Resident Evil: The Abel Project.
By Gary Stark
PROLOGUE
A black helicopter buzzed over the vast forest near the Rocky Mountains. The pilot was wary, though. Behind him in the passenger seat lay a metal crate. It was marked:
"UMBRELLA: HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE. BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES."
He knew exactly what that meant! He was told at the depot that if the crate was damaged in the slightest way that he would be in serious trouble. He hadn't worked for the company for four years not to know what was going on. This was one of the new viruses! And he wasn't taking any chances. Slow and easy was his motto on this run. Slow and easy.
He was timetabled to arrive at the installation in the woods in two hours. Once this stuff was off his chopper he was getting the hell out of there. After the rumours about Umbrella being responsible for Raccoon City came out he had quit the company. This was his last delivery. He just wanted it to go smoothly...
CHAPTER 1
Chris crept silently through the compound. He ducked behind a small building as a black clad guard walked across the wide car park. On the other side of the open space the Umbrella Research facility lay steeped in shadow. This was the most active Umbrella building the team had ever come across. High electric fences encircled the entire area and around the clock security patrolled every corner with sniffer dogs and hi-tech weaponry. The building itself was only two storeys high but was no doubt mostly underground. It had few windows he could see except for one on the top floor. There was a long tunnel on the right hand side that led downward and ended at a steel shutter big enough to drive a truck through.
Jill put her hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at her pretty face. Her short hair fell about her jaw and was covered by her lucky blue beret that she almost always wore on missions. A heavy black Kevlar Flak-jacket covered her upper-body and she wore black cargo trousers and a utility belt with a desert eagle in a holster.
She pointed to the tunnel with the barrel of the powerful assault rifle she carried. Two of the guards were going down to the underground levels of the facility. That must mean that they have keys, Chris thought. Those two guys were their ticket in. They both dashed out of hiding and stooped behind the few cars that populated the car park. Sprinting behind an inattentive guard they flattened themselves against the wall in the darkness. Chris pushed his rifle behind his back on its canvas strap, drew his Barretta and screwed a suppressor onto the barrel.
At the end of the tunnel Chris could hear muffled voices. Running footsteps came toward the two S.T.A.R.S. One of the guards jogged out of the mouth of the tunnel and went to a bench on his left. He had forgotten his torch! He grabbed it and turned to go back when he spotted them. He groped at his hip for his gun but fell to the ground with a stup sound. Chris edged into the harsh light of the tunnel and watched the second man swipe a key-card through an electronic lock. The door cycled quickly upward as the guard looked back for his friend. Chris fired but the round chinked off of his helmet. He spun and slapped the switch to close the door. Chris and Jill darted toward him; three bullets smashed his chest throwing him through the rapidly closing door. Faster and faster they ran as the shutter came lower and lower. Chris reached it first. He drew his head close to his chest and tumbled sideways under the steel rim. It was hard for him to bend his upper-body much because of his thick Flak jacket but he made it easily. The shutter was barely a foot and a half from the concrete when Jill dived to the ground and rolled under.
The tunnel continued after the shutter for another ten meters before terminating in a large loading area. There was a deep alcove just after the shutter holding a fire extinguisher. Chris and Jill did their best to hide the body of the dead guard there before going any further.
Jill found herself thinking about the other S.T.A.R.S. they had left behind. Barry had taken Rebecca to Seattle when he went to visit his wife, whom he had moved out of Raccoon after the Mansion Incident. Clair and Leon were keeping a low profile, so it was left to the two of them to check out these labs Barry had heard about through his contacts. Unfortunately it's turned out to be a bigger operation than they can handle themselves. The electric fence, although unexpected was easy enough to overcome, but the security around this place was immense. Way more than they could handle. They were definitely in over their heads.
Chris and Jill did their best to hide in the harsh fluorescent lights of the loading bay as they watched a group of Umbrella workman shifting heavy looking metal boxes on to lorries. Chris reloaded his handgun and holstered it. Now, sliding his rifle from his back he screwed a six-inch suppressor into it. Jill did the same.
The workmen were talking. Something about tests.
"I wanna hear what they're saying." Chris whispered. "Lets try to get closer."
There was a tall rig that could be attached to a chopper. It held six eight-foot high metal cylinders with numbers T001, T002 and so on. Chris crouch-walked quickly to it staying against the wall. He leaned against one of the cylinders and strained to listen.
"The storage halls have been sealed off."
"Why? What happened?"
"Don't know. Maurice, one of the guards that I know says that there was some kind of chemical spill."
"How d'you mean?"
"Well there are these rumours that the company is makin' some kind a new nerve gas or something. He says that it's supposed to make you go completely mad so you don't know what's going on. And he said that there was no way to counter act it. Even with a gas mask you aren't safe 'cause it can get into the tiniest cut or graze. You need a full body suit."
The two men talking were sitting on top of some boxes on a raised platform that was the same height as the back of the truck they were supposed to be loading. Jill darted toward Chris's hiding place and was almost spotted by a third workman who burst out of a door near some crates.
"Quick, Lads the boss is coming!" he gasped, grabbing up a small box to try to look busy. The two men jumped up and went straight to work as a scientist in a white lab coat walked with authority out of a large warehouse like storage room that lay with its shutter wide open.
"You men, what's taking so long? These samples should have been shipped five minutes ago!" he bellowed.
"Sorry, Sir. Were nearly finished, Sir." Stuttered one of the workmen. They finally shoved the last crate onto the truck and closed up the back. One man jumped down from the platform and climbed in to the drivers seat and drove away down the tunnel.
