In the lowest depths of Greenland's hidden bio-organic weapons research laboratory, four medium ranged missiles were made ready to fire. The formerly human creature who controlled them grinned with savage glee, seeing that his plan was going to work perfectly.
Just a couple of floors above him, four individuals raced down a blank corridor, armed with two pints of a chemical concoction, and ready to do whatever needed to be done.
A few floors above them, a new creature was stirring.
The Doctor, the Survivors and Steve emerged from the final stairwell, the Doctor leading the way, and Steve bringing up the rear with loping strides that meant he had to stop every two leaps to allow those in front to gain some distance before moving again so that he didn't crush them. There was no talk. The only sounds they made were the sound of running feet and the occasional high pitched shriek as Steve's claws glanced off the walls in a cascade of sparks.
They had two pints of D-virus as the Doctor promised there would be. Both Chris and Rebecca had been injected with a small amount and were now completely immune to any B.O.W infection. Steve had to avoid the substance like the plague unless he wanted his body to be completely shut down, but as usual he showed no interest in the matter, accepting the Doctor's words with disturbingly blind obedience.
They'd left Jill's body in the lab where she'd died, covering her with a sheet they procured from one of the cupboards. They hadn't disturbed her, or taken any of her equipment, not that it would have made a difference since Jill had lost so much throughout the lab. Now they'd left her behind and were en route to the base control room.
Chris and Rebecca hadn't spoken a single critical word to the Doctor since then. Apparently they had abandoned any doubts in favour of gaining revenge, and the Doctor had a nasty feeling the inevitable confrontation would be a bloody one.
With everyone's thoughts so fiercely occupied, the first missile launch came as quite a shock.
The corridor; in fact, the whole base trembled as the world was rocked by the titanic battle of gravity and jet pressure. All four of them tumbled to the floor as their sense of balance was cancelled out. Dust and frost was jarred loose from the corners between the walls and ceiling, giving the hallway an impression of a miniature blizzard.
"Missile one successfully launched." the female computer voice announced in it's emotionless, disjointed fashion "Preparing missile two."
"First missile launch. Wesker's really serious about this." the Doctor said as he climbed to his feet and looked to the roof as the rumbling faded away.
"If one of those missiles have fired that means thousands of people could be infected before we can do anything about it!" Rebecca exclaimed.
"Not necessarily." the Doctor corrected her. "It could take up to a week before the virus can actually successfully cause infection. We need to get to the control room, then I can calculate the flight pattern of the remaining missiles so that their payloads becomes effective before any that have already been launched. But obviously we have to add the D-virus to the union virus containers first."
The Doctor whipped out the by now worn and smudged map. He quickly took in the 3-D cross section and made a decision.
"This must be where the control room is," he pointed at a particular oblong "overlooking this large storage area. I'll head there and deal with Wesker; if we can infect him with the D-virus now his body will shut down and anyone infected with the union virus won't be under his control. If we can't stop worldwide infection we can at least do that. The rest of you can head to the missile launch bays. According to the computers, as long as the missiles are in a ready to launch state, we can bypass the security and put other chemicals on board. You get there and introduce the D-virus to the loading devices, then I can override the security system from the control room and pump it straight into the union virus containers. The union virus will then be killed off and its matter grown into more D-virus, then we can see about launching them."
"Brilliant plan. Just one correction I have to make." Chris chambered a round into the M16. "I'm coming with you."
"No you're not." the Doctor said firmly, eying the small arsenal that Chris was carrying.
"Yes he is and so am I." Rebecca joined in, readying her own weapon.
"You're gonna need plenty of help to fight off Wesker and whatever he's got guarding him." Chris insisted. "Either you load the D-virus onto the missiles yourself or get Steve to do it."
"Steve can't do it. His mind is still corrupted by his viral infection." the Doctor explained.
Only stony silence replied.
The Doctor sighed and said "All right. Chris, come with me, but don't just lose your head and shoot everything you see; we have to be careful how we handle this. Rebecca, take the D-virus to the miss-"
"I'm not going to be left behind!" Rebecca shouted back with uncharacteristic fury. "Wesker betrayed us; he tried to kill me, in Racoon City! He killed all the others to! I'm going to be there to help!"
"Rebecca," the Doctor said soothingly "there are more important things going on than our own personal feelings. More important things than revenge."
He moved towards her and laid his hands on her shoulders.
"Remember what we talked about in the lab, about doing our part to help people. Right now the whole world is in danger. We've got to do this, not for ourselves, but so that other people won't suffer in the same way we have."
The Doctor looked Rebecca in eyes with such intensity that she had to look away when she argued "I had to go through all of this from the beginning. I've got a right to help put an end to it."
"And you will help." the Doctor explained, conscious that Chris was becoming impatient and may question the Doctor's right to instruct Rebecca on what she should do. "You're able to do something I'm no good at. Remember I said you'd make a better life saver than a life ender?"
Rebecca looked at the Doctor curiously when he said this. What did he mean by saying it was something he wasn't good at?
"That's why I need your help Rebecca. To help save lives. Can you do that for me?"
Rebecca looked at the Doctor as she regarded his passionate plea, so desperate to do whatever he could to save the world from Wesker's threat, despite everything he'd endured- that they'd all endured so far. After a moment she took a deep breath, and nodded once.
"Alright, I'll do it."
"Brilliant!" the Doctor became excessively elated again and pushed his D-virus container and the map into her arms.
"Right, just follow the map to the big room with loads of vents branching off of it. Steve, go with her and make sure she gets there safely."
Steve looked down at Rebecca's tiny frame with a sullen glare, while she looked up at his hulking, alien form as though she'd just been told she was expected to marry him.
"Don't start getting cold feet now." the Doctor warned. "We've all got to work together if we're gonna see this through to the end."
He looked to Chris.
"You can come with me then. Just help me get to Wesker and remember- don't have a 'shoot first and ask questions later' attitude. I'll take the D-virus."
He took the strap that the silver canister clung to and wrapped it round his own shoulders.
"Right, let's go!"
They took off down the corridor. It was only about a minute or two before they came to a passage on the left wall that led to the missile bay. With a quick exchange of "Be careful." and "You too." between Chris and Rebecca respectively, the young medic and her monstrous escort disappeared round the corner as the soldier and the Time Lord continued onwards.
"Your good at inspiring people, I'll say that." Chris remarked.
"Thank you!" the Doctor grinned. "You're not so bad yourself."
They came to a steel bulkhead door.
"Well, looks like this is it." Chris said solemnly.
"I know." the Doctor twisted the power assisted lock open and swung the door inwards. "Exciting isn't it?"
They stepped over the threshold and observed the surroundings. The walls, floor and presumably the roof that was lost in the gloom was made of metal, and they didn't need to be told that it was thick. The whole place was shrouded in darkness, the only light apart from that which spilled through the open doorway being a pair of dim spotlights on the walls whose reach barely covered the area they stood in. Despite the darkness, they could just make out a hazy fog drifting before them, seemingly with a delicate sheen due to the unknown substances that must have combined in the air. The smell of decay and old blood fought for dominance with the smell of machine oil and unidentifiable chemicals. The room was cold, but the heavy miasma gave it a stuffy, clammy feel at the same time.
Against the wall and to the right of the two intruders was a wide elevator door. About ten feet in front of them, two mighty columns stretched to the distant ceiling. The feat of engineering and architecture that must have been used to erect the pillars caused the Doctor to whistle appreciatively, making the sound echo alarmingly loudly around them. Chris shot a look at the Doctor, while the Doctor himself shrugged sheepishly.
"Sorry," he whispered "but you've got to be impressed. Just one of those pillars must be made up of over a thousand tons of metal. The whole thing- no, this whole room must be pivotal in keeping this base from collapsing in on itself. It must reach up all the way to the foundation level where we met."
