CHAPTER 9
Inside the shack was cool and dark, a relief from the burning hot sun that was now perched in the sky. Claire blinked several times to try to get her eyes to adjust to the darkness. It was a slow process.
In fact, most of her bodily processes seemed to be slowing down. After she woke from her nap on the ride, she just didn't feel right. Her stomach was in knots for no apparent reason, her temperature was fluctuating like a roller coaster, her eyes didn't seem to want to focus, and her balance was completely off. She'd tripped several times on the short trek from the van to the shelter they were now in. It was a good thing Alice was there to help steady her. One thing was for sure; she would never be on top for covert operations in this condition.
God, Alice, she thought. I basically attacked her in the van. I shouldn't have done that, Chris was right there. Mentally she would have liked to blame her actions on the sickness; some improper chemical imbalance going on with her hormones, making her act like a crazy teenager. But she had a feeling it was just Alice herself making Claire go crazy. What a strange wakeup call that was for her.
"What the hell were you guys doing out there?" Chris asked, the quiet of his voice not able to hide the annoyed undertones. "I was signaling for like ten minutes!"
Alice nudged Claire with her elbow. "Told you…" She whispered.
"We were playing paddy cake, Chris, what do you think we were doing?" Claire replied, rolling her eyes.
"Hopefully loading your guns." He shot back. "If I know Umbrella, this won't be just a quick in and out deal. We'll either need a lot of firepower, which we don't have, or stealth and skill, which hopefully at least one of us has." He eyed the two women, who were shooting looks at each other and trying not to laugh. Chris sighed. "Never mind. Let's do what we came here to do and get out. If there's one thing I hate, it's freaky Umbrella underground labs."
"So you've had some experience with them?" Alice said, more of a statement than a question.
"More than my fair share, yes. Now there should be some sort of switch or lever around; something to open a passage to an elevator. Assuming this is actually one of the labs and not just some random shack." He shot a skeptical look at Alice, who raised an eyebrow.
"Believe me; this has Umbrella written all over it. I'm good at what I do."
"Yeah, I'll bet." Chris said with a wink. Claire flushed an angry red, gritting her teeth. Her own brother, hitting on her…
Your what, exactly? Her mind asked. Go on; tell him what she is to you. See how well that goes over. This isn't the time for you to spill your guts; focus, Redfield. Get cured.
Claire turned away from the other two, hiding her pained expression caused partially by the fact that she couldn't tell Chris what was going on, and partially because her veins felt like they were exploding, small rivers of fire, no, lava, flowing rigidly under her skin. She swooned, feeling overwhelmed with heat and dizziness.
The floor was cool. Her head felt better resting upon the dusty wooden planks, even though she had no concept of direction at the moment. Was she on the floor, really? Or against a wall? Maybe she was still standing, and there was a breeze…
"Claire!" Both Alice and Chris's voices; somewhere above her. Man, the floor (Floor? Yes, definitely the floor) felt good. She closed her eyes, and then opened them slowly. She felt hands on her head; soft, feminine, and strong. Alice. She sighed happily, nudging her head against the warm skin. The contrast in temperature was nice.
"Claire, say something!" Alice's rough voice, low in volume but full of urgency. She was worried about something. What? How could she be worrying about anything when there were beautiful rainbows of light dancing around the room? Claire frowned, wanting to help.
"Ungg," She mumbled, reaching for Alice's hand as it left her forehead. She gazed across the darkly lit room, following the dim light patterns on the floor, exposing every grain of wood, every nail head, every dust particle. Except for the wall behind the desk. That was clean; no dust hanging on the plain material of the wall. Claire pointed. Words were too hard to formulate now.
"This is bad." She heard Chris say. His voice was distant. Troubled, too. She wondered what about. "We have to get underground somehow. I know there's a hidden elevator here somewhere. There must be."
"Unnngg," Claire said again, her finger still pointed at the desk.
"But we can't just leave her here, it's way too risky." She heard Alice say. Claire smiled at the familiarity of the voice. She wished it was closer. She missed Alice.