"You two get down to B1. You're needed to shift some new cabinets into the kitchens." Commanded the scientist.
"Y-yes, Sir!" they disappeared through the door with terrified looks on their faces.
"You can't get good help these days." Groaned the scientist as he followed them.
CHAPTER 2
Chris and Jill waited for sound of the shutter closing behind the truck before standing. So there was another spill. Damn! Umbrella couldn't keep a fly in a bottle, never mind a deadly virus!
"What did those guys say, Chris? I couldn't hear from over there." Asked Jill.
"They said that they thought there was another spill." He replied with a serious look about him. A shiver went down Jill's spine at the though of more zombies and Hunters and Lickers to fight.
"That shutter has locked itself and the key card was dropped on the other side." Chris said, ?"As much as I hate to admit it I think that we're going to have to find another way out of here."
* * *
A door on the far side of the loading bay brought them to a white corridor. They had decided against following the scientist for now because it was likely that he was heading for a very active area. Straight ahead of them was an elevator. Runway-like lights ran against the wall on the floor but apart from that the corridor was featureless. They walked over to study the panel by the elevator.
1st...G...B1...B2...B3
The most logical way would be to start at the top.
"We'll begin at basement level 1 and work our way down." Said Chris. He pushed the glowing 'down' button and waited for the doors to open. They parted with a ping. Inside was like any elevator they had been in before. The walls were shiny stainless steal, and there was an array of sunken buttons. They wanted to be as safe as possible when they came out of the lift. Thinking back to the standard procedure they both knelt on the floor.
"You never know what's gonna be on the other side of those doors when they open so ya better be ready." That's what Chris's instructor at the academy used to say.
Jill lay down flat on her stomach, her rifle barrel propped up in her left hand with her elbow on the floor. Chris jabbed the B1 switch and quickly lay down next to her. The elevator shuddered, moving slowly downward. Glowing numbers above the door blinked:
G...B1...ping!
The metal doors cycled open exposing an empty corridor. The S.T.A.R.S tensed and listened in the silence.
Swish, swish, swish. That ominous sound of slow footsteps filled their ears. They lay still holding their weapons ready. Chris decided to go first. He signalled to Jill to wait back as he stepped into the dim light. Suddenly an ambling shape was right at his side. Its grasping hands grabbed his vest by the shoulders and pulled Chris toward it. Taken by surprise Chris was slow to react. The things distorted face came close to his, its acrid breath washed over him with the smell of... booze.
Chris shoved the drunken worker away with disgust. He stumbled about for a second before falling on his backside and farting violently.
"You know what your problem is, Pal?" he slurred "You don't*burp* know how to have a good time!"
Chris glared at the man as Jill stepped into view. "What should we do with him? He could give us away." She said.
"We'll let him sleep it off." He replied, suddenly pistol-whipping the confused man with the butt of his rifle.
Chris grabbed the man's shoulders and Jill took his ankles when two guards in black gear turned a corner. They were caught out and couldn't hide in time. Jill dropped the workers feet and quickly helped Chris hoist the guy up till they were both supporting him under his shoulders. The guards noticed the scene and smiled. The S.T.A.R.S walked toward them as they approached trying to keep their heads down.
The nearest guard laughed. "Look, Steve. Tony's been out on the town again!" The Drunks head lolled from side to side as he slowly came to. "You two taking him back to the barracks?"
"Uh, yeah, we are." Replied Chris, secretly praying that they didn't notice that there were no Umbrella patches or badges on their black camo. "This Pratt just won't lay off the drink long enough to do any work."
The guard grinned. "You'd both better hurry before one of the scientists catches you. You know how angry those guys can get if anything goes pear-Shaped."
"Will-do!" he smiled nervously. They all walked on, Chris and Jill going as fast as they could without drawing suspicion.
"Hey!" one of the guards shouted back. Their hands were on the butts of their pistols as they turned to see. "Nice hat, Babe." He laughed and disappeared into a doorway behind his friend. They both sighed with relief and dumped the worker against the wall.
"Jesus! That was a close one." Jill said. "It's lucky that our clothes are easily mistaken for their uniforms or we'd be in serious trouble."
"Yeah, now, what are we going to do with this guy?" Chris asked.
"Let's just throw him in one of these rooms right now." answered Jill.
"Oi! You hit me ya Ba-urp!"
"Quiet." Jill grabbed him by his greasy hair and slammed his head against the wall mercilessly. Chris glanced down at the pathetic drooling figure then looked around the corridor for a hiding place. He spotted a janitors cupboard and nodded toward it. Jill grabbed his ankles again and they both dragged him across the floor, locking him in amongst piles of cleaning chemicals and mops.
CHAPTER 3
The lights in the Lab clicked on rousing the caged creations from their dreamless sleep. Peterson smiled. Life was good for him. The spill in B3 was a mild set back, of course but the air locks were sealed up like a drum, preventing any leakage to the upper levels. As long as the news didn't get back to White Umbrella HQ before the air filters had cleaned up the G-virus he and the other scientists were sitting pretty.
He strode to the wire mesh cage nearest to him. It was small. It sat on a steal lab bench and was filled with cotton wool and saw dust. Peterson tapped the cage, annoying the little hamster inside till it gave out a squeak of outrage.
"Now, now, my pet, settle down." He cooed staring into its beady eyes. "Soon I'm going to make you big and strong, aren't I? Hmm? Yes I am!"
