Reality Quest: How I Accidentally Made a Harem of Villainesses-Chapter 48: The Cure For Fear

Nellie stepped carefully into the new corridor, it was quite obvious that this underground part of the facility was bigger than even th above levels, as it extended vastly throughout.

The beam of her flashlight was slicing through the thick dark like a knife through fog. The walls here were tighter, the ceiling a bit lower. Pipes ran above her like the veins dripping rust-colored water onto the concrete below.

The smell was stronger down here too, oil, mildew, and blood, a scent she was all to familiar with.

Every step echoed with each she took, the atmosphere was doing a good job at being spooky.

"Christ..." She muttered softly, keeping her voice low. "How deep does this place even go?"

Her light caught a sign on the wall, half torn, with faded letters, but with what remain was still readable as she flash her light on it, reading what she can "Sub-Level C — Authorized Personnel Only."

"Sub-Level C ha!?" Nellie said to herself as she looked ahead. She personally speaking had never heard about anything like that in the urban explorer threads or the abandoned asylum maps she’d studied before coming or rather that was one of the memories she inherited the moment she started playing Dante game.

But yeah, from those Everyone assumed the building had only three levels, the main floor and the second and third floor above it.

"I guess that is not the case, either way, I am pretty sure I have been in this place for more than hour now, hiding from that thing, just couple more hours to go, and can go back home to Emilia. "She breathed." As she pressed forward, the corridor turned sharply to the right. The concrete under her boots felt uneven, slightly slanted. A few more steps brought her to a wide metal door. It looked newer than everything else around it, clean edges, heavy bolts, similar to the ones you would typically see in industrial bunkers. A small control panel sat beside it too, albeit its light long dead.

Nellie reached for the handle, but hesitated for a minute, but decided otherwise and then pulled. The metal groaned but shifted open, releasing a rush of cold, stale air that smelled faintly... sterile.

She raised her flashlight and froze.

Before her lay a vast underground chamber, wide enough to fit about twelve buses. The walls were lined with steel racks stacked high with crates, canisters, and boxes wrapped in black plastic.

For a moment, she didn’t breathe. "What the?" Her voice cracked in disbelief. She stepped inside, sweeping her light slowly over the room. The beam caught on the edge of a metal table in the center, scattered with items: rifles, handguns, boxes of ammunition, even grenades lined up in precise rows like surgical instruments.

On the far wall hung shelves filled with canned food, decades old but perfectly preserved, and rows of water containers, all marked with faded labels. Another section had neatly organized medical kits, sealed bottles of pills with strange names in a language was not really familiar with.

"Hahaha, now we are talking my language, nothing cure fear more than a reliable weapon that can tear through skulls of these fuckers." She whispered, her heart hammering in her chest.

With newfound hope, she moved closer to one of the crates, brushing the dust from its lid. The stenciled letters read: "Property of S.M.I Division 9."

"So this place being a hot spot for military experiment’s seem to be true, good to know." Her light flicked toward a table in the corner. Stacked papers were scattered there, some yellowed and curling with age, others fresher, as typewritten memos stamped with official seals. She picked one up, squinting at the faded print.

As she read th content’s out loud.

"In the event of a breach or total subject failure, Division 9 personnel are to initiate lockdown, the Ms6 drugs, changes the subject in accordance to the subject mental state, which allows for various and unique abilities, however all of them have the same weakness, the destruction of the brain will terminate them the event of a breach. All surviving staff are to arm themselves and maintain containment perimeter until Extraction Team arrives.

"Remember: do not attempt to negotiate with subjects once infection threshold has been reached."

"Infection?" She read the word again. "What the hell were they doing in this place?" Nellie question herself, by the looks of it whatever was going on in this asylum, seem to be some kind of project to create monsters or super powered humans, if she had to guess going off cliches, then she figured that it was probably for the purpose of war. However that could be a stretch.

But just then.

As she thinks about this more, a loud sound caught her off guard.

Nellie spun in fear, flashlight jerking toward the sound. But she saw nothing. The beam trembled across the floor, over crates and shadows. The silence that followed was palpable, as it was pressing.

But make a situation even worse that it already was, she heard the same voice in her head again which imitated her own.

[New mission pick the weapon’s up]

She froze at the words, as she looked at the guns. And the voice continued to speak.

[New mission: Survive a large wave of infected is approaching]

"What, your kidding right!?" She asked, her heart racing with panic, but the voice did not responded, it had already gave Nellie it’s orders, hence completing it’s initial purpose. "Fuckkkk!!" With that Nellie rush to table.

