Cross and Fauci walked for what had to have been a solid two minutes, eventually the staircase ended and opened up into a massive cavern. It seemed the mansion had been built on top of a cave system.
Cross also noticed several cages built into the cavern walls, each housing a zombified occupant. As they noticed the duo, the zombies reached their arms out through the bars in an attempt to grab them, but they were too far away.
“What do you think they were doing down here?”
Fauci gazed calmly at the caged zombies. “I’m not sure, though it seems whoever owned this place had a hand in creating these things. Maybe if we continue we’ll find a laboratory of some kind.”
They walked on, ignoring the zombies who couldn’t do anything to them while trapped like they were. On the far side of the cavern they entered a tunnel that continued deeper down.
Eventually Cross noticed a trail of blood on the ground. It led deeper into the tunnel.
Cross began to hear groaning noises, but they didn’t have the gurgling undertone of the zombies, He turned a corner and saw a man sitting on the ground, blood leaking from a gaping wound in his stomach.
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It was Enrique, the leader of Bravo team!
“Enrique! Are you alright?” Cross asked, eliciting a wheezing groan from Enrique.
“What does it look like?... Idiot.”
“What happened to you?” Cross asked.
Enrique’s eyes began to go hazy and distant. He wouldn’t last much longer. “W-we were… betrayed. There’s a traitor… in alpha team…”
A traitor? Who would betray SUNS?
Maybe it was Rad? He did leave them behind, after all. “Is it Rad?”
Enrique turned towards Cross, looking past him at Fauci. “N-no, it was F- AAAGH!!!” Enrique’s answer was cut off by a loud bang. Cross turned around and saw that Fauci had shot him.
Enrique died, finally succumbing to his wounds.
“Why did you do that?!” Cross demanded.
Fauci replied, calm as ever. “We already know it was Rad, and it seemed pointless to allow him to continue suffering. I put him out of his misery.”
Cross was a little angry, but he didn’t doubt Fauci. This was the man who led him, after all.
“Okay, but next time you do something like that consult me first. We need to keep moving onward, find evidence about what happened here and reunite with the rest of the team.”
The duo continued down the tunnel. Eventually they made it to a heavy steel door. Cross tried to open it but it was locked. There was a keypad to the right of the handle.
Fauci pushed Cross aside and stepped forward, entering a long sequence on the pad. “Step back, I found the code back in the mansion. Apparently, whoever owns this place is very forgetful, and keeps the codes written down on a notepad.”
They stepped in and were met with a room full of man-sized glass tubes containing various monsters and the remaining two members of their SUNS team, Barry and Vill. And they did not look pleased.