Deadly Silence: Resident Evil

Chapter Thirty Seven: Breaking the Bonds

"Rebecca?" Redfield asked, still plenty of pain in his voice. "Rebecca, are you all right?"

He must have lost consciousness after the horrific beating that he had received from the man who was supposed to be their leader, because the young man didn't remember being handcuffed, let alone on the floor with his wrists bound to a table leg behind his back. The short haired girl was there as well, bound in the same way, but positioned so that they were back to back, making it difficult to see her, no matter how far Redfield tried to turn his neck.

"I'm here." Chambers finally groaned, shaking a bit from her wounds. "Oh God, this hurts… can you… can you get us free?"

Unfortunately, this was not just any table that they were bound to, though… the legs were bolted to the floor, so lifting the whole thing up was out of the question, as was trying to break the table apart, apparently, since no matter how hard the young man kicked or pulled against the leg, neither it, nor the table itself would break. What was this, made out of the same stuff as the reinforced doors that couldn't be broken through?

Even if he could have broken the table with his brute strength, this undertaking was made a lot more difficult by the cries of agony that the short haired girl let out any time that these efforts forced him to touch her arm or leg in any way… yeah, that was a poor excuse, Redfield just wasn't strong enough to break them out, and he knew it. Of course, if they somehow managed to get out of this, he was going to have to have Valentine teach him how to pick locks.

"What the hell is this table made of?!" He yelled in frustration after failing once again to get them free. "Cast iron?!"

"Chris… Chris, I don't feel so good." Chambers said, her voice starting to sound a little weak. "I think… I think I'm going into shock."

Oh shit, the young man thought as he pulled against the handcuffs unsuccessfully, now Redfield wasn't anything close to a doctor, but from his first aid training in the Air Force, he knew that someone going into shock was bad news… God damn it, why did Wesker have to shoot the poor girl? Okay, no time for that, stay focused… gotta get her feet elevated, and keep her warm… of course, none of that mattered if he couldn't get himself… hey, wait a second.

For a moment during the struggles, his hand brushed over the bolts that held the table down… but they didn't feel like bolts at all. No, the heads were rounded, and there was a slit-shaped indentation… ha, instead of bolts to hold down the furniture, someone in this place had gone the cheaper route and used self-tappers instead. Normally after being beaten and shackled, there would be no hope, but there was one item in his pocket that the Captain hadn't taken away… his quarter.

Yes, the coin that had been helping the young man make decisions all night long, was about to become the only thing that could save their lives. It was a bit of a struggle to reach into his nearest pocket, groaning, and twisting around like a gymnast until finally getting his fingers around the silver object, and then carefully… carefully maneuvering it down into the slit on the first self-tapper.

This next part was even more difficult, since he had to twist the coin around without dropping it, but very slowly the screw loosened, and after gasping when he almost dropped it, Redfield sighed with relief when the first of the two screws fell out onto the floor. Twisting around again, and apologizing when this caused him to bump the bullet wound on Chambers' leg, the young man worked on this screw the same way as the first until finally… finally… it fell out onto the floor like the first one.

Now that there was nothing holding down this leg of the table, the young man shifted onto his back in order to lift up the table with his feet, allowing him to pull his handcuffs under the leg, giving him some mobility. Of course, with his hands still bound behind his back, there wasn't a lot Redfield could do for the wounded Chambers… but then he saw it. There, behind one of the chairs, in the shadow where it was hard to see, was a pistol.

It must have fallen there during the fight, and been forgotten when Wesker was collecting up their weapons. The Captain must have believed that there was no way for the two of them to get free from the table, or else he would've searched the room more carefully before leaving, and now this weapon was his only hope of getting out of the handcuffs, since he no longer had a key. Admittedly, the idea that popped into the young man's head was a stupid one… stupid and dangerous, but as he kind of rolled to his feet, and started toward the pistol, there didn't seem to be any other options.

