Shakahnna looked down before recognizing her own hands, happy to be self-aware and to have the ability to use her arms and legs. The green sleeveless top and black trousers she was wearing were completely dry, not a trace of water on them, which led her to believe that this was yet another hallucination of the past. That was as opposed to an astral projection during the present time like when she was seen by captain Wesker and was still dripping wet from the inside of the cylinder. But due to the casual clothes she had on now instead of the soaked, white lab coat, she knew that what she was currently witnessing was merely a recollection of the past.
So much for trying to contact anyone she saw via her non-existent knowledge of sign language, then.
The redhead looked around, trying to remember if her present environment appeared familiar. It didn't, as she found herself within a computer lab that had over a dozen different monitors, printers and miscellaneous television screens, each of which showed a different room or hallway within them. There was only one person there, and he was alone without being accosted by either zombies or animals. The teenager didn't need any time to recognize him as the older man who had gone up against and destroyed the gigantic black spider from her earlier apparition.
"Maybe he be's OK", she commented to herself as she looked him over, hoping that the injury caused by the huge spider hadn't hurt him as much as it had first appeared.
The unfortunate officer was clearly in pain, though, the wound he received into his right thigh still hurting him immensely as he hadn't found any real medical attention for it. Instead, the man whose nametag identified him as agent Marini had merely placed a tight tourniquet a few inches above the injury in his leg to slow down the flow of blood towards the gaping hole. In addition, he had folded a thick piece of cloth and wrapped it directly over the wound itself as a second barrier to keep his blood loss to a minimum.
Despite all his efforts, however, he was obviously still in a bad way and fatigue was showing on his features. The cloth that covered his injury, and with it most of the right half of his trousers, was already drenched in sticky, brown blood stains. Not surprisingly, the STARS officer favoured his left leg while walking, dragging the sore right leg after him while sporadically using his rifle to support his weight against the floor.
"False", Shakahnna sighed as she realized just how injured the older man was, and feeling stupid for expecting him to be in a better condition.
At the current time, Marini had stopped and was busy sifting through several files and miscellaneous pieces of paper that were on a tabletop. While he did, Shakahnna looked around, visually combing her surroundings for the second time, but now wondering if this place had any familiarity with her after all. Could it have been the same lab where her body was being held in a vertical cryogenic tube? And if so, why didn't she recognize it earlier?
Either way, the cylinders that held her and many other nonhuman creatures weren't anywhere she could spot. And considering that she was still hallucinating about the past and taking part in infrequent witnessings of present events, it was apparent that the brave man who was in front of her now hadn't found her cylinder even if he had been close to the location where she was held prisoner. Otherwise, the redhead was sure that the STARS agent would've destroyed the cryogenic tube and woken her up in the process. Unless, of course, he had succeeded in finding her but had been killed before being able to free her, that is. The thought was enough to make Shakahnna even more anxious even if she didn't personally know this man, prompting her to swallow a lump in her throat. After all, whether she knew him or not, he was stuck in this place just like she was, so it inevitably brought an affinity with him. Plus, whatever his ranking with the STARS may have been, the older man obviously didn't know about Wesker's two personalities, seeing as to how captain Wesker hadn't been removed from duty. Thus, if he had found his way into the lab that held her, he might've come across the monster who wore Wesker's face, but still believed that he was merely interacting with the RPD captain. If so, then Wesker's evil half would've had no problem disposing of him since all he'd have to do would be to wait for the unfortunate Marini to casually turn his back to whom he believed was a trustworthy colleague.
"I really hopes you don't didn't be running into either of them", Shakahnna sighed as she rubbed her face with her left palm.
Just then, the older man she was addressing slammed his fist against the surface of the table, clearly angered by something he read on those sheets of paper.
"Cual la COGIDA es esta?!", Marini exclaimed as he threw some of the pieces of paper towards the floor.
