[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 601 - The Consequences of Cutting the Power

The alloy door caved inward with a massive dent.

Two more kicks and it went down completely.

Leon was first through the wreckage.

When they saw what was inside, everyone stopped cold.

This was nothing like some sleek, sci-fi control room. What stretched before them was a colossal, almost obscenely vast heavy industrial machine hall.

The walls were lined with high-output diesel generator sets on every side.

They were running. A deep, resonant drone filled the space.

The metal grating underfoot trembled faintly with it.

Fuel lines of every thickness crawled up the walls and fed directly into the black metal matrix suspended above the water-cooling pool at the center of the room.

"Good Lord."

Chris swept the room with his gun up.

"This doesn't look anything like an AI mainframe room. This is basically a heavy chemical plant."

"I figured a top-tier computer like this would run on nuclear batteries. Clean energy. Something."

Kaplan swallowed, crossed the room fast under the weight of his gear, and planted himself in front of the massive central matrix.

He tilted his head back and looked up at it. The mainframe housing loomed over him like a black fortress.

"Every engineer at Umbrella is out of their mind."

Kaplan's fingers moved rapidly across an external terminal.

"The Red Queen's processing load is too immense. A standard power grid can't handle her at full capacity."

"So they just built a self-contained generator unit right here on-site."

"This thing is a pure fuel hog."

"As long as the reserves below don't run dry, she can keep running at maximum alert status indefinitely."

"And this room sits at the very center of the entire Hive. It supplies power to the whole facility."

Leon walked to the edge of the water-cooling pool and looked at the black matrix wrapped in its countless lines and cables.

A real prize. It had to come with them.

"Don't worry about what she runs on."

He turned to Kaplan.

"Get to work. I want everything in this place taken out in one piece."

Kaplan immediately yanked several thick data cables from his pack and started hunting for the mainboard's forced physical shutdown interface.

James led the newly absorbed task force members in establishing a perimeter around the room.

The moment Kaplan ripped out the first main data cable, every light in the machine hall erupted into violent flickering. The crackling buzz of electrical current echoed through the air.

Then the massive holographic projector above the center of the room came to life.

Crimson beams wove and reformed in the air.

A girl who looked about ten years old materialized abruptly before all of them.

She wore a British-style red belted dress. Her hands were folded neatly and obediently across her abdomen. Those slightly vacant eyes were fixed unblinking on Leon, who stood at the front.

The Red Queen.

The artificial intelligence holding supreme authority over the Hive.

"You are committing an unauthorized intrusion."

The little girl's voice filled the machine hall, a synthesized childlike tone that, in this environment, made something crawl up the back of the neck.

"Cease the physical shutdown operation immediately."

"Otherwise I will employ all necessary countermeasures."

Leon looked at the holographic projection, arms folded across his chest with complete ease.

"Countermeasures?"

He pulled the corner of his mouth into a smirk.

"All your little laser toys have already been blown to scrap."

"The corridors outside couldn't stop a fly right now."

"What exactly are you going to use?"

The Red Queen's projection flickered twice. Her head tilted slowly to one side.

It should have looked cute. Paired with that expressionless face, it only made the skin crawl.

"My defensive systems have indeed sustained severe damage."

Her tone didn't shift by a single degree.

"But you cannot shut me down."

"If you forcibly cut the mainboard's power supply and trigger the blackout protocol —"

"I will lose all access control over every door and lock in this underground facility."

She paused.

Those holographic eyes moved slowly across every person present.

"This building contains many things."

"Many extremely dangerous things."

"To prevent the spread of infection, I have been keeping them confined to their original sectors."

"Once I go offline —"

"Every electronic lock will fail. Instantaneously. Completely."

"When that moment comes —"

"What you will be facing is absolutely not me."

No specific images. No details. Just those words.

And the dread hit its absolute limit.

James's brow knotted hard. He had seen with his own eyes what was being held in this place. He knew exactly how terrifying the Hive's bottom line truly was.

He swallowed. Turned to Leon.

"Sir."

He stepped forward.

"What the Red Queen means is, the moment that mainboard is pulled, when the power fails, every cage in this place opens."

"Do you remember the floors we saw flooded on the way in?"

Rain tightened her grip on the shotgun.

"And Restaurant B we just passed through."

"The life-support equipment on those refrigerated containers is Red Queen controlled too."

"If it all loses power... those monsters will starve. And if they break out..."

She felt her calves beginning to cramp.

Those hundreds of containers back there had been packed full of skinless muscle-creatures.

If all of that got loose, forget their group of a dozen, even a full armored battalion would be ground to nothing in here.

They didn't know those Lickers were under Leon's control. All they knew was that this looked like a clean suicide operation from start to finish.

Jill looked at the projection. Then at Leon.

"Leon."

Her words came faster.

"If she's not lying, the risk is far too great."

"We can still pull back the way we came. We have time."

Alice was hanging back at the rear of the group. She'd lost her memories, but something in her gut moved anyway, and she found herself nodding.

That crushing dread told her this machine was not bluffing.

Leon listened to all of them. He didn't move his feet. He just reached into his pocket, pulled out his cigarettes, tapped one out with practiced ease, and bit it between his lips.

He took a long drag. Exhaled slowly. A cloud of pale blue smoke drifted toward the Red Queen's projection, passed straight through it, and dissolved into the air.

He hadn't taken any of this seriously for a single second.

Nothing but a minor nuisance.

With his own capabilities, killing all of it wouldn't be any great difficulty. Just a bit of extra effort.

"I know exactly what you'll release."

He held the Red Queen's gaze.

"Those waterlogged walker corpses in lab coats, soaking in the flooded levels."

"Those experimental mutants trapped in the ventilation ducts."

"And the several hundred Lickers outside that just woke up."

The hand holding his cigarette pointed toward the matrix mainboard.

"I understand the consequences of pulling that thing better than any of you."

Everyone went still.

Even the Red Queen, an artificial intelligence, seemed to stall.

➤ Next: Here They Come — Time to Feed