At that moment, Arya noticed Bayu's bound hands twitching unnaturally. His fingers stretched and shrank on their own, and his skin rippled—like something slithered beneath the surface. Arya's gut twisted. He watched, horrified, as something moved under Bayu's flesh like a snake coiling through muscle.
"Run…" Bayu whispered, voice cracked and barely audible.
"They… put something inside me. I can… feel it taking over…"
Before Arya could respond, the mutated figures around them started moving in. Jerky, inhuman. Some walked on reversed joints, others crawled across the walls like spiders. A few leapt with unnatural height.
Arya's instincts snapped into place. He raised his Glock—two shots to the nearest heads. They dropped like sacks of meat.
Then they stood again.
Twisting. Reanimating. The holes in their skulls closed, skin knitting together. Their blood was thick and black, more tar than liquid. Their dead eyes now glowed with red light.
"Pointless, Mr. Arya," came the professor's voice through overhead speakers—calm, smug.
"They've evolved beyond human frailty. Your friend will soon join them."
Arya turned to Bayu, now convulsing violently. His body arched in the chair, limbs twitching, mouth bubbling black-tinged foam. The veins across his body bulged, black and pulsing like worms under glass.
"What the hell do you want?!" Arya roared.
"To create perfection," Professor Hadiwijaya replied, his voice soaked in zeal.
"Immortals. Immune to pain, disease, death. And we found the key—an ancient parasite, buried for millennia in a Kalimantan cave. It fuses with human DNA. Grants regeneration. Power. Control."
"And turns people into monsters," Arya snapped, eyes darting between Bayu and the encroaching horrors.
"Sacrifice," the professor said coolly.
"Necessary for progress. You and Mr. Bayu… ideal test subjects. Your military backgrounds make you uniquely suited."
The mutants surged. Arya fired—not to kill, but to cripple. Knees, joints, tendons. He slowed them, then spotted it: a tank in the corner, filled with swirling green liquid. Wires. Machines. Central system.
The heart of this nightmare.
"Hang on, Bayu," he muttered, then charged.
Tentacles lashed out. Claws slashed. One mutant sprayed boiling black bile. Arya ducked, rolled, slipped past them with soldier's grace.
"STOP HIM!" Hadiwijaya's voice cracked with panic.
"DON'T LET HIM DESTROY THE TANK!"
Too late.
Arya reached the tank. Emptied his clip into the glass.
CRACK. BOOM.
It shattered—green fluid gushed onto the floor. Steam and stench filled the air. Alarms wailed. Red lights blinked like blood vessels about to burst.
"No!" the professor screamed.
"You don't know what you've done! We were so close!"
The mutants writhed. Some collapsed in seizures. Others screamed—feral, broken sounds—as their bodies began to melt. Flesh sloughed off like wax. A few exploded into pools of black goo.
Arya sprinted back to Bayu, slashing through his restraints.
"Let's go! We're getting out of here!"
But Bayu didn't move.
His body had gone rigid. Skin pale. Veins pulsing like snakes.
"Too late… for me…" Bayu croaked, his voice hollow.
"But not for you…"
Suddenly, he shoved Arya back with inhuman strength.
"RUN!"
Arya stumbled, eyes wide in horror.
Bayu's body twisted—mutating fast. Bones cracked and reformed. Skin tore open, revealing raw muscle and alien growths. Something inside him screamed to be let out.
"RUN, DAMN IT!" Bayu roared again—his voice deeper now, layered with something inhuman.
Explosions rocked the building. Smoke poured from the walls. Emergency failsafes were triggering—destruction protocols. They were sealing the facility.
Arya hesitated—one second too long.
Then he turned and ran.
The warehouse behind him erupted. Fire belched into the sky. The shockwave threw Arya into the mud outside. Rain poured. Sirens screamed. Smoke blotted out the stars.
He crawled up, bloodied and shaking. Looked back at the inferno.
The warehouse was gone.
And so was Bayu.
Rain washed over his face—mixing with tears.
"Bayu…" Arya whispered.
A part of him had died in there.
His brother.
Gone.