Resident Halo

Chapter Two

Earth Calendar January 23, 2553.

New Mombassa, Earth.

Umbrella Corporation Secret Underground Research Facility "The Hive".

The ODSTs kept their weapons drawn on the heavy one-meter thick doors that lead to the auxiliary dining hall. Lockley cracked the code to the door, and it opened. Sparks swept the hallway, and motioned for the others to follow. The ODSTs stormed through the door, and into the auxiliary dining hall.

But it wasn't a dining hall. Instead of tables, chairs, and food plates, the room was filled with dozens and dozens of cryo chambers and storage tanks for the sub-zero freezing liquid. A few ODSTs went up to the chambers, and peered inside.

"Lockley!" shouted a confused Duran.

"Auxiliary dining hall," replied Lockley, looking at his computer. "That's what is says on the map." Duran walked up to Lockley, and looked on to the computer.

"Maybe you're reading it wrong," he said.

"Maybe the corporation is keeping a few secrets down here. Something they don't want us to see." said Reaver. Neo looked at the man from the train, he had said little, and didn't seem surprised at what was in the room. Neo had remembered his name along the way to the "dining hall", Kamo. The man seemed familiar on a picture he saw somewhere. Neo shrugged, it didn't matter where he remembered Kamo's name, and just that he knew it.

Duran, and the other ODSTs looked at Reaver with suspicion. "J.B." said Duran. J.B. stepped forward, and nodded. "I want you and Sparks to stay here with the prisoner. Stay here and secure the exit."

The medic ODST of the team spoke. "Captain! Gas levels in this room are nonexistent. The vent system in this room may have malfunctioned."

Duran nodded. "Alright. That means there maybe survivors. I want a search line, but keep it tight. We don't want any surprises from Shadow." The ODSTs, Neo, and Kamo nodded, and separated. Sparks pushed Reaver, and they walked in a different direction from the group.

Neo drew his M6C pistol that the ODSTs had not noticed. He had a bad feeling about this. Neo walked up to a cryo tube, and peered in. The windows were condensed with fog, and Neo had to use pistol hand to clear away some of it. He saw something, something that was black and red, with wiring protruding inside, but he couldn't make out much of the details of the actual thing inside.

Duran tapped Neo on the shoulder, and Neo spun around, pistol aimed at Duran. "I thought you were unarmed?" Neo grinned. "I guess not. Judging by the situation, and the fact you seem trustworthy, I'll let you keep it. Quit dawdling, I told you to keep things tight."

"Sorry," replied Neo. "I was curious, that's all.

"I don't blame you. Try to keep your eyes open. Don't let curiosity get in the way." Duran walked off.

-

Five minutes later, after finding no survivors, Duran, Neo, Kamo, Lockley, and five other ODSTs proceeded into Shadow's Control Chamber. The Chamber itself was separated into two sub-sections, which were connected by a small hallway. The first section controlled Shadow's defenses, and oversaw the AI. The second contained Shadow's primary AI core.

Duran waited patiently as Lockley attempted to open the blast doors that separated the first chamber and the small corridor to the other chamber. Neo was looking through the small window on the blast door, trying to analyze the corridor, looking for any unseen traps that he might not know about.

The medic ODST however wasn't as patient as Duran. "What's taking so long?" she asked.

"Shadow's defenses are in place. This is going to take a little longer. He's making things…difficult." A beep sounded, and the blast door opened. Neo drew his pistol instantly, and peered down the corridor. It was clear.

"Let's roll out." The other five ODSTs took out the equipment from the crate the liberated earlier, and placed it inside a medium sized bag, and one of the ODSTs slung it around his shoulder. Duran walked up to the entrance. "Stay here," he said to Neo, who nodded in response. Duran crouched down, unslung his battle rifle from his shoulder, and entered the corridor.

The corridor was one meter wide, and twenty long, and completely dark. The sidewalls were lined with glass, which reflected the light outside. Duran slowly walked through the corridor. When he was halfway to the second chamber, the lights in the corridor activated. Duran pointed wildly with his battle rifle, and glanced at Lockley.

