Chapter 10: The Clinic

Team B reached the rundown clinic that supposedly held the medical supplies.

Compared to Team A’s mission, their path had been strangely uneventful Rina walked near Victoria, keeping close to her side despite Victoria’s usual indifferent expression. At first, Rina had only spoken to her out of nervousness, but somewhere along the way, she had started warming up to the quiet girl.

“You know,” Rina whispered, trying to keep her voice light, “you’re not exactly easy to talk to.”

Victoria glanced at her. “Then why are you still talking?”

Rina blinked, then laughed under her breath. “Because you answer. Barely, but you answer.”

Victoria said nothing, but the faintest hint of amusement passed through her eyes.

The squad moved in a staggered column formation, splitting themselves across two loose lines in a zigzag pattern. It allowed them to cover more angles without bunching up too tightly. Lieutenant Maren Brooks led at the front. Behind her came Lucas Meyer, then Elena Voss, then Rina, followed by Victoria, while Samuel Reed guarded the rear.

The approach to the clinic went smoothly. Too smoothly.

The building itself looked half-dead, its outer walls cracked. Several windows had been shattered, and the sign above the entrance hung crooked, swaying slightly in the wind. Whatever name the clinic once had was long gone, scraped away by time and dust.

Maren raised one hand.

The team stopped.

“Lights low,” she ordered. “Weapons ready. We go in slowly. No one touches anything unless I say so.”

One by one, they entered.

Inside, the clinic was swallowed by darkness. Their faint lights moved across overturned chairs and cracked tiles. The air smelled stale, carrying the bitter scent of dust, rust, and medicine long past its use.

Every step echoed too loudly.

Rina tightened her grip on her weapon.

Victoria noticed. “Your hands are shaking.”

“They are not.”

“They are.”

Rina swallowed. “Fine. Maybe a little.”

The team spread carefully through the main hall, checking corners, side rooms, and broken doorways. Lucas opened a storage room and found nothing but empty shelves. Elena checked behind a collapsed reception desk. Samuel kept glancing back toward the entrance, his rifle raised, his breathing slow but tense.

After several minutes, they reached the inner supply area.

Once the entire team was inside, a wave of relief passed through them. It was subtle, but visible. Shoulders lowered. Breaths steadied.

Rina let out the breath she had been holding and leaned slightly toward Victoria.

“See?” she whispered. “I told you. Nothing will go wrong.”

Victoria’s eyes remained fixed on the darkness behind the shelves.

“Hmm,” she said. “I think you might have jinxed it.”

Rina frowned. “What do you mea—”

A sharp sound cut through the clinic.

Wzip

It came from behind them.  Everyone turned at once. At first, they saw nothing. Only darkness. Then, deep in the hallway behind them, a faint blue glow appeared.

Small at first.

Then brighter.

Rina’s smile vanished.

Before Lieutenant Maren could even warn them, Victoria moved.

Her rifle rose with frightening precision, her posture almost perfect despite the sudden danger. No panic. No hesitation. No wasted movement.

She aimed at the blue glow in the darkness and fired.

The shot tore through the hallway and struck the male Ossarian directly in the head. The glow vanished instantly as its body collapsed into the shadows with a heavy thud.

For a moment, no one moved.

Then Victoria pulled the bolt back, ejected the spent capsule, and loaded another one.

It took her barely three seconds. An absurd speed.

Before anyone could fully process what had happened, she turned slightly toward the left, where a faint sound had echoed a moment earlier, and fired again into the darkness.

Another sharp impact followed. Lieutenant Maren stared at her, stunned despite herself.

‘Would I have reacted that fast if I were in her position?’ she thought.

Victoria did not look proud. She did not even look relieved.

She reloaded again, calm and silent, then lowered her breathing and listened. Her eyes narrowed, her ears catching every faint scrape, every shift of dust, every distant movement within the clinic.

The entire exchange had taken less than ten seconds.

And yet, in those ten seconds, everyone in Team B understood something.

Victoria Schmidt was the real monster.

Victoria kept her rifle raised, eyes fixed on the left side of the hallway.

“Captain, permission to check ten o’clock?” she asked.

Lieutenant Maren snapped out of her surprise and tightened her grip on her weapon.

“Roger. I’ll cover you.”

Victoria moved left.

