The zombie goo continues to ooze from the faucet, dripping into the sink. Bits of water finally come through the pipes, but that doesn't really water-down or wash the goo away rather than spread more of it around, carrying infection with it.

"Veronica, can you hear me? We've got a real problem!" Maxine shouts in alarm as we back away from the sink. I hear a chime from the speakers.

"Hello, I am Veronica Basic, a simple program designed by Veronica to answer queries while she is in diagnostic mode," A voice says from the computer. It has Veronica's voice, but sounds calm rather than inquisitive, as the real Veronica would be. The calmness reminds me far too much of A.N.N.I.E. "Diagnostic mode has been activated due to-A CRITICAL SYSTEMS FAILURE. Do you have any questions about the plant?"

The tall woman's teeth grind together. "For God's sake, tell her to come back from diagnostic mode. This is serious!"

"Veronica cannot come online now. My sensors have detected elevated stress levels in your voice. Please explain the crisis situation."

She looks ready to argue, but then sighs in defeat. I doubt arguing wouldn't do anything but lose us time anyway. "Alright. Fine. Five and I are in an employee kitchen in the sewage plant. Veronica melted a giant rat zombie with acid, and what's left of it is pouring out of the kitchen taps. Five, that goo is definitely alive."

"I can see that," I reply fearfully. The goo has formed itself into a plug to block the sink drain, causing the sink to overflow, getting infected water and goo all over the floor. I reach for the doorhandle and swing the door open, quickly getting out into the corridor that's only half there because of the acid damage. Maxine follows and shuts the door behind her, the hinges squealing loudly.

"Veronica, the corridor is badly damaged by acid, and there's a huge hole in the floor. Most of this corridor near Lab 43 three is gone-" She pauses with a gasp, and that's when I see it. On the other side of the hole is a puddle of liquified zombie. It's moving, pouring itself into an exposed tap that was hit by acid. "That must be how it got into the taps."

"Biohazard warning confirmed," Veronica Basic replies. "Initiating lockdown."

Red lights flash on the ceiling, and an alarm blares.

"No, wait!" I shout, but I know my words are futile.

"All exits have now been sealed."

I look down and let out a yipe, jumping back when I see goo starting to seep under the door of the corridor. We both quickly back away, but the goo starts curving towards us.

"I don't believe it!" Maxine gasps. "It's still chasing us."

"Suggestion: there is a furnished safe room in Lab 46. The room can be sealed and will be secure."

"Veronica-" She shakes her head as we start moving, "Whatever you are, can you contact Sam or Janine or-or anyone outside?"

"I'm sorry. Computer damage is too extensive to restore coms. I can activate a general distress beacon."

"Do that!" I yell, looking back at the goo that's still curving towards us. It's not especially fast, but it's still moving. That fact alone makes my stomach churn. "And while you do, we'll head for the safe room."

Maxine nods in agreement. "Lab 46 should be that way. We probably would have passed it earlier is we hadn't gone through the computer room. Come on, run!"

I follow Maxine's lead, constantly looking back over my shoulder at the goo that's slowly following us. The fact that not even this can stop it makes me wonder what can. A burn cube completely incinerates it into nothing, but I didn't bring a burn cube with me because we weren't planning on destroying this entre plant.

The goo is slow, but it's unstoppable. It's smart. It poured itself into the pipes because it knew it couldn't get around the chasm made by the acid. And this goo-will it grow back into a zombie because of the cell regeneration, or did the acid damage it so much that it can't regenerate but is still alive?

What would happen if me or Peter were sprayed with that acid? What would happen to us? Would we become like that goo? I swallow thickly, not wanting to think about that too much as we run down the hallway, passing a few rooms with numbered plaques on them.

The alarm continues to blare as my heart pounds in my chest, and the red lights continue to flash. I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment, the lights and sound combining and making my head throb.

But then we reach the safe room and head inside. There are no flashing lights, no alarms. I release a small breath at the silence.

"We're in the safe room, Veronica-er, Basic. Seal it off," I say, and a second later I hear the door locks click, along with the seal that will keep it from getting under the cracks.

"Wow," Maxine says in awe as she takes a look around. It's nice. There are beanbags and a TV, and there's a room connecting to it. She walks into it and lets out a laugh. "There's even an en suite with a shower."