Shakahnna didn't understand what he was saying, though she suspected he was still speaking in Spanish, and that the word 'cogida' might've been the Spanish equivalent of 'fuck' or 'hell'.
"What be's the matter?", the teenager addressed him, feeling concerned and without remembering that he couldn't hear or see her.
The STARS agent limped away from the disorganized mess he had created on the table, staggering towards another desk that was in front of a large, square-shaped screen. Once there, he took a hold of a remote control that had been lying somewhere Shakahnna couldn't see and pressed a button. In response to his action, a black and white image of a dog appeared on the screen, along with some inscriptions that were too small for the redhead to read from the distance where she stood.
"Usted bastardos traidores! Usted pagar esto!", Marini yelled, barely able to contain his rage as he pressed on the same remote control button.
The image of what the teenager recognized to be a zombie appeared on the screen next, prompting Shakahnna to remember her first, ill-fated meeting with those creatures. Maybe Marini was beginning to find out the dark secrets that this place held, the teenager reasoned to herself as she began walking towards him. As a best case scenario, perhaps the older STARS agent had even discovered something about captain Wesker and now knew that his colleague had something to do with this nightmare.
By the time the redhead reached the place where Marini swayed, he was busy looking at a third picture on the projectile screen. Rather than casually skipping this giant photograph, the older man was keenly reading whatever was written next to the image of a cross between a fly and a person, one that carried a skeletal head. Shakahnna stood in place also, noticing that the caption informed them both that the strange, monstrous creature was called a Chimera. The redhead recognized the name as that of a mythical creature, but that's all she knew about it, and she was pretty sure that such an animal wasn't supposed to exist.
Shakahnna sighed to herself, thinking that neither were zombies, but she already knew that they did existed all too well. Marini then clicked on the button again to access a fourth picture, this one depicting an image of the green-skinned gorilla-type monsters that the teenager remembered having fought with before the shadow-man had held her captive. While the officer was curiously reading its official name and basic description, the young woman found her attention being diverted towards the spot where Marini had found something that had enraged him a short time ago.
Walking back towards the area where the older man was previously standing, Shakahnna first crouched down to pick up some of the papers he had tossed on the floor. It was only after her fingers passed through the loose leafs that she remembered the extremely annoying fact that she couldn't touch anything here. So she had to remain crouched in that spot if she wanted to read what was on the page that Marini had found to be so distasteful.
"Blah, blah, technobabble, jargon...", the redhead began reading the top part of the sheet of paper, not understanding any of the technical terms she came across, "What the fuck does that be meaning and why in the world was he so offended abou...".
Shakahnna stopped thinking out loud when she finally realized what it was that had angered agent Marini so much.
"STARS Alpha and Bravo team combat data, issued for Brad Vickers?", the teenager read the words aloud, finally understanding the full extent of the occurrences that she was witnessing, "Performance against cerberus, carrier, chimera, hunter, neptune, tarantula, black tiger, snake, plant 42, tyrant. Performances of said monsters against STARS-issue service firearm, shotgun, flamethrower, grenade launcher. Does this be's what I think it be's?".
Shakahnna continued reading towards the bottom part of the page, having come across hand-written words rather than typed ones like the sentences so far.
"Weapons left in strategic places, cameras operational", she read out loud.
Looking around while still in a crouched position, the teenager saw that the other pieces of paper were almost exactly the same as this first one, except that the name printed on them was different. The second sheet was for a man called Barry Burton, the third for a woman whose first name was Rebecca but whose last name was covered by Burton's sheet.
The redhead anxiously flicked her hair aside while standing back up to her full height and turning back towards Marini's position. The older man had his back to her while looking over the image of something called a Tyrant. She vaguely recalled some of Wesker's insane babblings about a creature with that same name, and the picture of the giant with the single clawed hand appeared to be familiar to her, but she couldn't quite remember from where.