After putting on some heavy duty rubber gloves he opened the top of the cage and gingerly removed the brown bundle of fur. The animal struggled in vain to escape from his grip as he carried it toward the larger cages at the far side of the vast laboratory. Lickers and Hunters hissed and growled at him as he walked past but he was totally oblivious. Row after hideous row of Plexiglas cells holding disgusting Umbrella monsters went by till he reached the sample of the G-virus he needed.
"Hang on, my dear this won't take a second." Carefully putting the helpless specimen into his coat pocket he took a small syringe from its paper seal and drew fluorescent green fluid from a small bottle. He then placed the hamster on the bench and injected the fluid into the scruff of its neck.
At first nothing happened. But in less than thirty seconds the rodent began to cry out in agony. Squealing and squirming it swelled up, blood vessels popped and bulged under its skin and its tiny claws grew at an amazing rate. Its entire body grew until Peterson struggled to hold it down. Starting to panic he spun round and kicked the control that opened the last, empty cage. He ran to it with arms outstretched to keep the gnashing teeth and flailing claws from wounding him. The door finally opened and he tossed the hamster like a baseball into the back of the cell. Infrared sensors detected the creature in the cage and the door shut automatically.
Damn! That always took him by surprise. They changed so fast, much quicker than with T-virus.
"You will have to be more careful in the future, Peterson" boomed a voice from far above. Peterson looked toward it. The Director of the facility stood high up on the security catwalk. Usually it was patrolled by armed guards but only during working hours. "Been doing more overtime?"
"Yes, Sir." He replied trying to sound as though he wasn't as shaken up as he felt. "I wanted to see how a hamster would fare after being exposed to the G-virus." He indicated the dark cage were the 'hamster' had now grown to the size of a large dog and continued to do so, sprouting new limbs and claws.
The truth was that Peterson only did so much over time because at twenty-eight he was the youngest scientist on the team and was constantly trying to prove himself. His fears of inadequacy had driven him to do some extreme things in the past. Like the time he pushed himself to hard in the Lab and accidentally opened a Hunters cage. Not wanting his mishap to be made public he tried to recapture it himself, and was almost killed in the process! But he managed it, using a powerful stun gun and his wits.
"Come, our colleagues and I would like you to join us for a late meeting before you turn in. We have things to discuss about moving on to the next stage of testing."
"You mean...?"
"Yes. Our first shipment of the X-virus has just arrived via helicopter. We have much to prepare."
CHAPTER 4
Smack! Crunch! The two soldiers hit the ground like stones. The Guard House was blocking the entrance to the restricted area of the compound were ordinary workers weren't permitted. Jill and Chris ambushed the men as they dozed on the job, knocking them out and stealing their personnel badges and Umbrella insignia to stick on their clothes. They already sported all black trousers, shirts and Flak jackets like the guards so they used some super glue to secure the Umbrella red and white symbol onto the tops of their arms.
Feeling a little more at ease they stepped over the little barricade and walked briskly into the restricted area hoping to find some kind of emergency exit, like the train Leon and Clair found in the Labs under Raccoon.
There was little difference between the rest of the place and the restricted area. On the surface at least. There was more guard activity, though. And many doors with
"AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY"
Stencilled onto them.
They continued walking down a long corridor till they came to a large foyer area. The black marble floor had a huge mosaic of the Umbrella symbol on it and potted plants sat in all four corner of the room. A single elevator was at the back of the room. Two guards stood on either side of the elevator. They nodded to the S.T.A.R.S as they arrived.
"Now what?" asked Jill smiling in their direction.
"I have an idea, but if it doesn't work we'll have to act fast." Chris strode towards the two men confidently. He indicated his rifle, which was slung over his back and said:
"Hey, guys we've come to relieve you." The guards looked at each other then at their watches.
"There's still thirty minutes on our shift." One replied.
"Uh, yeah. But there's a crisis on the surface, your needed up there. Only skeleton crews have to stay underground."
"What kind of crisis?" asked the second man. His eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"Uh...a bunch of those hippie animal rights protesters are storming the gates. There's about a hundred of them. They need soldiers topside to fight them with rubber bullets and tear gas." Chris tried to look annoyed, both by the fictional protesters and by the guards questioning.
"Damn! I hate those guys!" The men jogged past them down the corridor. Jill and Chris breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's twice now we've come close to being busted." She groaned.
"Tell me about it! Come on, there's nothing on this floor we can use, lets go down to B2."
* * *
Their boots clattered heavily on the marble floor as the two guards ran down the corridor toward the Guard House. When they reached it they stopped and shouted:
"Yo! What's the situation with the protesters, Phil?" There was no answer.
"Where the Hell's Phil?" The first said.
"I dunno, be quiet." They drew their guns and carefully stepped over the waist high barricade to investigate. They found the bodies of two men unconscious on the floor.
"Jesus!" They ran in to check for pulses on the men. They were both alive. "Sound the alarm!"
The second guard smashed a glass cover over a big red switch and hit it. Then they left the Guard House and ran back toward the foyer.
Chris and Jill stepped into the elevator when suddenly a wailing siren went off. The lights dimmed and red emergency lights began to flash.
"Oh no! The guards must have found the bodies in the Guard House!" Jill cried over the noise.
