Disclaimer: I do not own any of resident evil capcom does. I do however own the characters I created and if you would like to use them or anything you must first have my express premission first. With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy my first chapter.
Logan looked at the other people in the van with him. The faces all showed the same thing, fear and anxiety. Since their graduation at the academy, Logan and his teammates have been sent on various missions that left them in the line of danger, but nothing like this. This was to be either their shining moment, or their imminent demise. Many of the men with Logan uttered prays silently, or checked and rechecked their weapons. Logan however just sat there and took in all of the behaviors of his team mates. This was a normal practice for him because he needed to get to know every little detail about these men. Well any real leader should he always told himself. He had been the Bravo team's leader ever since their last leader Jack Molby died during their last mission, and since Logan had seniority he was the natural next-in-line. It wasn't an all too surprising for any of them because he was the most experienced and had had the most leadership training anyway.
When the van came to a halt outside of their base of operations Logan could see a wave of relief and fear wash over the men's faces. He stood up and addressed his team.
"Ok guys I realize that this is our first mission without Captain Molby, but I would like to have a unified team nonetheless. I'm the Captain now and I expect you to listen to me just like you did to Captain Molby. Am I understood?" There was a simultaneous grunt from the whole team signifying that they understood. Logan nodded and opened the door to the van. Light poured into the van burning Logan's retinas. He used his hand to shield his eyes from the light, but that didn't faire very well. Jumping off of the van, Logan pulled up his rifle in one hand and waved the men off of the van.
As the last man stepped off the van Logan pulled him aside. "Hey Martino come here."
Greg Martino walked up to Logan and stopped in front of him. "I know you and the captain were close, but I need you to follow me on this mission as if it were him okay?"
Greg nodded and Logan rubbed his head in acknowledgement. "Ok boys saddle up; we're going to get briefed inside."
The room they entered smelled of rotten meat and cigarette smoke it was so pungent almost made Logan gag. Pushing that out of his mind he stood against the wall closest to the projector that was set up and ushered his team into the seats that were set out in front of the screen. A large man walked carrying a briefcase and a clipboard. He was all of about six feet, give or take a few inches, but it looked like he went to the gym more often than he should be going. His crew cut only enhanced Logan's suspicions that the agency had stuck them with another damned military drill instructor that retired and didn't want to get out of the game, so he took a desk job at the agency that allowed him to still get some playing time. It was this type of person that Logan hated because they hadn't known real action and they were still looking for some. Furthermore, they were used to pushing around the new recruits in the army or what not and that meant he was going to bust Logan's balls until he got his way.
Right after this man another more lanky man walked in the back of the room and stood holding a pack of cigarettes while still puffing on the lit one in his mouth. His features were mostly blocked by the shadows cast in the room. But from Logan could make out it was probably the man looking over this mission.
Once the briefing started Logan turned and looked at the screen for the maps and charts he would need to know. The presentation was long, but Logan only paid half attention after he saw the target. He didn't need to know much because all of the maps would be in his HUD anyway. Once the meeting ended he gathered his team up to go to the recreational area to kill time before night fell. After a few hours of sitting anxiously, a few guys got a poker game going but nothing serious, the drill instructor got them once again. He wished them luck and God speed, but that was pretentious crap anyway. They headed off to the van to start their mission.
Back in the van once more, everyone sat in silence as was the unwritten rule. The ride was short because the base of operations was only three miles away from the suspected facility. The facility in discussion was am Umbrella facility that had disappeared from the agency's radar a few weeks ago. On paper the facility no longer existed and was completely erased from the database. Luckily, some wiz in the IT department found where someone hacked into the mainframe and erased the files. Ever since they have been trying to find out who did it. Well it was their job to find out what the hell happened.
The van came to a sudden stop and the doors opened. Two men stood just outside of the vehicle setting up the platforms to help the team down. The men pointed Logan in the right direction, wished him luck, and got back in the van. Within seconds they were already speeding off into the dark somewhere. Logan followed the van until he couldn't see it anymore and looked at his team.
"Night vision on," Logan waited for all the men to turn their night vision goggles on. "Ok we're only a mile away from the compound. When we get within a hundred yards of the compound I want Bradley and Rogers to take point, once we actually reach our destination they will take Hues and Gersh with them and infiltrate the eastern wing, Rogers you're in charge. I will take Martino, Hall, and Mathews with me. We will take the western wing and meet in the lobby. Radio if anything goes wrong. We are looking for any documentation that might be incriminating or that might lead us to who hacked into the agency. If there is anyone there, detain them for questioning. Unless fired upon do not fire. I repeat unless fired upon do not fire." Logan couldn't see their expressions, but he knew they understood him. "Ok move out!"
The small eight man team moved swiftly through the forest covering most of the mile within the span of half-an-hour. As was stated when they came a hundred yards away Bradley and Rogers took point. Logan fell back and walked with the rest of the team. They met up right outside of the compound and split up into the two groups.
Logan led his group towards the western entrance, staying a hidden as could be. They didn't know if there were cameras about. Even though they would detain anyone they found, they were hoping to keep this relatively quiet. It only took them a few minutes to reach the door to the western entrance, but getting in was another matter. The doors that were in front of them were at least ten inches thick and sturdy enough that it was like hitting depleted uranium. Logan looked around at the surroundings and evaluated their situation. "Ok obviously we can't get in through the door, but do you think we could get in through the roof?"
The roof was only about twenty feet high and with the grappling hooks they had; it would be an easy feat. Martino spoke up first, "Uh I guess it's worth a try. I'll go and check."
He took out his grappling gun and aimed it high on the roof. A muffled bang sounded as the hook and rope shot into the night's sky. A clunk could be heard signaling that he hit his mark. Martino checked the rope's stability and began to climb. With all the training they had undergone, Martino was used to this and it didn't take long for him to get to the roof. After a minute of checking the roof Martino called down.
