A/N: If the last chapter had the most misspelled words ever before I ran it through a spellchecker, this one had the least. Improvements, haha. Once again, I'd like to thank yamiishot for giving me the ideas for this fanfic in the first place ^^
My first chapter of 2011. Hope you'll like it =)

Chapter 10: The Descent

Turning off the power in the first basement level sure had been a great idea. The lights were of course out, and the electronically locked doors could by no means be opened. Rivers was indeed sure that the group of intruders would leave as soon as they found the pair that was currently in the darkened corridors. But he was also sure that he had some secret motive with this plan... So, Rivers had let one of his lovely lickers out. He thought it gave a nice twist to the situation, and he really enjoyed watching it go through the dark on his many monitors. Rivers knew that he had to contact him about the licker. He didn't doubt he'd be promoted after that masterstroke. But the call would have to wait. At least for now - it hadn't been long since he'd gotten the instructions to darken the level. Rivers had been told that he didn't want to be disturbed if it wasn't an emergency. So Rivers decided to wait and simply enjoy the show.

"I think we might be safe in here... for a while..." Claire said quietly. She and Carlos had escaped into the first open door that they'd found. Hopefully, that creature wouldn't find them any time soon.

"Claire, what was that? What would make those kind of clicking noises?" Carlos was searching the room with his flashlight as he spoke. It looked like just another corridor, even though this one seemed to be smaller than the one they'd just left.

"So... I guess you didn't hear that awful hissing that came with it?" Claire smiled weakly. "I thought I'd seen the last of them in Raccoon City... If that really was what I think it was, this place is definitely Umbrella's."

"Have you seen that before?" Carlos glanced at her.

She nodded. "Aside from the zombies and the crows, those were the first monsters I saw in Raccoon..." she shuddered involuntarily by simply thinking about them.

Carlos said nothing. He figured that whether he wanted it or not, he'd probably see it for himself eventually. Umbrella seldom had only one of each creation. Except for the giant that had been chasing him and Jill all through Raccoon City and nearly killed them both. He'd been praying that there would only be one of that monster.

"I think we should get going again." Claire mumbled. "Before it brings its friends..."

The first door in the new corridor was locked as well, and Claire was losing her hopes about ever finding a way out of this place. So far, none of the doors had even had a keyhole. Though, they had more luck with the next one. Disappointingly enough, it was only a storage room.

"There might be something interesting hidden in here." Carlos said, looking at the many shelves and drawers in the small room. "Files, a map of the area, a free-pass to the outside..." he sighed. "But I guess all the important things are behind those locked doors."

Claire nodded. "Probably, which is why we should really find a way to get inside and dig up as much as we can."

Yeah, but getting back to your brother and the others is still our top priority, right?"

"Of course it is! But... do you think they're trying to get down to us, or are they waiting for us to get back up?" Claire asked.

"I don't know." Carlos replied. "I guess we'll see once we get back up."

"Now that was a challenge..." Chris mumbled. After a lot of time and effort, they'd found a possible way down. They had looked through the whole first floor, without finding even the slightest sign of information about how to get down to the lower floor. A staircase going upwards could though be found, even though a lot of the steps were completely damaged and torn apart. Just like the rest of the house. It was way too dangerous to even set a foot in it. The other door in the room with the staircase didn't have a keyhole and it was impossible to get it opened. It had almost been an act of desperation when Chris had told the others that their last hope for the moment was the room where the ceiling had fallen in. But despite how unlikely that decision may have seemed like, it had been a good one. It had taken a long time, but since they all worked together, they had been able to move enough of the planks and raffle blocking their way t be able to get past it. An elevator was set in the far wall of the room they were now able to enter.

"Yeah, sure was." Billy replied. "At least we found a way down." It wouldn't really have been fun for anyone if Chris's idea would've turned out to be a complete waste of both time and effort. Especially since no other part of the house had any way for them getting to the lower levels.

