Las Plagas: Resident Evil IV

Chapter Fifty Three: El Regenerador

After passing back by the first junction he had come to and heading down the other hallway, Leon turned the latch on another metal door, opening it up into a place that didn't look anything like the rest of the building. Instead of industrial concrete and metal like everywhere else, this place had tile-floors with white walls and ceiling panels sort of like the ones that could be found inside of a hospital. None of the lights were working when he flipped the switch, though, so the Agent was forced to rely on his compact flashlight once again.

Sweeping the narrow beam back and forth across his new surroundings while carefully moving into the long room, Leon realized that the power to this place must have been off completely, since the rows of complex medical equipment and monitors were all plugged in, but nothing was on. Unused patient beds were there, too, making him thins that this was some kind of laboratory, since Los Iluminados didn't seem like the kind of group to offer health care to their members… hey, wait a second…

Just before his death, Luis had been trying to tell the Agent about the process for removing immature parasites from an infected host, and that the dark haired man's lab hadn't been at the castle, so… was this it? Was the big complicated machine for removing the parasites in this very room? Hmmm… didn't look that way, at least from what he could see with the flashlight beam… maybe it would get easier once the power was back on, and…

"Holy shit!" Leon exclaimed, jumping backwards at what he saw next.

There was a loud crash when one of the beds fell over after he backed into it, making the Agent even more nervous while quickly raising the rifle so he could aim at… he wasn't even sure what he was looking at. Trying to catch his breath while looking down the sights of the weapon, he started to calm down after realizing that this gray-colored… thing wasn't immediately attacking him. It was taller than a man as it lie sprawled across one of the beds, with muscular arms and legs that were hooked up to the deactivated monitors as if it were actually a patient.

Genderless, and with slightly elongated fingers that were pointed at the end sort of like the start of claws, the most frightening feature of this thing was its face, or rather its oversized mouth that was full of long sharp teeth… you know what, fuck this thing. Kakka-kakka! Firing a quick burst with the rifle, a few holes appeared in the monster's face as the bullets tore right through, but there was no reaction, so… did that mean it was dead? Everything else in this whole region had attacked him on sight, so if it did nothing after being shot, then Leon was satisfied that there was no danger.

"Gotta get out of here." The Agent said to himself, scanning the room again. "Where the hell's the damn power box?"

Moving a lot faster now, he continued passing by the rows of beds and equipment until reaching the far end of the lab, where a reinforced door was there to greet him. It was cold to the touch, and had a thick rubber seal between it and the doorframe, the purpose of which was immediately understood as soon as Leon turned the latch. This next room must have had its own power source, since it was freezing inside, thanks to the cooling system that was very loudly blowing out its own personal blizzard. The tips of his fingers were instantly cold, and his breath was visible, but these complaints were quickly forgotten when the Agent saw what the freezer was used for.

One of the beds had been rolled into the center of the freezing room and just left there, with one of the villagers lying face down; a look of horror and agony forever frozen onto his face, but unable to do anything about it because he was strapped down. The reason for this agony was obviously because of the spider-like parasite that was halfway extracted from his back… hey, this thing didn't look like the formless blobs that Leon had seen sticking out from the infected people's necks in darkened areas… this thing actually looked like the images he had seen carved into the relief walls down in the castle's mines.

Was this what a fully grown parasite looked like in real life? The legs that had been removed from the villager's back were propped up with wires as if this sickening display had been used as some kind of model for the research going on, but what was the point? Luis had said that he had found a way to remove immature parasites from a host, but what was this? An unsuccessful attempt to extract an adult? Apparently, this attempt hadn't gone so well, especially for the villager… probably died during the procedure… so basically he and Ashley were screwed if they didn't act fast.

No strange looking machines were in sight, just a bunch of bagged samples on the racks near the walls… but there was a large metal access panel right near where the cold air was blowing out. Realizing again just how cold he had become, Leon let out a labored breath as he shielded his face with his arms while walking through the wind, and then having to breathe on his hands a couple times to make his fingers able to get the thing open. The Agent had to smack the frost off, but once the hatch was open he saw that it was in fact the power panel he was looking for.