"STOP! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" shouted the guards as they ran around the corner. Chris opened fire immediately. The whooshooshoosh of his suppressed rifle and the tinkle of brass shell casings bouncing on the floor drove the men back. Jill smacked the first button she saw. The guards fired their M16's shattering the marble around the elevator as the doors closed.
"Crap! Where are they going?" One growled in rage. They watched the glowing indicator.
"Down...ha! They've stopped at B3! That floors full of carriers from the spill!"
"Quick! Call the elevator back and then shut it down! We'll trap them in with the zombies."
CHAPTER 5
The Executives sat around the long conference table. Bespectacled madmen debated how to use their newly acquired 'tools'.
"As you all know," began the Director, "Our first samples of the new 'X-virus' have just been delivered to us from HQ and are waiting for us in the Labs on B2." A quick round of applause burst from the greying scientists. The Director smiled politely then cut it off with a gesture. "I have called you here to ask you all: what are we going to do with it first?"
"Why, there is so much we could do that it's hard to decide were to start." Grinned Dr McMurphy, a Scottish scientist in his sixties. The Director stood, straightened the jacket of his immaculate black suit and walked over to the large bay window. The only window in the entire compound.
"Of course, Dr McMurphy. It goes without saying that a drug with this many possibilities could go to work in many projects and experiments." He stared through his own dark reflection at the car park below him and the snow capped mountains in the distance.
"But I have something in mind that is far better than anything past or present."
"Oh? What is that, Sir?" asked Peterson. The Director turned to face the assembly again.
"The ultimate Super Soldier." The men laughed
"What, another 'super soldier' project? You must be kidding, surely."
"No, no. Forget Nemesis and the Tyrant series. I'm talking about an all-new creation.
I call it 'The Abel Project'." The smirks around the room faded slightly as they tried to contemplate anything surpassing the latest specimens made here or anywhere else.
"So what will mark out this 'Abel' from the rest?" Asked McMurphy, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. The director retook his seat.
"Think, if you will, of a virus that will turn any human into a being of immense size and power with zero surgical procedures. A virus that has to merely touch the skin to infect its victim and produce and indestructible killing machine. A killing machine that can be programmed by us to fulfil any mission we desire." He looked around the room at the baffled faces of his colleges.
"Uh...how are you going to do this, Sir? Do you know something about the X-viruses capabilities that we don't?" questioned Peterson.
"A little. I have been working on my own specimens. You see I managed to procure a small sample of the virus from a friend at the top of the corporation and have been working with it for some time. Admittedly it has taken a great amount of work to get as far as I have using the vast surgical resources in this facility but I have finally perfected the prototype that will spawn the next stage in the evolution of the X-virus and herald a new age in Biological warfare." There was quiet around the table for a moment. The scientists looked around at each other till finally McMurphy spoke.
"I want to see it. Your prototype. Were is it?" The Director opened his mouth to answer when a faint tweet interrupted him. He sighed and picked up the telephone in front of him.
"Yes what is it?" There was a pause as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line. "What, Intruders? Were? When?" Another pause. He smiled and chuckled. "And they're defiantly trapped down there? Excellent. Just leave them, we can pick up their bodies when the decontamination process is finished." He replaced the handset.
"Trouble?" inquired McMurphy
"No, it's taken care of. Were was I?"
"The prototype."
"Ah, yes. Abel is in my personal lab in Basement Level 2. Would you all join me and we will visit him together."
CHAPTER 6
The doors opened and Chris and Jill stepped out of the elevator. They found themselves in another foyer. As they took in the scene they were surprised by a ping from behind them. They turned around in time to see the doors slamming shut. Chris swore under his breath as they watched the numbers above the doors going up and a red sign reading:
"OUT OF SERVICE"
appearing in the liquid crystal display.
"Dimmitt, we're trapped!" he raged. He looked over at Jill who seemed distraught.
"Uh oh. How do we get out of here?" she said.
"We need to find another way up to the surface." He put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
They looked around slowly for any visible means of escape. The corridor adjoining the foyer was blocked by a large glass construct of some sort. They walked closer until they realized what it was. It was an air lock. A thick glass wall had a circular door cut into it, then there was a long room, and then another glass wall. Inside they could see two benches running along the concrete sides and yellow Biohazard suits hanging on pegs. In the ceiling there were massive vents and Air Scrubbers.
"This must be were they store the bulk of the virus." Said Jill, " They probably only keep small amounts in the actual laboratories."
"The workmen we overheard must have been talking about these when they said that the spill was sealed in." Chris mused. He inspected the door closely. There was a small liquid plasma screen on a pedestal next to it, which read:
"WARNING, AIR CONTAMINATION. EXPOSURE IMMINENT. PROTECTIVE CLOTHING MUST BE WORN."
Chris looked at Jill.
"So, you got any ideas?" She furrowed her brow and stepped up to the glass. Putting her hands against the wall she peered through the air lock down the far corridor. At the other end, about a hundred meters away she could see another air lock. Beyond that she got a distorted view of a red door. Straining to see better she noticed a short green sign above it.
"There's a door at the other side of a second lock down there. I can't really make it out but I think it's emergency stairs." She turned back to face Chris, "We could put on those suits and make a run for the other lock."
"It's worth a shot." Chris pressed a button below the screen and the round door hissed and popped open. Jill pulled it out and they both went inside. It closed automatically as they looked at the suits hanging before them. They grabbed one each and took off their utility belts. Once the suits were on they put their belts on over them, (other wise they couldn't draw they weapons.)