"The lights are automated," Lockley said. "Nothing to worry about." Duran nodded, and continued. He reached the end of the corridor, and placed a small device, with a radio receiver sticking out, onto a patch of metal on the large blast doors. "Transmitter in position."

"Roger. Running bypass program." Numbers scrolled across the computer screen, and Lockley grinned. The digits were transmitted to the transmitter that Duran had placed, and the door opened. "Checkmate." Duran stood to the side of the door as it opened. He walked into the chamber, and made sure it was clear.

"Come on!" he said to the other five ODSTs. The ODSTs walked to the other end of the corridor, and into Shadow's chamber. The blast doors on both sides of the corridor abruptly shut. "Lockley! What's going on!"

Lockley typed away rapidly at the computer. "Some kind of dormant defense mechanism. I'm trying to shut it down." Advanced, state of the art plasma cannons activated in Shadow's chamber, and whined to life. The ODSTs dropped the bag unceremoniously, and aimed their weapons at the cannons. One of them charged up plasma, and fired at one of the ODSTs. He rolled to the side, but part of his hand was incinerated off.

He fell to the floor, screaming. Duran dropped next to the ODST, trying to keep the man calm. The other four ODSTs brought their SMGs, Pistols, and Battle Rifles to bear, and fired. Empty cartridges littered the floor as they fired. A shield activated around the plasma cannon, protecting it. The ODST who had lost his hand was still screaming. The cannon charged up, and fired again. The charged plasma connected with the medic, and her head was vaporized.

Duran looked away, his eyes were filled with fear.

"Open the damn door!" shouted Neo.

"I'm trying!" Lockley shouted back.

"Stay conscious!" shouted Duran to the ODST. "Your going into shock." The ODST was still screaming. Duran put his mouth about an inch away from the ODST and screamed as loud as he could: "STAY AWAKE!"

"Sir!" said one of the three uninjured ODSTs. "It's charging again!" Duran scrambled up to his feet, and the cannon fired three times at the ODSTs. One of the bursts was aimed at an ODST's feet, and he jumped up, but the charge immediately zoomed upward, and hit the ODST in the chest, and he was vaporized.

The other two ODSTs weren't as lucky. One of them took a hit to the side, and he dropped to the floor, screaming. The other was hit in the crotch, and fell to the ground, dead. The cannons then, abruptly shut down. Duran looked around the room in surprise. "Lockley, did you get it?" he asked, trying to conceal his astonishment.

"Sir, I didn't." Just then, a different warning blared on Lockley's computer: Level 5 defense mechanism activated. A continuous laser charged up on two sides of the octagonal shaped room, and was racing after Duran, aimed at his neck. Duran looked up, found a metal girder running along the room, and jumped up, and lifted his legs up quickly, and made his body as straight as possible.

Alarms were going off in the first chamber, and the room was in utter chaos. Neo was screaming at the door, screaming for it to be opened. Kamo was yelling at Lockley to open the door, which screamed back that he was trying as hard as he could.

The laser, however, kept going, but sliced off half of Duran's SMG that was holstered. Duran jumped down, as the laser disappeared. Then, the laser grid charged up again, and a single laser, going horizontally across raced after Duran again. Duran got into a martial arts stance, preparing himself for it.

The laser then shifted from one line, to a complex grid of lasers, and Duran swore. The lasers swiped cleanly through Duran, and stopped as they finished their way through his body. The system shut down, and the doors opened. Duran's body collapsed into thousands of smaller chunks. Neo and Kamo looked away in disgust, and Lockley stared at the spot where his former commander was, in complete, and utter horror.

Lockley was shivering as he rose from the computer table. "Alright," he barely managed to say. "Let's do it." Kamo screamed at him.

"Do what!"

Lockley was still shivering. "We have to complete the mission."

"There is no way I'm going in there," said Kamo.

Lockley tried to reassure Kamo, but ineffectively, as he spoke in fear. "His defenses are down."