Examining the circuit breakers inside, the Agent discovered that almost all of them were shut off, with the exceptions probably being the ones to the freezer and the few lights that were on in the rest of the place. He couldn't read the assignments of each breaker, since like with everything else, they were handwritten in Spanish, so Leon just started flipping all of them to the on position, resulting in the lights coming on inside the freezer. Hopefully that meant that main power was on so that the door to Ashley's cell could be opened, but there was only one way to find out.

Breathing on his hands again as he walked toward the door, the Agent was happy to get back into the warmer lab, especially since the ceiling lights were on now, allowing him to see the entire room… but something was wrong. The lights were on, and all of the medical monitors and equipment were powered up again, but there was an odd sound among the beeping and humming of the devices. It was kind of like a breathing sound, but rapid, and also kind of like hissing at the same time, as if whatever was making the sound wasn't sure which noise to make.

"Oh, crap." Leon whispered once he saw the source. "You have got to be shitting me."

He hadn't noticed it at first, since it was standing in the shadows, but then it moved, its whole body shaking and vibrating like it was hopped up on amphetamines or something, and making that sound while large amounts of drool ran down from between its teeth. Crash! The sensors on its body were still hooked up to the machines next to the bed it had been lying on a few minutes ago, causing the machine to fall to the floor when it started walking after the Agent, but Leon didn't plan on allowing it to get very far.

Kakka-kakka-kakka! Raising his rifle and pulling the trigger, once again the bullets tore easily through its flesh, but the monster barely twitched in reaction. It just kept slowly walking toward him, breathing and shaking with each step like it didn't even notice the bullets that were blowing right through its face and chest. But then it happened; the monster suddenly made a loud kind of coughing sound, stumbling backwards as a large part of its stomach exploded in reaction to one of the bullets.

Yes! Leon thought as he reloaded the rifle. For a moment he had been getting worried there, but apparently it just took putting enough bullets into the thing for… wait a minute, what? He had just finished reloading, ready to start shooting the monster again, only to discover that in the time he had been reloading, the creature's wound was almost fully healed. Before his very eyes, the open wound on the monster's stomach was closing up as if someone was rewinding a VHS Tape, and soon there was no evidence of it being shot at all.

"No, no, no." The Agent whispered, aiming the rifle again as it got closer. "No, no, no."

Filling the room with flashes of light and noise when he pulled the trigger again, Leon aimed for that same spot on its torso again, but this time nothing happened no matter how many times it was hit. Finally the rifle clicked empty, and the Agent couldn't quite find a curse word powerful enough to convey how he felt when he realized that he didn't have any more ammo for it. Meanwhile, the abomination was still getting closer, so he tossed the now useless rifle at it, followed by picking up a large monitor over his head and tossing that, too.

The monitor made the creature stumble back a bit upon impact, but otherwise didn't hurt it, so Leon backed away, taking out his revolver and shooting at different parts of the monster's body out of desperation. Bang! Bang! Aiming at its face, its stomach, and one of its legs, the third shot he fired had some luck when the abomination's entire leg exploded, causing it to cough again when it fell over onto the nearby bed. The bed fell over, taking the monster with it to the floor, but its leg almost immediately started growing back even though it was shot a few more times.

Using this moment to try and escape, the Agent tried to make a run for it, only to be stopped when the monster slashed at him with its claws while diving into his path, knocking over another bed and more machines. This abomination's movements were clearly not impeded by the loss of limbs, so running away wasn't an option, leaving his only choice to reload the revolver and hope to find more weak points in the thing's body. Only problem was, there was no way to tell where they were, and it was like the weak spot kept changing after each hit.

Well, if Leon was going to do something, he was going to have to come up with it fast, because in only a few second the monster was already starting to stand up on its brand new leg, forcing the Agent to start backing away once again as soon as it started walking toward him.