Chapter 3

The independent control room was the nerve center of the entire island.

As I slipped past the swimming pool, I noticed a handful of people throwing a late-night pool party. Some were bragging about their freshly minted bonuses, while others boasted about how hard they had hammered on the basement blast door earlier.

Every last one of them was guilty.

I approached a gray concrete structure behind the main villa. From the outside, it looked like nothing more than an unremarkable high-pressure pump house.

It was unlocked. I walked straight inside and located a hidden switch on the wall. With a sharp press, a section of the concrete wall popped inward, revealing a gap. I stepped through and firmly locked the door behind me.

The control room was dark, illuminated only by the dense constellation of blinking green and red LEDs across rows of black server racks. This hub controlled the island's power supply, network communications, and every surveillance camera inside and outside the villa.

I walked over to the red emergency box on the wall, smashed the glass, and pulled out the autonomously powered satellite phone.

Previously, believing the outside world had fallen to an apocalypse, I’d never considered risking my life to leave the bunker just to find this phone. But things were different now.

I dialed a long string of numbers.

It rang only twice before connecting, met by a deep, guarded male voice. "Blackwater Security. State your authorization code."

"It's Adrian," I spoke into the receiver. "Authorization code: Atlas. In exactly ten minutes, I want my private medical helicopter touching down on the helipad behind the island's mountain. Bring the highest-grade pediatric antipyretics and IV fluids. Kill all navigation lights and maintain absolute radio silence the entire way."

There was an audible two-second pause on the other end, followed by a surge of unrestrained shock and relief. "Boss?! My God, we’ve been trying to reach you for a year! Consider it done. The medevac is on standby in the adjacent waters. We’ll be at the summit drop-zone in under ten minutes!"

I hung up. I dropped the satellite phone onto the concrete floor and stomped it into pieces.

Next, I strode over to the toolbox in the corner and pulled out exactly what I was looking for: a heavy-duty fire axe.

Then, I walked over to the two central server cabinets clearly labeled "NETWORK" and "COMMS."

Raising the heavy axe, I brought it down with every ounce of strength I had left.

Sparks showered the dim room, but I didn't stop. I swung fiercely, again and again, ruthlessly hacking the machines into a mangled, smoking pile of scrap metal.

A few seconds later, every flashing green light in the control room died.

The island was now completely severed from the grid. No external internet, no cell service. Not even a blip of an SOS signal could make it out of here.

My work done, I tossed aside the chipped axe.

I moved to the far corner of the room, pried out a loose brick in the wall, and pulled a tiny, waterproof metal case from the hidden compartment.

Resting quietly inside it was a glass vial no thicker than my pinky finger, filled with a pale blue liquid.

This was the real "Project Genesis" virus.

It was originally designed to purify antibodies for a rare blood disease. But I later discovered that if it made direct contact with a living organism, it would ravage the human brain's neural pathways at an unprecedented speed, throwing the host into a state of hyper-violent, bloodthirsty frenzy.

I had intended to continue synthesizing it until it was rendered harmless. But realizing its extreme danger, I had secretly hidden this sole original sample here to ensure no one would ever touch it.

Didn't Sarah think her precious security captain could protect her in the apocalypse?

Didn't they love paying extras to wear makeup and pretend to be a zombie horde outside my door every day?

Since they loved watching this little play so much, as the owner of this island, it was only fitting that I grant their wishes and provide them with some real props.

Clutching the vial, I walked out of the control room.

Right next to the building was the island's open-air central reservoir. The villa's daily water supply, the ice machines in the kitchen, even the filtered faucets in the back garden—all drew directly from this massive tank.

The water those barbecue-eating extras were drinking, and the ice cubes in Victor and Sarah's expensive champagne? Without exception, they all came from right here.

I stepped up to the edge of the reservoir, unscrewed the cap of the glass vial, and emptied the blue liquid directly into the dark, deep water.

In less than a second, the virus dissolved completely, leaving no trace. The crystal-clear water looked perfectly normal.

As long as I didn’t drink from this supply, I was perfectly safe.

But in just a few short hours, these fake, acting zombies were going to transform into genuine monsters.

I tossed the empty glass tube into the nearby bushes. Using the cover of darkness, I turned and silently retraced my steps, making my way back to the shrubs.

Leo was exactly where I left him. Curled up against the base of the wall, his breathing was so shallow that if I hadn't looked closely, I wouldn't have even noticed his chest rising.

"I'm back, Leo," I knelt down and hoisted him onto my back.

From here to the helipad on the back mountain was a steep stretch of stone stairs.

Carrying my son, I began the climb, one torturous step at a time.

The wind grew fiercer near the summit.

The sleek black medical helicopter had already touched down in the clearing ahead.

The cabin door slid open instantly. Two operatives and a medic rushed out. The medic grabbed a portable stretcher and gently laid Leo onto it. Meanwhile, the operatives stepped up, catching my swaying, exhausted body.

"Boss... how did you get so thin..." one of the mercenaries murmured, his voice actually trembling.

"Get him inside. Start the IV and fever meds," I rasped, waving off his support. Relying purely on adrenaline and my final scraps of strength, I climbed up into the chopper.

"Leave two men behind in maximum-rated hazmat suits. I want every single boat capable of leaving this island destroyed. Once that's done, take the speedboat and evacuate immediately. DO NOT let bare skin touch the local water supply."

They asked no questions. They simply nodded.

The cabin door slowly slid shut, and the helicopter pulled up abruptly.

The chopper quickly vanished into the thick clouds over the ocean.

…………

A few hours later.

When the first rays of morning sunlight pierced through the massive windows of the villa's master bedroom, the blinding light made the man in bed toss and turn in annoyance.

Victor snapped his eyes open, raising a hand to rub his pounding temples, feeling as though his alcohol-soaked brain was about to split.

Those expensive vintage champagnes from last night packed a serious punch. He glanced at Sarah, still sound asleep beside him. They had celebrated long into the night on that priceless mattress.

Today was a good day.

Just thinking about that painfully naive scientist, probably chewing on moldy bedsheets down in the bunker, while he was about to inherit an astronomical fortune... it made Victor's hangover feel significantly lighter.

Throwing off the covers, he walked barefoot to the nightstand and grabbed the tablet, ready to log straight into the offshore banking systems to check the deposits.

But the moment he swiped the screen, his eyebrows knit tightly together.

"Goddamn it, did the island's signal transmitter glitch out again?"

Victor muttered a curse under his breath and picked up his smartphone. No Service.

Annoyed, he tossed the tablet back onto the bed and strode toward the floor-to-ceiling windows. He prepared to yell at the guards on duty to check the server room and see which cable had come loose.

Pushing open the double-layered soundproof glass doors, Victor stepped out onto the balcony, shirtless.

He was just about to shout down to the courtyard when, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of an unbelievable scene in the middle of the lawn.

One of the zombie extras was hovering over the grass in an extremely unnatural posture, pinning a security guard beneath him.

"What the hell are they doing..."

Victor pinched the bridge of his nose, assuming the crew below was playing some kind of sick prank. He leaned over the balcony railing, yelling down at them:

"Wrap it up! Haven't you acted enough? Clean up this damn yard right now!"

The extra let out a wet, guttural snarl from deep within its throat. A split second later, it lunged down and sank its teeth directly into the security guard's neck.

Thick arterial blood violently sprayed into the air.

Victor froze.