Chapter Six: The Fourth Survivor

"That went well," Sara said, dryly, without a hint of humor in her voice at all.

"I know what you're thinking. But I have a good reason for being a dick to Wolf this time."

"Oh?"

"Frank said that he's been acting suspiciously the past few days. He said that there was some evidence that he had been working with Umbrella; some papers on his desk with their logo on them."

Sara paused in thought. "Why didn't you say something about it back there? For all we know they were from a hospital visit."

"I didn't know how he'd react if Frank was right. Or wrong for that matter; I really think he wants to knock my teeth in this time." We entered the hallway where with the elevator.

"Heh. What else is new? Good call, I guess; if he doesn't stab us on the back later you really ought to try and patch things up with him. I don't… think he's a bad person. He doesn't like you because of your 'gaffe', as you called it, but he's a good cop."

I sighed; "We really don't mesh well together. I think both of us want to be the top dog around, and neither of us can stand it being the other one."

"Sounds about right."

We reached the elevator, and I pressed the button to take it down.

"Hey, Nick."

"Hmm?"

"Can I talk to you about something serious for a minute?"

"Of course."

She took a deep breath, and took off her sunglasses to look up at me. It caught me off guard; she liked to wear those things everywhere. I had nearly forgotten that her eyes were blue. "I- I want you to promise me that if I start to get as bad as Wayne did, that you'll- you-" Tears were starting to leak out of the corners of her eyes, and I took a step towards her. She brushed them away, looking back at up me. "I want you to kill me before I become one of those things. A-and, I want you to tell my parents and brother that I love them. God knows I should do it more, but-" She was tearing up again.

I wrapped my arms around her in a hug. "You're not going to die. I promise."

"But-"

"I promise. I'm going to do the best I can to make sure everyone goes home today."

"...Okay. I believe you." She pulled away from me. "But still- if it does happen-"

"Yes. I will."

"Good. Thank you," she said, replacing her sunglasses after wiping away her tears.

I thought for a moment. The elevator arrived- empty, thankfully- as I thought carefully about what I was about to ask. "Can you do me a favor as well?"

"Hmm?"

"If I get injured, and it doesn't look like I'm going to make it- I want you to let me die. And I want you to give me ten minutes like that before you make sure I stay dead."

"...what the hell?" I'd expected that.

"I'll explain the why later, when I'm sure we're not being listened in on. Just- just trust me on this, okay?"

"...Alright. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I'll do it."

I let out a sigh. "Thanks, Sara. Ladies first?"

She scoffed, and entered the elevator- me right behind her. The doors closed automatically, and I pressed the button to go down to the next level. Sara pointed her shotgun at the elevator door, and I drew my Samurai Edge. "It's the least I could do."

"I appreciate it. It's important to me, but I'll explain what's going on sooner rather than later. Just- not here."

She nodded. The elevator doors stopped, and after a few tense seconds the doors opened to reveal another hallway. I stepped forward cautiously, Sara backing me up. There weren't any doors; the end of the hallway opened up directly into a large room, where several tables and countertops were stacked with various beakers, computers, microscopes, and other scientific instruments that I couldn't even begin to name. Everything was white or black, giving the room a sterile and clean appearance. There weren't any bodies that I could see, and there were two doors to the left and right.

At the end of the room was a double staircase which led up to a balcony. There was a set of door at the end of it, red in appearance. Above that-

"Holy shit," Sara whispered, "is this place underwater?"

Eerie blue light streamed in from the window, casting a blue tinge on everything beneath it. I shook my head in disbelief. "No. There's got to be another explanation. I refuse to believe that Umbrella built an aquatic lab under Lake Michigan."

Something knocked over a glass beaker on our right, making it break, and I turned to look at what it was. A blue cylinder had landed on one of the counters. I barely had time to push Sara into cover when a blinding flash sent me reeling.

"Shit!" Sara yelped. I echoed her a moment later when the stinging pain in my eyes started.

Unlike an ordinary flashbang, there was no deafening noise- the sound the grenade made as it exploded was about what you'd expect from a gunshot, or even lower in volume. The 'flash' part was still a problem, though, and even without totally deafening me and sending me off balance it gave enough of a distraction for someone to run up behind me and send me to the ground with a roundhouse kick to the back, knocking me to the ground.

I flipped onto my back immediately, firing a round directly behind where I was. I missed; whoever had attacked me was already moving, their footsteps coming to my right. I moved my gun to follow them, firing another shot- missing again, only for my handgun to be ripped from my hand. A swift kick to my head sent it bouncing off the floor, and a wave of throbbing pain spread out through my head from the points of impact. I heard Sara let out a groan to my left.

