Biohazard: Resident Evil VII

Chapter Thirty Eight: Lucas's Report

Somehow hoping that the rising sun would illuminate the mine as it had done with the old house back at the Baker estate, Ethan was disappointed to find that once they were about thirty feet past the entrance, the man-made cave was just as dark as if it had been the middle of the night. Zoe's flashlight was now their only source of light, since there were no lanterns to be found amongst the broken tools on the ground, but the good news was that so far there had been no sign of Eveline's friends.

"I'm thinkin' we should be safe here… for now." Zoe said quietly as they followed the partially buried mine cart tracks. "This here's the old salt mine; ain't been used for years, an' far as I know, ain't nobody been out here for bout' that long. I'm hopin' Eveline don't even know it exists."

"We should still be careful." He replied, ducking down to avoid a low spot in the rock. "Eveline's pretty pissed off at us right now, and if she follows us here after she wakes up… well… I wouldn't want to be trapped in a place like this."

Their shoes made a light splash upon stepping into a puddle of water, and when the short-haired woman shined her light beam around, they were able to see that water was slowly leaking into certain parts of the tunnel. There didn't appear to be any danger of rapid flooding or anything like that, but again, not the ideal place to be trapped, so they kept moving. It was more difficult to avoid the puddles than Ethan originally thought, since the last thing they wanted was for the little girl to find them because of a conspicuous splash, meaning that they had to slow down.

"Like I said, this should take us right up to the far edge of the property." Zoe continued, pointing her beam to warn him about another puddle… only to step in one herself a second later. "So long as the other end ain't collapsed… then I reckon we got us a clear path to the road, an' then I'm sure we can walk as far as Dulvey for help."

"I still don't know what the hell we're going to tell them." Ethan answered before crouching under another low spot. "I mean, it's not like we can just run into the Sheriff's station, and be like: 'Help, there's an evil little girl with superpowers brainwashing or killing everyone who wanders onto the Baker estate… oh, and she also turns dead bodies into mold-covered monsters, so quick, send in the Marines!' Only help we'll get doing that is a strait-jacket and some sedatives."

Suddenly Zoe stopped walking, and he was worried that something was wrong, until she made a kind of snorting sound that was followed by laughter. The short-haired woman tried to contain it by keeping her hand over her mouth, but was only partially successful, and when she snorted again, Ethan found himself releasing a pretty strong laugh, himself. It was a strange feeling, since this was probably the first time that he had laughed since crossing the border into Louisiana, but it also broke the tension, at least for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry… sorry, Ethan." Zoe continued, regaining her composure. "I jus' got this real funny picture in my head bout' you in a strait-jacket an' one of them Hannibal Lector masks, and… and… do you hear somethin'?"

Still chuckling about the visual of being taken away by the men in white coats, it took Ethan a second to realize that she had actually asked a question, but everything finally clicked in his mind when the short-haired woman suddenly put her hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. Yes, now he could hear something… it wasn't a voice or anything like that, nor was it the shambling of those moldy monsters… it was a hum… like the hum of a machine. There was also a barely visible reflection of light in the farthest puddle of water that they could see from where they were standing…

A light that was not coming from the flashlight.

"Is that… a generator?" Ethan whispered, straining his ears to identify the sound. "I thought you said that no one ever comes out here."

"They don't." Zoe replied, turning off the flashlight. "Come on, so go see."

It was pretty smart of her to turn off their light first so that they wouldn't be discovered, but now in total darkness except for the distant light, walking forward was proving difficult. The short-haired woman was in front, and she grabbed Ethan's hand so they wouldn't get separated or anything, but this still didn't stop him from stumbling around like he was drunk. Thankfully the source of the light was pretty close, and the tunnel's features became easier to distinguish with each step, until they finally ducked underneath one last low spot, and stepped into a…

"What in the world?" Zoe asked as she looked around.

They had stepped into a much larger and more open chamber of the mine, and now there were industrial work lights spread out across the perimeter, allowing them to see that the source of the noise was definitely coming from a generator. A very big generator that also seemed to be powering a lot of electronic equipment that was scattered around the room. No, it wasn't scattered… it looked like it had been setup into some kind of workshop or maybe a laboratory, considering the amount of papers and notes that were scattered across a nearby desk.

Upon closer investigation of the electrical equipment, they discovered that most of it had been destroyed; smashed up with a heavy object, and pretty recently, too. There was a laptop computer sitting on the desk as well… also smashed… and a majority of the papers had been either ripped up to the point of being illegible, or had been ran through a shredder, like someone was trying to clean house so nothing that they were doing would ever be found.

