Hello and welcome to the next chapter of iPlay RE!! As usual I'd like to thank my usual reviewers. I had a little trouble with this chapter, but i finally figured it out. My last chapter had a good amount of hits as the hit count for this story is now 780!! Hopefully this one will please as well. Enjoy and as always review!!
Chapter Nine!!
Jill lead the way as she stepped off the last step. They were now in a new corridor, which was as dark as the last one. There were a few doors on each side. Jill decided to try the first door she saw. It read Dr. Rochelle Page.
"Okay, let's try this one first," said Jill, grasping the door handle and swinging it open. "Lets see what we got – oh.."
The late Dr. Rochelle Page was slumped over her desk, blood still leaking from a bullet hole in the side of her head. There was also a blood splatter from the spray of the shot on the wall. A magnum was resting on the desk, a few inches away from the woman's hands.
"Shit!" L.J. said, and coughed.
"She's been dead for a couple days by the looks of it. Suicide obviously." Jill stated.
"Well, did she leave a suicide note or anything else, like what were looking for?" asked Carly.
"There is something under the gun here. Let's see..." said Jill, moving aside the weapon, and picking up what looked to be a journal of some type. It was black and had a leather cover. On the front it said 'Journal'. She opened it up to the last page and read it aloud.
"July 9th – They're everywhere now. We were told it's safer in here than outside, but I now am seriously doubting that, as most of the employees look to be infected now. Those who ain't dead yet are dying, except for a select few of us. I thought I was lucky, but now I realize how much this sucks.
We tried to make an escape attempt earlier, but we had no success. I should of just stayed in the abandoned bomb shelter on this level, but I didn't, like a fool. Now they're all dead, 'cept me. I almost envy their deaths. Better to die now than to wait in fear. There are undead down here now; good chance they'll find me soon. The way I see it now, I'll be doing myself a favor by ending my life with this Magnum. There will be two more shots after this one. Maybe someone will find it and use it better than I am going to."
"Poor bastard. I guess she was doing herself a favor," said L.J.. "So, she isn't helping us get out of here, so what do we do now?"
"We take this journal with us, and move on." Jill said, closing the journal. She then tried to put it into her pocket, but it wouldn't fit, as it was already full with previous documents she'd picked up. She swore under her breath.
"I think you should find something to put all that stuff in." said Carly. She began to look around the room, and spotted a brown leather-bound briefcase. She opened it and threw out its contents, which was an empty lunchbox. She then handed it to Jill.
"Thanks." she said. Jill then emptied out her pocket, smoothed down the papers, and put them in the briefcase. She then put the newly found journal on top.
"That should do. Now, lets get out of here."
She opened the door just in time to hear Sam scream, who left the room as soon as she saw the good doctor. Carly pushed pass Jill into the corridor.
On the far side of the corridor, eight or so former scientists in various stages of decay were shuffling their way towards Sam, who was standing in the middle of the hall, rooted to the spot with fear.
"Sam, you've got my gun. Shoot them!" cried Carly.
This broke Sam out her fear spot, and her survival instincts cut in. She tightened the hold on her handgun and aimed for the nearest zombie, which was now only a few feet away, and shot off a round, aiming for headshots, just like Jill said to. The first shot went wide, hitting another undead, slowing it down. Sam aim and shot again, this time hitting her mark; right between the eyes. The zombie fell back instantly dead.
"Yea, you frickers. You want some more of Sam Puckett?" Well come and get it!" she hollered, aiming for the next undead, who was making its way over.
But then something unexpected happened. The zombies stopped suddenly, looking almost uncertain. After a few seconds of staring, they turned and shuffled the way they'd come. When they staggered out of sight, Jill walked over and put a hand on Sam's shoulder.
"What the hell was that all about?" Jill demanded.
Sam turned around and stared at her, open-mouthed. "I dunno. I don't get it. Why did they just leave like that?"
"Maybe because they saw you were aiming for them. Perhaps they got your message and didn't want to fuck with you." L.J. suggested. Jill shook her head.
"Don't be stupid. These things don't feel anything. They're not going to avoid you because you had a gun and taunted them."
"I know they don't have feelings anymore, but they almost looked like they...feared you Sam." Carly said.
"Why would they be afraid of me?" asked Sam in almost a sarcastic manner.
"Don't know, but they seemed to want to avoid you for some reason. Wish I knew why."
'Yea, so do I,' Sam thought, frowning deeply. 'I know I'm infected and all, but why the zombies be avoiding me? What's happening to me?' These thoughts circled in Sam's mind as her and the others made their way down the corridor in an uncomfortable silence.
