Code Veronica: Resident Evil IIIS

Chapter Eleven: Distress Call

As luck would have it, and there wasn't much of that to go around, the communications system for this facility was through the other door that Claire had seen after entering the morgue. The next room wasn't solely dedicated to that, however, more like a means to give progress reports or experiment updates directly to Umbrella HQ. There were more bodies in this place; men wearing lab coats and gas masks as if they had known that the virus escaped… but those masks didn't do much to protect them against all the bullet wounds in their torsos.

The invaders must have stormed the facility during the attack, killing all the prisoners and scientists before stealing everything that wasn't nailed down. Most of the lab equipment had been destroyed, with broken glass and pieces of plastic scattered across the concrete floor, and everything having been taken out of the now empty filing cabinets that were left open. Whoever had done this was really thorough, leaving the three of them no way of knowing exactly what kind of experiments were being conducted here… but then again, did they really want to know?

"Okay, we probably don't have a lot of time." Elza said, looking around the room. "Claire, see what you can do about sending a distress call, Steve, keep watch at the exit in case anyone comes back here, and… I'll handle these bodies, just in case."

Claire wasn't sure what the blonde woman meant by that as she headed over to the communications equipment, but when she looked back over at the others, Steve was taking a peek outside through the partially opened door, and her cellmate was… tying the dead men's shoelaces together? When asked about this, Elza replied that it was to slow them down in case they came back to life… another trick that Tobias had shown her back in Raccoon City… God damn, the two of them were similar.

Okay, back to the task at hand… the young woman wasn't exactly a master computer programmer or anything even remotely close to that, but Chris had taught her how to use radio equipment and even a little about satellite comms systems, so… well, that was great. From what she could see, the radio device was hard-wired for communication within the island only, sort of like an emergency PA system, and as for the satellite, it was dedicated to a single Umbrella source that allowed the scientists to contact their headquarters, and… not much else… looks like the company didn't trust their employees that much.

"We can't call for help with the radio or the satellite… unless we want to talk to Umbrella." Claire explained, still looking around for more options. "Hey, it looks like the Internet connection is still working, but… hey, maybe that could work."

Since there were no approaching threats and all the bodies' shoelaces had been tied together, the others joined the young woman as she used the undamaged PC on the desk to access her Hotmail account. With no other lines of communication open, Claire explained that she was going to try and send an email to Leon Kennedy… there wasn't much information that she could tell him, since they didn't know much about the place except for the name of the island, the fact that it was an illegal Umbrella prison, and their current coordinates that were on the computer.

"Good plan, Claire, it's better than nothing." Steve said, watching from behind as she was typing. "So… who's Leon?"

"I guess you could say he's my, uh… ex-boyfriend?" The young woman replied, not sounding really sure. "I haven't seen him since a few days after Raccoon City got blown up… I just hope there's something he can do to help us… and that he checks his email now and then."

Suddenly Elza snapped her fingers, glaring sternly at the young man while gesturing upward with her hand, but when Claire looked back at him to see what all the fuss was about… Steve was just standing there with a dumbfounded look on his face. Weird, she thought going back to the email, I wonder what that was about? About a minute later she was done, hoping that the message wouldn't come across as insanity as she clicked the send icon on the screen. After a few seconds it was gone, and that was actually… all she could do.

"All right, let's get out of here." Elza said, already moving toward the door. "Steve, we're gonna need your clothes again."

He did a mocking repeat of her words underneath his breath, but still started to remove his jumpsuit once the three of them were all outside, and then tossing it over the barbed wire once again. The material became even more torn this time, leaving large visible holes when he was able to put it back on after everyone had managed to climb back over to the other side of the fence, but now what were they supposed to do? While leaving the prison, the options had been the laboratory, the administration building, and the airfield, so…

"We should go to the airfield." Steve suggested, like he had before. "We'll steal a plane right out from under their noses and fly outa here."

"We can't until we know how big the occupying force is here." Claire argued. "If we go to the administration building first, then maybe some of the island's surveillance equipment still works, and then we can see whether or not they can shoot us down if we steal a plane."

