Whoa, whoa, stop the presses and hold the phone! I actually got a review! I'd like to thank Tanya Adams 64 for being my first reviewer in the Fear No Evil series, but, I won't forget the other 30 people who actually bothered reading it. I assure you, it will just keep getting better and better. Promise!
Disclaimer: I own the F.E.A.R game CD and the two RE movies, nuthin' more
Interval Two: Lockdown
3 hours later
Location: An unknown position. Codenamed: The Raven's Nest. Washington DC
Mission Time: 2h 51m 22s
"Trust me. We've used them before, during the Origin incident. They know what they're doing- I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!"
Senator R.J Kelly shut his cell phone with anger. If there was one thing he hated, it was people who disrespected his decisions. And right now, he had a fifteen minute talk with a person whose entire purpose in life was just that.
The Senator was a grown man in his late 60's, it was evident on his wrinkled, frowning expression. The two piece black suit he wore was held tightly against his plump body and his brand new leather shoes made loud scratching noises as they hit the tiled corridor.
He looked both sides to see his two bodyguards; two soldiers, wearing normal green military uniforms and wielding the standard issued M-16 Assault Rifle in their hands. Their facial expression did not change during the entire time of his conversation; they didn't even look at him. Eyes looking forward, green barrettes hanging softly on their heads.
The trio walked past many doors on their way down the long corridor. Eventually, they reached the end of the hallway; two large wooden doors with golden knobs, guarded by two more soldiers, armed with smaller, Uzi SMG's.
Senator Kelly stopped near the right soldier, who replied with a sharp salute. Kelly's two bodyguards took positions near the two guards while the right one handed the balding man with a brown Bible, decorated with a golden cross. Kelly smiled at the soldier's professional manner. This was an irritating, yet compelling test, before he could enter the room.
He raised his left hand, and places his right one on the Bible, reciting a short prayer. His face quivered with a slight tingle of pain as a small needle erected from the center of the golden cross and drew blood from his palm. The book's white pages glowed green for a second and the soldier wielding it nodded the older man to enter the room.
Kelly finished his prayer and complied; pushing the two wooden doors open and walking past the two Uzi armed soldiers.
Once inside, Kelly couldn't help but to notice the two men already seated; one was younger then him by many years, he was carefully combing his slick blonde hair while casually inspecting several papers placed in front of him. His outfit seemed like it was pulled right out of a catalog; neatly pressed against his slim figure. On the table to his left was a small black suitcase, on which was printed a hexagonal blue and red sign. Kelly recognized it immediately; the Umbrella Corporation
The other man was older, approaching Kelly's own age, and if the other man seemed like he was pulled out of a catalog, this one seemed to have been plucked right out of a battlefield; He wore a plain set of black uniforms, a bullet proof vest and a hat. Both the vest and the hat bore a white rectangle, in which were four capital letters
F.E.A.R
"Betters" Senator Kelly said in his raspy voice and took a seat in one of the many leather chairs scattered across the long conference table that was placed in the middle of the room.
"Kelly" The older man replied, sounding a bit nervous. He took a short sip of cold water and opened his mouth again
"It's nice to see you again"
Kelly shifted in his chair and glanced at the young man with the blonde hair. He hasn't said a single word since he entered.
"I only wish we could meet on occasions merrier than this" He replied and continued.
"I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Cain" he started and gestured towards the man, who now displayed enough courtesy to turn his attention to the two men and away from his hair. His brown eyes looked at the Senator, then to the man in uniform and back to the Senator
"He's a… Representative, sent here by the Umbrella Corporation to lay down the specs of your mission"
"Indeed" Cain said; a strong German accent in his voice. He flashed two piles of paper across the wooden table, one reached Betters, and the other one arrived at Kelly's waiting hands.
"Approximately three hours ago, a team of ten soldiers has infiltrated one of the Corporation's research facilities, codenamed the Hive" Cain picked up a remote control from within the suitcase and clicked it. A large screen lit up, displaying bits and pieces of security footage, showing the enemy soldiers taking over several labs and offices.
