Chapter 11:
Back out in the rain, the pair took a look around to try and find a way back inside since there was now no easy way through. On the wall near the boiler room was a lever that was labeled to go either left or right. What it was for, they weren't sure. The pipe connected to it looked like it led back up to the courtyard they fell into earlier. Before heading up there, they explored the rest of the downstairs and found some more green herbs beneath the stairway. Only this time, they couldn't help the small smiles they gave each other as they searched.
Once they were done, they ran back up the stairs to the courtyard. The helicopter was still on fire, but maybe if they could just get past it, they could make it back inside the building via the door leading to it. There was no way out anywhere else since the area was blocked off by a high iron gate. It was either put out the fire or start climbing.
Taking a look at the crash site, Leon noticed something right above it. It was an open pipe that was connected to a mechanism on the wall near the ladder. He pulled at the lever on it only for the pipe right above it to spout cold water at him instead.
"Gah!" He jerked away, shaking his drenched hair like a dog. Veronica pushed the lever back up stopping the water flow while biting her lip to keep from laughing.
"You ok?" He wiped the water away from his eyes and slicked back his hair. Veronica felt a new warmth in her cheeks at his new look. It suited him. Now if only he were wearing an actual suit.
"Yeah. It's not like I'm already wet anyways." He looked up at the pipes and then the fire. "There's gotta be a way of getting the water to put out the fire. If we can put it out, we can just climb over the copter or something." Veronica looked back at the staircase in thought.
"Maybe that lever down by the boiler room was something. I can go run down there real quick and turn it," she suggested. He followed her gaze then nodded. She quickly ran down to the lever and turned it from the right to the left. As she was climbing the stairs, she shouted to try the water pump.
The officer pulled the lever and watched as the pipe above the fire spouted a waterfall over the flames. In just a few minutes, the fire was out completely. Before walking inside, Leon noticed a box of handgun ammo on the bench next to the door and took it. What luck!
They opened the door of the hallway to let the smoke drift out and waited. Once they deemed it free of smoke, they walked in and were met immediately with a red herb, which they took before turning the corner. Carefully walking through the hallway, the rounded another corner that led to the helicopter. As they approached it, however, the vehicle began to suddenly move as something on the other side began to pick up via the tail.
They froze and watched in terror as a giant grey hulk of a man clad in a black leather trench coat shoved the copter into the wall with ease. It cleared the path, but now he stood in the way of them and the rest of the building. It's fedora cover head looked at them with a blank expression then began to stalk towards them with thundering footsteps. Footsteps that sounded like what they had heard from down in the jail.
Leon aimed his gun at it and got a couple of headshots in, but it only seemed to stun the thing. It stumbled back a bit as another bullet hit it's head, knocking the hat off and onto the floor. The thing's giant hand reached up to tap at the empty space before cracking its neck loudly and stalked after them.
"Jesus Christ! This thing won't die!" Leon shouted before running back the way they came, Veronica following close behind. The footsteps shook the floor beneath them as they made it outside and shutting the door behind them.
"What do we do!?"
"We have to get past it somehow!"
"How?!" The footsteps were reaching the door.
"I'll throw a grenade at it, then we can run past it." The door slammed open against the wall with a loud bang as the giant bent down to get through the doorway. Seeing the pair, he stalked towards them while Leon grabbed a flash grenade from his waist and pulled the pin. "Shut your eyes!" he shouted.
He threw the grenade at the giant's feet and they both shielded their eyes. The grenade went off causing whatever it was to stop and try to recover its eyesight. While it was distracted, the young couple ran past him and into the hallway. Not too far behind, they could hear the monster following them.
"Better keep moving. We need to get enough space between us and that thing. Where do we hide?" the young officer asked as they reached the main hall.
"We can't go to the safe room in the west area. The licker is going to make things difficult for us... Maybe the S.T.A.R.S office?" his companion suggested breathlessly. The monster hadn't reached the hall just yet, but it was close.
"Good enough for me!" They reached the library door just as the giant entered the hall from the waiting room. "Go, go, go!" They ran through the library and out to the second-floor hallway. Once they got to the S.T.A.R.S office, they stopped running and silently opened the door. Before he could get in though, Leon ran to the locker room door, opened it and slammed it before getting back.
