SFS Chapter 193: Got the Doctor
Chapter 193: Got the Doctor
"...Who’s there?"
The weak female voice echoed faintly through the intercom beside the reinforced blast door.
For a brief moment, nobody answered.
The operators kept rifles raised toward the dark corridors behind them while the emergency lights flickered weakly overhead.
Ryan slowly stepped closer toward the intercom panel.
"We’re friendlies," he answered first. "Hopefully."
Adrian immediately gave him a look.
Ryan shrugged slightly.
"What? I’m trying to sound approachable."
The intercom remained silent for several seconds afterward.
Then finally.
"...Identify yourselves."
The woman’s voice sounded exhausted.
Adrian stepped toward the speaker.
"My name is Adrian. We are a private military force operating out of the Philippines."
Silence again.
Then.
"...Philippines?"
"Yes."
Another long pause followed afterward.
The operators continued scanning the corridor while distant sounds echoed faintly somewhere deeper underground.
Metal scraping.
Movement.
The infected were still nearby.
Watching.
The woman finally spoke again.
"...How did you even get here?"
Adrian answered calmly.
"We made contact with surviving Chinese naval personnel in the Philippine Sea. Captain Liu told us about you."
That immediately changed the atmosphere behind the intercom.
"...Liu is alive?"
"Yes."
The woman exhaled shakily afterward.
For the first time, emotion slipped into her voice.
"...I thought everyone was dead."
Ryan quietly muttered—
"Honestly, most people are."
One operator beside him elbowed him lightly.
"What?"
The intercom clicked softly again afterward.
Then a deep metallic sound echoed from inside the reinforced blast door.
LOCKS DISENGAGING.
The operators immediately raised weapons higher.
Hydraulic systems groaned loudly.
The blast door slowly began opening inward.
Cold air rushed outward from the containment sector beyond.
The team immediately aimed into the darkness inside.
But instead of infected. They saw light.
Actual stable lighting.
The containment sector beyond looked far cleaner than the corridors outside. Emergency backup systems still powered portions of the underground laboratory while reinforced walls and sealed bulkhead doors lined the inner sector.
And standing roughly ten meters inside—
Was a woman.
Doctor Lin Mei.
She looked somewhere in her mid-thirties. She was also tall and beautiful.
Even exhausted, she still carried an almost elegant appearance beneath the harsh white laboratory lights.
Her dark hair was tied loosely behind her head while several strands fell near her face from exhaustion. She wore a fitted white laboratory coat over black thermal clothing, though parts of the coat were stained with blood, dirt, and grease from months underground.
Despite the situation. Ryan’s first thought was immediate.
"...Damn."
One operator quietly muttered.
"Bro."
Ryan cleared his throat instantly.
"What? I was just surprised she’s alive."
Doctor Lin looked pale and tired, but her eyes remained sharp.
The kind of eyes Adrian immediately recognized from scientists and military analysts who had spent too long surviving under pressure.
She studied the armed team cautiously.
Then her eyes stopped briefly on the Chinese flag patch attached to one operator’s gear.
"You really came..."
Adrian slowly lowered his rifle afterward.
"Doctor Lin Mei?"
"Yes."
Adrian nodded once.
"We’re here to extract you."
The woman looked toward the operators behind him.
Then toward the corridor beyond the blast door where distant screams still occasionally echoed faintly underground.
"...You crossed all of that just for me?"
Adrian answered honestly.
"No."
That caught her slightly off guard.
"We came because we believe you know something about the outbreak."
Doctor Lin slowly stared at him for several moments.
Then quietly.
"I do."
The atmosphere inside the containment entrance immediately became heavier afterward.
Even Ryan stopped joking.
Because everyone there understood the importance of those three words.
I do.
Doctor Lin stepped slightly farther back inside the containment sector afterward.
"Get inside first. We cannot leave the blast door open."
Adrian immediately nodded.
"Move."
The operators entered quickly while maintaining security formation.
The moment the last man crossed the threshold, the blast door began sealing shut behind them.
CLANG.
Massive locking bolts engaged instantly.
