Chapter 11: Beginning of the End

Feeling the note Ada left him, Richie sits in the quiet room where he left her to recover.

Why would she take off like that?

Looking around for anymore clues, the thin aroma of her perfume still lingers in the air, I could always follow her scent.

Crackling a small smile, Richie closes his eyes and tries to figure out what he needs to do.

If she is strong enough to move on her own then I better start figuring out a way to help Sherry. I wander if this person she is with has already created the vaccine for her? There has to be a control or executive room… someplace where I can see everything… The monitors in that surveillance room weren't working... There must be another place.

Feeling his pocket again, he feels the hard outline of the Dr. Birkin's security card, that's it!

Jumping out of his seat, Richie makes his way out the room and trots toward the elevator nearby. Walking in after the sliding doors allow him to enter, he takes out the security card and swipes in his presence at the terminal, accessing the hidden levels of the underground complex.

Looking at the complex web of levels within, Richie spots a small dot indicating a hidden location with no name attached to it, that's weird, why is this one nameless?

Pushing the button, the elevator roars to life and quickly makes it ascent, this should be interesting…

Slowing down to its final destination, Richie readies his gun, unaware of the surprises lurking within this hidden chamber. "Ding!"

The elevator doors slide open to reveal a grand historic room, mixing classical with modern. Giving off a whistle in amazement, Richie holsters his gun and takes in his surroundings. In front of him sits a large red velvet sofa, outlined with bloodstained oak framing, and small gold tassels hanging on the bottom. Moving closer to this Victorian sofa, Richie eyes the paintings on the walls, all depicting some sort of biblical scene, and one captures his eyes.

A large painting illustrating a battle between angels and demons, expressed so vividly with morose colors, as the demons are dragging many of the angels deep within the depths of hell, yet there are also many angels viciously slaying the devils. This painting leaves Richie pensive, on the thought between good and evil and how both sides are always in constant battle over a persons soul.

I feel like they are fighting for my soul…

Taking one last look, Richie walks toward the large mahogany desk, which is kept organized and clean. Sitting behind the large wooden shield, is a crimson red executive chair, spoiled with rich leather, ready for its owner to return. Swiveling the chair around, Richie sits comfortably in the red upholstery, surprised of how comfortable this piece of furniture really is. Looking up he faces the umbrella logo on the wall, bearing down on him with such ferocity, despite it being such a simple logo.

I hate you umbrella, for everything that you have done…

Slamming his fist on the armrest, he is surprised of the hard impact, whoa… There's something hidden here…

Looking closer, he spots a small leather band sticking out of the side, and pulls it up, revealing a dashboard of switches. Studying the array of buttons, he presses one with a power symbol below it and is rewarded with an extraordinary surprise.

In front of him, the wall bearing the umbrella logo splits in half, opening to reveal a large computer and a monitor to match with it.

Wow… this room is full of surprises.

Rolling himself toward the computer, he marvels over the simplicity of the machinery that sits before him, ready to flex it technological muscles.

The screen flashes on with the umbrella logo as the background and a small command box appears, "User name and password? Shit I don't…"

Pulling out the security card, Richie finds the scanner and holds his breath as he swipes the thin piece of plastic. Looking up he sees the command being accepted with a typed caption, "Welcome back Dr. Birkin."

Looks like it's going to resume what ever they were doing here…

Instantly the large monitor is broken up into smaller monitors, revealing every room within the complex and right away he has the birds eye view. Yes!

Quickly scanning the monitors, he sees a young woman in a black shirt and pink shorts running from a hoard of lickers, her shorts match the vest Sherry had, could she be the one helping her?

Seconds later, she runs through a door and closes it just in time. The army of lickers claw at the metallic door yet frustratingly fail at getting through and retreat once more into the darkness. Scanning through the monitors again he sees many zombified scientists aimlessly wandering the facility, some devouring a nearly fresh carcass, and others lying dead on the floor.

Getting impatient, Richie continues to look for any signs of Ada and as if the computer read his thoughts, presents him the video footage of the chaos that will ensue.

"Ada!"

Richie sees her trying to handle her gun while an enormous figure in a black trench coat approaches her and behind it a young officer, frozen with shock.

"What the hell are you doing?! Run Ada run!"

Screaming at the monitors, hoping they could save her, Richie is on his feet, transfixed on the screen, showing him the violence before him.

"No!"

Clutched around the throat, Ada empties her clip within the giant, and the silent visual begins to send shivers down Richie's spine as he sees her being flung into the computer, exploding with electrical fireworks from the impact.

"Please no! Ada!"

Watching the tyrant fall off the platform, Richie sees the young cop clutching Ada, trying to keep her upright. Richie collapses on the chair, dumbstruck at what he just saw and bitterly knowing that she might not make it, why Ada… Why did you have to do this?

Covering his face with trembling hands, he looks around the room, seeing if he could find something to help him and looking up he is startled to see the image before him.

Ada and the young cop, locking lips in a passionate kiss.

He must be… Leon…

Coming to his senses Richie puts in a command into the computer to find the location of the room, and quickly the response appears, boiler room?

Looking at the young couple, Richie sees Ada limp in Leon's arms…Unable to contain his anger Richie yells out to the heavens and the depths of hell, bitter anger toward this whole situation.

Wishing that he can destroy Umbrella with just a push of a button, destroy everything they hold dear, just like how they have destroyed him. With that inspired thought, Richie types in the command to the computer to destroy the facility, foolishly believing that his wish would come true and instantly a dialogue box appears.

"All data and files will be deleted. Do you wish to continue?"

Hitting the enter button without another thought, a robotic female voice announces..

"The self destruct sequence has been activated. Repeat, the self destruct sequence has been activated. This sequence may not be aborted. All employees proceed to the emergency car at the bottom platform."

Startled by the sudden voice, Richie comes back from his blinding rage and sees the results of what he has done, "No way…"

Staring at the large monitor he tries to grasp the implications of his actions, unable to believe how easy it was to destroy a multi-million dollar facility.

Snapping him back to reality, a small dialogue box appears showing him that all the data and video footage saved so far are being sent to an outside source.

"Whats going on? Where is all the data going?"

Typing in the commands to trace the outside source, he gets a dialogue box denying his request and resumes back to the many monitors of the facility. Trying again, he is responded with the same dialogue box, this time with a threat of system shut down. Looking back at the monitors, he sees Ada lying there alone, and despite the pixilated quality of the video footage, Richie sees a slight movement.

"Is she still alive?!"

Getting up from his chair, he continues to stare at her still body and decides to get her, I can't leave her here, ill get her down to the evacuation room and ill get Sherry after.

Right before executing his plan, he spots Leon on another monitor, with Sherry in his arms.

"Sherry!"

Seeing her safe, Richie breathes easier knowing that she is taken care of, "ok... Hang tight Ada, I'm coming."

Turning around and sprinting toward the elevator, Richie stops before entering and turns behind him, looking one last time at the devilishly rich room. Once inside the moving capsule, he gets a tingling sensation down his spine, the eerie feeling that someone is watching him.

Turning around he spots a small camera in the corner of the ceiling, closely monitoring his every move.

As the elevator door closes, the view of the young man disappears and with a slight smirk, a haunting figure watches from another location, enjoying the results from this little experiment.

Giving a small maniacal laugh, this shaded figure slowly erects himself from his chair and grabs his heavy leather jacket, walking out of the small room with the intention of getting something that caught his interest...