Breach: The Nest

It came almost immediately after Victor uttered his words. An alarm flared as the room flashed red. All over the screens displayed a series of system flags:

[ALERT: ACCESS OVERRIDE DETECTED — CONTAINMENT SUB-LEVEL 3]
[ALERT: MANUAL DOOR BREACH — SECTOR 7]
[CAMERA FEED 12 — OFFLINE]

Keller leaned in toward the display, his voice barely above a whisper. “Tell me that’s a glitch.”

Emily crossed her arms tightly over her chest. “Where is Sector 7?”

Leland’s jaw clenched. “My office. “

Emily’s breath caught. “That’s where Cassie is. We need to go—now!”

“No.” Leland snatched his tablet and flicked rapidly through camera feeds.

“We have more pressing matters. We have to get to sub-level 3 immediately/”

Emily turned to him, exasperated. “Why? What’s down there?”

Leland hesitated. “Storage. We call it the Nest. Some cryo-units for long-term infected samples like blood, tissue…and in one case…remains.”

Victor’s voice was flat. “Remains of what?”

Leland didn’t answer.

In his tablet, one of the cameras flickered back online, the static clearing just enough to show a hallway deep within the facility. A group of armed guards stood at alert gazing at something off-camera. They stepped back and started firing into the darkness. The overhead lights flickered once...twice…then a blur streaked past them.

In a moment, blood sprayed across the walls.

A guard twisted midair, her limbs spasming before slamming into a wall with bone shattering force but she didn’t fall down. Strands of her hair were held weakly onto the broken wall where a nail was hanging. Another guard was dragged out of frame screaming.

Then he appeared.

Tall. Shirtless and pale he was almost fully white. He turned towards the camera, his cold eyes glowing ice-blue. It was the Patient Zero. Older now—maybe twenty. But not human. Not anymore. Blood was all over his face as it dripped down all the way to his arms.

He walked forward towards the camera and gave a menacing smile before…

[CAMERA FEED 13 – OFFLINE]

Leland’s voice was tight. “He’s headed for the Nest.”

Victor’s jaw tensed. “Zero? Why?”

“The woman,” Leland whispered. “His mother is stored there. Her remains.

“Why would you even keep that?” Emily asked.

Leland paused gazing at Emily awkwardly. “Well, for…research and ..that is not important right now. We have to evacuate the building.”

Victor stepped closer. “What’s the fastest route to the Nest?”

As Leland tapped through the map interface on his tablet, Emily had already moved to one of the nearby desks. She ripped a keyboard free and slammed it into the monitor. The screen shattered, glass falling like hard rain.

“What are you doing Doctor Hayes?” Leland demanded.

“I’m going to get Cassie,” Emily said, fire in her eyes.

Victor looked at her and saw something new—not fear, not panic, but cold determination. He knew he couldn’t stop even if he wanted to. and right now, she was going to be safest away from him.

“Okay,” he said. “Keller…go with her. Get Cassie and get out. We don’t know how many infected Zero brought in with him.”

Emily’s expression softened slightly as she stepped toward Victor. “What about you? Come with us.”

“I’m staying. I’ll help Doctor Leland try to contain Zero before he infects any more people.”

“Bu—But, Keller can do that,” Emily said stammering. “Yo-You should come with me. Once we have Cassie, we’ll come back and help.”

Victor got in close and put his hands on her cheek. A slow tear was rolling down her right cheek. “It’s fine. I’ll be okay. Go.”

She nodded and, without another word, kissed Victor. Then she picked up a shard of glass and strode out with Keller at her side.

After they left, Leland refocused on his tablet, entering an alphanumeric override.

“Guess I don’t get a goodbye, oh well. First, we alert the military…get a containment perimeter set up around the building. After that….” he hesitated. “We’ll play it by ear.”

Victor nodded. “That’s a good plan. Do it. I’ll buy us time.”

Leland frowned. “How?”

Victor slid off his glasses, folding them carefully into his coat. “By confronting Zero.”

Leland opened his mouth to protest—but the look on Victor’s face made it clear: there was no changing his mind.

Leland sighed and pointed to a wall-mounted schematic.

“Go back the way we came in then take the east service shaft just past Research Bay Two. From there, move through Decontamination Zone Three. At the junction, there’s a reinforced security hub that connects directly to the Nest’s outer corridor.”

He reached for Victor’s phone and quickly logged into the secure internal system, entering a string of codes.

“You’ll have access to building schematics now. The cameras are mostly dead, but you can still use the heat signatures once you hit Sub-Level 3.”

Then Leland dug into his coat pocket and pulled out a card.

Black. Marked with a red triangle at the center. The text read:

CLEARANCE: ECHO-R
ACCESS: NEST CORE / ALPHA SEALED DOORS ONLY
ID: DR. LELAND CRAWFORD

“This will get you through any locked door down there,” Leland said. “It’s the highest clearance we’ve got.”

Victor took the keycard, pocketed it, and turned toward the shaft door.

“I’ll stop him,” he said.

And then he was gone.