Seeing the troops on screen made Betters' face run dry of blood
"Replicas? Again? But… How?" his mind asked. The man muted his questions, knowing they'd only cause trouble.
Ignoring the older man's change of expression, Cain continued
"These men seem to be highly trained, and were able to take on several positions of the facility's internal defenses. Luckily, one of our commando units, the Crimson Skulls, was assigned to guard the facility. They reacted quickly, and naturally, a gunfight broke out"
The screen was now presenting a rear view of a girl, hiding behind a corner while gunshots flew past her. She then rounded the corner and let out a quick burst from her sub-machinegun and charged down the corridor, beyond the camera's reach.
"The following events are a bit of a blur to us" The man said and took a sip of his water
"It would seem something has triggered an explosion in the lab section, and released a powerful viral agent into the air-"
"I heard a little about that… 'Hive' facility of yours" Betters said, trying to have a better understanding of the situation
"I know that aside from usual guards, you also have a super computer, the… 'Red Queen', I believe" he said in his western accent. That made Cain shift uncomfortably in his seat.
"Ah, yes, the Red Queen" he said in his monotonous voice "Well, it would seem that there was a slight…" he cleared his throat "Miscalculation in the system's hard drive and-" Betters stopped him by raising his hand. He was getting tired of that man, fast
"How many fatalities?" he asked flatly. Cain lowered his head
"Five hundred" he replied quietly "All personnel inside the Hive were killed within a five minute time of the viral outbreak to prevent outside contamination"
"Well, then this is obviously not a search and rescue mission" Betters said, voice still flat. He despised the man in front of him, but tried to keep it in check
"What do you want us to do?"
"Well" he started "my superiors need you to shut down and extract the Red Queen's main memory board for analysis"
That was it
"No" Betters replied, still quietly "I will not have my men sent on a suicide mission inside a biological war zone to retrieve some discs because your men couldn't handle a couple of terrorists"
"Now, Rowdy" Senator Kelly said, sensing his friend's temper rising. "We've been ordered by the Ministry of Defense to follow Umbrella's orders. Let's do it as professionally and coolly as we always do. No need to blow a fuse" Betters looked at the older man with surprise and then realized what he was doing
"Yeah, you're right" he replied, calming down "No need to get annoyed with a simple task"
"Indeed" Cain added, just to earn a glare from Senator Kelly. He tosses a bundle of CD's across the table, over to Betters
"These contain every bit of information about the Hive's structure and the Red Queen. They'll provide your team with all the information they need to complete the mission"
Cain got up and turned to leave, but was stopped by Betters' voice
"One last question" he said "What about survivors? Either civilian or members of your commando squad?"
"A secondary objective, if any" the man replied as casually as one would if he was talking about last week's weather. That's all Betters needed to hear; the last red flag has been raised.
"I see" he said, grinning inwardly "Have a nice day, Mr. Cain, we'll be in touch"
Betters then reached for his pocket and pulled out a small cellular phone. He activated the device and made a call
"Collins? This is Rowdy; we've got ourselves a mission. Data will be uploaded shortly"
He took a short breath
"Assemble the team"
(--T--)
"Almost there… Got it!" Kaplan exclaimed with triumph. To his right, lying on her stomach across a bonk bed, Rain seemingly replied with an audible gasp of pain.
"Damn, Bennie!" she yelled "I thought you were supposed to be good at this, that fucking hurt!"
The medic grinned at his companion's reply and quickly pulled out a medical sewing kit out of his vest
"That shard was lodged on top of a serious nerve cluster. I'm surprised you didn't pass out" he replied "Now come on, lower your pants so I can sew this little bad boy"
Rain was about to lash out a snappy comment, but decided not to. If it were J.D, asking her to do that, she'd probably smack him across the face, but Kaplan was different; a strict professional in all that came to medical treatments and a man of high morals in general.
She complied; quickly lowering her black army uniform below the throbbing cut and waiting for the treating to begin.
Kaplan's eyes didn't drift above the wound for even a second. He took an oath to never take advantage of his patients in any way back when he was training to be a field medic, and he defiantly saw checking out his squad mate's figure while treating her wound as taking advantage.