"I know, I know." Chris. He sighed heavily. "I guess we'll have to bring her with us. I hope you know how to cover with that fancy gun of yours."
"This old thing? No problem. You just worry about not getting yourself shot." Claire let out a weak laugh involuntarily. Alice had a habit of making people laugh in bad situations. Claire wanted to talk to her. She struggled to make her mouth work.
"A-aliceee…" She managed to squeak out. She was so tired. It was too hot again, as if the floor had absorbed her fever. She felt hands on her shoulder instantly. Delicate touches.
"Claire? You in there, Redfield?" She spoke in soft tones. The sound of her voice was nice. Too bad it was so dark; Claire would have liked to have been able to see Alice's concerned face. It was adorable, from what she remembered.
"Mmhm." She replied, much later than when the question was posed to her.
"How you feeling, kiddo?" Chris this time, right above her. He was such a good brother…
"Hot. Itchy." Came her response. "Alice…" She tried again.
"I'm right here." The answer came inches from her ear. She shivered.
"Hidden…" Was all she could muster from her vocabulary as she pointed to the desk once more. She heard footsteps going past her, in the direction she had pointed. Good. She saw Chris's boots in front of her, kneeling, prodding with his hands. There was a loud squeal as he pushed the desk aside.
"There's no dust on the wall here. Look at everything else; it's covered with the stuff." She heard her brother say. Smart boy. She saw him push against the wall, and it swung inwards and around, catching on the ceiling like a garage door. "She found it!"
Warm hands scooped her up and she was suddenly in the air, pressed firmly against warm skin, smelling like apples and sand. Like a nice day at the beach.
"I've got you." Alice's voice whispered in her ear.
She sighed in content once again before closing her eyes, resting her head comfortably on Alice's chest, the gentle motion of being carried rocking her to sleep within seconds.
Alice watched with a hard face as the wall in front of them pulled back to reveal a rather unstable looking elevator platform. Around its perimeter was a mesh gating, no lock. She was glad that a black control box was the only thing the elevator had brought up to them. If they had security cameras outside the building, they hadn't picked up on the small trio. Alice kicked herself for not thinking about it earlier.
She didn't hesitate as Chris pulled back the gating, and they both walked onto the naked platform. The male Redfield closed the gate with a soft click and hit a green button on the control box. A low mechanical hum started up as the elevator began its descent, the layers of the visible wall outside the gate speeding past.
Time felt slow.
Alice shifted the sleeping girl in her arms to the left, bringing her now free hand around to aim the Mossberg ahead of her. She didn't struggle with the weight of either.
"So you're a military type guy, right?" She said to Chris. "What's the plan?"
Chris's eyes were fixed on the moving walls, his mouth set in a tight line as he un-holstered the desert eagle. It clicked as he flicked the safety off.
"You shoot high and to the left, from the back corner. I'll take low right. If anything's waiting on the other side when we get down there, it'll be most likely to come straight at the middle of this box. Won't be expecting firepower from the floor." He moved as he talked, lying on his belly at the opposite end of the platform, gun pointed and readied.
Alice felt her body involuntarily tense as the elevator came to a squeaky stop, the ride over. Beyond the gating in front of them was a plain, barren room, a door set in it straight ahead.
Both Alice and Chris swept the room with their eyes, following with guns.
Nothing moved.
Chris got up off the ground and stepped forward, prying back the metal gates and stepping off the platform, quickly dropping to one knee and scanning low with his gun. Alice kept hers pointed out, moving her arm in a wide arc as she followed him. Back to back, they surveyed the room.
"Nothing here." Chris said in a low voice. "Let's see what's behind door number one. I'll cover."
Alice moved towards the door after holstering the compact, pausing with her hand on the knob as she listened intently for any sound outside. Hearing none, she turned the knob.
And a large, dark shape sent Chris flying across the room, his back slamming into the metal grating that lined the elevator. Alice stumbled backwards reflexively, tightening her grip on Claire, not willing to put the girl down to fight. She pulled the Mossberg out again with impossible speed, aiming at the ferociously writhing black dog on top of Chris, and pulled the trigger.
