Chapter 27
The first raindrops dot the cobblestone, cold and prickling. Just as I imagined the start of a hard heat storm would feel.
"I always wondered what happened to it," says Claire.
"Intel said it burned to the ground. Gaea must have secured it after Umbrella abandoned it," Redfield says. "Well, good. This'll make searching easier. The old training facility is a ways away from the underwater lab. Let's try there first. "
"Good idea," Claire says.
Trish climbs the guest house steps. "That sounds fun. Enjoy getting yourselves killed."
"Come on, Trish," I say. "You know this island better than anyone -"
"What I know, Snake, is that if you'd left them like I said, we'd both be safe. But you didn't, so now we're going to die."
"Trish -"
"If she wants to stay, then let her. We can manage without her," says Claire.
"I'm not just leaving her here," I say. "Trish, please. Come with us."
Grabbing the lanyard cord, she yanks her ID card out of my hand. "She's right: you don't need me. Not when you have her." She disappears into the guest house.
The rain strikes me hard, fast, and cold. Lightning flashes crooked and disjointed, like gnarled fingers ripping apart the sky.
"We'd better get moving before Mitchell and Cabot finish the HCF," says Redfield.
I stare at the Christmas wreath hanging on the door. "I'll catch up to you later."
"But…" Claire says.
Redfield touches her arm. She looks at me, then she and Redfield take off down the cobblestone path. I enter the guest house. A tall Christmas tree stands behind the lobby's ornate mahogany desk, casting golden light across the marble tiles and stone pillars. Red-carpeted steps, framed by a garland-wrapped banister, climb to the second floor.
Boots click behind the far pillar. I follow them to a mahogany door. It opens to a marble-tiled hallway, accented by green wallpaper. The hallway ends at another door and a space with an elevator and stairwell. A small Christmas tree, wound in red ribbon, stands in the corner.
Light footsteps pad behind the door. Women's boots on carpet. There's a card scanner beside the door.
I knock. "Trish?"
The door opens. She stands in the doorway, a flashlight in hand. Her eyes are puffy and pink.
"Where are they?" she asks.
"They went on ahead."
"You dared leave her side? What a shock."
"'I almost killed them both to save you!"
"And then you condemned yourself and me to die here with them - after everything we've been through. After I risked my life to save you. You've killed us both for some girl you just met."
"Because she makes me feel like I'm more than some monster that was created to kill!"
"To me, you are more!"
"Then why are you so deadset against me being more?"
Sadness shadows her face. "Because I don't want you to get hurt like I was."
"What?"
She pushes open the door. The dark storage room is lined with old, blue carpet. Shelves built into the walls stock pillows, bed sheets, toilet paper, canned food, walkie talkies, flashlights, gardening tools, and more. She leads me to an alcove, where the air feels hot and stuffy for some reason. It makes me feel sick. I hang by the opening while she sits on a musty couch shoved inside.
"It was Christmastime one year when I was in college," she says. "I tracked down my birth parents. I wanted to feel like I belonged somewhere, I guess. They were both married to other people. No kids besides me. I was just some mistake they made in high school. They never even named me. Patricia King is what the nuns decided to call me since it was the name of some old woman who donated a lot to the orphanage. My parents didn't want anything to do with me.
"By the time I got here, you'd become one with the virus. Dr. Cabot was just waiting for you to wake up. When you did, he told us not to tell you where you came from because it might ruin the project. You might...you might regain your memories."
Thunder cracks. My heart hammers so hard it hurts. I grip the alcove corner.
"All those times we were together by ourselves...you knew and you never said anything," I say. "I almost killed Claire and her brother to protect you because I thought we were - were friends -"
"We are friends -"
"And the whole time she was telling me the truth while you...you were lying to me."
"Because I didn't want either of us to die! And because...because I thought you were lucky you didn't know."
My throat burns. All of me burns. I back away until I bump into a folded table. A voice whispers, soft and distant like splashes echoing within a deep well:
That was too close. Thanks for the help. Check out these bad boys. They look cool, huh?
