Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil or House of the Dead. Resident Evil and all RE characters mentioned here are the property of Capcom. House of the Dead and all HOTD characters are the property of Sega. This is a work of crossover fiction designed for entertainment purposes only.
The House Of The Dead
Chapter 2 – Explanations
By Bhamv
*****
Chris, Jill, Leon, and Claire looked around them once more to get their bearings, and to guard against any further zombie ambushes. They stood pretty much in the center of the front courtyard, next to a large fountain that seemed to be inoperative at the moment. Approximately 15 meters away was a stone walkway that bridged the moat separating them and the front entrance of the mansion. "What kind of mansion needs a moat?" Jill thought to herself as Chris started towards the bridge.
Circling around the marble fountain, Chris noticed the stone statue of an angel in the center of the fountain was shattered, its pieces scattered through the murky waters. Glancing downwards at the green sludge-like water, he noticed bubbles emerging and popping at the surface.
"That's odd…" Thought Chris, before a green humanoid creature leapt out of the slime at him. He had a glimpse of blood red eyes and a mouthful of sharp, exposed teeth before he reflexively squeezed the trigger in his hand, shooting the creature through the abdomen and sending it flying back into the fountain water, now being stained red by the monster's blood. "What the hell was that?!" Yelled Chris and Claire in unison, backing away from the fountain in horror. It was like a hunter from Raccoon City, but greener and shaped more like a human…
"Man, it seems like nothing is safe around here. These zombies could be anywhere! Not to mention what else could be crawling around." Leon said. He wanted to say more, but was cut short by another loud cry for help, coming from the direction of the mansion itself. Glancing at the source of the plea, the STARS team was horrified to see a massive zombie, at least 2 meters tall with bulging musculature, standing on the bridge before the front door and holding a white-uniformed scientist over his head. The zombie was slowly shuffling towards the railing of the bridge, preparing to throw the helpless man down over the side and to his death.
Charging forward, Chris raised his pistol and emptied his clip into the chest of the creature, only seeming to stun it slightly and doing nothing to halt its approach towards the edge of the bridge. Cursing under his breath, he reached behind him into his backpack to pull out another clip while releasing the spent one from his gun, reloading in a smooth practiced motion. His next volley of bullets was joined by those of his teammates, collectively blowing a massive hole right through the chest of the zombie. The creature looked down at the gap in his torso, seemingly confused, before deciding to bow to the inevitable and crumpled, dead.
The scientist hurriedly freed himself from the grasp of the dead-again zombie, thanking the STARS team profusely. "Thank you, oh thank you so much. You've saved my life! I was almost thrown into the sewer system under the bridge there…"
Leon looked down the side of the bridge, a drop of at least 30 feet onto a stone surface, and shuddered. "Yeah, I guess you were. Listen, can you tell us what in God's name is going on here?"
"Yeah, I'll tell you what I can, sure." The man answered, leaning against the railings to regain his breath and to recover the feeling in his legs after the fright he just suffered.
"My name's Sebastian, Sebastian Steinfeld, I worked as a researcher here in this mansion. Well, it looks like a mansion, but it's actually a big laboratory, researching the reanimation of corpses with biotechnology. The guy who started all the research is called Curien, in fact he's the one who's in charge of all the major projects. He's also the one who came up with all the funds needed. We don't actually know if that's his first name, or his last, or what. We just know him as Curien, and it's all his fault this is happening…" Sebastian had to pause to regain his composure as he remembered just what had been going on in the labs.
"Take it easy, just tell us slowly. Do you know if Curien has anything to do with Umbrella Corporation?" Claire said, her voice calm and soothing.
"Umbrella Corporation? No, I'm pretty sure we didn't have anything to do with them. I've never heard of them, and we all knew how much Curien hated big companies and stuff. Said they were evil, and he wanted nothing to do with them." Sebastian said, shaking his head slowly.
The STARS team glanced at each other. Not associated with Umbrella? A whole new sect of zombies to deal with? The four sighed softly and shook their heads. This was not good.
