Chapter Three

"How do we know where we are?" Kaplan questioned after the Red Queen managed to reboot her holographic image, as well as the holographic map of The Hive.

"Location is indicated by heat signature." The Queen informed them.

"Right at the bottom, of course." Spence complained as he stared at the map.

"For maximum efficiency, I would suggest the following route." the Queen highlighted a way through the holographic maze on the map, which Kaplan swiftly noted in his holographic computer. "Through the storage units on this level, to an access tunnel here. That will get you close to the surface. Then you will only have to cut through the medical labs and you will be back at the loading platform."

"Sounds simple enough." Matt concluded.

"Yeah." Rain said, reloading her handguns.

"What are those things?" Alice questioned, noticing the glowing red dots connected to the security cameras.

"The Queen has sensors throughout The Hive; she can tell us where they are." Kaplan stated.

"I'm afraid not. My primary sensors are thermal and because the creatures are dead, their body temperature is virtually invisible to me. I can only help you so far, the rest is up to you."

"Great." Spence sarcastically cheered. Midori scowled at him in annoyance.

"Lets just go already." Rain said impatiently, anxious to get out of the facility.

/

"We've been here before!" shouted Spence after a while of walking through the Utility Tunnels.

"We gotta keep moving!" said Rain as she continued to walk forward.

"We're going in circles!"

"This is the route that the computer gave up." Kaplan said as he looked at the map.

Spence growled. "Why are you listening to her?"

Midori rolled her eyes and kept moving with Alice and Rain beside her.

"Enough!" Rain yelled." We have no choice but to keep moving. Those things are right behind us. You got that?"

Hands suddenly grabbed Spence and Midori let out a hiss, snatching the man's arm and yanking him away from the undead, making him grunt in pain. The undead started to swarm in and Alice and Midori started using their martial arts skills to fight them off to keep them away from the others.

"Up on the pipes!" Alice shouted. "Everyone up the pipes!"

Kaplan suddenly screamed and Midori whirled around, hearing a gunshot.

Then she heard Rain whisper, "J.D.?"

"Rain, it's not him anymore!" Midori yelled to the other woman.

The reanimated J.D. bit Rain's neck, causing her to scream and push him away. Midori ran to her side and swiftly snapped J.D.'s neck while Kaplan and Matt helped Rain up the pipes.

"Alice, I'll hold them off, you go up next!" Midori yelled to the fair haired woman.

"You sure?"

Midori nodded, using her strength to tear the head of a zombie that almost took a chunk out of her arm. Alice climbed up the pipes and Midori was quick to follow her. She sat back and relaxed against the wall, letting out a sigh.

"You like that, huh?" Rain asked in a detached voice with a sneer and Midori turned to her, seeing her squeezing out the infected blood from her hand wound, feeding it to the horde of undead beneath them.

Midori grabbed the other woman's wrist. "Stop that shit." she said, getting medical wrap from one of Rain's many pocket's and set to work on carefully wrapping it around the Latina's hand. She glanced at the others. "We should get going. They're getting reckless."

The group slowly worked their way along the crawl space with Matt in the lead, followed By Spence, Rain, Alice, Midori, and Kaplan. The group finally reached the end of the tunnel after what seemed like hours, when in reality it was only a few minutes. Below them, the undead crowd was getting larger and more aggressive.

"Almost there." Matt stated, motioning his head towards the network of pipes that split into two, one branch disappearing into a vent straight ahead while the second was a smaller bundle of pipes also going into a vent in the side wall.

"Be careful on the support bracket." Midori warned.

One by one, almost everyone had passed the support bracket. Matted used a knife to try to mesh the screen cover from the air shaft, a sharp edge slicing his hand.

"Shit!" he swore, tossing the screen down as the undead scrambled all over it, a few going as far as trying to eat it and fight over it. The bracket began to sag just as a harsh, loud metallic sound echoed through the room, a rusted bolt bursting free.

"Shit! Move it!" Rain shouted.

As the moved quicker, the more pressure they placed on the bolts. Each bolt popped free, causing the pipe to come free from the ceiling and lower to the ground-closer to their end. Alice, Midori, and Kaplan were within reach of the undead as their fingers stretched to grab their arms or legs, hoping to get a bite of their flesh. Alice was pulled up by Matt as Midori kept Kaplan from the undead. She was suddenly grabbed by the waist and pulled away, losing her grip on the man just as the entire pipe gave way and collapsed, sending Kaplan to the other side. He was able to haul himself from the undead, but received numerous bites in the process.

"Rain! Shoot!" Alice screamed.

"I can't focus. I can't see!" she yelled.

Midori grabbed her gun and started firing and killing the undead grabbing the injured man, giving him enough time to climb up the pipes as the dead tried desperately to get to their food source. Tossing her gun to the side, Midori closed her eyes and willed her fire abilities forward, blue flames bursting to life in her palms. Everyone gazed at her with awe and slight fear as she shot jets of blue fire at the zombies, making them hiss and screech, though that didn't stop them from trying to get to Kaplan. Midori scowled and made the fire in her hands disappear.

"We just need to throw these two ropes at him." Alice said, pulling on the hanging cables.

"I can't feel my legs." Kaplan whispered to them.

"We'll get you somehow." Alice insisted.

"I want you to go." he told them.

"No! We're not leaving you Kaplan!"

"You can't kill them all. And I'm not going anywhere."

"Kap," Midori whispered, pain in her tone. She had grown fond of the commando in the short time she'd known him.

"Go!"

Matt took Alice by the wrist as Spence pulled Midori away. Moments later, as the group continued forward, they paused when they head a single gunshot. Midori would have burst into tears, had she still not heard his heartbeat. That gave her hope that there was still a chance to save him.