She had some experience with guns, but not enough to call her a professional, but it was enough. The weapons gleamed faintly under her light, they where, pristine, like they had been cleaned just yesterday. Despite herself, she reached out and touched one: a handgun, standard military issue. It was cold, and heavy.

"Alright, let see how much bullet this thing can hold." She muttered, as she began checking the chamber, it was fully loaded with six bullets.

"This will do just fine, still, I can’t carry all of these heavy fire arms, it will be much more better to just carry bullets, and single gun, with enough fire power, I will need a volatile secondary though." With that Nellie began to skim through the different hand gun, till she settled, on the single hand cannon at the end. "A dessert eagle, how convient."

But again she heard an approaching sound closing in on her. "Is that footsteps?" Nellie asked herself as she could hear alot of them coming her way, from the end of the corridor.

"Fuck, already." Nellie muttered under her breath as the echo of boots, or what sounded like boots, scraped against the floor from the far end of the corridor.

But those weren’t human footsteps. They were uneven. wet even, like walking in puddle of sticky mud. Alongside a dragging rhythm followed each one, like someone pulling something heavy and slimy behind them. The sound grew louder with every second. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Her pulse spiked, as her heart race. She darted her flashlight toward the noise, but the beam only met the long shadow stretching across the corridor, jagged and ugly, its movements jerky, twitching as it came along.

"The hell, this one is different from the one upstairs." She said, but quickly acted, as she took her aim to the approaching monster, or monsters as their was more than one. "Eat led you ugly fuck."

She said as she looked at three figures that stumbled into ber view, their silhouettes bent and broken. What used to be men and women, nurses, guards maybe, who really gives a shit, were now swollen with thick pink veins creeping up their necks.

The flesh on their faces hung loose, sloughing off in chunks, and their eyes glowed faintly pink as well.

One of them gurgled, its jaw unhinged, drooling thick black sludge that hissed when it hit the floor.

"Jesus Christ... Nellie muttered, stepping back instinctively, the gun rising in her grip. "You’ve gotta be kidding me." She said genuinely disgusted with the sight before her.

The creatures moved faster now, jerking forward in spasms, their nails scraping across the concrete as they closed the distance on all four.

Bang!

The first shot cracked through the air. The nearest creature’s head snapped back, a burst blood spraying the wall behind it. It didn’t drop immediately, just staggered before collapsing onto its knees, twitching on the ground like reptile tail when you cut it off, however it was dead.

"Thankfully those notes where not lying, a single headshot is enough to kill them." She muttered with a smile on her face.

The second one lunged quicker this time. As it began to scale the walls. She barely had time to react. But she fired again, it speed however was so fast that she missed. "Fuck." The creature, was now on the ceiling and it jump towards her, then she rolled to the side, her shoulder slamming into a crate. Her flashlight tumbled away, flickering across the room in rapid bursts of light and shadow.

She fired again trying to hit it.

BANGGG!...

The bullet tore through the creature’s jaw, but it kept coming, snarling, its movements erratic like a puppet on broken strings.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Each shots where directly aim at these things head, but it keep dodging it at the last minute. While also keeping it’s distance from Nellie. Not wanting to get shot in the head.

Yet the hunger it had for flesh was strong, and Nellie was most delicious prey it had scene thus far.

And as fate would have it, as she continues to kill it, then deadly fire of bullets stop. "Of fuck me." She said, as she began to run to reload her gun.

"Come on, come on... She whispered, fumbling with her reload. Her hands shook, slick with sweat and grime.

Then, the other one crawled out from the shadows behind her. It was smaller, and faster, its ribs jutting through its flesh like knives. Before she could react, it lunged at her leg, teeth sinking deep into her thigh.

"AHHHH!" Nellie screamed, the pain white-hot and sharp. She kicked wildly, firing downward

BANG!!... BANG!!...

The gun roared, and the creature’s head exploded into pulp, splattering across her boots.

She fell to one knee, clutching the wound. The edges of the bite burned like acid. She could even feel the acid spreading, tingling first, then a cold numbness that crawled upward beneath her skin.

"Oh no... no, no, no... she panted, forcing herself up. "Not like this." Her head spun. The lights in the corridor began to blur, her vision flickering between clear and distorted, like a glitching camera feed. "Shit was that fucked poisonous or something?"