"Ok sir I think we can get in from up here; it looks like there is a ventilation shaft."
"Ok you heard him get up that rope." The men all began climbing up the rope to the roof. Martino was right, there was a vent that led down into the facility but they were going to have to go in one-by-one.
Logan was the first to go in and climb down. It wasn't a long trip, just a couple of twists and turns. When his feet hit the ground, he looked around to make sure it was safe. Once he was satisfied he called the others on the radio. One at a time they all fell into the compound. Logan turned on his radio to check with Rogers' group.
"Rogers come in."
"Here sir"
"What's your status?"
"Uh, we just found a way in through a window near the center of the east wing. We're going to comb the area now."
"Ok check in when you found something."
"Aye sir"
Logan looked back at his team and waved at them to follow. Instinctively, they all crouched low to the ground and hugged the walls as they made their way down the corridor towards the first room. Logan opened the door and Mathews and Hall stepped in training their guns everywhere in the room. Right after them Martino followed and then Logan. The room looked like a residential area. Bunks were placed in perfect order with names labeled on them. ROCHA, FRIEND, JOHNSON, they read the names as they scavenged each bunk looking for anything that might be of use. Finding absolutely nothing, which in itself is very peculiar, they moved out of the room and continued down the hall.
They repeated this three more times coming up with the same exact result each time. Thoroughly confused, Logan contacted Rogers once more.
"Rogers come in."
"Here sir"
"Did you find anything?"
"We've found some documents, but it's mostly just labs in here."
"Well we must be in the residential area, but aside from there being names on the bunk, I don't think anyone actually lived in these. You know I don't think there really are-"
Logan was cut off by Mathews who called him over. Logan told Rogers to contact him if he found anything and walked over to Mathews. Mathews was standing outside of a room that must have been the surveillance room. Monitors lined the room and in the center was a giant server that was hosting all of the computers. Hall, the tech guy started at the computers trying to get some sort of a feed from the server. It took a while, but once he got it they could see every camera in the building. Flipping through the cameras they found no one in the building. The building seemed to be completely empty. That is until they found someone on the cameras just standing there near the vicinity of Rogers' team.
"What the hell is he doing?" Martino rhetorically asked as he bent in closer to the screen.
"I don't know, maybe he's drunk or something." Hall suggested. Logan raised his hand to turn on his radio to in form Rogers, but something excited the man on the video. His head perked up and he looked around him. It almost seemed as though he was looking for the origin of a sound or a movement. Once he found what he was looking for he started towards it.
"Follow him," Logan ordered. "I want to see where he is going."
Logan finally turned back to his radio and called Rogers once more.
"Hey Rogers there's an unidentified man near where you are. He seems intoxicated and is on the move."
"Ok sir I'll be on the look out."
Logan looked back at the monitor and watched the man stumble around almost aimlessly. He was walking in circles and falling over his own feet sometimes. Then suddenly he just stopped. His head perked up again and he began to track a sound again. Turning each way and listening intently. Finally, he turned sharply like he could see the thing he was after. Logan couldn't tell what it was.
"Hey try and see what he is looking at." Logan told Hall. Before Hall could even change the camera's view Logan saw what it was that the man was looking at. It was Rogers' group. Rogers began to approach the man with his gun trained on him. The man didn't move. As Rogers got closer Logan imagined that he was talking to him all the time, but the man remained stolid. Rogers took out handcuffs and finally reached the man. He began to take the man's arm when the man lashed out on Rogers and bit into his arm. Rogers punched the man on the head several times in order to get the man off of his arm.
Once the man fell to the ground Rogers pointed his gun at him and was screaming. The man took no heed to whatever warning Rogers was shouting and bit him once more in the leg. Rogers opened fire on the man and killed him. Logan cursed and turned to Martino.
"I want you and Hall to stay here and guide Mathews and me to where they are. There may be more of them around here so I need you two to stay here." They both nodded and took up their rifles. Logan led the way out of the surveillance room and made a right. His radio buzzed and he could hear Hall's voice on the other end.
"Ok sir you need to head down the next right you see and then continue down that hall until you reach the third exit on your left."
Logan followed his directions and sped up his pace until he was almost in a run. He made a sharp turn down the right corridor. Counting the halls he passed, thoughts of what happened to Rogers made him speed up. Once he reached the third corridor on his left he rounded that and waited for further instruction. Just as he stopped his radio buzzed once again.
"Ok now do you see the second door on your left?"
"Yeah"
"Take that."
Logan ran into the door and found himself in a cafeteria. Food was strewn everywhere and the tables were thrown upside down. Logan didn't really notice anything else because he was running on adrenaline, waiting for Hall's next directions.
"Ok now there should be a door on the left wall take that, then take the door right next to you as you exit the cafeteria."
Without hesitation, Logan ran to the door and went through the doors he was told to go through. He was in the hallway where Rogers' team was when they found the man. Logan sprinted down the hall hoping to find Rogers. Instead what he found was the corpse of the man and a puddle of blood. He cursed himself for being so stupid. They would have sought out medical supplies for Rogers.
"Hall, where's the nearest med station?"
"Uh…down the next hallway to your right, third door on your left."
Logan ran down the hallway and made the right he was told to make. Wrenching open the door to the medical station he found nothing but a large puddle of blood left over. He assumed it was Rogers' and radioed into Hall.
"Damn it Hall! Where the hell are they?"
"I can't find them sir."
"Well you better damn well find them soon."
Logan heard footsteps behind him. With a quick glance to Mathews, they both ran and took cover. A man dressed in white ran to the stairs near them. He stopped for a moment to look around, after seeing nothing he ran up the stairs.
"Look Hall we just found what might be a hostile, we need to find them and fast!"
"Alright sir I'm looking." There was silence for a moment, the headset crackled again. "Ok sir, they are in the basement shooting at what seems to be a horde of people."
