A/N: First Episode kind of stays on-plot even without Moira there. Just a few of the puzzles that require two people were left out, or were completed differently. Please, enjoy and read on!
Episode One, Part 1
Claire stepped out of the elevator, absently straightening her dark red blazer, and glanced around at the many TerraSave members who were gathered. She frowned when she couldn't find Moira, who was supposed to be here already. Claire had been delayed on the drive over; her motorcycle had ran out of gas two blocks away, forcing her to walk the rest of the way. Moira had texted her a few minutes ago, saying that she was on her way, and really, she should've beaten her here. Claire muttered a couple of quiet hellos to a few of the other members before making her way towards the large bay windows that covered an entire wall.
"Hey, Claire," Claire turned to who spoke, and saw her boss, Neil Fisher, walking towards her. "can I talk to you for a second?" Neil gestured to a far wall, where no one was, and Claire followed after him.
"What's up Neil?"
"Something's going down in Washington, did you hear anything?" Claire frowned.
"What, the new virus?" Neil gave her a curt nod, and Claire rolled her eyes. "Come on, you know Tricell's history. Right?" Neil opened up the folder in his hands, and Claire raised a brow. "Hello?"
"Isn't there supposed to be a... Moira Burton here?" Neil asked. Claire nodded.
"Yeah, but she hasn't showed yet. I'll call her and see where she is in a second."
"Well, you get to that." Claire smiled at him as he walked off. She dug through her blazer's pockets and got out her cell, quickly shuffling through her contacts to find Moira's name. She made her way back towards the windows as the phone rang. Claire tapped her foot impatiently. After a moment, Moira picked up.
"Claire!"
"Moira, where are you? You're late for your first day!"
"Shit, I'm sorry, Barry held me up. I'm gonna be there in like, twenty, I swear!" Claire chuckled. "Dammit, if it was up to him, I wouldn't even be a part of Terr-" Claire didn't hear what else Moira said, as the lights suddenly went out and she pulled the phone away from her ear.
"What the-"
"Claire, Claire! What's wrong?" The windows were quickly lit up by searchlights, and a group of soldiers burst into the room, shattering the glass and causing several TerraSave members to scream. "Claire! What's going on!?" Claire backed away from the soldiers as they approached, guns raised. "Claire!"
"Claire Redfield! You're coming with us!" Claire shook her head.
"No way, I think there's been some kind of a mista-" Her sentence was cut off by one of the soldiers jabbing something into her neck. Claire's eyes widened briefly before everything slowly faded.
"Claire! Claire, answer me! CLAIRE!"
Claire groaned as she awoke. Her head was pounding and she was sore, as if she'd been laying on a hard floor for... she blinked open her eyes and furrowed her brows at the dirt beneath her. "Ugh..." As she began raising a hand to her head, she noticed the metal bracelet that adorned her wrist, the LED screen glowing a soft green. "...ah?" She sat up quickly, narrowed blue eyes sweeping through the cell she was in. Something beeped, and Claire slowly rose to her feet as the cell door opened on its own. "Why did it open?" She asked herself, exiting the cell. "I didn't do anything..." She looked up and down the cell block hallway and frowned. "Where have I been taken?" A loud scream echoed from somewhere down the hall. Claire tensed. "What was that?" She clenched her fists and began down the hall, dodging around a few metal crates and what looked like broken mining equipment.
Claire approached a barred door, which was electronically locked. She grabbed hold of the bars and tugged on them harshly. She cursed and backed away, looking around for another way through. "Dammit..." She whispered softly to herself, before approaching the door once again. As she reached to take the cover off the electronic lock, it beeped and changed from red to green. Claire furrowed her brows and pulled the door open. "Why did..." She shook her head and continued on down the hall, quickly approaching another door, though this one was unlocked.