L.J. was humming the theme of Shaft as the group passed a series of doors which were marked 'Laboratory Supplies'. Leaving no stoned unturned, L.J. decided to stop and open one of the doors when Jill passed it.
"I don't see anything weird in here." he said.
"That doesn't alter the fact that something could be in there. It's dark, you know." Jill said, taking a phrase that Alice would probably had said.
"Point taken," and L.J. responded by unholstering both his Desert Eagles. "Im'a see what's in here."
"You can borrow my Uzi's if you want." said Jill, smiling.
"Really!?" Said L.J. hopefully.
"No."
"Fuck you."
L.J. took a deep breath, and moved into the room. Suddenly the room lit up with blinding white light, which also filled the corridor.
"Shit! Why is it so bright?" L.J. said, shielding his eyes.
"Man, what a waste of energy just for a storage room." said Jill while scowling up at the lights as her sight returned to normal.
"Hey Jill.." said Carly, who noticed something strange.
"Yea?"
"If the lights come on automatically when you walk in, then why do they have a light switch right here?" Carly said, pointing. Indeed there was a switched placed in the middle of the wall.
"What the hell—I wonder what it does..." Jill said, walking over to inspect the switch. It was in the down position. "Do you think I should flip it?"
"Hey, you might as well. You never know until you try." said Sam.
"Okay, I'm going to press the switch. Hopefully there's nothing in there, but be prepared to shoot or run like hell if this isn't the case." Jill said, and flipped the switch. A low humming noise filled the silent room.
A section of the wall behind Jill began to slide away. After a few seconds, a steel door was revealed where the wall had slid out. Jill turned around to see what the others were gaping at, and saw the new steel door.
"Sweet. A secret door. That's so cool." said Sam, breaking the silence.
"You mean weird. Now we're already in a secret lab underground. Why the hell would they have a hidden door in a place like this? No telling what is behind it. I don't think he should go in." said Carly.
"Are you kidding me Carls? A secret door just has to be checked out. It might as well have a sign that says 'Check me Out!' on it!" said Sam in mock surprise.
"I agree. We have to check this out. This could be the location of what we're looking for." said Jill as she turned around to face the others. Carly sighed, but nodded her head.
"Good luck with that," said L.J. "Look." He pointed down to a control panel next to the door which was flashing-
INPUT ENTRY CODE OR SCAN APPROPRIATE IDENTIFICATION BADGE
"Another one of these? Here, we can get through." said Sam, as she strolled up and began to pull out her gun, but an arm cut off her progress.
"Wait—I have another idea." said Carly. She walked ahead of Sam and to the control panel. She pulled out the namebadge that she had grabbed earlier off the man they first encountered. "Maybe this will work instead." She scanned the namebadge through the panel. The screen went blank for a brief second. Then it turned green. The screen now read:
'ACCESS GRANTED. WELCOME Mr. Robert.'
"There. Wasn't that simple Sam? We don't have to shoot every time we see one of these." Carly said, slightly grinning.
"Aww, but I wanted to shoot it. It's more fun..." said Sam, putting on a pouting face. Carly just shrugged, still grinning, while L.J. and Jill laughed.
There was an audible 'click' as the door unlocked itself, and a moment later, the steel door began to part. Sam and Carly, who were now in front, leaned forward to see what the door would reveal first. It was definitely not what they were expecting.
As soon as the door departed, Carly was met with a shotgun barrel to her left, about a foot away from her. Seeing this, Jill quickly unholstered her Uzi's while L.J. did the same with his Eagles, and even Sam raised her handgun, looking to blast whoever it was back to Kingdom Come.
"Noo!—don't shoot!" cried Carly, her eyes were wider that a street sign. She looked hysterical.
There was an awkward moment of silence before Carly heard someone in front of her begin to chuckle. The shotgun was lowered, and from the side out came the body of the one and only Alice. Carly's face washed over with relief recovering from a near heart attack.
"Am I really that shocking to see?" said Alice, smirking slightly. Carlos came out from the shadows of the other side of the room lowering his weapon at the sight of the others.
"God dammit." Jill mumbled, and put down her automatics. L.J. and Sam did the same after a second.
"You scared the hell out of me." Carly said, who was still shaking, trying to recover. Sam walked over and patted her on the head. Carlos also walked over. "Happy to see us I see."
Jill was still mumbling to herself, but quickly recovered. "So, I assume you guys didn't find anything..."
"No. We searched the whole premises and found nothing of use so far. We did encounter some more zombies though. That's about all that happened to us. What about you guys?" said Carlos, getting down to business trying to change the mood of the room.