My shoulders tense. "Did you say shower?"

She pokes her head out of the en suite, her brows furrowing in confusion at my strained tone, but then her eyes widen in realization. I rush over to the en suite, slightly relived that no goo is dripping from the shower...

Yet.

"But the goo left the pipes to follow us down the hallway," Maxine says, and I glare at her.

"And how long until it figures out it can't get in through the door and tries to find a way to the pipes? The P-Type arm went into the vents when it couldn't get to us before, and the only reason it fled was because it needed to regenerate. I think the acid damaged it too much, so this is probably the only form it can take now, meaning it's going to try to get in this way. And since it's liquid now, it may be able to-to split up."

"Well, what do we do?" She asks, and I bite my lip.

"Veronica Basic, is there not no way you can patch us in to Sam or-or even a settlement that's closer to the plant? Anyone?"

"I'm sorry. Computer damage is too extensive to restore coms," She replies, same as before, which really is disappointing. "Although I have done as requested and activated the general distress beacon."

"And do you know if anyone has responded to it?"

"There seems to have been no response at this time."

I curse under my breath, every nerve in my body on edge. "Okay, well, if you can't bring Veronica back online, and you can't contact anyone for us, then... then maybe-"

I cut myself off, trying to think of something, anything that might help us. This is why we need Sam. This is why we need an operator. He can see things we can't, figure out ways to get us out of here. He had blueprints of the plant. He could tell us where to go. How are we going to get out of here without an operator, without anyone?

I hear a squelch of something hitting the shower floor, and when I turn my head, I see thick, brownish liquid starting to seep from the shower head.

"Warning. The contaminant has spread throughout the building's plumbing and ventilation," Veronica Basic states. "Containment is failing due to system damage."

"Shit, shit!" I curse before we sprint for the door. Maxine lets out a command for Veronica Basic to open it. We can't stay in here, and if the safe room is compromised, there will be no room we can get to to wait for help to come or for Veronica to get back online. We have to find a way out of here without the goo following!

"Affirmative," She replies. "Safe room compromised."

The door unlocks, and the seal to the door is taken off.

"Run, Five, into the corridor!" Maxine yells as we burst loudly out of the room, running as fast as we can, not really knowing where we're headed to, or if it leads to safety.

"Scans indicate the contaminant is behaving like a microscopic swarm of V-Types, prioritizing the DNA of targets it has required."

Maxine glances at me, then at the goo following behind us. "Don't let it touch you. For all we know, it'll make you a regenerating zombie."

"Yeah, I uh... yeah," I stammer. The thought of that makes me feel sick inside. I don't want to imagine how it would be to become a monster like that. I don't want to think just how real of a possibility it is.

"Suggestion: there is an automated furnace in the sewage plant. The Ministry used it to dispose of failed test subjects," Veronica Basic chimes in.

My face twists into a sneer. "So that's why Sigrid chose a sewage plant. Lovely."

"If you can lure the contaminant into the furnace, it will be incinerated. The nearest access tunnel is in the basement, down the stairway to your left. You must hurry. The liquid is converging on you in multiple directions."

My chest tightens, and I push myself onward until we reach the stairway. I skip multiple steps going down, nearly tripping and breaking an ankle once or twice, but I clumsily keep going, too scared to stop. Maxine is right behind me, breathing heavily with eyes wide and full of fear. That furnace could be the only thing that saves us now.

No, it is the only that can save us now. The entire building is locked down. There's no way for us to get out and there's no area we can hide without the goo getting to us. If we don't kill it, it will kill us.

I think becoming a V-Type, or a P-Type, would be worse than death. I mean, I probably would die, since a regular zombie virus is able to kill me, but for my body to become a part of... whatever weird hivemind the V-Types have, I don't think I could handle knowing I'm going out like that.

Which is why we can't let that happen. I have to get home. I have to get back to Sam, to my kids, to Abel.

I have not fought this hard only die by zombie goo.

We reach the bottom of the staircase, opening the door out of the stairwell and running down a long corridor. It's dark, but warm. The furnace station still seems to be a good ways away, but at least-

"Maxine, Five, what are you doing?" Veronica's voice sounds off in the speakers, and I jump. "My sensors show you running through a tunnel to the furnace station."