'And where the TARDIS is.' the thought suddenly struck the Doctor. He looked at his watch. They'd been there for nearly an hour. The TARDIS would be charged up and ready to move by now, but another thirty minutes and the poor thing would be choked by the alternate reality and die once and for all. He was running out of time to get himself and Donna back home. But now he also had a good idea, which he filed away in his brain for later.
"And why am I whispering?" the Doctor announced brightly and loudly to Chris. "What have we got to worry about, eh? Come on Chris; looks like Dr Albert Wesker is such a 'fraidy cat he won't even face us."
"What the hell are you doing!" Chris hissed as the Doctor strode forward without a care in the world.
Chris paused for a moment, agape at the Doctor's behaviour at such an inappropriate time, and then quickly sprinted after him. By the time he'd caught up with the bizarre man they'd passed the tower like structures and could clearly see what lay beyond.
"Ah, my guests have arrived." Wesker's voice echoed, not from a speaker, but from the window up in the wall on the opposite side of the chamber.
Donna's head was swimming with sickness. A dull throb persecuted her mercilessly and her stomach had been so bad at times she'd doubled up in pain. Fortunately, whatever sickness she had had started to calm, and she was able to pull herself together when Wesker called out "Ah, my guests have arrived."
She leaned over as far as her bonds allowed and saw two figures standing at the opposite end of the maze. The first one she recognised as the burley shape of Chris Redfield. The second one was undoubtedly-
"DOCTOR!" she yelled at the top of her voice.
"DONNA!" he yelled back, voice only partially muffled by the glass; most likely there were some vent or something that allowed sound to get through but Donna didn't really care about that right now.
"Doctor, get me out of here!" she demanded.
"Don't worry; I'll be there in a moment!" the Doctor called out.
"Give up Wesker!" Chris took his turn to shout and aimed his weapon in Wesker's general direction. "You can't win!"
"Can't I Chris?" Wesker jeered. "I've already launched the first batch of union virus and the rest will soon follow."
"Oh yeah! Well Rebecca's taking care of that right now!"
"He's right Albert!" the Doctor added. "Your entire virus stock is going to be sabotaged with a virus of my own!"
"Ha!" Donna chanted gleefully. "That's got you, eh? Ruined your sick virus."
"Not to worry. I have a backup plan." Wesker said slyly to Donna, before returning attention to the two men and shouting "Well whatever you've done, nothing can be introduced to the virus containers themselves without an authorisation code from me!"
"Well obviously I know that!" the Doctor called out with a sarcastic laugh. "That's why I was hoping to convince you to see things from my point of view."
"We'll see about that." Wesker muttered as he pressed several buttons on his console. There was an acknowledging 'beep', and the orange capsule on the pillar burst open and revealed its contents.
Donna gasped.
Wesker had fallen silent, but a sharp hiss was accompanied by a trio of clangs as the orange pod that slightly blocked their view of the window flew apart in three pieces, displaying a bulky and unrecognisable shape that had been trapped within. Before they could speculate on it's identity, another clang came from behind them, but this time it was more like the clang of the elevator door flying open. As they turned to look back the way they'd come, they were greeted by the sight of a restless crowd that materialised out of the darkness.
They looked like zombies at a glance, but upon closer inspection they were subtlety different. They didn't sway drunkenly like zombies, but held themselves rigidly and hunched. Their heads were truly a sight for sore eyes, for they were dripping with blood and gore and their faces were twisted with looks of savagery. Claws capable of rending flesh and bone jutted from their fingertips.
"Crimson heads!" Chris cried out in disgust and fear.
"A V-A.C.T reaction." the Doctor summarised passively. "Injury causing an increased and unsuccessful reaction to try and convert them into Tyrants in response to the threat."
Chris grabbed the Doctor by the shoulder and dragged him towards the entrance to the maze. The crimson heads gave chase.
As the ran into the first makeshift corridor of the maze, a light on the opposite wall snapped on and cast a spotlight onto the pillar in front of the window to Wesker's control room. On top of the pillar was a silhouette of a huge body. It reminded the Doctor of Steve's mutated body, except this one wasn't hunched and seemed more humanoid. Plus it appeared to be wearing a long overcoat.
As they watched, the thing raised a long tube to it's shoulder an pointed it at them.
"It's a Nemesis!" Chris began to say, but was cut off at the last moment as a geyser of smoke spouted from behind the creature and a bazooka shell erupted from the front of the tube.
The Doctor threw himself to the right, while Chris threw himself to the left. The shell impacted on the floor just round the corners from where the two men had dived. The explosion zoomed through the passage they just been standing in, spreading fire in droves and by the sound of the roaring, smashing into one of the crimson heads.
Chris and the Doctor jumped to their feet and glanced back at each other across the sea of fire. A shuffling announced the arrival of more crimson heads.
"Meet you on the other side!" Chris shouted, before he turned and ran through the ominous passageways.
The Doctor followed suit without bothering to respond. He ran and dodged around corners as the crimson heads braved the fire and pursued.
"Let's see that sonic remote get you out of this one, Doctor." Wesker gave a wolfish grin as he watched the unfolding chase.
"It's called a sonic screwdriver, dimwit!" Donna growled.
"Well when this is over there'll be plenty of time discover the secrets of that thing. Now, how about a bet on who survives the race?"
"I say it'll be a draw." Donna spoke defiantly as she pulled at her restraints.
"More like a dead heat." Wesker sneered.
The Doctor dived round another corner as the crimson head behind slashed at his back, only to miss and gouge a smattering of rubble out of the wall. The Doctor continued forward, but then stopped as he came to a point in the maze where the passage widened into an area five metres across before becoming narrow again. The Doctor was right to be cautious, as a moment later a steel beam, propelled by an arrangement of attached saw-tooth gears, burst through the wall and took a savage swipe at nothing. It continued to swing dangerously in the Doctor's path as he turned to face the blood ridden zombie.
The thing had no bite or scratch marks on it's torso, so it must have been zombified with contaminated water, but it had a trio of wide bullet holes on it's chest. No doubt that was what brought on it's mutation into a crimson head.
With barely a second's hesitation, the Doctor whipped out a can of first aid spray and doused the wounds in the healing liquid as they came into range, intending to stop the beast in it's tracks. It stopped, but things didn't go the way the Doctor expected. The crimson head staggered back as though stunned. Then it let out a roar and thrashed about in pain, bodily fluids erupting from random parts of it's anatomy. As the Doctor watched in revolted fascination, another crimson head tried to dash round the first, but was thrown back as the frantic monster seemed to swell in size and strength, till it was shaped more like a gorilla than a human.
"How did that happen?" the Doctor was completely bewildered. He looked down at the first aid spray he was holding, then let out an "Oh!" of understanding.
"This is the one I made hyperactive; makes dormant cells active and causes accelerated growth and mutation." he looked at the crimson head, whose claws had grown longer than ever and whose teeth were now pointing directly out of it's mouth and at the Doctor.
"Sorry. Really, I am; it's so hard to keep track of everything."
The huge crimson head bellowed in response. The Doctor turned, calculated in a matter of nanoseconds, and jumped past the swinging bar, his long coat nearly catching in the cogs.
"Wesker really has a sick mind." the Doctor commented.
Behind him, the crimson head who had been knocked down returned to the chase and jumped at the Doctor, heedless of the risk, and jammed in the gears of the waving bar with a sickening crunch and a cry of pain (or as close to a cry of pain as a zombie can get).
With the now lifeless body caught in the cogs, the obstacle slowed down enough for the enhanced crimson head the Doctor had inadvertently created to pass without incident and continue pursuing the Doctor. The Doctor ran frantically from the being as the sound of gunfire and the explosion of another bazooka shell echoed from the other side of the maze.
