CHAPTER 32: CHASE TRACKS

The creatures looked at them not with curiosity, but with hunger.

In the dim silver light that filtered through the fog, their eyes gleamed like molten glass, their bodies trembling with unnatural motion. Muscles twitched beneath skin that no longer looked entirely human. Some moved on two legs, others dropped to all fours, bones cracking as if rebelling against the shape they were forced to keep.

Before Ahce could issue an order, one of them lunged forward. It moved faster than human sight could follow, its shadow splitting through the mist. Mira reacted instinctively. Her rifle thundered once, the sound ricocheting across the trees. The creature collapsed mid-leap, writhing, its crimson eyes still fixed on them as black blood pooled beneath its body, steaming against the cold earth.

But the gunshot awakened the forest.

The silence fractured. Leaves shook. Somewhere in the distance, a dozen voices began to howl, low at first, then multiplying, overlapping until it became a chorus of rage. The ground trembled beneath their feet.

Ash swore under his breath. "Now we know why the other teams lost connection."

"Stay close," Ahce commanded, voice steady despite the rising storm in her chest. She raised her weapon, scanning the shifting fog. "We move east. Find shelter. Then we look for my husband."

Shina’s voice came out as a whisper. "Miss Nine... what if he’s one of them?"

Ahce froze.

For a moment, the world around her ceased to exist. The wind, the hum of the forest, the distant growls. She saw only his face in her mind. Richard’s gentle eyes, his hand brushing her hair aside that last night before he left. The warmth of his voice still lingered somewhere in her memory, a ghost clinging to the edges of her resolve.

"Then I’ll find a cure," she whispered, almost to herself.

Even if she had no idea what that cure could be.

They pressed forward into the darkness. The forest swallowed them whole, its branches clawing at their armor like skeletal hands. Every sound felt magnified. The crunch of soil, the slow mechanical clicks of their weapons, the faint hum beneath the ground that pulsed like a heartbeat.

Time became meaningless. The mist distorted distance and direction until even the compass spun in confusion. Their drones fell silent one by one, static hissing through the receivers before dying completely.

After what felt like hours, Mira raised her fist, a silent signal to halt.

"Movement ahead," she murmured.

Ash crouched beside her, adjusting his scope. "No targets visible... but there’s something. A light source, thirty meters east."

They advanced carefully, each step deliberate. The glow flickered between the trees, orange and faint, as if struggling to stay alive in the suffocating fog.

When they finally reached it, Ahce’s stomach turned.

It was not a camp, it was a graveyard.

Torn tents sagged against shattered crates. Weapons lay scattered, some still clutched by lifeless hands. Corpses hung half-pinned against tree trunks by twisted metal, others half-buried beneath layers of mud and ash. The air reeked of decay and iron. Their uniforms bore the black insignias of Division units.

Ryo knelt beside one of the bodies, brushing dirt from a shoulder. "Captain... these are soldiers."

"Look at the patch," Mira said quietly, pointing. "Team B."

Ash’s expression hardened. "So this is where they vanished."

Ahce moved slowly through the carnage. Every step felt heavier, the air dense with memory and dread. The forest seemed to hold its breath, as though it was watching them trespass through its secrets.

Something metallic glinted beneath a broken drone. She knelt and uncovered a charred notebook, its cover nearly disintegrated. Inside, the pages were soaked in blood, but a few lines of handwriting remained.

Day 6: We entered the lower zones near E7’s border. The labs aren’t abandoned. The subjects escaped.

Day 7: Two men are infected. Symptoms: heightened aggression, red eyes, and black veins spreading from wounds.

Day 8: Lost contact with Team C. Command ordered us to push forward. This isn’t a mission anymore. It’s a massacre.

A final line stretched across the bottom, written in a trembling hand.

"If anyone finds this, beware the Black Forest. The infected aren’t the only ones here."

Ahce’s heart pounded.

"They were investigating the same experiment," she said softly. "Project Tainted Blood. The infection spread faster than they could contain it."

Ash nodded grimly. "If it alters DNA, we can’t risk exposure. Those things out there, they might be what’s left of them."

But Ahce wasn’t listening anymore. Her gaze had fallen upon another object buried in the wreckage, a cracked communication tablet, its casing half-melted. She brushed away the dirt and forced it to restart.

The screen flickered, lines of corrupted code crawling across it. Finally, a few files appeared, and the data was nearly destroyed.

One file bore a name that stopped her heart.

Transmission Log – Squad S.

Her breath caught. She opened it.

Static hissed through the air before a voice broke through, faint, distorted, but unmistakable.

"This is Captain Richard Jing of Squad S, requesting backup. We’ve reached the City E7 perimeter. Multiple hostiles, repeating, multiple hostiles. We are proceeding toward the underground facility... Lance is injured... if anyone receives this, we’ll continue east. We’ll..."

The signal cut off.

Ahce stared at the screen, her pulse thundering in her ears. Richard’s voice looped in her mind, each word an echo of hope and terror.

He was alive. Or at least, he had been.

"Miss Nine?" Ryo’s voice broke through her trance. "What is it?"

She turned toward them, clutching the device as if it could shatter the silence between life and death.

"It’s him," she said. Her voice trembled. "My husband. Squad S reached the E7 sector. They were heading east, past the forest."

Ash nodded sharply. "Then that’s where we go."

"No," Ahce said, shaking her head, and pointed in a direction. Her eyes glowed faintly beneath the dim light, a reflection of something unbreakable. "That’s where we have to go."

Mira’s gaze turned toward the deeper part of the forest. The mist there seemed alive, twisting and pulsing as though something massive stirred within. "That’s the heart of the Black Forest. No signal. No readings. If they went there..."

"Then they’re alive," Ahce interrupted, her voice cold but full of conviction. "Because if they were dead, I’d feel it."

Ash studied her for a moment before exhaling softly. "Understood. We move at dawn."

That night, no one slept.

The air was thick with whispers carried by the wind. Distant howls echoed through the trees, some human, others unrecognizable. The fire they built burned low, its light barely pushing back the darkness.

Ahce sat apart from the others, holding the tablet in both hands, her thumb brushing over the frozen timestamp of Richard’s last message. Her eyes reflected the flames, a quiet war burning behind them.

She had come here to find her husband. But now, she was beginning to understand. This was not a rescue. It was a descent. And the deeper they went, the clearer the truth became, that when she finally found him, the man she loved might no longer be human.

They set out before dawn. The forest greeted them with silence, not peace, but the suffocating quiet that precedes catastrophe. The mist drifted low, thick, and heavy with the scent of iron and rot.

Ryo led the front, Mira’s drone hovering above in fragile defiance of the interference. They followed the path east, tracing the faint remnants of Richard’s signal. Hours passed in uneasy stillness.

Then, through the thinning trees, they saw it.

A clearing. A faint shimmer of light. And in the distance, rising out of the earth like a scar, the dark outline of an underground facility half-swallowed by roots and stone.

The heart of Project Tainted Blood.

And somewhere within its walls, the man she had crossed hell to find.