Disclaimer: See first chapter
Warning: see first chapter
Chapter Two
"They're late." J.D. commented as he, Rain, Matt, and Midori waited tensely for the others to return. They were all waiting for a zombie to pop out of nowhere and attack.
The sound of something hitting against metal made them all stiffen. Rain armed herself with her gun and moved forward. Midori dashed to her and put a hand on her shoulder, halting the other woman.
"Wait! Maybe J.D. should go with you. And aim for the head, if it's a zombie." she said, staring into dark eyes.
Rain shook her head with a small smirk, yet there was a tiny sliver of fear in her eyes. "Don't worry, I got it." she kissed the asian's cheek.
Midori stared as she disappeared, her lips slightly parted in shock.
"Seems like she likes you." J.D. said teasingly with a smirk and wink.
Gunshots echoed through the room and the three of them shared looks before they ran towards Rain, stopping when they saw a woman in white on the ground in front of Rain, two bullet holes in her forehead.
"Holy shit. If I didn't believe you before, I do now." J.D. breathed, taking in the state of the body.
Rain scowled. "Bitch tried to bite me."
Midori's head snapped toward her and she looked the other woman over worriedly. "She didn't, did she?"
Rain shook her head. "No, shot her before she could."
Midori sighed in relief and glanced at Matt, noticing that he was still handcuffed. "Um, we should uncuff Matt now."
Said man shot her a deadpan look that said, 'you think?'.
J.D. was quick to unlock the cuffs and Matt rubbed his wrists, rolling his shoulders to get rid of the stiffness in them.
"Can you shoot?" Midori asked, taking the Desert Eagle on her hip out of its holster and handing it to Matt, along with two magazines.
Matt nodded, taking it gratefully. "I'm decent, I guess."
She also handed him a dagger. "Just in case one gets to close and you can't shoot it." she stated.
Seconds later, Kaplan, Alice and Spence came running up to them, panting. Kaplan spotted the body on the floor and gaped before whirling on Rain and J.D..
"You shot a survivor?!" he yelled.
"That was a zombie." Midori stated it as if she were taking about the weather.
Kaplan and Spence shot her incredulous looks. "A zombie? Zombies don't-"
"Go take a closer look before you say anything more." Midori fought the urge to roll her eyes.
Kaplan hesitated before he walked up to the body and knelt down, studying it. His eyes widened in disbelief. "The blood's coagulated. But that's impossible."
"Why?" Spence asked.
"Because blood doesn't do that unless you're dead." Matt stated.
"But she is dead." Spence said, confusion marring his face.
"She was just killed. Her blood should still be fresh." Kaplan informed him, standing.
"Um, can we go now?" Spence looked beyond freaked out.
"No, not until the rest of the team gets here." Rain answered as she checked her ammo.
"They're not coming." Kaplan said softly, a grim look in his eyes.
Rain's head snapped towards him as she took a vicious step towards him, causing to tense. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" she hissed, taking a closer step before Midori snatched her by the waist, holding her in place. Rain leaned into Midori a bit and the asian saw the brief look of jealousy that Alice shot them.
"Lets not fight. We have worse things to worry about." Midori said and hesitantly released the woman in her arms.
"She's right. Listen." J.D. hissed.
In the distance, the shuffling of footsteps and the low-volumed sounds of groans and moans started to surround them before faces appeared. Some were recognizable, while others were badly disfigured and missing limbs such as eyes, arms, and pieces of flesh. One was missing about one third of his face. Their eyes were shrunken and hollow with white residue covering them, their flesh pale, and their faces all twisted into an expression of hunger.
"Shit." Spence whispered, moving closer to the group.
"Guys, they're everywhere." Alice said, looking in all directions.
Unexpectedly, a zombie tried, unsuccessfully, to tackle Rain, who gritted her teeth as she twisted his neck, the cracking sound echoing in Midori's ears. Rain stared at the lifeless body before she turned her full attention to the former residents of The Hive and held her gun outwards. Midori grabbed the hilts of her Katanas and pulled them from their sheaths, spinning them expertly with a twist of her wrists as she got into a fighting stance. She froze for a moment when she saw the disfigured body of Brown, dragging the axe behind him as he let out a cross between a yell and a growl.