She threw open the door and her eyes widened. The large, circular, room before her was horrifying. There were dead bodies hanging from what looked like meat hooks, and, when Claire peeked over the edge of the walkway, it seemed like the room went on forever as it faded to black a couple of metres down. Claire could see even more bodies and, shaking her head, backed away from the edge. She cautiously took a few steps onto the rickety ramp leading upwards, cursing that there was no railing. As she made her way past a body hanging close to the ramp, the chain holding it broke, sending the body careening downwards into the darkness. Claire flinched back. "Jesus..." She said, placing a hand over her heart and taking a breath. She went to continue walking, only to see that the walkway was broken, as if something heavy had smashed into it. "Shit." She gave a glance around, and spotted an old, rickety ladder leading to a small platform above her. She frowned, walked to the ladder, and tugged on one of the rungs. It creaked loudly and ripped off after she applied a bit more force. "I guess I have to climb up to escape..." Taking a deep breath, she quickly scrambled up the ladder. Just as she pulled herself over the ledge of the platform, the ladder broke off and plummeted down, hitting the walkway with a loud crash. Claire stood shakily and turned. "What the?" The platform suddenly ended barely six feet from her. "How am I supposed to cross this?" She spotted a small ledge jutting out from the wall. "Don't tell me..." She swallowed roughly and, leaning against the wall, slowly shimmied her way across. Once she was safely on the other side of the platform, she sighed, relieved. "Hope I never have to do that again..."
Claire's eyes skittered around anxiously as she made her way down a hall lit with red emergency lights. She gripped tighter to the combat knife she had found at the entrance of the hall, the flashlight that came with it tucked carefully into one of her jeans' belt loops. After about five more minutes of walking the red-lit hall, it widened into a better lit one. She frowned at the medical gurney laying, empty, in the hall. "What's this, some sort of infirmary?" She mumbled to herself as she approached a metal, blue-painted, door. A scream echoed out from the room. Claire shoved open the door, knife in hand, and dashed into the room. She gagged as a horrible, putrid scent immediately washed over her. Blood covered nearly every surface, including the gurney in the middle of the room, with what looked like a dead body nailed to it and covered by a thin white sheet. "What the fuck happened here?" She cursed, scrunching her nose up to try to block the scent of dried blood and rotting flesh. The glass window on the far side of the room was cracked, and, as Claire approached, it looked like it would easily break. She shielded her face with one arm and lashed out with her combat knife, completely shattering the glass. She hopped through the now broken window, and looked around the small doctor-office-like room on the other side. She briefly read through a short note on one of the shelves titled, "Rules for Monitoring Test Subjects." She shook her head and crumpled the note up, throwing it back onto the shelf, before making her way to the door.
Claire soon found herself in another hallway, though this one was badly lit, with some of the florescent lights hanging from their wires and sparking. She moved away from another empty gurney, this one bloodstained with the straps on it broken. She continued on before pausing at an obstruction in the hall. One of the ventilation fans had fallen out of the roof, crushing what looked like a large metal cabinet. There was a small hole between the cabinet and the floor, barely wide enough for an adult to crawl through. Claire winced at the thought of the fan and cabinet crushing her as she crawled through. "No, Claire, don't psyche yourself out..." She took a small breath and, quick as she could, crawled through the hole. She stood up on the other side of the cabinet and made to go on, but was soon stopped by yet another obstruction, this time in the form of an empty metal shelf. Claire peered through the shelf openings. "Great, I got to move this thing..." The shelf was too large to turn in this hall, which left the option of pushing it. Claire rolled her shoulders before pushing forcefully on the shelf, moving it inch by inch down the hall. As she reached the next hallway, something scuffed against the ground. Claire stood up straight and frowned out past the shelf.
"WHOOARAH!" Something screamed, as the shelf was shoved over, trapped Claire underneath. She grunted and stabbed blindly upwards with her knife. Her eyes snapped upwards as whatever shoved the shelf screeched and tried clawing at her. It looked like a man in a miner's overalls and shirt, only he was missing most of his hair and it looked like one of his eyes were nailed shut. His teeth were far too sharp and each of his fingers had a large iron nail sticking out in a mockery of claws. Claire's eyes widened as she stabbed at the monster. After a few more seconds it screeched again and took off down the hall. Claire, breathing heavily, pushed the shelf back into a standing position. She forced it past the next hall, and slowly made her way down it. Another scream rang out. Claire rushed to an opened door and burst into the room, where the monster from before was attacking some woman. Claire couldn't see who as the vents in that room seemed to be turned up to max, sending papers flying in every direction.