While examining his graying hair in his pocket mirror, Rivers suddenly realized that for some reason, almost all mad scientist had gray hair (at least that's what he thought). But Rivers wasn't mad. Oh no, he was perfectly sane. He chuckled to himself as he watched the intruders on his monitors. They were trying to use the elevator to go back up. That they even thought he'd let them go that easily. Sure, they were never supposed to find the elevator in the first place, not even the lower levels, but he couldn't let this exciting opportunity slip away. And even more, the lickers were getting impatient...

The elevator that they'd found was the one that the Umbrella-staff used to get down to the labs. Rivers had thought it was very amusing to watch them take away a lot of the things that was blocking it - the staff just used their card keys by the door that didn't have a keyhole. The card reader was, apparently, well-hidden. While the intruders had "cleared" the corridor, they'd muttered about the house being so broken. Truth was, it had taken months of preparations to make it look as run-down as it was. Rivers actually looked forward to telling them that before he let the beautiful lickers have their fun. Sure, Rivers had been told by him not to hurt them, but oh, this plan was indeed a lot more interesting than having them simply walk away. And of course, it was too late to change this now. After all, he'd gotten this responsibility for a reason. He was sure that he would promote him once he heard what Rivers had done. Oh, he looked forward to that moment. Soon, Rivers thought, watching the intruders step out of the elevator in the first basement level. Very soon...

"No luck here anyway..." Carlos mumbled. They had searched through the small storage room from top to bottom, and the only thing of use that they'd found was a lantern. At least it wouldn't be as dark anymore when they had it. It almost seemed like the whole room had been cleared out of all important things.

"Maybe we should try at a better place." Claire sighed. They made their way to the door, and when they got out in the hallway, they found themselves face to face with -

"Chris!" Claire said happily as she reached out to hug her brother.

"Are you both okay?" the older Redfield asked.

Claire nodded. "Completely unharmed, except for my foot."

"Let us have a look at it." Rebecca said, motioning for Jonathan to join them. The three of them sat down on the floor with the lit lantern beside them, and the two medics examined Claire's foot, talking quietly about what they thought as to not disturb any possible conversations by the others.

"How did you get down here?" Carlos asked.

"We found an elevator." Jill replied, gesturing towards a hidden passage in the wall by the door. It would of course have been impossible for Claire and Carlos to see it in the light from their flashlights earlier. "It seemed safe enough, and now that we've found you two, we can get out of this place."

"I sure want to get out of here." Claire said. "But we think this really is an Umbrella-facility."

"What makes you think that?" Chris asked. His sister looked up at him.

"We heard something out in the other corridor." Carlos replied.

"I believe it was one of the monsters I met back in Raccoon." Claire said.

"I see. But if it is Umbrella, we have to stop them and whatever is going on here."

Claire sighed, but didn't say anything. No one did. They all knew that it was what they had to do.

"Hey, Carlos..." Rebecca said after a few minutes of silence. The man looked at her. "What did you use to make the bandage?"

"You know, it almost looks like-" Jonathan didn't get to finish his sentence before Claire interrupted him. Still, he had an amused look on his face.

"Do you think there are more underground levels here?" she said quickly to change the subject.

"I suppose so." her brother answered. "We'll have to find that out by ourselves."

Claire was relieved that no one seemed to care about why exactly Rebecca's question hadn't been answered, or why Jonathan had been interrupted so suddenly, but that he clearly didn't mind.

Carlos closed his jacket a bit more by the neck. Jill was the only one who seemed to have noticed that motion. Putting two and two together, she grinned, but she said nothing. She was happy that she'd introduced Carlos to their Anti-Umbrella group. Chris, of course, hadn't been thrilled by the fact that he had been part of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (UBSC for short). Jill had told her husband repeatedly that Carlos hadn't known about Umbrella's actions, that he had nothing to do with anything that the company had done. The message had finally gone through at last, but Chris still kept an eye on the man. Jill was sure that Chris wouldn't really be thrilled if he too found out what the bandage really was. She'd have to talk to him about it later anyway, to try and calm him down when the anger hit. But now was certainly not the time.

"Um..." Meya said. "We have a problem."

A/N: Hehe, I do like ending my chapters with cliffhangers~ Hope you enjoyed reading this =)
To be continued~