Picking up a bundle of cotton soaked in disinfectant, he worked his way around the wound, cleaning up the red fluid that dried up alongside the leg and then eventually running a quick, yet thorough run through the wound itself, trying to make it as quick and painless as he could.
Rain hissed out at the small sting her thigh had received. Above her, Kaplan immediately apologized. She smiled inwardly, having known plenty of nice guys in her 25 years alive. She was never surprised when they tried to exploit some angle in an attempt to get her in the sack
Kaplan never did that, he was just plainly… Nice. So nice it was inhuman in some occasions
"I'm starting to patch it up, it might hurt a bit" he warned her. She gave an approving nod and bit her lower lip as he approached her, digging the small silvery needle in her flesh.
"Alright, boys and girls. Here's the wager!" J.D exclaimed, much like a football announcer. His crowd; the remaining members of the Crimson Skulls, save Rain, cheered. It was the end of their range week at Umbrella's Wesker training facility, and 'One' has allowed them to blow off some steam
"Our very own Rain Ocampo told me she could assemble her MP-5 a-n-d engage fifteen different targets in exactly forty five seconds! That is to say, fifteen seconds to assemble a fully dismantled MP-5 and two more seconds to each target. Can she do it?!" He paused
"While blindfolded?" he added, prolonging the word and pronouncing every part of it
There was a mixture of Yes and No's being shouted from within the crowd, but the ones against her were in much greater numbers
"Hey, hey. What's at steak here?" Another soldier, Romano asked.
"Good question there, Romano!" J.D replied, sounding like a Home Shopping Network salesman
"Movie night" he replied "If I win, we'll have little Miss Ocampo fetching us drinks and popcorn in an outfit of my choice, and let me tell you…" he threw his arms sideways and started moving his waist
"I'm a Hawaiian Straw Skirt kinda man!" the remaining troops cheered and laughed at the same time, this was going to be one show.
"Well Rain? Any last words?" J.D asked while gesturing an invisible microphone at her.
She rolled her eyes
"Blow me" she replied. J.D burst into a fit of fake laughter
"Ever optimistic" he announced "Well, time's-a-wasting. The blindfold please!"
Lisa Leang, better known as Medic, placed a black piece of cloth around the Latina's eyes and walked away, not before whispering 'Good Luck' in her friend's ear.
"Alright…" J.D said, holding onto his stopwatch "3…2…1… GO!"
The female commando got on her knees and started reassembling her weapon. She was sonly done, five seconds ahead of time.
About to pick up a magazine and slap it in her weapon, she could tell it felt lighter than it should. Empty
She threw the magazine aside and picked up another. This one felt full. She slapped it in her weapon and pulled back on the loading mechanism, rising to fire.
A two bullet burst escaped her MP-5's barrel, but there was something wrong; the recoil felt awkward, she realized her mistake too late
"Shit, blanks!" she yelled and ejected the magazine out of her weapon, picking up the last one and ejecting another blank round from the chamber
"Ten seconds left, Rain. I can already smell the straw" J.D taunted
"Shut the FUCK up!" she replied, clicking the safety to Auto and firing short bursts across the firing range. Nailing each target right in the chest
"Not gonna make that last one…" He added. Kaplan gave him an odd look. As much as he'd like to see Rain in a Hoola skirt, the blank magazine was out of line.
"TIME!" he cried out and ran to examine the targets. Coming back with a gloom look.
"I hope you can do the Hoola-Hoola!" Rain taunted him while grinning from ear to ear. She was happy with the fact she hit all of the targets, but J.D had a point; she fired the last burst too early to make the target.
She turned her head towards Kaplan, who she saw, unknown to anyone else, kick a small pistol, equipped with a silencer, under a pile of used up targets
"Done" Kaplan said, pulling her out of her daydream. She hopped on her feet and pulled her pants back up, shutting the black belt buckle as she did.