"Damn the no guns policy!" Chris declared out loud as the blast blocked his path and forced him to double back to the last T-junction, straight towards the waiting arms of the crimson head who had just caught up with him. The M16 spoke the man's greeting with a hail of bullets. Slightly unbalanced by suddenly turning the corner, the mutated zombie was knocked back and slammed into the wall by the fusillade of fire. Chris reached the fallen body and looked to his left, the way he'd just come. His was confronted by the hunched figures of at least three more approaching crimson heads.
Pausing only to cast a quick glance at the passage to the right, Chris turned and dashed backwards down said passage, firing as he went. Fully automatic fire streamed down the open top corridor at random, but in such cramped conditions missing was almost impossible. Small geysers of blood and flecks of skin leapt from the leaders body, causing it to slow down, but the crimson head behind merely pushed past it's fellow and came on as fast as ever.
As the assault rifle ran dry, Chris turned about and darted round another corner to his right as the way ahead was a dead end. He stopped for a moment and spent precious seconds reloading his gun with tell-tale trembling hands. As the first round was loaded into the chamber, the crimson head came round the corner with it's mouth open wide in a furious scream and it's claws seeking a vulnerable target. Chris thrust the M16 forward in his left hand and pulled the trigger. Normally, an automatic weapon fired one handed would be ridiculously inaccurate. In this case, however, the tip of the barrel was held in place by being jammed in the creature mouth, the jaw containing the reports of the gun in a miniature light show. The monsters head rattled as the back of it blew out in a spray of maroon. The next crimson head came charging round the corner, but with his free hand, Chris had grabbed his magnum. The huge bullet hit it just above the right eyeball, and the crimson head fell back with a piece of it's frontal lobe missing.
Yet a third crimson head entered the passageway. Chris knocked it back with a long burst of machine gun fire, then abandoned the M16, finding it too cumbersome to take any further through the maze; it was nearly out of ammo anyway.
With the colt python in one hand, Chris drew his beretta pistol with the other hand and ran as fast as he could, dodging and weaving his way through the maze as sound indicated there were still more crimson heads after him. He had no idea if he was going the right way, but he was getting closer to the end of the chamber where the control room overlooked all. As he went, he noticed that there were barely any turnoffs to the stretch of corridor he was in, the first one he seen for a while passing on his left. He took this as a good sign that he was getting to the end of the maze.
But then disaster struck.
He turned another corner, and found himself faced with a dead end. It was so unexpected that Chris nearly ran smack into the wall. He stared dumbly at the offending barrier for a moment, then ran back down the corridor to the turning he'd seen. But as he came to it he saw a crimson head coming down from the opposite end of the passage, and even as he watched, traps activated and flung out of the walls. Steel cables which had been concealed in smooth and deep grooves in the wall whipped out and effectively dismembered the violent creature. There was no way Chris could work his way down there any time soon.
Chris looked back the way he'd come as the sound of approaching hostiles caught his attention. He was now trapped at the end of the passage against an indeterminable number of enemies, and as he braced himself for the impending fight, the Nemesis fired off another shell.
The projectile was clearly intended for the Doctor, yet it impacted in a passageway some way ahead and to the right of where the Doctor actually was. Maybe it was a bad shot, or Wesker was toying with them; the Time Lord briefly considered the possibilities, but right now was not the time for debating such things. He was still being followed by the crimson head who resembled a red version of the incredible hulk, along with several others at it's heels. He had tried to open the canister holding the D-virus, but at the angle he held it at it was virtually impossible to break the seal without stopping to handle it.
As the Doctor found himself in a passageway that went on for some metres, he noticed a trip wire covering the distance between the two walls. Without slowing at all, the Doctor jumped over the wire and went on running. The monsters behind blundered straight into the wire, and the sound of concealed mines exploding reached the Doctor's ears, followed by the satisfying sounds of crimson heads tripping over each other in the confusion.
"That should give me a bit of a lead." the Doctor said to himself "But this Albert Wesker really has some issues. What's with all the traps in here?"
All of a sudden, the Doctor had a brilliant idea.
'Traps.' he thought to himself as he began to scan the corridors ahead that branched off the one he stood in.
Chris fired again, and brought down another crimson head, but by the sound of it there were a dozen more to take it's place. The shot he'd just fired was the last in the magnum. He had twelve more bullets but none were readily available. He was forced to resort to the pistol.
He darted back round the corner to the dead end, firing randomly as a gurgling growl signalled the arrival of another horror. He quickly searched the walls for any possible button, switch, or even a foothold, that might provide some form of escape. He tried to brace his back against the wall and reach the opposite one with his legs to try and climb them, but the metal panels were just too far apart for that.
As the arrival of the next crimson became imminent, Chris looked at the top edge of the dead end wall and quickly made a decision.
'Only one chance.' he thought as the crimson head appeared. It charged at him, arms outstretched, yelling wildly. Chris fired as accurately as he could, landing shots in the monster's knees and ankles. The creature tripped within arms reach of Chris, and the ex-S.T.A.R.S member lashed out and pistol-whipped the thing across the jaw. The crimson head fell past the dodging man and stuck the wall head first with a sickening crump.
Another crimson head entered the cramped space, but Chris didn't stop to fight. He bounded onto the back of the fallen zombie, then jumped up and just managed to grab the edge of the wall with his hands. He heaved his body up while his legs scrabbled as they searched for purchase in the smooth metal. He hauled himself up as fast as he could. One of the crimson heads below jumped after him and took a slice out of his leg. Chris redouble his efforts desperately, and next thing he knew he'd fallen over the side of the wall.
He stood up again, smiling at the sound of the crimson heads franticly trying and failing to follow. Chris checked his surroundings. He was still in the maze, but his path had taken him nearly all the way to the other side. The control room window was far to his right, but the wall of the room it was built into was only a little way ahead. Of course, the drawback of such proximity was that the Nemesis had an even clearer shot of Chris.
Another round soared towards Chris, who hurled himself forward onto the ground, just as the explosion came and the shock wave washed over him. There was a collective wail from the crimson heads. Chris didn't see if the shot had smashed a way through the wall to them, but he didn't wait to find out. He was already back on his feet and running.
The Doctor went on running, but every time he came to a side passage he quickly darted into it to check for any more traps. He knew he wouldn't be going anywhere if these monsters kept following him, so he'd decided he had to stop them now. Easier said than done when they were barely a few seconds behind. Fortunately his chance came sooner than expected. He finally found what he needed; a turnoff that led to a passageway that ran parallel to the one he'd just travelled down, with only the thin metal walls separating them and one of the swinging arm traps in the new passageway. It seemed perfect, until another crimson head came from the end of the corridor the Doctor had been heading to.
The way the Doctor had come was filling with the creatures, including the giant one; the path the Doctor had been taking was blocked by the crimson head rushing towards him, and the side passage he'd found led away from the end of the maze, and he really didn't have time to go back.
Fervently praying that everything would go the way he planned it to, the Doctor pulled out the can of enhanced first aid spray and faced the lone crimson head that blocked his path. The thing, too ferocious to be considered human, too terrible to be called an animal, continued to charge at the Doctor who stood stock still.
As it got terrifyingly close, the crimson head leapt into the air and came down on the Time Lord like a bird of prey. The Doctor only moved at the last moment, sidestepping casually into the other passage and spraying first aid spray onto the monsters head as it went past.
