Whoever the wounded person who shot themselves was he or she was probably halfway down the bottom of the Atlantic or carried further away by the current. Either way it meant something was going on if people were shooting themselves in the brain. So far after landing here they have not seen a member of the research crew, whether hostile or not, not one person if you didn't count both the Doctor's and Lucie's strange arrival. So the rest of the crew must've been sealed inside the ship by whoever shot themselves out here, he decided.
Conner had gone back into the chopper and taken out a black metal box and opened it, inside were several black gas masks with a long pipe which snaked into a small box that contained an oxygen supply. They were going to use these incase any infections inside were air born. He didn't like entering into a mission ill prepared, but oxygen masks, body armor and a gun were all they needed.
"How's the oxygen supply?" Leon asked as Conner fitted a gas mask to his face, he had to loosen the straps a bit to enable it to fit over his larger then normal, oval face but it was snug and tight which perfect.
"It's coming through" he replied his oval face clear through the clear plastic window in the front of it "I can't smell anything".
"That's good" Leon replied "It means its working"
The gas masks they all carried were specially made for possible bio-hazard situations when handling dangerous chemicals. However in this case it was to prevent contamination of the team in case Umbrella was in fact doing any form of viral research here. If a virus was partially designed or even mutated to be air born then the masks would keep them safe as long as they didn't suffer any cuts or scratches which allowed access to the blood stream.
Tyrell picked up a gas mask from himself then picked up two extra gas masks, one for the Doctor and one for Lucie Miller. Leon didn't really want to bring the Doctor or Lucie into the ship in case of what they might find or incase of the reverse, what might find them. He was originally planning to leave them with the chopper, Kaufman had disabled it but it wasn't anything too serious, something he could easily remedy if evacuation became the option and with the helicopter disabled no on else could fly the chopper, but Tyrell was unwilling to allow the Doctor or Lucie to be left on their own with the teams only escape route and considering the Doctor was able to open a door a top hacker had trouble with, he might be able to fix the chopper without Kaufmans help. Leon then decided it best to bring them with him, neither the Doctor or Lucie seemed to have a problem with that. Lucie just looked annoyingly at the Doctor, who was smiling as if this was some great adventure he was on.
Tyrell tossed the masks to the Doctor and Lucie who both caught them rather clumsily because Tyrell more threw the masks 'at' them instead of towards them.
"What do we need these for?" Lucie asked as she held the black gas mask between her thumb and forefinger as if it were a dead squid.
"It's incase of a bio hazard situation" Leon said
"What do you mean Bio-hazard?" the Doctor asked as he fumbled to undo the straps on the back of his mask.
"I mean as in contagious, possibly fatal pathogens and viruses" he explained "There's an oxygen supply in there as well in case of emergencies"
"Tell me, what does this 'Umbrella Corporation' do? Since you mistook me for being an associate of it" the Doctor asked as he tried to put his gas mask on and was now having difficulty fixing the straps over his hair.
"You've never heard of Umbrella?" Leon asked not convinced.
"Have you been living under a rock? Everyone knows who Umbrella is" this came from Conner, whatever look he was giving the Doctor whether quizzical, perplexed or curious was hidden under the mask which unfortunately for him started to steam up a bit, but it would clear up in a few minutes.
"Umbrella Pharmaceuticals Incorporated you mean?" it was Lucie who asked this and the Doctor turned to her.
"That's them" Leon said coolly
The look on the Doctor's face made it look like he was surprised she knew about Umbrella when he didn't.
"It's a chemical company, Doctor, I went for a job interview at one of their buildings in London as a receptionist, didn't take me though, said me accent was too hard to understand" Lucie explained "They makes things like cosmetics, one of me mates used to use some of their products"
"They make more then just cosmetics" Conner said "Umbrella Pharmaceuticals is a mega corporation which creates thousands of other domestic products such as, as you have said cosmetics but it also has it's hands in other fields of research such as medical hardware, computers and defense systems"
"That's just its public face" Leon said with contempt "Umbrella has other industries which are strictly off the record."
"You mean illegal" the Doctor asked his voice muffled slightly by the gas mask, Leon just nodded "So what does this have to do with the Cairo?"
"It was bought up by the Umbrella corporation seven years ago from a Mediterranean shipping line" Conner explained "Umbrella refitted her in a dry dock in the states to be used as a mobile research facility and set her out to sail around in the Atlantic, she hardly ever came into port getting its supplies and personal on and off by helicopter"
"But what's wrong with building a lab on land?" Lucie asked "Why build a ship to sail around the Atlantic?"
It was Leon who answered this question after he had fitted his gas mask "The US government suspected that Umbrella used this craft for its illegal research, contact was lost with the ship a few days ago and we were sent to investigate why and to determine if any possible bio-hazardous substances they may be in development"
The Doctor never got to ask more questions as Leon took his rifle and turned to the other members of his party. "Tyrell, you're with me, Conner, Kaufman you bring up the rear with our guests"
Conner nodded his understand and a muffled 'yes sir' and Kaufman held his rifle ready and muffled another 'yes sir', his walrus mustache pressed up against the clear plastic making him look like a squid stuck in a small tank.
