Chapter 31: The Red Hatch第三十一章：猩红舱门
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Darkness down here wasn't just empty space. It had actual weight. It pressed on my eyes like a heavy wool blanket soaking in dirty motor oil.
Commence purge.
The words were still rattling inside my head when the air in front of my face just ripped apart. I didn't think. I just dropped.
Something wet, something heavy, swung right through the spot my head had occupied half a second ago. The wind off the swing whipped my hair back. Whatever the hell that muscle-freak was made of, it slammed into the steel bulkhead behind me with a deafening CRACK. It actually dented the reinforced alloy.
My heart was beating so fast it hurt. HUD dead. Flashlight fried. Time to go old school.
I rolled hard right, fingers fumbling blindly at my chest rig. Found it. Snapped the plastic stick of an emergency chem-flare and cracked it hard against the floor grate.
Sick, bleeding neon red flooded the room.
What the red light showed us belonged in hell. The relay station wasn't a room anymore—it looked like the inside of a stomach. Those black cables that spilled out of Lu Yan’s arm? They had multiplied. It was a massive, twitching web now, pinning the mummified researcher straight to the ceiling.
The dead guy's jaw was unhinged. Stretched wide open. Down his dry throat, this nasty green light pulsed right in time with the station's dying power grid. And Lu Yan? Hung under him like a puppet. Her head was twisted all the way backward. Unblinking dead eyes staring straight into my red flare.
"Synchronization at eighty percent," she droned out. Her jaw moved in these weird, rigid snaps.
Before I could even wrap my head around that nightmare, a roar rattled the deck plates. The fake Chen—that thing made of muscle—was yanking its fused fist out of the dented wall. In the red light, I saw its wet, grey fibers twisting and stitching back together. Healing instantly. The slit on its face opened up, showing rows of jagged stuff that looked way too much like human teeth.
It lunged.
I scrambled backward, kicking the rolling swivel chair right at its legs. It didn't even care. Smashed right through the plastic and metal. But that gave me a split second.
I dove under the main console, sliding on the greasy floorboards. My shoulder snagged on something sharp.
A maintenance hatch.
Right under where the mummy’s chair used to be. The heavy steel was warped, probably from those bio-cables tearing up the sub-floor. Right in the middle, buried under fifty years of grime, was a Pan-Asia Corp biohazard seal. Level 9 Override Required.
I didn't have a code. I had a heavy tungsten combat knife and absolutely nothing to lose.
I jammed the blade into the bent gap, throwing my whole body weight onto the hilt. Above me, the console screamed. The muscle-thing was literally tearing the metal desk apart to reach me. Sparks and busted glass rained down on my neck.
CREAAAK.
The rusted lock gave out. The hatch dropped open into pitch black. A blast of freezing air hit my face. It smelled like ancient dust and preserved blood.
Then a massive grey hand clamped onto my ankle.
The grip was insane, crushing my boot and the bone right under it. It started dragging me back. Its vertical mouth opened wide, dripping black sludge.
I screamed, twisted my body around, and ripped my sidearm out of the holster. I didn't aim. I just jammed the barrel toward its featureless face and pulled the trigger three times point-blank.
Chunks of grey meat blew off its head. It flinched. The grip loosened for maybe a microsecond, but I violently kicked free, threw my legs into the open hatch, and just let go.
Down I went.
The monster's roaring and Lu Yan’s mechanical chanting got swallowed by the rushing wind. I was sliding down a steep, slick pipe. It felt like forever. I clamped the red flare in my teeth, trying to use my hands to brake against the metal walls.
Finally, the pipe spat me out. I crashed hard onto a rusted catwalk.
Knocked the wind right out of me. I lay there in the freezing dark, gasping. The red glow lit up this massive, echoing cave. It was huge enough to swallow a skyscraper. And sticking to the giant pillars in the distance were these huge, throbbing sacs of grey tissue.
I couldn't even stand up before my earpiece—completely dead since we got here—suddenly crackled with static.
I froze.
