Disclaimer: I don't own Claire, Leon, Chris, Jill, Carlos, Barry, Sherry, Rebecca, Nicholai, Ada, Wesker, and Eliza. They belong to Capcom. I don't make any money off of this, blah blah blah…
Author's Note: Everything in italics is thoughts or words stressed in dialog and everything in bold is a sound. Also please visit my web site if you haven't already, Dark Angel's Videogame Fanfiction.
Vengeful Eyes
Chapter 7
Nicholai sat in front of his office computer pondering why he didn't receive the labs' daily report yet. He held his chin and rested his elbow on the wood of the desk with his eyes narrowed as if he focused them hard enough the answer would some how appear. He folded the screen of this laptop shut and reached over to press the intercom button to Albert's office.
"Are you there, Wesker?" Nicholai asked in hopes that he read the e-mail and by mistake deleted it.
No answer came.
The Russian sighed and dialed his subordinate's cell-phone number. After a couple of rings a woman answered, "We're sorry but the number you have reached has been disconnected. If there is a-"
Nicholai hung up with frustration. He decided to try out Ada's number but received the same thing. A mass of worry built up in the pit of his stomach. Their phones should be working in case of an emergency. Unless…something's wrong. Very wrong…
"Eliza?!" Wesker screamed for the fifth time. He paced back and forth, raking his hand through his sleek blonde hair. His throat seemed to tighten as if someone were choking him or squeezing his lungs. I have to help her! But how? What happened to her? Is she already dead?
As if Ada could read his thoughts she replied dryly, "Her death came painful yet quick. There's nothing we can do."
Wesker abruptly stopped pacing. His forehead burrowed in anger, as his shades menacingly reflected the light. "Screw you bitch!" he yelled, "You don't know she's dead! Why don't you ever fucking care?!"
Her features tightened in annoyance. "Hey asshole, if you would stop thinking with your damn dick and use your brain, maybe we could find a way out of here!"
"Fuck you!" he boomed and leaped up to the ventilation shaft. His muscles popped out as he lifted himself in.
"Why you mother f-"
Wesker's piercing scream of agony cut her off. He tumbled out with a colony of half an inch long fire ants clinging to his arm. They dug their jaws into his dead flesh, ripping it apart as they feasted. Blood splattered as Wesker feverishly swatted off the insects, but they adamantly clung on.
He jabbed his sharp nails into the one that feasted upon his palm. It crunched and shattered like feeble glass as a green juice secreted. The rest unaffected by their missing dinner partner began to crawl to his chest for more live meat.
Panicked, Wesker slammed his arms against the wall knocking them off. But the vibration caused the rest of the nest to be disturbed. Like a tidal wave an ocean of ants splashed to the armory's floor from the air duct.
Ada quickly opened the door and flew out of there like a fleeing mouse from a cat. As soon as she was out, she slammed the door shut and held her back against it.
"You fucking bitch! Let me out!!!" Wesker demanded as he pounded on the door.
"Why should I?" she asked calmly.
Albert gritted his teeth as he felt the ants crawl up his leg causing a tickling sensation up his spin. He had to act fast.
His heartbeat raced as he realized this was the end. Who would have thought I would die by the hands of some puny insect?
"Claire, we can't just storm in there!" Leon told her logically, as he tugged back her hand he clasped in his.
Claire fiercely ripped herself free; "Who said you could hold my h-"
With haste he smacked his palm over her mouth. "Shhh!" He pinned her against the outside walls of the Umbrella base. The shadows and tree branches hid any trace of the two as an armed guard walked past them.
Leon let out a sigh of relief and let his head fall downward along with his bangs. "Close one, huh?" he asked her face-to-face; they were so close they could feel the other's breath.
"Yeah," she agreed unable to keep from staring into his eyes.
He then held her cheeks with both hands, as he half closed his eyes. She did the same but wrapped her arms around his neck drawing him nearer. Their lips brushed, sending shivers down one another's spines.
"Leon…" she uttered tickling his lips with hers as if teasing him, daring him to kiss her.
"Yes?"