"Brown." she muttered with despair. He was one of the few people she got along with in the Hive. He never feared her for what she was, never tried to experiment on her without her permission (a scientist tried that once and faced a very painful death via a pissed off Midori). He had actually been a brother figure to the asian beauty.
Chaos broke loose as the undead attacked and the commandos opened fire, but missed their only vulnerable area on the zombies- the head. Midori winced when she heard bullets hit the containers and really hoped one of the Lickers didn't get free. Tears formed in her eyes when she was forced to behead Brown, who had decided to try to eat her.
"Why aren't they dying!?" Kaplan shouted as he fired bullets into a resident's chest.
Midori heard Spence swear as Alice looked horrified. A zombie lunged for Alice and Midori sprinted toward it, slicing it's head off easily. "Aim for the head and try not to shoot the tanks!" she shouted to the others before looking at Alice. "You alright?"
Alice stared at her, her eyes wide. "I'm not really sure, at the moment."
"Stay beside me, kay?"
The woman nodded and shifted closer to her.
"We need to get out of here! Lets go!" Midori yelled to the others and started cutting zombies down left and right, clearing a path with the help of Rain and J.D..
She heard the sound of a gun clicking and turned to Kaplan to find his gun running on empty when two female zombies reached and grabbed him, one by the hair and another by the arm. He struggled relentlessly, but unfortunately couldn't break free.
"Help me!"
Midori cursed and ran to him, dodging and slicing down the dead as she did so. Two zombies suddenly tackled her and she elbowed on in the face, dislocating the jaw, and head butted the one behind her. "Shit. Alice! J.D.! Spence! Someone help Kaplan!"
Midori saw Spence glance at everyone before bolting to the nearest entry, making the non-human curse him in her head. Matt shot one of the zombies trying to eat Kaplan in the head while Rain snapped the neck of the other one. Midori jerked to the side when one of the zombies holding her almost took a chunk out of her face. She hissed, her eyes once again going a slitted silver, but this time they stayed that way, and her magic flared. To her surprise, the two zombies suddenly froze before releasing her and limping back a step or two. Midori didn't hesitate to cut them down.
"Bitch!"
Midori's head snapped to the left to see Rain struggling with a dead woman as she swiftly twisted her neck, a hollow snap sounding off and she falls to the ground in a heap. She's hot when she pissed off, the currently silver-eyed woman thought absently as she returned one of her Katanas to its sheath, wanting at least one hand free.
Rain grabbed her arm and dragged her over to where she knew Kaplan was. She saw him, J.D., and Spence standing near a security code protected door and frowned when she noticed Alice and Matt were missing.
"What's taking so long?!" J.D. shouted to Kaplan.
"I'm working on it!" Kaplan shouted back. "Shit!" he exclaimed as punched in the wrong number. J.D., frustrated, pushes him out of the way while Kaplan takes over shooting the closest infected residents.
"What's the code?"
"095672783!" Kaplan answered, struggling to remember the code in all the chaos, and the light turned green.
J.D. shot a smug look at Spence while Midori tensed.
"Fuck. J.D.! Run!" she yelled to the man, running towards him seconds before the door opened.
Rain followed her lead as Kaplan held the other residents back.
"See how easy that was?" J.D. commented.
They were too late. He was dragged inside the stairwell, which was filled with hundreds of undead residents. There were too many and he was bitten numerous times quickly. Rain reached out to grab his hand before, to Midori's horror, she was bitted as well. One bit Midori's hand, but it healed in milliseconds.
"J.D.! Hang on! J.D! No, don't let go! Hold on, man!" Rain shouted, tears rolling down her face.
"Rain! Don't let go!" J.D. cried desperately, but he was soon drowned in the sea of the undead.
Kaplan pulled Midori away while Spence did the same with Rain.
"No! Let me go!" Rain yelled, frantically trying to pull away.
"It's no use." Spence said, shaking his head.
"We need to move!" Kaplan pushed them forward.
They reached a room and quickly slammed the door shut as the dead began to pound on it. Midori stiffened as she felt the presence of an awakened Licker roaming the Hive and cursed in Japanese. She met Rain's eyes.