"Look at all this stuff." The short-haired woman commented, tilting up one of the broken devices. "Must'a taken more than a year gettin' it all goin'… specially' without anyone findin' out… you reckon someone's been out here watchin' us?"

"Well, it's mostly garbage now." Ethan replied, pushing the broken laptop away. "Hard to tell what someone was… hey, wait a second, what's this?"

Underneath the laptop, possibly hidden or maybe simply missed during the house cleaning that was going on there recently, were several intact papers. They appeared to be a series of reports and email transcripts, and when Ethan picked up the stack for a closer look, he saw that there were dates on top of each page. The top one was dated in early 2015, maybe a month after Mia had disappeared, and after a quick flip through, he found that the last one was dated only a couple months ago.

January 16th, 2015 12:42 AM

It's been about a week since you guys gave me that stuff, and I'm real happy to report in this, well… report that my head is clear, and I'm no longer under Eveline's control. Thanks a lot for that, guys, I mean it, I owe you guys big time. The little bitch still thinks she's got me though, since I've been acting like the others just like you told me, and she doesn't think anything's wrong. Just to let you know, you might wanna fix that if you're planning to weaponize her and make more… see, she looks like a twelve year old, but she also thinks like one, too.

Anyway, here's the first report you wanted. My mom and dad are completely under Eveline's power, and they're acting like the little bitch has always been here, like there've always been three kids in the house. My sister is definitely infected, too, but for some reason Eveline just leaves her alone for most of the day. She has her tuck her in at night, and that creepy little bitch smiles real big when Zoe tells her stories before she goes to sleep.

And your girl, Mia ain't having a very good time at all, like the infection's hitting her in a different way. It's like she's halfway in reality, and halfway in Evie-la-la Land, and for such a pretty little thing, this girl can get violent something fierce. I locked her in a cage after the last time she hit me, and Eveline visits her almost every day, but not to do happy girly stupid shit like she does with Zoe. I tell you, the little fucking brat really has it in for Mia for some reason.

February 4th, 2015

You know, this arrangement ain't so bad, I just gotta say. Even though I'm kinda worried that Eveline will find out I'm not her slave, but pretending to still be infected allows me to be as crazy and fucked up to people as I want. Whenever Eveline decides not to infect one of the poor bastards that wanders onto the property, she gives them to me, and she giggled when I made one play a card game where he'd lose a finger if he lost.

Speaking of Eveline, I don't know if I'm just seeing shit because of some latent effects of the infection, or what, but I tell you this little brat has grown up a lot over the last year, but… no one but me seems to notice at all. She's beautiful now, and just between us, is Eveline really Mia's daughter like she thinks? She's gotta be, because God damn they look alike now, but don't worry… I once saw Eveline pick up a man by the throat with one hand and break his neck, so I ain't gonna lay a finger on her.

Mia on the other hand… that's a different deal. Eveline's getting frustrated about something with her, and actually told me to start hurting Mia just so she'd regenerate like the old man does. Eveline thinks it will increase her hold on her, so I beat the shit out of Mia every day, and I love hearing her scream… I also like pretending that she's Eveline from time to time.

September 1st, 2016

Eveline's obsession with having a family is getting out of hand. It started with just the people who wandered out onto the property, but now she's having us snatch up people off the street in town, and that's getting pretty hard to do, with the newspaper coverage, and the cops starting to sniff around. I'm pretty sure I can hide out here in my little laboratory here if the place gets raided, and yes I still have the E-Necrotoxin synthesizer in my desk drawer in case I have to kill Eveline… guess I gotta get a blood sample from her or something.

Oh, and speaking of Eveline, I think she might be getting sick or something. She gets tired real easy these days, and her naps can last for hours, but she ain't lost a bit of her powers… in fact, I'd say her abilities have gotten even stronger. It's just that seeing what's happening to her face, and her hair, and just her body in general… I'll send a picture after a send this report so that you can see what I'm talking about.

"It says here that something's been happening to Eveline." Ethan commented, re-reading to try and get more information. "But it doesn't…

"Forget Eveline for a second." Zoe interrupted as she also re-read the document. "Ethan, don't you realize what this means? It's Lucas… that fuckin' asshole was cured from the start, an' he jus' left us there to suffer… an' that means… all them people he tortured to death… Ethan, he was doin' that willingly."

Zoe started to cry again, slowly moving closer to Ethan so that he could hug her, and he couldn't blame the short-haired woman for being so upset. After all, she had just discovered the truth about her brother, and it was awful, but there was something else on Ethan's mind. If Lucas had been cured, then that meant that someone knew about Eveline and the Bakers right from the start… someone who was willing to let these horrible events unfold, while doing nothing to stop it… so the biggest question was:

Who was Lucas reporting to?