Chapter 21- Project: Matrix

COUNTDOWN INITIATED

Time: 4:00 a.m.

Detonation scheduled for: 7:00 a.m. - sunrise

Time until detonation: 3 hours, 0 minutes

Raymonds stood behind the same tech that Major Cain had done hours before when he told her to activate Umbrella's most vile creation to kill Hallsworth and his team. Although Cain hadn't actually said its name, Raymonds still had an idea what he was talking about.

At the time, the creature's existence was what would amount to a myth to anyone who wasn't in a position of power such as field commanders or the high command. But now that Raymonds understood what it was exactly, he wasn't sure he could let it take out Hallsworth. As much as he hated the man, it seemed almost, inhuman to let it take them out.

"It should be here by now, why have I not received any contacts with it?" asked Raymonds to the female tech.

"The tracers are indicating that it is still in the New Mexican desert, Black Mesa most likely. That is where we stored it." She replied.

"Shouldn't it have come through by now?"

"Yes sir, but something is happening at Black Mesa that is preventing it from getting to the Lambda Complex. Did Major Cain say anything about it?" she asked. Raymonds knew the answer; John had explained it to him. He just didn't know if he should disclose the information to this tech. He decided against his better judgment that he should and maybe she could do something to get the monster to City Hall before they destroyed the city.

"Black Mesa has suffered a full scale Resonance Cascade." He said figuring she would know that he was talking about. The tech froze for a full ten seconds before she spoke again.

"An invasion?" she asked quietly. Raymonds nearly jumped when she said that.

"Yes, HECU has even gone in to contain it." He said as soon as he recovered from the shock. She closed her eyes for a moment and then started typing things into the computer.

"Altering protocols," she said. The computer screen changed and started displaying data from the creature. A small figure appeared at the bottom left. It looked like a health bar from a video game; different parts of it were green yellow and red showing damage. Most of the creature was green, but what would be its upper arm was yellow and part of its torso was glowing red, but other than that it seemed to be doing okay.

The screen changed yet again, and displayed several new things.

New Primary Objective Received: Return to Raccoon City- Self defense mode off- Eliminate all threats between position and objective.

Position: Black Mesa Central Command

Objective: Lambda Complex- Cancelled

Secondary Teleportation Labs- New Location Objective Confirmed

Calculating Fastest Route……………….. Elevator in Warehouse 036

"There." Said the tech. "It will arrive within thirty minutes." She typed in one last command.

Receiving New Secondary Objective………………….Secondary Objective Received-

Eliminate Nathan Sheffield with extreme prejudice

The tech uploaded a picture of him and a chill went up Raymonds' spine. He pitied Sheffield. But the tech had lost her brother to him and he had become somewhat known to the Umbrella and Mercenary personnel.

Clarke's feet touched the hard pavement of the storage area. He looked up the thirty feet to the roof he had just been on and tried to hold the rope steady from Berkely as he struggled not to fall and still hold onto the now unconscious Locke.

Berkely safely touched down and laid Locke on the ground to make sure he still had a pulse. He did and Berkely quickly swung him back up onto his shoulder to get him off the ground.

Since they had been out of the facility, they had realized just how cold it was. Desert nights were extremely chilly and the three of them could see their breath. Locke, although unconscious, was shivering and Berkely feared his body temperature might be dropping.

Sheffield looked over the edge at them.

"Hold tight, I'll be right back." He said. "I thought I heard something. I'm gonna go check it out." With that he disappeared from sight. Berkely and Clarke kept looking up at the edge, shining their flashlights along it.

"What…" started Clarke. He was interrupted by a loud crash and what sounded like an explosion. Sheffield screamed something but it was downed out by his gunfire. They listened in horror for a moment to the loud thudding of his automatic rifle.

Clarke started to climb up the rope to see what was going on. He got about halfway up and heard a familiar horrifying sound, the loud screeching of the alien Grunt's hornet gun. He stopped for a moment.

Sheffield's rifle silenced and his body went flying over Clarke's head and landed on the ground below. Nathan rolled when he hit the ground and then lay there trying to recover from the pain and hoping he hadn't broken anything. He got up and grabbed Berkely.

"Come on!" he yelled at Clarke who also dropped and started after them. Sheffield was trying to run as fast as he could, but he had a bad limp from the jump he had just taken. Clarke grabbed him and ran as fast as he could in the way Sheffield was. The ground shook and nearly knocked Clarke off his feet. He looked back over his shoulder and saw a huge monster.

It was about seven and a half feet tall, and looked vaguely humanoid. The monster had no nose. Its only facial features where its four mandibles that made up its mouth, and its eyes that were large, black, and ovular. Its head was covered in what looked like a metal helmet that reflected the starlight as a bluish tint.

The arms were long and extremely muscular and its hands were massive. It was armed with a hornet gun in one hand. The other was free and produced what looked to be extremely sharp claws but only had three fingers. Its massive body was covered in pants and a shirt that were strangely large enough to fit it. A large thick vest covered the shirt and over that was a long black coat that extended down to its unusually large combat boots.

Even more than the vest, it had more strange blue metal armor as shoulder, lower arm, thigh and shin guards. When its mouth was closed, it was hard to even tell that it had a mouth, but when it opened it to speak, the four mandibles opened up like a flower. Something was on its back that looked like a huge sword. Another weapon, what looked like an enlarged version of the FAMAS G2 assault rifle was strapped to its belt. It was the perfect size for the monster to hold like a soldier would.

Its hornet gun was raised and trained on them. Berkely stopped and turned around to look at the monster. All three of the soldiers were turned around, guns trained on the behemoth.

"Drop your weapons." The monster's voice was easily understood but it was deep. The soldiers remained in their positions, not moving at all. "Do not make me repeat myself."

The troops still didn't move. The monster raised its weapon and aimed at Clarke. He opened fire with the M249 SAW and Berkely joined in. The SAW rounds tore into the creature and made it stumble back giving Clarke and Sheffield enough time to get behind cover. Berkely also dove behind a large metal storage box and quietly set Locke down.

Nathan pulled his pant leg out of him boot and began wrapping and applying the same kind of bandage he had given Trina for her cracked rib.

"I know one of you is Nathan Sheffield. My objective is to terminate Nathan Sheffield." Stated the monster. "If you come out now I will spare your team."

Nathan stopped pumping the air and looked at Clarke who shook his head saying that he wasn't going to let Nathan die for them. He then confirmed what he said by finishing Sheffield's wrap and pulling his pant leg back down so they could go back into the to boot. Sheffield finished tying his boot and got up.

"We need to get to the warehouse." He said. "That thing wont be a match for the tank and all the turrets." He whispered. Several hornets zipped around the corner of the box they were behind and missed them by inches.

Clarke offered Sheffield his SAW and they swapped guns.

"You lay down suppressing fire and I'll make a break for the box Berkely is behind." He said and they both ducked as several more hornets zipped past them.

"You will not survive." Echoed the monsters voice.

"Awful confident aren't we?" yelled Sheffield back. The monster emptied all ten hornets at their position, but all of them missed. The hornets could usually track targets, but not around sharp angles such as the one Nathan and Clarke were behind.

"You have had your chance to surrender Nathan Sheffield, now all of you will die." Replied the creature.

"One question before you kill us," started Sheffield. "What are you?" There was a long pause as if the monster was debating on how to answer it.

"Umbrella Corporation Tyrant-II class bio-weapon. Number 23584." He said. "Project Matrix."