A voice cut through the noise. Calm. Cold. Just... doing a job.
"Biological sweep complete. Target Yun Feng successfully terminated in Relay Station 4. Proceeding with memory extraction for the next clone."
My blood went ice cold. It wasn't Old Chen’s voice. Not Lu Yan’s either.
It was mine.
那种黑，绝不仅仅是光线的缺失。它带着一种物理上的重量，浓稠、窒息，像是一条浸透了废机油的厚重羊毛毯，死死捂住了我的眼球。
“开始清理。”
当这四个字还在我的颅骨里嗡嗡回荡时，我面前的空气突然被一股恐怖的力量极其粗暴地撕裂。我脑子里根本来不及转任何念头，身体凭着本能直接往下猛地一缩。
一团沉重且湿漉漉的巨大阴影，几乎贴着我的头皮呼啸着横扫过去。那纯粹的动能甚至在狭窄的空间里扯出了一道真空，把我的头发狠狠刮在脸上。不管刚才袭击我的是个什么鬼东西，它最终重重地砸在了我身后的钢制舱壁上。伴随着一声震耳欲聋的巨响，那块高强度的装甲板竟然像块破铁皮一样被砸得凹陷了进去。
我的心脏在肋骨下面疯狂撞击，像一只被困在绞肉机里的死鸟。战术HUD彻底死了，强光手电也烧了，但我还有最原始的物理装备。
我连滚带爬地向右侧翻，大拇指哆嗦着摸向胸前的战术附包，一把扯出一根军用化学荧光棒，用力折断塑料管，猛地在铁网地板上一磕。
刺眼的、宛如鲜血般浓郁的猩红荧光，瞬间暴雨般倾泻在整个房间里。
红光照亮的那一幕，绝对只应该存在于地狱最深处。这个中继站现在看起来已经不再是个房间，而更像是一个正在蠕动的巨大胃袋。从陆嫣裂开的小臂里涌出的黑色生物光缆，此刻已经疯狂增殖，交织成了一张巨大的、如同心脏般跳动的黑色脉络网，将那具干尸研究员死死地钉在了天花板上。
干尸的下巴已经完全脱臼，张开到一个人类绝对无法达到的恐怖角度。在它干瘪的喉管深处，那种病态的绿光正伴随着整个空间站奄奄一息的电网频率剧烈闪烁。而陆嫣，就像一个破布娃娃一样被挂在下面。她的头颅以一种完全违背生理结构的方式向后折断着一百八十度，那双死鱼般的眼睛，正定定地盯着我手里荧光棒的红光。
“同步率百分之八十，”她机械地张合着下巴，发出令人牙酸的咔咔声。
还没等我的理智消化眼前这场噩梦，一声粗糙的嘶吼震得脚下的钢板都在发颤。那个肌肉怪物——那个对老陈拙劣的模仿体——正把它那畸形融合的巨拳从凹陷的舱壁里拔出来。红光下，我清楚地看到它身上那些湿漉漉的灰色肌肉纤维正在像活物一样迅速交织、蠕动，几乎在瞬间就修复了撞击的损伤。它那张没有五官的脸上，那道垂直的裂隙猛地张开，露出一排排半透明的、极度形似人类牙齿的锯齿。
它再次扑了过来。
我疯狂向后倒退，顺起脚边那把带轮子的转椅直接踹向它的必经之路。那怪物连顿都没顿一下，直接撞碎了转椅，塑料和金属零件四下飞溅。但这转瞬即逝的半秒钟，就是我要的全部。
我直接一个滑铲钻进了主控台下方。就在我贴着油腻的铁网地板滑行时，我的肩膀磕到了一个坚硬的凸起物。
是一个维修舱门。
这玩意儿就藏在干尸之前坐的那把椅子正下方的地板上。厚重的钢板边缘已经严重变形，估计是被那些生物光缆粗壮的根系从地板下面强行顶弯的。在舱门的正中央，覆盖着几十年的油污，隐约能看到一个褪色的泛亚集团生物灾害警告封条。旁边刻着一行小字：需要9级覆盖权限。
去他妈的9级权限，我手里只有一把重型战术匕首，和一条属于亡命徒的命。
我把匕首狠狠顺着变形的缝隙插了进去，将全身的重量都压在刀柄上死死往下压。我头顶上的控制台发出一阵绝望的金属扭曲声。那个肌肉怪物正徒手撕裂整个终端台想要抓我，火花和碎玻璃像雨点一样砸在我的后脖颈上。