The suits were made of lightweight plastic and were all in ones with long zips up the front. The helmets were small and claustrophobic with a clear faceplate and a tube coming out of the back and into a rebreather strapped onto the lower back. They were surprisingly form fitting and came quite snug around the shoulders. Chris and Jill found that they could talk to each other easily via a short-range radio hidden in the helmet.
"Are you ready, Jill?" Chris's voice hissed in her ear. She nodded. Chris pressed a button on a second liquid plasma screen and the room was filled with the whoosh of air being pumped out of the space. They felt their suits balloon for a second before the infected air from the corridor was allowed in. Once the room was fully repressurised the screen gave the prompt to open the door. Chris pressed the button and Jill pushed it outward.
Suddenly a black stumbling form appeared from nowhere and fell against the wall. A rotting soldier moaned and clawed at the glass after Chris. Its peeling hands left smears of mucus on the air lock. Jill was right at the door, but her rifle was still on the floor inside. She skilfully drew her Dessert Eagle and blasted the things head open at point blank range. She holstered the pistol as the zombie fell to the ground. Chris handed her rifle to her and they both scanned the area for more danger.
"Everybody on the floor must have been contaminated." Said Jill
"There could be hundreds of those things here, or worse, there could be Hunters or Lickers or anything!" Chris added.
"We better hurry. Look, the lock is just down there." They both jogged toward freedom. Open doors revealed vast halls with floor to ceiling shelves of steel drums. All labelled with the tell tale Umbrella icon. Zombies milled around in the many rooms they passed, some dressed in fatigues and some in the overalls of workers.
The S.T.A.R.S slid to a halt as a dead scientist staggered into view. Chris raised his rifle to his shoulder when another creature followed it, then another. In a matter of seconds the entire corridor was blocked off by an angry hoard of drooling corpses, all baying for the blood of the living.
"We have to find another way. There's to many of them," shouted Chris over the cacophony of moans and cries. They turned to go back but stopped as more zombies lurched out of a room, blocking them in.
CHAPTER 7
Peterson was grinning like an idiot as he waited with the other scientists for the Director to reveal his creation. They were standing in the Directors private laboratory on B2. It seemed extremely spacious. He and the others had to share a lab between two or three people and as a result it became very cluttered. This lab on the other hand was completely immaculate. There was little equipment, which suggested that only one project had ever been under way. Secure cells for Hunters and other live specimens lined the walls like in his own lab but they were all empty. A single man-sized stasis tube occupied the far half of the lab. Tubes and pipes ran into the sides of it sustaining the thing within. The director led them toward it. He was swollen with pride as he prepared to parade his careers work.
"Gentlemen, I am about to show you the finest example of Bio engineering that the Umbrella Corporation has ever produced." Smiling he turned to the long cylinder and wiped all of the frost from the large glass front with his hand. He beckoned the men closer and said:
"I would like to introduce you all to ...Abel."
They all peered in with fascination at the figure floating in purple fluid. Peterson felt cheated upon see it. He expected a spectacular beast of unimaginable power and strength. A monstrous creature of death with razor talons and pulsing muscles.
What he found was a man. An apparently ordinary man. He lay in the nutrient bath with his eyes closed in a peaceful sleep. He had a shaved head, and scraggy stubble on his chin. He had a swimmers physique with toned muscles. His chest heaved with every breath of oxygen fed to him through a thick mask over his nose and mouth. Peterson looked more closely at him trying to get a better view. He noticed something peculiar. (For a normal person, at least.) There were tiny scars in the skin all over his body, each only a couple of inches long. They were especially concentrated around the abdominal area and on the upper arms.
"What is this?" demanded McMurphy. "You said you had a new super soldier for us! You said you had used the X-virus to make an all-new specimen! This is just a regular human!"
"You should wait until you know all the details, doctor, before you make snap judgements. This 'man' used to be one of our grunts. I have used his body to make the fist stage of the evolution of the X-virus." The Director paused to let the scientists take in the spectacle before continuing. "If you would all look closely you will notice that there are small incisions all over his body. These are areas were I have implanted microscopic amounts of the virus into the muscle tissue. If he were to be removed from stasis now and awake he would immediately begin to mutate and infect us all with the contagion."
All of the men gasped and took a step beck. The Director chuckled and waved them back again.
"It's quite alright, I don't intend to do that just yet!" he paced for a second looking for the words to express his intentions. "This man is basically the living embodiment of the X-virus. With one more transplant of the virus it will be ready to birth the second stage. A new strain of the X-virus. Still essentially the same but subtly different. The new strain will then be implanted into another human till it is changed again and so on. In less than eighteen months we will have a completely different and 500% more potent sample called the 'A-virus'.
The new virus can basically create Super-Tyrants on demand. Fast, strong, stupid and indestructible killing machines devoted to us and our every whim."
Murmurs emanated from the group till Peterson spoke:
"What about the T-000 projects? They're fast, strong, stupid and pretty damn indestructible. There are some in storage on the surface, in fact. Why should we wait for your new virus when we already have the technology to build exactly what you propose?"
"Well as you all know it takes weeks to make a T-000, or 'Mr X', from scratch. And of course we all heard how that Redfield girl managed to evade one for hours before destroying it. No. My virus can produce a super tyrant with no fuss or problems. Just think, if you were to release it onto a small town somewhere or into the enemies midst you would have an army of perfect killers. They can't function without direct vocal orders from a human, muck like a Mr X or a Nemesis, so they would just stand and wait to be harvested by our agents once the mutations are finished."