"Get the hell off me!!!" she screeched shoving him backward and onto the ground.
The Umbrella guard around the corner heard them and as quiet as possible returned to investigate.
Leon shot up faster than a blink of an eye with his gun aimed at his enemy.
"Don't move!" he ordered the surprised man, "Drop your weapon now and hold up your hands where I can see 'em."
The guard complied by tossing his rifle as Leon slightly chuckled. "I always wanted to say that," he giddily told a not so amused Claire.
He pressed the cold steel against his forehead. "Hand over your keys," Leon barked.
The man shakily held up the chain that jingled like sleigh bells at Christmas. "Good," Leon praised, "It was a pleasure working with you." Claire snatched the keys as he pummeled his gun onto the guard's head, rendering him unconscious.
Leon bent down retrieving the gun and examined it with a questioning expression as Claire searched the pockets of the man down. She frustratedly sighed, for he didn't have any sort of spare ammunition on him. She next looked up at a dumbfounded Leon.
"That's an assault rifle," she told him very slowly as if he were a small child, "Can we say ri-fle?"
Leon frowned. "Well then Ms. Know it all, can you explain why this isn't loaded and why he's not carrying any bullets?"
"What?" she asked in shock, "Give me that!" She ripped the rifle from his grasp and looked it over like a criminal making sure there wasn't any evidence left.
Leon lifted an eyebrow up. "Well?"
She lifted a finger up methodically and explained matter-of-factly, "Conservation of ammo."
His mouth formed a strait frustrated line. "Suuuure."
"Who cares?! We've got the keys!" she changed the subject while jingling them before his eyes. She clasped her hands together innocently and asked sarcastically, "Won't my brother be proud?"
"More like on a rampage," he corrected causing Claire's eyes to narrow, "You know, he's going to kill me for letting you talk me into this…"
"He won't kill you," she paused for a moment, "Okay he will, but I would murder you for not going with me. So there!"
Leon sighed as he shook his head. Claire in turn stuck out her tongue playfully and strode over to the back door, which had been purposely hidden by waist-high bushes.
She tried her luck with the first key on the chain out of twenty. "Damn it!" she cursed at it. She attempted to open the door with the next one and so on until she had run out of keys.
"Oh hell!" she growled with frustration. Claire clenched her hands together in two tight angry fists. She then heard a hysterical laugh come from directly behind her shoulder. She turned to see Leon covering his mouth and giggling like some giddy schoolgirl. He abruptly stopped, once she clobbered him in the stomach. He tumbled back and held his abdomen, unable to breathe.
"Screw these keys!" she fumed, slamming them to the ground. She placed her hands at her hips and declared, "I'm just going to have to kick the door down!"
With one swift motion, Claire lifted up her leg high like a cheerleader and smashed the door open. It squeaked loudly, now only hanging by its hinges.
Leon held his hands on Claire's shoulders and looked over her head to see what lay ahead.
"I can't see a damn thing!" she complained.
"Neither can I… it's dark…"
"You're the man! Go first!" she told him and pushed him in.
Leon only took a few steps in to vanish from Claire's sight. Suddenly he screamed like some freighted bimbo in a horror movie.
Claire's heart skipped a beat. "Leon?" she called, "hey this isn't funny, don't joke… Leon?!"
Jill looked up from Carlos's chest to see what the boys were gawking at. She gasped unable to believe her eyes. There in-front of them stood the bazooka carrying Nemesis. He had been recovered from the mess at Raccoon and held at London for experimentation. The bases at Raccoon had been blown up along with the remaining copies of information to make another. Ever since he has been Umbrella's prized rarity.
"I thought we killed that!" Jill cried out, backing behind Carlos.
"Guess not mi chica," he replied readying his assault rifle, "You two go on ahead."
"What?!" Jill questioned.
He turned to face her. "Just go! I'll be fine. I'll hold 'em off. I want to make sure you end up safe."
Jill stared up at him unsure what to do. She couldn't just leave him.
"C'mon Jill!" Chris urged with the door already open.
"I'll never forget you…" she whispered, her throat tight.