Logan cursed and ran towards the steps the man took. Praying that he didn't go downstairs, Logan ran down the stairs two at a time. Once he reached the bottom he quickly brought up his rifle and swung it every which way making sure the man wasn't laying in wait. Satisfied that no one was waiting to kill them, Logan pressed forth through the set of double doors in front of them.
The two doors swung open to reveal a very lifeless hallway. Every wall was painted white and it reminded him of a psychiatric hospital. Rooms lined the corridor all the way down until the hall turned to the right. Adding to the demeanor was the fact that each room he passed by was padded white. This only furthered his suspicions of a mental hospital or something.
A loud bang echoed in the hall. Logan ran along the wall until the end. He hugged the wall waiting to round the corner. Peering behind the corner, Logan could see a group of people just standing around in a circle. He jumped out from behind the corner aiming his rifle at them. None turned to look at him until he started to move closer. They wheeled around with their arms stretched out, coming towards Logan.
"Hey stop….listen to me stop…look I don't want to do this." Logan backed away from them with his rifle still trained on the unarmed foes. Once they got within his "safety" range he opened fire. Mathews joined in causing complete havoc. Blood coated the walls of the once white hallway. Brain matter and other organs clumped together to form one rotting mass of organic material. Each one of the things collapsed to the ground, moaning. Logan lowered his rifle and leaned against the wall. After composing himself (which wasn't very long) he stood up and began to walk beyond the mass of corpses.
Stepping over the heap of bodies, Logan ran to the end of this hallway and began to hear the sounds of a battle raging on. As fast as he could he ran to where the sounds were originating from. Twisting and turning through hallway after hallway, the basement was like one giant maze. Finally, after many dead ends, Logan found himself in front of the rest of his group.
There was a group of things approaching them slowly. Rogers' group was fending off the incoming attackers as best they could, but there was just too many of them. Logan raised his rifle and began to fire away at the things, from the back. Even though numerous "people" were dieing, it didn't seem to be helping at all. One of the men took a grenade and threw it under the group of monsters, screaming 'fire in the hole'. Instinctively, Logan ran from his position and took cover behind a nearby wall. The explosion reverberated in Logan's chest, but it was only a small grenade so it didn't cause too much damage.
Logan popped out from behind the wall and continued firing at the monsters. Many of the monsters were blown away from the grenade, but it didn't matter much. Rogers' group seemed doomed. Despite that fact Logan remembered the motto he adopted from the SEALS "never leave a man behind".
Logan raised his rifle up, hoping to start to get headshots, but he couldn't get it steady because the ground began to rumble. The right wall exploded open and a giant creature leapt out of the newly formed hole. It was the ugliest thing Logan had ever seen. The thing had four arms like limbs as well as four legs to compensate. It had no eyes; instead it had vacant eye sockets that secreted some sort of black gooey liquid. When it opened its mouth there were no teeth, instead it would swallow its food whole. While Logan stood there gaping at the abomination, it took a few of the creatures that were cornering Rogers' team and shot the black goop at them. As soon as it touched them, their faces melted off revealing their skulls. Before they could even fall down the monster had them in one of its hands. It shoved them into its mouth all at once (unhinging its jaw to do so). The whole thing just sickened Logan and he felt like he was going to throw up.
Rogers' team took advantage of this moment and ran past the creatures and towards Logan and Mathews. The monster took the rest of the creatures into its mouth by the time they had all regrouped on the other end of the hallway. Before they could even start to go, the monster had turned towards them. With a shrill that could cause glass to shatter it charged towards them.
"Oh hell! Let's go!" Mathews screamed as he turned and sprinted away from the monster. The other's followed suit, but Rogers was too injured to run at full speed. Logan put him over his shoulders and ran with him. This was more effective, but it slowed Logan down so much that his team was pulling away from him.
The monster reached the end of the hallway and stopped for a short period of time. It was almost as if the monster was evaluating whether or not it could fit through the turn in the hallway. However, that didn't last long as it decided that it didn't care. Two of its massive arms swung heavily and smashed through the wall, sending debris flying towards Logan and Rogers.
"Look Captain, just let me go! You'll run faster without me."
"No!"
"I can hold it off for you."
"Are you stupid or something? I said no."
"We'll both die here if you don't." After he said that, Rogers began to struggle. Logan gripped him tighter to prevent him from falling. Logan would be damned if he let any man that went with him die here. They continued to struggle like this as they ran through the twisting hallways. As it did before, the creature would demolish anything in its way as it ran for its next meal.
Logan's team wasn't visible anymore and this gave Logan some sort of hope that they were able to get ahead of him and may be out to safety. However, while thinking this Rogers got the better of him and fell off of his shoulders. With the creature right behind him, Logan stopped and considered running for Rogers and was about to do it, but the monster was already upon him.
"It's been an honor to work with you Captain!" Rogers said as the creature grabbed him. "You bastard, I'll take you to Hell with me!" Rogers reached into his side pack and took out two grenades. He pulled out the pins and threw the grenades in the monster's open mouth before it sprayed him with the acidic goop.
Recognizing the grenades, Logan ran for cover. He dove behind a nearby wall right before the explosion happened. Bits of whatever the monster was made of flew at the opposite wall, covering it with massive amounts of blood and black goop. Logan looked around the corner at the horrific sight. Almost nothing remained after the explosion because of the monster's acid, but what did remain was a half-destroyed corpse of the monster and bits of debris. Holding his mouth so he wouldn't vomit, Logan walked to the stairs and followed them up. When he reached the top, his team was nowhere to be found. He cursed himself for letting Rogers go and get killed. Shaking his head, he walked over to the door that led to the cafeteria. Inside was a large group of the things that attacked Rogers' group. Logan instantly left the room and locked the door behind him, this sobered Logan up. 'I have to find another way around then' Logan thought to himself as he wondered around for a second. Then he realized that Hall and Martino were still in the surveillance room.