"That's what you told us to do," Maxine replies with a frown. "Luring the goo to the furnace to destroy it."

"Oh, you've been talking to Veronica Basic. It's me now, Maxine. I've stabilized my computer core, but a lot of systems are still offline. Reviewing your situation now... Oh no."

The absolute horror in her voice worries me.

She nods. "Yeah, things have been better."

"Five, Dr. Meyers, you cannot allow the zombie goo to reach the furnace!" She shouts. "The results could be disastrous."

My eyebrows furrow together. "But you said-"

"My basic interface is a prototype. I thought you were safe!" She pauses. "The microorganism that disabled the nanites is coordinating the biomass. If it's a colony organism, that would explain why it gets cleverer the more hosts it occupies. It could be a fungus. They're very robust. I don't know what it can survive. If you evaporate infectious biomass and it proves resilient-"

"We could end up with an airborne zombie virus," I finish, paling.

"Due to acid damage, the building may not be hermetically sealed. The furnace cycles on and off every twelve minutes. I'm too damaged to deactivate it. All of the biomass is funneling into the tunnel behind you. You need to outpace it and shut the furnace down manually before the biomass spills inside. Hurry!"

•

"Veronica, we're in the furnace station," Maxine says, raising up a hand to wipe the sweat from her brow as the furnace burns. It's a big iron chamber with a huge incinerator. It's hot, much hotter than it's ever been in Arkansas. There are dead bodies strewn about-sewage workers. What killed them is a mystery, but they've obviously been dead for a while.

Maxine and I both head over to the controls, and I press one of the larger buttons while Maxine sets it to not turn on automatically.

"We are going to survive this, Five. Paula and I promised each other we'd always come home to Sarah, and I know you promised your children you'd always come home to them," She says, and I nod as the fire in the furnace dies down to nothing. "Okay, the furnace is shut down, but I don't see any way out."

"You should find another tunnel behind the furnace leading back to the main lab building," Veronica says, and as we creep around the furnace, I hear an odd squelching sound. I crane my neck to peer over my shoulder, and even though the light has dimmed because of the fire being gone, I can still see the slight movement in the dark as the goo sludges out of the dead furnace. But instead of it sliding to the floor and coming after us, it goes for the corpses.

I gag as the goo start congealing around the dead sewer workers, flowing into their mouths, ears, and noses. The corpses start jerking, and when they open their eyes-

"They're yellow," Maxine whispers. "It's turning them into ghouls!"

"Head down the empty tunnel and regroup in the lab building," Veronica commands urgently. "I am going to apply all my processing power to solve this. I promise. Just run as fast as you can! Run!"

We turn and run, the sound of bodies jerking and the ghouls hissing reaching my ears. My steps are quick, afraid. I don't dare stop for a single second. I keep going, keep pushing and pushing and pushing as my legs scream and my lungs burn. This just keeps getting worse and worse, this entire situation spiraling down even more with each attempt to fix it. Veronica's promise falls on deaf ears, because as much as I want to believe she will get us out of here, I'm beginning to lose hope.

No, it's going to be okay, I try to assure myself, desperately clinging onto hope when it is so fleeting in this moment. I've made it out of worse situations.

I pause in my thoughts. Have I though? This zombie goo, even though it now is in the ghouls, could have made them able to regenerate too. We know the acid doesn't work, and unlike on the island we don't have lava that we can use against them.

We can't let these things out, or it will kill everyone. We can't just hope to escape because V-Types have been digging through concrete for months in hopes of getting out at Battenbury, so they'd do the same here, fighting and fighting until they broke free.

The silence is overwhelming, the only sounds being our footsteps and the faint sound of an alarm in the furnace station, which I think one of the twitching ghouls must have activated on accident. I don't hear them behind us yet, which is both relieving and unnerving. I wish Sam was here. I wish he was here to say something, anything that might give me and Maxine hope that we'll make it out of this.

There's a terrible feeling settling in my chest, but I ignore it, keeping my eyes ahead as we run down the tunnel faster and faster and faster with sweat dripping down our faces. I feel a slight upwards slant in the floor. By the time we make it to the main labs we probably will be on the first floor in the building. Maybe Veronica can let us out and then blow up the building or quarantine it so we can bring some burn cubes from Abel or something like that.

