Apocalypse: I Raised the Ultimate Antagonist from Scratch
Chapter 68: The ghost flank
The descent from the senior residential quarters to the facility’s lower laboratory level was a study in stark focus.
The red strobe lights pulsed rhythmically against the concrete walls of the stairwell, casting long, eerie shadows over the squad as they moved in perfect formation. Boots clicked softly against the steel grates, the sound drowned out by the distant, muffled groaning of the ventilation system straining against the toxic black smoke being forced down its throat.
Before stepping out of the upper wing, Lin Qing had kneeled in front of Han Ye and Gu An. Her gaze had been steady, her voice carrying an absolute, unyielding gravity. "Stay inside. Lock the manual deadbolt from the inside and do not open it for anyone but us. Rest."
Both children had nodded with their characteristic, unnerving maturity. Han Ye’s dark eyes held a silent acknowledgment of the danger, while Gu An’s posture remained rigid, a silent sentinel protecting the sleeping Su Xiao.
Now, as the heavy steel door at the bottom of the stairwell hissed open, the squad stepped into a scene of absolute chaos.
The three scientists were in a state of frantic, uncoordinated panic. The arrogance they had displayed behind the bulletproof glass earlier had completely evaporated.
Dr. Chen Wei was pacing frantically outside the main security hub, his face pale and dripping with sweat, while Dr. Morse was aggressively hacking at a localized environmental control panel, his thin fingers trembling so violently he could barely press the keys. The air in the lower corridor was already turning noticeably stale, a faint, acrid scent of burnt oil beginning to seep through the seams of the ceiling panels.
The moment the doors slid open and the heavily armed, fully geared soldiers stepped into the hall, the three researchers spun around. It was as if they had just caught sight of a literal lifeline in a drowning ocean.
"You—you have to open the main doors!" Dr. Chen Wei stammered, rushing toward Han Zheng before being instantly halted by the cold, raised barrel of Lieutenant Chen’s rifle.
Dr. Chen Wei threw his hands up, his voice cracking with hysteria. "The filtration system is going to shut down entirely in less than thirty minutes! The carbon dioxide levels in the lower biomes are already spiking. If we don’t clear the entrance line, we’ll all suffocate down here!"
"If we open the main gates, we walk straight into a bottleneck ambush," Han Zheng snapped, his deep voice cutting through the scientist’s panic like a physical blow. He didn’t even slow his pace, marching directly toward the central layout map on the wall. "They have the high ground on the ridge. Opening the front doors is suicide."
"But we have no other exit!" Dr. Morse shrieked, clutching his head. "This is a sealed bunker! The architectural blueprint is an airtight loop!"
"That’s not entirely true," Dr. Zhou stepped forward from the shadow of the medical bay. Unlike her male colleagues, who were completely unraveled by the threat of suffocation, she was holding a heavy, laminated structural schematic of the mountain grid.
Her breathing was fast, but her eyes were remarkably clear. She looked directly at Han Zheng and Lin Qing. "There is a secondary escape route. A manual maintenance hatch designed for clearing structural debris from the upper limestone shelf. It’s located at the very end of the auxiliary drainage corridor on this floor."
Han Zheng’s eyes narrowed as he analyzed the schematic she held up. "Can it be accessed from the outside?"
"No," Dr. Zhou said firmly, shaking her head. "It’s a thick, reinforced steel plug that can only be unsealed via a manual hydraulic crank from the inside. The raiders don’t even know it exists because it’s hidden behind a rocky outcrop halfway up the hill, completely separate from the main concrete building. If you use it, you’ll exit directly onto the western slope—right above their flank."
Han Zheng exchanged a rapid, silent glance with Lin Qing. An understanding passed between them. The maintenance hatch was the perfect backdoor.
"Da Yong, Old Wang, stay behind and secure the lab level. If these two try to touch the main door controls, put them down," Han Zheng commanded, his voice leaving absolutely no room for debate. He then looked at Dr. Zhou, giving her a single, tight nod of respect. "Keep the internal recirculation systems running on low. We’re going out."
