AN: For some reason, some of the bold font reverts back to regular font when I upload the chapter, so for anyone who is annoyed by the AN blending in with the actual story, I apologize. Now that that's outta the way, welcome back for another thrilling installment of Dragon Ball- wait, wrong announcer, sorry for the mishap. (Horrible joke, I know.) You guys know what you're reading, so I don't think an Intro is necessary.
Chris and Rebecca had found a door on the second floor requiring their new key. It had led to a simple enough trap. The minute a person stepped on the pressure-sensitive floor, the walls would begin to close in on them. A statue was placed at the front of the floor, just before it would touch. One simply had to push the statue along with them to keep from getting crushed. Then the other would run behind the wall, push a hidden button, and the other would push the statue back up to its required space, deactivating the trap, and opening a hidden door. Once inside the small, damp room, Chris and Rebecca found a small hole in the floor, leading to a fake gravestone. A book, titled: The Last Book, Vol. 1 was lying on the tombstone. Chris opened the heavy book to find a golden emblem lying in a square cut out. An eagle decorated the medal.
"Wonder what it's for?" Rebecca asked, getting slightly irritated at the ridiculous puzzles the mansion held.
"Undoubtedly something overly complicated and completely out of place," Chris said, sharing the same irritation as Rebecca. Chris began trying to think of the beginning of their mission, and realized that he couldn't remember anything clearly that happened before the sharks. He sighed heavily, and rubbed at his aching eyes. A migraine was building up behind his eyes, and slowly spreading all through his head.
"You okay?" Rebecca asked, not wanting to take any chances when it came to the virus they were dealing with.
"Yeah, just a headache. I get migraines from time to time."
"Oh, sorry, but I don't have any pain killers."
"Don't worry about it. With any luck, we'll be out of here by daybreak," Chris reassured her, and winked. Chris shifted his weight, and felt something slide down under his foot. The tombstone began sliding back, revealing a ladder. Chris gave Rebecca a what-the-fuck-now-look, and then slid down the ladder, with Rebecca close behind. The ladder led them to a boring, gray hallway. Water was standing on the floor. The two walked only a few feet down the hall, when Chris stopped Rebecca.
"What?"
"I hear something moving," Chris said, tilting his head to hear better. It sounded like coarse cloth rustling, but he couldn't be sure. He took another few steps, and an enormous spider crawled around the corner on the ceiling. The spider was easily the size of a motorcycle, and definitely a tarantula. Chris heard Rebecca squeak behind him, and realized that she was probably terrified of spiders. Chris wasted no time in ripping his gun from its holster and unloading in the thing. Green slime leaked from the holes in the arachnid. The spider dropped from the ceiling, landing on its back, and curled into itself.
"Not to hard to deal with. Don't fight back do they?" Chris asked, nudging Rebecca, trying to get her to lighten up a little.
"Yeah. I'm sure they would have to get closer to attack," Rebecca whispered. They continued down the hall, only having to deal with two more of the giant spiders. Chris eventually found a power generator and turned it on. The generator powered an elevator that the two found just through a door, not ten feet away.
Chris and Rebecca rode the elevator up in silence, both trying to prepare for whatever might be waiting. The elevator led to a small hallway, ending in a set of double doors, and then a small wooden door at the other end. They chose the double doors. Chris looked around the large library, looking for anything out of place. He jumped when Rebecca screamed, and spun around, his gun in front of him. What he saw sent shivers up his spine. A giant snake, at least ten yards in length, was slithering towards Rebecca. Suddenly, the monster rose up, poised to strike. Chris ran at Rebecca and tackled her, the snake slamming into the tile rather than killing Rebecca.
"That's the same fucking snake that bit Richard!" Rebecca pulled her gun and began firing away. The bullets bit into the snake's scales, but didn't seem to be causing that much damage.
