Chris was the first through the entrance, an overturned server stack was against a door on the far left side of the room, blood and viscera stained the floor, a few bodies lay within, splayed out in red pools. They switched from NVGs to flashlights and swept the room. "Relax." Chris whispered while they approached the corpse, bright lights danced with every motion, the faint shake revealing the nervousness of even these experienced team members.
"If there was anything in here, it either would have come up the stairs after us, or it would be like these." Chris tapped the corpse with his foot. Brain leaked out onto the floor from the top of a skull. "Rebecca, take a look here." He crouched down and tilted the chin back with the barrel of his rifle.
Rebecca approached, crouching down beside him while Jill put her back to them and watched the door they'd entered through.
"Wow." Rebecca said and then reached into her kit and drew out a blue medical glove. She touched the bottom of the chin and tilted it further. The man was hispanic, tan skin, obviously in good shape for his age. "Definitely one of the power repair guys, judging by his clothing and belt. No wonder it's still dark in here." She said offhandedly, "It looks like whatever killed him ripped through beneath his jaw, came up through the center of his mouth, up to the roof of his mouth…" She reached over to the mouth and opened it, her light filled the dead oral cavity with light, "no, through the roof of his mouth, and into his brain before coming partially out the back of the skull."
"What kind of weapon does that?" Jill asked, shifting uncomfortably on her feet, her shoulders rolling back and forth for a moment as she squared herself, a faint twinge of fear to her voice.
"I don't know… I've never seen a wound like this." Rebecca's eyes were wide and focused, she got up and went to the head of the dead man, she picked the head slightly up at the ears, tilting it so she could see into the brain cavity. "The hole is something." She said breathlessly, sticking one gloved hand into the hole at the top of the skull.
"Something?" Chris asked in a half sort of 'snap' to his tone.
"Yes. I don't know how to say this, I mean my hand fits in here with a bit to spare, but what could punch through bone like this? It takes five hundred and twenty pounds of compression to break a skull against a hard surface. That's if the human is weak, like someone old or very young or has a bone condition. It takes two thousand one hundred pounds if the skull is stronger. A karate black belt punch averages about three hundred twenty five pounds, if you want some perspective. But this?" She stood up and shook her head.
The light on her helmet swept over the floor, bits of brain were scattered at a distance. "This man was on his feet, the blow went through all that flesh, through the brain, clean through the skull, and sent brain matter flying all the way over there." Rebecca focused the light on the fragment of squishy pink brain matter against the wall.
"One of the eaters… zombies, whatever the walking dead are?" Chris asked reluctantly while he searched for the panel.
"No… they're still just normal humans, stubborn about being shot, but nothing special, and they don't seem to inflict wounds like this. Whatever finished this poor bastard off, no it's something else entirely." Rebecca replied, took off her glove, and tossed it aside onto the ground before readying her weapon.
"Well, something to avoid then…" Chris said halfheartedly until he found what he sought, and cursed. "Damn it." He stepped over the corpse.
"What?" Jill asked, briefly glancing over his shoulder before focusing on the door again.
"Somebody tore apart the control panel." Chris cursed, closing the distance and stopping at it.
The panel was gone, and that was all there was to it. A great empty space sat over a bunch of wires. "Look around." He said to his team, "They might have been attacked while doing repairs, maybe it's around here somewhere." Chris barked the order with frustration, and they immediately began sweeping the area with lights, the white passed over metal surfaces like ghosts through a graveyard, nothing to be found, until a voice reached their ears.
"Hello! Hello is there help out there?!" Someone was shouting for them through the door on the far side.
"Yes, yes we're here! It's a rescue!" Chris shouted and rushed for the heavy toppled server stack.
"Listen, I'm one of the repairmen, I'm stuck in here, get me out! I don't like it in here! I don't want to be in here! Please! Please let me out and let me go home!" The voice was faintly muffled, but they started to hear a faint pounding from the other side.
"I can't take the smell of death anymore! Please! I'm blocked in, something fell against this… I can't move it!" Nails scraped against wood. Pounding, the sound of kicking. "Please let me out! I want to go home! Get me out of the dark!" A desperate thud, like a head falling forward as the brain within 'gave up'.
"We're going to get you out! Don't worry!" Chris shouted as he came closer, "Jill, Rebecca, help me here!" Chris said and went to the aluminum frame that held the tall server stacks.
They rushed over, briefly slinging and holstering their weapons, they braced their hands, leaned forward, put one foot behind the other, and made ready.
"On three!" Chris said and took a deep breath.
"One. Two… Three! Push!" The scraping, screeching sound of metal against the floor stung their ears, they winced, but pushed until the stack was away from the door.
Chris snapped erect, his hand darted for the handle, he turned it, and flung the door wide open.
On his knees inside was a teary eyed man in a repairman's outfit, the pupils of his eyes went tiny and he blinked rapidly. "Oh thank god… thank god I thought I was going to die in here…" He fell forward onto all fours. "All my… everybody. That thing, that thing killed everyone…"
"What thing?" Chris asked, he crouched down and put a hand on the thick shoulder of the worker.
"I… she, I'm sure it was a she, but not quite human. Or I don't know, a m-m-monster. It walked with a hunch, thin arms, but it was strong, so strong. It had a kind of a hunch to its back, her back, whatever. And, it killed them, all of them, easily…"
"How come you're alive, and are you hurt?" Rebecca asked, placing her hand over his forehead.
"No, I'm alright. I… listen this sounds weird, but the others, they tried to hurt the monster, it killed them, just the ones who attacked. I didn't, I w-was too scared. Too scared to attack… I just stood frozen like a statue, like a damn statue, a monument to cowardice…" His body began to shake beneath their lights, sweat and the smell of his fear came off him in waves, as bad as the smell of the corpses left behind.