"Weskie did all this, didn't he? Oh dear, Weskie", the young woman sighed, "More of your fun and games. Luring all these peoples here to be watching them die for stats about your stoopid monsters. I should've known you were capable of this. But if you left them guns and flamethrowers and stuff, what makes you think that they won't make the monsters be dead with them? Unless...".
Shakahnna stopped her brainstorming as the truth became even clearer.
"Unless whatever you have living here that you're so desperate for stats on can't be killed, not even with a grenade launcher", she felt her mouth drying as she finished that last statement.
If that was the case, then Marini and all the other agents here definitely had no chance of leaving alive once Wesker's pride and joy was released. But what in the world could survive being struck with a flamethrower or a grenade launcher, she asked herself. Regardless of how tough a zombie might've been, no living creature could withstand being hit with such powerful weaponry, at least not any creatures that she knew of.
The process of trying to imagine what kind of monster could get past a grenade launcher and still kill the police officers who were lured here was enough to stress Shakahnna to the point where she felt her mental grip waning. The redhead sensed that she was fading from this particular hallucination as her vision became more clouded and her voice was no longer as clear.
"Oh, fucking hell!", she exclaimed to herself, "I don't wanna be going!".
The last thing she saw was agent Marini still balancing himself on his left foot while he looked at the image of the tyrant.
"Marini, be caref...", the teenager extended her left hand towards him as the scene dissipated in front of her eyes.
Her entire world returned to its previous state of unconsciousness before she could finish the sentence.
"In here, in here!", agent Redfield exclaimed as he gripped the knob to the wooden door that was in front of him and turned it.
The doorknob twisted without much effort, prompting the young man to pull the door open as a buzzing sound which emanated from the hallway behind him continued coming closer. Partially turning his attention in that direction, he nonverbally indicated to agent Chambers to quickly make her way into the room first, which the younger woman did without needing a second invitation. Neither officer checked for the presence of any dangers or enemies in the well-lit room that waited in front of them, choosing to forgo their usual wariness when going through an entryway.
Once the Bravo medic had dashed through the doorway, Redfield followed close behind her and instinctively grabbed the knob on the other side of the door with his free hand. He should've slammed the door shut at that instant, but morbid curiosity prompted him to stand in place and simply look towards the end of the hallway that they had just run from.
Several yards behind them and always closing in fast, a group of approximately twenty abnormally gigantic wasps were flying towards the two humans. Each insect was about five inches long and three inches wide, carrying a two-inch, lethal-looking stinger at the end of its body, and appearing very eager to use it on the two intruders.
Redfield kept gripping the doorknob and looked at his pursuers for a moment, then two moments, then four, before his partner finally brought him out of the daze that staring at the aggressive wasps was causing in his mind.
"Chris, close it!", agent Chambers shrieked as the group of virus-infected bugs flew towards the open doorway, inducing her to place her left palm against the surface of the door in an effort to shut it.
The Alpha agent swiftly shook his head at the interruption, realizing the mistake he had committed while admiring the sinister beauty that these wasps carried. He shoved his weight against the door also, coupled with his partner's push, and finally slammed the door shut behind them. Some of the flying creatures who were pursuing them ended up crashing against the door surface, unable to punch a hole in it. There, they all hovered in midair on the other side of the barricade, buzzing with ever increasing ferocity and clearly indicating to the two officers that the way back into the corridor wasn't accessible for them any more.
"That was... close", Chambers sighed while brushing stale sweat off her forehead with her left sleeve, "And it's not that I mind you looking at them, Chris, but maybe, well, we should really leave that for a later time when they can't hurt us because they are locked away".
Her tone didn't carry any of the anger or annoyance that the older man thought she was entitled to feel, so Redfield felt grateful without saying so out loud.
"Yeah, sorry, don't know what came ov...", was all he got to utter while turning back in her direction before a noise interrupted him.
The new buzzing sound wasn't as loud as the collective one that was gathered outside the room, but it was much clearer. Both STARS agents instinctively turned their face towards the ceiling because that's where the new noise had originated from. Neither agent breathed as they spotted a lone flying bug who had made it through the closing doorway before the barricade had been sealed off to its companions.