Her shot went high as a force crashed into her legs, knocking her back a few steps. She quickly regained her footing and targeted the second dog in front of her. It stepped towards her slowly, jowls dripping with white saliva. Its sickening skin hung off of its bones in raw strips of slick red and black, the meat visible underneath.
Alice sent two shots flying at the beast, each making a thick sound as they penetrated the once-dog's head. It fell with a whimper, twitched twice, and then was still.
She suddenly remembered Chris, and turned to see him standing over the other creature now lying on the floor, lifting his boot, and bringing it down on the thing's skull with a sickening crunch.
"Waste of ammo." He said to her before he looked up, breathing heavily from his struggle. She looked down at his blood-caked boot.
"Wipe your shoe off. You'll leave prints." She said. He ripped the sleeve off of his shirt and quickly wiped down his boot.
"Good call. I guess you're not so useless in a pinch after all." He shot her a grin.
"Yeah, let's just hope infected dogs are the worst thing waiting down here." Alice replied. She felt Claire shift in her arm and looked down to see the red head's eyes opening. Her pupils were extremely dilated. Alice felt a surge of adrenaline. Claire's mouth worked as if she wanted to speak, but couldn't, and a moment later her eyes closed again. "Let's get going."
Chris led the way out of the bare room, into a brightly lit hallway that ended in an L shape about thirty feet down. There were three doors in the immediate hallway. Chris sidled up to the first, and Alice stood behind and to the right of him, covering with the compact.
He opened the door silently yet quickly, scanning the room with his desert eagle. It was clear; just a bathroom. Alice let out the breath she had been holding.
The next room was clear as well, unless a few cots and a coffee maker were considered threatening or dangerous.
The third room was held shut by a sliding mechanical door, which had been left unlocked. Inside was a mesh gating surrounding an indoor kennel and a keypad on the wall next to the doorway.
"This is where the dogs must have come from." Chris said.
"No shit, captain obvious." Alice said with a roll of her eyes.
Chris smirked. "You know, some people say my most attractive quality is my ability to state the obvious in times of peril."
"Chris, focus. Someone let those dogs out. They know we're here."
As if on cue, a door slammed shut somewhere down the hallway. Both Alice and Chris's heads whipped around towards the sound, and then they were running, following the L shaped hall into a dead end, weapons out. They stopped just in time to see the tail end of a white lab coat disappearing into a door on the right.
"There." Chris growled, gliding purposefully and slowly towards the door. "What we need is in there."
They each stood on either side of the door, staring at the keycard mechanism on the wall. There was no other door, no back way in, and definitely no turning back.
"What now, do we just punch in random numbers on this keypad and try to lock pick the slider?" Chris asked, his voice thick with frustration. Alice set Claire down gently against the wall, checking her pulse just to be sure. Still beating. Still strong.
"I don't know." She admitted with a sigh, slumping to the ground in defeat.
"What if we go back? Find another facility, maybe a bigger one; increase the chance of finding something useful?"
"It's too late for that; it has to be this one. There, in that room." Alice gestured to the locked door with a nod of her head.
"Well we're obviously not getting in that way, so what do you suggest?" Chris asked, the anger in him making his voice louder.
"I don't know!" Alice repeated, matching his volume, hysteria on the edge of her mind. "All I know is the only thing that can help Claire is in that room, and we need to get in there. Otherwise your sister is dead!"
Chris had been pacing in circles, and now stopped to stare at Alice, eyes wide, face flushed red. "Why does it matter to you so much anyway?" He wasn't getting any quieter. "If she dies it's no sweat off your back, just another one of your friends killed in this insane Umbrella apocalypse! I'm her brother! I'm supposed to protect her! So why the hell do you even care?"
"Because I love her!"
Silence.
Alice hadn't meant to say it, it had just slipped out. She sat perfectly still.
Chris stood rooted to the spot, chest still rising up and down quickly from his rant, but his skin had paled considerably. His wide, confused eyes met Alice's.