"And what happened to the panel, we were going to get power on but…" Chris pointed to it. "Did she do that?"
"No. No I did. She made- made me. I took the top off, and some parts, and then… then she put me in here, locked me in, and if they're not around here, whatever that thing is, took them along too." He swallowed, then tried to swallow again, and then vomit came out of his mouth as whatever he swallowed refused to stay down. The thick viscera of his stomach acids hit the ground, and he wiped his arm over his mouth.
"L-Listen you've got to get me out of here… you've got to! I can't die down here!" he shot up and looked at the light bearing soldiers with wild, desperate hope.
"I'd like to, and we will, but first we need the power on. There's no getting out of here till we've done what we came to do. I was hoping all I'd have to do is flip a switch… but if that isn't the case… you'll have to help us." Chris said and held out a hand to the man on his knees.
"H-How?" The worker asked.
"We'll recover the parts, you get this thing repaired. Just close the door behind us, wait here, and we'll bring you what you need, you fix it, then when we've got power, we can rescue everybody still alive and get out of here."
He shook his head. "No way! Get me out! Get me out get me out get me out get me out!"
"Oh, you don't like the dark?" Jill asked from over her shoulder while she kept her eye on the door. "Well guess what buddy, it's dark out there, all there, and getting darker. And by the way, look around." Jill swept her flashlight over the ground, other than the two bodies that remained, nobody was there.
"Yeah, your friends, the whole team? Along with who knows what else? All dead, but walking around. Go take a look up those stairs." She pointed toward the door, "The dead walk until we stop them, and I don't want to fight them in the dark for one second more than I have to. Not to mention who knows what else is out wandering around. You get me?" Jill spat the words down at the electrician, and they slowly sank in, bringing a dawning realization to him that grew as he turned his head up again to look at them.
"A-Alright, but listen, you want me to stay here, trapped in this room, one of you stays too. I'm not staying down here alone and unguarded. Go get the panel, and I can fix this. But if you see… that thing, whatever she is… fire, and she may kill you." He swallowed hard.
"Jill, you stay with him. We'll get what we need and come back." Chris walked toward the door without waiting for the acknowledgement, Rebecca followed, and before they reached the door, she looked over her shoulder, her bright light hitting the remaining two, "We'll be back. Just keep the door shut, barricade it if you can, and don't do anything reckless."
She winked in the dark, and Jill smirked, certain it was meant for her, and knowing that wink was there even without seeing it.
Chris and Rebecca switched to NVGs as soon as they closed the door behind them and made their way up the stairs again.
"They'll be alright." Chris whispered when they neared the door.
"They'll be alright." Rebecca replied, glancing back briefly before they entered the hall again.
Lisa touched her head, pain thudded behind her eyes, and the snake hissed at her side. It's long tongue tasted the air, the faint sound of howling hit her ears. And the sound of shouting voices. She followed the sounds. 'Dogs.' The word came more easily now, much more easily. 'Men. People.' Both words came on just as easily as 'dogs' did, and she picked up her pace, excitement rising. It felt 'new'. Her lips peeled back, her pulse raced faster, her feet matched her pulse, the shouting was louder, gunfire echoed toward her.
"Kill these bastards, why won't they die?!" Someone was shouting, a scream filled the air and the smell of fear piss followed.
"Fucking Wesker! If I survive this I'll kill him. I'll take his shades and shove them down his goddamn throat!" The voice cut off, another scream. "Get in there! Seal the door! Seal the goddamn door!" Tearing flesh and strangled cries, the sound of blood spatter striking the wall and the ceiling, growling, snarling hungry dogs tore into flesh. She heard the clatter of metal and plastic. The memory of the sound of the gun dropping to the floor when she killed the guard, told her what was happening as she followed the noise to a large vent.
A door slammed shut, screaming was still going on as flesh was torn away from flesh, a body being rendered down to mere 'parts', the scream became a gurgle, and the sound became that of hungry dogs wolfing down flesh. Slightly farther from the wolfish hungry consumption by the undead dogs, she heard a screaming male voice, "Listen here you sonofabitch, you need to send backup if you want this armory! The codes don't work, we secured ourselves in a room just off the side of it, pried it open and are shut in, but we can't get out. These things won't die! Over!"
A voice, a haunting, familiar voice carried back. "Do your jobs and don't die. How is it that you can be so incompetent as to fail at both of those tasks, and expect me to throw good money after bad by sending back up for you? Either finish your jobs, or you are finished yourselves. Do not contact me again until you've finished what I sent you to do. Out."
The faint click, and silence followed by cursing.
Lisa approached the vent, her fingers curled within the gaps, and she pulled, metal groaned and resisted, only to snap, the screws tore from their position in the metal walls. She flung the vent away contemptuously, it slid along the floor until it thudded to a heavy stop against the wall.
Lisa's slender hand fell to the snake's head. "Mo-ther." She rasped out, and pointed within the dark. The snake tasted the air, and slowly, easily, slid within the shaft, it's tongue tasting the air again and again, guided by its senses to prey that would, hopefully, satisfy its hunger.
'Wesker. Shades. Wesker. Shades. Wesker. Shades. Shades. Wesker. Shades. Shades. Shades. Shades.' Lisa turned the words over in her head again and again. Casting her memory back to the table, over and over again. 'Voice… voice… that voice. Voice, shades, Wesker. Wesker shades voice?'
Slowly, understanding grew out of the fog. 'The voice is here, the man voice who told others what to do… kill the man voice… get back mother. Has mother. I want mother.' Lisa thought, watching the snake disappear, she tapped the code onto the door, and opened it, listening sharply to the sounds that carried through the smaller vents along the base of the wall while she settled on where to go for her next target.