THREE YEARS BEFORE THE OUTBREAK...

The Ambrosia Project seemed to have taken a turn for the worst.

None of the test subjects could tell what went on in the advanced trial rooms, but all they could tell was that it was agonizingly painful. Screams of pain and cries for help were constantly heard around them, like tortured souls trapped in a haunted house. Anytime someone would go in, they would never come back out. The luckier test subjects only caught glimpses of the inside of the advanced trial rooms and the main things they could remember were rows of knives and scalpels and blood everywhere. The floors. The chairs. The once-white clothing of a dead test subject.

But they never saw what would actually happen to them. Or the bodies once it was all over.

While the scientists showed no emotion as they did God-knows-what to those poor subjects, Bennington was the complete opposite. He seemed to enjoy his job too much. There were times he'd walk into the mess hall wearing an apron stained red as a tomato, and he often hid bloody knives in his pockets that darkened right through his clothes. Those brave enough to talk behind his back joked that he either couldn't afford bandages or watched Monty Python so much that he began to believe every cut he received was "just a flesh wound."

As Simon and Hera cleaned blood off the seat from the last trial, Schaefer and two other scientists named Helios and Hypnos by the facility's Greek figure-themed identification system dragged the deceased test subject toward the garbage chute at the edge of the room. It was a young woman with multiple lacerations all over her body, and most of the flesh around her face was peeled off to reveal her teeth. Bennington had gotten carried away with his job.

"You're only supposed to test their pain tolerance as a result of the Ambrosia," Hypnos groaned, both out of disgust and exhaustion as he continued hauling the corpse toward the garbage chute. "No one ever told you to slice her lips off."

"Plus, I thought the point was not to kill the subjects," Helios added. "Or at least not intentionally."

"We may be striving to be gods, lads," Bennington replied. "But we're still humans. We make mistakes, some more often and more critical than others. Not everyone can be saved by our project."

"But you're not saving anyone yet," Helios said.

"Shut your mouth and open up the chute," Bennington threatened.

Helios left Hypnos and Bennington to hold the corpse as he trudged over to the chute and slid it down, revealing a dark infinite tunnel traveling deep down into the unknown. Except for the fact the "unknown" was actually the forbidden sub-levels of the facility that, as far as anyone knew, only contained garbage and the many bodies of the fallen test subjects. Being sent down the garbage chute meant being sentenced to the facility's makeshift catacombs.

But nobody ever expected a so-called corpse to lash out at them one more time.

Before the corpse could vanish into the chute forever, it jumped out at Helios and grabbed his arm with the strength of a titan. Its grip was powerful enough to leave behind bruises from the spot it lurched onto, and it tore off a good chunk of skin before disappearing into the darkness, hissing like an angry snake. Its shriek faded out as it journeyed down the chute until everything went silent and the only thing one could hear in the room was Helios muttering swears underneath his breath in pain.

"What the hell?" Hypnos said, glancing at Helios's new wound. A long bloody gash travelled along the crease of his arm, blood dripping down his skin. He quickly wrapped gauze around the new wound, the white almost instantly overtaken by dark red.

"That looks painful," Bennington said.

"No shit, Sherlock," Helios replied, grasping the gauze around his wound. "If you hand me your knife, I can show you what it feels like. You seem obsessed with taking chunks out of people. Wonder how you'd feel if the same thing happens to you."

"I'm not obsessed with mutilation. I'm fascinated by it. And not even by mutilation itself, but rather the human anatomy and its response to pain."

"So what you're saying is, you get off to other people's pain?" Hera chimed in, still cleaning blood off the seat.

"It's not arousal!" Bennington shouted. "It's intrigue. Learn the difference, idiots."

"I think you should be asking yourself that," Hera replied.

The doors to the advanced trial room opened up, and Schaefer and Artemis entered the room. Schaefer wheeled in a box on a rolling tray table covered by a tarp. The box wasn't very big, with only enough room to fit a pair of shoes.

"Careful with the doors, damn it!" Simon exclaimed. "You're not supposed to let the other subjects see what's going on in here!"

"So shouting annoyingly loud is supposed to solve the problem?" Artemis asked back.

"She's got a point," Schaefer added. "We heard you all the way down the hall. Sounded like someone got hurt." He then noticed the bloody bandage wrapped around Helios's arm. "What happened to you?"

"The bitch we killed made one final reflex," Helios replied. "Took a chunk out of my arm with its own bare hands."

"A final reflex?" Schaefer repeated.

"Yes, sir. Y'know how some corpses twitch before finally dying off? That's what this one did."

"So let me get this straight. A corpse covered with enough lacerations to result in Class III Hemorrhage along with most of its face sliced off like ham...jumped out and grabbed your arm?"

