Truth

The damp stench of mold filled their nostrils like something solid, mingled with rust and rotting flesh, making them gag. Everyone raced through the dim, suffocating corridor, the floor beneath them littered with shattered glass and sticky grime. Every step came with a teeth-grating scrape. Dark green slime seeped from the overhead pipes from time to time, winding across the floor in little streams. Where it met Wanda's dripping blood, it spread into an eerie purplish red. The New-Type Licker's howl sounded like rusted gears grinding inside their ears. Every cry made their hearts skip a beat, as though it might burst from the darkness and tear them apart the next second.

The veins in Lee's arms bulged as he carried Wanda. The nanomaterials in his Protective Suit gave off a faint hum from the strain. The body in his arms was growing colder and colder. Unclotted blood still clung to Wanda's pale lips, trembling faintly with the jolts of his running. Strands of messy hair stuck to her forehead, slick with cold sweat. Lee could clearly feel her weak breaths brushing against his neck, each one reminding him how little time they had.

"There's a storage room ahead!" Ada Wong suddenly grabbed Lee's Protective Suit. The hem of her red cheongsam swept through the slime on the ground, dragging a dark red streak behind her like a bloody tail. Natasha immediately lowered her gun and shielded everyone behind her. Her tactical boots crushed the shattered glass, producing soft, crisp cracks. She narrowed her eyes at the iron door, its entire surface crawling with rust. Thick cobwebs clogged the keyhole, and dried blood still stained its edges. It had clearly been abandoned for a long time, though no one knew how many lives and deaths it had witnessed.

The instant Natasha smashed the lock with her gun butt, flakes of corroded metal scattered like dust, glinting eerily in the dim light. The moment everyone filed inside, the iron door let out an overloaded creak, as if groaning in pain. Lee gently laid Wanda beside an iron rack piled with discarded lab equipment. The rack shook violently at his touch, and several cracked glass bottles fell to the floor. A sharp chemical smell instantly filled the room, mixing with the bloody stench seeping from Wanda's wounds into a suffocating odor.

Gwen's fingers frantically searched through the first-aid kit, her nails digging deeply into her palm and leaving crescent marks. When the alcohol-soaked cotton touched Wanda's wounds, the unconscious Wanda twitched involuntarily, pain crossing her pale face. "This can't go on. Wanda won't hold out much longer." Gwen's voice trembled. Sweat dripped from her forehead onto Wanda's bloodstained skirt, blooming into dark flowers. "These wounds were infected by the Licker's claws. Ordinary treatment is useless." She raised a pair of tweezers covered in pus and blood. Several strands of unidentified black tissue still clung to them, like remnants of some mutated creature, gleaming with an eerie luster in the dim light.

Natasha spun around and pressed her gun muzzle precisely to Ada Wong's temple. The metallic scrape of the trigger being pulled sounded especially clear in the silent storage room, like Death's footsteps. Veins bulged in her neck, and her bloodshot eyes seemed to burn with two flames of fury. The killing intent accumulated through years as an agent was nearly bursting from her body. "This is all your doing! If we hadn't believed your bullshit, Wanda wouldn't be hurt like this! Talk! How much more are you hiding from us?" Her voice was low and dangerous, every word forced out through clenched teeth.

Ada Wong remained unusually calm. She slowly raised both hands and leaned back against the mold-spotted wall. The rats in the corner scattered into the shadows with soft rustling sounds. "Madam, I expected you wouldn't trust me easily." She paused, her gaze passing over Lee's tense jaw, Gwen's trembling fingertips, and Ashley curled up in the corner, shaking in fear. A trace of almost imperceptible sympathy flashed in her eyes. "Umbrella Corporation's ambitions are far more terrifying than you imagine. They plan to release the Ultimate Mutant Virus and turn the entire world into a breeding ground for zombies. The document I'm looking for contains the virus's weakness and the key data for a vaccine."

"Then why didn't you make that clear from the start?" Lee suddenly stood up, the smart material of his Protective Suit letting out a faint hum as it rubbed against itself. He closed in on Ada Wong, Wanda's blood nearly brushing against her collar. His breathing was hurried and hot. "Do you know that she saved us..." His voice abruptly stopped. His Adam's apple bobbed painfully as he turned his face away, unwilling to look at Wanda's increasingly pale face, afraid that one more glance would make him lose his last shred of hope.