"Déjà vu, anyone?" asked Kamo sarcastically. Lockley looked like he was about to just pass out right there, but he gulped, and walked around the desk, and slowly proceeded through the corridor, and into Shadow's Chamber. He averted his gaze at the destroyed and mangled bodies, and in vain, reached for the bag. Neo picked up the bag, and put an arm on Lockley's shoulder.

"It's alright," Neo said. "I've seen these kind of things back in the Covenant War. I know what it's like to lose a good team." Lockley nodded at Neo, and Neo handed him the bag. Lockley unzipped the bag, and prepared to go to work. Kamo looked at Neo in surprise. "You were in the war?" he asked. Neo turned to Kamo, and nodded.

"Were you?" Neo asked.

"No." The door to Shadow's chamber sealed shut.

Lockley typed away rapidly on his keyboard and a massive, cylinder shaped pole arose from the center of the room: Shadow's Mainframe. Lockley turned to Neo, as he was getting the parts out from the bag. "Can you give me a hand?" Neo nodded, and the two men took an equally massive object, the size of an ancient 21st century desktop hard-drive, and placed it inside Shadow's mainframe.

A camera activated, and turned towards the three men. A trio of black lasers were projected from the walls, and created a holograph. The holograph resembled a tall man in a black robe, with a hood. The figure had two, massive demon wings jutting out from his back. Two, fiery red-eyes were floating inside the hood.

"Get out. Beware. Danger lurks in these hallways." The holograph said, in a deep voice. Neo and Kamo turned to face the holograph, but Lockley kept working.

"Don't listen to anything he says," said Lockley. "He's a holographic representation of Shadow. He'll try to do anything to stay online."

"You have to get out," said Shadow, ignoring what the others said.

Lockley continued to install the EMP generator into Shadow's mainframe. "I wouldn't advice this course of action. Disabling me will result in the loss of primary power all over this facility."

"Don't listen to him."

"I beg off you."

Lockley finished the installation, turned toward Shadow's menacing figure, and pulled out a remote.

"Beg away." He flipped open the glass protector of the button on the remote. The generator charged to maximum power.

Shadow turned toward Neo, and spoke. "Doom shall be unleashed. Darkness fills the Earth. Your all going to die down here." Lockley, with a glint of fear in his eyes pressed the button. The holograph faded, and the lights in the room, and all over the facility snapped off.

Reaver, Sparks, and the other four surviving ODSTs looked around the room, weapons to bear. The lights on the cryotubes faded from a bright green with the words Environment Stable, to a menacing color of red, which read, Environment Unstable. Sparks motioned for them all to calm down.

"Relax," she said. "They must have shut down Shadow." The lights slowly flickered back to life all over the Hive. The doors, which were once all locked and shut, opened. The water inside the Viral Research Room flooded out into the hallways. Soft moans resonated through the hallways.

Lockley quickly went to work on Shadow's mainframe. "That pulse forces the circuit breaker to shut down his mainframe for 30 seconds. After that, if I don't have his primary AI core, he can reboot." He removed the core, and placed it inside the bag. "Let's get back to the others."

-

Sparks had her hunting knife drawn, and was trying to pick out a small piece of nail that lodged itself in her figure in boredom.

"They're late," said one of the ODSTs. Sparks looked at her mission clock. A clang reverberated throughout the chamber. Sparks sheathed her knife, and pulled out her SMG.

"I'm on it." She said. She walked down the row after row of cryotubes to the source of the sound. A small fusion battery rolled across the floor. Sparks pointed her SMG at the battery, and walked over to it. She peered to the left of a cryotube, and saw a person, a woman, to be exact, in a white lab coat, drenched in water, walking slowly.

Sparks pointed her SMG at the woman, and lowered it. "J.B., we've got a survivor!" Sparks examined the woman. She had black hair, cut short, blue eyes, and her skin was entirely pale. Sparks assumed she was either in shock, or had been in the water for a very long time. Sparks walked over to the woman, and could hear her panting lightly.

