The atmosphere in the Level 4 Containment Laboratory was more tense than ever.
It wasn't Kane's usual lab, but an adjacent, larger facility with reinforced steel walls. The air, filtered and recirculated, felt heavy with a grim expectation.
Dr. Mercer was present, his face impassive, flanked by Dr. Rivas and a small team of LyraGen scientists who watched from behind armored glass. Lina stood beside Kane, her hands clasped, her eyes fixed on the figure on the operating table.
The subject was a man, a prisoner, as they had been informed. He had signed a consent form, or so the documents said, in exchange for promises of leniency for his family. His skin was pale, his body emaciated, but his eyes, before the sedative took effect, had met Kane's for an instant, reflecting a silent despair, a mute question that Kane couldn't answer.
It was the look of a man who has already died but doesn't know it yet. He was infected with TS-996, confirmed by Kane's tests. This was the culminating experiment, the definitive test of the theory of post-mortem reanimation.
"Vital parameters stable," a monotonous voice announced from the intercom. "Ready for induction."
Mercer nodded, his gaze fixed on the subject.
"Proceed."
An automated syringe extended from a robotic arm, injecting a lethal substance into the prisoner's vein. Clinical death was quick, almost merciful.
The heart monitor emitted a final, long beep; a flat line extended across the electroencephalograph screen. The body relaxed, the last breath escaped in an almost inaudible sigh. The subject's death was a clinical event, devoid of drama, just another procedure in LyraGen's cold efficiency.
The silence after his reanimation was absolute. A silence so dense that Kane could hear his own heartbeat. The scientists behind the glass held their breath. Lina clung to Kane's arm, her knuckles white. Seconds passed, then a minute, which felt like an eternity. The body lay inert, the surgical light reflecting on its waxy skin.
Then, a tremor. Subtle, barely perceptible, in the subject's index finger. Then, a spasm in the arm. The flat line of the electroencephalograph remained unchanged, but the muscles were contracting. Kane, with the memory of his nightmare and his own experiments on animals, recognized the pattern.
The prisoner's eyes snapped open. There was no blinking, no expression. Only a glassy void, a lost look of a zombie that didn't see, only registered. A low, guttural moan escaped his throat, the same sound that had haunted Kane from his dream.
The body on the table began to stir, the spasmodic movements becoming more coordinated, stronger. A dry, crunchy sound, like breaking branches, accompanied the movement. The muscles tensed, the limbs flexed. The prisoner tried to sit up, his joints cracking. The operating table vibrated.
The team behind the glass was in shock. A murmur of horror and astonishment ran through the observation room, transforming into muffled screams. Some recoiled, others put their hands to their mouths. Dr. Rivas, though she maintained her composure, had wide eyes, a crack in her usual mask of efficiency.
The subject, now fully upright, lunged against the straps holding him to the table with brutal force. An animalistic growl erupted from his chest. His vacant eyes fixed on the armored glass, and he threw himself against it with a dull thud, leaving a smear of blood and saliva. The tension of every scientist witnessing it was palpable.
It was the confirmation of the unthinkable, the materialization of their worst nightmares.
Mercer, however, remained impassive. His face showed not a hint of surprise or repulsion. He approached the intercom, his voice cold and resonant in the silence that had fallen over the room once more.
"As you can see, Phase Gamma has been a success," Mercer declared, his tone devoid of any emotion. A shadow of a smile crossed his lips as he spoke. "TS-996 works as we had foreseen. Post-mortem reanimation is a fact. The aggressiveness is a defense and propagation mechanism, as expected."
Kane, his heart hammering in his chest, turned to Mercer, his fury boiling beneath the surface.
"Expected? You already knew this? This whole time?" he yelled, glaring at Mercer.
Mercer turned his head slowly toward Kane, a shadow of a smile crossing his lips. "Dr. Kane, you have been fundamental in helping us understand the mechanisms of latency and activation. But there are truths that are only revealed in practice. This experiment is the irrefutable proof that TS-996 is not just a passive virus. It is the catalyst for a new era."
Mercer's words echoed in the lab, cold and calculated. There was no remorse, only a chilling justification. The line had been crossed. There was no turning back.
What LyraGen had been hiding was much more terrible than Kane had imagined. The outbreak was not an accident; it was a design. And Kane, with his heart on fire and his mind now cold as ice, knew that his mission was no longer just to understand it, but to stop the architects behind it.
Mercer's statement, cold and devoid of any remorse, echoed in Kane's ears. The word 'success' twisted in his stomach. The prisoner, now a growling creature, continued to hit the armored glass, a grotesque manifestation of the 'new era' Mercer was talking about.
"Success?" Kane's voice, barely a murmur at first, rose with a contained fury. "This is an abomination, Dr. Mercer! You've reanimated a human being. With a virus you knew would cause this. Did you know it was universal? Did you know it was in all of us? Answer me!"
Mercer turned slowly, his expression of disinterest barely altered. "Dr. Kane, your passion is admirable, but your judgment seems to be clouded by emotion. We are on the cusp of a discovery that will redefine biology."
"It's not biology, it's genocide!" Kane erupted, his voice echoing in the observation room. He stepped closer to the glass, pointing at the reanimated prisoner with a finger that trembled with rage. "This isn't life! It's a perversion! And you did it deliberately? For what purpose? What do you want a population of... of the living dead for?"