Did the young woman want to run right for the nearest plane and escape from this nightmare? Hell yes she did, but even if the young man could fly like he claimed, it wouldn't do any good if there was a gunship hovering nearby. So it was decided that they would travel to the administration building, which Steve was strongly against doing… not that what he wanted mattered as long as Elza was in charge.

In spite of his protests, the three of them went back to the junction in the road, and from there the young man reluctantly led the way toward the administration building. As they traveled down the blacktop road, the extent of the damage done to the island during the attack became apparent, as in being a lot worse than Claire originally thought. Several small buildings and guard posts had been simply annihilated by bombs, and fires had broken out which were slowly spreading since no one was there to put them out.

Suddenly the young woman's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of commotion up ahead, causing the group to duck down behind a partially destroyed wall to avoid being seen as two Umbrella guards came running toward the road. Both were in full riot armor and carrying assault rifles, but that didn't stop one of them from getting cut down when several high caliber bullets tore into his back. In reaction to the sudden gunfire, the other guard turned around and started shooting, only to scream when the next burst of gunfire caught him once in the shoulder and once in the leg.

Even though this wounded man was with Umbrella, Claire still found herself wanting to help him against the invaders, but stopped when three more armored men came walking up to where he fell. The guard couldn't pick up his rifle again because of his wounded arm, not that he would have been able to do much once the nearest invader kicked it away. All of the aggressors there were in solid black uniforms along with gas masks like the ones the scientists had been wearing, but the only identifying feature among them was that the letters HCF were on their tactical vests.

"And where were you off to in such a hurry?" The nearest one asked through his mask while the others grabbed the guards' rifles and pistols. "Don't you know that running from us will only make you die tired?"

Bang! With a single shot of his rifle, the wounded guard gagged when a bullet slammed into his throat, making him cough and choke while bringing his one good hand up to the hole in a feeble attempt to stop the bleeding. The HCF men laughed at his struggles; one of them putting his hands on his own throat while making sarcastic choking noises, while another took a tiny compact camera out of one of his pouches and took a picture. Bang! Eventually the closest HCF man raised his rifle again, and shot the guard in the face, putting an end to his struggles.

"You think that's the last of them?" The one with the camera asked as they started walking away. "There can't be that many Umbrella jerkoffs on a tiny island like this."

"Doesn't matter if there are or not." The first one replied. "We're just gonna keep patrolling, and kill everyone we see, until we get called back for extraction."

Well, that was disheartening, Claire thought as the group of HCF men walked out of sight. Ever since the attack on the island began, the young woman had allowed herself to believe that there was the smallest chance that the invaders would have been the good guys, like the American CIA or British SAS, or anyone… but no, it just had to be a bunch of psychos who were even worse than the damn guards.

"Yeah, we really need to get out of here." Elza whispered, turning to Steve. "Kid, you need to get us to the administration building, and I mean right now."

The young man's protests had stopped, and who could blame him after seeing the invaders do that to one of the Umbrella guards? So he led on, bringing them farther down the blacktop road, but with the group's pace drastically slowed down since now they were trying to stay behind whatever cover was available. Since these mysterious HCF people were so quick to execute guards and scientists, they had probably killed all those helpless prisoners as well, and… yeah, suddenly Claire was wishing that the three of them were wearing something a little less obvious than bright orange jumpsuits.

"That's the administration building up ahead." Steve announced, pointing from where they were hiding behind an overturned truck. "I just hope you two know what you're doing."

Looking out from cover, the young woman could see a building that looked almost like a castle with its mostly brick and concrete structure and sort of medieval design. The place was also heavily damaged during the attack, with pieces missing from some of the upper sections, including a huge pile of rubble that might have once been one the west tower to match the remaining one in the east. She didn't really want to go back in there again in case it was where the last of the Umbrella guards were gathering, but there was no choice… and Steve wasn't the only one wondering if they knew what they were doing.