Chapter 11
Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or RE
It could have once been a spider, it spiders were the size of cattle. From the thick layer of white web that covered the room, floor to ceiling, it couldn't have been anything else.
Videl stared down at the curled, bristling legs of the abomination, her skin crawling. The creature had attacked her by the courtyard entrance had been terrifying, but so alien that she hadn't been able to relate it to anything. Spiders on the other hand... She already hated them, hated their dark bustling bodies and skittering legs. This one had been the mother of all of them.
It hadn't been dead long though. She forced herself to look at it, at the slick puddles of greenish slime that dripped from the holes in its round, hairy body. It had been shot several times and from the ooze that seeped from the wounds, it had been up and crawling no more than twenty minutes ago.
She shuddered and stepped away toward the double metal doors that led out of the webbed chamber. Whispering streams of stick stuff clung to her converse, making it hard to move. She took careful steps, trying not to fall on her ass. At least she knew that was on the right track, and close behind whoever had triggered the tunnel mechanism. When she reached the area, the gaping was replaced with smooth stone, allowing her passage to the other side.
The door had led to another long, dark, empty tunnel. A giant boulder stood at one end and past that, the room she was about to leave. She grabbed the handle and stumbled out into another gloomy passage. Leaning against the door, she brushed wildly at her clothes.
"I can blow away zombies and monsters with the best of 'em but show me a spider and I lose my freaking mind…" Videl said aloud.
She heard some chuckles on the other end of the headset and sighed. It was the first time that any noise had came from that side since the incident with Enrico. She was actually quite relieved, she thought that they had abandoned her.
"Yeah guys, this soo damn funny. I HATE spiders!" Videl said, adding a childish tone to the last sentence.
Though she would never tell them but she felt safer knowing that they were still there watching her.
The short, empty tunnel ran left to right in front of her, a door at either end but the door to her left was set into the same wall as the one she'd just exited, leading back toward the courtyard. Videl went for the one on her right, hoping that her sense of direction was still intact.
The metal door creaked open and she stepped in feeling the change of air immediately. The tunnel split in front of her. To the right, a thickening of shadow where the rock walls opened into another corridor, to her left was a small elevator shaft like the one in the courtyard. A warm wind swept down and over her, the sweet air like a forgotten dream.
She walked into the stone corridor that stretched in front of her, the temperature immediately dropping back to the now familiar unpleasant smell. The tunnel extended several feet to her right and dead ended, to her left, a massive boulder marked the other end, a good hundred feet away. And there was something small lying in front of it, something blue….
Videl moved toward the giant rock, trying to make out the blue object. Halfway down the dim tunnel was an offshoot to the left and recognised the metal plate next to it as the same mechanism that moved the pit. She stepped into the small offshoot, examining the worn stones at its opening. There was a small door to her right, and she realised that the passage and room could be hidden by way of the mechanism, the walls turned to block the entrance.
"It must have taken years to set all of this up and to think I was impressed with the house…" Bulma commented.
"Yeah, I get how it's impressive when you're sitting in your warm cosy house and not soaking wet."
Videl opened the door and looked inside. A mid-sized square room of rough stone, a statue of a bird on a pedestal was the only decoration. There was no other exit, and she felt a sudden rush of relief as the implications sank in. She could leave the underground tunnels; the killer had to have left already.
Smiling she stepped back out into the corridor and started toward the giant rock, still curious about the blue thing. As she got closer, she saw that it was a book, bound in blue-dyed leather. It had been thrown carelessly against the base of the stone, laying face down and open. It was a book-box. She had a couple of them in her room, to hide her some of her stuff from her father knowing fine rightly that he wouldn't even look at a book never mind read one. There was cut away sections of the pages behind the cover, though this one was empty. She flipped it closed, tracing the gold-leaf letters of the title, Eagle of East, Wolf of West, as she started back toward the elevator. Didn't sound like much of a thriller, though it was nicely bound.
Snick.
Videl froze as a stone beneath her left foot sank down a tiny bit and she realised at the same instant that the entire tunnel gently sloped away from where she was standing.