The crimson head roared as the liquid entered through the damaged flesh of it's head and began it's mutation. Momentum pushed the monster down the corridor towards the approaching crowd of crimson heads who'd been following the Doctor the whole time. As the Doctor cautiously approaching the semi-concealed trap in the corridor, more insane howling announced that the previous mutated crimson head, and the recently mutating crimson head had just come into contact with each other. The Doctor hoped that their mutation would be strong enough to drive them into madness and attack each other, or else nothing would stop his numerous enemies from pouring after him.
When he was as close to the chainsaw equipped hydraulic arm as he dared, the Doctor deployed his sonic screwdriver and sent carefully directed sonic wavelengths at the arm. It trembled slightly, threatening to activate prematurely, but it held its position.
Job done, the Doctor returned to the corridor he'd been in and surveyed the scene. As he'd planned (and hoped) the two transformed crimson heads had held a crazed skirmish in the middle of the passage, preventing any of the others from passing, though it was obvious from the mess and crippled bodies that they'd still tried. Now, one of the enhanced monsters had emerged triumphant and was returning it's attention to the Doctor. It stalked forward, an angry and deadly force, not to be reckoned with lightly. The Doctor faced it without fear. In fact, he faced it casually with a small smile on his face, even as it closed the gap between them while normal crimson heads struggling to squeeze round it's bulk.
"Well, it's been a fun," the Doctor said as he gave the beast a jaunty two fingered salute "but I really don't have enough time for this."
Just as it looked as though the monster was close enough to strike, the Doctor aimed the sonic screwdriver down the side passage and turned it on.
The swinging arm trap exploded out if the wall with three times it usual force, springs and levers that designated its maximum reach snapping and falling loose. With no restraint, the arm struck the base of the wall opposite with the force of a runaway volkswagen. The whole section of the wall toppled over, straight onto the horde of crimson heads. The big one was knocked down and lodged firmly against the other wall, with the fallen metal structure jamming it's head in place. The other crimson heads with similarly caught in the crush, and though a few of them managed to find gaps in the rubble to reach though and grope about blindly, they weren't going anywhere.
"Yeah, go Doctor!" Donna's encouragement made its way from where she was watching the events. The Doctor smiled at the praise, before leaving the scene of destruction and heading to the end of the corridor.
He emerged quite unexpectedly from the end of the maze, barely a few seconds before Chris arrived through another exit just a few feet from him.
"Chris!" the Doctor announced joyfully as though he were meeting an old friend at a dinner party.
Chris nodded a greeting to the Doctor, then looked towards the control room window.
His mouth fell open.
The Doctor looked too, and saw that they were now out in the open and completely exposed to the bazooka wielding Nemesis, who was the distance of half a tennis court away from them.
"Hit the deck!" Chris yelled, just as another bazooka shot winged its way towards the two men. The shell hit the wall between them, and both were tossed aside by the blast.
The Doctor opened his eyes. His vision was blurred, his ears were muted and tremors of shock were grating at every nerve in his body.
'Good.' he thought vaguely to himself. 'I didn't fall unconscious.'
Aware that if he was still feeling the effects of the detonation then it could only have happened a mere moment ago, the Doctor managed to raise himself onto his knees and try to access the situation.
His eyesight reasserted itself, but his ears were still ringing. Ahead, he saw the window to the control room. He saw a blond, one eyed man in a black suit, presumably Wesker, baring his teeth in a smile as he watched the Doctor's predicament. To the left he saw what looked like a giant aquarium with a huge plant stuffed inside. To the right he could just make out Donna, who as ever appeared to be yelling her head off about something.
As the Doctor's head began to clear, he realised there was a vertical black streak obscuring his view of the window. He narrowed his eyes as he tried to correct his focus. Then he froze as his sight and memory combined to confirm what it was.
The Nemesis tipped the bazooka back, and with some device that had been vilely integrated into it's flesh, loaded another shell. As it brought the bazooka to aim at the Doctor's stricken form, he realised the game was up. Not even a Time Lord could survive being blown apart at the seams. He faced his killer with blank acceptance as the vast, skinless jaw of the bio-weapon's stapled head mouthed something that the Doctor's still numb ears couldn't take in, before pulling the trigger.
There was a blinding flash of blue light. A ball of what looked like pure energy, the size of person and coloured like a clear sky, came out of nowhere, travelling from the right side of the Doctor's vision and impacting on the Nemesis. It's body seemed to swell for a moment, before a mighty explosion vaporised it from existence, expanding enough to consume the bazooka shell launched a split second ago, swallowing up its pathetically inferior detonation. A dull thump substituted the sound of the blast in the Doctor's ears.
Looking away from the light, the Doctor shook his head vigorously to try and clear it. When he looked back, the pillar used by the Nemesis was a quarter of its original size. There was no sign the Nemesis had ever been there.
The Doctor searched for the source of the blast that had saved his life. At another exit to the maze to the far right, a figure stood their ground with what looked like a giant rocket launcher.
"You shouldn't leave linear launchers just lying around, Wesker." Claire Redfield called out as she loaded another shell into the huge weapon. "Someone could get hurt." she hefted it onto her shoulder as Wesker jumped to his feet with a look of horror on his face. "Someone like you."
Claire fired.
The miniature fusion shot disappeared into the short gap in the wall that led to the sealed control room door. The resulting explosion bloomed out of the entrance way like a small sun, sheering the stairway to pieces, sending ripples of energy through the air and engulfing the control room in debris and smoke.
Chris came to the Doctor's side and helped him to his feet.
"You alright?" he asked.
"Sure, no problem. No worse than getting caught in the blast of a panzerschreck." he replied.
Then Claire came shooting over, dropping the heavy weapon and the accompanying shell rack. She flung herself at Chris, who caught her in a relived embrace.
"Chris, I thought you might be dead!" she blurted out instantly.
"You too. I'm so glad you're all right." Chris replied, elation of being reunited with his sister replacing the hard as nails soldier personality.
"Look, this is great and everything but can't we talk about it later?" the Doctor interrupted the happy moment with practicalities.
The siblings pulled apart.
"Yes, you're right. Donna's still up there. We've got to get her out." Claire explained quickly.
"Alright, both of you stay back for a moment- I'll handle this." the Doctor spoke with a note of authority. He took a step forward, then turned to Chris.
"By the way, I'll need to borrow this."
With that, the Doctor took Chris' pistol and went at a jog towards the blown open control room entrance.
Chris was so taken aback that he didn't respond for a moment. The Doctor carrying a gun? The blast must have messed him up more than they'd thought.
However, as Chris looked at the Doctor clambering up the rubble, he noticed there was defiantly something wrong about the way the Doctor was holding the gun.
As the vent system responded to the situation, the smoke gradually began to clear. Wesker climbed to his feet, coughing thickly as he braced himself against his desk, slamming a fist down on one of the keyboards to deactivate the warning klaxon. He looked over to the previously locked door.
What was actually left of the door was a scattering of molten blobs that were setting into shapeless forms on the ceiling and floor. By luck, the heavy armor that surrounded his control room had directed most of the explosion away from room and its occupants. The short alcove on the other side of the door had been blasted to over twice its original, cramped size. Instead of a tiny, square, steel passageway, it was now a wide, circular stone cave, carpeted with dust and rubble. Fetid, humid air stung the former human's nostrils.
Wesker looked though the viewing screen, which had been cracked and splintered by the explosion. In front of him, the Redfields were gathering up the linear launcher and its ammunition which had been casually disregarded during their reunion. To the left, Wesker could see the Doctor scrambling up the slope where the metal steps had once been, and he was holding a gun.