They crept into the office and silently closed the door. Hopefully, Leon's little trick would work. They backed away from the door and stood by the desks near the other side of the room. After seeing what it could do through walls, they were not about to take any chances. Trying to keep their breaths shallow, they listened as the door near the linen room opened and slammed back shut.
Each thump of the footstep echoed loudly in the hallway as it drew closer and closer. Their hearts thumped loudly in their chest as they waited with bated breath, hoping to god that it wouldn't find them. It paused just outside the door for a second, their blood running cold as they watched the door with their guns in hand.
Another second passed before the footsteps began again and made their way down the hall towards the locker rooms. The door was slammed open then shut again before the footsteps fade away. They waited till they were gone completely before finally relaxing. Veronica sagged against a desk as she hung her gun around her shoulders.
"What was that thing?!" she whispered breathlessly.
"I don't know! Did you see the size of it?"
"It lifted the helicopter like it was nothing!" He paused in thought at her statement.
"I think that's the thing that killed Ben. The footsteps, the giant hand, and super strength."
"Fuck! What do we do? It's hard enough getting past lickers and zombies, now we have to avoid this asshole?!"
"My gun did absolutely nothing! I don't think we can kill it. I think sneaking around is our only hope against that thing." As he said that, thumping from the floor above them, caused them to jump. They stopped and listened closely as it walked across the room above them before going through a door. The thumps echoed in different parts of the room while the giant looked for them in the library next to them. After a while, it sounded like it went through the other door leading to the main hall and disappeared.
"At least we know how to find it," Veronica said in a low voice. "Maybe as long as we're quiet and we hide at the first sign of it coming, we should be fine. Let's avoid licker pathways as much as possible." Her partner nodded then combed his hand through his hair to calm himself down.
"So, what now?" Veronica bit her lip as she thought of the objectives in her head.
"So far, there are two rooms in the building that have the green club doors. Both are on either side of the station. We should somehow find out where that thing is and go to the room, farthest away from it."
"How do we do that?" They thought about it for a second, trying to figure out what to do.
"Either we just carefully look through the library, or…"
"We make a distraction."
"Maybe both. If it's happily on the other side, we can sneak down to the records room. If it's still on this side we can create a distraction on a different floor then bolt to the other side. It's pretty slow for its size. We can definitely outrun it."
They decided to carefully walk out and over to the library. Quietly opening the door to the main hall, they watched as the giant disappeared through the first-floor entryway to their side of the building. They listened as a door opened and slammed shut then crept out into the hall.
Walking to the other end, they made it to the waiting room without getting noticed and then made their way towards the staircase down to the club door. Everything was still quiet when they got there, which was a good sign. Quickly, but quietly they unlocked the door.
The room had only one dead body in it and it was slumped on the bookshelf next to the door. It must have been reaching for the exit but didn't quite make it. After nudging at it a little, they realized it was really dead. At its feet, however, they found another can of gunpowder and made a quick batch of shotgun ammo with it.
Carefully looking around, there was a giant shattered mirror in between the two rooms that sat next to each other. According to the map, the room they were in was an observation room for the interrogation room on the other side. The mirror must have been a two-way mirror used to observe any interrogations needed for the police. Looking into the adjacent room, they could tell the cause of the mirror shattering was of a charred up dead licker lying on the ground. Something must have killed it already before they got there.
Leon climbed over into the interrogation room while Veronica searched the room she was in. She found a note that had the code to the safe in the second-floor waiting room and a fancy blue box with red jewels on it. In the middle of them, was an empty slot meant for one such jewel. Red jewels….oh!
She dug through one of her pouches and found the forgotten jewel she had taken from the statue up in the art room. Curiously, she placed the ruby in the slot and watched as the lid clicked open.
"Well, what do you know?" She called for Leon and showed him her new finding. Opening it, she pulled out a S.T.A.R.S police badge.
"I'm glad you convinced me to keep the ruby. Turned out to be more useful than we thought...It's a police badge."