Carlos smirked. "You act as dough I'm gonna die, Jilly."
She weakly smiled and sprinted after her partner. The metallic automatic door slammed shut, leaving the two alone.
"Alright, señor Nemesis, let's tango!" Carlos taunted spraying the monster with bullets.
It was totally unaffected by such a puny weapon and charged forward as if he hadn't even attempted to fight back.
Carlos gulped as he still held the trigger. Click. Click. Qué?! Ya no tengo balas?! No…estoy moriendo…? [What?! Already out of bullets?! No…am I going to die…?]
The Nemesis ruthlessly grabbed Carlos by the throat with one hand and lifted his feet off the ground. A few gagged cries emitted from his throat as he clawed the monster's hand to break free.
Carlos stared the ugly monster's face in its beady eyes. They were cold and unemotional with a hazy look as if it were hypnotized.
"S.T.A.R.S.!" the thing growled the only word its tiny brain understood.
Carlos then grabbed the monster's wrist with both hands and lifted his feet up. He bent his knees preparing for the blow as his arms shook from the shift in weight. Suddenly in one fluid motion, Carlos thrusted his feet into the Nemesis's head knocking it down along with some teeth.
He quickly picked up the fallen weapon and sprinted at the getting up monster. Wham. Wham. Carlos pummeled the cold steel of the rifle onto its head smashing it back down. But he wasn't about to stop; he wanted to make sure it was dead this time. After a few more blows he backed away satisfied.
A hora, tengo que arrebatar con Jill y Chris. [Now, I have to catch up with Jill and Chris.]
The two S.T.A.R.S. stood in the middle of the hall of the labs. The never-ending room seemed to go on for miles and was as quiet as a library. The metallic walls and tile flooring gave off a cold ominous hospital-like aura. Chris spotted an out-of-order elevator to the right extension of the corridor. He then began to slowly and cautiously walk forward, but abruptly stopped realizing Jill wasn't following.
"Hey c'mon. I'm sure he's fine," Chris assured.
Jill looked down filled with concern. "I just…" she trailed off.
He took in a deep breath, trying to cover up his frustration.
"I'm worried," she told him, "I mean, what if something happens?"
"Nothing is going to happen."
"You don't know that. It's kinda like you and Claire."
Both of Chris's eyebrows shot up. "Speaking of Claire, I wonder how she is holding up." He took out his radio and held the button down. "Claire, this is Chris, answer me."
A bunch of static came in and a red button on the tool began to flash. "Claire, this is Chris," he repeated.
Just a few seconds later, he began to pace back and forth in a state of total panic. "I knew she'd end up in trouble; how come she doesn't answer?" he began to babble on rather quickly.
"Calm down, Chris," Jill soothed, "I think your radio is broken."
Chris halted and stared down at the communicator. "Hey, you're right, what's with this flashing thing?"
Jill took it from him and read the small print under the blinking light, "It says, interference."
"The hell does that mean?"
She shrugged. "I suppose, there's some kind of radio wave down here that's keeping the transmission from working."
The two then heard the sound of the metallic door open and shut. They turned to see Carlos smiling brightly.
"Hola mis amigos!" he greeted and pointed behind him with his thumb, "I took care of the little niño, but I've got no more ammo."
A relieved look plastered Jill's face as she ran up to him and squished him tight in her arms.
"I'm so glad you're safe!" she expressed.
Carlos wrapped his arms around her, savoring her in his grasp. "Hey, don' be worrying about me like dat," he told her.
She let him go and attempted to back off, but Carlos held her tight and whispered, "Where do ya tink you're going?"
"Away from you!" she replied and ducked out of his hold.
"Enough flirting already!" Chris scolded annoyed, which caused Jill's cheeks to blush bright red, "Can we get a move on?"
"But I don't have any bullets," Carlos complained.
Chris then tossed him his handgun. "I've still got my shotgun," he informed, "Okay now can we all go?"
"Si!" Carlos answered as Jill nodded.
As they walked down the deserted halls Chris managed to scramble in between the two to Carlos's disliking. The trio tried their luck opening doors, but they were all locked.
