A.N: Since there was a tie, I picked the Catacombs to get my first OC and a surprise out of the way; hopefully I got the characterization right. For the record, Levi is pronounced "Lev-ee," NOT "Le-vi."

Chapter 5

Joseph was still struggling to keep the dogs away from his throat. He was bleeding from several scratches and bites all over his arms and chest by now, and had almost given up hope when gunshots suddenly rang out and both the dogs fell to either side of him, lifeless. For a moment, he almost thought Brad had come back until he heard a soft female voice ask him, "Are you okay, mister?"

Getting shakily to his feet, he turned to see a light-skinned African American girl holding onto the Berretta he'd found and dropped a few minutes ago—minus the hand—unsteadily. She looked to be somewhere between the ages of fourteen and seventeen (he was guessing either fourteen or fifteen since she looked to be about just over four and a half feet tall), wearing a zipped up grey jacket with white fur around the hood and cuffs, as well as a pair of black jeans that were a little too long, almost completely covering her grey and purple sneakers. A neon orange fanny pack hung slightly off her waist. "I'm fine, but, not to sound ungrateful or anything, who are you and how did you get here in the first place? The forest is completely blocked off by a police barricade."

"Um, I—" She was cut off by a series of howls from the woods behind them, followed by several dark shapes darting through the grass. "Okay, scratch that. Right now, we need to get out of here."

"Yeah. Come on, I think there's a mansion this way." Chasing after the girl across the clearing, they managed to dodge several more dogs as well as a few foxes until they saw the mansion in the distance—just as Chris locked the gate and ran around the left side of the house chased by the dogs on the front porch. "Chris! Damn, now what?"

"Jump it!"

"Are you nuts! We'll never make it!"

"Just trust me!" With that, she made a flying leap and grabbed onto the top of the fence and pulled herself up. With nothing else to do, Joseph followed. Unfortunately, he was several feet short and nearly fell back to the ground, but the kid somehow managed to grab him and pull him away from the snapping jaws of the canines now at the base of the fence. Dropping to the ground, they barely had time to catch their breath when the extremely frustrated dogs they saw chasing Chris darted around the side of the house due to the commotion on the other side of the fence. "Not again."

"This way!" Moving forward, they bypassed the house and connected shed, heading toward the backyard, where several lifts connected to a lower level. The only one with power was on the other side of what appeared to be a large pool. Before he could stop her, the girl dove head first into the water and swam across. Again, he followed as he didn't see any better options. The water was cold and more than slightly filthy, but it was better than being eaten. Looking back, he noticed the dogs couldn't swim, as the couple that jumped in after him didn't come back up. Climbing out on the other side, he checked his pockets and found both his gun and bullets were soaked. 'Great, just great.'

"Um, here." Slightly startled, he turned and noticed the gun the girl was offering him, as well as some bandages and weird smelling bottle labeled disinfectant. She was just as soaked as he was, but her long sleeved shirt under her jacket was mostly dry, minus the sleeve she slung the jacket over. "Don't worry, my pack is just as waterproof as my coat."

"Thanks." Taking the gun, he let her clean and bandage his wounds despite his suspicions of the disinfectant. "Jumping headfirst into that water was a pretty stupid, though."

"Sorry. I just freaked out, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. But, I think that friend of yours is probably somewhere down here, since there isn't anywhere else he could've gone." Walking over to the lift, she pushed the button, with Joseph again following. On the way down, he asked, "Hey, how do you know this place so well anyway? I've never heard of anything out here."

"My dad works here sometimes, and told me about a bit of it. It used to be Mr. Spencer's summer home, but they changed it to something else when he didn't want it anymore. He wasn't allowed to say what it is now, though. He's been here for over two months and hasn't written at all, which isn't like him, as he normally writes to me twice a week. I overheard some of Dad's friends say there was an accident, so I came out here to find him."

"Well then, let's see if we can find him." Getting off the lift, they got halfway across the yard before they heard what sounded like gunshots behind them. Spinning around, Joseph noticed a latter that he missed on the way down. Part of him knew it was stupid to take the girl down there with him, but the other part reminded him of why he was here in the first place—to find the missing Bravo Team members. One or more of them may be down there, but he couldn't take her down there with him, as he didn't think babysitting the kid while heading into hostile territory would be a good idea. 'Speaking of the girl…' "Hey, what's your name? With all those dogs chasing us, I forgot to ask."