"Hall can you here me?" There was no response. "Damn it Hall did they get you too?"
He waited for a minute then the radio clicked on. "Sir, this is Hall. Yes we were attacked, but we managed to repel their initial attack. However, Martino was injured in the attack and I just barely was able to board up the room. They're still out there."
Logan cursed loudly wishing he hadn't left his team alone. It was his first mission as the Captain and he already screwed it up. Not to mention that he had lost Rogers; he didn't want to lose anymore. He looked at the radio and switched it to the other team's frequency.
"Hello can anyone hear me? This is the Captain."
"Yeah Cap?" It was Bradley's voice. "Where are you? Where's Rogers?"
Logan paused trying to gain his composure after being reminded of Rogers' death. "Look are you anywhere near the surveillance room?"
There was a silence for a moment; Logan figured Bradley was asking Mathews. "Uh….yeah we're about at the Lobby now."
"OK wait there until further instruction." Logan switched the frequency back to his. "Hall are you there still?"
"Yes sir."
"Ok can you see the Lobby?"
"Yes."
"Ok direct Bradley and the rest towards you. They can help with the back up"
"Ok." Logan switched to the other frequency in order to listen to the directions and to keep tabs on the whereabouts of his team at all times. While the directions were being given he would have time to evaluate the layout of the facility from his HUD. He reached into his back pack and withdrew the GPS like instrument they gave him. Clicking a few buttons, he brought up the general map that they had. The layout showed no way of getting around the cafeteria in the map, but the blueprints revealed a duct that would allow him to climb down into a room that was in the relative area of the surveillance room. Logan turned on his heel and ran up the stairs he came up.
There was a blood trail that ran up the steps and into the hallway of the third floor. This creeped Logan out, but he kept his mind from playing scenarios of what could have caused that by looking at the map and at the surroundings. The hallway was completely different from the basement. It was still devoid of life, but this hallway revealed a more gruesome picture. Blood stains littered the walls and floors, at points there would be a body part lying around, and the doors for the most part were ripped off of their hinges. Logan reached for his thigh and retrieved his pistol. With one hand he held the pistol and the other he had the GPS.
He walked through the halls for a while, until he came upon the first room he had to go into. Slowly, he opened the door, dreading what was behind it. A sigh of relief came to him as the room appeared to be empty. Logan tried to be as quiet as he could, thinking that those monsters wouldn't find him if they couldn't hear him.
Since the room was dark, Logan turned his night vision goggles back on, but they failed and his field of vision became blackened again. From what he did see, near the back of the room there was a closet. Approaching the closet, Logan opened it and looked inside. He felt around for some sort of battery or lighter, but couldn't find any. Reluctantly, Logan reached in his side pack and grabbed one of the flares he had and struck the top. The chemically induced sparks lit up the room, causing Logan's eyes to sting painfully as they futilely tried to focus in the new found light. He covered his eyes, but left them open so he could search in the closet.
After a few minutes of throwing around clothes and other accoutrements, Logan found a nicely crafted lighter. It had a design of an angel holding two swords above its head in the shape of an "X". Logan wasn't one to normally like that kind of thing, but it just kind of fit at the moment. He placed the lighter in his side pack and turned around. Behind him was one of those monsters. It reached out for him making him stumble backwards into the closet and drop his pistol. The monster fell upon him and began to try and bite him anywhere it could. It took all of Logan's strength to push the thing off of him. It fell backwards, giving Logan enough time to scramble for his pistol. Before Logan could get to his pistol, the thing grabbed his leg and went in for a bite. Logan pulled his leg out from its grip and shoved his boot into its face. The sickening sound of crushing cartilage erupted from underneath Logan's boot as the monster's nose broke under the force of the kick. Logan turned to reach for the gun again, but the monster retook his leg. Logan kicked the thing again. He could hear teeth shattering and blood cascaded out of its mouth as Logan removed his foot from its face.
Logan's fingers were touching the gun when the monster reached for his leg for a third time, this time pinning his leg under its chest. Logan stretched for his gun, but couldn't get to it. He cursed in his head as he reached for his knife and drove it down into the monster's head, feeling its blood flow through his fingers and the weight of its lifeless body cover his bottom torso. This was the reason why he hadn't wanted to use his knife, and it was made all the more real when it actually happened. He took his knife out of its head and pushed the corpse off of him. Running to the nearest table, he leaned on it and vomited. After a while all that was left was dry heaves. He cleaned off his mouth and picked up his pistol.
Not wanting to stay in that room any longer, he walked to the door that led to the room he needed to go into and left through it. In this room was the duct he needed to go into. He crossed the room quickly, but still silently, and kneeled down before the grate to the duct. The duct was screwed down, and Logan didn't have a screw driver. For the first time Logan noticed that he was still holding the bloody knife in his hand. He cleaned off the blade on a nearby tapestry and turned to the screws. Using the knife as a makeshift screw driver, Logan began to unscrew the grate.
Not long after, the grate popped off and Logan crawled into the duct. The cramped, dark, musky duct was riddled with twists, turns, and sudden drops. As Logan crawled through it took all of his concentration not to die by falling down a sudden drop off. Every so often he would light the lighter he found earlier to see the layout of the duct further ahead, when he stopped he would also check the GPS to see where he was. He continued on for about a half-an-hour and checked his GSP; according to the GPS he wasn't far from where he needed to go. It was only a few yards away.
He was about to light the lighter again when the section of duct that he was in gave way and fell to the ground. Pain shot through Logan's body as he hit the ground. Luckily, he wasn't more than ten feet off of the ground, any further and he might have died. As it stood now though nothing seemed broken although he was in a pretty sizable amount of pain. Gritting his teeth and baring it, he crawled out from inside the duct and stood up. It seemed as if he landed next to the room he wanted to go into. He walked up to the wall where he wished there was a door and felt it to see if it was flimsy. Of course there wasn't which meant he had to find another way around. Logan looked up at the space where he fell from and tried to judge if he could some how find a way back up there. After about ten minutes of searching and finding nothing he could use to get back up, he stopped trying and started looking for a way around the wall in the map. The map showed no way around in fact the room didn't even exist in the map.
