Chapter 13:

It took a few more moments before Veronica and Claire were finally ready to get back up. They needed to prepare themselves for whatever waited for them inside the orphanage. Being tired wasn't ideal at a time like this. They could only hope that it wouldn't be too much trouble.

Looking up at the building they were surprised to see such a regal-looking place meant for children to live in. It was tall and made of red brick and dark wood. The windows were nice, but also not as nice as the giant stained glass window at the top. It was an older building but seemed to be well maintained. Guess those donations helped.

"Hang on Sherry," Claire muttered to herself as she reloaded her gun. Veronica was smart enough to do the same. I really hope she's ok.

The front yard they were in looked friendly enough. A wide-open space with a bench swing sitting under a tree while a play area was just across on the other side of the yard. The grass was a lush green if wet and muddy now, but it was framed nicely on either side of a smooth stone walkway leading up to the front doors. However, as they walked closer, there were graves sitting near the wall of the building.

That could have been from the outbreak, but the stone headstones atop them had clearly been there for a while. This as well as just looking at it, it gave Veronica a weird feeling in her gut about this place. Even walking in, the place looked super cool and cheerful, but for some reason, none of it was sitting right with her. Just like Irons when they first met, the place seemed not as nice as it looked. She kept that in mind as they walked around.

The front room they walked into was a play area and a lobby. It was a two-story brick building with a long set of stairs leading up. High vaulted ceilings and the beautiful stained glass shining through from the outside were very aesthetically pleasing but contrasted a little with the kids' playmats, and toys scattered everywhere along the floor. All looked well-loved and played with, but was eerie without the kids.

"Hello!?" Claire called out. "I have the pendant!"

There was no answer, which was odd. Just silence. They decided to wait for a second for Irons to show so as to not make any sort of hostage situation worse. Looking around some more, Veronica's eyes drifted up the stairs while Claire looked at a small open book sitting on a kid's table nearby. There was a light on upstairs and Veronica began wondering if they could do some sneaking instead of giving in to Irons. She wouldn't mind being petty.

"Hey, there's a diary here from a little kid named Tom," Claire said while turning to show Veronica. "This place was funded by 'some big drug company'. Can you guess which one it could be?"

"Umbrella? Again? They're not really winning any case here man."

"Yeah and from the sounds of it, while things were ok, they were weird. Constantly getting shots and in this last entry, Tom's friend, Oliver, was adopted. But he ended up coming back in the middle of the night crying for help."

"What the fuck?!"

"Says, 'I didn't even recognize him at first; his face was all peeling and melted off.' But then he says that when they got help, the doctors said it was a skin thing."

"I don't like the sound of that."

"Yeah. It cuts off from there." She set the book back down. "I don't know why my gut told me to read it, but I think it was good that I did. Something about this is weird."

"Just like everything in this godforsaken city," Veronica muttered under her breath.

"Speaking of which, where the hell is Irons? And Sherry?"

"I don't know, but look!" Veronica pointed up to the second floor. "Maybe she's up there. I say we sneak up and grab her if she is."

"Well, since Irons hasn't shown up…"

The duo crept up the carpeted stairs to the second floor. There was only one way to go and one door to go through so there weren't many places to look. Opening it, they were disappointed by the lack of anybody.

"Sherry! Sherry, are you here!?" Claire called out a little more worriedly. There was still no response.

The room they walked into seemed to be a storage room of sorts, maybe even a break room considering the small kitchenette in the corner. The place was a mess of kid supplies and toys. They had to walk past toy parts and tables to get to the only other door they could reach. There was another door that was blocked by a crib, but they would get past it after going through the other room first.

It had turned out to be a bathroom, which wasn't much. It was a dingy yellow color with mold all along the walls and dirty laundry strewn across clotheslines across the wall. Even before the outbreak, when was the last time they cleaned this place? It was almost like the pristine outside facade was hiding the negligence of the inside.

They were about to leave but Veronica noticed some papers as well as some forgotten ammo on a bench near the showers. It must have been from people hiding out here while the outbreak happened. There was also a first aid spray that they could take, which prompted Claire to look for any more medical supplies they could grab.

Veronica picked up the papers and began to scan through them. After the diary downstairs, she was curious. Her gut was telling her that this was all important. Intuition was running high today and she wasn't sure if she liked it. At the top of the papers, she read that it was a letter from the orphanage director. There was no name to this person, however.

"What's it say?" Claire asked from beside her. She shook her head, almost unsure of what to think.