"Rebecca, aim for its eyes and mouth!" Chris began firing at the creature too, trying to blind it unless it opened its mouth. The snake wasn't making it easy, as it slithered around the library. Chris rolled away just as the creature struck at the floor. Chris looked around for Rebecca, and found her climbing up a ladder. She began screaming at the snake, shooting at it, but not hitting it. The snake slither toward the small balcony she was standing on. Chris saw a smirk on Rebecca's face as she began firing at a chandelier just above the snake's head. The light chain snapped, and the chandelier fell on the snake's head, thin, pointed pieces breaking off into the snake's skull. The creature shrieked and began thrashing around, slamming into one of the bookcases, and then collapsing, dead.
Rebecca jumped down onto the ground. "Hey, maybe we can find volume two of that book." Rebecca said, indicating the medal in Chris's pocket.
"Maybe." The two began searching the shelves, and the pile of books knocked from their place by the snake's thrashing. Finally, Rebecca found the book in the pile. She opened it, and found a silver medal decorated with a wolf.
"Hope volume two is the last book," Rebecca said, sighing. Chris gave her a sharp look, and she smiled. The two made their way from the library and decided to check the other door, hoping it would lead to an exit, or a the very least, a key ring with all of the puzzles solutions on it.
Brad looked down at the forest, trying to find any sign of life. But so far, nothing. He was terrified that his comrades had died because of him. Of course it was his fault if they were dead. He was their only means of escape, and he had left them. The minute he heard gunshots, the idea slipped into his head, and the second he saw one of those mutated monstrosities, he started the chopper, and took off. Now, he was going to fix his error, his mistake…
Stop kidding yourself.
His fuck-up. He would do everything in his power to find and rescue the remaining STARS members. He grabbed the radio and began calling for anyone who could hear him. "This is Brad Vickers of STARS Alpha Team. If there are any surviving members of STARS, please, send me a sign. Anything you can do. I repeat, if there are any survivors, send me a sign!" Maybe they could hear him; maybe he could save them. Surely that would make up for his mistake.
Chris was mashing buttons on his radio, trying to contact Brad. So far, he could only get static. His radio must have been screwed up sometime after they arrived in the mansion.
"We're need to find another way to reach him. Maybe they'll have flares or something if we could get to the roof," Rebecca said. Her face was twisted into a look of disbelief. Obviously, she didn't believe what she was saying. Chris let his mind wander as the two began moving towards the set of iron gates located under the stairs in the main hall. Chris and Rebecca both had guessed that the two emblems they had might fit the indentations on the gate.
Wesker had gotten Barry to carry Jill's unconscious form around the mansion as he moved swiftly to the iron gates under the stairs. He set the two stone and metal emblems into the octagonal depressions. A soft click echoed down the tunnel behind the gate. Wesker pushed the gate open and began moving down the stairs. He heard a soft murmur come from Jill. They didn't have long before she would wake up. Wesker's current plan was riding all on the hope that those paranoid scientists hadn't somehow removed the Wolf and Eagle metals from their places. If they were missing, Wesker's careful planning would be blown to shit, and he would have to search the whole damned mansion to find them.
As Wesker slid down the ladder, he heard voices from above, and they didn't belong to Barry or Jill.
"Fucking great," Wesker snarled. If Chris and Rebecca saw Jill unconscious in Barry's arms, and Wesker with him, things would become thirty times more difficult. Barry slid Jill down and Wesker caught her, then lay her on the damp stone altar the ladder led to. The altar was square, and didn't quite fill up the entire cave. It was surrounded on all sides by nothingness. A bottomless pit was all that awaited anyone who fell. As Barry slid down the ladder, Wesker began barking orders.
"Go to that elevator, then send it back down. Take Jill with you, she doesn't need to be seen right now." Barry obeyed, and grabbed Jill, then jogged to the elevator and began his ascent. Wesker began walking forward, when a very unexpected guest blocked his path. A rusted hatch normally hidden under the small, circular lift burst open, and Lisa Trevor jumped through. She screeched and then advanced on Wesker, slowly waddling towards him. He backed away slowly, reaching for his Samurai Edge. He slid the gun out of its holster, then trained the weapon on Lisa.