Wesker jumped to his feet at once, staggering with dizziness. His strength and speed had been enhanced by the unique virus he'd used on himself so long ago, but he was still susceptible to pain and death. He steadied himself quickly and crossed his arms over his chest to grab the pistols holstered under his arms. He drew a pair of 50. calibre action express desert eagle magnums from within his suit jacket. To an ordinary man, a single desert eagle was daunting enough to try and control. But to Wesker, who was something more than man, it wasn't such a big deal. He brought the pistols to bare, pulling back both hammers as he did. As the Doctor's form appeared in the doorway, Wesker dropped to one knee and took aim.
"Stop! I surrender!" the Doctor shouted out.
Wesker froze, uncertain what he'd just heard.
The Doctor was holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender, his right hand holding his sonic screwdriver, the left holding a 9mm pistol, by the barrel!
The Doctor watched carefully as the infamous doctor Albert Wesker rose to his feet. This was the first clear look the Doctor had got of the man. Apart from the disfiguring wound where the left eye socket used to be, Wesker looked surprisingly normal. If they'd have passed each other on the street, the Doctor would have thought the man was nothing more than a casually fashionable business man with a particularly stern face. But the Doctor could see in Wesker's remaining eye the man's true nature, the bestial glare revealing what truly lay in this creature's heart and mind. The Doctor had little hope that he'd be able to reason with the crazed scientist, but he knew he had to try.
"You surrender?" Wesker asked in disbelief, while the giant plant squirmed in it's confinement behind him.
"Yeah, that's right." the Doctor beamed. "You know; give up, give in, give over, etcetera. I would have brought a little white flag but I don't seem to have one handy. Don't suppose you have one I could borrow? Just a bit of paper on a stick would do."
"D-Doctor." Donna spluttered from where she'd been knocked down and covered by a blanket of dust when the explosion had occurred. "What'ja think you're doing space boy? Get me out of this!" she wrung he bound hands in front of her
Wesker aimed one of his magnums at Donna's head. The Doctor almost dived in front of her by instinct, but knew the best chance of both of them surviving this was not to do anything that might provoke Wesker to attack, like making any sudden movements. The best option was to treat Wesker like a wild animal, which to an extent, he was.
"You try anything, and she dies." he threatened, his voice leaving no doubt that he meant it.
"I'm not going to try anything Albert." the Doctor spoke carefully and evenly. "I just want to talk."
"Talk?" Wesker spat the word as though he were referring to something that was insultingly beneath him. "About what?"
"About coming to a conclusion where no one else has to die because of your virus research."
Wesker sneered.
"A humanitarian. I've heard enough of that sort of garbage to last a lifetime."
"Well then, maybe it's about time you actually started paying attention to it." the Doctor implored. "Can't you see your 'research' is a disaster?"
"A disaster? How can you say that?" Wesker demanded. "I am living proof of the value of the mother virus. I was impaled on a Tyrant's claw and left for dead, yet not only am I alive but I've also been physically enhanced beyond imagination."
"You're nothing but a freak, Al." Donna cut in. "You're not even human anymore; you're a monster."
Wesker was unmoved. He said "Humanity is overrated. It's only thanks to the virus that I'm still here. Without it, I would have died."
"There are worse things than dying Wesker." the Doctor said solemnly.
"Like what, Doctor?"
"Surviving."
There was a pause as the single word sank in. Wesker and the Doctor watched each other carefully, the former with suspicion and uncertainty, the latter with a stern glare. The room seemed to chill with apprehension, and the Doctor chose that moment to speak again.
"Extending your life, conquering death; that is a great thing." the Doctor conceded. "But being the only one to survive when no one else does; that's no good either. To struggle against death is only natural, it's so perfectly human. That's why you're doing this Albert. Deep down you're still human, with a human fear of death, and the chance to escape that fear is driving you on. But when you live so long and survive for so long, you come to realise that that's not the way the world should work. People are meant to die, not live forever with the help of a virus. The world constantly changes, and those who survive when it changes get left behind. You lose your place, and you've nowhere to go. You find yourself stuck in a never ending circle, unable to face death, but unable to embrace life. You become a shadow on the outside, trying to fit in even though you know you never can, just moving on whenever it gets too difficult for you to face it all. And now you're looking to bring that pain and suffering to all the people of the world."
"No, Doctor!" Wesker snarled. "The union virus will advance the world. All life will share in its power. With it, all living things can be interlinked, like one vast creature, no danger of being left out or whatever the heck you're talking about. All intelligence will be combined by me. With all living beings bound together, it'll be a revolution like no other."
"And what about individuality? If everyone thinks the same way, where are all the original ideas going to come from? If you're all the same you won't advance at all. Every person's life has significance, but only because they stand out as an individual. A single being made up of every living creature in the world will only have the significance of one person, with no one to share it with. Did you think about that?"
"Do you really believe that people are more successful when they're divided?"
"And do you think any person would want to lose their sense of self so that they can become a small part of a single body? The union virus will turn humanity into a race of mindless drones. To create this single, hive mind creature, you have to remove everything that makes a human what they are. Most people would prefer to be killed rather than be a part of your 'revolution'."
"Well, you know what they say," Wesker's angry snarl became an icy cold smile "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
The Doctor regarded Wesker for moment, then replied with a smile that was friendly and cheerful, but didn't seem to reach the Time Lord's eyes.
"You really have no idea who I am, do you?" the Doctor asked.
The Doctor's grip tightened on the sonic screwdriver. His thumb moved toward the button that would activate it.
"Well," Wesker said in a thoughtful voice "I had been wondering about that for some time. The only clue I've had so far is that your friend calls you 'space boy'."
"Well yes, I suppose that's pretty accurate." the Doctor said brightly. "I fly around the place, investigate the great unknown, bit of this, bit of that, and so on. How about a tradition space man joke to prove it?"
The Doctor lowered his hands and clapped them together in front of himself, as though in glee. Wesker's frown renewed itself.
"What are you, Doctor?" Wesker demanded.
"Oh I'm many things." the Doctor risked pushing Wesker's temper over the edge by acting cheerfully again. "I'm a scientist, a traveller, an explorer, a composer; I was even a solider for a short time, but I'm a constant trouble maker. I'm a little bit full of myself, I can't stand arguments, and I don't-like-guns!"
And with that, the Doctor flicked his hands with a sudden deftness, sending the pistol he'd been holding flying though the air, humming slightly as the vibrations charged into it by the sonic screwdriver threatened to shake it to pieces. Wesker fell to his right as he dodged the projectile, but the mutant wasn't the target.
The glass fronted case shattered along with the pistol as the gun made contact with the surface and the compressed sonic quakes bounced between them. Before Wesker could turn to see what was happening, 'Plant 47' bellowed in triumph and fired multiple green tentacles which swiftly clamped themselves onto the rear half of Wesker's body. Despite all he'd endured in the past, even the cold hearted Wesker was unable to suppress the scream of terror that ripped from his throat as he zoomed backwards into the monstrous, blood-sucking, organic mass. The emergency glass panels slammed down less than a second later barely avoiding Wesker's legs, but severing the plant limbs that were snaking their way towards the Doctor and Donna.
"Sorry to break the news to you Albert," the Doctor said to the case of thrashing limbs "but it looks like your last remaining employee has just gone on strike."
"DOCTOR!"
The Doctor responded immediately to Donna's yell by bounding over to her and attacking the restraining strap with the sonic screwdriver. In just a moment she was free.
The red haired Londoner threw her arms round the Doctor's neck with gleeful laugh. He embraced joyfully with a laugh of his own. Then Donna pulled back...
SMACK!
... and the Doctor fell over backwards as Donna slapped him.
"Where the heck have you been! I've been trapped in here that maniac for ages!"
The Doctor moved his jaw from side to side, testing its durability, then sprang back to his feet, saying "That was a tough blow. You been working out?"