"Oh…….shit" was all she could say as behind her there was a deep, thundering sound of rock grating on rock.
Dropping the book, Videl ran for cover, arms and legs pumping as the rumbling grew louder, the tripped boulder picking up momentum. The dark opening of the offshoot seemed miles away and she could almost feel the tons of stone bearing down on her, wanting desperately to look but knew that a split second difference would kill her. In a final, desperate burst of speed she dove for the opening, crashing to the floor and jerking her legs in as the massive rock rolled past, missing her by inches. Even as she drew her next gasping breath, the boulder hit the end of the tunnel with an explosive, bone jarring crunch that shook the underground passage.
Videl slowly got to her feet and dusted herself off, getting very annoyed at how many times she had almost been killed since the moment she got onto the helicopter.
"You okay?" Every time that question came through her headset, it was always by the same person, her over-protective fiancée.
"You ever get tired of asking that?" Videl chuckled.
"You would think..."
Videl headed for the elevator shaft, very much looking forward to leaving the underground behind and keeping her fingers crossed that whatever cam next, it wouldn't be cold. And that there wouldn't be any spiders.
--
Videl had taken the elevator to what seemed like another part of the courtyard. There had been nothing to see but a rusting door set into an overgrown wall, welded shut and a large open well. Inside had been a spiral staircase leading down to another small elevator. 'Which I took…but now where the hell am I?'
The room that the elevator had led to was unlike any other part of the estate she'd seen. It lacked the strange, fetid charm of the mansion, or the dripping gloom of the underground. It was as though she'd walked out of a gothic horror story into a military complex. She was standing in a large, steel-reinforced concrete room, the walls painted a muddy industrial orange. Metal ducts and overhead pipes lined the upper walls and the room was rather aptly tilled 'XD-R B1', painted across the concrete in black several feet high. Any sense that she had of where she was in relation to the rest of the estate was totally gone.
There was a heavy metal door on one side of the room, firmly locked. The sign to the left of it stated that it was only to be opened if it was a first-class emergency. She had already figured out that 'B1' stood for 'Basement Level One.' A bolted ladder led down through a narrow shaft in the concrete.
She peered down the ladder shaft, only able to see a square of concrete at the bottom. Sighing she started down the ladder.
As soon as she hit the last rung, she turned anxiously and faced a much smaller room. Inset fluorescent lights on the ceiling, a grey metal door and more concrete walls. She walked through quickly, starting to feel that she was almost at the lab. There had been no more traps or monsters.
Videl opened the door and her hopes faded away as the smell of rotting flesh engulfed her. She stepped out onto the walkway which led to descending stairs. At the top of the stairs were two wandering zombies. She took aim at the first zombie and fired, a small hole appeared in its skull as it crumpled to the floor. Attracted by the sudden amount of noise, the second zombie turned just in time to see a 9mm bullet just millimetres from its eyeball.
--
She walked down a short corridor and stopped at a door to her left. The sign next to the door read: 'Visual Data Room' and the door itself was unlocked.
It opened up into a still, grey room with a long meeting table in the center, a slide projector set up in front of a portable screen at the far end. Videl let her eyes wander the room, trying to look for anything of interest. They settled on a flat featureless square of metal set into the wall. She stepped over for a closer look.
There was a flat bar on the top. She touched it lightly and the panel slid down into the wall, revealing a large red button. She reached over to push the button –
"Wait! What if it's another trap?" Bulma quickly said.
"No it's not."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because, the mansion, the tunnels – all of it was rigged to keep people from getting here, to these basement levels. They're way too efficiently dull to be anything but where the real work gets down." Videl pushed the button.
She knew instinctively that her logic was sound. Behind her, an ornamental pillar slid to one side with a smooth, mechanical hum. Behind the pillar were several shelves, stacked with files and something that glittered in the soft grey light of the room. She hurried over and pick up a metal key, the top of it imprinted with a lightning bolt. Slipping it in her pocket, she flipped through a few files. They were all stamped with the Umbrella logo, and most of them were too thick to waste time sorting through. The title on one of the reports told her all she needed to know and what she'd already knew.