Jill held up her briefcase. "Not what we're exactly looking for, but we did find some pretty interesting documents and such. By the way, wheres Morales?"
Carlos frowned. "We lost her to a trio of undead."
The room went into a brief silence to acknowledge their fallen friend.
"Let's get out of here." Sam finally said, cutting through the silence. Everyone nodded their heads.
"Where'd you guys come from?" Jill asked.
"The door on the right. We were going to try this steel door here when he heard your guy's door deactivate. Now this is the only option we have to go." Carlos responded, pointing to the steel door, which Alice was approaching. This door also looked to have a control panel, asking for the same thing the other one did. Alice groaned.
Seeing this, Carly, moved ahead of Alice and pulled out her keycard again and scanned it using the panel. The panel turned green in confirmation, and another 'click' was heard from the door. As the door opened, Carly moved to the back of the group as to avoid any further confrontations.
"Shall we?" asked Sam, seeing the door open.
"I'll go first." Carlos said, stepping through the doorway and entering the passage beyond, looking around curiously.
"Whoa, this is cool!"
"I'm not inclined to agree." said Alice, but followed Carlos in anyway.
Jill and the others decided to remain outside and wait for them to get back. L.J. was the first to break the silence. He started joking and making fun of random things, and everyone would laugh, which lightened up the mood a bit. Carly and Sam both noted that he seemed to be directing his jokes mostly to Jill to get her laugh, and laugh she did. Carly could tell that Jill enjoyed being around L.J., and vice-versa, but both of them wouldn't probably admit it.
There was a distant cry from the door. A second later, Carlos came running out, looking white-faced and about to puke.
"Oh—oh man. You might not want to go in there. Zombies I can handle—but that's just wrong!" With that he made his way out of the room and out of sight.
Alice followed him, not looking to great either. She was shaking her head and frowning deeply.
"Okay, now I really don't want to see what's in there. It must be pretty nasty if it frightens them like that," said Jill, who was also frowning. "But I really have no choice."
"I'll go with you." said L.J., who flashed a small smile. Sam and Carly also nodded their heads.
Jill gave in. "Well, all right. Let's go."
They ducked slightly as they made their way through the door and the secret passage. They came to an automatic door, which swung open at their approach. The first thing that met them as they entered was a bank of large drawers. Every drawer was neatly labeled. Jill began opening and closing each drawer in turn, occasionally grimacing at whatever the contents were.
"Wow, that's the biggest filing cabinet I've ever seen." said Sam in amazement.
Jill paused. "I guess that's one way to put it. Do you all know what they put in here?"
"No, why?" asked Carly.
"See for yourself." Jill said, and pulled open the nearest drawer.
Sam stepped forward to see what was inside, and instantly reeled back with a cry of disgust. Inside, lying on a long metal shelf, the the remains of a middle-aged man. There were bite marks all over his body, and several other places were torn open. "What the f--"
"Here we have a Mr. Ricky Henderson," said Jill, cutting off Sam mid profanity. "Used to live at 832 Park Street. This guy was found dead in the Arcklay Mountains with bite marks. If he was taken to the hospital, I wonder what he's doing in Umbrella HQ." she finished, reading from some notes that were stuffed in the drawer.
"Man, that's nasty. Shut that thing before I get sicker." said Sam, who already was looking sick. Carly felt lucky she didn't see what Sam saw. Jill quickly shut the drawer, and the body disappeared.
"So, is that what spooked Carlos and Alice just now?" said Carly.
"I doubt it. We should continue to look around to see what really had them going." Jill responded.
They moved on to the next door, and were stopped at the smell of something strange.
"Y'all smell somethin'? L.J. finally said.
"Yea," said Sam, sniffing the air. "It smells like that stuff museums keep dead frogs in and such to preserve them and such. You know, that weird liquid or whatever."
"Formaldehyde." quipped Jill.
"Yea, that's it. Smells just like it."
Jill sniffed the air, and nodded her head in agreement.
"It is. Well, I suppose we should take a look." she said, kind of reluctantly.
Jill opened the door and the group stepped into the room beyond. When Sam and Carly saw what was inside, they froze to the spot. Even Jill had stopped moving and stared at the contents of the room. Only L.J. managed to mumble out a phrase.
"Oh shi..."
The massive room was lined with tall tanks filled with formaldehyde. Each tank contained a dead human body, clad in just a hospital gown.
"Someone tell me I ain't seein' this shit." L.J. choked out.
"It's real all right," said Jill grimly. "I didn't think even they were capable of this. Wish I had a camera to document all of this..."