Without any further warnings, the insect attacked, swooping down towards the male officer while it curved its body in a half-circular position so its stinger was aimed in his direction. The Alpha agent didn't have time to scream as he reflexively raised his two arms towards his attacker, and with them the lit flamethrower which he had returned to gripping with both hands once the door had been shut. Somewhere else in the room, he heard his younger colleague screaming "NO!" as Chambers raised her Beretta pistol and fired twice in an effort to kill the miniature monster before it could hurt him. Both rounds that exited the medic's handgun missed the flying attacker as it dove towards her partner's face. But the next thing the wasp saw was a huge burst of orange and yellow fire that shot out of the Alpha agent's weapon, intercepting the flying bug before it could reach its victim and then burning the ceiling that was above it.
Redfield promptly let go of the trigger, shutting down the torrent of fire that had burst out of his more powerful firearm and charred the upper part of the room. It was only after he turned the flamethrower off completely, even shutting off the small tongue of fire that waited at its tip, that he spotted the barbequed remains of the wasp that flopped on the carpeted floor and remained immobile there.
"Oh! Sorry I missed it, Chris!" Chambers exhaled loudly as the danger was finished as suddenly as it had begun, "Are you OK?".
"Yeah. And you're sorry?", he replied, grinning at the unfairness she was displaying in his favour and against herself, "You're not the one who went 'hey look, there's a key there on that table, let's pick it up, I'm sure it's not connected to that fucking wasp's nest that's hanging overhead'. And let's not forget about just standing at the open door like a fucking frozen mannequin just now".
"I'll keep it a secret if you will", she was back to grinning as she rubbed the short mop at the top of her head.
"Don't sweat it", he reassured as he came closer and held on to the flamethrower with the left hand so as to give her a light pat on the arms with the other, "Even if you didn't, my only family left doesn't judge me by my job, my current job doesn't care what I do as long as I don't leave any marks on suspects. And as for my former job, well, they can all go to hell".
Chambers wasn't sure why, but the Alpha agent's face tightened slightly at the mention of his previous employer. It was almost as if Redfield had spent an instant in a world of his own without seeing her. The anger that abruptly appeared on his face was evidence that he suddenly dredged up a very bad memory from his past, one that he hadn't made peace with yet.
"Chris?", Chambers spoke up, feeling more uncomfortable with breaking up his trance this second time.
Fortunately, her partner appeared to snap out of his recollection with a slight shake of his head.
"Uh, sorry, sorry", he apologized as he looked away towards the rest of the room, realizing for the first time that they had done no reconnaissance at all, "All that shit is old history now. Doesn't really matter".
The STARS agent first spotted a large bookcase that was full of volumes and textbooks, and resting against the wall on the other side of the room. Near it was a green vine that emerged from the ceiling, ran parallel to the bookcase in a vertical line, and then disappeared through a hole in the floor. There was also an unused bed in the windowless area, and the only other interesting aspect in that place was the presence of dozens of moths that were fluttering around the vine as well as the sole halogen lightbulb that shone from the ceiling. But unlike the wasps who were still patrolling the hallway outside the room, these moths paid no attention to the humans who had invaded their space. And even if they did, they were only regular-sized moths anyway, as opposed to the virus-infected, huge variety of every creature that the officers had come across so far.
There was no other way out of this room except for the door they had used to come inside, so Redfield began wondering about their predicament as he paced the floor.
"I don't think it doesn't matter, well, not if it's making you upset", Chambers brought him out of his thoughts, "Once we're out of here, if you'd like to talk about whatever that was that had you this angry, well... you know you can, right? I mean it would be okay if you wanted to".
"Becca, really, it's nothing to worry about", the Alpha agent felt annoyed that he was still forced to talk about the subject of his previous employer, "I'm fine, really".
The silent look she gave him was an indication that she could tell he was lying.
