CHAPTER 286: CHAPTER 286: MUTANTS(1)

Qingran’s steps were sharp and focused as she made her way back toward Sector A.

The faint glow of distant lights shimmered off the wet floor, but her mind wasn’t on the path anymore.

She was already thinking ahead, evacuation plans, who to inform first, how to keep panic from spreading once the others found out.

Lingquan reappeared beside her, hands in his pockets as he matched her pace. His form shimmered slightly from the residual energy left behind by the dispersing and reassembling.

The incubator, he assured her, was secure in a reinforced chamber in a medical room he created.

"That egg.." she said without looking at him, "you’re sure it won’t hatch prematurely?"

"It shouldn’t..." Lingquan replied. "The containment field I used disrupts its metabolic rhythm. It’ll remain dormant until I initiate analysis. If anything changes, I’ll know within seconds."

Qingran nodded. "Good. Because the last thing we need is a live one crawling around this floor"

"You act like I’m careless."

"I’m not acting."

He smirked, but didn’t push the point. "We’ll need to scan the outer halls next. If this creature is intelligent enough to create multiple nests, that storage chamber wasn’t its only one."

"Agreed..." she said. "But we need to time this properly. If it really is nocturnal, it’s going to return before at most 7am. I don’t want to be caught in another sector when that happens."

"Initiate standard lockdown protocol in Sector D?"Lingquan asked, the best way was to seal it off.

Qingran gave a sharp nod. "Seal it off. No one enters unless I say so."

A low chime echoed in the hallway as the sector locks engaged. Steel barriers descended slowly over the access points behind them. Sector D would be isolated from the others.

"Any chance it senses when its eggs are destroyed?" she asked.

"100%..." Lingquan replied. "But instinct might drive it back to that nest. When it sees it’s gone, it might or may smell our scent and track us. If it’s petty, then we’re done for. It won’t rest until it kills us or we kill it.."

"Let’s hope that buys us time." he managed to say.

They reached the entrance to Sector A just as the internal clocks shifted to morning cycle. A soft shift in lighting marked the change. The usual hum of early risers hadn’t begun yet,most of the survivors were still asleep, unaware of how close they’d been to something lethal.

Qingran turned, going into the resting area.

Lingquan raised an eyebrow. "You’re calling a meeting now?"

"We don’t have the luxury of waiting. If there’s more than one nest, or if that thing starts hunting again tonight, we need to be prepared. No half measures."

She opened the chamber doors and stepped inside.

"Let’s wake them up.."

She stepped into the room, this was where Fang Yuxi and woke her up while Lingquan woke Yu Song, Ruihuang, Xu Tianming and Meng Nian.

When they all gathered, she asked them to follow and they went to more quiet place.

Qingran led them into a narrower hallway adjacent to the hallway wing. The light here was dimmer, the air cooler.

Pipes ran overhead, and the metallic hum of the ventilation system offered a low, steady background noise.

No one spoke until they reached the small storage alcove that Qingran had already checked earlier, it was secure, sealed, and far enough from other sleeping quarters to keep this meeting private.

Fang Yuxi rubbed her eyes, still groggy, while Meng Nian frowned at the tension in Qingran’s face. Yu Song stood at her back, silently alert. Ruihuang crossed his arms, leaning slightly against the wall while Xu Tianming simply waited, shoulders tense.

Qingran turned and faced them.

"There’s a creature in this bunker.." she said simply. "It’s not human, it’s like a mutation, it’s not a known infected, I haven’t seen it so I can’t identify it."

Yu Song’s gaze sharpened. "It was here tonight?"

"It was here long before we came.." she replied. "We found one of its nests. About five or six eggs. They were large, developed, and viable. They’d think they were dino eggs, I burnt them though..."

The silence was immediate and sharp. Ruihuang was the first to speak, voice low.

"Did you track it? Did you see it?"

"No.." Qingran said. "It’s evasive. Intelligent. It avoids detection and doesn’t leave obvious marks. But from the state of that nest, it’s been here for days. Maybe longer."

Fang Yuxi’s fingers curled around the hem of her sleeve. "Eggs means reproduction. So... there could be more."

Qingran nodded. "That’s the assumption we’re going with. One creature means one nest. But if it’s laying eggs, that suggests a reproductive cycle. More nests are likely. And more risk."