This request knocked Carly out of her frozen moment. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her iPhone, handing it to Jill, who looked at the phone in puzzlement. Carly activated the camera and quickly showed her how to use it. A moment later Jill was was whizzing by taking picture after picture.
Carly returned her attention to one of the tanks nearby, which held a woman. Before expiring, it looks as though the woman had began to grow an extra head. There was a large growth on her shoulder, which was beginning to take shape.
L.J. and Sam were now on the other side of the room rummaging through a desk that was placed near the wall. So far, their search was unsuccessful. Most of the pages had unreadable writing, and some of the pages were even blank. After a few minutes, L.J. finally came across something interesting.
"Yo Jill come check this out," he said, and began to silently read as Jill strolled over and was now looking over his shoulder.
Nemesis-strain T-Virus Test Results(Tyrants)
We have tested an early sample of the Nemesis-strain of the T-Virus and here are the results:
Test Subject #1: Darius Aikens
Injected with a mixture of T-Virus and G-Virus. Some mutations occurred, but regrettably the subject expired before any real progress could be made.
Test Subject #2: William Morrison
Injected with a mixture of T-Virus and Nemesis-strain T-Virus. Some mutations observed in facial area. Subject expired before further testing could be conducted.
Test Subject #3: Morgan Cook
Injected with a mixture of G-Virus and Nemesis-strain. Mutations at first seemed promising, but rapidly began to spiral out of control. The subject was terminated soon afterwards.
The list went on and on. L.J. and Sam looked on in puzzlement.
"What's a tyrant?" L.J. asked. Sam already knew what one was from the video games, but of course L.J. wouldn't have a clue.
"It's almost as big as the Nemesis, but not quite. Strong, big, and ugly as hell. Very hard to kill. Chris and I encountered one in the mansion, and we had to take a rocket launch to it just to down it." Jill described.
"Wow." was all L.J. could say. "Hope I never see one of those dudes."
"Got that right." Jill opened up the briefcase and threw in the newly found documents, and also tossed Carly's iPhone into it, not wanting to lose it.
"Good. Now are there any more papers left?" Jill asked.
L.J. picked up the remaining papers and began looking through them. After finding nothing, he was about to throw them on the floor when he noticed something. His already hardened expression got even harder with a deep scowl.
"What is it? Asked Jill, who saw L.J.'s scowl.
"I wonder what happens when you press this button here" he said, pointing to a small red button on the side of the desk.
"Press it. Can't be any worse than it is now. We've gotta know." said Sam, who also spotted the red button.
L.J. then reached out and pressed the button with his right thumb. A section of the floor in the middle of the room parted, and something large was rising from the depths underneath.
"What is it?" asked Sam, as they began to back away from the object as it passed floor level, and kept rising.
"It looks like another one of those tanks." said Carly, as the object came fully into view and finally stopped rising.
Indeed it was, but it was much larger than the other tanks. But what was inside is what everyone was staring at. It was a huge bald man with insanely broadening shoulders and huge muscles. What was strange was that it had a large heart outside of his body, which was still beating. Even weirder were at the end of his arms were large spikes instead of hands. Sam was looking just below the figure's chest, where something else was missing.
"No wonder that guy looks pissed off," Sam remarked. "No balls, and if that ain't bad enough, he was killed and thrown into this tank. I'd be pretty pissed also if something similar happened to me."
Carly swallowed.
"I think we're in big trouble." she remarked.
"If that's what you were just describing Jill, I agree with her. I say we split right now." L.J. said.
"We cant' just leave it like this. Look, its heart is still beating, so it's still alive." responded Jill.
"Exactly the reason to leave." countered L.J. "Just take a picture of or or somethin' so we can get the hell outta here." He then pressed the red button again, hoping that the tank would return underground, but it didn't move. He pressed the button even harder, but in vain.
Instead, a low rumble came from the tank. The formaldehyde began draining from the tank with a sick gurgling noise, and cracks began to form on the outside of the tank were the glass was.
"That's not good." said Sam
"Put it back! Put it back!" screamed Carly over the rumble of the tank.
"I'm trying dammit!" yelled L.J. who kept pressing the button, but it was already too late. The cracks in the tank grew larger and longer, until the glass finally exploded, sending shards everywhere and hitting the group, who shielded themselves.
Like an ugly duckling rising from its hatched egg, the Tyrant emerged from the broken remains of the tank with a loud roar, drowning out the screams of the others. It was not as big as the Nemesis, but it still was frightening none the less.
"You said you needed a rocket launcher just to down these things, right Jill?" said Carly as they backed away from the creature.
Jill nodded without a word.
Sam gulped.
"Oh boy," she said. "This is going to suck..."