"It's okay," Sparks said. "We're here to help." The woman collapsed into Sparks' arms. "You seem to be in some serious—" And she was cut off. The woman bit right into Sparks' right hand. Sparks yelled, and pushed her away. She jumped onto Sparks, and pushed her down to the floor, wanting to bit Sparks.

"Get off of me! Get off of me!" Sparks and the woman continued to grapple on the floor. Keys fell from Sparks' suit, but she didn't have time to grab them. J.B. arrived, with his Battle Rifle pointed at the woman.

"J.B., get her off of me before I stab her ass!" yelled Sparks. J.B. slung his rifle, grabbed the woman off of Sparks, and he shoved her away. The woman was hissing violently.

"Are you okay?" asked J.B., helping Sparks up.

"She bit me man," said Sparks. "She took a chunk clean right out of me!" J.B. pulled out an M6C, and pointed it at the woman, who was getting up.

"Stay down!" yelled J.B. She kept on getting up. "I'm warning you, stay down!"

"She's crazy," said Sparks. The woman got up, and walked over to J.B., she either didn't hear J.B., or didn't care.

"Come any closer, and I'll open fire." The woman kept on walking. "I mean it!" Still walking. J.B. backed up, and fired into the women's leg. She paused, looked at her leg, and kept walking, hissing even more loudly than before.

J.B., astonished, fired again into the woman's leg. She kept on walking and hissing. J.B. emptied the entire clip into the woman, and Sparks fired her SMG as well. The crazed women flew backwards into a cryotube, and fell to the floor, motionless.

Sparks and J.B. lowered their weapons. Sparks had a look of disgust on her face. J.B. was still stunned. "I shot her five times," he said. "How was she still standing?"

Sparks pulled out a roll of gauss from her suit, and started patching up her wound.

"Bitch isn't standing now," Sparks said. Reaver walked over to Sparks, and looked at her wound. Lockley, Neo, Kamos, and the other surviving ODSTs came running over to J.B., Sparks, and Reaver.

"What was all the shooting?" asked Lockley.

"Did we miss the party?" asked an ODST.

"We found a survivor," said Sparks.

"And you shot them?" asked Lockley, stunned.

"She was crazed," replied Sparks. "She bit me." She showed Lockley the wound. Reaver looked at the keys that were dropped, and slowly walked over to them as the ODSTs were talking. J.B. looked over to where the woman fell, and started shouting.

"She's gone…. She's gone!"

"Bullshit!" yelled Sparks.

"She fell right here," said J.B., pointing. "But she's gone!" Neo walked over to the spot J.B. was pointing.

"Interesting…" said Neo. "There's some blood, but not much."

Reaver walked over to the spot Neo was at. "It looks coagulated." He said.

"Yeah, it does."

"That's impossible."

"Why not!" yelled J.B.

Reaver, who was crouching, picked up the keys while no one was looking, and stood up. "Because blood doesn't do that till after your dead," he responded.

"Can we go now?" asked an impatient Kamos.

Sparks put her glove and helmet back on. "We're not going anywhere till the rest of the team gets here." Lockley stuttered, and Neo looked away.

"There's no one else coming."

"What the fuck are you talking about!" shouted Sparks.

J.B. got up, and put a hand on Sparks' shoulder. "Wait. Do you hear that?" Everyone paused. Neo, and the ODSTs drew their weapons. "Quiet." Everyone heard the sound. It sounded like something metal being dragged against the floor. A man walked out, his ankle twisted in an odd way. He had an ax in his right hand being dragged on the floor. He looked up at the ODSTs. Half his face was missing. The man hissed violently, and walked towards the ODSTs.

Behind him, dozens of other people in white lab coats, and in working clothes with various wounds and injuries growled and walked towards the ODSTs. Sparks hesitated, but kept her SMG drawn. More and more workers came walking towards the ODSTs in all directions. Everyone kept his or her weapons at ready.

"Don't come any closer!" shouted an ODST.

"They're behind us!" shouted another.

"Jesus," said Lockley, his pistol drawn. Reaver stood as far away from the oncoming people as possible, and started to work the keys into the handcuffs. Kamos didn't look surprised, or frightened at all.