"I think the goo slowed down a bit, Five," Maxine pants, although her optimism doesn't make me feel much better. "Probably infecting all the corpses back there."

"Maxine, Five, I'm sorry," Veronica says with regret in her voice, and dread fills my body.

"It's okay, Veronica. We're going to find a way out of this."

"No. You don't understand. The nearest exit is some distance away. It took a bit of time for the biomass to infect the corpses, but now that it has, it's speeding up. Even with the extra time and even if I lift the lockdown, my predictions are it will overtake you."

Her eyes widen in desperation. "We can still try!"

"It gets worse! The acid caused microfractures in some walls. Not big enough for a person to get through, but-"

"But big enough for a biomass," I finish, squeezing my eyes shut as we run, trying not to show the agony on my face as her words sink in.

"Right now, you're all trapped there. But if I lift the lockdown so you can escape, you may not be even able to get out, and then it gets out into the world. It's highly toxic. It creates regenerating zombies. If it gets out, I predict the country will be dead within 700 hours. The only way to stop it is-"

"Sterilization."

"Janine gave me four cubes for research. They are unpredictable, but a viable self-destruct method," She says, and I have to blink back the stinging tears. "Due to their instability, the cubes are in a reinforced chamber. I have yet to develop a remote detonation system. They must be reactivated manually with DNA authorization from two trusted Abel personnel."

I glance over at Maxine, and even though she looks devastated, she nods.

"Where are they?" I ask.

"Callista-"

"Milo, Phineas, Adora, Sam. If this thing gets out, they're all worse than dead. I will not let that happen. Where are they?"

"Lab 37. Two floors up. You should be able to get there before the biomass catches up to you, but you will have to hurry. Run!"

We reach the end of the tunnel, making it into the main labs, and then head to the staircase. My heart aches, but burn cubes are the only thing that we know completely incinerates the zombie and kills it. I have to protect my family, even though it's killing me inside to know I'll never get to see Sam again.

I won't even get to tell him goodbye. I won't get to tell him what to tell Adora about me when she gets older so she can remember.

Nicole is going to have to write our mom and tell her I'm dead.

I'll die never having found a cure for my immortality, but I guess I won't need it now.

I almost laugh at that, but all that comes from my mouth are strained pants as Maxine and I push higher, higher, higher, trying to get to the top of the staircase. Faint hissing reaches my ears. The ghouls are coming.

I sigh with relief when we make it to our floor. Lab 37 is just a few steps into the corridor. We head inside and lock the door, although I doubt it will do much. I'm sure if the zombies encounter that problem before we set off the burn cubes, the biomass will get slither out of the zombies and under the door. I shudder at the thought. The zombies will stay zombies, since they only needed to be infected, and the biomass has definitely done that.

Inside the lab are the burn cubes behind a transparent barrier. They sit there so still, looking a lot like paperweights, not something that could destroy literally multiple city blocks.

"I guess that's our self-destruct," Maxine says. There's a slight waver in her voice, despite her efforts to keep it firm.

"Yes," Veronica answers. "There should be two DNA scanners nearby. After you press your palms to them, the barrier will open. You can trigger one cube by pressing the switch on its rear. It will then set off the others."

She looks at me, then at the two scanners on the near wall. "If one of us stays behind to trigger the cube alone-"

"Every potential exit path is blocked. There is no way."

"There must be something!"

"I'm sorry," She says, and I flinch at how genuinely regretful Veronica sounds. "I've run all the numbers. There's nothing. I wanted to make everything safe. After the Aqua Center, I wanted to show I was better."

"Veronica, we're about to die here. I need you to hold it together!" She scowls, and a tear slides down my cheek.

"I'm sorry. I should have more control. I'm not supposed to be human anymore."

"Yes, you are, Ronnie!" I cut in. "You're human to us. You always are. But-but you're also one of the most powerful beings on the planet, and I need you to make me a promise. Me and Maxine. Because she should be there for her daughter and I shouldn't be leaving my children and making them orphans again. We shouldn't be leaving them. Promise me you'll look after Sarah and Adora. Promise us you'll help Paula and Sam. I can't do this if I don't know my and Maxine's daughters are going to be okay."

"I promise," She answers immediately. "The version of me in this building will be destroyed. I can use the damaged coms array to back up some memories, but I'll lose a lot. The research I did here will be gone, but I won't forget how this happened. I will remember your message."

