CHAPTER 109: Hell in Berlin - Part 2

CHAPTER 109: Hell in Berlin - Part 2

They advanced through the gloom of the tunnel, water dripping in a sparse rhythm that marked their steps. The walls smelled of dampness and rust; the light from Anna's flashlight cast shadows that seemed to move with a life of their own.

"How many bullets do you have left?" asked Fénix, without stopping his scrutiny of the darkness.

Anna looked at the magazine with trembling hands and said, without raising her voice:
"Seven. I only have seven left."

Fénix stopped walking, looked at her for a second, then calmly drew his pistol. He offered it to her:
"Take it. You carry it."

Anna looked at him, incredulous.
"Are you sure?" she asked. "With what's up there…"

He smiled with a certain irony, revealing the edges of the scar on his temple.
"Yes. I don't need a weapon to fight." His words sounded more like a promise than pride. "After all, I am the strongest."

Anna's mouth fell slightly open; doubt and loyalty mixed on her face.
"And what do we do now?" she finally asked, tightening her grip on the handle.

Fénix leaned his back against the cold tunnel wall and looked toward the entrance they had come from, where the city's screams still echoed faintly in the distance.

"The city is surely full of those lab-grown vampires," he said in a low voice. "This isn't an isolated incident. It wasn't a targeted attack: it's a mass release. Berlin no longer belongs to the living."

Anna felt a shiver run through her.

"So then…?" she stammered.

"What we must do now," he replied, with the dry coldness of a plan, "is regroup with the rest of the team. And abandon the city. We can't fight a war of this scale on our own. If we want to live to fight another day, we have to retreat and regroup."

Anna swallowed, absorbing the harshness of the order.
"You're going to leave?" she asked quietly, almost without hope.

Fénix shook his head, looking ahead as if he could already see the map in the darkness.
"No. I'm going to secure the retreat. And if an opportunity arises to stop this now… we'll take it. But not here. Not in the middle of a slaughter where every second lost is another life gone."

She pressed the pistol against her chest, and for the first time since the nightmare began, her gaze held a glimmer of resolution.

"Then let's go find them," she said. "Let's get the rest of the team."

They walked together, faster this time, the echo of their footsteps marking the start of a necessary and cold retreat, while above them the city they knew fell, consumed by the night.

The hell in Berlin unleashed its fury without mercy. The vampires created in Antigen's labs were not elegant or manipulative creatures; they were deformed monsters, barely conscious, more akin to a horde of zombies than thinking beings. Within hours, the city was reduced to a death trap.

The slaughter began in the subway stations, strategic points for dispersing the creatures. Within seconds, people waiting for trains were reduced to a torn mass of flesh and bone. The creatures lunged like whirlwinds of teeth and claws, ripping off limbs and crushing skulls without distinction of gender, age, or status.

Piercing screams echoed through the streets and tunnels. Attempts to escape quickly met reality: all exits from Berlin were blocked. Collapsed buildings, overturned cars, immense rubble, and improvised barricades turned any access point into an impassable nightmare. It was as if the city itself had conspired to ensure no one could leave.

To make matters worse, Berlin's infrastructure completely collapsed. Explosions from factories, gas stations, and abandoned vehicles caused fires that spread uncontrollably, enveloping large sectors of the city in flames. Emergency services were the first to fall, and any attempt at containment became useless.

Skyscrapers collapsed like houses of cards, crushing those seeking shelter beneath them. The sky was covered in black smoke, and the few remaining lights flickered as if taking their last breaths before going out forever. The streets were a cemetery, covered in corpses, abandoned vehicles, and unrecognizable human remains.

Before the disaster, Berlin was home to over 3.7 million people. Within hours, that number dropped drastically. By the time the chaos reached its peak, only a few thousand survivors remained, hidden in basements, tunnels, or sealed rooms.

Many of them wouldn't last much longer: the infected vampires didn't stop for hunger or fatigue. Any corner where a human tried to take refuge was, sooner or later, found and ransacked by the creatures.

The most terrifying thing was that the fire not only destroyed the city but also any hope. Communications were cut, phones didn't work, and escape routes were blocked by mountains of rubble. Even helicopters sent to evacuate the few surviving authorities couldn't land, forced to retreat as the creatures stalked them from the rooftops.

Berlin, one of Europe's most iconic cities, had become a burning prison. Without supplies, without evacuation routes, without salvation. What was once a vibrant, multicultural metropolis was now a dead zone, where only a few could boast of still breathing. And although the situation seemed like something out of an apocalyptic movie, the reality was much crueler.

Any attempt to contact the outside world was met with indifference or silence. The few hopes of rescue were extinguished with each passing minute. Meanwhile, the fire spread relentlessly, devouring what was left of the city. The black smoke rose like a monument to the tragedy, visible from miles away. Berlin had literally become hell on Earth.

No one was coming to help. And for the few who still lived, the only option was to flee into the tunnels... or die waiting.

The number of Berlin's inhabitants had fallen by a staggering percentage: from 3.7 million, only about 10,000 remained, scattered and terrified, without resources or support. The rest had turned to ashes, corpses, or worse, food for the unleashed beasts.