"For S.T.A.R.S. What's this doing in here for?" he raised an eyebrow. She shrugged as she read the front logo then turned it around. There was a switch just beneath the clip that looked like it could slide up. She pushed it with her thumb and out of the top, popped a USB dongle connected to it.
"It's also a USB?"
"We can use that in the S.T.A.R.S. office! Maybe it can open the gate and we can get that extra gun!"
"Oh fuck yeah!"
Thumping from somewhere nearby, stopped them in their tracks. The monster's footsteps seemed to head around in different directions. It was probably on the second floor looking for them. They stood there waiting till it sounded like it was in the main hall on the other side of the wall next to them.
"We should get it to come back up here, go down the fire escape and run through to the records room. We'll backtrack since we don't have the heart key to go through and head up to the S.T.A.R.S. office," Leon explained.
"Sounds like a plan. But how do we get its attention?"
"The simple way."
5 minutes later, they were back upstairs creeping through the hallway. Veronica waited by the fire escape door while Leon went into the waiting room. Peeking through the door, he could see the giant heading towards the library. He pushed the door open a smidge more then slammed it closed then waited. After a moment, he could hear the giant's footsteps heading in his direction.
Leon sprinted back out into the hallway towards Veronica. He waved her to go through the door then both of them ran down the fire escape. As they tried to run as quietly as possible through the first floor, they could hear the footsteps above them heading towards the fire escape door. Without any problems, they made it through to the main hall and quickly got to the reception area.
Quietly, they opened the door to the hallway only to freeze at the sound of hissing. There was a licker in there somewhere and they could see a zombie at the window. This was going to be a close one. They couldn't hear the giant yet, so they had some time to walk through. Passing the closed-off hallway when first walked in, they could see the licker messing with the barricade to figure out what it was.
It seemed too distracted to notice them as they slipped past it. Halfway through the hall, the footsteps had finally gotten into earshot. They didn't know where, but they couldn't focus on it. The zombie at the window finally noticed them and slammed his hands against the glass, but they continued through and unlocked the green club door.
Inside, they found a room filled with shelves of paperwork. It was a neat freak's hell if anyone saw how messy each shelf was. They also found a can of gunpowder, a grenade, and the lever to something sitting on a table. Leon immediately recognized what it was for.
"That's for the library! We can now use the jack on the bookshelves!"
As soon as he said that, the footsteps they had been hearing the whole time had grown louder behind the heart door just across from them. It's coming! They quickly ran to the other door just in time for the giant to walk into the room. Lucky for them, the licker had traveled to the other side of the hall, so they ran back to the main hall without having a problem. They ran through and up the stairs, footsteps thudding not too far behind.
Passing through the library they got to the S.T.A.R.S. office just in the nick of time. Once again, they waited in silence as the footsteps passed them and disappeared into the locker room. They stopped to catch their breath, tired from all the running. The sooner they get this new part for the jail, the faster they get away from that thing.
"That thing is merciless on my legs! Christ!" Veronica whispered while sitting in a chair. Her legs burned from all the running they were doing in order to avoid the giant.
"Tell me about it. Let's get this gun and go! We have what we need to get up to the clocktower now." She gave him the USB and watched as he plugged it into the computer. He clicked around for a moment then the door opened with a loud buzz. That was going to attract the monster's attention. They have to move quickly.
Inside, Leon picked up the new gun, a Lightning Hawk magnum gun. He told her it would pack a good punch in shooting things better than his handgun. Taking the holster from its locker, he strapped it to his other leg and placed it inside. Veronica was fine with him taking it. It was already enough for her to have just the one gun.
While he was strapping himself together, Veronica noticed an open envelope with a letter sitting on the bench in front of the gun locker. She picked it up curiously and skimmed over it, recognizing the familiar name signed at the end. She got her partner's attention, holding it up for him to see.
"What is it?"
"Didn't Claire say her brother's name was Chris?"
"Yeah?"
"Then it's from him!" Then she began to read aloud,
"'To my bestest S.T.A.R.S. buds,
How are you all doing in that drab, old station? Hanging in there against old Irons? Me? I just got back from a date with a hot chick. Bet you can guess what we got up to under her extra-large umbrella. Europe is amazing. One month is in no way enough to even scratch the surface. Maybe I'll extend my vacation for another six months. Barry, don't even think of coming to join me. Wouldn't want to make all the cute girls cry, yeah? So you just leave the babes to me. Jill, if Claire tries to contact you, please let her know I'm ok. - Chris Redfield, August 29.' That was just a month ago. That means..."