"Oh come on!" Logan found himself saying a loud. "What the hell?"
Logan walked up to the door and opened it. The hallway outside was adorned with three pictures of people undergoing different torturous acts. Each one was drawn using a different tortuous technique. The first one on the left depicted a man dangling upside down over a tub with his blood leaking into the tub from a tiny incision made just below his stomach, in order to keep the wound open, hooks were placed through the skin of the lip of the cut. The next one showed a man that was buried alive. The last one was of a man being pierced by hundreds of small knives in non-vital places. Despite those disgusting paintings, the hallway itself was completely different from what the rest of the facility looked like. In fact this hallway almost looked like it was supposed to be part of a house or something. There were wooden boards instead of the normal cement on the floors, cheerfully bright wallpaper was stuck to the walls, and chandeliers hung from the ceiling.
"Dear Lord…" Logan said as he stepped into the hallway. He was thoroughly freaked out now, and was considering going back into the room and trying to get back into the duct again. However, he came to his senses and continued down the hallway to the right, where the next room should be. There were no doors down this hallway except the one at the end. Logan walked to that door. Logan tried to open it, but it was locked. On the door there was a note with a switch below it. The note read:
To him who has the most come last, to him who waits the longest come second and to him who has already past come first.
Logan pressed the button below the note and behind him; three switches emerged underneath each painting. "What the hell is wrong with this place?" Logan asked rhetorically as he walked over to the three paintings. He repeated the riddle in his mind as he looked at the paintings. "Obviously the switches have something to do with getting the door open, but do I have to press them in a certain order? The riddle talks about order so I guess each of these men represent a part of the riddle." Logan thought to himself. He looked at the men again. "To him who has the most come last," Logan repeated. He paced back and forth looking at the pictures.
After a while he decided that the man who has the most is the man with the hundreds of knives in him. Thinking about the second part, Logan decided that the man who has the longest to wait was the man in the coffin because he was going to take the longest to die. The last part was the hardest part, but if he had already figured out the other two than it didn't matter that he couldn't figure out why the description didn't match the painting. Shrugging his shoulders, he moved in and pressed the switches as the riddle told him to. He first pressed the dangling man, then the man in the coffin, and lastly the man with the knives in him.
A clicking noise sounded. Logan walked up to the door, but it was still locked. "What the Hell?" Logan looked at the door and couldn't figure out why it hadn't unlocked if he clearly heard it unlock. He then turned towards the door he walked in through and walked over to that. Logan turned the knob, but the door had locked itself.
"Ok I guess that was wrong." Logan stated a loud as he turned to the paintings once more. "Something's out of order, but what?"
He thought it over some more and hit himself on the head. The man in the coffin was the one already past because he was already buried like the dead; the man who had to wait the longest was the man bleeding to death. Logan shook his head and pushed the buttons in the new order. Two clicks this time. Logan walked over to the door at the end of the hall and opened it.
Inside was what looked like an elevator, but it didn't have any buttons to push to go down. Instead there was a single set of buttons by the rear of the structure. Warily, Logan walked in and headed to the back. There were two buttons, and a note at the bottom.
Due to recent problems with containment all staff members are required to first administer a sterilizing agent prior to entry. To administer press the green button, then wait while the sterilizing is done. Once the green button turns off press the red button and entry will be allowed. Anyone who does not first go through sterilization will be considered a threat and be neutralized. Please remember to first press the green button.
Logan finished reading the note and quickly pressed the green button. The doors he had walked in closed behind him and an invisible gas started to leak from the ceiling. Closing his eyes, Logan felt the gas pass over him and a tingling sensation wash through the unprotected parts of his body. As soon as the gas stopped permeating through the ceiling, a fan turned on and sucked the excess gas out of the room. When all of the gas was evacuated, the green light turned off and Logan pressed the red button. The doors in front of him opened up and revealed a laboratory. There were numerous vials with unknown substances in them, but each had a paper just underneath them detailing the progress made. It seemed as though the work they were doing was to produce some sort of biological weapon that would kill instantly, and then revive the dead tissue.
"Well I guess it works, the only problem is, is that is got out when they didn't want it to." Logan said to himself as he walked around meticulously studying each of the papers. He stopped suddenly as he approached a large container that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. It had some sort of human-like creature in it. The creature was hooked up to various tubes that were meant to sustain its life while in the liquid. He looked at the paper and read it.
Type CF5-Tyrant.
7/03/98
Fertilized egg (via in-vitro fertilization) is injected with a mixture of the T and G strand of the virus. Fertilized egg is then placed into a female host.
7/04/98
Subject appears to have doubled its growth in a matter of days after artificial insemination into a fertile female host.
7/06/98
The host died during birth, subject was immediately placed into Cryoprotectant
7/07/98
Subject has matured to full growth and is being observed constantly.
The recordings stopped there. Logan looked at the creature; it was the most hideous thing he had ever seen. The characteristics were monstrous, but there was something about it that still made it seem like a human. Its shoulders bore the exposed muscles that had been enhanced from the normal muscle size of any human being. The next biggest difference was the eyes, while shut weren't really shut because it had snake like eyelids. The only other difference would be that one of the hands was fused together and formed a blade like structure.
Completely shocked and appalled, Logan took out the camera that was issued to him just incase anything like this happened and took numerous pictures of the monster and the research data. He then put the documentation in his bag and turned to walk further into the room. There wasn't much else but variations of the same monster. He took pictures of each and every one of them as was protocol, but it disturbed him to see these almost human "organisms" that were really infected babies.