"What's happened in here?" Chris asked he entered and took in the sight; the Doctor with an angry red cheek, Donna glaring at him with something close to rage and Albert Wesker, struggling for his life inside a glass case with a titanic plant monster.
"Nothing out of the ordinary, Chris." the Doctor gave a broad smile to him and Claire. "Albert Wesker's been removed, the control room is under our control, and I've finally got my assistant back."
"Oi!" barked Donna. "I'm no 'assistant' to you, mate!"
"Sorry, I meant companion. I'm still not used to this political correctness thing."
A loud roar drew everyone's attention to the wide glass screen. On the opposite side of the humongous chamber, between the great pillars, they could just make out the sight of a hunched and muscular form that was slowly and steadily making it's way towards the maze, smashing apart crowds of crimson heads as it went.
"Chris, help me load another shot." Claire said as she unslung the linear shell rack from her shoulders.
"Don't worry." the Doctor assured her. "That's just Steve."
There was a dull clang as Claire dropped the shell rack.
"Steve!" she gasped in shock.
"Yep, a new member of the team. A little on the green side but you'll like him once you get to know him."
It was just at that point that the Doctor remembered Donna saying that Steve used to be a friend of Claire's, and suddenly realised his behaviour was probably not the most appropriate for the current circumstances. He carefully looked about the room to check.
Claire was staring open mouthed at the approaching figure of Steve as he began flattening maze walls along with rival B.O.W's. Donna and Chris were both looking at the Doctor with expressions that cursed the day he was born.
Yep, very inappropriate.
The Doctor felt himself deflate as he looked apologetically at them.
Then, with a final roar, Steve toppled the final wall of the artificial maze and pounded his way towards the entrance to the control room. Rebecca came scrambling over debris behind him.
"Doctor," Donna swallowed her anger for a moment "what exactly has happened to... him?"
"Well, originally the viral infection in him had made him lose his mind, and Albert kept him under control with an inhibitor. But the inhibitor has been removed and I restored his mind as best I could."
"But, what about him being a monster. Can't you do anything about that?"
The Doctor looked at Donna grimly, and said "I really don't know Donna. I can try, but first I've got to deal with the union virus."
Just then, Steve lumbered into the room. Rebecca, who was bringing up the rear still, fell in after him. The Doctor was at her side in an instant.
"Ouch; looks like those crimson heads gave you a hard time." He commented as he help to unwrap the small medical pack she had to deal with the gashes on her arms and across her chest. "Don't worry though; nothing life threatening. Did you manage to put the D-virus in the missiles?"
"Yeah, it's all ready." Rebecca hissed through the stinging pain as her new viral antibodies devoured the T-virus infection she'd received. "Computers said you just need to authorise the launch and it's done."
"Great work! Chris, help 'Becky. I've got a job to do."
The Doctor rushed over to the computer console as Chris moved to help treat Rebecca's wounds.
The monstrous form of Steve Burnside turned to face Claire. They stared at each other for a moment, Claire shocked beyond words, Steve as ever revealing nothing of his own feeling, if he had any.
Then Steve strode forward, only needing two steps before he was right in front of the young girl. Donna was quickly at her side.
"Just slow down, big fella." she said uncertainly, unsure how best to deal with the situation. Despite all the Doctor had said, it was clear that Steve wasn't in a reasonable state of mind. Not only that, but she had no idea how Claire was going to react.
For a moment, all three of them stayed like that as they regarded each other. Then Claire, slowly and carefully, reached out with one hand. As her palm drew near she tensed up and froze. Donna sensed it immediately and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, but still couldn't decide what to do or say. Steve's face remained blank.
Then Claire moved her hand forward and touched the side of Steve's face, as though testing he was real.
"Steve?" she asked in a tone that sounded almost bewildered.
Deep in Steve's mind, where his thoughts lay like thick sediment, a single spark of memory came to life. He remembered, from long ago- a warm hand against his cold skin, a kind voice in his ears. He felt a shadow of emotion which had long since been stripped away from him.
Finally, Steve's mask of indifference broke. His eyes closed and his faced creased as though he were in pain. He gingerly reached up and clumsily pushed his hand against the one on his face.
"Claaaaaire..." he rumbled deeply.
"Steve," Claire spoke in a state of ambivalence; joy that Steve had truly returned to her, despair as what had become of him in her absence "what's happened to you."
No answer from Steve.
Donna searched her mind for something to say, but failed miserably.
"Donna!"
She jumped at the sound of her own name being called.
The Doctor turned from the computers and said "Donna, this is an emergency, I need your help."
Donna gave an indecisive "Er..." before looking back to Claire.
"Will you be alright?" she asked.
"Yeah, find; go on." Claire said vaguely.
"Yes, come on Donna!"
"Alright!" Donna replied fiercely to the Doctor as she joined him at the bank of computers. "No need to get your knickers in a twist; or whatever Time Lord's have instead of-"
"Donna, now is not the time for jokes about extraterrestrial underwear."
"Well that's rich coming from you! What about that time with the Martians and your Uranus joke!"
"Hey," the Doctor shrugged "I was tense. Known fact that humour helps ease tension. Besides, I didn't come up with it. Humans of the twenty-second century are very easily amused."
"Er, Doctor? I don't think it's a good idea to announce to everyone that you travel through time, do you?"
The Doctor looked back into the room, but everyone else seemed too preoccupied to take notice of their bickering.
"Well," he faced Donna again "you're the one who just out loud called me a Time Lor-"
"Look, never mind arguing, space boy! I wanna know exactly what's going on!"
The Doctor sighed and shook his head.
"Alright. Basically, we discovered that the T-virus is infecting people out of a natural reaction to try and prevent itself from being wiped out entirely. I've made a new virus- the D-virus- which has better survival characteristics and no damaging effects on living creatures. If we can infect people with the D-virus before they become infected with any other virus, the D-virus will settle in them and give them immunity to the T-virus and the mother virus."
"But what about people who are infected? Can it change them back?"
"I'm sorry Donna," the Doctor looked at her with a guilty expression. "I had to be sure the union virus wouldn't be allowed to spread. The D-virus is so concentrated that anyone already infected will die."
Donna blanched.
"Everyone!" she exclaimed.
"Yes, everyone."
"And Steve and Albert?"
"If they contract it the D-virus will sort of, nullify the virus they already have. If that happens their bodies will shut down and they'll die."
"Okay. So what are you going to do with this D-virus?"
"Use the missiles that Albert was going to use to spread the union virus. The first one's already been fired but the rest are full of D-virus. They've been prepared for firing so I can bypass their security programs. We just need to take control of the systems and then we can spread the D-virus across the world, hopefully before that first missile has a chance to do any damage. That means I'm going to be hard pushed to program a successful flight path to make this work."
Donna closed her eyes and held up her hand.
"Sorry, could I just make sure I've got this right? The union virus will take over the whole world, your plan is to stop it by infecting everyone in the world with another virus that will kill people already infected if they catch it... and you call it a D-virus?"
"Yes. Push that lever"
"Please don't tell me that's 'sposed to be D for Doctor." Donna pushed the lever.
"Yes it is. Now if you don't mind I need some help. I need Albert's main code to open up the system. You said you know what it is, right?"
"Huh? Oh yeah!" Donna suddenly remembered. "It's R-E-D-H-E-A-D."
The Doctor froze, then looked at her in utter confusion.
"Redhead!"
"Hey, so he has good taste."
The Doctor gave another exasperated sigh and began typing.
"How's it look, Doctor?" Rebecca asked as she joined the Doctor on his left hand side.
"Looking good, Becky." he replied.
Donna looked behind to see where Chris was. She spotted him at Claire's side with his hands resting on her shoulders, speaking softly to her. She decide it was probably best is she didn't get involved for now.
