For a second, nothing. Then fire. Every cell in her body screamed as the protein lock found every rogue RNA transcript and unzipped it. Her vision went white.
Then she heard the sound again. Click-click-click. Not from the vents. From everywhere. From the walls. From the ceiling tiles. From the dark hallway beyond the shattered glass. radroachhd d virus
Not a roach. A man. Formerly Dr. Heston, head of virology. He stood on the other side of the lab’s blast glass, his white coat torn. His left arm had split into three segmented limbs, each tipped with a curved, wet claw. His face was still his face, except for the second set of mandibles slowly pushing through his cheeks. He was smiling. For a second, nothing
Thousands of eyes, reflecting her light. Her vision went white
Heston tapped the glass with one claw. A hairline crack appeared. Then another. The virus had turned his sweat into a corrosive enzyme.
And she would. Until the last click.
It wasn’t the blast that got Dr. Elara Vance. It was the silence afterward, and the things that thrived in it.
