RTS System in the Apocalypse: New World

The remaining infected aboveground took less than an hour to clear.

South Two entered the eastern blocks once the groups beneath the parking ramps stopped emerging. South One held the western drainage entrance while its forward squads cleared the surrounding buildings and connected service roads.

The firing became less frequent as the contact count fell.

By the time the last scattered surface markers disappeared from the Radar, the streets around the central parking structure were under both platoons’ control.

Flight Operations released the Falcons and Strikers to the Airfield once no surface targets remained. South One and South Two retained control of the district.

Hans kept the underground route marked.

”Prepare a reconnaissance team,” he said. ”Confirm the chamber Oracle detected. Engage if the route becomes hostile.”

Matilda opened Specter’s channel.

”Specter, Viper. Enter through the western drainage route and locate the chamber.”

”Specter receives.”

Engineers widened the damaged grate and secured a ladder against the concrete wall below. The service tunnel beneath it was barely wide enough for two soldiers to move beside each other. Pale tissue covered parts of the floor and continued along the drainage channel, though it remained thinner than the growth Hans had seen inside the industrial Hive.

Specter Squad descended first.

Callum entered behind them.

Their helmet feeds joined the command display as the five DASFs moved beneath the commercial district. One remained at the rear while the others covered the tunnel ahead and the openings along both walls.

The first junction contained nothing except insects and several bodies pressed into the shallow water. Some had been opened from the inside. Empty cavities remained beneath their ribs, with strands of pale tissue running from the corpses into the drainage walls.

Kimmy stayed near the entrance with Yunera and Anton’s soldiers.

”The connection turns left after the next chamber,” she said.

”Specter receives.”

The insects retreated ahead of them, disappearing through cracks and narrow openings too small for the soldiers to follow.

The tissue became thicker as they advanced.

Black veins crossed the walls and pulsed beneath the translucent surface. Several swollen sacs hung above the drainage channel. Each one was marked before the DASFs passed beneath it, and the rear soldier kept the openings covered until the others cleared the section.

None of the sacs opened.

The tunnel widened beneath the central parking structure.

Specter Squad stopped at the entrance to the chamber.

A large infected occupied most of the space beyond it.

Its lower body had fused with the floor and surrounding walls. Layers of pale flesh spread beneath the shallow water and climbed several concrete supports, joining the tissue that lined the tunnel behind the DASFs.

Thicker masses surrounded the center of its body. They folded across one another beneath its ribs and covered whatever remained of its abdomen.

Its upper half still resembled a woman.

Both arms had lengthened until the hands reached the floor. Thickened fingers pressed into the growth surrounding her body, while swollen sacs protruded between the folds of protective flesh. Several had already split open. Insects crawled through the torn tissue and disappeared into gaps along the chamber walls.

Loose hair concealed part of her face.

Black veins covered her neck and continued beneath the flesh surrounding her chest.

A torn strip of dark fabric remained caught beneath one shoulder.

”Unknown infected located,” Specter reported.

Hans enlarged the shared feed.

The creature was larger than the Tank, though most of its size came from the flesh anchoring it to the chamber. Its upper body remained almost human compared to the mass beneath it.

Johannes leaned closer to Bastion One’s display.

”Same SAS field layer as the Tank.”

Another SAS operative. Nothing more certain.

The five mobile enhanced infected had retained enough of their original bodies to move through the district. This one had changed differently.

It had rooted itself beneath the parking structure and filled the surrounding streets with insects.

The other enhanced infected had never moved far from the district either.

”Can it move?” Hans asked.

”Unknown.”

Callum shifted to the opposite side of the tunnel entrance. The other three members of Specter Squad spread behind their leader; two covered the hanging sacs and the openings along the chamber walls, while the last watched the tunnel behind them.

The infected’s fingers tightened against the floor.

Several insects stopped crawling across the surrounding flesh.

Pressure touched the front of Specter’s skull.

It resembled the beginning of a headache, though it did not come from his body. Callum and the other DASFs felt it at the same time. Their rifles remained fixed on the chamber.

”Psychic influence,” Specter reported. ”Minimal effect.”

Hans looked toward Kimmy’s feed.

”Kimmy?”

”Yes.” Her face had already turned toward the grate. ”It is touching them.”

The pressure settled behind the DASFs’ eyes. It carried no words or images. Something pressed against their thoughts and searched for a way farther inside.

The infected raised her head.

Much of the face remained intact beneath the black veins. Both eyes moved between the soldiers waiting beyond the chamber.

”You found me.”

Her voice sounded strained by the altered throat, but the words remained clear.

Nobody entered the chamber.

The infected studied their armor and weapons.

”They made you too?”

Specter gave no answer.

Her attention remained on him for several seconds.

”No.”

One side of her mouth moved.

”You are something else.”

Her fingers tightened against the growth surrounding her body.

”The helicopters were already wrong,” she said. ”The fighter should not have existed. The airfields were dead.”

Nobody answered.

”I kept him beneath the buildings and waited for your ammunition to run out. It did not. Then the fighter waited until he entered the avenue and tore him open with one missile.”

Her eyes moved across the five soldiers.

”What kind of army still has that?”

Specter remained silent.

The flesh beneath the shallow water tightened around the concrete supports.

”Come closer.”

The DASFs remained at the entrance.