At the back of the room there was a door partially hidden by an overturned, presumably, empty capsule. With a great effort, Logan pushed the capsule aside and freed the door. He tried the door, but it was locked.
"Oh what now?" Logan said obviously frustrated. He looked for a switch, but noticed a keycard lock instead. He sighed as he turned to look around the room a keycard that might work. Starting near the door, he worked his way around the room until he finally found one on the lab coat of a dead scientist. He walked back to the door and prayed the card would work. After swiping the card he heard a beep and the lock opening up. Basking in his victory over the door, Logan brought his elbow down to his side in a victory pose.
He didn't want to waste anymore time so he opened the door and went through. He found himself in what he assumed was the hallway he wanted to go into. Pulling out the GPS, he checked his position and made sure where he was, was where he needed to go. Thankfully, he wasn't too far off track and was able to change his directions to still get to the surveillance room.
Running through hallway after hallway, he finally reached the Lobby. He reached it, but it had changed drastically. There must have been some sort of battle that occurred here. The benches that were previously cemented to the floor were uprooted and tossed to the other side of the room. There were holes in the walls where the bullets hit, and larger ones where something massive must have collided with the wall. Sparks cascaded down from exposed wires in the ceiling, where the fans and light fixtures were torn from. Blood coated the walls and ceiling in an odd fashion, there were spots that weren't bloodied as if something had blocked the spatter of the blood. Logan guessed that it was either the thing that he had faced earlier or something much like it.
Logan stopped and began to think that it might have been his men that were in this battle. He turned on his radio and dialed Bradley's radio.
"Bradley….Bradley, come in." Logan waited for a while and called again. "Bradley, Bradley. Where the hell are you?"
After waiting a few minutes he decided that he wasn't going to get through to Bradley. He also decided that he wasn't going to consider them dead until he found them. So he continued down the hall that led to the surveillance room. He came across some more of those human-like monsters, and quickly dispatched them with a few bursts. He ran to the next corner and pressed his back against the wall. With the assault rifle parallel to his body, he peeked around the corner. There seemed to be nothing there. He popped out from around the corner and aimed his gun in front of him.
His boots clicked with each step he took; it only added to the ambiance of the desolate facility. When he reached the door to the surveillance room, he braced himself for whatever was in there. Darting in, Logan looked around and didn't find any of his team. Logan lowered his rifle and strung it over his shoulder so that he can still maneuver it quickly incase any enemies were to appear. Quickly, he strode around the room looking for any corpses of fallen teammates. He sighed in relief when he found none, but he was curious as to what happened to them.
Reaching to his belt, he retrieved his radio and held down the communication button. "Bradley….Bradley, where the hell are you?" He waited a few minutes for a response. After a while he felt deflated and sat down, fearing the worst.
"Great you're first mission as the captain and you some how got your entire team killed." He realized that he left the door open and got up to turn it off. When he reached the door, an intercom went off.
"Oh God someone help me…..PLEASE someone help me. Dear Lord, they're coming from everywhere!" It sounded like a male voice, and in the background there was a loud screech and numerous people moaning. Logan turned towards the noise and shut the door quickly. He rushed over to the control panel and searched for the button that would allow him to respond to the person. Randomly he started pushing buttons; after a few seconds he finally found a little red button that allowed him to respond.
"Hey, can you hear me?"
"YES oh thank God! You need to help me, I'm surrounded everywhere by them. They want to eat me!"
"Okay where are you?"
"I'm at the guard's station near the entrance of the compound."
Logan looked at the monitors and tried to guess what Hall did to change them. Once again he found himself pushing buttons at random. It didn't take him long to find the right button and begin to change the cameras. He flipped through the feeds until he found the man. The man was in a small dinky little kiosk that could only fit about three people. Surrounding the station, there must have been about twenty to thirty people pushing against the glass. Logan pulled up his GPS and looked for the quickest route to the station. Sadly, even the quickest route was pretty far away and the man's fate seemed grim. He was about to give up hope when he saw some of the people in the mob start to twitch and fall down. It took him a few seconds, but he finally saw why they were falling. Someone was shooting at them. Moments later he saw Bradley and the rest of the team running in spraying bullets all over the crowd. In minutes the whole mob was leveled to nothing. Bradley opened the door and walked into the station. Logan could see them exchange a few words; Bradley was probably asking if he was alright.
Realizing that he could now get in touch with them, Logan pushed the button he used before and began to talk.
"Bradley? Where the hell have you been?"
"Captain Miller?"
"Yes damn it! I've been trying to contact you on your radio! Where have you been?"
"I'm sorry Cap, my radio got busted and we lost Hall somewhere in the compound." It wasn't until Bradley said that, that Logan noticed that it was true Hall wasn't with them.
"Well is anyone hurt?"
"Um…no, no one's hurt."
"Then where did you lose Hall at?"
"We got into a fire fight with some sort of monster near the Lobby after we got Hall and Martino, and he ran down another corridor while we went the other way." Logan was actually mad that Bradley let Hall get lost just because he ran another way.
"How could he just run another way and you not know where he went?"
"I don't know sir I'm sorry I take full responsibility."
"Ahh! No it's my responsibility, I'll go look for him. Which hallway did he go down?"
"Um…the southern corridor, sir"
"Okay meet up at the Lobby and bring the guy there with you."
"Yes sir" Logan released the button and walked out of the surveillance room. He made a left and walked to the end of the hall. Slowly he turned the corner and walked into the Lobby, ready for any sort of attack. There was a lone monstrosity in the Lobby, just milling around, rather anticlimactic Logan thought. Regardless, Logan placed a well aimed bullet between his eyes and continued on. He took the southern corridor and looked in each of the rooms. Since time was of the essence, Logan just cursorily checked the rooms and moved on.
He walked into the stairwell and made his way upstairs. The door creaked open, and revealed the familiar bloodied hallway. Logan stepped out of the stair well and walked into the hallway. Flicking on his night vision goggles, Logan walked through the hallway, with his rifle held high.
