Pandemic: Resident Evil VI
Chapter Twenty Six: The Old Mines
At first Sherry hadn't believed that Tobias would make her and Jake walk through a snowstorm, instead of waiting for the weather to improve before heading to the extraction point, but before she knew it this was exactly what was happening. With only the crackling blue glow of his shock baton to light the way, the blonde shivered as the wind cut right through her jacket, but then she nearly tripped over something, unable to keep herself from gasping at what was lying at her feet.
There were more infected mercenaries, lying all around them with their bodies left lying in unnatural positions, but these ones hadn't been shot or electrocuted like the others. In fact, most of them were pale and skeletal, with bite marks on their necks, making it obvious what must have happened while she was unconscious. The yellow eyed man must have encountered the J'avo while they were all searching for Jake, and now Tobias would be even stronger now that he had fed on the C-Virus within them.
However, it turned out that the walk through the snowstorm wasn't going to be very long at all, since the three of them had walked through the entrance to some kind of cave before Sherry even realized it, and even though this was another break from the wind, it was still cold and… and actually not very dark at all. The blonde could still see after the yellow eyed man put his shock baton away, and once they walked far enough into the cave to round the first corner, it was the dim glow of an electric lightbulb that greeted them.
Old looking, and not very powerful, the small bulb in the open cage fixture mounted to the wall didn't have a very large radius, but there was another one nearby, along with dozens more that were mounted onto the rock so that they were just outside of each other's illumination. Was this a mine, Sherry wondered? It had to be, based on the old, rusted cart tracks that were visible in sections underneath her feet, but the place couldn't have been abandoned for very long, not if there was still power.
"So, what's the plan, super spy?" Jake whispered as they walked. "Is this guy really taking us to the extraction point, or do we need to make a break for it?"
"I don't know, I mean… he's worked for the government before." She explained, trying to stay quiet enough to not be overheard. "But we can't just run away; Tobias Liquid is the greatest tracker in the world… he'll find us no matter where we go, and unless some miracle occurs, I don't think we can beat him."
The blonde wracked her brain for some kind of solution to this problem, while the yellow eyed man kept telling them to turn down different tunnels, but nothing was coming to her. Yes, there was a chance that what he told them was on the level, and that the BSAA had sent him to find them after the crash… after all, he had helped Leon Kennedy track Ashley Graham all the way to Spain a few years ago. But then again, Tobias had also infected everyone onboard the Starlight, and then assassinated everyone inside CIA headquarters immediately after the mission was over.
"Stop." The yellow eyed man whispered, interrupting her thoughts. "Don't move… don't breathe… do you hear that?"
Doing as he said, the blonde became as quiet and motionless as possible, but didn't hear anything aside from the low hum being produced by the lights… no, wait… yeah, there was another sound. It was a kind of soft, rhythmic thumping that became easier to hear now that Sherry was aware of it, or… or was it getting easier to hear because it was getting closer? Suddenly Tobias grabbed the blonde and clamped his hand over her mouth, using his foot to push Jake into the shadows behind a large rock while at the same time pulling the blonde around the side of an old rusted mine cart.
Thump-thump-thump, the noise was a lot louder now, with impacts so heavy that the wires connecting the light fixtures shook, and it was a good thing that his hand was over Sherry's mouth, or else she might have screamed when the source of the noise came into view. Running at full speed, and then stopping so hard that little pieces of rock were kicked up, it was the same monster that had both attacked them inside the old factory and shot down the BSAA helicopter… growling and grunting as it searched the area.
It's hand was once again a series of drills, the facets of which twitched and rotated a little with each of the beast's movements. Well, one thing was for sure, and that was Tobias definitely wasn't working with the monster, or else he would have just handed them over right there, so… was he really there to help them? Back and forth, the monster's head swiveled around in an attempt to locate its target in the dim light, but Sherry had seen that it's eyesight wasn't so good, so maybe… just maybe if they stayed in the shadows and were very quiet, maybe they could avoid getting detected.