"I-It's going to kill her!" Claire shouted, pushing past the flying papers to chase after the monster and woman. Claire ducked around shelves piled high with folders and papers, and under a shelf that had fallen over and blocked a doorway, before coming across a metal shutter that was just opened enough for her to get her fingers under. She lifted the shutter, muscles straining, and jumped into the room on the other side. The shutter closed behind her loudly. Claire rushed forward and froze after turning a corner. "Gina!" She said, letting the now bloodied and dying woman to land in her arms. Gina gasped and cried out,
"The... animal eyes... oh god..."
"Gina..." Claire let the woman's head drop softly to the ground and stood. She shook her head sadly before moving towards a large doors. She could hear the wind howling through it, and her eyes widened. "That leads outside!" She tried to pull open the door, but it wouldn't budge. "It won't open...?" She scowled and turned to look for another way. A door-less threshold was a few feet from Gina's body. "Maybe there's a key there?" Claire gave Gina's body one last look before entering the large room beyond the threshold.
Claire carefully made her way down the stairs inside. After a flight of stairs, she came across a guard's body hanging from its ankles, a set of keys attached to its vest. Claire grabbed hold of the broken railing, and stretched to grab the body. She grabbed the keys, letting them slide onto her wrist, and just barely had enough time to strip the body of it's gun and holster before it fell. Claire winced at the loud splat noise it made when it hit the ground. She shook her head again and strapped the holster to her waist. She got the handgun out and inspected it, nodding to herself.
Claire unlocked the large door and frowned at the sight of yet another hallway. "I'm getting real sick and tired of all these halls." She muttered. She cautiously made her way down the hall, and almost gasped when she spotted a dead TerraSave member, who's name she couldn't quite remember. She crouched next to the body. "Wait, is that...?" She rolled the body over and pushed it's hands away from a slightly bloodied shotgun. "It is!" She took the remaining ammo the man had, and checked the barrel. "Two shots at a time." She went into the next room, which was filled with filing cabinets and metal shelves. She ignored the files and went towards where the wind seemed to be coming from. A dirtied, rusted crowbar was set to jimmy loose a metal block that held the door shut. Claire wasted no time in jimmying the block loose. She pushed open the door and glanced up at the sound of something scampering off. She caught the tail-end of what looked like a dirt-stained white dress. "Was that...?" She rushed forward and frowned when she spotted nothing in the remaining hall. "What was that?" She shook her head and approached a metal shutter. She grabbed hold of the bottom and hefted up, wincing at how heavy this shutter was compared to the other. She ducked out the other side and rolled her shoulders. "That thing was heavy."
Claire walked up the staircase in front of her and frowned when it lead into what looked like a large hall filled with cells from a prison. She glanced around as she walked forward. A crackling coming from the bracelet on her wrist startled her to a stop near the staircase that lead to the upper floor.
"Fear what you will become," A woman's voice sounded from the bracelet. "and become what you fear..." Claire's frowned deepened. "Are you afraid? You can tell me. Talk to me."
"What are you talking about?" Claire asked, figuring that the bracelet could transmit her voice as well.
"That bracelet you're wearing, it changes colour in response to fear." Claire's eyebrows raised.
"And who are you, exactly?" The woman chuckled lightly.
"So much suffering... you don't even know what to be afraid of yet." The woman said, before the transmission cut out.
"Was she talking to me, or at me?" Claire wondered, before she made her way out of the hall, towards a barred door. The door had a weird locking mechanism on it, and was missing a gear. "Where's the other one then..." Claire looked around. "Might as well go that way..."
Claire raised her hand gun as she entered a room. It was dark inside, being lit up by an emergency light. A bed-shaped torture device sat in the middle of the room. The bottom part had what looked like a dead body on it and it was being crushed by the top part, which had long spikes in it. It was a few inches from actually touching the bottom part, as the dead body inside was holding it up. Something glinted from inside, and Claire knelt down to see. "That's the gear." The gear was gripped in the dead body's hand. Claire rolled her sleeve up and reached into the machine. As she grabbed the gear, a whirring noise started, and the machine groaned. Claire quickly retracted her hand, just in time, as the machine slammed down even more, completely crushing the body. Claire glanced at her arm and winced at the scratches. "Damn, those better not get infected..." She tugged her sleeve back into place and stood. She looked at the machine, and then at a broken ladder across the room. "Why do I feel like I missed a big part of some plot?" She shook her head and started on her way back to the door.