Logan walked to the room at the end of the hall and pushed open the door. Inside he could see a wounded Hall lying in the corner. He turned and looked at Logan.
"Heh, I just couldn't out run it, but-" He began to cough, he immediately covered his mouth. As he pulled his hand away, blood could be clearly seen covering his hand. "Well I guess I'm dieing Cap. Never did get to see how you did. Regardless, none of this is your fault, it couldn't have been foreseen. I just wasn't fast enough, that's all."
Hall tried to prop himself against the wall, but the attempt was in vain. Logan hurried over to Hall's side, and helped him up. Hall looked at Logan. "You got a smoke? One last one before I die?"
"You know those things are contraband in the agency." Logan said choking back his emotions.
"Yeah, what're they gonna kill me? Well, I had to try." Hall took his hand away from is stomach and revealed what ailed him. His stomach had a complete hole through it. His intestines hung out in a knotted mess, blood and other secretions leaked unimpeded onto the floor. Chime and bile gurgled out from the small cut in the lower section of his stomach. His heart was visible and it beat with an abnormality because there was a large gash in it. Blood spurt out from the severed arteries that flailed about, causing the blood to fall in odd designs, like some sort of sprinkler.
Logan covered his mouth and looked away. Hall looked at the gaping hole in him and looked back at Logan. "Yeah he nicked me pretty good." He said with a slight chuckle and a whine. "Just tell my mom I loved 'er ok?"
"Will do kid." Logan put his hand on his shoulder as the life left Hall. He closed Hall's vapid eyes and took his radio and munitions before he left. Logan walked out of the room and continued all the way down the stairs. When he reached the first floor again, it was filled with those monsters. Quickly readjusting, Logan brought up his rifle and fired at the closest one, hitting in once in the head and once in the heart. He turned to fire at another one and hit it a few times in the chest before it went down. Before he knew it, one was right behind him. He wheeled around and shot at the monster, but the gun clicked. The monster leapt on top of him. Its teeth gnashed each time it snapped at his face. Logan propped the monster up with his arm. He locked his elbow so he could free his other arm. Logan had to work quickly, because the other ones were approaching fast. He reached for his knife and unfastened the sheath, slid it out and planted the blade firmly into the head of the corpse on top of him. The thing stopped moving and Logan was able to push it off of him. By this time the things had conjugated around him, forming up on him in a circle. His rifle was just beyond the monsters and he was unable to get to it.
In one swift movement, Logan freed his pistol from the holster and had it trained on the monster's head that blocked his path to his rifle. His finger squeezed the trigger and sent a bullet through its brain. Not wasting time, Logan ran full-force through the crowd and fell to his knees, sliding in beside his rifle. He picked it up as he slid and pushed the button to drop the clip. Digging into is pouch, he retrieved a fresh clip and slammed it into the empty slot. The clip clicked into place and Logan pulled back on the lever just in front of the butt of the gun and shot the rifle in a wave, flailing the gun from left to right hitting all of the monsters in front of him.
Once all of the things were dead, again, he stood up and continued into the Lobby. When he got there, his team had just arrived. They saw him alone and were a little worried.
Martino spoke up. "Where's Hall?"
"He didn't make it…" Logan trailed off.
A wave of grief hung over the team, but they were trained to handle such situations and refocused on the mission at hand. "So what now sir?" Bradley asked.
"Well, we didn't get any tangible evidence, but we have him." Logan pointed to the scientist they had rescued. The scientist sunk back into a corner, frightened. "Relax we're not going to hurt you."
"No, but you want information and I can't tell you anything, if I do then there'll be hell to pay."
"What? Why?"
"There was an accident and some of our experiments got out."
"What experiments?" This time it was Gersh who had spoken up.
"Well that I don't know."
"You mean to tell me that you're a scientist in this facility and you don't even know what you're studying?" Hues asked.
"We're not allowed to know anything." The scientist started to get defensive.
"Then why the hell do you work for them if you don't even know what you're doing!?" Mathews growled.
"The money is good."
"Who gives a damn about the money, if what you're guarding is going to friggin' kill people!?" Hues screamed.
"Hues, watch it." Logan warned.
"But sir!"
"Shush, we don't know if there are more of those things here."
"Fine!" Martino walked over to the scientist and pulled out his knife. "We need him alive right? Well what about our men? Huh? What'll we tell their families? We'll need some information to tell them. So tell us at least what killed them, so their families can know what to despise." He pushed the tip of the knife between the man's legs.
"Ah! Damn it! Fine…fine. The only thing I know is that some of the scientists were experimenting with some sort of regenerator virus that is supposed to take dead cells and revive them."
"So like some sort of cosmetic thing?" Hues asked rather impatiently.
"No like getting new heart cells if one died." The scientist said with a matter-of-fact tone.
"Then what the hell are we dealing with?" Martino asked as he pushed the knife deeper.
"Ow! Stop that damn it, let me finish. They were experimenting on animals at first, but some of the animals got loose in the residential area and some of the scientists got bit. They started exhibiting strange side effects and eventually turned into the things you now see. However, first they died."
"What?!?" The entire team said in unison.
"So we're dealing with….zombies?" Gersh asked.
"In a sense, yes."
"You're nuts." Martino said as he let go of the scientist and placed his knife back in its sheath. The scientist grabbed at his crotch and backed away from Martino.
"I'm serious these things aren't even human anymore. Apparently, before there was an outbreak in the labs, one of the scientists had the audacity to study one of these things up close and study its cellular makeup. The cells in they're bodies are completely changed, and the virus attacked the brain first, causing the victim to lose sanity and eventually all of its personality. After that, all of the mental traits that we as humans equate with a "normal" human or even an "abnormal" human failed and what was left, was the bestial need to feed."
"So basically all that was left were its natural instincts?" Logan asked intrigued.