Umbrella / Bioweapons Report / Research and Development
Videl put the file back. She'd finally found the real research facilities, and she knew that the S.T.A.R.S. traitor, Wesker, was somewhere in these rooms. She took one final glance around the room and decided to go see if she could find the lock that the key belonged to. It was time to place the last few pieces of the puzzle that Umbrella had set up and that the S.T.A.R.S. had sacrificed themselves trying to solve.
--
Videl eased into the steaming, hissing room, a thick smell of grease in the heated air. It was some kind of boiler room, and a big one at that. Massive turbines spun and pounded, generating power in a steady whine as hidden ducts spat out steam. She moved slowly into the poorly lit chamber, peering down one of the railed walkways into the shadows cast by the towering generators. From where she was, she could see that the place was a labyrinth of paths.
"The source of the estates power. This explains how they managed to keep it a secret for so long, they had their own little city out here, probably had their own food shipped in too."
She turned down the narrow walk to her right, watching uneasily for anymore of the strange pale zombies, that she'd seen in the corridors of B3. The path seemed clear, but with the movement and noise created by the turbines – something ripped her shoulder, a sudden violent slash that tore open her sleeveless jacket and t-shirt and scraped the skin beneath.
Videl spun and fired, the roar of the gunshots drowning out the hissing machines. The bullets hit metal, ricocheting into the empty walk. There was nothing behind her.
"Where the he-"
A lunging, blade-like claw sliced the air in front of her face, swooping down from above. She stumbled back, staring up at the steel mesh of the ceiling and saw a dark shape skitter out of the shadows, hooking its way across the grate incredibly fast, curving claws at its hands and feet. She caught a glimpse of thick spines around its mutant, flattened face. It turned and ran into the shadows of the power room. There was a door at the end of the walk and Videl ran towards it, heart racing, the pounding whine of the generators thundering in her ears.
She was five feet from the door when she saw the moving shadow position itself in front of her. She raised her gun and leaned back. "Shit."
There were two over the creature's overhead, terrible thing with vicious, curving hooks instead of hands. One of them dropped down suddenly, hanging by clawed feet to swipe at her with its bladed arm. Videl fired and the creature screeched, five rounds hitting it in the chest. It fell from the ceiling with a clatter, thick blood oozing out of the wound.
She turned back toward the entrance and ran, hearing the patter of claws against the mesh overhead. Another one of the monkey-like things swung down in front of her, and Videl ducked, not wanting to think of what would happen to her if she stopped running. The things arm whistled past her ear, missing her head by less than an inch.
The metal doors were in front of her. Videl crashed into them, slapping one handle down and stumbling back into the cold stiffness of the corridor. The door closed on the furious, shrill cry of one of the monsters, rising high over the sounds of the machinery. She sagged against the wall gasping…and saw Barry Burton standing mid-way down the chilled, silent hall. He hurried toward her, an expression of deep worry on his rugged, bearded face.
"Videl! Are you alright?"
She pushed herself away from the door, surprised. "God, Barry, where have you been? I thought you'd gotten lost in the tunnels."
Barry nodded grimly. "I did and I ran into some trouble trying to get out."
She saw the splatters of blood on his clothing, the rips and tears in his shirt, and realised that he must have come across more of those walking green nightmares. Though he looked in better shape than she did.
Videl touched her shoulder, her fingers coming away bloody. It was painful but shallow; she'd survive, for now.
"Barry, you've got to get the others and get out of here. I found some papers upstairs, proof of what's been going on. Enrico was right, Umbrella's behind all of this and one of the S.T.A.R.S. knew about it" Videl said, wanting to keep the information about Wesker to herself. "It's too dangerous for you to keep looking around, you should get those files and head back to the mansion, wait for the RPD-"
"But I think I found the main lab," Barry said. "Downstairs, there's an elevator at the end of the hall. There are computers and stuff. We can get into their files, really nail 'em."