"OK, maybe when we get outta here we can have a heart to heart, but before that can happen, we have another confrontation with the giant killer wasps ahead of us", Redfield stopped to take a breath, "And as much of an old 50's horror movie title that sounded like, scary part is that it's actually true".
"Well, I'm thinking that the possible solution lies in that thing that you have such an obsession for, Chris", Chambers pointed towards him with her left index finger.
"But she's got noth...", the young man caught himself before finishing the statement because he realized his colleague was pointing towards his flamethrower instead of talking about agent Valentine, a fraudian slip which he silently admonished himself for.
"I mean, the flamethrower may not be able to kill them all at once", he corrected when he noticed that she had a good point.
The weapon he was almost cradling like it was a beloved infant had a wide range, sending out a tongue of flame that at least five feet wide and many times longer than the height of the ceiling to their current room.
"But it would just be a matter of spraying the entire hall, right?", Chambers added, quickly formulating a plan in her head, "How about if we could do it like this? You can stand about five or so feet away from the door, I open it and loads of instant, crispy bees when they meet the hot end of your new toy".
"Well, yeah, good plan, Becca, except...", the Alpha marksman found his attention being turned away from his fellow officer and towards the bookcase that was on the other side of the room.
Something about a set of large, hardcover books appeared out of place, so the young man approached it, too intrigued by the mystery to notice that he was leaving halfway through the conversation.
"Except...", he continued thinking to himself as he came closer, till he was within an arm's reach of the books in question.
"Chris? What've you found?", the medic questioned, slowly following in his direction but keeping her distance in case he wanted to keep his personal space to himself this time.
"Becca, isn't it strange how this room here is by itself?", the Alpha agent finally turned his face towards her.
"What? What do you mean?", the confusion was readable on her face.
"All the other bedrooms we ran into were near other rooms, including the one where that guy did himself in from the ceiling", the older man replied, hoping the explanation he gave would help him solve the nagging mystery that told his instincts that they were missing something obvious which was right in front of them.
"Yeah? So...?".
"But this bedroom is set aside from all the other rooms. Why?", Redfield turned his attention back to the set of books that had lured him to come closer to the bookcase, "And considering how that trap was set with those wasps, isn't that an indication that the idiots who ran this nuthouse never left anything to chance? That everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is done on purpose, like is either part of a trap or part of a puzzle".
"I suppose it's all the side effects of them lacking a consciousness, so when they were bored we got all this...", the medic reasoned, "But I don't understand what that has to do with our plan to break out of here".
"Look at these books here", the more experienced officer finally pointed to the row of red hardcovers that had grabbed his attention.
"What about them?", Chambers brought her face closer, tilting it to examine the spine of every book there, finding them to be nearly identical as each was red at its top and bottom, but had a peach-coloured shape in the middle.
"I think these books here are supposed to be a picture, at least if they're put together in the right order", Redfield thought out loud as he temporarily placed the flamethrower on the floor, leaning it against the front of the bookcase, "And I bet that they're not disorganized by accident".
"Are you really sure about this? I mean, pictures are supposed to be the key to something?", his younger partner was doubtful, and she wasn't in the mood to hide it as she looked back towards the only door to the room to make sure that nothing was trying to come through it.
"Just something in my gut is telling me that this is wrong, Becca", Redfield explained as he began rearranging the books, moving some from the front of the stack to the end, and vice versa, "And look at it this way - if my instincts are shit and I have no business relying on them, then we only lost about a minute of our time, right?".
"Yeah, well, I guess so", Chambers agreed, though she was pessimistic that her colleague's plan would ever be rewarding.
The Bravo agent was getting more and more anxious as the seconds ticked by, possibly the result of being exposed to the constant dangers of the last 24 hours, all without ever getting even a minute of rest in between. Her partner's fixation with an alleged picture that a row of books is supposed to form wasn't helping ease her state of mind. So hoping that the Alpha agent wasn't losing his senses, she decided to turn her full attention towards the door that any creature would have to use to reach them. The act of facing that only entryway, in addition to gripping the handle of a pistol which could be used to greet anyone who didn't have a friendly face if he or she tried to open the door, alleviated her stress, if only by a tiny bit.
