14. Give Up
It had been several days since Ada Wong had first arrived in Raccoon City. It had all turned to crap pretty soon afterwards. What had begun as a simple mission to collect data on Birkin and his family, his laboratory and his research, had turned into a desperate fight for survival. She had hoped to observe the comings and goings from the facility, plan an effective strategy, and then infiltrate once she had gathered enough Intel. Instead, she had spent the better part of a week evading zombies and other mutants, just waiting to catch a break.
She'd dared to hope her luck might be changing when she entered the police station, but that turned out to be a bust too. Within a single night, everyone there had been wiped out, either by the undead assailing the barricades, or by the Lickers now roaming the halls. Even her contact, Ben Bertolucci, had turned out to be useless. And in her haste to investigate his supposed secret exit from the R.P.D's Central Precinct, she had managed to get herself separated from the only other human being left alive in the building.
Shakahnna Morgan was a mixed blessing. Ada had been hoping for a young police officer, the chivalrous type, the kind who'd do a lot of heavy lifting without asking too many questions, just to help out a beautiful woman. Instead, she'd found the redhead. She was a little more suspicious than she would have liked. She asked how it was that Ada seemed so knowledgeable, or so capable, or so alive compared with the rest of the R.P.D's occupants. She asked over and over. But needs must.
Together, they'd gotten the job done, before they'd been split up.
After their parting, the spy had gone the long way to get back to where they'd left one another. She traipsed through the sewers, regretting wearing the dress and tights instead of the combats she usually favoured for work like this. She reached the corridor at the top of the stairs just in time to hear a roar rend the air. She broke into a run and burst through the heavy steel door into the Septic Tank.
She threw it open and watched as the freakish abomination midway across the bridge melted away into a pile of thick sludge. Sliding her shotgun onto her back, Shakahnna spat a fat wad of her own sludge into the decaying puddle and stepped over it.
Ada ran to join her. "Shak!"
"Nice timing," she said, and it was difficult not to take her tone as some kind of insinuation.
"I got here as fast as I could. Have any luck?"
"Ben's dead; there's some kind of cunterrific giant monster after me - no, wait - two giant monsters; and the only other person alive in this place who isn't you or me is taking a twelve year old girl into the sewers with her. So yeah, there's been luck, but I'll let you decide what kind it is."
"What are we going to do?"
"Open that door." She aimed a finger at the only exit, which seemed to be locked with some kind of puzzle.
"Do you have the pieces for it?" she asked, and the other woman started to dig through her pockets.
"Yes," she said. She patted each of the pouches lining her round figure in turn. Then, she did it a second time. "No."
"So what do we do now? Give up?"
"What do I look like, a pussy? I may not have their pishy puzzle pieces, but I do have a master key."
Ada frowned, wondering what she was referring to, and then her eyes widened when they settled on the sizeable block of plastic explosives clasped in her partner's hand. She gaped for a moment, wondering if she was serious, and then caught sight of the wild, maniacal expression plastered across her features.
"Stand well back, toots."