"What about the Tyrants themselves? Will they still be emitting the virus throughout their entire life?" asked McMurphy.
"No, once they absorb the A-virus it is locked within their bodies and cannot be spread in any way. But they can be given samples to release if that is the nature of its mission."
The other men were impressed. Very impressed. They all talked amongst themselves for a minute or two before finally deciding. Dr McMurphy voiced it to the Director.
"Mr Director," he said at length. "We have all agreed that we will allow you to take our share of the X-virus to continue your Abel Project. We wish you good luck and will help you in any way we can in creating your new virus..."
CHAPTER 8
The zombies staggered closer and closer. Chris and Jill launched volley after volley of auto fire from their rifles at the swaying horde but as one fell more would join their number. There was a door less than four feet away from one of the mobs. It lead into another of the huge warehouse sized storerooms. Jill pointed toward it. Chris nodded and they both made a desperate dash for it. But the zombies were coming too fast. As the S.T.A.R.S. got closer the zombies seemed to become more desperate. Jill and Chris skidded to a halt inches away from the door as the decomposing swarm engulfed it. The gaunt fingers scrabbled at them as they jumped away and back to the centre of the corridor.
The skeletal corpses lurched on as the two intruders searched for salvation. As the end neared Chris looked upward and got an idea.
"Jill, grab the pipes!" he shouted. She looked up and saw the thick steam pipes he meant. They ran the entire length of the corridor and were right below the ceiling about ten feet above the ground. Chris clasped his fingers and Jill threw her rifle over her shoulder. She put her foot in his hands and reached up as he lifted her as high as he could. She dangled there on the pipe until she pulled her legs up and wrapped them around the pipe.
The zombies were less than an arms length away from Chris when he tried to grab Jill's outstretched hand. She caught hold of him but when she tried to take his weight her other hand slipped and she barely managed to hang on by her knees. Thinking fast Chris decided that he had to sacrifice his rifle if he was going to survive. After quickly flicking the safety catch on he planted the butt onto the floor against the wall and stepped on the handle. Pushing hard off of it he put the extra height to good use snatching the pipe as the zombies reached him. They latched onto his utility belt and tried to drag him down. His flailing legs easily knocked a few heads off of their rotten necks and he used their shoulders to help boost his feet over the pipe.
Together they dangled there above the grasping hands and gasping, moaning mouths, safe for the moment.
"Quick, shimmy along the pipe! We can drop down behind them and sprint to the air lock!" Chris shouted. Jill went as fast as she could manage. Hand over hand; their progress was agonizingly slow. The withered faces of the dead groaned and gnashed at them, wanting them to fall. Until the old pipe squeaked and shuddered. Chris and Jill began to panic as the implications sunk in and they realized that the pipe was about to break. They tried to go faster but it was too late. The metal peeled away from the wall spewing steam into the air and dropping them into the throng.
The bodies buckled under the impact of the people landing on top of them. For a second they lay on their backs recovering from the fall. Blood pooled around them and the dying zombies struggled to grab them. The nearest creatures were thrown off balance and reeled on the spot. Chris and Jill quickly regained their wits and climbed to their feet. Jill was about to draw her Dessert Eagle but didn't knowing that there were just too many. Instead she followed Chris who used his bulk to smash through the crumbling things. They charged into them in a last ditch attempt at living. Their hands tugged at the rubber suits and hungry faces tried to bite them but somehow the never got the chance.
The S.T.A.R.S. burst through the pack and ran harder and faster than they had ever run before and didn't stop until they had reached the glass door of the second air lock. Chris hit the button and pulled open the door as Jill watched the rabble lunge slowly toward them. It opened and they both jumped in. As they waited for the air to leave the room they were hosed down by high-pressure water jets, then dried by hot air. The prompt to open the door flashed and they leapt out and slammed it behind them.
Chris and Jill pulled their helmets of and watched the zombies through the glass walls. They pushed and scrapped at the wall, moaning and screaming. Jill realized that she had dropped her rifle in the corridor. Her hand rested on the butt of her Dessert Eagle, though. It bolstered her confidence a little. She turned to Chris.
"Do you think that glass wall can hold them?" she asked.
"I should think so." Chris gave it a boot. The hollow sound resonated in the air. "Its really thick. If it's built to hold in a serious chemical spill it'll be made of tough stuff."
"Yeah, but Umbrella aren't exactly known for their careful attitude toward deadly chemicals, are they?" Chris drew his Barretta and turned toward the stairs.
"Lets not think about that just now. There's enough on our plate. Come on."
He led Jill through the emergency door and up the steps toward the surface.
CHAPTER 9
The steps were wide and steep. Six flights took them up to Basement level 2. Jill stopped as they passed the door. Chris was half way up the next flight when he noticed. He hopped back down and found her looking through a small reinforced window into the corridor.
"What do you see?" he asked her. She stepped away from the door and said:
"Look for yourself." Chris gazed through and saw something strange. Scientists were coming out of various doors all along the corridor. They were all carrying plastic and metal containers the size of Coke cans filled with luminous pink liquid. As he watched they all trooped away chattering to each other and disappeared one after the other into a room at the end of the hall.
"I think something bad is going on," he said. "We should check it out." Jill nodded.
Once the scientists were all gone Chris silently opened the door. They crept together into the corridor listening for anything moving. The doors were all open and the rooms inside were dark and quiet. Suddenly two of the scientists strolled out of their 'meeting' and walked toward Chris and Jill talking amongst themselves.
