Chapter 4 Skin

Jack stumbled into the med bay, gasping.

The room smelled like bleach and blood.

Body bags were stacked like trash. But some twitched.

One was unzipped halfway - a man's face, peeled back like a mask.

His ID badge read: Dr. Evelyn Carr - Lead Researcher.

He remembered her.

She'd begged them to shut it down.

They hadn't listened.

Jack heard footsteps.

He turned, rifle raised.

A woman stood in the doorway. Pale. Eyes hollow.

"Evelyn?"

She didn't answer.

Her mouth opened too wide. Her jaw cracked.

In the armory, Jack found supplies: flashbangs, ammo, thermite.

His hands shook.

His skin burned.

He rolled up his sleeve.

Veins pulsed black.

Memories returned in flashes - screams, fire, the core reaching out.

Had he been infected back then?

What if he never left the facility?

What if the Jack who escaped wasn't really him?

He bit his lip until it bled.

It tasted like copper and ash.

The radio crackled again.

"Jack... come home..."

Something inside her moved.

Jack ran.

As he descended into the lower containment levels, shadows moved behind the glass.

They looked human.

They weren't.

Each wore a face he knew - Martinez, Cole, Hawkins.

But their skin was wrong - waxy, wet. Like stretched latex.

They watched him with dead eyes.

Then one slammed against the glass.

Cracks spread.

He backed away.

Too late.

The glass shattered.