I threw my arms out, hoping to trip the person up, connecting with what felt like their left leg. Their right leg struck out immediately, stomping down on my ribs. It hurt like hell, but I kept up the attack, grabbing a hold of the person's pant leg so I could start to hoist myself up. My vision was starting to return now, slowly, and I squinted up at my attacker- though I already had a pretty good idea of who it was.

The red lenses of HUNK's gasmask stared down at me. A moment later, and my own pistol was lashed across my face as he pistol whipped me. He spun the gun around in a smooth movement, taking aim at Sara- who was just starting to recover- having dropped her shotgun in the confusion.

"No!" I yelled, rolling to get between her and HUNK's line of fire. He shifted his gun to aim at my chest instead as I stood up.

"Stand down. I'm not supposed to kill you yet," he spoke, and a chill went up my spine. His voice was just as cold and unforgiving as his nickname suggested. He was wearing a gray uniform, a black bulletproof vest with matching gloves and combat boots- as well as his combination gasmask and helmet. He had a pistol on his hip, and a submachine gun on his back, as well as assortment of grenades on a bandolier.

I drew my knife instead. "Like hell I will."

He hesitated, and I took my shot- lunging forward with my knife, aiming for his side. He spun my pistol around again and reached behind his back to pull out his own knife with his other hand, bringing it up just in time to deflect my knife strike.

"Hmm. Not too shabby," HUNK said, flipping the Samurai Edge back around, this time aiming at my head. "Throw your weapons down, girl. Before this gets ugly."

I looked over my shoulder briefly to see that Sara was aiming her shotgun in our direction. Reluctantly, she threw the shotgun off to the side. Her pistol and knife jointed it, a few seconds after.

HUNK nodded. "Good. Not smart, but good." He adjusted his aim towards her instead, and I hit his arm to try and throw his aim off. HUNK's shot missed, and Sara ran back towards her weapons as I kept up the attack, trying to wrestle my gun out of his hands.

"Everyone, STOP!"

Howard's voice rang out, and HUNK and I momentarily paused. Sara kept going though, sliding towards her shotgun and quickly standing up again after picking it up.

"Mr. Death. How are we supposed to collect the data we need if our subject is dead? Please; now that most of his friends are gone we can give him our pitch in… relative peace."

HUNK grabbed my arm, wrenching me to the side so that I was between him and Sara again. I managed to wrench my gun out of his hands, and dropped my knife so I could get a hold of it. HUNK pushed me back, drawing his own pistol and getting a bead on me before I could fire. We were in the middle of a Mexican stand off, now, as Sara and I aimed our weapons at him and HUNK aimed at me. I couldn't aim fast enough to hit HUNK's head without being shot myself, but he couldn't kill me without getting blasted away by Sara, or vice versa.

"That's easier said then done," HUNK said, "you'd better speak quickly."

"Pfft, fine," Howard said, sighing. "Sorry about him. He's got no sense of humor. Anyways- let's just cut to the chase. You've got something of interest to us inside you, and I want to get my hands on it. I'd also like to study you while you still live, since actually killing you is optional for it's extraction. If you surrender now, so I could do that, I might be willing to let your friends go. What do you say?"

"I say that you're lying through your teeth!" I answered him.

"Well, yeah," Howard quickly shot back, "I figured it was worth a try, though! Back to plan A then, Grim Reaper! Try to take him alive if you can!"

HUNK dove off to the side, narrowly evading a blast of Sara's buckshot. I moved to follow him, only to dive behind cover myself as HUNK opened fire with his pistol. Sara got to cover a little too late, and I heard her let out a cry of pain as a bullet tore through her leg.

"Motherfucker! You're going to pay for that!" I shouted. I crept around the counter top that was giving me cover as Sara pulled my injured leg behind hers.

HUNK broke away from his cover, sprinting past a table and making for the staircase. I quickly fired a shot, and managed to catch him in his chest. His vest stopped the bullet, but he let out a grunt in spite of that, diving behind another countertop. I got up to run after him, only to slide behind cover as he popped up to take shots at me. It was his turn to land a shot on my armor, which deflected the bullet easily enough- though it didn't exactly tickle as the impact transferred through it, giving me a small sting. I vaulted over the counter that HUNK had used for cover, knocking over some empty beakers and a microscope.

I took a breath to center myself, then stuck my head out to see what was going on- going back into cover as a bullet narrowly missed my head. HUNK had to be running low on ammo, which meant that he was either going to start using his machine gun, or he was going to start throwing grenades. He was also going for the staircase, where he could use the railing- which was solid, rather than barred- as cover.