"They're everywhere!" exclaimed Neo. The woman who attacked Sparks earlier jumped out of nowhere, and attacked Sparks. Sparks, with a look of complete disgust on her face, put a hand on the woman's head, and broke her neck. The woman crumpled lifelessly to the floor.

Sparks holstered her SMG, and unslung her Battle Rifle. She aimed it at the man with the ax, which was coming closer and closer, and fired a three-round burst into the man's chest. He fell to the floor. J.B. unslung his Battle Rifle too, and fired three three-round bursts into the oncoming mass. The man with the ax dropped the ax, and got up on his feet again. Sparks aimed her rifle at him, once more, and put him down for good.

Lockley was hesitating. "I said stay back!" he shouted at a man coming towards him. He, like the woman before, ignored him, and kept on coming. Lockley fired a round into the man's chest. He recoiled backwards, but kept coming. Lockley fired at the head, and the man dropped.

A scream penetrated the air, and one of the ODSTs dropped the ground. Three of the workers had pinned him to the ground, and were…they were eating the ODST alive. Neo yelled, and fired three rounds at each worker. They kept on eating the ODST. Neo reloaded, and hit one of the workers on the head with his pistol. The worker dropped.

Neo fired a round in the head at another, and kicked the woman who was still eating the ODST in the crouch. She hissed angrily, and rose to her feet. Neo fired three rounds at her heart, and she fell back, got up, and kept on walking. Neo fired three more rounds at her head, and she fell to the ground. The ODST was clearly dead. Neo holstered his pistol, and relieved the worker of his battle rifle.

"Why aren't they dying!" shouted J.B., as he fired another burst. One of the ODSTs fired into the cryotubes, and subzero gases jetted out of the tube.

"Watch it!" shouted Neo. The ODSTs collected fire still kept on hitting the tube, and more and more gases streamed out from it. Workers dropped, got up, and repeated the process as they were literally riddled with bullets. A warning light activated on the tube, and a small alarm sounded.

"Let's go!" shouted J.B. And the ODSTs, Reaver, Neo, and Kamos started their retreat. The workers, which Neo couldn't help but notice, no matter how intimidating they were, and dangerous, walked towards them, and motioned like a retard. Reaver managed to get the keys inside of the handcuff, and twisted. Nothing. It was a wrong key. He was about to switch for another key, when Neo grabbed Reaver by the shoulder, and ran with him.

The cryotube exploded, and a dozen workers fell to the ground. A few of them caught on fire. Reaver dropped to the ground, and the keys flew from his hands. He crawled over to the keys, and tried to undo the cuffs. A worker who was on fire was pursuing Reaver. The worker didn't seem to notice the pain.

Reaver got the keys into his hands, but the worker got to his feet, and started clawing for him. Reaver kicked the worker in the face, and he was motionless. Reaver managed to get the right key inside the handcuff, twisted, and the handcuffs dropped the floor.

Sparks jumped onto a cryotube platform, and hosed the oncoming workers with bullets. She kept on firing until she heard a sharp click when she pulled the trigger. She looked at her ammo counter, which read 00. She muttered a curse, dropped the rifle, and pulled out both her SMGs. She fired and fired at the workers, and they fell like flies.

Lockley and J.B. were at a different portion of the room, and were putting up a fierce fight. "We lost the others!" shouted Lockley.

"Keep moving!" J.B. shouted back, as he fired at the workers. J.B. and Lockley made a mad dash for the exit, where Kamos was standing.

"You waited?" asked Lockley.

"Didn't know the code," responded Kamos, keeping his cool. Lockley typed in furiously into the keypad that was next to the door.

"Come on…Come on." A beep was heard, and the lights flashed red. "Shit!" Lockley typed faster than ever into the pad.

"Come on." Said Kamos. A beep.

"Shit!" Another beep. "Shit!" J.B. downed a worker, and turned to Lockley.

"What's taking so long!" he yelled.

"I'm trying!" shouted back Lockley.