The other scientists, who had been in silent shock until now, flinched. Some averted their gazes to the floor, others turned away as if they couldn't bear Kane's challenge to authority. Dr. Rivas stepped forward, her face a mask of cold disapproval.
"Dr. Kane, I ask you to moderate your tone," Rivas said, her voice sharp as ice. "You are in a LyraGen facility, and you are questioning the directive of a high-security project in front of junior staff."
"They are not junior staff, they are scientists! They should be horrified!" Kane ignored Rivas, his eyes fixed on Mercer. "This is a catastrophe! The virus is in all of us! If this spreads, the whole world...!"
"The whole world will adapt, Dr. Kane," Mercer interrupted with a disturbing calm. "As it always does. Your concerns are understandable, but irrelevant to LyraGen's objectives."
The tension in the room was unbearable. Kane looked at the faces of his colleagues, searching for support, a sign that someone else shared his indignation. But he found only evasive glances, fear, or silent resignation. No one was listening to him. They were too scared, too conditioned, or perhaps too complicit.
"Dr. Kane," Rivas's voice became a menacing whisper, but with unwavering authority. She moved closer to him, her face inches from his, and Kane felt the woman's icy breath on his skin. "I understand that these kinds of revelations can be... unsettling. But your contract is very clear. Confidentiality is absolute. Your personal opinions have no place in this lab, much less in public."
She paused, her gaze steel.
"If you again question the orders or the direction of this project in front of staff, or if you try to sabotage it in any way, we will consider you to have breached your contract. And the consequences, as you well know, will be severe. Not just for you, but for your career. And for your freedom."
The threat was clear, concise, and brutal. It wasn't a firing; it was something much worse. Kane felt the weight of Rivas's words. He was trapped. LyraGen not only controlled the virus, but also his life.
Mercer approached Rivas, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Dr. Rivas is right, Kane. Your value to us is your intellect, not your morality. I suggest you return to your lab and focus on the propagation mechanisms. It's the only thing that matters now."
Kane stood motionless, his face contorted with rage and helplessness. He looked one last time at the reanimated prisoner, who was still hitting the glass, a living reminder of the nightmare LyraGen had unleashed.
The line had been crossed. There was no turning back. And he was now on the wrong side of that line, alone with his terrible truth. Anguish overwhelmed him, a mix of rage and despair. LyraGen had not only created a monster; it had made him its accomplice.
However, what most disconcerted him was that the man had not received any electrical stimulation to reanimate. Previous cases had been stimulated to show movement, but this one reanimated on its own.
Kane was now frightened by the deductions forming in his mind. The deductions forming in his mind were not just theories; they were flashes of an apocalyptic future, and in each of those flashes, he saw only one thing: death was no longer the end, it was a switch activated, now automatically, in every corner of the planet.
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November 15, 2026. 23:02 PM. LyraGen Facility. Personal Note #018.
LOG ENTRY
Subject: Prisoner P-7 (male, 34 years old, infected with TS-996).
Event: Post-mortem reanimation, confirmation of Phase Gamma.
Location: Level 4 Containment Laboratory.
Today's observation confirms the autonomous activation of TS-996 in a human subject. Unlike the experiments with previous subjects, where electrical stimulation was required to induce coordinated movements in primitive regions of the brain, Subject P-7 received no external stimulus.
Clinical death was induced at 14:03 hrs. The cessation of cardiac and upper electroencephalographic activity was complete and verifiable. At 14:04:17 hrs, the first sign of motor activity was observed: a subtle tremor in the right index finger. This quickly progressed to spasms and finally to coordinated, aggressive movements of the brainstem and cerebellum. The electroencephalograph (EEG) remained a flat line.
Initial Deductions:
Autonomous Activation: The virus, or the protocol it encodes, does not require an external trigger. The host's own death is a sufficient catalyst for the activation of the 'backup program'.
Reanimation Control: In previous cases, reanimation was an induced phenomenon. This event demonstrates that reanimation is a function inherent to TS-996, a final programmed stage in the virus's cycle.
Universal Implications: If activation is autonomous and latency is universal, then an outbreak is a certainty, not a possibility. It is an inevitable event in every infected human. TS-996 does not 'wait' to be activated; it is programmed to do so when the main biological system fails.
PERSONAL OBSERVATION
The horror I witnessed was not that of the reanimated creature, but of the coldness with which it was observed. Mercer and Rivas did not see an abomination; they saw irrefutable proof of a 'success'.
My isolation is now absolute, and my position is untenable. I know I am not insane; LyraGen is.
My only option is to document this truth and find a way to stop what they have unleashed, or at least to reveal to the world the doom we all carry within.
.
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[A/N: CHAPTER COMPLETED
Hello everyone.
Sorry for the delay, but my computer died, and I didn't have a backup of the chapters or the notes I have to guide me through each chapter.
This chapter is quite special:
First, we learn that the virus seems to have emerged from its dormant state on November 15th, just as it did in the main novel.
Second, we see a real rift between the lab and Kane. Now he just wants to get out and tell everyone about the secrets LyraGEn is hiding.
P.S. There may be some inconsistencies since this isn't the same chapter I'd been working on before. I tried to keep track of what happened in the previous chapter and also remember what I'd already written.
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Read my other novels
#The Walking Dead: Vision of the Future (Chapter 73)
#Vinland Kingdom: Race Against Time (Chapter 74)
#The Walking Dead: Emily's Metamorphosis (Chapter 20)
You can find them on my profile.]