"I swear I'm not making this up. You can ask Hades and Hypnos if you want."

A smirk formed on Schaefer's face. "Not only do I believe you, Mr. Helios, I've found the cause of this little incident. Well...Artemis and I have found the cause."

"So what's the problem?" Simon asked.

Schaefer turned to Artemis. "You can take it from here."

Artemis approached the box on the tray table. With her eyes clenched shut, she quickly yanked the tarp off, revealing a glass case containing a human arm amputated at the elbow. Most of the glass was smudged bright red, and every scientist in the room either winced or gagged at the sight. Everyone except for Schaefer and Bennington.

"I remember that," Bennington grinned sadistically.

Artemis gave him a dirty look. "I'm afraid we're not here to put the spotlight on a deranged psychopath like you. We'll be investigating what you've done to the people we call our test subjects."

"People or test subjects? They can't be the same thing. This project requires too many risks. Too many things to feel guilty about if you focus on their pain. And I'd rather ignore those feelings of guilt for the sake of this project."

Artemis rolled her eyes and slid on some gloves. "So, Helios, you claim the corpse of your last trial participant attacked you. Is that true?"

"What are you, a constable?" Helios retorted. "Of course it's true. You wanna see the empty hole where the piece of my arm used to be?"

"No, thank you. We already have an arm to work with."

"It'll regenerate, right?" Simon asked sheepishly. "Right?"

"I'm afraid not," Schaefer replied. "The removal of this arm is what killed the subject it belonged to."

"But back to the point," Artemis continued. "Zeus and I have discovered the cause of these test subjects'...inability to die, I guess you could say. In a way, our project is working, just not in the way anyone was hoping."

"How is it still considered working?" Hypnos asked.

"The same reason we have this arm," Artemis replied. "The Ambrosia is still doing its job."

She and Schaefer covered their faces with masks and opened up the glass case. Doing everything she could to not puke, Artemis lifted the arm out of the box and placed it down in a silver tray. Droplets of blood dotted the table and the tray as she transported it.

"Scalpel," Artemis ordered.

Bennington handed his scalpel over. "I like where this is going, but what's the idea?" he asked.

"Blood film," she said. Once again Bennington handed her what she needed, a small glass slide thin as a sheet of paper. "And wait and see."

"Ooh, a surprise," Hera chimed in. "It better be a good one."

Artemis held the blood film and played around with it, tossing it around in her hands. "What was the average time it took for a cut to heal using Ambrosia?" she asked.

"Three to five minutes if the subject survives," Simon replied. "Why?"

"Somebody set a timer and record this."

She grabbed the scalpel and placed its blade against the wrist of the arm. She then quickly sliced downward, wincing as it cut through with ease. Blood poured out of the new incision and dripped onto the film, leaving behind a trail of red. And once the blood stopped flowing, everyone realized the cut healed in seconds.

No scab or puss or any sign of a cut. Just plain unharmed skin, aside from the blood stains.

"Two seconds," Hera declared with astonishment as she paused the timer.

"That healed in a blink," Simon said, equally stupefied.

Artemis picked up the film, which was now stained a brownish-red. She walked toward the other table and brought the microscope closer to her. She placed the blood film on the stage and slid the clips over the film to keep it from falling off. Then she proceeded to adjust the knobs.

"What were we ordered to say whenever someone asks what Ambrosia is?" Artemis asked, her eyes focused on the blood sample.

"That it's none of their business," Simon replied. Hera punched him in the ribs, indicating that it was the wrong answer. "Sorry," he continued. "We explain that the Ambrosia is a swarm of self-replicating nanobots providing its host with enhanced healing qualities, strength, and agility. A comic book fan's dream come true."

"Well how do we explain to them that those effects work best after the host has died?"

Every single person in the room, except Schaefer since he already knew what the problem was, raised their eyebrows in concern. "What the hell does that mean?" Helios asked, still clutching his wound.

Artemis glanced over at Simon. "Poseidon, come over here and check this out."

Simon walked over to Artemis, and the two traded places as Simon leaned into the eyepiece and gazed through the lens. The bright crimson beads representing the blood cells remained mostly stationary, but multiple black, hexagonal dots raced through the redness like insects. Each dot represented an Ambrosia bot, with a small red light in the middle.

"What do you see?" Artemis asked.

"Just a bunch of nanites," Simon replied, still watching the bots scatter. "But they're so energetic. They shouldn't be this fast in a corpse's bloodstream. In fact, they should be deactivated once the brain has been destroyed. How are they still moving?"

Schaefer snapped his fingers. "Glad you asked that, lad. The person this arm used to belong to was killed ten minutes ago in another advanced trial room. He bled to death, but his brain is still intact. We assume that's why the Ambrosia is still active in his body."