Reaver, even though he had the handcuffs off, was still stuck in his hiding spot as three workers clawed for him. Neo ran in, fired at each worker, and dropped them. Reaver accidentally kicked one of the cryotubes, and gases fumed out.

"Come on," said Neo.

J.B. had had enough, and pushed Lockley out of the way. "What's the code?" he asked.

"Hurry up!" yelled Sparks. "I'm running out of ammo!"

Lockley was stuttering as a worker slowly walked towards him. "Zero, four, three, two—No! Five!" He fired at the worker, who dropped.

"What?" asked J.B.

"Zero, four, three—" Kamos had had enough as well. He walked up to Lockley, and asked again in his face. "What is the code?"

"Zero! Four Three! One! Nine! Six! Five!" yelled Lockley, as the other ODSTs covered him as he was yelling.

"Got it?" asked Kamos.

"Yeah," said J.B. "See how easy that was." And the door hissed open. Immediately, hundreds of hands were grabbing at J.B.

"J.B.!"

"Shit!"

Sparks turned both SMGs at the workers, but there were hundreds of them. She lowered her SMGs. "Grab my hand!" The last words J.B. said were drowned out, and he was swamped by the human tide. The workers started biting into him, and J.B. was screaming.

One of the workers bit into Sparks, and she screamed as well. It took Kamos and Lockley to pull Sparks away. The other surviving ODSTs with them suffered a similar fate, and were being eaten. Lockley punched one of the workers in the face, and kicked another, while Kamos dragged Sparks, who was still screaming, away.

-

A bang resounded through out the cryo chamber, as its occupant blew one of the cryotube doors away. A snarling, red, and large monster jumped out of the tube.

-

Neo, with his Battle Rifle at hand, and Reaver, who had Neo's M6C, were walking through the rows of tubes. The workers were nowhere near the two of them, and this worried Neo. Neo kept on walking, and turned around to check on Reaver. Nothing. He wasn't there.

-

Lockley, Kamos, and Sparks had retreated back into Shadow's chamber.

"Where are the bodies?" asked Lockley, pointing towards Shadow's chamber. "Where did they go!"

"Fuck!"

"Whatever they are," said Sparks, as the workers were pounding on the doors. "There's too many of them out there."

"Whatever they are?" asked a nervous Lockley. "It's pretty obvious what they are. Lab coats, badges…those people used to work here!"

Sparks walked up to Lockley, and slapped him in the face. "All the people working here are dead."

"Well," said Kamos. "That isn't stopping them from walking around."

"Well, where did they come from? Why didn't we see them on the way in? Huh!"

Sparks was irritated by now. "When you cut the power, you unlocked the doors. You let them out."

Lockley paused, and turned towards Sparks. She looked at her SMGs, and checked the ammo, and then slammed them on the floor.

Lockley broke the silence. "We're never going to make it to the surface."

-

Neo had wandered out of the cryo room, and into what was the Viral Research Room. Papers littered the floor, and cages, which once held specimens, were opened, and holes were torn in the center. Holes large enough for something to jump out of them. Blood splattered the cages and walls.

Neo, with his rifle pointing cautiously at the only other entrance in the room, slowly crept towards it. He opened the door, and made sure the room was clear. It was. More cages littered the room, and they too, had large holes in them. There was another room across from Neo, which had once held many experiments, but now they, and the walls were coated in layers of blood.

Neo walked towards the room, until he heard a loud metallic screech. Neo spun around, crouched, with his rifle at ready; letting his old military training kick in. Neo listened carefully.

Pitter-patter, pitter-patter, was what he heard. Shadow on shadow, and a big, black, dog entered the room. Its fur was coated in thick red mats, and parts of its skin were torn away, revealing the organs inside. Neo felt a wave of fear overtake him. The dog charged right at Neo, who instead of firing at the dog, had run into the other chamber, and locked the latch. The dog was on its hind legs, and clawing at the door.