The beast's breaths became more rapid, and it let out an angry roar that shook the cave a little, clearly frustrated with not having found its targets… but how had it known to look for them in the mine in the first place? According to their guide, this series of tunnels was the fastest way to get to the extraction point, so… had the ones who sent this thing after them somehow found out the details of Sherry's assignment? If so, then they needed to fall back and take the long way around, leaving the monster to search around forever while they escaped.
Unfortunately, as if somehow sensing the blonde's plan, the beast gave up the search and started slowly walking around again… heading back the way the three of them had come, stomping its way toward the cave entrance. This meant that going that way was out of the question, and also that in a very short time the monster would probably turn around and come back this way. Tobias let go of Sherry, putting a finger to his lips for her to stay quiet, and then motioning for her and Jake to follow him deeper into the cave system.
"Come on, we have to keep moving." The yellow eyed man whispered. "Stay quiet and watch where you step; Ustanak might be blind as a bat, but his hearing is almost perfect."
"Ustanak?" The young man replied, moving up closer as they continued down the tunnel. "What, is that thing one of your old buddies from the Umbrella days?"
Actually, no it wasn't, the two of them found out while Tobias led them into a tunnel that went left, and to tell the truth, Ustanak wasn't even that old at all. During the chaos that engulfed the private pharmaceutical industry after Umbrella's fall and Tricell's reorganization, one of the larger independent groups attempted to revive the D Series, a prototype Tyrant creature that never got off the drawing board, and now that the blonde had seen Ustanak, she understood why the project had been abandoned.
"There were five D Series prototypes created." The yellow eyed man continued, using his hand on the wall to keep his balance when the tunnel curved downward. "Believe it or not, your new stalker was the most successful, and the others were destroyed… hell, this one will probably be destroyed too, after its masters run out of fetch missions."
The tunnel continued to spiral around, its downward slope getting so steep at times that the blonde almost lost her footing, but thankfully Jake was there to steady her. He had more questions every time they got close enough to talk without Tobias hearing, but honestly Sherry didn't want to talk about most of the topics. Naturally, the young man wanted to know more about their savior/guide, but she didn't want to tell him that she had known the yellow eyed man since she was a little kid, and that… and that her mother had been cheating on her father with him before everything went to hell in Raccoon City.
Slipping once again before the small group reached the bottom of the tunnel, the blonde regained her footing just in time for the passageway to open up into a much larger chamber, one that was illuminated a lot better because of how many of those small lights were running along the walls and across the ceiling high above. This must have been a part of the mine that was all used up, since there were several machines lying around, and even a few old trucks and excavators parked there as if this was some kind of staging area or a resupply point for whenever something broke down.
Crunch! Suddenly everyone stopped moving in reaction to the loud noise that broke the silence as it echoed around the chamber. Sherry and Tobias looked back, gazing down at the piece of ice that was crushed underneath Jake's foot. The noise bounced around the chamber for several seconds, but then quickly faded back into silence… only to be replaced by a rhythmic thump-thump-thump that made a knot form in the blonde's stomach as it rapidly got closer.
"Hide!" The yellow eyed man whispered harshly.
Once again forced to take cover to avoid being detected by Ustanak, Sherry watched as Tobias ducked around behind an old, rusted generator, but those heavy footsteps were getting louder, and the blonde wasn't sure where to go… at least not until Jake grabbed her arm and pulled her toward what looked like an old rubbish bin. At first she thought that he was pulling her around it so that they could hide there, but instead he pushed open the partially rusted lid while urging her to get inside. The monster's footsteps were getting even louder now as it tracked the sound through the tunnels, leaving no time to argue as the two of them climbed into the bin just in time to avoid being seen.
Jake slowly lowered the lid into place so that the two of them could watch as the beast sprinted down into the chamber; it's drilling arm spinning up at full speed in preparation to, well… drill something, probably. Stopping in the middle of the chamber, Ustanak quickly looked back and forth, growling in frustration when it didn't see anything, and then powering down the drill before starting a slower, more thorough search of the area. Of course, it was only now that Sherry realized the problem with their hiding place: It concealed them pretty well, but how were the two of them supposed to get out of it and sneak away without alerting the monster?