Meng Nian’s voice was calm, but heavy. "Where did you find them?"

"Sector D. Storage sublevel. Hidden behind crates." She looked at Lingquan. "It covered the chamber with debris. Intentional camouflage. It didn’t want to be found."

Lingquan added, "It also lined the walls with organic residue. Bioluminescent strands. Similar to certain deep-sea species. Adaptive camouflage. Possibly even pheromone-based."

"So it’s intelligent.." Xu Tianming muttered. "That’s... that’s worse than the zombies."

"Much worse.." Qingran said. "And worse still, it may have sensed what we did. When the eggs were destroyed."

"You think it’ll come looking for revenge?" Ruihuang asked, raising a brow.

"If it operates on animal instinct, yes," Lingquan answered. "And if it operates on higher reasoning... it might not just be revenge. It might retaliate preemptively, lay new nests elsewhere, or attempt to remove threats quietly."

Yu Song’s tone was clipped. "Why wasn’t this shared sooner?"

"Because i just confirmed it.." Qingran said. "I found the nest hours ago. If I’d spoken before having evidence, it would’ve sounded like paranoia. Now we have a concrete threat, and it’s time to act."

She turned to each of them in turn.

"We’re sealing Sector D for now. No one goes in or out without my say-so. Starting tonight, we rotate patrols in twos, nobody alone, nobody off-cycle. We’ll re-sweep every open storage area and unused rooms across all accessible sectors. Especially anywhere dark, wet, or cold."

"What about the survivors?" Fang Yuxi asked. "We can’t alert them without causing panic."

"We don’t..." Qingran replied. "Not yet. We’ll run emergency drills later under the guise of security checks. For now, only we know. If we fail to contain this... then we inform everyone. But until then, silence."

Ruihuang gave a short nod. "Understood. I’ll begin drafting a patrol pattern with limited overlap to conserve energy."

Meng Nian crossed his arms. "Do we assume there’s only one adult creature?"

"We assume nothing.." Qingran replied firmly. "We operate as if it has siblings, offspring, a mate—hell, a whole cluster somewhere else. Until we know more, we treat this as a growing infestation."

Xu Tianming shifted uneasily. "Why now? We’ve been here for days. Why is it just starting to act?"

Lingquan answered, "Could be several factors. It might’ve been dormant,waiting or observing us. It may only attack when it feels its territory’s been violated."

"Like burning its eggs.." Yu Song said quietly.

-_-

Qingran met his gaze with a low smile. "Exactly."

Silence settled again, heavy and sharp-edged. Then she straightened.

"I need you all at your best. No one splits from their assigned partner. No wandering. No unexplained absences. If you feel watched, say it. If you hear anything out of place, investigate in pairs."

Fang Yuxi swallowed. "And if we run into it?"

"Kill it. Kill the damn thing" Qingran said without hesitation. "Don’t hesitate, don’t trap it, don’t try to learn from it. If it’s aggressive, it dies."

Ruihuang cracked his knuckles. "That’s more like it."

Qingran glanced at him. "Don’t get cocky. We don’t know its full capabilities. It laid those eggs without a sound, stayed hidden all this time. That means it’s smart. Smarter than the zombies. Maybe smarter than us."

Yu Song’s jaw flexed. "Then we need to be unpredictable. Think like a prey, strike like predators."

Lingquan nodded slightly at that. "It won’t expect resistance this early. If it’s used to nesting in silence, it likely hasn’t faced a coordinated threat. That gives us one advantage. Even if it’s a small one."

Qingran stepped back, letting her eyes run over each of them again. She saw what she needed, alertness, tension, but no fear in sight.

"I’ll assign sectors and shifts. You’ll have rotations before nightfall. We’ll search quietly. Map out possible nest sites. Lingquan and I will continue analyzing the egg in containment. It might give us a clue about its biology."

"What do you want us to tell the others?" Meng Nian asked, his expression unreadable.

"Nothing for now. Just say it’s a structural concern in Sector D. Routine containment protocol."

Fang Yuxi let out a slow breath. "If this thing comes back and finds out we burned the eggs..."

Qingran looked at her directly. "Then I want it to find us ready."