The sounds from the outer corridors became muffled almost immediately afterward.
The containment sector felt different from the rest of the underground facility.
Portable generators hummed softly deeper inside the laboratory while stacks of ration packs, water containers, medical supplies, and scientific equipment lined portions of the walls.
Several sealed body bags rested quietly near one corner beneath white sheets.
Ryan noticed them immediately.
"...Not everybody made it?"
Doctor Lin looked toward the covered bodies briefly.
"No."
Her voice remained calm.
Too calm.
Like somebody already exhausted from grieving months earlier.
Adrian removed his respirator mask slowly afterward.
The air inside the containment sector felt cleaner.
Filtered.
Doctor Lin watched him carefully.
"You’re not military."
"No."
"But you operate like military."
Ryan answered for him.
"We’re basically military with less paperwork."
Again, one operator elbowed him lightly.
Doctor Lin actually smiled faintly at that.
Very faintly.
But it was there.
Then her expression became serious again.
"You said Captain Liu contacted you."
"Yes."
"He told you about Beijing?"
Adrian nodded once.
"He told us enough."
Doctor Lin slowly looked downward briefly.
"No. He didn’t."
Silence followed afterward.
Then suddenly—
A deep distant rumble echoed faintly through the underground structure.
Everyone immediately looked upward.
The vibration felt subtle.
But real.
Ryan frowned slightly.
"What was that?"
Doctor Lin’s eyes widened slightly afterward.
"They’re gathering again."
Adrian immediately focused.
"The infected?"
"Yes."
She pointed vaguely upward toward the surface.
"They’ve been becoming more aggressive over the past several days."
Ryan slowly looked toward Adrian.
"...That’s not suspicious timing at all."
Adrian already understood the problem.
The infected above were concentrating around this sector.
And if enough gathered—
Eventually even reinforced containment sectors would fail.
Doctor Lin noticed Adrian’s expression immediately.
"You understand now why I could not simply wait forever."
Adrian nodded once.
Then without hesitation—
He activated the encrypted radio mounted onto his vest.
"Adrian to Changzheng-418."
Static crackled briefly.
Then Captain Liu’s voice answered.
"Changzheng-418 receiving."
Adrian looked toward the ceiling above them.
"We reached Doctor Lin."
A brief silence followed.
Then Captain Liu answered quietly.
"Understood."
Adrian’s expression hardened slightly afterward.
"Prepare missile strike package on Beijing surface sectors surrounding our extraction route."
Even Doctor Lin looked toward him sharply hearing that.
Ryan slowly grinned beneath the tension.
"Oh..."
He looked toward the operators.
"...This is gonna get loud."
Captain Liu answered immediately.
"Confirmed. Type-094 launch systems already standing by."
The Chinese ballistic missile submarine.
Changzheng-418.
Even submerged far from Beijing.
It still carried enough firepower to devastate entire districts.
Adrian continued calmly.
"Target infected concentrations around western containment sectors. Prioritize surface swarm reduction."
Captain Liu’s voice remained steady through the radio.
"Understood."
Then more formally.
"Preparing JL-2 ballistic missile strike package."
Doctor Lin blinked slightly.
"You’re launching submarine ballistic missiles into Beijing?"
Ryan answered first.
"Well technically Beijing already got nuked before."
"That’s not helping," one operator muttered.
Far beneath the Philippine Sea, inside the Changzheng-418, warning alarms began illuminating quietly across the missile control compartment.
Chinese naval personnel moved immediately between launch consoles while targeting data streamed across tactical displays.
"JL-2 targeting packages uploaded."
"Launch vectors confirmed."
"Surface swarm coordinates locked."
The JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missiles were originally designed for strategic nuclear deployment.
But now. Their conventional warheads would become anti-horde weapons.
Captain Liu stood silently behind the launch officers while watching the targeting grids populate across the screen.
Ruined Beijing.
Surface infected concentrations.
Extraction corridors.
Then finally. the launch officer looked upward.
"Missiles ready."
Captain Liu nodded slowly.
"Fire."