"Chris isn't here. Claire came here for nothing." The pair looked at each other in disbelief at the situation.
"God! I hope she's ok!"
They left the note on the bench where they found it then walked back into the office. Looking around, Leon noticed a blank piece of paper and a pen sitting on a desk, so he grabbed it and began writing.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm leaving a note for Claire. If she's still alive, she needs to know what we found."
She watched him finish his note then left it on a cart near the trophy shelf. Walking to the door, they stopped and listened for any footsteps, hearing none surprisingly. After a couple of minutes, they realized he was probably on the other side of the building. That didn't stop them from staying quiet through the hallways.
They made it to the library in no time and quickly fixed the jack. With a little elbow grease, they lowered the propped up bookshelf with a loud thud. They had to work quickly now, the giant might have heard them. They each took a bookshelf on either side and, with a heave, they shoved the three together and moved them in a position to create a bridge above them.
There was a ladder next to them, so they climbed up it and crossed the bookshelf bridge to the door. Opening it, the third floor was dark, barely lit from the lights of the main hall below them and the skylight above them. Looking over the railing they could see the giant walking up the stairs to the second floor. There wasn't much time.
The survivors crept across the walkway and found two zombies wandering around. At this point, these things were mere flies compared to literally anything else. Sneaking up behind one, Veronica used her hammer to take it out stealthily while Leon shot at the other.
They could hear the footsteps growing louder, so the two quietly got into the clocktower and didn't move. They listened as the door to the third floor slammed open and the heavy steps drew closer. It paused in the middle of the hallway before walking away to the other side of the floor.
However, they didn't fade away like they wanted because shortly after, it came back around. They drew their guns and aimed at the door ready to shoot, but the door didn't open. Instead, the footsteps went back towards the library and the door shut, to their relief. Eventually, the footsteps were gone.
"Why can't that Mr. X looking motherfucker just leave us alone?!" Veronica grumbled to herself annoyingly.
'"Mr. X?"
"Yeah, I don't know. I just hate that thing and it's ugly, grey shriveled up face. It sounded like a good enough insult, but now I think I'm just gonna call it that." Leon chuckled softly.
"It fits pretty well, so I guess I will too. Better than calling him the giant."
"Let's hurry and get this thing so we can get the fuck out of here!"
Turning around, they were immediately met with an issue. Hanging in the middle of the room was the giant bell that was supposed to go off every hour and it was contained in an iron bar cage. Clearly construction was being done, but the kicker was, the box of parts that they needed was up by the bell and out of reach.
"Damn, let's try and see if we can get up there," Leon said as he began looking around. Close by there was a machine that looked like it was missing a gear and it looked like it connected to a set of stairs that was folded up on the second floor. They were going to need something to get those down and it probably had something to do with the machine.
Wandering around, they found a note informing them of the construction and another machine that required a smaller component. Where the hell are we going to find these things? We've looked everywhere! Veronica thought to herself.
Through the maze of both construction and bookshelves, they found a door leading to a small cramped hallway. Around the bend, it was cut off by a blockade that they recognized as the other side to the one where they found the note about lickers.
On a random box, there was a large black can of gunpowder that said it was the large version of the regular gunpowder. It would make a little more extra ammo with whatever other one is combined with it. They decided to make more ammo for Leon's handgun since he was running low.
Back in the clocktower, they felt a little stumped at what to do. There was clearly something they needed to get the ladder down, but what? Veronica looked at the machine at its composition of gears and...gears. She gasped suddenly getting the idea.
"The gear!"
"What gear?"
"The big one we found in the storage room! We left it there, but it has to fit here!"
"That's right! We did! That room is just across the way! Great thinking, Vee!"
The two crept out quietly to the other side of the floor, watching as Mr. X wandered the first floor still searching for them. Getting to the door, they realized it was locked via an outside lock, which was why they couldn't get out this way before. They unlocked it, went in, and grabbed the gear that still sat where they left it.