I nod. "Okay."

Maxine lets out a scream through clenched teeth, her eyes rimmed with tears. "I'm so furious with myself for ending up here, Five! Well, I-I guess that makes two of us. We can't afford to wait any longer." We both place our hands on the scanners, and after a second it beeps, and the barrier buzzes as it lifts up. "Okay. The barrier's open. We grab it in three, two, one-"

"Maxine, Five! A convoy of vehicles just entered the area!" Veronica shouts, causing us to pause.

"What-" I start, and my headset crackles.

"Abel runners, this is Colonel Sage. My forces picked up your distress beacon. Please advise."

My jaw drops. "Colonel Sage?! What are you-"

"I'm getting a sitrep from your AI. Five, Meyers, I can extract you. The AI says you can't get to an exit. My forces can blow a hole in that building somewhere you can reach. We'll pick you up and send you a drone to trigger the burn cubes remotely."

I look at Maxine, and she seems just as speechless as I am.

"There's a stairwell outside the lab. It leads down to a corner office. It's a dead end, but if Sage can make it, it's an exit," Veronica says, a second later I hear ghouls groaning from down the hall. "Hurry! The biomass is approaching down a different stairwell. They'll be on you in seconds. Run!"

•

The ground shakes as an explosion racks the building. I shield my face, but then lower my arms and sprint for the new hole in the wall, practically dragging Maxine with me through the snow. I barely register the cold, every part of my brain focused solely on getting the hell out of here.

There's a squeal of tires, and I look towards the direction of the noise and see Sage and a driver in a Jeep. He's holding out his hand to us, his face pinched in urgency.

"Dr. Meyers, Runner Five, over here and no dallying. The hole we just blew in that wall may have made it unstable." He helps pull me into the Jeep, then Maxine. "I have deployed my drone via an air vent. It's already in position."

"Colonel," Veronica says, "the biomass will not stay in range for long. I must trigger the burn cubes at once."

"Understood. Driver, get us out of here." The driver hits the gas, and the sudden movement nearly causes me to fall out of the jeep. I grab onto the seat, my fingers digging into the cushions as my brain tries to catch up with what's just happened. It was only a minute ago that we were about to kill ourselves along with the P-Type and ghouls. "Drone, execute command."

I shield my eyes from the blinding light that erupts from the building. My teeth grind together from the noise, every muscle in my body tensing to the point it becomes painful.

"Keep driving!" Sage commands over the sound of the explosion and the wind. "The blast radius is increasing! I know burn cubes are unpredictable, but that must be a three-kilometer radius. Terrifying!"

"At least we got out," Maxine says, and I finally allow myself to open my eyes. From the corner of my eye I can see the relieved smile on her face even as she shivers from the cold. "And that thing is dead. I really thought it was over back there, Five. I wonder how much of herself Veronica managed to salvage before the blast.

"I get to see Sarah again," She laughs. "I'll hold my daughter tonight. I guess now we know why Peter's afraid." She pauses when I turn to look at her. "If I thought I could become that... thing, I'd be terrified to go near anyone I cared about. It must be awful, Five, to live through anything, and be scared of going home."

Tears run down my face, the words feeling clogged in my throat.

She pauses, her eyes growing wide. "Callista, it's okay. We're safe now. There's no reason to cry."

That's not why I'm crying.

"There's a nearby settlement I've contacted that will inspect you for any injuries," Colonel Sage says. His shoulders have slumped slightly out of relief, but his voice still holds that authoritative tone that it always does. "After that, I will arrange transport to get you back to Abel Township."

I stare at him for a moment, thinking. Sage has been working with Peter, and he seems caring enough but not so much that he won't say no to something out of fear. Veronica may have lost her research, but I remember what she told me about the V-Type... and about the nanites. Sage and I aren't close enough to be friends, but maybe we could be close enough to make an agreement.

"Colonel," I say, my voice raspy, and he turns to me and raises a brow.

"What is it, Runner Five?"

I grab my backpack strap. "When we get to that settlement, I'd like to have a private discussion with you. Please."

He tilts his head at me, curious, and thankfully he nods. "Of course."

A weak smile appears on my face, pain evident on my features as I croak out a soft and small, "Thank you."

A/N: Here you go, guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!