Videl noticed that he didn't seem too excited by the find. "And I'm not leaving you to deal with all this on your own," he continued. "Especially after what Enrico said."
Videl nodded, slowly. "Lead the way."
--
Videl and Barry took the elevator down to B4. She kept stealing glances at him, wondering what the hell was going on with him, was he in on this too? He hadn't spoken or looked at her since he told her about the elevator and lab.
"Barry, are you ok?" She placed a hand on his arm. "Is something wrong?"
When the elevator stopped, he pulled open the gate and raised the mesh outer door. "I, yeah – something's wrong," he replied quietly. "But now's not the time. Let's get this over with."
Videl frowned but nodded. "Okay then," she cocked her gun, grinning. "Let's take down the bad guys."
They stepped out into a short hallway. The hall turned to the left, Barry slowed down, allowing Videl to go ahead of him. They turned the corner and Videl froze when saw Wesker, only a few feet ahead of her, typing on a computer.
"Wesker" Videl said, hatefully, through gritted teeth.
Behind her Barry raises his colt and points it at her head.
"So you've come. You make me proud; of course you are one of my men." Wesker said, not even bothering to look up. "Thank you Barry. Take her weapons."
Videl turned around, staring down the barrel of his gun, turned back to Wesker. As Barry reached around and grabbed the beretta from her grip, taking her magazines also. "Well, what-do-ya-know"
"Oh don't blame Barry for everything. I hear that his better half and two lovely daughters will be in danger, if he doesn't do everything I tell him to."
"Wesker, you're pathetic."
Wesker turns around and points gun at Videl's head. "Barry, you go up on the ground and wait there."
"Barry?" Videl calls out, but he doesn't respond, disappearing around the corner.
"You gotta love Barry. He must really be afraid of Umbrella." Wesker said, smirking, his sunglasses hiding his eyes.
"You and Umbrella took his family! You bastard!"
Wesker punches Videl in the face and she falls to the ground. She spits the blood out of her mouth and slowly stands up. Wesker's gun still pointed at her head.
"Since when Wesker?"
"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about."
"Since when have they been slipping you a pay check?!"
"I think you a bit confused. I've always been with Umbrella and S.T.A.R.S were Umbrella's, no rather, my little piggies."
"Why eliminate S.T.A.R.S?" Videl asked.
"Oh not all of them. They've got big plans for some of us, at least those of us who want to make a profit. It's you snivelling do-gooders that they don't want, the red-white-and-blue, all that happy bullshit. The way Redfield's been running around, mouthing off about conspiracies, you think Umbrella didn't notice? It has to stop here. This whole place was rigged to blow up just in case of an accident and the Tyrant virus escaping qualifies. Once you're all dead and this facility's destroyed, no-one will be able to get to the truth. "
"You're a bastard you know that?"
Wesker laughed. "Maybe. But I'm going to be a rich bastard when all this is over. Umbrella is paying me a lot of money to clean up their little problem and to get rid of a few of you god-damn snooping S.T.A.R.S. in the process."
"And what about me?"
"Ahh, now we're getting somewhere. You see, I know all about you and your abilities. I wanted you here to see how you would fair against our greatest masterpiece."
"So you brought all of us here, just to watch me kill your prize bitch?"
"So confident. You really think that you stand a chance? Think of everything you've fought today, the Tyrant could easily wipe them out without even breaking a sweat. We have spent years working it. Now enough talking, let's get started with my little experiment. I want to see how the strongest person in the world stands up against the miracle of modern science." Pressing the gun to her forehead, Wesker ordered. "Now step through that door."
Videl turned and found the switch that operated the hydraulic door, noting the bio-hazard symbol painted across the front. The door slid open and the two of them stepped inside.
--
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
Ding. Ding. Ding In the blue corner, the half-saiyan with a kick ass attitude! VIDEL SATAN!! And in the red corner, the mutated creature with a face only a mother could love! THE TYRANT!!