Neo turned around and sighed, but was quickly shot into action. A security guard hissed, and grabbed Neo by the neck. Neo pushed the guard away, and punched him rapidly in the chest. The man still stood there, and appeared unharmed.

Neo jumped up, and kicked the guard in the head, which flew back and crashed into a wall, and right into all the glasses filled with chemicals. The guard slumped the ground, dead. Neo walked over to the corpse, and relieved the officer of his M6C. Just as he pulled it out, the dog that had tried to get in earlier, had jumped through the window, and shattered the glass, and immediately charged after him.

Neo sprung into action, and ran through another blast door, and slammed it shut, and locked it. The dog jumped up, and scratched away at the door. Neo turned, and was met by seven dogs. Neo immediately brought his pistol to bear, and emptied the entire clip at the dogs. They all fell to the floor dead. Neo ejected the clip, and replaced it with one of his spare magazines.

One was left however, the one that Neo tried to escape from. It jumped at Neo, and Neo, who had little time to act, hit the dog squarely in between the eyes with the pistol. The dog fell to the floor, twitched twice, and died.

-

Reaver took a deep breath. There wasn't much time. He filtered through the papers of one of the former workers, looking for something. The holographic projects flickered in the background. As Reaver was looking through the papers, one of the workers jumped up onto the glass, and slammed his fist repeatedly into it. The glass held, and after some time, the man went away.

Reaver sighed, and continued looking through the papers. Reaver heard movement, and spun around, M6C aimed at the source. It was a blonde girl, in her twenties, with green eyes. Her face was pale, and she was panting softly. Reaver lowered his gun.

The woman walked over to Reaver, and put a hand on his cheek. Reaver smiled, but the woman growled, and tried to bit Reaver. She tried to bite his neck, but Reaver kept her off. Thunk! And the woman dropped off Reaver, dead. Neo checked his pistol to make sure it was undamaged as he used it as a blunt weapon. It was fine.

Reaver was crying, as he held the body of the woman.

"Who was she?" asked Neo.

"My fiancée," replied Reaver, weakly. Neo got up and looked around the room for an exit, but Reaver spoke again. "Corporations, like Umbrella…They think they are above the law," Reaver looked up at Neo, and met his eyes. "But they're not. There are millions of us who think the same, all over the UNSC. Some of us provide us with information, while others give support. Some take more direct action."

"Like you," said Neo.

"Yes," replied Reaver. "If your employers, and the ODSTs were a little more through, they would have seen right through my false I.D. I'm Reaver, all right, but I'm not a security operative. You know how long I've been working for Umbrella?"

Neo nodded his head negatively.

"About a week," said Reaver. "But there is no way I could have infiltrated the Hive, not directly at least."

"So you sent…you sent her?" asked Neo.

"Yes. I had to be lookout for her, and be able to pick up light amounts of information, or fingerprints, anything that would help her out." Reaver looked down. "We needed something concrete, something that we could expose Umbrella to the entire Human race. Yes, they helped us in the Covenant war, but that was simply another day's profit. Now that the war's over, they can engineer a false one, with all these…these zombies.

"These zombies are the result of genetic research, illegal genetic research, and that was gained from the Covenant War. My fiancée was going to smuggle out a piece of the T-Virus, that's the virus they were developing, and she would hand it off to me, and we'd give it to our organization. Do you realize just how much the T-Virus would be worth on the open market?"

"No. But may I ask you a different question?" asked Neo.

"Sure."

"Where did you receive your security training?"

Reaver grinned. "I was in the Covenant War. I saw first hand what was going on. I was on Alpha Halo, back during the Reclaimer Campaign. They used some kind of viral weapon on our platoon, and it turns out it was the T-Virus. I then realized the threat Umbrella posed to the UNSC, and that's when I joined up with my current organization."

Something moved, and Neo thought he heard some moans. "We better get moving."

-

Neo and Reaver made a mad dash for the door, and opened it. Sparks pointed her M6C at the door. "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" shouted Neo. "It's us." Reaver closed and locked the door behind him, crushing one of the zombies' hands, and it fell to the floor. Sparks looked at it with disgust, and holstered her pistol. The zombies started pounding on the door, but Neo knew there was no way they'd penetrate the thick armor.