"Sara! Are you alright?" I called out.

"I'm working on it!" she yelled back. Hopefully, that meant she was trying to use the package of herbs she had found.

"Good! He's going for the staircase, so watch out!"

"Got it!"

I stood up, aiming where HUNK had been. He had holstered his pistol, in favor of his machine gun like I had predicted, and was running for the staircase on the right side of the room. I fired my pistol, catching him in the back- on the vest again- and he stumbled, catching himself quickly to start up the staircase. I immediately sprinted out of cover, going for the left staircase. I couldn't let him get a bird's eye view of the room while Sara and I were still on the ground. We didn't have the cover for that.

He reached the top of the balcony a few seconds before I did, immediately aiming his gun at my chest. I fired one round, hitting his left shoulder, and his aim went wide. I ran forward before he could correct his aim, and tackled him into the banister. His machine gun fell over the side of the railing, clattering to the ground below us.

Despite hitting his shoulder, HUNK managed to punch me in the right ear hard enough that I felt dizzy after the strike. He drew his knife once more, and a hidden blade sprung forward from the glove on his left hand. I aimed a shot at his head, but he brought his knife up so that it grazed the top of his helmet instead. He brought his hidden blade up to swipe at me, and grazed my stomach as I stepped backwards to avoid the blow.

Sara fired her shotgun, and HUNK's left arm jerked as a few pellets buried themselves in his arm, grunting in pain. That didn't seem to slow him down, as he pressed his attack on me with his knife- forcing me to dodge his blows as he aimed for my sides, stomach, and throat, preventing Sara from firing at the same time for fear of hitting me. His pain tolerance must've been nearly inhuman, as after a few missed strikes he tried to catch me off guard with a swipe from his hidden blade.

That distracted me enough that his next knife strike was able to hit my arm, and made me drop my Samurai Edge. Before he could press his advantage, I brought my head back and headbutted him. It probably hurt me more than it hurt him, but it gave me enough time to draw my knife and to kick my gun down the stairs before he could grab it for himself.

I held my knife up defensively in my left hand, drawing the pistol I had found on the scientist in my right. Below us, Sara was starting to move again, making her way towards the staircase at a hobble. "I'd surrender, if I was you," I told him, "it'd save us both a bullet."

HUNK scoffed. "Unlike you, I'm loyal to my masters. My mission is all that matters; I won't let anything stand in the way of that. Even my own death."

"Admirable. Edgy, but admirable," I told him. "So, is that just something you're just saying to be cool, or does Umbrella have a vat of Mr. Death clones somewhere?"

Maybe I had struck a nerve, or maybe he had just decided now was the time to act- either way, he lunged towards me. Sara was halfway up the staircase now, but we'd finish the fight before she could intervene. I fired a round, striking HUNK in the unarmored section of his torso. I pulled the trigger again, but found that I was out of bullets. I cursed, bringing my knife up too late as HUNK buried his own knife in my shoulder, where the zombie had scratched me earlier.

I barely felt the pain as I kicked HUNK back, tossing my knife into my other hand with the uninjured arm, and stalked towards him. He raised his hidden blade, but I batted it aside, stepping on his foot so he couldn't escape. I drove my knife into his gut, and I heard him let out a gasp as it sank in. I let him push me away as he stumbled backwards towards the red doors, looking down at the knife sticking out of his torso, only to double back and hit him with a haymaker, sending him reeling. My knuckles were bleeding from the force of my blow, but he had it worse.

"Ergh… ah, fuck," HUNK gasped, pulling a grenade off of his bandolier; a purple one. "Damn it. He'll get the virus off what's left of you." I nearly leapt over the side of the balcony when the red doors opened, revealing a small group of zombies. HUNK pulled the pin, and a deep purple smoke began to billow out of it, masking his appearance. "If we meet again, you won't be so lucky," HUNK said, as he stepped backwards into the horde. They seemed to ignore him as they shambled forward towards us, the doors closing shut once five of them had entered the room.

"Son of a bitch!" I shouted, as three of them started towards me; I had nothing to defend myself with now, save for the knife in my arm that was keeping my blood in at the moment. I was starting to feel the ache of the wound now, as blood poured down my arm; I probably smelled pretty good to them now. Sara's shotgun mulched the heads of the two zombies going after her easily enough, and a third shot from her took out the closest zombie to me, but that still left two more, and her shotgun was out of ammo now.

"NICK! CATCH!"