"Just programmed the new coordinates." continued the Doctor. "Time to save the world."
He type in a few more commands, and then stabbed at the 'Enter' key.
The control room and the huge room beyond it began to quake as the rockets fired up. The Doctor laughed in joy as the computer announced the second missile's launch procedure had been activated, and Donna and Rebecca couldn't help but smile with the Doctor's contagious happiness.
Then everything went silent.
Everyone and everything just seemed to stop dead as the rumbling of the missile launch came to an abrupt end. Even Wesker and his plant adversary paused momentarily at the sudden change.
'Emergency shutdown procedure initiated. Security scans commencing.' one of the computers said.
"I take it that wasn't supposed to happen?" Chris asked as he joined the Doctor, closely followed by Claire and even Steve.
Before anyone could offer explanation, an alarm sounded.
'Warning. Missile two payload, contaminated.' the computer spoke smoothly into contrastingly tense atmosphere. 'Repeat- Missile two payload contaminated.'
The announcement was followed by an even more urgent alarm, and then a second announcement.
"What the heck is going on!" the Doctor asked.
'Warning. Unaccounted B.O.W substance detected in lab. Bio-hazard outbreak confirmed. Primary security response initiated. Biologically corrosive anti- B.O.W gas will be released in ten minutes.'
"What! No!" the Doctor cried as he frantically searched over the monitors and keyboards for an answer.
"I thought you said you could bypass the security?" Chris demanded.
"I know I did! While they're prepared for launch they-"
Suddenly he stopped and closed his eyes, groaning despairingly. Before anyone could ask, he typed something else into the computer and turned one of the monitors so they could all see.
The screen showed a map of Greenland, with the octagonal 'Umbrella' logo somewhere in the northern region. As they watched, a small rocket shaped object gently trailed from the logo, drawing a dotted line as it went. It moved up the screen, beeping with each move it made, before stopping some distance north of the logo and changing into an 'X'.
"That's the first missile that was fired." the Doctor explained as he moved to another computer.
"But... that means it came down just north of where we are." Chris stated, confused.
"You don't think Al's trying to infect us with the union virus, do you!" Donna asked fearfully.
"Of course he isn't; this whole base was under his control, he wouldn't use a missile to poison it." the Doctor countered, his face contorted in a look of mental pain as the pieces began to slot in place. "The missile was fired in the wrong direction on purpose and then its flight pattern was cancelled- it's of no threat to anyone."
He looked furiously at Wesker.
"You planned this didn't you? You knew we'd try to do something so you set this up so we'd get ourselves killed."
Wesker didn't answer, still trapped in the tangle of vines.
"What exactly is happening Doctor?" Claire asked.
"The security system detected that we put another virus in the missiles and thinks there's an outbreak, so it's responding to the situation."
"You said you'd be able to bypass security!" Chris repeated angrily.
"Yes, I could have; except Wesker fired one missile just to make me think that he'd started trying to infect the whole world and straight afterwards shut down the rocket launch confirmation. As soon as I tried to fire that missile, the system knew the missiles were being used without permission, terminated the launch and scanned them. Now that it knows there's a rogue virus loose in this place, that gas will destroy all organic tissue throughout the whole lab, including us, unless anyone knows how to repair a partially vaporised door, and without the missiles we can't spread the D-virus. Ideas anyone?"
Everyone looked at him blankly. Quite unexpectedly, it was Steve who came up with the first idea.
"Wesker..." he growled "what... was... his... plan?"
"Well," the Doctor overcame his surprise first "according to this the missile room has sealed. Looks like he thought we would go there and try to override the missiles themselves so he could trap us in there. As for how he'd be protected... well, this room would have kept him safe from harm, but then again..." the Doctor trailed off in thought. Everyone was silent as they waited for him to speak.
Finally, just as it appeared that Donna's patience had reached its limit, the Doctor snapped his fingers and looked up.
"If Albert was down here all this time while the rest of the base was contaminated, there must be an emergency exit somewhere. Maybe that lift on the other side of the room goes to the surface. Steve, do you know where that lift goes?"
Steve grumbled in thought. It didn't help his concentration when Wesker managed to retrieve one of his pistols and started shooting 'Plant 47's' vines in half.
"God, this can't be happening!" Donna massaged her temples as the pressure of the situation became intolerable, made worse by the fact that her sickness had started to flare up again. "Please tell me someone's put something in the water and the whole world's just gone barmy."
"Wait a minute." the Doctor turned to Donna and looked at her as though unsure of something, before exploding with "Donna, you've done it!"
"What! No I 'aven't!" said Donna, jumping on the defensive by instinct.
"Yes you have! It's the perfect solution! This is Greenland, and we're surrounded by ice and snow; frozen water!"
The Doctor made a dash to one of the desks behind the operating table and slammed the canister of D-virus down.
"Keep Steve back- if he contracts this stuff he'll die." he said as he unsealed and opened the steel cylinder. Donna came over and looked inside, but quickly pulled back as the fumes strung her eyes and nose.
"What is that stuff?" she asked in disgust.
"D-virus." the Doctor said as he started messing around with bottles of chemicals. "Originally, I made the D-virus highly sensitive to oxygen to make it spread through the air quicker, but since we can't spread it through the air I'm going to change it so it becomes highly sensitive to water instead. If we can get this stuff outside, all we need to do is pour it on the snow, and such an excessive amount of available ice combined with the virus' regenerative genes will cause it to reproduce itself and spread epidemically."
"You can make the virus reproduce itself through water!" Rebecca asked astounded.
"That's right. Then we can evaporate the snow and that will carry the D-virus genes into the water vapour."
"And how exactly are we supposed to melt enough snow to carry the D-virus across the world?" Chris protested.
"This base is about to be filled with a corrosive toxic substance. That's proves that even the air in here can be controlled, and we still have some time before the gas is released. What I'm gonna do is change the air supply in here till its all pure oxygen. If the whole base is full of oxygen and we set fire to it, the heat will start melting the snow above. Hottest barbecue on earth."
"You sure something that could work?" Donna asked doubtfully.
"When I get a chance to use the terraforming module in the TARDIS it will." the Doctor gave her a conspiratorial wink.
"Tardis? What's tardis?" Rebecca asked.
"Er, well..." the Doctor thought quickly.
"It's an invention of ours." Donna provided brightly. "Part of our previous research into rainfall. It stands for..." Donna paused as she tried to think of something, while at the same time look as though she was giving a dramatic pause. Eventually she said "Stands for 'Terraforming... Atmospheric... Ratio... Disruption System.'"
Everyone looked at her, trying to work out if what she's said made any sense to them.
"Well he named it." Donna gestured to the Doctor.
"Yeah, that's right!" the Doctor became enthusiastic again. "In fact that's just reminded me of something important we need to do."
He abandoned the D-virus for a moment and gathered everyone at the computer bank.
"Rebecca, this computer here seems to control the air supply in the lab. Login, lower all gas levels to zero percent, and then raise the oxygen levels to one hundred percent. Now the rest of you." the Doctor waved his hands in a beckoning way to bring everyone but Rebecca closer to him. "When we met each other in the foundation support level, I noticed there was this blue box, some part of the security system I think. Now, if I can get my hands on it, I'm pretty sure I can use the sonic screwdriver to slice into it and find a way for us to escape."
"There's no way we can get to it before that gas is released." said Chris "Can't you get into it from here?"
"Already tried the computers. They've been disconnected from the security system. We'll need an actual security console if we want to find a way out. Fortunately, I noticed while we were up there that there was a box of explosives nearby, and Jill dropped a load of grenades and explosive charges when we were attack by the hunters."
"That's a point, where is Jill?" Donna only just realised there was someone missing. The Doctor and Chris looked at her grimly, and Donna recoiled and held her hand to her mouth in shock.