The squad moved with efficiency. They slipped down the auxiliary drainage corridor, their boots making no sound against the damp concrete. Within minutes, they reached the end of the line. The maintenance hatch was exactly as Dr. Zhou had described—a heavy, circular iron plug embedded deep into the raw limestone wall of the mountain, sealed tight by a massive, rusted hydraulic crank.
Sun Hao and Xiao Li stepped forward, gripping the iron wheel together. With a synchronized grunt of exertion, they threw their weight into the turn. The ancient gears groaned, a loud ’clunk’ echoing through the pipe as the heavy locking pins retracted.
Lin Qing pulled her mask up over her nose and mouth, clicking her night-vision goggles down over her eyes. The world shifted into a sharp, monochromatic green hue. Beside her, Han Zheng raised his rifle, his posture coiling like a spring.
With a final, pressurized hiss, the heavy iron hatch swung inward.
Immediately, a violent swirl of freezing air and thick, acrid black smoke rushed into the tunnel.
The blizzard outside was howling, the snow falling in heavy, dense sheets that severely limited normal visibility. Coupled with the dense, billowing clouds of toxic oil smoke rising from the burning tarps below, the entire ridge was covered in a thick, choking shroud of darkness
It was the perfect canvas for a slaughter.
"Go," Han Zheng breathed into the comms.
The soldiers slipped through the narrow opening one by one, vanishing instantly into the freezing, smoky white-out conditions of the mountain slope. Because the maintenance hatch opened onto a hidden rocky shelf, they emerged entirely unseen by the raiders gathered on the central ridge.
The operational execution was flawless, a testament to the elite military precision of the Vanguard unit. Moving like literal ghosts in the snow, the soldiers used the howling wind to mask their footsteps and the heavy smoke to blind their targets.
There weren’t too many of them—just a desperate, starving group of about twelve raiders clustered around the primary air intake grates. They were laughing hoarsely through their tattered scarves, tossing more oil-soaked branches onto the roaring fire, eagerly waiting for the suffocating souls inside the bunker to crack open the main doors.
They never got the chance.
Han Zheng signaled the attack with a sharp, silent hand gesture.
The counter-ambush was brutal, silent, and entirely merciless. Operating in perfect synchronization, the soldiers closed the distance from behind the rocks. The ’pft-pft-pft’ of suppressed rifles choked out the sound of gunfire, instantly dropping three raiders into the snow before they even realized they were under attack.
Lin Qing moved through the smoke with terrifying grace, her combat knife catching the dim glare of the fire as she cleanly executed a raider who had turned around too late.
Within less than five minutes, the entire perimeter was cleared. The raiders on the ridge were swiftly taken down, their bodies collapsing silently into the heavy snowdrifts. Sun Hao and Xiao Li immediately kicked the burning tarps and oil canisters off the intake grates, letting the freezing, clean mountain air rush back into the facility’s filtration system.
"Ridge is clear. Vents are breathing," Lieutenant Chen reported over the comms, his breath fogging heavily in the freezing air.
"Regroup, take care of the bodies and move back inside before the smoke shifts," Han Zheng ordered, his eyes scanning the dark, snowy perimeter one last time to ensure no stragglers remained.
The soldiers quickly cleared everything filed back into the narrow maintenance hatch, eager to escape the biting chill of the blizzard. Lin Qing stood near the threshold, her rifle raised in a defensive posture, covering the rear as the team retreated into the warm safety of the facility.
The air inside the tunnel felt thick and warm against her frozen face. She stepped backward through the hatch, preparing to pull the heavy iron plug shut and lock it down for the night.
But just as her boot cleared the frame, a strange, cold prickle of intuition flashed at the base of her neck.
Lin Qing stopped dead in her tracks. Her hand tightened instinctively around the grip of her rifle. Slowing her breathing to a complete halt, she slowly turned her head, her sharp eyes scanning past the safety of the vault doors.
There, in the deep darkness and snow, the green hue of her night-vision goggles caught a faint, sudden movement.
Someone was standing there. Wrapped in the deep shadows, completely silent and entirely hidden from the rest of the squad, a mysterious figure was lingering in the dark, their eyes fixed intently on the soldiers, watching their every single move.