"I'm going to try contact the others" she said while grabbing an emergency radio that was permanently embedded to the wall
"You get some rest"
He thanked her and kicked back on the bed where he had just operated on her, keeping his eyes open, but in the meantime, resting his body. He placed his vest beside him and gave his aching back some rest while simultaneously keeping an eye on Rain, who was busy scanning the intercom's frequencies in hopes of making contact with her remaining squad mates
Suddenly, she picked up a channel filled up with static, but she could make out a human voice in it. She clicked several buttons in hopes of clearing the channel of static. It worked
"This is James Shade of the --Son Skulls. Can anyone hear me? Over"
If she could, Rain would've jumped and hugged the man. She picked up the transmitter and clicked it on
"Rain Ocampo, reporting for duty, over" she replied.
'One's eyes lit up, along with J.D's, the latter hissing out a loud "Yes!" and clenching his fists with glee; he knew that a little Biohazard couldn't take on Rain
"Ocampo, how're you doing there?" 'One' asked. He looked to his left, where his eyes met the two civilians; Matt was caring for the girl in the skimpy outfit, placing his hand under her head and smiling at her.
She returned a smile, but still had a distracted look in her eyes, like something was wrong. That is, aside from being locked in a sealed room, half a mile underground.
"Doing fine, sir" came the reply from the intercom's speaker "Had a little issue before, but Kaplan fixed it"
"Wait, Kaplan's with you?" he asked, a small ping of joy in his voice. After what happened before, he needed all the men he could get.
"That's a roger" she replied and continued "What happened out there?"
'One's smile faded
"After the initial Biohazard warning, the Red Queen seemed to have gone insane" he said and sighed.
Hearing that, Kaplan shot out of his bed and stood next to Rain, providing his full attention to his commander's voice
"Her automated defenses kicked in. Every single employee in the Hive has either been shot or gassed to death" 'One's deathly voice concluded.
Kaplan grabbed the transmitter from Rain's hand, and clicked it on
"What about Tag Two?" he asked. Tag Two was the codeword used to refer to the other four-man squad of the Crimson Skulls, used to patrol the lower regions of the Hive, including the Red Queen's chamber
"Before the radio blackout, they were ordered to move inside the Queen's chamber and shut her down" he paused for a second, trying to regain his monotone
"Apparently, there was a dormant defense system that Westlake didn't know about. Something called a Level Five Weapon System"
"All four died instantly"
'One' closed his eyes at the sound of Rain's swearing. He knew it was justified, as he also did it, while he heard them being sliced and diced by the weapon system.
"So what's our next move?" Rain finally asked, breaking the silence "We go back to the surface, right? Before the blast doors seal shut"
"Negative"
Kaplan's heart jumped up to his throat
"Uh, can you repeat that?" he asked, wishing he was hearing things
"I said negative" the commander's voice was loud and clear through the speaker
"After Tag Two were killed, the Red Queen initiated Lockdown mode. The blast doors were sealed shut and in order to reset the countdown, we need to reboot her"
"I've already planned out an attack route" J.D's voice washed over the communication channel. It calmed Rain down
"We'll rendezvous at Dining Hall B, then split into two man teams; one team will take the elevator down to the Queen's Chamber and take care of business, while the other team keeps her busy by cracking her defense system from the control panel at Dining Hall B"
"Me and Kaplan will head down to the Chamber" 'One' ordered "Rain, J.D, you stay with the civilians at Dining Hall B. We'll rendezvous in… Ten minutes. Move"
With that, 'One', J.D, Matt and the girl left the room. Those who were carrying weapons held them at the ready and began their journey towards Dining Hall B.
Three floors below them, Rain and Kaplan have also left the decontamination room and began making their way towards the destination.
As they were walking, Rain's grip on her MP-5 tightened. She kept swaying her head sideways, inspecting every inch of the corridor she and Kaplan were walking through
"Something wrong?" Kaplan asked
Tracking system: Activated
Subject: Ocampo, Rain
Analyzing…
Vital signs: Optimal
Weapon: H&K MP-5 A5: Partially Loaded. Extra Clips: 8.
Threat: HIGH
Analyzing Voice Pattern…
"I just can't shake the feeling I'm being watched"
Match: Negative.
Searching Memory Bank…
"Reboot her"
Match Found: James Shade
Analyzing…
Vital signs: Elevated.