Thinking fast the S.T.A.R.S. leapt in opposite directions and ran to the back of two adjacent rooms. They crouched behind counters in the shadows and watched the men stop outside the doors. They talked for a second more and parted company, going straight into their hiding places and turning the lights on.
The harsh halogen lights cast Jill's shadow across the floor forcing her to dash out from behind a counter and roll under a table. She took a moment to glance around the room and realized that she was in a laboratory. All around her repulsive monsters shrieked and screamed at her from behind Plexiglas doors.
"Settle down, Boys! Jeez, what's got into you today?" Shouted the scientist over the noise. He took off his white coat and threw it over the counter. Jill watched him closely and tried to mirror his movements, keeping a piece of furniture between him and herself.
Across the corridor Chris was having trouble staying out of sight. In the lab he was trapped in there was a single worktop that ran the entire length of the room and Plexiglas cells lined the walls. When ever he crawled around the worktop a Licker or a Hunter would ram into the glass to get at him making the young-looking scientist run around the room trying to see what was annoying them. Each time he got even close to the door the guy would change direction, forcing Chris the opposite way.
* * *
Peterson couldn't figure out what was getting the specimens so riled up. For apparently no reason at all a Licker would start to bash into its cell door screaming and clawing. Then, when he investigated it would calm down and a Hunter would start doing it at the other side of the room. He contemplated calling security in, just for his own peace of mind, but thought that if it were one of his specimens that had escaped then he would look a fool. Instead he went to a drawer and took out of it a large stun gun. It hummed when he turned it on.
He used the reaction of the animals to track down whatever was there. He grabbed a trolley laden with equipment and pushed it to block the isle on the right hand side. Then he slowly walked around the left hand side of the long metal table gripping the weapon in his hands.
* * *
This guys taking the initiative, thought Chris. He was boxed in, but the scrawny scientist wasn't the toughest looking guy he'd ever taken down. Chris could easily take him without even shooting him!
He stayed low and tried to ignore the monsters screaming in his ears as the man drew closer. As soon as he rounded the corner and saw him Chris didn't hesitate. He leapt to his feet and bolted toward him. The scientist shouted out in horror as Chris's fist slammed into his jaw knocking him to the ground. He rolled around in agony crying,
"SECURITY!" Chris ran to the door and bolted along the corridor.
Jill watched the entire episode from under her table. The old scientist blocking her route was gawking, confused at the other in the opposite lab. Jill jumped up and made a run for it. The man turned in time to see her back as she dodged around him and out of the door.
She managed to catch up with Chris and they ran down the corridor. Suddenly a group of guards burst through a set of swinging fire doors ahead of them and opened fire. The bullets whizzed past them as they veered hard to the right and took cover in another lab.
A man in a black suit was sitting at the worktop surrounded by the coke can-sized containers. All of the other scientists were crowding around him. He stood and shouted at the intruders.
"What's the meaning of this?" Chris and Jill ignored them and dived behind the long table as the guards shot blindly into the room.
"No!! My specimen! You'll kill us all!" he cried. More guards appeared on a catwalk high above and sprayed the tabletops with lead. The scientists scattered, most of them were hit by friendly fire and tumbled to the ground in agony and pools of blood. Chris and Jill crouched and returned fire with Jill's powerful Dessert Eagle and Chris's Barretta. Through the noise and the screaming Chris noticed the man in black grabbing up the vials of pink liquid and protecting them from the gun fire by putting them under the metal table. There was no time to think about it now though. One of the guards plummeted from the catwalk then another. He looked at Jill who was easily sniping them. He killed two or three more on the ground before he had to reload. Their damn Flak jackets absorbed the feeble 9mm rounds from his little handgun so he had to aim carefully for the limbs.
More soldiers appeared at the door and came closer, forcing the S.T.A.R.S. back. They spun and vaulted over a large glass and metal construct avoiding bullets by a hair. The shots chinked off the thick glass front of it until it finally cracked open.
The Director screamed and risked his life in the cross fire to run across the room to the Biohazard suits in the corner by the door. He struggled desperately to pull it on as purple stasis fluid oozed through the glass.
"That guy's going nuts over this stuff!" shouted Chris. "We better seal up our own suits!" Jill pulled her helmet, which dangled at their backs like a hood, over her head, followed by Chris.
Suddenly the room was quiet. The soldiers ceased firing and stared in awe at the chamber. The fragments of cracked glass pulsed outward until a hand was visible pushing through it. A gunk-covered arm punched away the rest of it and a man sat up inside. He was distraught and pulled at the thick black mask over his nose and mouth. He gasped and gulped down the musty air. Chris and Jill stood up and backed away from him, their own breathing hissing in their ears. The man tried to stand up but instantly doubled over in pain.
"Get your gas masks on! Quickly!" screeched the Director, tugging his own helmet over his face. All of the guards panicked. They threw away their guns and yanked their masks from their belts.
The man in the chamber began to scream horribly. The sound of breaking bone and tearing flesh filled the room as he began to mutate. He sloshed around in the liquid until he was too big for the chamber and it split down the sides.
All around it the soldiers began to choke and die as Abel released the X-virus into the atmosphere. Its body expanded and pulsated. Its hand turned into huge claws and its white skin turned blue and pink. Its face tore in half and a new scared and toothy one appeared. Abel was no longer the man he was. The mutation fell onto its hands and stumbled about on all fours. A new barbed tail slashed the air and disease-bearing puss leached out of its skin.
