Free Genesis by Keith R. A. DeCandido

the complex.
    The Red Queen, still literal-minded, had not blinked when the figure removed all the samples of the deadliestvirus ever created by the human race, because the figure had entered all the right security codes.
    But when that same virus was detected in the air of the Hive, there was only one thing she could do.
    Evacuating the Hive would not be practical. It was physically impossible to remove all five hundred and twenty-three human beings from the underground complex without risking the virus spreading.
    Which meant that the those human beings were as good as dead, as was any other living creature within the Hive that breathed the air provided by the beyond-top-of-the-line air-conditioning system.
    The Red Queen’s first directive was self-preservation, which meant preservation of the Hive.
    She began the process of sealing off the Hive. That would take about fifteen minutes.
    Then she’d do the rest.

SEVEN
    MARK TORVALDSEN LOVED HIS JOB.
    He’d just started working for the Umbrella Corporation, and today was his first day in the Hive, Umbrella’s state-of-the-art underground facility. True, he had to live in a big hole in the ground. On the other hand, he had a five-year guaranteed contract and was working in his dream job. The research and development he’d be doing in Pharmaceuticals put him on the cutting edge of his field.
    The best part, though, was the five-year contract.
    Through high school and college, Mark had formed several close friendships, primary among them being Vince Markinson, Jack Annichiarico, and Eleanor Wu. The “awesome foursome” they called themselves, and they’d been inseparable throughout their teen years,attended each others’ major life events—including Vince’s wedding to his on-again-off-again girlfriend, and Jack’s and Eleanor’s wedding to each other—and still got together once a month for their Bad Movie Night.
    Unfortunately, Bad Movie Night had been getting to be somewhat depressing of late. After making big bucks during the dot-com boom doing Quality Assurance for companies who thought that acquiring a cool-sounding URL was the ticket to fame and fortune, Vince soon lost first his job, then his wife. Two years later, he was struggling to find freelance work, and seriously considering taking a job driving a cab. Jack, after moving from computer programming to management, found himself out of work, and his programming skills too out of date to make him employable in a depressed economy. Just last week, Eleanor was downsized when the accounting firm she worked for decided to cut costs.
    Meanwhile, Mark was living in fear of his own employment prospects by the growing instability of his own company. Profits were down, and it looked very likely that the company was going to go under.
    Instead, the company was bought by its primary competitor: the Umbrella Corporation.
    Shortly thereafter, they dissolved the company and laid off all of the employees. But some were offered new positions within Umbrella. Mark was flattered to be one of them, especially since they offered more security, more money, and more interesting work.
    Given what his closest friends were going through, having to live in a hole in the ground seemed a small price to pay.
    He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to attend Bad Movie Night for a while, but that was looking more and more like it was a good thing. Vince was getting increasingly depressed, and Eleanor’s ability to stay employed was the only thing keeping her and Jack going. Much as he loved the idea of viewing Evil Brain from Outer Space or The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies with his oldest and dearest friends, Mark had the feeling that the Bad Movie Nights weren’t going to be any fun for some time.
    Least of all for the one person in the group still gainfully employed.
    Not that his new job would give him much time for fun.
    But that was