Weapon: G-36C: Loaded. Extra Clips: 6
Threat: EXTREME
"Shut down? Reboot? I think not"
In various locations throughout the Hive, automated doors slid open with the sound of hydraulics. The white mist, generated by the massive quantities of gas that were pumped inside by the Red Queen, started pouring out of the room in a menacing manner; gas hissing its way out of the sealed rooms, filled with bodies, and out to the open
THWACK!
A pair of pale, cold, dead hands reached out and grabbed the doorway.
(--T--)
He was alone. Detached from his mother unit, Echo-6, for a prolonged period of time.
Scanning his surroundings, he mentally sighed; another empty corridor, no directions whatsoever, just a long metallic corridor with doors that led into various offices and rooms. The thick glass windows of the rooms were pelted with bullet holes and an array of spider-web like cracks that raced across them. Papers, blood and bodies were scattered everywhere, making the once peaceful facility to now seem like a battlefield, with the soldiers wearing lab coats and expensive suits.
Although not actually being there, he knew very well what had happened. The internal defenses had gone homicidal and killed everyone. He could've also been just another number in the long body count, but luckily, was able to neutralize the two large machineguns that tried to end his life.
Rethinking the event, he thanked God for his gas mask. If there wasn't for it, he would've suffocated for sure, much like the other scientists and office workers that he had saved from the machineguns. Retrospectively, their deaths would've been much quicker if they were just shot to death, not left to die by the cold white gas like rats in a sewer.
His current objective was to rally with his fellow squad mates, but right now, that mission seemed rather hard to accomplish; something had caused all in-out communication to die, and his digital mapping equipment was destroyed during his encounter with the automated defenses.
Though nothing more than a human drone, following a planned mission that has been fed to his mind, he still had a certain amount of clear sense, and he knew when a mission was beyond accomplishing.
"Screw the mission" he thought and walked up to a fake wood door, kicking it open and stepping inside the office. Bodies were littered all across the room, lying on each other like a mangled deck of human cards. He shuddered at the thought and pushed it out of his mind.
Now sitting in front of a computer screen, he began typing furiously across the keyboard, accessing the many files and folders that were stored on the computer's servers.
His eyes scanned numerous three dimensional charts and schematics of the hive as he studied them carefully, memorizing and figuring out possible escape routes out of the underground tomb he was in.
Nothing
He looked at the screen with blank desperation. Every design showed the only way out was through the blast doors, and previous study showed him that the Red Queen had sealed the place shut.
Giving up on the idea, he tried accessing the building's thermal imaging system, to try and locate his two squad mates. He was busy trying to crack an access code when he heard something
Scraping
Quickly turning his head around, he peered at the grotesque pile of bodies. Mentally kicking himself for hearing things
He turned back to the screen and resumed his furious typing, trying to bypass the powerful encryptions that were placed on the system
He heard it again. Nails scraping against the floor tiling
Turning around and raising his weapon as he did, he spotted a figure on the farther side of the office, hiding partially in the shadows. It was a man, he could tell that.
The man was standing in an awkward manner, as if his left leg has been broken. He took a step forward, dragging his left leg along.
Indifferent, the soldier raised his weapon. He didn't have time for this.
He squeezed the trigger.
A three round burst escaped the barrel of his G2A2 and into the man's torso. The man was blown back, moaning slightly and fell down to the ground, motionless. Still completely indifferent, the soldier turned around and got back to work.
A moan
He turned around again to see the man once again on his feet. How could he be still standing? The soldier's hand shifted to a flashlight, mounted at the bottom of his gun and activated it.
As the beam of light shone upon the man, no, not man, creature, the soldier's eyes widened under the cool front of his gas mask. His lower jaw hung slightly, able to let out a short sentence that contained all his curiosity and shock within itself.
"What…the FUCK?"
(----------X----------)
End chapter two and tension's building up! As you may have noticed, I shortened out the chapter length, maybe I'll get more reviews that way.
Anyway, please, remember to review. It's not just for me, if you tell me how can I make the story better, then you'll enjoy reading it more.
…And besides, I'm handing out a free set of Crimson Skulls army fatigues to every reviewer.
Keep in touch, 'till next week, Bye!