I looked over just in time to see Sara throw her pistol at me, catching it one handed just as the first zombie grabbed me. Before it could sink its teeth into my shoulder I twisted Sara's gun to the side, getting it at just the right angle so that I could blow its brains out. I shoved it off of me, killing the other one afterwards.

"Oh, my fucking God," I breathed, leaning over to put my hands on my knees. The movement sent a jolt of pain through my arm, but now that my adrenaline was wearing off all the damage I had taken was starting to catch up with me. I felt light headed- from blood loss? From a concussion? From stress? All three?

Sara walked towards me, a little faster than she had been earlier. Her pant leg was stained red, but it looked like she was mostly healed up, now. That was good.

Sara wrapped an arm around my side, helping me stand up. "We've got to find something in here to patch you up with," she muttered.

I nodded, wincing as another jolt of pain came from my arm. We walked down the steps slowly. "There's got to be something in here we can use. This is a lab; if there was first aid box in the bathroom, there's got to be something in here that'll work."

"I'll look for it, you-"

"No, I won't bleed out fast enough for it to make a difference. I'll help; just set me off down here." Sara let me go as we reached the bottom of the staircase, and I nodded in thanks.

We turned the lab upside down, digging through random drawers and examining the tops of the tables and countertops for anything that might be of use. Eventually, Sara found something- a carrying case for first aid sprays, with three of them still inside. I sat down on a stool as she pulled the knife out, quickly spraying into my wound to close it up; flesh regenerating and knitting itself back together rapidly as the concentrated herbal medicine got to work. We used the rest of the bottle to finish patching me up, with Sara using the last bit of it to finish healing her bullet wound- we were, more or less, in perfect health- if not rattled and fatigued from the fight.

We gathered up our weapons, and took the time to reload. I claimed HUNK's machine gun for myself, while Sara kept the remaining first aid sprays. There was nothing else of note in the room- or at least nothing that we could use.

"This place is cleared out," I said, "think we should go get the others, or should we check out the side rooms first?"

"We should definitely go back and get the others first," she answered, "if he comes back I want more than us two to fight him. No offence."

"None taken. Let's get the hell out of here."


The return to the foyer was uneventful, though what waited for us when we got there wasn't. The barricades on one of the uncolored doors on the first floor had been smashed away, as if with great force- and Frank, Jessica, O'Connell, and Wayne were nowhere to be found. The most alarming thing, though, was the large, dead creature slumped over in the fountain. Though it had been riddled with bullets, its reptilian appearance left no mistake as to the creature's identity- it was a Hunter, one of Umbrella's most advanced bio organic weapons.

And its claws were stained red with blood.

"What the fuck is this thing?" Sara asked, nudging the creature with her shotgun.

"A Hunter," I said, absentmindedly, as I thought out our next moves. "It has to be- it's pure predator," I added.

"Right," Sara said, sighing.

"Chris told me about them," I explained, "they're stupidly strong. They can take your head off with one good swipe of their claws."

"Lovely. I hope this blood doesn't belong to anybody we know, then."

"That would be bad," I agreed, "but we can't think about that right now. We need to find the rest of the team." I looked around; there were four doors on each floor. One of the doors on the second floor had been barricaded, the other one- ours- left clear; the other two were blue and red, and presumably locked.

Meaning that they must have gone through one of the doors downstairs. One of the barricaded doors downstairs had been smashed through, presumably by the Hunter. There was also another blue door and red door- both not barricaded, both presumably locked like the ones upstairs- and another door that looked like it hadn't been barricaded at all. There was also the entrance to this facility, but I doubted that they had gone there- it being a dead end and all.

"There's three places they could have gone," I said, "they could've returned to the bathroom- which is unlikely, to me, considering it's a dead end and not very defensible. They could've gone through there, where the Hunter came from. Or, they could've gone through that door over there." I pointed out the closed door.

"I think we should check there first," I said, "since I think they'd have to be pretty desperate to run back where the Hunter came from."

Sara opened her mouth to say something, only to stop as the door I had pointed out opened. A tall figure- easily eight feet in height- ducked its head under the door frame as it stepped out of the shadows. Its skin was stitched together in some places, and mottled brown with a rare spot of green. It wore dark pants and boots but no shirt, revealing a muscular body. There were leather straps on its chest, holding what looked like a massive pair of scissors on its back. Two beady white eyes locked onto me immediately, narrowing. It didn't have lips, leaving its teeth exposed.

It pointed a finger at me, and opened its mouth to bellow one word, stretched out into a growl. "STAAAAAARRRRS…"