"No not even them, if they were left, the creature would have a need to reproduce, but all that they seem to need to do is feed. We believe that the virus destroys the cells and is "programmed" to have a need to continue the infestation of multiple hosts through the saliva of an infected host."
"So as long as we don't get bit we won't get infected?" Hues said half to himself and half as a question.
"Theoretically, yes."
"Theoretically? Wait I thought you just said-" Martino was cut off.
"I said we think, nothing is concrete, and that isn't to say that even is you are merely scratched you can't contract the virus, our best bet is to just avoid them as best we can."
Gersh laughed, "Easier said than done 'doc."
Logan pinched the bridge of his nose and looked at their situation. He began to talk. "Ok so our best bet is to head back outside to where we were dropped off and shoot a flare into the air," He paused to think, he pinned his right hand under his elbow and pushed his left hand out in a thinking position. "From there we'll wait for the van and-"
Logan stopped mid-sentence and looked at his hand that was pushed out. Blood drops started to drip onto his hand. He looked at it for a second, and then slowly looked above him. On the ceiling, there was some sort of beast that looked like a feral human that had all of the skin peeled from its body. A huge tongue snaked its way out of its mouth and started to slowly make its way down towards Logan.
The scientist fell down and scrambled backwards until he hit the receptionist's desk and knocked over the phone. The phone fell and made a loud sudden clang. The beast quickly recalled its tongue and turned towards the noise. It leaped across the ceiling to just above the scientist. He let out a small cry in fear.
The thing's tongue shot out and pierced the scientist's chest. As quickly as it was shot in, the tongue pulled out and ripped with it the man's lung. He choked and the beast went back for more. It pounced on top of him and began to tear into his throat. With razor sharp teeth it ripped out his trachea and the connecting bronchial tubes. Blood cascaded down his shirt from the gaping hole in his throat. The creature took one of its hands, which had three claws on it, two small and one large one in the middle, and slashed him in half from his collar bone to his waist. His organs and other innards spilt on the floor. The beast's tongue lapped up the vital organs and brought them back to its mouth so the monster could eat them.
By this time, Logan came out of his initial shock and brought his rifle up to his shoulder and aimed it at the monster. When he did this, the rest of the team followed suit. They trained their guns on the thing and fired away. Only a few bullets his the monster, because it had jumped out of the way after the first few bullets had hit it. It clung to the ceiling and jumped around every time the team tried to shoot it. A few more hits landed on the beast, but it was too wounded to fight and it escaped before they could kill it.
"That's it, I'm out of here!" Hues screamed as he turned towards the door. He ran to the door and tried to open it. The door wouldn't budge even after he shot it a few times. Hues ran to the receptionist's desk and pushed random buttons until the door clicked unlocked.
"Wait Hues!" Logan screamed. "We'll leave as a team, and we don't leave as a team until we're done the mission."
"Screw the mission! We're dieing one by one and I don't feel like being next!" Hues ran out the door into the woods.
"Damn it!" Logan screamed as he ran to the door. "Hues get back here, you'll die out there alone!"
Hues continued running until Logan could no longer see him. Logan slammed the door in frustration.
"We're not going to chase after him?" Gersh questioned Logan.
"We can't risk us all for him if he wants to be this pigheaded." Logan paused, "But, he's got a point. We can't stay here, it is becoming too hazardous and I'm not willing to risk anymore of my men dieing. We need to go back the way we came in and find our way back to the van."
They all nodded and followed the corridor back to the way they came, past the surveillance room. When they reached the air duct, they tried to figure a way back into it and out of the facility.
"I'm sorry sir, but I don't see any reason why we can't just use the front door like Hues did." Gersh asked.
"If those monsters got out, they are going to be waiting out in the open for us, if we leave in either of the ways we came in, we might be able to go around the forest and meet on the road." With that said Logan deduced that it wasn't possible for them to get back into the duct. "Bradley, which way did you come in?"
"Um…there was a window that we were able to access in the eastern wing."
"Good we'll use that." Logan motioned for Bradley to lead them. Turning, Bradley led them back into the Lobby and through the hallway that Bradley's team came in from. They walked into the cafeteria and out through a door in the back. Coming in contact with a few zombies, they dispatched them quickly and kept moving, all the while keeping an eye out for that beast that killed the scientist.
It wasn't long until they reached the eastern wing, which was where all of the laboratory equipment resided. Bradley led them through a maze of corridors until they reached the room in which the window he spoke of was located. He opened the door and walked in, closely followed by Logan. Bradley sidestepped let and Logan went to the right, scanning the room for any monsters. Once the room was secure, Logan requested a rope from Martino who gladly gave it to him. Logan walked up to a metal pipe near the window and tied off the rope. Throwing the rope out of the window, Logan motioned for Bradley to go first. Bradley walked to the window, looked out to make sure it was safe, and repelled down the wall. After Bradley hit the ground, Logan looked at Gersh and motioned for him to go. Gersh nodded and clipped his belt to the rope and repelled down. One by one they all went down, until Logan's boots hit the fresh dirt.
"Okay we'll take an eastern route through the forest, and keep going until we find the road. Remember, these things aren't human and they can and will sneak up on you, so watch your six." Everyone nodded simultaneously. They began their trek through the woods.
This time when they walked through the woods, it took longer because they had to be as silent as possible. After about an hour, they found the road and changed direction to the west to find the point at which they were dropped off.
Once they reached that spot, Logan dug into his backpack and shot the flare that was given to him into the air.
"Now what?" Bradley asked.
"We wait."
A/N: Thank you for reading my first chapter of a story I hope to keep up with and I hope to be able to post a chapter a week, maybe every two weeks, but I'm going to be starting college in the fall and it may be harder to keep up with the posting then. Well, reviews are always welcome, because they keep me writing and usually they provide insight into how I can hone my writing skills to better my stories. I'm working on chap 2 now.