Claire spun the gear as she placed it into the switch. A loud siren went off as the door opened, and Claire jumped at the sudden sound. "Shit." She said, turning to see all the cell doors opened and many of the monsters heading towards her. Claire squeezed through the still-opening door. A large hammer-axe hybrid weapon slammed into the spot where she used to be and Claire flinched as it dug right through the door's metal. She leaped to her feet and scurried backwards. The monster behind the door was at least twice her size in height and had equally large muscles. A weirdly triangular shaped metal helmet was on its head, which probably made headshots useless. She looked around for something to to defeat the monsters that now crowded the slowly opening door. A piece of paper caught her attention and she quickly scanned the contents.
I remembered to place the fire-spitting machine near the exit to stop unruly and escaping prisoners.
The valve is on the wall next to the door.
Use it carefully.
Claire couldn't believe her luck. There really was a large machine behind her, aimed right at the barred door. She quickly ran for the valve and turned it as fast as she could get it to go. She heard a roar behind her as heat slammed into her back. "It worked?!" She turned and saw the monsters shrieking as they were engulfed in flames. She quickly made her way to the other door and rammed her shoulder into it, forcing it open.
After opening yet another shutter, Claire finally found herself outside. She sucked in a few breaths of fresh air and nodded. She made her way out into the yard area, which lead into wilderness. Claire looked around at her surroundings, at the trees, and frowned. "Where is this place?" Her bracelet crackled to life.
"...said the poor lost soul, as she lamented her fate." The woman from before said, almost smug-sounding.
"Who are you?" Claire asked, narrowing her eyes at her bracelet. "I want answers!"
"I am... the Overseer." The woman said. "Fear requires an audience... and a conductor." Claire scrunched up her nose.
"'Overseer'?"
"You must go to the Wossek, where life begins." Claire glared at the bracelet.
"What do you want from me?" She asked. After a moment with no response, she rolled her eyes. "Nice, real nice."
Claire heaved herself up over a ledge, straining her tired limbs. She looked up into the sky at the setting sun. "Is it getting late already?" She mumbled, moving to go around a copse of trees. The sun glinted off of a large metal tower, and her eyes widened. "Is that a radio tower? Maybe I can send an SOS!" She ran towards it, but stopped at the rickety, old, almost broken bridge that lead to it. She took a step onto it and felt the boards groan under her weight. She carefully made her way across. In the middle of the bridge was a large hole. She took a step back before leaping across. The boards on the other side of the hole broke on her landing, and Claire scrambled to grab onto the stronger boards. She pulled herself up. "Holy shit, that was close." She took in a calming breath before finishing crossing the bridge.
Claire pushed open the rusted door to the radio tower, and closed and locked it behind her. She strode towards the station area and flicked a few of the switches on before tapping the mic. Nothing happened and she scowled. "It's dead, really?" She looked out at the tower. "I bet it's switched off at the top..."
Claire hoisted herself past the last rung on the radio tower ladder and shivered slightly from the wind. She walked along the tower top before finding a switch. She pushed it up into the "On" position. "This better work..." She whispered to herself, before she looked out over her shoulder. The clouds that had been obstructing the view cleared out of the way, revealing nothing but water in all directions. Claire's eyes widened. "Oh god..." She said, staring out into the distance. "What... what is this place?" She gripped the railing tight and shook her head. "No, I can't wonder about that now. I need to send out that SOS."
Claire fiddled with the radio buttons, before the sound of static came from it. She took in a breath and glanced out the window, before returning her attention to the mic. "Is anyone picking this up?" She tested, before continuing, "My name is Claire Redfield. My coworkers and I were taken to this... this island against our will." She looked back out the window. "I don't know where it's located." She glanced down at her wrist. "This woman, she talks to me through this... this fucked up bracelet..." She clenched her fist. "S-Some kind of monsters have killed the others. Please," Her head bowed as her voice taking on a barely noticeable desperate tinge. "send help. Please..." She raised her head, and cursed as the "ONAIR" light blinked on and off. "One more time..." She flicked another switch and began again. "My name is Claire Redfield..."