Grack. Chris turned the knob of another unopenable door.
"Damn it!" he cursed and pounded the door with his fist.
Suddenly Jill screamed as Carlos gasped. Chris turned around and whispered in awe, "Holy shit!"
There before them stood the lynxerous warningly swaying it's tail. It drooled heavily as it took in the sent of meat. It's paws clacked against the tile as it slowly moved toward them with its head laying low. It then screeched a warning call, as the trio cringed at the pitch. Suddenly with out warning the lynxerous shot into the air to pounce on one of the three…
Chapter 8
A scream shot out from the air ducts, echoing against the eighth basement lab floor used only by the finest of Umbrella's scientists. Cylinder-shaped tanks filled with an odd bluish liquid lined the walls of the huge lab. A control panel sat at the foot of each tank, along with the status of what was contained in it. A light at the bottom of each caused the liquid inside to glow and fill the room with a blue tint. Near the door stood a desk cluttered with tools of experimentation: needles, probes, microscopes, just to name a few.
Smash! Splash! Fallen from one of the air ducks Eliza shattered the glass of one of the tanks and landed into the blue concoction. The cold liquid shocked her to the bone. She swam to the top and gasped for fresh air. She looked around, trying to figure out where she was.
What is this place…? I've never been here before… Eliza gripped the open end of the tank only to suddenly recoil back. She held her hand tightly as blood clouded the blue liquid to purple. She stared down at the deep cut in her left hand. Don't tell me this stuff isn't... isn't some kind of virus for cultivating experiments…
But that's exactly what it was… She dove back down and retrieved the sunken door of the ventilation shaft. Eliza then planted the metallic bars onto the edge of the tank and swiftly jumped out.
Thud. She landed, dripping wet causing the tile floor to become dangerously slippery. Eliza slicked back any loose strands from her ponytail and examined the control panel of the tank.
"No subject at this time," she read out loud to herself, "contains the essential nutrients for reptiles added with the I-virus."
She gulped. Does this mean… I'm going to be… become a monster?! Oh god! I haven't even heard of this virus!
Smash! Splash. Eliza gasped as she watched a human figure break open another tank like she had done. Followed by the man was a mass of ants. The guy quickly tumbled out of the tank while cutting himself severally.
"Wesker!" Eliza shouted and ran toward his doubled over body.
All he could mange was a grunt for a reply. She knelt down by his side and watched with fascination as the ants drowned in the liquid. She turned her gaze to her zombie friend.
"Oh my God! Are you all right?!" she asked, "What happened?"
Albert looked up at her with his bleeding palms in painful fists. "Ada locked me in the armory… The room was swarming with those," he replied and nodded toward the tank full of insects, "So I made my get a way through the other air duct. But I didn't know that it had such a deep fall. Is that why you screamed? Or was it the ants?"
"Both," she answered with somber.
Wesker unclenched his fists and lifted himself up as Eliza did the same.
"Do you know where we are?" he asked her.
She shook her head.
"Where in the most secretive lab of Umbrella," he snickered, "It's so secret most of the employees don't even know about it." He looked down at his hands and noticed a similar cut on Eliza's. "I guess we're infected."
"How can you say that with out a care?" she asked choked up by the thought.
"Forget about any antidotes," he went on, "Umbrella always makes them after they are completed testing, and in this case the I-virus is completely new."
Eliza let out a choked sob.
Wesker held his arms out and Eliza crashed into them crying hard into his chest.
"I don't want to become a monster!" she expressed, the words muffled by her tears and him.
"Actually it's not that bad…" he assured her.
She just visibly shook as tears rolled down her already wet cheeks.
Wesker held her tight as he casually rubbed her back and watched unaffected by the terrifying site.
Far in the corner of the room, a tank began to crack open by the pounding of the reptile behind it…
"Leon?!" Claire called out to her partner. She then heard a pair of hurried footsteps. The vision of who it was came clear as a pale terrified Leon grabbed Claire and held her in-front of him as if she were some kind of shield.