Leon and Tyrell began moving down the narrow black corridor, the lights fitted to the barrel of their guns illuminated the dark walls as they passed. They slowly drew nearer and nearer the inner doors which didn't look like they were electronically locked. Leon took the handle of one door while Tyrell took the handle of the other one and they flattened themselves against them. Leon held up his free hand and held up three fingers, he began lowering one at a time indicating a count down for them to open the doors. When he'd reached zero they both turned the handles and let the doors open a crack before flinging them open and immediately held their weapons at ready.
The flash lights on their barrels illuminated the corridor a head there were no hostiles in sight. Leon only wished he didn't have to fight in this condition because he could hardly see out of this stupid gas mask. They slowly made their way down the corridor, their lights caught the shadows of several doors along the corridor all of which were shut firmly, thankfully the creatures Leon 'didn't' want to find didn't have the intelligence to open doors so they were safe from an ambush, and even if were behind any doors they would be alerted by the creatures hammering on the door trying to get through.
Leon had an uneasy flashback to some of the dark corridors of the Raccoon City Police Department all those years ago, it had the same cold, damp feeling atmosphere and if he wasn't wearing a gas mask he was sure he'd be able to smell the odor of decaying bodies as well.
He turned back briefly to see if the Doctor and Lucie were alright with Conner and Kaufman brining up the rear. Lucie behaved like he expected, slightly frightened yet she tried to hide it and hid it quite well. As for the Doctor he still regarded the place as if there was no real danger to him. Leon started feeling nervous when people didn't look scared when they should be, in his experience it usually meant they were up to something. Though what the Doctor was up to he could only guess.
Their soft footsteps were muffled by luxurious carpet under their feet, he'd rather their feet made noise because then they could tell if they were being followed. But then again with six pairs of foot steps it would be difficult to tell if they were being followed at all.
Ahead of them was another pair of double doors, painted a bright white of a great luxury design. Chris Redfield, Clair's brother, told him about a mansion in the Arklay Mountains of Raccoon City where the T-Virus was originally developed. Umbrella seemed to like places of luxury as their secret labs, maybe it gave them a sense of security that no one would ever find out about them or that nothing would go wrong since luxury is about comfort and comfort makes you feel safe.
Leon and Tyrell lined up to repeat the same stunt they had just preformed on the other pair of double doors. Leon pressed his head against the door trying to listen for the sound of shuffling feet or the moans of the dead so he knew roughly were they were when he opened the doors, but he heard nothing but silence. They both took the handles and flung the doors open ready to fire.
They were at the top of some sort of grand staircase, the room was wide with plenty of room and the stairs appeared to descend downward in a sort of double helix pattern, the stairs were made of polished white marble with metal piping and glass. The floor of the room was also coated in white marble. But what caught Leon's sight was what was around the staircase.
Bodies, dozens of bodies all of them apparently dead and by the look of them and all were unmoving. Leon felt his stomach tighten as he readied himself to do battle with the undead again.
"Stay clear of them" Leon warned them as he let his rifle hang over his shoulder by the strap and pulled out a knife from his boot. He took a step closer to one of the cadavers, a male in a white lab coat, and waited for it to make any sudden movement, but it made none. "If it moves" he whispered to Tyrell who nodded indicating he got the picture.
Leon thrust the knife forward into the corpse's shoulder so it went in as far as it would go then he leapt back to his feet and held his gun ready to fire at it, expecting it to writher in agony and start getting up. But it didn't move at all, it lay completely still a knife sticking out of it's back. It didn't move, it didn't get up and by the look on its open eyes it wasn't even registering his presence. Leon didn't say anything as he nudged it with the tip of his boot, and still it did not react.
"It's dead" Leon said reaching down and taking his knife back from the corpse.
"Yeah well, fallen on the floor, pale in the face, wide staring eyes, but a knife stuck in the back is a good way of finding out" said Lucie half mockingly the other half in obvious disgust and annoyance "What's wrong with shouting to the entire room 'aright everyone, hands up those who are alive?'"
Tyrell however turned so his gun was pointing menacingly at Lucie.
"Don't you be a smart ass!" he hissed
Leon turned around to view the scene more fully and flashed his flash light on the faces of some of the dead people. Most had their eyes open and none of them registered his presence, they just stared straight ahead. From his experience in Raccoon City some zombies were intelligent enough to lay in wait and pretend to be dead only to attack when you got too close. Those zombies however could easily be spotted because their eyes followed you around the room like an unnerving painting. But whatever killed these people it defiantly wasn't the T-virus or any sort of virus he knew of.
He glanced over the rail, of the staircase and could see several floors below, though he couldn't see much he listened, listened for the unmistakable sign of one of those 'things' shuffling feat, soft moans, grunts, loud moans, anything.
"So much for the ship of the living dead" Tyrell said as if the entire idea was absurd.
Leon didn't want to encounter zombies on this mission but whenever Umbrella seemed to be involved there were always zombies in some shape or form and he didn't want to let his guard down, because that's when they got you, when you least expected it.
"Well Doctor" Leon said turning to look at the eccentric Brit "What do you make of this scene?"