My voice.
Trish's cheeks glisten in the faint light. "I'm so sorry, Snake. I didn't know what else to do."
"Who am I, Trish? Am I Steve? Steve Burnside?"
She doesn't answer.
Without so much as glancing at her, I turn on one of the flashlights. A faint beam illuminates the shelf. I take a pair of bolt cutters and snap off the metal cuffs. They drop to the floor. The first three walkie talkies I grab all garble static. Hooking them to my belt, I open the door. The fluorescent light blinds me. I start down the hallway.
"Snake!"
Trish stands in the doorway, the door half blocking her.
"There's a security room in the Viral Research lab, with rows of monitors. You can use them to see the whole island." She points at the stairwell. "Take those down to the hangar. You'll see a big shutter - that's the transport tunnel. It leads to the lab's loading dock. Then take the stairs to the second floor, past the break room, across the balcony. Look for the louvered door." She pulls off her ID card and holds it out to me. "Here. You'll need this to get into the tunnel and loading dock."
I take the card. "This isn't me forgiving you."
"I know."
Looping the cord around my neck, I head for the stairwell.
xxx
The hangar's light streams through the giant hole where the stairwell door used to be. I climb down the rubble. Bullet holes pockmark the wall. The chopper and mercs lie in smoking, sliced bits. Blood splashes the cement floor like a nouveau art painting. The smell of gore and burning rubber hangs so heavy I can taste it.
So this is what it's like to stand over dead people: so surreal you almost don't believe it's happening.
Two pairs of red footprints head toward the guardrail. Loafers and big, bare feet. Scanning open the shutter, I dash through the tunnel. Shipping containers and empty cages cramp the loading dock. I race up the stairs to the catwalk's lone door. It's locked. No card reader - just a standard metal key lock. I pull out Gaea's credit card, still undamaged except for the one corner, and jam it inside the bolt. The card snaps in half. The hotel card cracks and then snaps. I toss them and lean over the guardrail. The containers hold glass flasks, lab goggles, and the like. No acid anywhere. A door peeks behind one pallet, hidden by the shadows.
I scan Trish's card. The door opens. I step onto hollow metal. It's a platform for moving big things between floors. The turntable control panel light shines red. I take hold of the inserted key. The rain hammers against the roof, filling the shaft with the sound of -
Gunfire and shattering glass. I can hear them but the magnum is holstered, and the lab gear remains untouched. My voice whispers again:
Don't worry, Claire. Your knight in shining armor is here!
You wish. But thanks for your help, Claire's voice answers.
I turn the key and press the B1 button because something urges me to go down. Cranking loudly, the platform sinks into the shaft. It grounds to a halt at a door. I open it and step off the platform. More shipping containers surround me. The feeling that dragged me down here pulls me to a door across the small room - a door I couldn't even see because a pallet covered it.
Dim, yellow light illuminates the dark brick walls and steps. Turning on the flashlight, I descend them. A giant steam boiler growls in one corner. Bars barricade the entrance to a corridor. More brick steps lead to another door. It opens to more darkness and the sound of water raging ceaselessly.
Steve, what happened to you on this island? Claire's voice asks. Who brought you here, and where is your family?
I don't want to talk about it. Got it? my voice answers.
A grated catwalk leads across the gray-stoned cavern. A waterfall churns beneath the catwalk, plummeting to a waterway that rushes into the pitch black. As loud as the rushing is, it can't wash out the gunfire.
Then my voice says, Let's get going.
The catwalk ends at an elevator, lit by a wall-fastened lantern. My finger presses the 1F button. The scissor gate opens to more darkness. A copper smell hangs heavy here. Bright red stains mark the floor. Fresh blood. Lots of fresh blood. Quietly, I follow them to a sliver of light - a door left ajar. Drawing the magnum, I open the door.
