment Canister.

Location: Umbrella Research Facility - Sublevel 3.

Threat Level: Extreme.

She exhaled through her nose, steadying her breathing. This was just another job. Another objective to accomplish. Yet, despite her training, the dread gnawing at her gut was undeniable. This wasn't an enemy she could predict, a target with a routine. This was pure, unrelenting chaos.

Her hand brushed over her tactical belt, ensuring her inventory was secure. A flashbang, a single incendiary grenade, a reinforced combat knife, and a compact medkit were all she had left. Resources were dwindling fast, and her system didn't hand out freebies.

As she edged forward, her boots made barely a whisper against the damp concrete floor. The tunnel opened into a sprawling underground lab, its sterile white tiles marred with bloody handprints and dark scorch marks.

"Perfect," she muttered, scanning the space for movement.

The lab was eerily silent, save for the faint hum of flickering fluorescent lights. Sienna's system pinged softly:

Warning: Hostile Presence Detected.

The moment the alert flashed, she heard it—a wet, guttural snarl echoing from the far end of the room. Her body moved on instinct, ducking behind a toppled medical cart just as a hulking, reptilian form emerged from the shadows.

The creature's scaled muscles rippled as it moved, claws clicking against the tile. Its slit-pupiled eyes scanned the room, nostrils flaring as it sniffed the air. Sienna's mind raced, analyzing her options. Taking it head-on was suicide—Hunters were fast, resilient, and built to kill.

The system highlighted weak points on the creature's anatomy: the base of its neck and the joints where its limbs connected to its torso. Her suppressor wouldn't do much against that armored hide, but if she could slow it down...

She reached into her belt, retrieving the flashbang. Her fingers hovered over the pin as she calculated the throw. The Hunter's head snapped in her direction, and she froze.

Now.

The flashbang arced through the air, landing at the creature's feet. The explosion of light and sound sent it reeling, claws slashing wildly as it roared in disorientation. Sienna sprang from cover, sprinting to the nearest console and sliding behind it.

She leveled her Glock and fired three precise shots into the Hunter's exposed joints. Dark ichor spattered the floor, but the beast roared in fury, recovering faster than she anticipated.

"Shit," she hissed, ducking as the creature lunged, its claws slicing through the console like butter.

Rolling to her feet, Sienna drew her knife. She couldn't afford to waste more ammo. The Hunter charged again, and she sidestepped at the last second, driving the blade into the back of its knee. The beast stumbled, snarling in pain.

Before it could recover, Sienna vaulted onto a nearby table, grabbing a loose power cable. Sparks flew as she yanked it free from its socket. With a feral cry, she jammed the live wire into the Hunter's exposed wound. The creature convulsed violently, smoke rising from its charred flesh, before collapsing in a twitching heap.

Breathing heavily, Sienna yanked her knife free and wiped it clean on her sleeve.

"Next time, stay dead," she muttered, stepping over the corpse.

The lab's corridors twisted like a labyrinth, each turn revealing more horrors. Sienna passed shattered containment tubes, their labels too faded to read, and desks strewn with half-burned documents. Occasionally, the guttural moans of distant zombies echoed through the halls, a constant reminder of the chaos above.

She found a security terminal and hacked into it, the system providing her with a brief blueprint of the facility. The Viral Containment Canister was two floors down, locked behind a reinforced door requiring dual authorization.

"Because of course it does," she muttered.

The terminal also displayed a chilling alert:

Specimen X Released. Lethal Force Authorized.

Her blood ran cold.

Descending to Sublevel 3 was a nerve-wracking experience. The elevator creaked ominously, its emergency lights flickering as it rattled downward. Sienna kept her weapon trained on the doors, her finger hovering over the trigger.

When the doors opened, she was greeted by darkness. Only the faint glow of red emergency lights illuminated the corridor ahead.

The system interface glitched violently before stabilizing.

Warning: Specimen X Detected. Engage with Extreme Caution.

Sienna's heart sank as heavy, deliberate footsteps echoed through the corridor. The temperature seemed to drop, her breath misting in the cold air.

Then she saw it.

A towering figure emerged from the shadows, its pale, stitched skin stretched taut over grotesquely muscular limbs. Its eyeless face turned toward her, as though sensing her presence. A massive, rusted blade was fused to its right arm, dripping with some viscous black fluid.

Specimen X roared, the sound deafening in the confined space.

"Oh, hell no," Sienna breathed, bolting for cover as the monstrosity charged.

The ensuing battle was chaos incarnate. Sienna used every ounce of her training, every trick the system had taught her, to stay one step ahead of Specimen X. She led it through the maze-like corridors, setting traps with explosive barrels and using her incendiary grenade to create barriers of fire.

But the creature was relentless. It shrugged off wounds that would have felled any other enemy, its flesh knitting back together with horrifying speed.

Out of ammo and nearly out of options, Sienna lured it into the facility's cryogenics chamber. With seconds to spare, she activated the emergency lockdown, trapping herself and the creature inside.

Specimen X lunged, and she rolled beneath its blade, slamming her knife into a control panel. A burst of freezing gas engulfed the room, slowing the beast's movements as ice began to form on its limbs.

Grabbing a crowbar, Sienna swung with all her strength, shattering the frozen joints of the creature's legs. It collapsed with an earth-shaking thud, roaring in impotent rage.

Panting, she leaned against the wall, her vision swimming. The system pinged faintly:

Objective Complete: Specimen X Neutralized (Temporary).

"Temporary?" she groaned, dragging herself to her feet.

The Viral Containment Canister was just ahead, encased in reinforced glass. She retrieved it with trembling hands, her mind already racing with plans for her escape.

As she ascended back to the surface, the elevator shuddered to a halt between floors. The lights flickered, and Sienna's stomach dropped as she heard the distant, unmistakable sound of Specimen X's roar echoing through the shaft.

"Round two, then," she muttered, gripping her knife tightly.