"Wesker! Where's Ji- What the fuck is that?" Wesker could hear Chris pull his gun from its holster, followed by the sound of more feet.
"No time for conversation, we have to kill that thing!" Wesker was careful to avoid acting like he knew anything about it. The slightest clue and they would never let him leave their sight, alive anyway. Wesker began unloading rounds into the creature, each bullet sinking into Lisa's skin with only the slightest bit of blood. Chris and Rebecca were firing at the monstrosity behind him. There was no way to stop her with conventional weaponry, so Wesker was trying to think of a plan.
A fall? Doubt it, but maybe this pit is deep enough to break her spine… It was his only chance.
"She isn't even flinching! What the fuck do we do?" Chris sounded panicked, but the rookie wasn't speaking. That was Redfield, emotional, impatient, and rash. He would be easy to manipulate later on…
"Maybe if we can knock it off this platform we can kill it," Wesker offered, his tone that of a very panicked individual with only slight traces of confidence in their plan, just as he wanted it. Wesker had been wondering since they arrived what was inside the stone tomb lying in the middle of the altar. Probably worthless crap. He set his mind back on track and began firing rounds into Lisa's legs. She crumpled once, fell to one knee, and Wesker acted. He rushed her, planning to send a kick at her face and fling her back off the edge, but she was faster. She swung upward with her shackled hands. Wesker jumped up, pushing off the tomb to help himself over it. Lisa slammed her clubbed fists on the tomb, shattering a large portion of it. The monster let out a moan unlike any other Wesker had heard from her before.
"MOOOO---THEEEEEE---RRRRRRRR!" Her raping voice croaked out. Lisa reached down into the tomb and grabbed the skeleton's skull. She then turned around and began walking towards the edge of the platform, and then straight over the drop. The three of them stood on the platform in silence for a minute at the least, and not a single one of them heard Lisa hit the ground.
"Wesker, we found these emblems. Do you know where they go?" Rebecca asked, breaking the silence. She was extending a silver and gold emblem to him, the exact ones he needed to get to the lower labs. He took them from her hands, glanced down, and then acted on a plan devised in only three seconds. He shoved his fist into Rebecca's chest, sending her stumbling back, dangerously close to the edge, and then toppling over. Wesker turned and ran for the lift, which had come down just seconds after Lisa's entrance. He slammed his palm on the button and never looked back.
Chris tightened his grip on Rebecca's wrist, and hers tightened as well. He pulled with every ounce of strength, and she finally slid back onto the platform. The two sat for only a second, catching their breath, and then they were running to Wesker's escape route. Rebecca found a small, well-hidden button and pressed it. The lift came crawling back down and the duo boarded. Chris pressed the button on the lift and it began crawling back up. The lift took them to a small courtyard, with what could only have been a large fountain in the middle, but now, it was a gaping hole into the dark. A set of stairs wound around it, leading to a small platform, which had once held an elevator. Chris ran down the stairs, tapping the button to call the elevator back. He turned back to Rebecca.
"You ready for this?"
"I can't be ready for something if I don't know what to expect," she breathed, "but I am ready to get the hell out of this fucking freak show. So let's go." She stepped onto the elevator and waited for Chris to get in as well. She tapped the button lightly, and the elevator began to lower them deep into the hole, deeper into hell…
AN: So what do ya think? Going good so far? I love feedback. Anyway, to anyone that's interested. Had a very interesting end to my first week back at school. Thursday we stood on our practice field, in the Texas summer heat, for two hours after some jackass called in a bomb threat. Friday, we were evacuated to a building like two miles away from the high school because that same jackass called again. Sat in a very hot expo center from eleven to two forty, with a cheese sandwich provided for lunch, which I didn't eat as I was expecting to leave at 1:30, which is when they told us we could have someone pick us up…didn't factor in how many parents there would be… Sorry for the huge AN, but I felt like complaining to someone that didn't already know about it…