"Kill it! Kill it!" Leon screeched like some scared child.
"Let go!" she ordered and elbowed Leon in the stomach.
"What's so scary?" she asked him with her hands at her hips in frustration, "We've faced all kinds of monsters. What is it? And why didn't you shoot it?"
Leon brought his mouth close to her ear and whispered what happened.
Claire's face began to grow red with fury as she clenched her fist in absolute anger. "God damn it Leon! You're scared of some tiny spider?! What kind of man are you?!"
He pouted in shame and with exaggeration. "I can't help that I have arachnophobia."
Claire sighed rather loudly and dragged Leon down the steps by the wrist.
After trooping down the staircase and practically ripping Leon's arm off from his refusal to follow, Claire smashed into a door.
"Owe!" she moaned and rubbed her bruised nose. She felt the wall trying to figure out if it was a dead end or a door.
Leon smiled and commented, "Hey Claire, why don't you do that with me? Don't let that wall have all the fun!"
Her cheeks puffed out like an angry blowfish's. "Why you sick-"
She abruptly gasped as her hand touched a warm skinny angular object. Her fingers felt around more only to be pricked by tiny spikes of fur. Claire slowly backed into Leon as her heart raced with total shock and fear.
"What is it?" he whispered as she scrambled the two of them backward up the stairs.
Leon retrieved his lighter to see what Claire had felt. With one snap, the orange of the fire illuminated the corridor. Three big shadows, two theirs, danced along the walls by the flickering of the fire.
As they caught site of the monster, the two of them screamed like kidnapped children. They clung to one another tightly in hopes the other would protect them.
Ada strode to the elevator with a satisfied smirk and pressed the button that had the arrow pointing up. Waiting for the transporter, she adjusted her tie and straitened her skirt.
She finally got rid of that scum of a traitor just as Umbrella had ordered. Huh? What's taking so long? She thought and pressed the button again with a frustrated sigh. Suddenly she heard a scream, followed by an ear-piercing wail of the lynxerous, and another even more terrified scream.
Ada whipped around the corner to find three humans and Umbrella's prized mutated cat.
As the monster leaped to attack the woman, the Hispanic man smashed her out of the way. The other man took out his handgun and began to fire. The cat sped up the wall, but wasn't left unharmed; the guy was extremely accurate.
More fire broke out, for the other two began to fight back with yet another handgun and a much more powerful shotgun.
The monster perched itself atop the ceiling and lashed out its razor tongue slicing the Hispanic across the cheek. He held his face as he cried out in pain with blood quickly oozing out and spilling onto the floor.
So they're S.T.A.R.S.? Ada pondered, They are quite good to be able to evade the monster's attacks like that. Any normal person would have been dead by now.
Clack. The bleeding cat dropped to the floor and swung its tail in Chris's direction. He jumped back with his arms out to the side, nearly missing the deathblow.
"Get its attention, chica!" Carlos ordered Jill as he cocked the shotgun.
Jill aimed her gun at the lynxerous's tail as Chris some how managed to avoid any serious damage of another swing. Sceert. The monster's spikes caught hold of Chris's shirt and ripped it open, along with his skin. He gasped in pain as the warm red liquid stained his uniform.
Bam. Bam. Jill's bullets tore their way through the lynxerous's flesh, splashing even more blood around the area.
Angrier than the devil himself, the experiment turned around only to look down the double barrel of a shotgun.
"Say adios," Carlos taunted and pulled the trigger. BAM. The shells flew into the monster's mouth, severing its tongue and mauling its stomach and any other of the insides that got into the bullets' way.
Blood erupted from the cat's mouth like a volcano. As its white coated eyes rolled back, the lynxerous's legs buckled under. Splash. Blood flew up and stained the S.T.A.R.S. and former U.B.C.S. members' shoes in speckles of red.
"Oh my God!" Ada exclaimed pretending she was some innocent in distress while dashing out over to Chris, "Are you okay?"
Chris simply blinked as he looked up at her from the floor dumfounded.
She clasped her hands together and gushed, "Wow, I can't believe you killed that terrible monster!"