嘎吱——砰！
生锈的锁扣终于崩断了。沉重的铁门轰然坠落，露出下方一个深不见底的漆黑深渊。一股极其古老、冰冷的寒风从黑洞里喷涌而出，带着极其浓烈的臭氧和陈年血液的腥气。
就在这时，一只巨大的灰色手掌一把死死攥住了我的脚踝。那手劲简直像个工业老虎钳，瞬间连着我的战术靴和里面的骨头一起捏得咯吱作响。怪物拖着我往后拽，它那张垂直的巨口越张越大，滴答着粘稠的黑色液体。
我爆发出一声绝望的狂吼，整个人借着被拖拽的力道猛地一拧腰，空出的左手拔出大腿侧面的配枪，顶着那张没有五官的脸，清空了最后三发大口径子弹。
近距离的后坐力将灰色组织炸得四下飞溅，怪物终于本能地抽搐了一下。脚踝上的禁锢松懈了微秒。我拼尽全力一脚踹开它，双腿一缩，顺着敞开的舱门，直接把自己交给了地心引力。
我掉了下去。
中继站里怪物的嘶吼、陆嫣机械的诵读声，瞬间被耳边狂暴的风声吞没。我顺着一条极其陡峭、长满滑腻苔藓的管道疯狂滑落，感觉像过了一个世纪那么漫长。我死死咬着红色的荧光棒，双手绝望地在光滑的金属管壁上摩擦试图减速。
终于，管道到了尽头，我被重重地甩了出去，砸在一片布满铁锈的悬空栈道上。
巨大的冲击力差点把我的内脏震碎。我躺在冰冷的黑暗中大口大口地喘着粗气，荧光棒微弱的红光，照亮了一个巨大到令人窒息的空间。这是一个巨大的地下空洞，规模甚至能轻易吞下一整座摩天大楼。而在那些远处高耸入云的旧世界巨型支柱上，密密麻麻地挂满了巨大的、如同心脏般跳动的灰色肉囊。
我甚至还没来得及从地上爬起来，我耳朵里那个自从进入这个区域后就彻底死掉的战术通讯耳机，突然发出一阵刺耳的静电白噪音。
我瞬间僵住了。
一个声音切开了白噪音。冷静。冰冷。有条不紊。
“生物特征扫描完毕。目标人物云峰已在4号中继站被成功清理。开始为下一具克隆体提取记忆备份。”
我全身的血液在这一刻彻底冻结了。那不是老陈的声音，也不是陆嫣的。
那是我自己的声音。
Author's Note： ️ Author's Note / 原创声明
[EN] This chapter’s text is 100% human-authored. The original story was written in Chinese (my native language) and then manually translated and refined to break away from AI-generated stiffness. I am doing my best to preserve the authentic cyberpunk vibe and emotional tension in the English translation. (Note: The cover illustration was generated using AI tools strictly based on my original story prompts.) Thank you to the CCC community, the curators, and all my readers for supporting genuine human creators and following my journey!
[CN] 本文正文为本人 100% 全手工原创。原版故事使用我的母语中文创作，并经过人工翻译与精心润色，以摆脱 AI 翻译的生硬感，尽最大努力在英文版中保留原汁原味的赛博朋克氛围与情感张力。(注：本文封面配图为作者根据本人小说情节，使用 AI 工具生成的概念视觉图。) 感谢 CCC 社区、各位策展人以及所有读者对真实人类创作者的持续支持与鼓励，感谢大家一路以来的陪伴