"There! Knew it!", Redfield's exclamation induced her to turn her head so as to see what he was talking about.
True to his expectation, the Alpha officer was looking at an image of a nude, prone woman who was created when he had found the right order that the red books needed to be placed in. As a result of his find, Redfield turned his face to meet his partner's, wearing a smug smile on his face as he gave her a thumb's up.
"Must be scientist porn or something", he continued grinning, "I suppose they weren't allowed to watch pay-per-view like everyone else".
A blush appeared slightly on Chambers' face even as she rolled her eyes and tried to not smile back at the way he was acting in response to the picture.
"Huh, but I guess you were right, Becca", Redfield admitted as he looked down into her eyes, "No secret passages or anything of the ki...".
His declaration was cut short when a rumbling sound was heard from behind him. The Alpha agent twisted around, whipping his 9mm handgun out of its waist holster and swiftly pointing it towards the bookcase that was slowly moving towards the right adjacent side of the wall on its own accord. The young man kept the Beretta aimed at the closed wooden door that was found behind the bookcase itself as the giant container of books finally came to a halt three yards away from its previous position. In the process, it knocked Redfield's flamethrower on the floor since it had been leaning against it.
"This place just... it keeps getting more and more weird!", Chambers added with a shake of her head, her own handgun still aimed towards the floor while her partner didn't lower his.
"Having just found the location to door number one, let's see what the prize behind it is", the Alpha agent finally holstered his weapon before quickly picking the flamethrower off the floor and turning on the nozzle that called forth the 5-inch long tongue of flame towards the front of the weapon.
He didn't wait to ask his colleague if she was agreeable to the idea of investigating the closed door that waited for them on the other side of the secret passageway. Feeling too excited by the prospect of finding something important within this mansion to stop, the police officer turned the knob and pulled the door open towards himself. As always, he felt ready to burn anything in front of him that appeared to be either too ugly to exist or too calm to be unnerved by the existence of this palace.
"Woa!", was the only word the young man could think of uttering as the undisclosed room that greeted him on the other side of the open door turned out to be as large as the lobby to this mansion.
The room began at the spot where he stood and extended to his right. Several yards ahead of him, a staircase began ascending towards a mezzanine before turning to the right and then descending back down to his level from the other side of the square-shaped area. That was all he got to see before feeling something enormous that brushed against the top of his head. He was planning to look up to see the source of the movement when he experienced the sensation of being pulled back towards where he had come from.
Agent Redfield staggered backwards, past the secret passageway that had been created by the moving bookcase, before realizing that it was Chambers who yanked him back to her position. The Bravo medic let go of the back of his shirt and then quickly used that same hand to slam the wooden door shut. The younger woman then flattened her back against the front of the closed door, as if she wanted to make sure that whatever might've been there didn't get past the entryway.
The Alpha agent's only reaction was to then stare at her with a sceptical look on his face, nonverbally asking her why she had just taken that course of action.
"Big thing, lots of flapping, all green", Chambers began to explain as she waved her arms around in a wild fashion.
"What? What're you talking about, Becca?", her partner countered.
"It was... IT was a giant vine! It was coming straight for you from the ceiling, Chris!", she added, holding both her hands about ten inches away from each other, "And it was this thick. I didn't need a degree in anything to know that I was looking at... It was that thing, Chris, the carnivore plant that we read about in the scientist's journal".
"Damn, you kidding? Are you sure about that, Becca?", the Alpha agent gripped his flamethrower tighter.
"Yes, definitely, it was! It couldn't have been anything else, it was MASSIVE!", she nodded her head several times, still unable to ease up on the pressure she was placing against the door, even though she was unsure of any difference her weight would make if the large plant had decided to try to go through the closed entryway.