Chris laughed modestly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "It was nothing…"
Carlos's lips formed a frustrated line. "Uhm…excuse me. I was de one-"
Jill held a finger to his mouth and whispered, "You were great. But let him take the credit." His eyebrows raised skeptical. "You see Chris is single-"
"And I'm not?" Carlos asked.
Jill smiled as a rose color highlighted her cheeks. Carlos gave her a toothy smirk, swung his arm around her, and drew her close so they were joined at the hip.
Meanwhile, Ada bandaged Chris up just as she done with Leon, except he took off his shirt. She knew that his type was the lady in distress and planed to act that way so she could win him over. She had done the same to Leon acting independent to his liking.
It working. Ada thought while smiling. Now it'll be easier to manipulate him. I thought S.T.A.R.S. would have been smarter than this. Well it doesn't matter. All they have to do is clear out all the experiments so the security locks open again. And when they least expect it. Bam! Dead. This time I'm going to make sure they die. Not like I did with that pathetic cop. No S.T.A.R.S. shall escape from me…
Nicholai loaded his shotgun and stuffed as many bullets into his pockets as he could. He knew something was defiantly wrong. Upon leaving his office he bumped into Mr. Umbrella.
"Sir…" Nicholai trailed off with nerves clouding his voice.
"Where do you think you're going?" his boss asked.
"Uh… sir, I believe there has been yet another spill," Nicholai replied afraid of what he might do.
"I see," Umbrella replied calmly, "Do you realize that you are in charge making sure that we don't end up with another Raccoon City? The fedes had a hard time believing our story. We can't afford another mess up, understand?"
The subordinate nodded.
"Good. I want you to clean up whatever disaster is in the lab, or you'll be forced to be fired."
"Fired?" Nicholai gasped. Being fired in Umbrella wasn't like any other job where you just leave. Once you join Umbrella, you sign your life away. If you have no use to them alive, you are turned into an experiment or you're fed to the zombies.
Mr. Umbrella nodded and explained further, "If you don't at least come out with my niece alive, you, yourself won't be alive for long." Nicholai gulped at his harsh words. "Report back to me by cell-phone. I'm going to take a trip to the newest base in Australia. When I come back here, I don't want to have to come home and have to explain to the FBI again."
"I understand, sir," Nicholai saluted as Mr. Umbrella left for his trip.
I can't make another mistake…this is my last chance to prove myself. He took in a deep breath and pressed the intercom button beside the door to his office.
"Listen up," he began, his words echoing though out the headquarters, "We are under code Red. All personnel report to the inner lab entrance. Bring your artillery with you. We are going to take care of the problem in the lab."
With that, Nicholai headed swiftly to the meeting area. He had walked there alone wondering why he hadn't seen anyone. Once he arrived at the entrance, he saw that no one had showed up. No one. He looked around the area with his heart choking his throat.
Suddenly it dawned on him. Umbrella had set him up. Panic shot through him as he dropped his shotgun and sprinted to the base's front door, as loose shells clattered out of his pockets.
Pure darkness filled the room for all the doors and windows had been barricaded with a thick sheet of metal. Nicholai felt around and flipped the switch on. The fluorescent lights upon the ceiling flickered to life. The area had been completely deserted as if someone just erased the people that had worked here. The white plastic front desk, to the right remained cluttered with still turned on computers. The little red and white symbol of Umbrella floated across the monitors in the screensaver. A manila folder lay open on the black and white tiled floor with papers spilling out. Near the doubled door entrance, a spilled Styrofoam cup of coffee lay turned over. The brown liquid splattered against the red and white curtains. Behind them stood sternly, a cold barricade of bolted steel.
In disbelief, Nicholai slowly walked up to the window and felt the silver sheet. He slammed his fist against it in frustration as he clamped his eyes shut.
To be continued…
Author's Note: In case you're wondering. Mr. Umbrella isn't a made up character. He wrote a file in RE1. I'm open for suggestions and maybe you'll end up seeing a few more characters from Code Veronica in the future. Send any comments you have to me. Thank you for reading so far!