Chapter 8: New Faces

Chris wiped his eye and broke away from Claire. He still felt horrible at what he did, but it was the only option. The soldier would have shot her, no doubt about it. He couldn't live with himself if he had let him. He sniffed and addressed the others.

"See if you can scrounge any ammo from them," he said. "We need to get moving, in case more show up." The rest of them nodded. None of them pressed what happened further. The each selected a corpse and checked out the spare magazines they held.

"No use, they're using .45" Jill called.

"Same here," echoed Barry. Rebecca confirmed the same. They all decided to stick with their own weapons. They were more familiar with them, and they still had enough ammo. Chris helped himself to a few grenades clipped at the belt of one.

"So, who do you think these guys are?" Barry asked. "Jill, do you think they are U.B.C.S?" She shook her head.

"No, these guys are unmarked." She pointed to the back of one of the dead soldiers. "The Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service logo was planted on each one of them. And besides, why would they send a U.B.C.S group here?"

"Maybe they're trying to do the same thing we are: blow this place up," said Rebecca. "Less evidence against Umbrella."

"But the company is already screwed. Who cares what the government finds now?" said Claire.

"Well, at any rate, they tried to kill us on the spot," said Barry, "Which means it's us or them." Chris agreed.

"Barry's right. Even if they have the same objective, we have to consider them an enemy. Let's get going."

They moved on through the door that Claire had blown out with the grenade launcher. Looking at the map, Rebecca confirmed that they were heading to the facility's central control station. Now that the power was on, they moved faster. They could see clearly, but still, they moved carefully. More of those soldiers could be around.

Walking through yet another lab, they came to the guards' barracks. Beds stacked in bunks stretched along in narrow columns. Here, Rebecca noticed the scratches along Jill's arms from when she crawled along the glass covered floor during the firefight.

"Jill, you're bleeding!" she exclaimed. Jill looked quizzically at her arm and shrugged.

"Feels fine," she she said, but Rebecca had already unslung her backpack. Jill rolled her eyes. "Please, Rebecca, don't. I told you I'm fine." Rebecca wasn't listening.

"Sit down," she ordered. Jill sighed and sat down on a bunk and did as she was told. Rebecca pulled out a small flashlight from her kit, and shined it on her arms. She felt around with her hands and with a small tweezers, began to pull out some shards of glass. During this impromptu check up, the rest of the team took the opportunity to rest and reload their weapons.

Rebecca pulled out a small can of First Aid Spray after she had finished removing the glass in Jill's arm.

"Deep breath," she said, and began to spray it on Jill's forearms. Jill remained expressionless, although her eyebrow twitched. Claire winced when she saw her reaction. She was never able to take a spritz of that stuff and stay silent. After applying bandages to some of the larger cuts, she packed up her gear.

"All finished," she announced.

"What, no sucker?" Jill muttered.

"What was that?" Rebecca asked absentmindedly.

"Nothing."

They got up and prepared to leave when a shot rang out. It splintered the headboard next to Barry's head. Ducking low, he drew his Colt Python and returned fire. He briefly saw a short figure in a white lab coat as the bullet ripped through another bunk. The figure yelped and took off. Chris dove and leaped across a few beds and flanked the attacker. Jill was right behind him. Barry and Claire gave chase behind the shooter.

Chris sprang out of the last row of bunks just as the figure rounded the corner to make a break for the door. It was a young woman. She pointed a handgun at Chris and fired. He dodged the shot. It wasn't even close. He shot at her and she disappeared through another door. Jill popped out of the bunk next to Chris just as Barry and Claire ran through the door. They followed them with Rebecca tailing behind.

Through a few halls, Barry and Claire burst through a door and came face to face with the woman. She was standing by a bunch of controls and monitors. She had led them straight to central control. Her gun was outstretched in her hand, shaking. Barry and Claire drew on her as Chris, Jill, and Rebecca entered.

"Stay back!" she shouted, "You're not taking me!"

"Easy..." Chris warned. "Take it easy." "Hard to do with five guns pointed at you," he thought afterwards. "Put the gun down."

The woman shook her head. Her long blond hair was drawn into a ponytail, and it shook with her head. Her eyes darted nervously through wire rimmed glasses.

"No." The gun rattled in her hand. Chris was afraid it would go off, and they would end up shooting each other.

He lowered his gun slowly, and motioned for the others to do the same.

"Alright, take it easy," Chris repeated, hoping this would calm the distressed scientist. "We're not here to hurt anyone. What's your name?"

Slowly, the shaking of her hand stopped, and the gun went still. Seeing that the S.T.A.R.S had lowered their weapons, she slowly followed suite.

"My name? I'm Emily Bale. Uh, Dr. Emily Bale," she stated nervously. "Who are you guys?"

"My name is Chris," Chris replied. "This is Barry, Jill, Rebecca, and Claire. You're an Umbrella researcher?" She nodded.

"What are you doing down here?" he asked her. Dr. Bale's hand flexed on the gun.

"Umbrella," she spat. "They massacred everyone here. 'The company was in danger' they told us. All the guards began shooting. I was in auxiliary storage and I heard gunfire, so I hid, and they missed me. I've been down here trying to perfect the MA-125 programming ever since."

"You mean," Jill began, "You've been trying to find a way to control the Hunters?" She nodded again.

"Yes. When I do, I'll unleash them on the corporate fucks who did this to my colleagues."

This entire situation reminded Claire of Annette Birkin. They met in the underground Raccoon Lab. She was paranoid as hell after Umbrella killed her husband, William Birkin, who developed the G-virus.

"Listen, Dr. Bale," Chris said. "Umbrella is finished. The company hit financial rock bottom a few weeks ago." She bared her teeth at him.

"You don't think I don't know that? I don't care! They will still pay." Her eyes narrowed. She looked at Jill's beret and spotted the S.T.A.R.S emblem. Her gun snapped up again. "You're those S.T.A.R.S members that were responsible."

Up went the teams guns again. Back to square one.

"I know why you're here...You came to destroy this place, and me and the Hunters along with it!" Her gun was starting to shake again. Chris didn't like where this was going.

"She's ready to snap," he realized. Now while Dr. Bale had her gun pointed at them, her other hand crept to a laptop plugged into a computer. She begin to slowly type in commands, every so often, her eyes would dart over to check her work.

"Dr., what are you doing?" Rebecca asked. Dr. Bale smiled coldly.

"I'm probably finished anyway. That rival organization is here. No doubt they want to force me to work for them. But I'm not going to go without a fight." She continued typing. "I hope my Hunters rend all of your flesh."

At this news, the entire team stiffened. She was going to release the Hunters from stasis. Rebecca slowly walked forward, she was the most non-threatening of the group. Her empty hands raised in front of her, she tried to speak in a soothing voice to the deranged scientist.

"Please Dr., don't do this. What if they get out and hurt the public? I don't think you're the type of person to hurt innocent lives."

Dr. Bale's gun pointed directly at Rebecca's face.

"Stay back, you little bitch!" she screamed. Rebecca jumped and slowly backed away. The doctors mind was set. Her finger hovered over the enter key for a bit, then pressed it down. The computer beeped.

Chris knew that their chances of survival just decreased to a few tenths above zero.