Chapter 16: Eyes Set On The Goal
"Who would've known..." Ivan throws into the air.
"Right beneath us... something that would change our lives. How did no one stop this?" He continuing on.
"It's a crazy idea but this company is evil and must be stopped. Those assholes have something coming..." Claire said, getting angry at the thought. They walk through the first four and the atmosphere sinks, presenting a tense and dark situation. They all get ready as they know what's up ahead.
"It's a tight space so let's not get cornered." Leon says, getting his pistol ready. They step near the door and it slides open. Each slowly step through, taking note the graphic scene before them.
"Holy shit..." Ivan whispers, noticing nothing but blood and knocked over tables.
"Look! There's a ladder over there." Claire points out. Even though she was whispering, she's attracted the attention of one, and it begins to get up off the ground. It starts growling and heads towards us. Leon quickly put it down and the body fell over, alerting another one that's been eating a body on the floor. This one was in a doctor gown meaning she must've worked here. Another one from across the room gets up too. Claire and Ivan deal with them and head there way up the ladder, through the vent, dropping in the kitchen. Another automatic door slides open, revealing a zombie soldier. Ivan misses 2 shots at its head, hitting its chest. He notices
that the body armor is protecting it and points higher. He aims higher and takes two shots, bringing the monster down. They step into the chamber room, noticing it had been destroyed too. There was a hand sticking out with the ID chip they needed.
"I'm not touching it." Ivan crosses his arms, refusing to.
"I'll do it." Leon walks slowly to it, grabbing the wrist and taking out the chip. He gives it to Claire where she there inserts it into her band.
Leon, checked under the slightly opened capsule and tried to get the figure to move. Ivan stood, unamused, just staring with his arms crossed. Leon puts the hand down and follows Claire and Ivan out the door, going back to the main lobby. They reach the lobby and check to see if the chip works. She holds it close to the door and it opens wide, revealing a giant open area with emptiness on the bottom.
"Woah..." Ivan and Claire say, suprised.
"Dr. Li, your presence is urgently requested by Chief Catwright in the east area." A female AI calls out.
"Must be the ID band... I'm guessing the body that was back there must've been theirs..." Ivan quietly saying, thinking back to the hand.
Ivan steps ahead to press the button on the ledge, acknowledging the dead soldier to the right. He walks over to him, something catching his eye. He picks a device with letters on it, making some type of noise.
"What's that?" Asks Leon.
"No idea. Might be useful tho." He pockets the device and walks across the bridge. Claire, there interacting with the terminals, all gave her access denied. She opens the terminal on the west side, extending the bridge.
They enter through the door and end up in what seems to be a lobby. They split up looking for anything of interest, but they place is just scattered with garbage. Ivan trips on a bottle, sending him flying to the floor. Leon and Claire giggles as he rubs his side. Claire walks over and offers a hand.
"Clumsy huh?" Leon shouts out.
Ivan glares at him then looks over at Claire and whispers thanks. He walks ahead of the two into the next room. There was nothing here but a giant window showing plant life. He continues walking into the next door.
"What the hell?" Ivan asks as the door is caught by vines, struggling to open. The vines let loose and the door slides open, revealing a room filled with vines and leaves.
"What happened in here?" Ivan questions. Claire and Leon catch up to Ivan, a shocked expression soon filling their face too. Ivan walks ahead in the room, taking notice of a body held up by vines. He walks by it, not wanting to pay attention to it. He continues ahead walking slowly as he questions what's around him. He reaches the end of a hallway where he hears something that sounds like clicking. He rounds the corner and to his horror, a monster made of vines wrapped around a skeleton comes around the corner, limping to him.
"What the fuck?!" He screams out, Leon and Claire hear this and come rushing through the room to see what's going on. The monster makes his way towards Ivan. He pulls out his gun, shooting it.
"Why isn't it going down?!" He wonders. He continues firing and the monster proceeds forward, unharmed.
"It won't die!" Ivan calls out. Leon joins him as he shoots the monster too. Claire takes out her Grenade Launcher and fires a flame round into it, knocking it down. It shakes on the ground then becomes lifeless.
"What the hell is that? That's not like the rest!" Ivan freaks out, staring at the body.
"Whatever it is doesn't die to bullets." Claire calls out, examining the body.
"Is the plants around here doing something to these things?" Leon asks trying to figure it out.
After moments of examining it, they begin to move ahead, Ivan being last. They all walk over the body into the waiting to enter the next room. Ivan takes one step over the body when it comes back to life, grabbing his leg. The monster opens its head splitting it into two to reveal sharp teeth on both sides of the skull. Ivan freaks out and kicks it. The monster let go of Ivan and stands up, in pursuit again.
"GUYS!" Leon and Claire rush back to the room again, noticing Ivan backed into a corner.
"Get away from him!" Leon runs over.
"Leon! Move!" Claire yells with her Grenade Launcher ready. She shoots another flame round into it, knocking it on the floor. This time, it spasms on the ground and gets set on fire, the skin and vines becoming black and charred. It lets out a ear piercing screech as it clicks and dies off. Ivan steps from the corner, looking at it.
"Is it dead?" Ivan questions. Leon kicks it to make sure and the area he kicked turned into ashes.