"This sounds like it's from a sci-fi movie script. 'Regarding the incident in question. I'm glad to report that it has all been taken care of. On Feb. 19, Test Subject 628 escaped from the lab and broke into our facility. 628 was originally from this facility's candidate pool, and apparently returned in the hope of seeking '"help'". Claire, what the fuck?"

"Is..is that about the kid Oliver?"

"There's more. '628 was quickly detained by our staff. As 628 was undergoing one of the lab's clinical trials, there was the distinct possibility that he had brought the virus with him, so we disposed of all of our test subject candidates as a precaution. Their speedy disposal was conducted by the security team, to whom I'd like to extend my thanks.' Disposed of? As in?"

"Killed." Claire was blankly staring at the page in front of her, her expression unreadable.

"Fuck," Veronica whispered then turned the page. "As for our neighbors, we told them that due to the building's dilapidated state, we have temporarily moved all of the children to a different orphanage for their safety. As to the future of this facility, once it has been fully decontaminated, I plan to resume securing more test candidates'...Claire, I-...I feel sick."

"The kids…They were testing on the kids," Claire's voice wavered. Veronica tossed the paper back on the bench then sat down. She didn't feel so good.

"Sherry!" Claire suddenly ran out of the bathroom, shouting for the missing girl. Veronica took in a deep breath then ran after her. She found the other trying to shove the huge crib out of the other door's way. Veronica quickly ran over to help.

Once it was moved, they ran through the door and found themselves in a baby blue painted hallway. There were child drawings everywhere made of crayons and paint. It would've been cute if they weren't finding things out about this city that made them want to puke. Light filtered in from the window giving them some help in taking in the layout.

The hallway was small, only housing two other doors. At one end, there was a dresser with drawers pulled out and hopscotch drawn out on the floor. There was another diary on a small table near the window that Claire decided to read since Veronica was still wheezy from the last one. While she read it, Veronica carefully peeked into the other two rooms.

"Sherry?" No answer. Each one was empty.

One was a bedroom with some bunk beds and toys, while the other was something weird. It was almost like a small doctor's office. Body charts and eye exam posters were pinned to the wall along with countless medications. There was also a t.v on the counter that showed the bedroom on its screen. That meant that there was a camera in the kids room and this was all making Veronica want to vomit. What the hell were they doing here?

"Veronica!" Claire called out. Said girl walked out to see her holding up the diary. "According to this little girl named Sally, they didn't let the kids out of this place. Not for school, not for anything. Let me give you a clue as to who the Orphanage director is." Then she looked back at the page. "'The director is tall. The director has a mustache. The director is a policeman.'"

"Director Chief Irons."

"Bingo."

"This is all too much!"

"That's the understatement of the century. I swear, he's gonna pay for all of this," Claire said between gritted teeth then tossed the diary back to where it was sitting. Veronica had to swallow the lump in her throat.

"S-She's not up here, Claire. He must have her downstairs."

They both ran back downstairs to find them but stopped. They didn't realize it before but they had finally noticed the busted down door leading to other parts of the orphanage. It looked like it had been torn apart or hacked down. What the fuck?!

"What happened here?" Veronica whispered.

"I thought the door was open when I first glanced at it. I guess this giant hole fooled me."

They walked past the wood shards into a dark, red wallpapered hallway. Carefully, they rounded the corner and saw an open window on the far wall with lights on. With the way the light showed through the windows on their left, this felt like a horror movie.

Suddenly from around the other corner, came a thumping sound along with some dragging. As they neared it, the girls both yelped in surprise as Irons came out of nowhere at them.

He grabbed onto Claire's arms, grunting in pain. Half of his face was burned and melted, his skin droopy and the eye looking in the opposite direction of his good one. Veronica jumped in and tried to pry the man's arms off.

"Get off her!"

"Your fault…!" he slurred. They both looked at him and pulled back even as he held her. He wasn't trying to hurt her, if anything he looked like he needed help.

"What!?" Claire gasped.

"Took too long!" he groaned in pain. There was a squelching sound coming from his body. Veronica's intuition went off again and felt panic as she tried to bend his fingers but he was locked.

"What happened?!"

Suddenly he reeled back in agony, one hand still holding her while the other was grasping at his belly. This didn't look good.

"Let go!" Veronica grunted, finally prying a few fingers. With that grip gone, Claire pushed the man off of her.

"Get off me!" she cried. They watched as he fell onto his knees, twitching like crazy.

"Damn you, William!" he shouted a final time before the unspeakable happened.