Victoria moved to the left with what soldiers in the Middle East called the “old man walk”or mashyet el ajoz. It was a slow, cautious combat walk where the body stayed slightly hunched, the knees remained bent, and each step was placed carefully before the next. Her rifle never dropped from her line of sight, and her upper body barely moved, as if all her attention was fixed on the direction of the muzzle.

It looked almost awkward from the outside, like an old person creeping forward, but there was nothing weak about it. Every movement was controlled, her weapon ready, and her body prepared to react if anything lunges from the dark.

Then she saw it.

A female Ossarian was crouched near the wall, one leg missing from Victoria’s earlier shot. It was still alive, its body tense, its gray fingers digging into the floor as if waiting for one last chance to strike.

Victoria did not fire immediately.

Instead, she held her aim and scanned the area first.

Only after confirming there was no immediate movement nearby did she speak.

“Female Ossarian at ten o’clock. Missing one leg. I’m finishing it. Cover me during reload.”

“Roger,” Maren replied.

The rest of the team froze as Victoria steadied her rifle.

A low hum built inside the weapon, like an engine waking from sleep.

Wzap.

The capsule discharged.

Woosh.

The shot tore through the air.

Boom.

The female Ossarian dropped, its body collapsing hard against the floor.

Victoria pulled the bolt back almost instantly, ejected the spent capsule, and reloaded again in barely two and a half seconds. Then she shifted into cover, rifle raised, eyes already scanning the perimeter for another threat.

No one spoke.

Now the entire team understood the danger. Relief was gone. Every rifle was raised, every breath controlled, every shadow treated like it might move.

They began clearing the clinic room by room, checking corners, broken offices, storage areas, and the dark spaces behind overturned furniture.

For once, luck was on their side.

Only two Ossarians had been inside the clinic.

It seemed they had chosen this place to rest, and Team B had stumbled into them by chance.

After the clinic was secured, the tension in the team finally began to ease.

Only then did Lieutenant Maren lower her rifle slightly and give the next order.

“Victoria, Rina, guard the entrance while the rest of us collect the supplies.”

Guarding the entrance was a strange assignment. On one hand, it was one of the most dangerous positions. If something approached the clinic, the guards would be the first to face it. On the other hand, if nothing happened, it was also the easiest job. They only had to watch the door while everyone else searched through cabinets, storage rooms, and medical drawers.

Victoria had been chosen for obvious reasons. She was calm, precise, and competent enough to hold the entrance if danger appeared.

Rina was chosen since Lieutenant Maren have noticed that Victoria did not mind having her nearby.

The rest of the team began collecting supplies.

Lucas and Samuel moved through the storage cabinets, pulling out sealed bandages, rolls of gauze, disinfectant bottles, syringes, surgical thread, painkillers, antibiotics, and small packets of emergency clotting powder. Elena checked the lower drawers and found gloves, scalpels, scissors, antiseptic wipes, and a few unopened trauma kits still wrapped in faded plastic.

Most of the shelves had already been emptied long ago, but enough remained to make the mission worth it. Every bottle, every strip of bandage, every sealed packet was placed into their backpacks.

Outside the clinic, Victoria and Rina stood near the entrance.

Rina leaned against the wall. Victoria glanced at her.

“See? You jinxed it.”

Rina turned toward her, offended. “I did not jinx it.”

“You said nothing would go wrong.”

“That was encouragement.”

“Yeah sure.”

Rina stared at her for a moment, then let out a weak laugh. “You know, for someone who barely talks, you’re surprisingly annoying.”

Victoria kept her eyes on the street. “You talk enough for both of us.”

Rina smiled despite herself, though her hands still gripped her rifle tightly.

After a short silence, she looked back at Victoria.

“Were you scared?”

Victoria did not answer immediately.

Then she said, “Yes.”

Rina blinked. “Really?”

“Fear is normal,” Victoria replied. “Letting it control you is the problem.”

Rina looked down at her own trembling fingers and tightened her grip.

“Easy for you to say. You looked like you’d done this a hundred times.”

Victoria’s gaze stayed fixed on the ruined road ahead.

“Does that change a thing?”

That answer made Rina go quiet.

Rina realized Victoria’s calm was not the absence of fear. It was control. And somehow, that made her even more frightening.