"Then I think it's time we put it out of its misery", the usually proud grin that she was having an easy time getting used to appeared on his face, "Do you think it's edible? Some plants are, you know".
"But... But, Chris... You're, like...", the medic urgently jabbed her left index towards him.
"What? What's the matter? I don't care how big or strong that thing thinks it is, nothing that lives is ever fireproof", the smirk remained on Redfield's face, "Experience taught me that".
"Chris...", the young woman rubbed her face, wishing he wasn't so brave for the first time since meeting him.
Or was the correct term to describe agent Redfield more gung-ho than brave? Chambers didn't know for sure.
"Well, experience and TV", his smile grew even wider.
"Chris, I'm really not sure you can kill that thing, not even with that cannon of yours", she blurted out.
"Surely, you jest", he wasn't taking her warning as seriously as she would've liked him to.
"Chris, using a flamethrower would require that you must get close, I'm thinking like... maybe fifty yards away at most", she explained, adamant on not moving from her spot till he was giving her the attention that this grave situation needed, "Against that monster in there, that would leave you open to a counter-attack by one of its dozens of tentacles. And any one of those tentacles could easily wrap itself around you and has to be strong enough to snap your body in half in a heartbeat".
"Hmm", the smile faded from his face, at least, and she was glad for it, as unpleasant as it felt to see it gone.
"And from what the diagrams told me, the root is much too massive to be destroyed with 9mm calibre rounds", she continued explaining now that she had his undivided attention and wasn't so eager to rush into battle against a mysterious foe without knowing its strengths and weaknesses, "Besides, even if ... maybe one of us could somehow destroy the root, but it wouldn't do us much good because those tentacles can live without it, remember? That's what the diary said, the tentacles eat flesh, so their nourishment won't be gone once the root dies, not as long as they can find more people to eat, or even probably more of those zombies, for that matter".
"Oh, freaking hell!", Redfield sighed as he broke eye contact, "Fighting this green thing is sounding less and less pleasant with every thing you say".
"Well, it might not be, Chris", agent Chambers took a step away from her position, gripping the pistol with her right hand and rubbing her forehead with the left.
The medic squinted from behind her palm, trying hard to think of how she wanted to put her plans into words, especially words that her partner would understand. To make matters worse, ignoring the physical exhaustion in her body was becoming more and more difficult.
"OK, I think I can find a way to kill this plant, and kill it quite quick", she ultimately stated.
"Tell me more", he eagerly followed.
"OK, lemme nosey here...", the younger woman holstered her weapon and withdrew the diary that had contained the plant's description and diagrams.
"You think you can find a weak spot that we can hit it from a far distance with?", the Alpha agent questioned while she was leafing through the sheets.
"Uh..., no, not that kind of weak spot, anyway... Huh...", the medic kept thinking out loud, only paying partial attention to her partner due to looking over the notes.
A moment of silence followed. It then extended to a full minute.
"Becca?", Redfield broke the silence first since his colleague's concentration wasn't leaving the written words in front of her.
"OK, here's what I think I can do", the less experienced officer lifted her face away from the notebook at last, "If you can put me inside a chemistry lab, I can find you a poison that'll be absorbed into the plant's entire system once it comes into contact with the root or even any one of its vines".
She couldn't read the expression on Redfield's face as he only stared back at her for a few moments. Maybe he was trying to read how confident she appeared to be with the promise she was making him. Maybe not, though.
"You think you can do this? How sure are you, and how much time would we be losing from our search for the others?", the young man then blurted out.
"From these diagrams, I have access to a LOT of detail", Chambers felt her own self-assurance getting stronger as she explained the reason why her suggestion should be followed, "And all the experience I've had with labs tells me that virus are created and destroyed in using much the same ingredients. Creating and destroying within a lab environment really aren't all that different, Chris, because finding a cure means having the organism to cure first, right?".