The room is red - red with the blood soaking the floor and oozing down the high walls and four stone pillars. Blood drips in thick droplets from the wooden walkway overhead. Sliced body parts lie scattered like Christmas confetti in a window display. The nearest column's circular light throws my shadow across the wall. The black silhouette makes it seem like a man is standing in the middle of the room.
A man did stand in the middle of this room. A sick man wearing a dirty, torn prisoner uniform, his foam-coated teeth gnashing.
Shoot it, Steve! Claire's voice says.
I...I can't! mine answers.
Gunfire and screaming erupt. Then death. Death that I caused. Death of a man I somehow knew. I spent so long wanting him dead and then I killed him and all I could feel was sadness and sickness so strong I couldn't stand.
The magnum drops to the floor. I drop to the floor. My heart pounds so loudly I can hear it over the rain. It pounds so hard it hurts. I can't breathe. I can't feel. I can't think. I just hear Claire's voice saying that name over and over again. Steve, Steve, Steve. My name.
She touches me and says something. All I see is her eyes. So big and blue. So kind and warm. The only ray of light in this deep, dark hole.
"Claire, I killed him," I say. "I guess 'cause I am just a monster."
"No, you're not. You're a person who's experienced awful things and dealt with it as best as he could, just like every survivor," she says.
"Hard to believe when you kill someone and you don't even know why."
"Your father stole information from Umbrella - medicinal formulas - to sell on the black market."
Dad used to work for Umbrella. Tried to steal information, intending to sell it off to the highest bidder, my voice says.
"But they found out."
He was caught.
"They killed your mother. Then sent you and your father here to die."
Mom was killed. And we were sent here.
"That's why you were here when I arrived. Right after I got caught and sent here, someone bombed the island. It caused a biohazard. Your father was infected. He was so far gone that he tried to kill me. You had to make a choice. Okay?"
It's okay now, her voice says. Just rest.
"Just breathe."
I take a deep breath and exhale. In and out, in and out. The voices fade. The shadow man is gone. I'm sitting under the walkway. Claire kneels beside me, her hand on my shoulder. She helps me to my feet.
"You okay?" Redfield asks. He's holding the magnum.
"Yeah, I think so. How did you guys find me so fast?"
"We just walked in," says Claire. "Where's your friend?"
"She didn't come. I found these. Thought they could be useful." I pass them the walkie talkies. "Trish told me about a security room. She said you could use the monitors to see the whole island."
"It's on the second floor. We just came from there," says Redfield.
We scrape the blood off our boots and get on the elevator. Claire and Redfield explored another wing of the building until they came to the security room. It was locked by a card reader. They cut through a courtyard out front to get to the room with the bodies. There was another door to the security room this way when they - when we were last here.
The gate opens. Claire shines a flashlight on the wall. A metal door gleams silver. I scan it open. The wall of glowing screens casts an eerie white light over the room. A gun locker gleams in one corner - empty except for a stack of black boxes. Trish was right: the monitors show the whole island. This lab, the BOW Research lab, the guest house, the workers' dorms, the cafeteria and clinic on the other side of the island, the gardens, the walkways, the bridge, the beach. Dick and Dr. Cabot ghost onto one screen. Dick points at the cafeteria doors. Dr. Cabot rips them apart. They go inside.
"Chris, look!" Claire says, pointing to a fuzzy black blob with a pointed tip.
A small jet sitting in the middle of a high-ceilinged hangar.
"There's our ticket out of here," says Redfield.
Claire twists the dial below the monitor. The camera shifts left, then right. A series of catwalks wraps the hangar, climbing from the floor to the ceiling. Big fuel drums rest near the reinforced steel doors and control panel. Claire taps the dial. The camera zooms in. Black letters crawl across the wall.
"EMERGENCY ACCESS. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY," she reads.
"I bet that's the old underground hangar," says Redfield. "If it is, then we need to find a way to either open the hatch or get into the tunnels. You used to be able to access them through a secret passage near a waterway on B1."