"However," Artemis added, "since the limb has been removed from the rest of his body, these nanites will slowly deactivate overtime since this injury is too critical to heal and since they have no contact with the brain."

"But wasn't one of the perks of Ambrosia the ability to heal lost limbs?" Hypnos asked.

"Yes, but it only regenerates from the torso. Dismembered limbs can't reconnect themselves. Only new ones can form. So in a few minutes, this arm will be rendered useless."

"But why did it attack me?" Helios shouted. "That's the only damn reason why I'm still even interested in what you have to say!"

More scientists entered the room, wheeling in a bigger box hidden under another tarp. They quickly exited the room and left the others to do what they wanted. Schaefer yanked the tarp off, revealing a large glass case containing what was left of the test subject the arm belonged to. Nothing but a torso with only its head, its right arm, and the generic uniform all of the test subjects were required to wear, now soaked in blood.

The worst part was the fact the test subject was still alive. Or at the very least, sentient.

"What the bloody hell?!" Simon exclaimed, covering his eyes in disgust.

"Meet Perseus," Schaefer explained. "Notice how even after all of the horrific mutilations and blood loss, he's still awake and aware."

"Sir," Hera attempted to speak to the corpse. "Are you all right?"

The corpse didn't look at her. It lunged at the surface of the glass case, using its remaining arm to scratch through. Beastly screeching noises left its throat instead of words or cries for help. It hardly even resembled a human anymore. It was a greenish-pale color and its eyes were completely devoid of life or color.

"They don't seem to know how to speak English anymore," Schaefer replied. He put on some gloves and walked over to Artemis to retrieve the arm.

He lifted it out of the case and returned to the remains of the corpse. Standing as far away as he could, he hung the dismembered arm over the glass case holding the creature and taunted it like if he were baiting a wild animal. The creature tried pushing itself through the lid of the case, but the bulletproof glass and locks prevented it from getting out.

"Looks pretty feral, innit?" Schaefer said. "Do you know how to piss it off even more?"

Schaefer handed the arm back to Artemis, much to her disgust, and pulled out a small razor blade. He pressed the blade against his hand and quickly slid it across, leaving behind a short cut oozing out tiny orbs of blood. And just as promised, the creature became twice as angry as it was before, like if Schaefer had somehow hurt it on a personal level.

"If that thing didn't want you dead before, it definitely wants you dead now," Hera said, a darkly comedic smirk forming across her face.

The creature was banging on the glass so violently that cracks began forming on the lid, and it began staining the inside of the case with its own blood with every impact of its skull against the glass. Its head convulsed with every rage-fueled shriek, like if the Devil himself was trying to escape this body.

"What the fuck did you do to that thing?!" Helios yelled, getting his gun ready.

The corpse broke through the top of the case and rolled onto the floor, its sharp screams filling the room. With its one arm, it began dragging itself toward the others, caking the floor with its innards.

"Give it the arm!" Simon yelled.

Artemis grabbed the limb and through it to the floor in front of the creature. However, it continued scraping its way towards Schaefer, acknowledging the lack of purpose his lost arm now had.

Schaefer pulled out his gun and shot the creature in its hand and its back to slow it down. Not only did those shots do nothing to stop it, the bullets slid back out of its new wounds to the floor like snakes slithering out of their burrows. Then the wounds healed up as fast as the cut on the arm did.

"Witchcraft!" Simon exclaimed.

Schaefer fired again, this time aiming only at its head. After three shots to the skull, the creature plopped its head on the floor and remained motionless. Blood pooled underneath the new holes in its skull, and it took the others ten minutes to wait before finally declaring it dead.

"Should we throw it down the garbage chute?" Artemis asked.

"Absolutely not," Schaefer replied. "We burn it. Right here in the middle of the room. Somebody get the gasoline and the matches."

"But what was the point of all this?" Bennington asked.

"Don't you get it? These things aren't dying. And now in this new reanimated state, they seem to be aggressive toward those without Ambrosia coursing through their veins, especially ones with injuries."

"Exclusively the injured ones?" Simon asked, preparing a notepad to scribble down notes.

"No, sir. Just anyone without Ambrosia. We're all prey, but the injured ones seem to be the easiest to catch."

"But what could their motive be?" Hera asked.

"The Ambrosia seems to have mutated into some kind of artificial parasite. And now it wants to replicate by spreading to other hosts."

Helios gasped. "So does that mean...if that thing bites you, that's the end of that?!"

"Without a doubt."

"So what do we do, sir?" Artemis asked.

"Two things. First, we need to find out what's corrupting the Ambrosia."

"And then?"

Schaefer glanced over at Bennington, a sinister look in his eyes. "We'll have to eradicate everyone hosting the nanites."