"Levi. Levi Hall. What's yours, sir?"

"Officer Joseph Frost at your service, but please don't call me sir." After giving a mock bow that made Levi giggle a little, he asked, "Do you know what's down that ladder?"

"Sorry. I have no idea."

"Well, I need to find out if there's anyone down there. You should go the building over there and hide, and try to find some dry clothes so you don't get sick. I'll meet you there after I'm done looking around down there."

"Okay. Please be careful."

With a laugh, he called over his shoulder, "Do you honestly think someone who tracks criminals for a living needs to hear that?"

"You never know. Besides, not to be rude or anything, you seem like someone who goofs off too much."

"Ouch, that really hurts." He was already partly down the ladder by now, and gave her a mock hurt look before adding, "Just wait in there until I come back. And if you see anyone else, try to stay with them."

"Yes sir."

"I told you not to call me that; it sounds too weird."

"Sorry. Will Mr. Frost work?"

"Now you're making me feel old. Officer Joseph is fine."

"Okay, Officer Joseph." She had turned around and was making her way across the courtyard when they heard loud screeching from the building. Letting out a muttered curse, Joseph realized that maybe that building wasn't as save as he thought it was. "Hey, Levi, on second thought, I think you'd better come with me."

"Yeah. I really don't want to know what that was."

At the bottom of the latter was a cool underground cave with limestone walls that turned farter up ahead, as well as a door right next to them. Shivering a little, they walked down the tunnel, they found a couple clips next to a typewriter when they turned into a U like section. Exchanging them for the wet clips and gun, they turned again to find a red metallic door, through which was a split in the passage. Heading left lead them to a gaping with a door on the other side. "Think you can jump it?"

"Not really." Glancing around, she saw a crank hole to their left, then looked up and noticed the curved ceiling over the gap. "I think we need to find a crank or something."

"Maybe. Leftward ho!" Sadly, the left path dead ended in an empty alcove. "Well, this sucks."

"...Back to the door by the ladder, then?"

"Looks like it." Backtracking to the door by the ladder, they opened it to find another split path. "Is that a gun on the wall?"

"That's not just any gun, it's a flamethrower! Sweet!" Taking it off the wall, his good mood dropped slightly when the hooks in the wall that were holding it rose with an echoing click. Levi franticly tried opening the door, but it wouldn't budge. "We're locked in!" Putting it back on the wall, Joseph just managed to catch a surprised Levi before she fell backwards with the door as it unlocked. "…Sorry. I…don't like caves much, and I was afraid of being trapped in here."

"That's fine. I don't like the idea of being trapped in here either." Helping her back up, he glanced at the flamethrower, then back at her. "Since we can get out once we put it back…"

"…Go ahead; I don't mind as long as we can still get out of here."

"Woo!" Grabbing the flamethrower off the wall again, he handed the berretta and the clips to Levi. "This way we both have something."

"That's good, now I won't slow you down that much."

"Kid, you already saved my life once already. I don't think you'll slow me down."

"That's good. Right again this time?"

"I don't see why not." The path led to another door. Inside was a square room with a hole in the center and two offshoots, one leading to a broken power generator and the other lead to two doors, the left one leading back to the flamethrower room. Heading through the door in front of them, they followed the zigzagging path to a dead end with someone leaning against the wall, holding a bleeding wound on their right side.

"Captain Enrico!" Joseph tried to get closer, but froze when he pointed his gun at Levi.

"Hold it. Who's she, and what she doing here?"

"Levi's fine, she's just the daughter of one of the people here who snuck in to find her father. What happened to you, and why are you pointing your gun at a kid?"

After shooting a suspicion-filled glance at Joseph, he lowered his gun and let them come over when neither of them lifted theirs. "Sorry, I had to make sure…" He almost lifted it up again when Levi reached into her fanny pack, but stopped when she pulled out bandages and peroxide. "This whole thing was a set-up." Turning to Joseph, he continued weakly. "I got lost, climbed the fence, saw the tunnels, found the paper…Umbrella knew, all along…"

Joseph was helping Enrico to his feet, so they both missed the panic that briefly crossed Levi's face. Supporting the injured captain on his left shoulder, Joseph gave Levi the flamethrower and had her lead the way back towards the door, but just before they rounded the last bend, a gunshot rang out. Levi darted forward after the shooter while Joseph lowered Enrico's body to the floor, a bullet wound between his eyes.

Yeah, he still had to die, sadly. Please review.