"I passed a waterway on B1 on my way here," I say.
Redfield nods. "It might be the same one. Let's check it out."
"I'll stay here and keep an eye on the monitors." I snap on my walkie talkie. "I'll radio you if I see anything."
"That's a good idea," Claire says as she and Redfield turn on theirs. "They're set on Channel 3, so let's sync up on Channel 7 - for luck."
Redfield hands me the magnum. "Be careful."
I let them into the hallway. They take the elevator down. One monitor shows the boiler room. I press the button below until the waterfall appears. Redfield and Claire are leaning over the guardrail, Claire pointing her flashlight at the waterway. I turn the dial. The camera pans down. The light catches an alcove beside the fall.
"Claire, point the flashlight to the left of the fall," I say.
The light moves back to the alcove.
"Move the beam forward slowly," I say.
The light skims toward the camera. The alcove opens into a walkway. Rows of pipe, gleaming dimly, lead up the wall.
"There's a ladder beside the waterway," I say.
"How do we get down?" Redfield says.
"I'm looking."
I cycle through the camera shots. The only shot of the waterfall is the one I'm looking at. None of the other monitors show B1. I shine my flashlight on the monitor console. Buttons and labels cut and dot the console surface. A CB radio and intercom mic rest on one corner.
The light catches the label "MAP." One "MAP" button reads, "CONTROLS." I press it. The large panel beside the buttons flashes on. A whole map of the island appears. I press the Viral Research building, then "B1." I tap the room with the waterfall - the "Safeway" - and scroll until "WATER OPERATIONS" appears. I slide the "POWER" meter from 100% to 0%.
The water slows to a spit. Claire aims the light down. Where the water fell stands a ladder that climbs to the catwalk.
"Hey, good work!" says Redfield.
Climbing down, he and Claire follow the alcove to the other ladder. He goes first while she watches.
"Where's Mitchell and the BOW?" asks Claire.
"They're still on the other side of the island, in a watchtower near the bridge," I say.
Redfield pushes aside the hole cover and disappears. Claire starts after him. I find them on the jet's monitor, moving down a dark corridor with Claire in the lead. They come to reinforced sliding doors like the ones in the high-ceilinged hangar.
"Hey Snake, a little help, please?" says Claire.
I tap the hangar and then "ACCESS." A message asks me if I'm sure I want to grant access. I click "YES."
The doors slide open. They run to the jet. Redfield climbs in the cockpit. The wing lights flash on. Claire dashes to the doors' control panel.
"Good news: the hatch controls are down here, and the jet has enough fuel to get us to the mainland. We just need your friend's security pass to access the hatch options."
"Awesome! I'll get Trish, then we'll meet you guys down there."
I flip through the Viral Research lab and guest house monitors, looking for Dick and Dr. Cabot. Nothing. That's good enough for me. Gripping the Magnum, I shatter every screen. Glass flecks scatter across the control console and floor.
Something big thunks outside the louvered door. A giant, green fist punches through the steel louvers. I scramble behind the control console and twist the walkie talkie's volume to zero. Wet loafers squeak to the console. Big, thumping feet follow.
"No!" Dick yells, pounding the console. "No, no, no, god dammit, no!"
He pants hard. The mic snaps on.
"That was clever of you to lead me to the wrong part of the island and smash the security monitors. Though clever you are, the island's resources are limited, and attempting to access them means risking your life. I merely want to achieve my dream of revenge, so I'll offer safe passage back to the mainland to the person who brings me the BOW. You have one hour to make yourself known to me, and only one. After that, I will make sure all three of you suffer a slow and painful death. Choose wisely this time."
Setting down the mic, he takes a seat in the console's rolling chair. Static sizzles and pops. A voice cuts through the static.
"Dr. Mitchell? Are you still in the security room? I have info on the BOW's whereabouts."
My heart stops.
Dick grabs the corded speaker. "You came forward quicker than I expected, Patricia."