"Yeah, it's dead." Leon calls out.
"Those things can only die from fire." Claire points out from her information on the situation.
"Well we don't have anything to deal with those besides your Grenade Launcher." Leon points out. Ivan takes no time and rushes ahead of the group, absolutely petrified. Leon and Claire follow. Together again, they examine the room. Leon finds a notes on the desk.
"You guys might want to read this." Leon calls the two over. Claire grabs the note and begins reading.
"Plant 43: Day 4
The lifeform has shown improvement. The vines has spread throughout the greenhouse and has reacted well with the virus. We look forward to more experiments with it.
Day 5:
The plant has completely spread through the greenhouse and increased in size. The research team is astonished at the sudden growth. The vines itself has been seen moving. Marvelous specimen holding the future of research.
Day: 6
The specimens size has grown again. We might have to take precautions to stop the growth. Further research will be documented somewhere else."
Claire finishes. Leon grabs the bloody tape recorder next to it and plays it.
"We've induced the specimen with a herbicide, preventing it from growing. My partner and I will go inside the greenhouse and document further. Here, hold it and follow me." Footsteps are heard following a brief silence.
"Ah, beautiful. This seems to be the core. I will retrieve a sample from it and bring it back to the lab. Get the herbicide from the lab and stop the growth, we no longer need this subject anymore. The boss will be happy to hear that the specimen has bonded with the virus... finished. Okay, let's head back to the lab and analyze-... what the? Impossible... the plant is coming to life. Run! Get to the door!"
Muffled screams could be heard in the distance and the person holding the recorder could be heard running from something. A door sound could be heard before screaming from the recorder is projected. Hard knocking against metal is heard and a dropping of something is played through. Groaning and an opened door is heard before a slump sound is played through, ending the recording.
"..." Ivan and Leon stare at the recording, horrified.
"What happened here?" Ivan looks out the window. He notices a body held up against the wall with a shimmering light protruding from it.
"Guys! The ID chip!" Ivan points to it and Leon and Claire look over!
"He's too high up and the plant is holding him against the glass." Claire calls out.
"The guy on the recorder mentioned something about a herbicide that can kill that thing? Let's look for it." Ivan calls out. They run out the sliding door into the greenhouse. Clicking could be heard from the distance.
"Let's get it and get out." They run to the sliding door into the lab, noticing the herbicide sitting on a container. They run over to it and press the button, but nothing happened.
"Dispense the appropriate amount of liquid into the container and try again." The machine calls out.
"Great... we need to get it just right." Leon calls out.
"I'll do it. You two find anything useful around the room." Claire calls out, getting to work. They walk around the room looking for anything of importance. Ivan begins reading notes from the research and Leon steps behind him, wondering what's he reading.
"Whatever went on here has these guys troubled. They finally got it working and it turns on them." Ivan says to Leon.
"These bastards deserve it." He responds back.
"I guess you're right." He didn't realize Leon was that close to him and backs up into him, rubbing against him.
"Woah there." Leon calls out.
"Hey! Back up next time!" Ivan yells out.
"Hey! I got it!" Claire calls out.
Leon and Ivan rush over to see the liquid being disposed into the container. It finishes and a container shoots out, filled with green liquid. Ivan picks it up and heads out the sliding door they came in. More clicking could be heard. They rush back to the room they were in and puts the container into a machine labeled dispenser. He presses the button and an AI starts talking.
"Dispensing solution. Please standby." The sprinklers turn on and sprays the plant, shriveling it up and loosening the giant plant holding the body. It falls down knocking the chip from its wrist, laying it on the ground.
The AI starts talking again.
"Warning! You have dispersed a dangerous solution without authorization. Your actions have been logged and you may be subject to disciplinary measures."
"That did the trick." Leon said.
"I'll go get it." Ivan calls out. He steps out the area and makes his way towards the chip, taking note of those plant monsters again.
"Jeez they were in here." He says to himself.
He arrives at the body and looks at it.
"Poor bastard." He said to the body, picking up the chip near it. Heavy footsteps begin to pick up.
"Who's there?" The glass breaks open and the grey tyrant comes back, dropping onto the floor with him.
"Oh shit!" Ivan cusses and begins running the other way. The plant zombies begin to get up, making a clicking noise.
"IVAN!" Muffled screams could be heard through the glass, suddenly they go quiet and gunshots could be heard. Ivan checks the window from where it came from and notices one of those plant monsters in there with them. He continues running past the plants and from the tyrant into the next from, noticing a fire on the floor.
"We have to go!" Claire screams out. The tyrant enters through the door, footsteps picking up again. Leon points his gun at his head and shoots into it, knocking him back.
"Go!" Ivan yells. They run out the door into the vine area. Clicking could be heard again.
"Shit there's another one!" Claire fires one nade at it, knocking it down. They run past it and enter the next room, footsteps still following. They make their way back to the lobby and the footsteps stopped.
They stood in quiet while they catch their breath. Ivan kneels to the ground while breathing.
"I want to go home." He calls out.
He gets up and walks over to Claire, handing her the ID chip. Her along with Leon, are still catching their breath. She puts the chip in and they walk out the door back into the giant open area. They walk across the bridge way and interact with the other terminal, extending the bridge. They knew they were almost done.