The pressure behind their eyes increased. It passed across the surface of Specter’s thoughts, moved away, then returned with more force.

The infected’s fingers dug into the flesh surrounding her body.

”Then I will look from here.”

The pressure drove inward.

Specter fired.

The first .338 round struck a fold of flesh rising across the infected’s neck. It tore through the outer layer and opened part of her shoulder, followed immediately by the rifles beside him.

”Hostile psychic action. Engaging.”

All five DASFs fired.

Specter and Callum concentrated on the head and upper chest. Two others broke apart the elongated arms before they could reach the tunnel, while the rear DASF covered the sacs and the openings farther inside the chamber.

The infected recoiled.

Flesh rose from the shallow water and folded across her body. The next rounds punched through the layered mass, throwing pale fragments against the nearby supports, but more tissue shifted behind every section that opened.

Her right arm swept toward the entrance.

Specter moved away from its path.

The hand struck the concrete wall and broke part of the tunnel edge. Callum entered beneath the extended arm before it could withdraw. His blade crossed the wrist once.

Three thickened fingers fell into the water.

He returned to the entrance as the other DASFs continued firing.

The infected screamed.

The sound carried through the drainage tunnels and struck Kimmy aboveground. Anton moved her farther from the grate while Yunera held both of her shoulders.

Inside the chamber, every swollen sac opened.

Dark insects poured from the torn flesh. The first cloud filled the space above the shallow water and turned toward the tunnel.

The rear DASF changed ammunition.

”Airburst.”

A grenade left the underslung launcher and entered the center of the cloud.

It detonated before the insects reached the entrance.

Fragments crossed the chamber. Thousands dropped into the water and against the surrounding flesh, while those beyond the burst scattered along the walls.

Another sac opened near the ceiling.

The second airburst destroyed it before the new swarm could gather.

The psychic pressure continued.

It pushed against the DASFs and searched for memories, reactions, or anything else it could reach. Their movements did not change. Target information passed between them as quickly as the creature shifted its protection.

The rounds were penetrating. They were not reaching enough of the body beneath.

Specter changed ammunition.

”HE.”

Two grenades crossed into the chamber.

The first struck a mass of flesh between the concrete supports. The explosion tore it from the floor and exposed several swollen cavities beneath it.

The second detonated farther left.

Protective layers opened around the infected’s abdomen. Black fluid poured into the shallow water while pieces of ruptured sacs struck the walls.

The creature pulled both arms toward her body.

Flesh moved across the damaged sections, trying to close them.

Callum fired into the exposed cavities.

His rounds tore through the tissue attempting to cover them. The other DASFs joined him, widening the opening before the layers could gather again.

The infected’s remaining hand pressed against the floor.

Tissue rose around the tunnel entrance and tightened around Specter’s boot.

His blade cut through it before the growth reached his ankle.

The severed flesh continued moving.

Another burst destroyed it.

The psychic pressure struck them again.

This time, it carried fragments.

A dark room.

Someone fastening the receiver around her neck.

Concrete walls.

Gunfire somewhere beyond them.

Then the images broke apart before she reached anything farther.

The infected stared at Specter.

”What are you?”

Specter raised his grenade launcher.

Two HE grenades entered the opened mass below her ribs.

The first detonated inside the protective layers.

The upper body lifted from the flesh surrounding it. Several sacs ruptured at once, throwing insects and black fluid throughout the chamber.

The second grenade exploded deeper.

Most of the abdomen disappeared.

The elongated arms dropped into the water, though the head remained raised. Half of the face had been torn away, and the remaining eye continued following the soldiers at the entrance.

Specter fired into it.

The first round destroyed the eye.

The second passed through the skull.

Callum and the other DASFs kept their weapons centered on the body.

It continued moving.

The flesh around the concrete supports contracted. Black veins darkened across the walls as the upper body pulled against what remained of the abdomen.

Specter launched one final HE grenade into the opened cavity.

The explosion tore the upper body from the mass anchoring it to the chamber.

It struck the nearest support and fell into the shallow water.

The psychic pressure disappeared.

Aboveground, Kimmy’s fingers tightened around Yunera’s wrist.

”It stopped,” Yunera said.

Kimmy kept her face toward the drainage entrance. The pressure had vanished, but something remained along the connection she had touched through the grate. It withdrew before she could understand it.

”Most of it did,” she said.

Every strand of flesh across the chamber tightened, then stopped.

The insects still alive along the walls lost their formation. Some crawled into the cracks. Others remained over the ruined sacs without turning toward the DASFs.

Hans watched the creature’s marker vanish from the Radar.

”Specter to Golden Eagle. Target eliminated.”

”Secure the chamber,” Hans said. ”Engineers inspect once the route is clear.”

”Specter receives.”

The five DASFs entered.

They separated around the ruined body and checked the openings hidden behind the masses of flesh. Nothing else attacked them. The tissue covering the walls had already begun loosening, and the black veins beneath it no longer pulsed.

Matilda looked toward Hans.

”Special infected eliminated, Commander. What designation should we give it?”

Hans studied the insect sacs, the layered protection around the body, and the remains of the woman beneath them.

The shape reminded him of one of the creatures he had encountered in another game.

”Broodmother.”

Matilda entered the name into the operational record.

Aboveground, the last movements beneath the parking structure began separating into smaller, uncoordinated groups.

The district’s coordination had died with her.