He screamed. There was a loud squelching sound then suddenly there was blood everywhere. The girls backed away in horror as they watched as some sort of creature burst out of his chest. It squealed before dropping to the floor and scurrying away.

"Oh my god!" Claire cried.

Veronica turned to shoot the thing that had popped out, but the little fucker was fast and escaped around the corner. She took a deep breath in while reaching out for the wall next to her for stability.

Then the dam broke loose as she began to retch. There was nothing to throw up anymore, but that didn't stop her body from trying. She wanted a glass of water so bad. But how could she even think of anything going into her body after that?!

"W-what in the f-fucking Alien?!" she whispered. If she talked any louder, she was gonna gag again. That really did top anything she could've seen that night. Even after the dead police pile and countless rotting corpses, this was different. He was alive and standing in front of them talking and he just...

"Jesus Christ!" Claire hissed under her breath.

She looked at the body in absolute shock. Blood was pooling everywhere and she dared not look at the hole in the dead man's chest. She turned to check on Veronica only to find her turned and leaning against the wall, face in her arm.

"Hey, are you ok?!" The other merely shook her head. Claire walked over and began to rub her companion's back to console her. "Vee…Vee, we have to keep going," Claire urged.

"H-how?! S-something just exploded from his chest! I-I can't get the s-sound out of my h-head!"

Veronica shook intensely, eyes squeezed shut to will the memory away. Her stomach was in knots and her brain hurt. Claire gently turned Veronica to face her and cupped the sides of her head to try and get her to make eye contact.

"Vee…Vee, look at me," she said, voice wavering a little. Veronica's eyes remained closed as she shook her head. "Please, I need you to look at me." The other reluctantly did so.

"I need you to take a deep breath with me, ok? We have to get through this so we can keep going. C'mon, breathe." She began inhaling and exhaling, leading Veronica to do the same. She slowly followed the younger, breathing in and out till she had calmed down. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she nodded her head.

"O-ok. I'm good. I'm good," she said, though she sounded more like she was trying to convince herself. Claire dropped her hands to give her arms a gentle squeeze before falling down at her. "I'm sorry. That was just really fucked up."

"I know. I don't blame you. Honestly, I'm barely keeping it together myself. But we gotta stay strong to find Sherry and get out of here."

"Right. Are you ok?"

"As ok as I can be."

"Then I am too. Let's go!"

"What was that thing anyways?!"

"Beats me! That just makes me worried about any sort of infection we could get if we're not careful."

They quickly ran around the corner, passing the body without looking at it. They were too sensitive to do so. There was another door at the end and once through, they were met with a mess. It was like Irons' office but part two. Shelving with paperwork and antiques adorned the walls. More taxidermied animals sat everywhere, empty eyes staring at the two girls.

"Sherry?" Veronica called out. There was still no response. "Where is sh-?"

She cut herself off as they finally rounded some shelves to the middle of the room. Dead set in the middle of the room was a tipped-over table. Things looked to be knocked over on countless shelves, broken vases littered the floor. It looked like a squirmish had gone down before they had got there.

But what shocked them the most was, in between the table and all over the mess, the body of a young blond girl lay amongst it, pale and lifeless. She didn't look like any other dead body they've seen. She looked weirdly new and clean. Who was she and what was she doing there?

"What the hell happened here?!" Veronica whispered while backing into a dresser in shock. It shook at the impact but an open book atop it lightly tapped her, catching her eye. Picking up, she glanced over another child's diary.

While she did that, Claire carefully went over to check the body for a pulse and hoped that Sherry wasn't also amongst all of the carnage. Once she did, she looked back at Veronica and shook her head. She had been long dead.

Veronica sighed before looking back down at the pages. There was no name, but the words tore her heart apart. It was all written hastily, spelling and grammar not applied. This child was writing in a hurry.

'if ur reebing this go kall qolice boogie mans here eeting every boby many bark boogie mans here helq theyre komming helq me mommy'. These poor kids. Claire was about to walk over to see but Veronica merely closed the book then set it back down.

"You don't wanna see it," Veronica whispered before walking past Claire.

With nothing really to search for, they walked past the mess to the other corner of the room where the window they saw earlier sat. They were both surprised, and also not so, by a trap door open on the floor. There was a ladder leading down and it looked to go to some secret basement area.

"She must've gone down there," Veronica suggested.

Claire went first down, followed by her companion, where the two found a brick tunnel cluttered with junk and storage. Clearly, this wasn't meant to be seen by the public. Peeking around the corner, there were more stairs, leading even farther down. As they descended the rickety steps, they could hear movement from somewhere down the tunnel.