Claire looked sad, but appeared to have already guessed what had happened to her friend. She took hold of the Doctor's shoulder and tugged him back round, saying "What exactly do you want us to do?"
"Look, I know this sounds strange but you have to trust me." the Doctor said earnestly. "I want you to use the rest of the shells you have for the linear launcher to blow apart those pillars out there." he pointed out of the window at the towers of support beams that were holding the roof up. "If they get wrecked, I can use these computers to take control of the hunters up there with their inhibitors and make them set off the explosives. If this works, the chain reaction will cause the flooring between the blue box and here to collapse and it will fall through, and once it's here we'll be able to see about escaping."
The Doctor looked at Donna with a smug glint in his eye. Donna, however, was a bit more concerned with the idea of taking everyone inside the TARDIS to escape. Of course, they couldn't just leave them to die, but she doubted they'd take the sight of the TARDIS interior well.
"If we do that the whole lab may collapse." said Claire.
"And if that happens we won't be able to do anything about spreading the D-virus, not to mention we'll all be killed." Chris agreed.
"Look, if we don't get outside we won't be able to get the D-virus ready to be spread anyway." he reminded them. "I know it sounds mad, but it's our only chance. Besides, we need to smash through the walls to make this plan work."
"Why's that?" Donna asked.
"Even with the whole lab full of oxygen, it'll take some pretty high temperature to set fire to it. The only way I can think of is to set the rockets to carry out a second launch. The jets will only be active for a few seconds before they shut down again, but at that temperature it'll be enough to ignite even the slightest concentration of flammable gas. Destroying the foundation supports will certainly cause enough damage to crack the wall open, but we've got to do it now. That linear launcher fires a miniature fusion shot, and if you use it when the oxygen levels are high enough, it may be enough to spark it too."
"I've done it!" Rebecca declared. "It says it'll take just under two minutes before the oxygen reaches critical levels."
Claire looked at Donna uncertainly.
"I said you could rely on him." Donna said.
Claire still looked uncertain, but seemed prepared to trust Donna's word. She looked at Chris and said "It's now or never, bro."
Chris looked out the cracked window towards the pillars, then down to the liner launcher he'd dumped on the floor.
"Damn it, let's give it a try!"
"Excellent!" the Doctor said as the Redfield siblings recovered the small cannon and its ammunition and hauled them to the doorway. "Rebecca, get over to that D-virus and try to find some sort of chemical accelerator; there's some bottles marked with G.A.S, they might be the thing. I'll be there in a moment."
As Rebecca went over to the work desk, the Doctor turned back to Donna and said "Which of these computers did you use to control Steve's inhibitor?"
"This one- why? You're not going to try and control him are you?" Donna looked at Steve who was standing in the middle of the lab staring blindly ahead of himself. For a moment Donna wondered if the Doctor had given up hope of getting Steve back to normal, but she quickly scolded herself, knowing that he'd never think like that.
"No, I need it so I can find the controls for the hunters in the foundation support floor." he explained as he accessed the computer she'd pointed out.
"Well why don't I deal with that?" she said as she sat in Wesker's chair and turned the monitor towards herself. "I'm good with computers. Best temp in Chiswick, remember?"
"I don't want you dealing with this part." the Doctor said darkly as he turned the monitor back to face him. Donna immediately took exception to the Doctor's dismissal.
"Oi, what'ja mean by that! Who was the one who took control of Steve's inhibitor? Who was the one who found out Wesker's code in the first place? Are saying you don't think I can handle it?"
"Donna, I don't want you to be do this because I'm about to take control of those creatures and use them as though they're play things instead of living people who were experimented on." he looked down in shame. "It's the only way we can do this. I've got to make those hunters set off the explosives so that the TARDIS will fall down here. If I don't, we'll all die and the D-virus won't spread, meaning the whole world will still be at risk from the union virus. But if I do, those hunters will be killed in the blast as well. That's why I don't want you to do this."
They paused, the Doctor having said all he needed to say, Donna unsure what to say.
Outside, the linear launcher discharged its shot, which flew across the chamber and struck the distant tower with burst of blinding light and deafening noise. When the effect of the explosion subsided, the mighty pillar seemed more like a pile of rickety scaffolding, but it was still standing; just.
Donna made a decision and pulled the monitor back to her.
"You hurry up and deal with that doctor virus, space man." she said. "I'll deal with this."
"Donna," the Doctor started to sound angry "I just said-"
"Well since when did I take orders from you!" she demanded. Donna then calmed down and said "We've no time to argue. We've got to deal with the union virus for everyone's sake. I'm not afraid to do my part in this, and I'm not going to let you be a martyr and deal with all the bad things yourself; you should know that by now."
The Doctor looked at Donna with an unreadable expression. Donna held the monitor in place in case he tried to pull it away from her.
Then, to her surprise, the Doctor smiled at her. He looked sad, but at the same time he also looked proud.
"Donna Noble," he said "you really are brilliant."
"You don't think I know that?" Donna laughed "Stop getting sappy with me Doctor and go do your job."
The Doctor gave her one last grin, then rushed over to Rebecca and started inspecting the bottles she picked out. Donna quickly began typing away as another linear shot illuminated the cavern. The already damaged pillar was broken in two, yet the top half failed to come loose from the ceiling. Donna went on typing. It was only a matter of moments before she had a hunter under her control and was ready to set off the explosives.
"Hey, Chris," she called out "could you come and help me with this? I don't know how to set off bombs."
Chris left the linear launcher and darted back in the room. He quickly explained how they worked, then went back to join Claire, aware they were running out of time within which they could safely use the linear launcher without risk of sparking the oxygen saturated atmosphere.
As Donna used the interactive controls to make the hunter grasp the detonator, she hesitated. Now it actually came down to it, she only just realised what it would mean. The creature she was controlling was once a human, who'd been subjected to torturous activities in order to change it into the monster it was now. And the moment she used the C4 explosives, it would die, and it'd be her fault. She knew that the Doctor said he couldn't do anything for them, but she also knew that wouldn't make her feel any better.
Steadying her resolve, Donna pushed forward on the joystick and activated the bomb.
As the screen flashed into static, a ferocious roar filled Donna's ears. She closed her eyes, imagining the nearby hunters who'd been killed and wounded in the explosion.
Then she realised.
The room the hunters were in was about thirty floors up; she couldn't have heard them from there.
The roar had come from outside.
The Doctor and Rebecca appeared at her side as she stood up and they looked out the window.
The ruined support tower had fallen free of where it was hanging with a booming impact, but it hadn't drowned out the sound of the monster's call. Balancing like a spider with it's four limbs holding onto the edges of the maze walls, a sinewy, twisted body, with a rat-brown hide and a spike-tipped, lashing tail lurked forward with another blood chilling scream.
Before anyone could move, the creature broke into a charge, heading straight for Chris and Claire.
From her position, Donna could just see them at the edge of the blown open entrance to the control room, Chris turning to face the monster. He was too slow- it struck the linear launcher with the full force of it's enhanced muscles and bowled the brother and sister into the cave like hole in front of the control room door.
The Doctor sprang to the door way, leaned round the frame and blasted the monster with a dose of first aid spray as it tried to climb in.
The B.O.W howled and fell back, while Claire and Chris scrambled into the control room.
"What in Rassilon's name is wrong with me!" the Doctor raged to himself. "I just used the enhanced first aid spray again!"
A horrific screech tour from the terrible beast as the sounds of ripping and bubbling flesh proclaimed yet another mutation taking place
"Did you see it's face!" Claire was white with shock, her voice trembling as she spoke.
Chris looked too stunned to reply, but he did manage two words.
"It's Leon..."