"Right behind us…" muttered Neo, and he walked to the other door of the chamber. "What about this door?"

"They're waiting out there too," said Lockley.

"And that way?" asked Neo, pointing towards Shadow's Chamber.

"It's a dead end," said Lockley, "there's no way out of there."

"So we wait," said Kamos. "If someone doesn't hear from you, they'll send backup, or something, right?" Sparks looked and Lockley, and he looked back at her, uncertainly.

"What?" asked Kamos. "What's wrong?"

"You know those blast doors we passed?" asked Sparks. "They seal shut in a matter of hours. If we're not out of there then, we're not getting out."

"What! What are you talking about, they can't just bury us alive down here!"

Bang. Slam. "Containing the incident is the only fail-safe plan that they had…against possible contamination.

"We have to find a way out of here," said Neo. Neo glanced at Sparks, and walked over to where the bag from earlier was.

"What are you doing?" asked Sparks. Neo grabbed the bag, and walked towards Shadow's Chamber. Lockley chased after him.

"Where are you taking those?" Lockley asked.

"I'm going to turn him back on."

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Lockley.

"You have a better plan?" Asked Neo, as he pulled out the AI core.

"That bastard," said Sparks. "That bastard killed my team."

"That bastard might be our only way out of here," said Neo, as he put the AI core into the mainframe. Neo rebooted the AI mainframe, and the menacing holograph of Shadow reappeared.

Lockley turned to Neo. "Alright, this time, if he doesn't cooperate, I can remote activate the EMP generator, and he'll fry."

"Ah, your back," said Shadow. "I gather that things have gone out of your control, yes?"

"Give me that fucking switch!" yelled Sparks, as she tackled Lockley, fighting for the remote. Neo pulled Sparks off, and Reaver restrained her.

"I warned you, but you didn't listen. You should keep your ears open now."

"What's going on down here?" asked an irritated Sparks.

"Research and development," said Shadow, his red eyes blazing.

"What about the T-Virus?" asked Reaver.

"The T-Virus," said Shadow," was a major medical breakthrough, and from information taken during the Covenant War, obviously possessed highly profitable, and useable, military applications."

"Well how does it explain those things out there?" asked Lockley.

"Even in death, the human body still remains active. Hair and fingernails continue to grow, new cells are produced, and the brain itself holds a small electrical charge that takes months to dissipate.

"The T-Virus provides a massive jolt both to cellular growth, and to those small electrical impulses. Simply, it reanimates the body, and can bring the dead back to life; but not fully, however. The subjects have the simplest motor functions, little memory, and virtually no intelligence. And finally, they have the most powerful need of all, the need to feed."

"How do you kill them?" asked Sparks, who found herself growing more and more angry.

"Simply by severing the top of the spinal cord, or by dealing massive trauma to the brain are the most effective methods."

"Why did you kill everybody down here?" asked an equally angry Reaver.

"The T-Virus escaped into the air conditioning system of the Hive, and an uncontrollable pattern of infection began. For you see, the T-Virus is protean, changing from liquid, to airborne to blood transmission, but it depends on the environment. The virus is almost impossible to kill. I couldn't allow it to escape into the Hive.

"My satellite reports indicate that something similar has happened to the other Hives around the world, and the AIs have taken similar actions. For you must understand, if anyone becomes infected, they must not be allowed to leave the Hive."

"Whoa," said Kamos. "We're not infected."

"One bite, one scratch from an infected subject is sufficient to transmit the virus, and then you become one of them. A check of my systems indicates that my Reedman cycling-thought matrix failsafe has been activated. May I ask why?"

"Insurance," said Neo. "We need a way out of here. If you refuse to help at anytime, we activate the failsafe. Understand?"

"Yes," replied Shadow. "There is an entrance to the tunnels below this level that will allow you out, it is over there." And he pointed. Neo removed the hatch to the tunnels, and entered the abyss, his pistol pointed into the darkness.