"A Licker is loose." was all she had to say.
Rain paled drastically and began cursing as well. Kaplan looked between the two females with confusion and dread.
"What's a Licker?"
"A mutation due to an Experiment with a virus. It's a creature that makes those zombies outside look like child's play. And they grow larger and deadlier the more flesh they eat."
Kaplan almost whimpered in fear.
"Where did the bodies go!? Fuck!" Spence suddenly shouted, freaking out even more.
"Why didn't we see the zombies on our way in?" Kaplan asked in confusion, walking back and forth in the room.
"When you cut the power, you unlocked the doors. You. Let. Them. Out." Rain answered through gritted teeth.
Kaplan visibly paled and tensed as the words hit him.
"Shit! We're never going to make it to the surface!" Spence shouted, looking ready to punch something or someone. Midori fought the urge to glare and sneer at him.
The middle door was suddenly slammed open as Matt and Alice stumbled inside, bringing unwanted attention with them. The two tried to close the door when an infected hand reached inside, making it impossible to close. Midori ran at the door and slammed into it with her left shoulder and side, using her inhuman strength that was returning to her with out the drugs the scientists were always forced to drug her with. The door slammed closed and the now detached arm hit the floor with a dull thud. Alice and Matt looked at her with wide eyes. She shrugged.
"We need to get out. What about this door?" Alice asked Kaplan, who shook his head.
"They're waiting out there too."
"And that way?" She motioned her head towards the other side of the laser room.
"No, there's no way out of the Queen's chamber." Kaplan informed them grimly.
"So we wait. They'll send somebody to get us when they haven't heard from you guys, right?" Spence asked, only to receive silence instead. He looked from Kaplan to Rain. "What?"
"We're running out of time. You remember those blast door we passed on the way down here?" Rain received nods. "They seal shut in under an hour. If we don't make it out of here by then, then we're not getting out."
"Are you serious?" Alice asked, her eyes wide in fear.
"They can't just bury us alive down here!" Spence shouted in disbelief.
"They would actually do that?" Matt asked in horror.
"Containing the incident was the only fail-safe plan they had, against possible contamination." Rain informed them, unclenching her bloodied hand and winced.
"And you're telling us now!? Fuck! Can this get any worse?" Spence ranted.
Alice looked at the bag that contained the hard drive to turn the Red Queen back on. She walked up to the bag and grabbed it, heading down the hallway into the chamber.
"Alice?" Matt called to her.
"What are you doing?" Kaplan asked as he and the rest of the group followed her to see what she was up to.
"I'm gonna turn her back on." Alice said while she put the correct wires in the right place.
"This isn't a good idea." Kaplan said.
"She'll know a way out." Alice replied, continuing her to work on turning her back on.
"That homicidal bitch killed my team." Rain argued through gritted teeth.
"Yes, but that homicidal bitch is our only way out of here." Alice shot back.
"Kaplan, bypass the circuit breaker." Midori spoke up.
"Yes ma'am." Kaplan immediately got to work as they waited for the queen to show. "Circuit breaker's disabled. This time, if I hit the switch, she'll fry. The charge must've damaged her boards." Kaplan informed them as the Red Queen's holographic image appeared before disappearing in a static haze.
"Ah, there you are," The Red Queens voice rung out, teasing and mocking, Things, I gather, have gone out of control."
"Give me the switch, I'm gonna fry her ass!" Rain shouted, running towards Kaplan, who pulled the switch away from her.
Midori grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back. "Rain, we need her at the moment, so calm down."
Rain nodded stiffly and took in a deep breath, calming down after a moment, and noticed that Midori's arm was still around her waist, not that she was complaining. In fact, she leaned back into the other woman, who smirk at her. Alice fought down the jealousy welling up inside her.
"I did warn you, didn't I?" The Red Queen said.
"Tell us what's going on down here." Alice demanded.
"Research and Developement of the highest nature."
"What about those things out there?" Spence asked.