Sebastian didn't seem to notice the dejection his words were causing, and continued. "Anyway, earlier this morning, Curien suddenly walked into the labs and used his top-level ID to open all the cells and tanks we were holding the zombies in. Just set them free. He was shouting something about the time has come, and that it was time for his creations to take over the world. It was crazy talk, but… but… he didn't look crazy. He just looked like he usually did, like he had been planning this from the beginning. Like he wanted all the zombies to kill everyone in the building…" Sebastian had to pause again, tears slowly rolling down his cheeks as he remembered.
"Well, we had to stop him. The zombies were gonna kill us all if they got to us, that's how they are. And maybe Curien really did want to kill us, to make sure no one stopped him. Most of the researchers got out, we have emergency escape routes and all that. But some of us stayed back to try to stop the zombies if we could. We didn't count on there being so many of them, and that they would be so… so deadly." Sebastian sighed.
"What about Sophie, where does she fit into all this?" Jill asked.
"Sophie? Sophie's Curien's personal assistant, but even she didn't know he was about to do this. When the monsters got free, it was Sophie who got things together. She gave instructions, and led the guys who stayed back in destroying the creatures, telling us what to do. Later, when we realized we weren't going to be able to hold them, she told us to get out while she phoned for help. I guess she made it, didn't she, cause you guys are here." Sebastian perked up a bit, looking around him for Sophie. No one had the heart to tell him she had been carried back into the mansion by a giant flying monster.
Chris raised his gun and said, "All right, we're going to go in and look for other survivors. Is there anything else you can tell us that will help us?"
"Yeah, yeah, I can tell you this… Most of the zombies you see, their weak points are their heads. Destroy their head, and you should be able to stop them." Sebastian said, nodding. "You see, they're animated by a kind of bio-chip we put in their brains. If you destroy that chip, or destroy the brain holding the chip, then they can't function."
"So we have to go through the whole mansion, blowing the heads off every zombie in there?" Leon asked, his expression showed his doubt that they could accomplish that.
"No, no, you won't have to do that. The bio-chips are controlled by a central computer via remote signal, and the computer's located in the innermost labs of the mansion. If you can destroy or disable that computer, the zombies won't have any means of control, and they'll die on their own. That particular lab's gonna be pretty hard to get to though, and I don't know if Curien's put any guards in that lab itself." Sebastian explained.
Chris nodded. "Thanks, Sebastian. You should get out of here now; we'll take it from here. Can you make your way out?"
Sebastian nodded. "Yeah, there's a safe house near here, that's where most of the guys will have gone to. It's fortified specifically for this kind of thing. Thanks, guys, you're real lifesavers." With a grateful nod and a wave, he set off on a run down the path, soon disappearing around the corner of the guardhouse.
Chris turned to his STARS team. "All right, here's the plan. We go through the mansion and find the lab holding the central computer, and destroy it. We also try to find any survivors and get them out. Remember, these zombies aren't from Umbrella, they're completely different. So forget about what it's been like fighting Umbrella zombies. These guys are faster, smarter, and meaner. It's a whole new way of fighting now." The other three nodded.
Chris continued, "We'd better split up, we'll have a better chance of finding the computer lab that way. Leon, Claire, you two head up through the main entrance of the mansion. Jill and I will go through the sewers to get into the labs, ok?"
"All right. Good luck, guys." Claire and Leon said, turning towards the large wooden front door of the mansion. Chris and Jill circled around the side of the moat until they found a set of stone stairs leading down to the walkway beside the moat, approaching an archway leading to the sewer system. Looking up at his sister and his colleague on the bridge above him, Chris gave one final salute before ducking through the archway with Jill, into the zombie-ridden darkness. The last thing he heard before Leon and Claire were out of earshot was Claire saying, 'Well, at least we won't encounter Tyrants or Nemesis…"
*****
Thanks for reading this far again! Comments and reviews would be greatly appreciated! -Bhamv