Ada Wong gave a bitter laugh and pulled out half of a yellowed photograph from the lining of her cheongsam. Its edges were charred black, clearly scorched by intense flames. The outline of a laboratory and several people in white coats could barely be seen. "Three weeks ago, my informant came to me with that document, only to be disemboweled by Umbrella's hunters at our meeting." Her fingertips lightly brushed the bloodstains on the photo, and a painful memory flashed through her eyes. "In this world, trust is more precious than gold. I had my own concerns. Umbrella Corporation's eyes and ears are everywhere, and I wasn't sure whether you were working for them. It wasn't until I saw you willing to risk your lives to save Ashley and this girl that I decided to take a gamble." Her gaze suddenly sharpened. "That document can not only save this world, but it may also contain a way to suppress the infection in this girl's wounds."

The storage room wall suddenly shook violently. Dust rained down, coating Wanda's face in a deathly pale layer of powder, as though draping her in a veil of death. Ada Wong immediately pressed herself against the iron door, her ear catching the movement outside like a radar. Her brow furrowed tighter and tighter, her nails scraping harshly against the door in the silence. "They're gathering. This door won't hold much longer." When she turned around, a flare strapped to her thigh showed through the slit in her cheongsam, its metal casing gleaming coldly. "I know a secret passage, but someone needs to draw their attention."

"I'll go." Natasha snatched the flare without hesitation. The dagger tucked at her waist flashed coldly. She quickly spat into her palm and rubbed her hands together, years of combat instinct putting her into fighting shape in an instant. "But you'd better not try anything." The moment she pushed open the door, a foul wind carrying the Lickers' rotting stench hit them head-on, nearly suffocating them. She fired at the ceiling. The red flare streaked through the air like a meteor and exploded above the dark corridor, illuminating one hideous face after another.

Ada Wong pulled Lee into the ventilation duct in the corner. The rusted metal edge sliced open her palm, and blood dripped onto the back of Lee's hand, leaving a string of dark red marks. "Umbrella Corporation has hidden the virus's original strain and mass-production equipment deep inside the underground laboratory." Her voice echoed inside the duct, every word carrying an undeniable urgency. "Once they finish the final calibration, the virus will spread through water supply systems around the world. I infiltrated the laboratory before to destroy those things, but I failed. My entire team was wiped out during that operation. I was the only one who made it back alive." Her voice trembled faintly, pain flashing in her eyes. "With your help this time, perhaps we still have a chance."

When they finally reached the exit of the secret passage, Ada Wong suddenly pressed a hand onto Lee's shoulder hard enough to make him frown. Through the gap in the vent, more than a dozen guards armed with new pulse rifles were patrolling below. The infrared detectors on their helmets blinked like the eyes of venomous snakes, each scan sending a chill down their spines. Ada Wong took out a walnut-sized jammer from the hidden compartment of her backpack. Data streams leaped frantically across its display like her racing heartbeat. "All their equipment has tracking and communication systems. I'll jam them first, then we'll finish this quickly. Remember, we absolutely can't let them raise the alarm."

The instant the jammer activated, the guards' equipment emitted piercing alarms, shattering the previous silence. Lee was the first to smash through the vent. His Shock Gauntlet slammed into the chest of the nearest guard, the massive impact driving the man's body straight into the wall. Flesh and blood flew as the clear sound of bones shattering rang out. Natasha's twin guns had already taken down the three guards on the right, bullets piercing their brows with pinpoint accuracy. Her movements flowed like water, proving she was indeed a battle-hardened agent. Ashley hid behind Gwen, picked up a pistol from the ground, and pulled the trigger for the first time with trembling fingers. The bullet grazed a guard's helmet and left a scorched mark on the wall. The recoil nearly knocked her over.

The noise of the battle alerted the laboratory's inner defense system. The ceiling suddenly split open, and dozens of bacteria bugs rained down. Their bodies were pitch-black, their pincers gleaming with eerie blue light as they sprayed corrosive fluid. Everywhere it touched, the ground was instantly eaten into deep pits. Gwen's detector was corroded through in an instant, pouring out thick smoke. "Move!" Ada Wong's cheongsam was burned full of holes by the fluid, exposing fair skin that immediately bloomed with red scorch marks. Yet she still sprinted toward Laboratory B-07, her eyes filled only with determination and resolve. Behind them came the roar of the virus mass-production equipment starting up, like the death knell of the apocalypse. It shook the entire underground space—and every heart within it.