"Chris, what are you doing?" Chambers asked, her voice getting shakier as he picked up the weapon behind his back. "How is that going to help us right now?"

"Just relax, Rebecca… and elevate your legs if you can." He replied, using the table to help hold the pistol in place while he put the handcuff chain over the barrel. "Okay… just a little more… okay."

Bang! The bullet bounced once off the nearby wall, smashing one of the decorative vases, but the chain was broken, allowing the young man to move his arms freely once again… before noticing the burning pain coming from his rear. Feeling his hand around behind himself, Redfield realized that, after finding the long thin rip across his pants, that while the bullet had done its job, it had also painfully grazed him… he had effectively shot himself in the ass.

Its okay, he thought, limping a little as he rushed over to the short haired girl, Chambers didn't see him shoot himself, and there was no one else around to back up her story even if she did. After all, the last thing he needed if they ever made it back to the RPD was for it to get out that Redfield, the winner of every shooting competition since joining the force, had shot himself in the ass. This really wasn't the time to worry about that, though, since Chambers needed help.

Getting her handcuffs out from under the table leg was easy enough, as was shooting the chain that held them together, but now he had to find a first aid kit or something. Come on, the young man thought as he looked around the room, this was the conference room of a big, secret facility, there had to be something around… or he could just do the more obvious thing and use the stuff that she was carrying in her pouches… being that Chambers was the medic, and all.

"Chris, you have to get the bullets out first." She explained, her head swimming a little when he rolled her onto her back. "My arms and legs are pretty small, so finding the bullets shouldn't be too hard, but you'll need…

"Actually, I can see exit wounds on both." He interrupted, sighing with relief that he wouldn't have to cause her any more pain. "So now do I just use the bandages?"

Unfortunately, no, that was not all, since the bullet wounds were fairly large, meaning that they would have to be sutured. The short haired girl was doing her best to give him instructions, and the young man tried his best, while deciding not to tell her that he usually had trouble even putting a Band-Aid on his finger. So he disinfected the wounds on her arm and leg, and did the best he could to sew it closed… even though she was going to have a weird looking scar because of how non-uniform the stitches were.

Well, at least she wasn't bleeding anymore, and with a wrap of a few bandages the treatment was all done, followed by taking off his jacket since it was the only thing around that would help keep Chambers warm if she really was going into shock. However, luckily this didn't seem to be the case, since she started to feel and look a little better after Redfield gave her a dose of the Morphine that was inside of her emergency case… okay, maybe it was two doses.

"Come on, we can't stay here." Redfield said, reaching down to pick her up. "I need to get you someplace safe, so I can go find Jill before Wesker does."

It was a good thing that the short haired girl was so light, since between the fatigue from this mission, the nearly unbelievable beating that he had gotten from the Captain, and the, uh… wound to his behind, the young man didn't know if he could handle lifting anything that weighed more than she did. Of course, the location of a safe place… well, that was going to be a little tricky. After all, where in the hell in this entire estate was considered safe?

The only thing Redfield could think of, even though he didn't like it at all, was to take her back to this facility's entrance, and hope that Wesker didn't discover her there before he and Valentine could deal with him. There was also the matter of something coming up the ladder that led back down into the underground cave. What if a zombie or one of those clawed creatures followed them this far? Well, the only solution he could think of was to close the trap door, put the latch back into place, and set Chambers onto it for added weight.

"Rebecca, I'm going to leave the pistol with you, okay?" He said, handing it to her. "I'm pretty sure I can avoid Wesker now that I know he's the enemy, but… but if the door opens, and it's him, then… then shoot him in the chest until your clip runs out."

"But what about you?" She asked, hesitant to take the weapon. "Chris, what if you run into a zombie, or another monster?"

Yes, that would be pretty bad if he ran into something like those clawed creatures while unarmed, but there was no way he was going to leave Chambers defenseless. So after insisting that she keep the weapon, and her finally giving in, the young man went back through the small door in order to find Valentine and Burton as fast as humanly possible… before Wesker did the same thing to them.