"Even in death, the human body remains active; hair and fingernails continue to grow, new cells are produced, and the brain holds a small electrical charge that takes months to dissipate. The T-Virus provides a massive jolt to both the cellular growth and those trace electrical impulses. To put it simply, it reanimates the body." The Red Queen stated factually.
"It brings the dead back to life." Rain said.
"Not fully. The subjects have the simplest of motor ability and perhaps a little memory, virtually no intelligence. They are driven by the basest of impulse, the most basic of needs."
"Which is?" Spence questioned as he impatiently tapped his foot.
"The need to feed."
"Feed on what, exactly?" Spence asked.
"They feed on what mankind has always wanted to prey upon, what you have always sought out to destroy. Yourselves."
"They eat people?" Spence gasped in disbelief.
"That's sick!" Kaplan shouted.
"On the contrary. I find that it fits perfectly with human behavior. Stripped of culture, intelligence, reason. They are your true primal selves. The evil that dwells within all of you." Midori could hear the smirk in her voice and her grip on Rain's waist tightened slightly as anger shot through her.
"I tried to keep them isolated, but I'm afraid you've changed all that." the Red Queen continued.
"How do you kill them?" Kaplan asked.
"Severing the top of the spinal column or massive trauma to the brain is the most effective methods."
"You mean, shoot them in the head." Rain said.
"Yes."
"Why did you kill everybody down here?" Alice asked, glancing at Midori.
"The T-Virus escaped into the air conditioning system and an uncontrolled pattern of infection began. The virus protean; changing from a liquid to air and blood transmission depending on its environment. It's almost impossible to kill. Ask Midori. She's tried to destroy it, being it's creator and all."
Midori flinched and everyone turned to her questionably and with fear and anger. "I didn't mean to create it. I didn't even know what I was doing at the time." she sighed, finally releasing Rain. "I guess I should tell you that I'm a Hebi, a snake youkai, or snake demon-"
"Demons aren't real." Spence scoffed.
Midori hissed sharply, her eyes once again going slitted silver and her canines lengthened, small dark green scales forming around her eyes and on her temples. Spence took a step back in fear. The snake features disappeared and Midori sighed again.
"When I was younger, around 50 years old-" everyone shot her looks of disbelief, making her roll her eyes. "Demons are immortal. At fifty, I was practically a toddler. Anyway, my lover, a human, had been murdered before me by an enemy of mine. I was nieve and took her body deep into a cave and used my demonic magic to bring her back in my grief. Only, she didn't come back human. She became a zombie, a creature that was hardly recognizable. Unable to destroy what she had become, I sealed her in the cave, hoping no one would find her. But three hundred years later, someone did find her. Charles Ashford. By then she was dead for good, but her corpse wasn't normal. Ashford took it to a lab and studied it, creating the T-Virus from her remains after discovering that she had been reanimated. I tried to destroy it after I found him, but I couldn't. I don't know how. So instead, I stayed here, watching the progress and building of Umbrella, waiting for someone to come that would help me destroy the corporation, since I can't do it myself. Especially since I was usually drugged, as well as under constant observation." she explained to the group.
"Holy shit. Just how old are you?" Matt asked, his anger fading.
"356." Everyone gawked, making her smirk. "I look good for my age, don't I?"
"So, the virus can't be destroyed?" Kaplan asked.
"Not that I know of."
"I couldn't allow it to escape from The Hive. So, I took steps." the Red Queen spoke up.
"Steps? What steps?" Alice asked.
"It's in her programing." stated Midori. "When there is a problem in the Hive, the Red Queen has to choose the best choice to stop it or else bad things will happen. She would do anything to save the world, even if it means killing a few."
"What!?" Spence yelled.
"Correct. You must understand that those who become infected, I can't allow to leave."
Rain rubbed her hand.
"We're not bitten." Alice said, forgetting about Rain.
"Just one bite, one scratch from these creatures is sufficient and then you become on of them. A check of my systems indicates my main drive circuit breaker has been disabled, may I ask why?" asked the Red Queen.
"Insurance. We need a way out of here. If you refuse to help at anytime, we flip the switch. Understand?" Alice said to the Red Queen.
I hope Midori's explanation for the T-Virus made sense. I wanted to try something different, since most RE stories seem to be similar.