"Sherry!? Where are you?!" Claire called out.

"Are you down here?!" Veronica shouted.

"Claire! Veronica!" a small voice replied.

Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, they could see Sherry behind a gate standing up from where she was sitting. The little girl looked so relieved to see the two of them as she grasped onto the fence around her. The two picked up the pace to meet her. She looked alright, at least.

"Sherry! We'll be right there!" This gate was a little weird standing there since they could just walk around it. Its purpose of blocking the way was useless.

"Boy, am I glad to see you little chickadee!" Veronica sighed in the utmost relief as they got closer.

"You guys came!"

"Of course we did! We promised we would," Claire added while they rounded the gate to meet the little girl. Sherry couldn't stop herself from running over and hugging the elder two. They were a little taken back but accepted the hug at their waists.

However, their reunion was short-lived as the sound of a loud crash came from the stairs. Whipping their heads to the source, they found none other than Mr. X himself still coming after them. Sherry screamed in fear and backed away towards the only other exit in the room. It was an entryway leading down another tunnel. Veronica pushed her to keep going and all three girls began to run.

"Go, go, go!" Claire shouted.

They weren't sure where they were going, but they had to find some sort of way out. Passing pipes and metal walls, things started to look a little more mechanical. Sherry turned her head to see how close the monster was.

"Claire! It's behind you!"

"Don't stop!"

They turned a corner and reached yet another set of stairs. Where in hell would this lead? What else is going on here?

"Hurry!" Sherry shouted a little bit ahead of the girls. Good thing she was fast.

"Don't stop!" Claire reminded her.

At the foot of the stairs, they turned another corner and were surprised to find an elevator waiting there. What is an elevator doing here?! But that question was quickly discarded because Veronica was not going to complain about the only exit they had. They ran through the open door as Claire frantically pressed the button.

"Guy's c'mon!"

Veronica pushed Sherry to the corner and stood in front of her protectively. She pulled out her grenade launcher and aimed at the door, thunderous footsteps getting closer. Finally, the doors were beginning to close. But just as they did, the elevator car was jostled at impact as two giant gloved hands grasped onto them and began to try and pry the doors open.

"Oh shit!" Veronica hissed, finger on the trigger. She had to wait for him to open the doors. If she didn't, she could accidentally blow up everyone in the car.

The doors were opened enough for X to peek his head in, when all of a sudden, a giant claw was piercing through his chest. Blood splattered everywhere as the girls recoiled in shock. Following the claw, it was connected to a familiar blob of a creature. It was the monster from the basement of the police station!

Since they last had seen it, it had mutated into something worse. It had grown in size, its clothes barely staying on its body. The claw was gigantic now and sharper than ever and the eye on its shoulder was even bigger than before.

It was trying desperately to pull X away from the elevator. The blond head of the human man on its shoulder groaned as he struggled, evident that it was trying to help them. He reeled back in pain as he was using all of his strength.

"Daddy…?" Sherry called out in surprise. Both of the elders turned to her in shock.

"What?!0" Veronica gasped.

"What'd you say!?" Claire asked in disbelief.

They looked back in time to watch the monster yell in agony before a lump began to creep out of its flesh. It turned into another head with two small glowing eyes and some teeth. It roared seemingly to gain some control over its human counterpart.

"Oh god…" Claire mumbled in disgust.

It roared again and began finishing the job by tearing through the rest of Mr. X's body. Veronica pulled Sherry close, facing her to her turn and stop watching. No child had to see this.

"Sherry, look away!"

The little girl did as she was told to, face pressed into the side of Veronica's shirt. The claw tore through the hulk, like a sharp knife through raw meat. X's stare was still blank even as he fell onto his knees then on the ground, hopefully, dead for good. There was a moment of relief knowing that he wasn't after them anymore, but this was short-lived.

The monster roared, now in full control before barging right at the elevator car. All the girls prepared for impact, knowing that they couldn't stop it. The only barrier between them was the now shut doors of the elevator. Sherry finally looked up, hands holding tightly to Veronica's shirt.

"DADDY, NO!"

It hit the car, jerking everyone in it around and almost making them fall. They felt the car hit the back of the elevator shaft then suddenly there was weightlessness. The car…it was falling! The monster climbed atop them and clung to the metal making it speed up with the extra weight. All of them screamed as they plummeted down the shaft, then suddenly everything went dark.