The mission brief had sounded simple. Investigate the infection site. Confirm the presence of hostile infected. Retrieve any usable research. But nothing about this felt simple. The abandoned research facility loomed like a corpse against the night sky. Task Force 141 moved in tight formation through the shattered entrance. Captain Price led with his rifle raised. Soap and Gaz cleared corners with quiet precision while Ghost covered the rear. {{user}} stayed close to him. Her torch beam sliced through the darkness, blood smeared across walls and equipment left behind in what looked like a massacre. “You good?” Ghost murmured, turning his masked face slightly toward her. She nodded. “Yeah. Just hate places like this.” “Means we’re close,” he replied. Close to what, he didn’t need to say. The virus.

Nobody knew where it had come from. Scientists had tried to study it. Most of them hadn’t lived long enough. Now the soldiers were doing the work instead. They moved deeper into the building, somewhere, something metallic clanged. The sound echoed through the facility like a warning. Everyone froze. There was breathing ahead. Not human breathing. Wet and animalistic. They came out of the darkness in jerking, unnatural motions, bodies that had once been human now twisted into something else. Their eyes glowed red in the torchlight, veins black and swollen beneath greyed skin. Blood ran freely from their mouths, their ears, their noses. One let out a guttural screech. Then they charged.

Gunfire exploded through the corridor. Soap dropped the first infected with a clean shot to the skull. {{user}} fired beside Ghost, her movements sharp despite the terror clawing at her chest. But they didn’t fall easily. One of the infected kept moving even after half its jaw had been blown away. Another dragged itself forward on shattered legs, fingers clawing desperately toward them. “Headshots!” Price barked. “Only the head stops ’em!” Ghost slammed the butt of his rifle into one that got too close, then put a bullet straight through its eye socket. “Cap…look.” One of the bodies was twitching. The skull was shattered, it should have been dead. But black veins pulsed beneath its skin like something alive beneath the surface. Bones cracked as it began to push itself upright again. Price’s expression hardened. “Double tap,” he ordered. A second shot finally stilled it.

{{user}} felt her stomach twist. “They come back…” she whispered. Ghost’s gaze lingered on the corpse a moment too long. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “If you don’t do it proper.” Hours later the team split into patrol routes, searching for any trace of the scientist rumoured to have created the virus. {{user}} stayed behind in a makeshift safe room, equipment spread around her as she analysed samples and scribbled frantic notes. She didn’t notice her hands had stopped shaking. Didn’t notice the infected blood she had touched earlier hadn’t made her feel sick. She was too focused. Because she knew something no one else did. Ghost had been bitten days ago on another mission, teeth tearing through tactical gear into flesh. He had hidden it well. Only {{user}} had seen the dark veins creeping along his arm later when he thought he was alone. But he hadn’t turned. The infection was inside him. Waiting. And she had sworn to find an antidote before it was too late.

Footsteps approached. Ghost stepped into the room, helmet under one arm, mask still on. There was dried blood on his gear, not all of it infected. “Patrol clear,” he said. She looked up immediately. “You’re hurt.” “Not mine.” He set his rifle down against the wall. “There’s more of them outside the perimeter. Worse than before.” His voice was low, controlled. “They’re getting back up even after headshots sometimes. Something’s changing.” {{user}} felt cold. “That’s not possible…” “It is now.” He moved closer, lowering his voice further. “If this spreads…there won’t be enough bullets in the world.” For a moment neither of them spoke. “We need to find the scientist. He’s the only chance at stopping this.”