"You love her?"
She nodded.
"Like, as a friend, right?"
She shook her head no.
Chris blinked slowly. "What? How could… Claire… she was always so…"
Without warning, Chris let out a mighty yell and slammed his fist into the keypad on the wall, electric sparks shooting out from under his curled fingers. He stayed like that for a few seconds.
The mechanical door slid open.
Alice jumped to her feet as Chris blinked in confusion at the now open doorway. Then reality sunk in and he scrambled for his weapon, half leaping into the white room after Alice.
His heroic burst of energy was cut short as soon as he entered the room, however, at the sight of a man in a white lab coat holding Alice's throat in the crook of his elbow, a gun aimed outwards at Chris.
"Drop it and kick it to me." The man said, motioning to the desert eagle. A plastic nametag pinned to his coat read 'Dr. Benner.'
Chris did as he was told, his gun skidding across the floor past the doctor and under a metal table in the center of the room.
"What's the haps, Doc?" He asked with an angry, defiant sneer. Out of the corner of his eye, he took in as much of his surroundings as he could. He'd had enough experience with Umbrella nut jobs to know to keep them talking while he figured out a plan. To his left was a shelf full of vials and syringes, sprawled out with no visible order. He had a plan.
"I know you." Benner said, crinkling his eyebrows. "Chris Redfield, ex- S.T.A.R.S. member. You been a pain in Umbrella's ass for quite some time now."
Chris was taken aback, but was determined not to show it. "Hear that, I'm famous!" He said to Alice, forcing a grim smile. "So what's your story, Doc? Dedicated scientist too proud to leave his research when the world ended? Or just left behind by his superiors without a car or plane?"
"It's in his pocket, Chris." Alice said, her voice calm despite her current position. Chris's gaze settled on a bulge in one of the lab coat pockets. He inched to the left, barely noticeable. Alice looked over at the shelf, and then locked eyes with him.
"Don't mistake me for one of those over-eager kiss asses who feel the need to tell everyone they meet their silly plans of world domination or undeserved justice." Benner replied. Oh yeah, this guy was a fruit loop alright. "I know you've come here for the t virus antidote. Unfortunately, you won't be leaving with it." He paused, a slow smile spreading across his face. "Or leaving at all, for that matter. It's a shame the dogs didn't kill you earlier when I let them out. I hate having to clean up blood."
The doctor had let his guard down, and Alice took her chance. She swung her leg between Benner's and kicked, hard. His balance gone, he toppled over, landing at Chris's feet.
Chris slapped at the shelf next to him, snatching up one of the syringes filled with a greenish liquid, and lunged foreword, stabbing the needle into Benner's neck.
"Chris, don't!" Alice yelled. It was too late.
The liquid slid easily out of the tip of the syringe and into the doctors' veins. He gasped for air, grappling at Chris's boot in front of him, and then fell still. Chris kneeled down and checked the pulse. Slower, but still there.
"You moron." Alice growled. He looked at her, bewildered.
"What?"
"You have no idea what was in that. For all you know, you could have just made him even stronger than the worst fucked up creature you've had to fight since this shit started." She strutted past the baffled man and bent down, fishing a vial out of the unconscious Benner's jacket. She rushed back out the door to where Claire still lay, breathing deeply in her fever coma.
"Don't touch her!" Chris yelped involuntarily, pushing past Alice to sit by his sister. He was still freaked out about Alice's incredible revelation earlier. He didn't want her anywhere near his little sister.
"Fine." She said, visibly annoyed and angered. She tossed a clean syringe at him and he caught it, sticking it into the vial and pulling out the liquid antidote.
"Whatever happened to gummy medicines?" He muttered, carefully injecting the tip of the needle into Claire's arm after tapping the tube several times. He pushed the top down until all of the liquid was emptied from the syringe. "Now what?" He asked, looking over at Alice for guidance.
"Now we wait." She said simply, standing in the still opened doorway of the room.
Behind her, Doctor Benner rose.