The Doctor stepped between Conner and Tyrell, the latter refused to budge out of the way to let him pass easily and Lucie followed, her narrower frame letting her slip past more easily, she had a look of disgust about her body language and though her face wasn't clear he could tell she wasn't enjoying what she was seeing.
The Doctor however showed none of these signs as he quickly knelt down next to one of the bodies, a man in his forties who was laid on his back, and was examining him. He touched the hand on the cadaver then felt its face with his bare fingers before Leon could stop him, if they died from a new virus then they couldn't be sure it wasn't spread by physical contact rather then cuts and bites. The Doctor then looked around the back of the bodies shirt checking the skin for something before feeling the collar of the man's lab coat. He then checked another dead body and went over it with a similar procedure before checking another one.
"Curious" he mutter to himself as he looked around at the scene again, dozens of bodies just lay on the floor like this "I've never seen anything it before"
"You weren't around for my last party, were you" Lucie stated looking at the sprawled bodies all over the place
"Well?" Leon asked as the Doctor finished inspecting a fourth body.
"Well" the Doctor said getting to his feet "I'd say by the look of it, these people died spontaneously and all at a similar time"
"How did you figure that out?" Tyrell asked as if he'd caught the Doctor in a trap which incriminated him in the murder of these people. But Leon wanted to see what the Doctor said.
"First look at the position of the bodies" he said gesturing around him "if they were in mass panic they wouldn't be so sparsely spaced out. Now if you care to check their backs you'll see blood pooling where the blood settled in the body after the heart stopped which means the bodies haven't been moved and if they had what would be the point? Also look at their faces" he said turning to each one "Their faces are all pretty much neutral, some probably look tired and if you look over here" he went up to a couple who had fallen on top of each other, one of the bodies was male the other female "I suspect these two were in a relationship with each other, because the man still his the impression of lipstick on his cheek which is similar in shade and type she is wearing."
"What does this have to do with anything?" Tyrell asked sharply
"It explains that these people probably died very quickly and they didn't realize it" he said as if he was speaking to a child "If there was any sense of danger then the male here would've whipped that lipstick mark off his cheek before he did anything else, and there is no evidence of any sense of urgency" he went a little way down the stairs to take note of someone who had fallen down the stairs backwards and was sprawled on the steps "This fellow also died suddenly because of the way he fell, if he was shot then there would be evidence of blood pooling on the floor which rules out any type of piercing injury, this goes for all the bodies, therefore I'm guessing they must've been poisoned simultaneously, perhaps a nerve gas of some sort, but I'm not sure."
Leon had to admit he was impressed by this mans reasoning capabilities. The blood pooling evidence he supplied and demonstrated by showing them the dark marks on one of the bodies backs did show these corpses stayed where they fell and by the corpses lack of reaction to Leon or any of them they were probably not infected with T. But then what had killed them and killed them so quickly no one was able to raise the alarm? Leon then noticed with alarm that the Doctor had removed his gas mask and was taking great lung full's of air.
"Doctor, put that mask back on it's not safe…" He started but the Doctor just ignored him as he took another lung full of air. His face suddenly became unsure of something as he raised his hands to his chin in thought then turned to look at each of the bodies in turn then returned his attention back to the party and smiled.
"It's okay you can take your masks off, whatever killed them has long since dispersed." He said as he returned to whatever puzzle he was mulling over.
Leon was unsure if he wanted to take his gas mask off on the advice of a complete strange, but since Lucie also removed her mask he decided maybe there wasn't any danger after all. As Leon removed his mask the others followed suit though Tyrell hesitated before he did the same. The Doctor took out that strange looking metal tube again and the noise it made was soft and gentle this time.
"What is that thing?" he asked, it had opened the door earlier and this close up he could see it more closely but it didn't look like anything remarkable at all.
"I call it a Sonic Screwdriver" he said as he pointed the red circle tip around the room as if he was scanning something with it somehow. "No trace of harmful pathogens either" he said returning the device to his coat pocket.
"What does that thing do?" Leon asked curiously as the Doctor put it away.
"Well, it's pretty much a multipurpose tool" he said vaguely "But let me tell you something which is very interesting" he said looking at them as if this fact, whatever it was, disturbed him more then there being several dead bodies in the same room as himself. He was obviously waiting for someone to ask him 'what was interesting' Leon decided it might as well be him.
"What is very interesting?" he asked
"What can you smell?" he asked dropping his voice a few octaves as if he didn't want anyone apart from those in their party to over hear him. It also sounded spooky but he didn't know if that was the Doctor's intention or not.
"Fresh paint?" Lucie suggested there was the faint smell of fresh pain from somewhere but that wasn't what the Doctor was talking about, it wasn't the smell of something it was more the absence of a smell and Leon knew what smell was missing.
"These bodies have been dead and left to decay for 2 perhaps 3 days" the Doctor continued his voice normal again, "Yet where is the smell of decay and decomposition? Where is the break down of organic material and the release of sulphur and methane?" he dropped his voice again "Why is it, despite being in a room littered with bodies, that we cannot smell the pungent and unmistakable aroma of the dead?"