"I'm still not so sure about us slowing down our search for our friends, though, Becca", Redfield shook his head as he began pacing back and forth nearby, "Not for a theory you have, no matter how good it is, and just to take out one carnivore".
"Chris, I don't mean to speak out of turn but... I think you might not appreciate how dangerous this plantlife is", she was beginning to feel the beginning of what could be a tension headache forming behind her eyes, so she rubbed her face with her left palm again.
Too bad it wasn't making a difference.
"Oh, I appreciate, I do, believe me", he countered, keeping one arm on the flamethrower and scratching the thick hair at the top of his head with the other.
"And what I can concoct here is pure poison for it, Chris", she continued explaining, "I'm talking about a near instant kill as long as the user tosses it against one of its vines. If I do this right, if I do it right, then the poison should travel from the one vine to all the others, all the way up to the root, and then kill it. Think of it as the ultimate Molotov cocktail".
"Hey, I always wanted to play quarterback", he grinned back as he stopped pacing, "I have a pretty good right arm, you know".
"Right", she could relax enough to smile back, "And once I have the sample put together and I know it works, I could easily make others, so in case the first one misses, you'll have more shots to take?".
"OK, you're making a difficult case to ignore, I got that", the young man nodded, "I'm just so... freaking WORRIED about everybody else. Even if we were to find a lab on that map of ours, we don't know how long this will take you, do we?".
"No, you're right, I can't tell you for sure", she had to admit, "Maybe an hour. Maybe more".
The Alpha agent was being silent again, the inner conflict easily apparent on his face this time.
"And look at it this way", she didn't like having to change his mind, not when she was already tired, "If we walk away from this thing and someone from either of our teams wanders in and gets eaten by it because we didn't take the opportunity to kill it? That'd suck more, right?".
She had to stop and ask herself if she actually said those last four words.
"Plus, I think this plant is expanding", her voice was becoming more fatigued as she pressed on, eager to be able to merely work in a lab for a little while instead of having to continue talking, "That vine that's next to the bookcase? It's all connected to this plant and its root, Chris. That means it's spreading out and looking for food because it's hungry. If anything, that makes it more dangerous since people don't expect to be attacked by a plant".
"OK, OK", the Alpha agent finally nodded in agreement, "So let's go take this eyesore out. I'll wait as long as you need to put the poison together, as long as it's not till sunrise, you know?".
"No, you won't", Chambers declared as she put the diary away while the pair made their way back to the door that had dozens of wasps waiting on the other side.
"What? Wadda you mean?", Redfield asked as he stood several feet in front of the wooden door that led back to the hallway, his feet in an L stance and the flamethrower ready to send a burst of flame towards the angry creatures that still buzzed on the other side of the closed entryway.
"Once we find the chemistry lab, we're going to secure it for me, then you're going to leave and continue looking for your friends", Chambers let him know as she was preparing to push the door open before dashing out of the way, "Then, after an hour of patrolling, you can come back and pick me up, and by then, I'll hopefully be done".
"What? Are you sure about that, Becca?", Redfield's right index finger rested on the trigger to the flamethrower while he aimed for the upper half of the closed door.
"Sure, I should be fine. Assuming you're OK with patrolling alone, I mean", she added.
"Oh, yeah, don't worry about me", he shook his head, feeling better at the idea of being able to look for agent Valentine rather than idly standing around when his partner did something useful.
"It's decided then", she smiled at him as she gripped the doorknob while keeping her body as far away from the door as possible, "On three?".
The older agent only nodded, his eyes concentrating on the short-term task at hand.
"One, two...", Chambers held her breath, "And three!".
The Bravo medic exhaled as she twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open. She dove on her stomach towards the floor that was as far away from the open entryway as possible and covered the top of her head with both arms. She didn't see anything else, reflexively having closed her eyes while clenching her teeth. Instead, she only heard dozens of giant wasps rushing into the room while her partner yelled out something incoherent and pulled the trigger to his flamethrower.