Quickly they made their way back and put the gear in the machine. The gears began turning then the ladder loudly creaked as it unfolded and set down for them to climb. The machine stopped moving, so they quickly ran up the stairs. This was making enough noise as it was, they needed to hurry!
The bell and the box of parts were hung too low to reach and was enclosed in its metal cage. They realized they had to get the bell to move. On the other side of the floor was the mechanics of the clock itself. The clock face stuck a minute to three. In it was a small metal gear that looked like it didn't quite belong. Leon pulled it out and looked back at the missing slot. It required something much bigger.
"The other gear! Stay right here!" he said running down the stairs. He put the small gear in the other machine they found and it started to do its magic. Then he went to the stair mechanism and pulled out the large gear. Taking it upstairs, he put into the clock and suddenly, the clock was brought back to life.
The minute hand ticked to the twelve and the two watched as the bell began to move. It chimed loudly causing both of them to hastily cover their ears. The bell rang and thrashed around in its cage causing all of it to fall apart and fall onto the floor with a loud crash. Now they really didn't have a lot of time.
"Hope I don't have to write a report on this," Leon said sarcastically causing Veronica to lightly punched his arm at such a bad joke.
Running downstairs, they found the box of parts and opened it to find the cube that they needed. In the room next to them, footsteps had begun to grow louder which signaled their departure. They ran out of the room and headed toward the east side of the building. All they had to do was make it down to the parking garage and get that parking permit.
Loud footsteps followed as they sprinted down the stairs and around hallways. Their legs burned as they made it to the first floor and towards the stairs leading to the garage. They didn't bother checking the outside, not with Mr. X on their tail. Once in the parking garage, it felt like it was filled with more zombie dogs.
They dodged and weaved past them, shooting as they went till they reached the jail cell door. Once inside, they waited for a moment and didn't hear anything besides the dogs scratching at the door.
"Think he's still up there?" Veronica wheezed, leaning against the counter trying to catch her breath.
"I sure hope so," her companion panted next to her. After taking a minute, they jogged back over to Ben's cell and put the two cubes into the lock. Nothing happened at first, so Veronica started twisting things around.
"It feels like a puzzle," she told him as she maneuvered the parts carefully. He watched impressed as her fingers put the cubes in places that seemed to light the thing up. Whatever she was doing, it was working.
"Seems to be a lot of those around here."
"Yeah, but at least I like to do them!"
"Puzzles are fun unless you're in a zombie outbreak."
"Welp, you got me there! This isn't exactly your run of the mill grandma's 1000 piece puzzle. I have a feeling I'll be doing a lot of those when we get out of here to deal with my PTSD."
"Mind if I join you when you do?" She turned her head to smile at him.
"By all means, please do!" She turned back and finally put the last block in the right position. The box beeped and the jail cell door successfully slid open with a loud clang. They walked in carefully, looking around at Ben's cell for anything he had left behind.
Veronica avoided looking at his body and opted for the note that was left on his desk. Leon, however, knelt down next to Ben and looked over the gory remains. He groaned in disgust as he reached out to grab the keycard when something caught his eye.
"Huh?"
In Ben's coat pocket, was a tape recorder. Curiously, Leon pulled it out and held it up for the both of them to hear. It was Ben talking and it sounded like he was interviewing someone.
"But that doesn't explain the rumors about the orphanage. I-I just find it way too coincidental Umbrella's one of the benefactors," Ben stated, voice muffled through the small speaker.
"You told me this interview was about the new scholarship Umbrella set up," a lady's voice replied. Ben chuckled at her response.
"Come on, Annette. Nobody cares about that. They want to know about the G-Virus and the-."
"Where did you hear about this?" She began to sound upset.
"-and that big fucking sinkhole in the city, which, by the way, rumor has it, goes straight to your underground lab."
"Lab?" Leon questioned, looking up at his partner who was listening intently.
"Now, are you going to talk to me or are you-," Ben continued.
"This interview is over," this Annette lady cut him off and it sounded like she had left. Ben seemed to pause for a moment before muttering under his breath:
"Bitch."