Chris and Jill knew that their pathetic popguns would have no effect on its tough hide and instinctively ran. Chris hit the switch for the mechanical door as he passed it. The thick steal fell to the ground but Abel's razor claws and mighty teeth made light work of it.
CHAPTER 10
They ran to the stairs, their minds racing. How did we kill the Tyrant? Thought Chris. Rocket launcher! We don't have a rocket launcher! Taking the steps three at a time Chris and Jill bounded desperately toward the surface. In the corridor dead guards began to sit up, hungry for human flesh and were brutally trampled by the monster. The Directors body was dragged along, impaled in Abel's mighty tail.
Abel crashed into the stair well and clambered after the S.T.A.R.S. Its immense bulk made it difficult to climb so it made slow progress. An unholy roar reverberated through out the complex shaking plaster from the walls. Chris and Jill burst out of the doors on ground level exhausted and joined the mass of fleeing soldiers, workmen and scientists. The beast was stuck in the doorframe and shook the very wall to escape. They followed the crowd through a wide shuttered door and out of the other side of a small storeroom. As the last of the Umbrella staff ran up a shallow ramp into the night air Chris realized that they were back were they had started.
"Why have you stopped?" shouted Jill, "Come on!"
"Wait, I think I have a plan." He ran over to the rig of metal cylinders that sat by the door. They had not been moved and when he studied them he saw digital panels on each one.
"What are you going to do? We don't have much time!" begged Jill.
"I think there might be something in these. We can set them free then lock them in to fight that monster."
"Just hurry up!" she glanced back at the sound of heavy footsteps while Chris pressed the 'RELEASE' button on all the containers.
They stepped back as the front of the first one hissed and was thrown off by a gloved fist. A white emotionless face glared at them; the eight foot tall black clad figure stomped into the long loading bay. Another, then another appeared, their dark trench coats flowing about their muscle-bound bodies. At the back of the rig, along with the other Tyrants stood a Nemesis.
"Jesus..!" gasped Jill. The creatures didn't move an inch once they were free of their containers. They stood; Nemesis clutched his rocket launcher, the Tyrants all looked to the humans for commands.
A gut-wrenching scream filled the air. Abel's deformed head peered through the storage room door, but the Tyrants did nothing.
"What's wrong with them? Why won't they attack?" shouted Jill
"They need to be told what to do!" Chris ran in front of them waving his hands to get their attention. Behind him Abel bounded off of the loading platform and ambled toward them.
"Look at me!" the Tyrants slowly stepped closer to him. "This is your human commander talking! I order you to attack that creature. Do you understand?"
"Understand...attack." growled Nemesis. The Tyrants converged on Abel. Two of them leapt right at it, latching onto the bony protrusions in its skin. Able struggled. The others punched and kicked him with vicious intent. He bucked like a wild horse throwing its attackers against the walls. Its whip-like tail slashed one across the gut and stomped on its head.
Nemesis was apart from the rest of the fray. He heaved his rocket launcher onto his shoulder and coldly aimed at the beast muttering to himself:
"Attack... attack." Able spun, trying to shrug off the Tyrants. His tail crunched into Nemesis knocking him sideways and launching his missile the wrong way. Chris and Jill dived to the ground as it soared over their heads and exploded against the shutter mechanism and dropped it, trapping them in with the battle.
Abel cut and slashed the Tyrants as they continued to hit it with jackhammer punches. Nemesis staggered to his feet and jumped into the fight wielding his empty rocket launcher as a club. Chris and Jill knelt by the shutter trying to avoid the flying fists and flailing tail.
They watched on as Abel's struggles became weaker. The damaged Tyrants soldiered on, splitting its skin with every blow. Chris felt something ringing in his ears. The radio connection hissed with a female voice. A tanoy announcement rang out all over the facility and was broadcast into all of the radios of the suits:
"Warning, air contamination has reached unacceptable level. All personnel must report to specified safe areas before Operation: Fire Wall is put into action."
Chris and Jill looked at each other in horror. It was easy enough to figure out what the Fire Wall was.
"They must have a safeguard that burns the virus out of the air if the entire base is contaminated!" Said Chris.
"These suits can't stand the temperatures it takes to kill a virus. We have to get out of here." Chris searched around as the voice counted down from three minutes. He jumped up and ran to the shutter.
"Help me pull this open!" Jill and Chris gripped the metal as best they could and heaved but it didn't budge. Chris bent down and picked up a piece of pipe broken from the blast and jammed it under the rim like a lever. They both pulled with all they had but the corroded iron snapped in two.
"T-minus two minutes..."
"Crap! Now what?" Chris fumed. His heart was beating in his throat and sweat trickled down his back.
"I know." Jill said. She stayed low and went closer to the fight. Able was out numbered but still putting up a courageous defence. "Nemesis! Nemesis!" she waved her arms around until the tentacled brute noticed her and stomped toward her. Its powerful hand clutched its blood soaked rocket launcher.
"N-new orders?" it grunted in the broken English of a small child.
"Yes, I want you to break down that shutter. Will you do that?" It eyed the charred metal and said.
"Shutter. Attack shutter." Chris jumped aside as Nemesis swung his mighty fist into the steal.
"T-minus one minute." Echoed the ominous voice. After two strikes a big chunk of moonlight was visible through a person-sized hole in the shutter. Another, and the S.T.A.R.S. ran out of a Nemesis-sized hole. He followed them up the tunnel.
"No!" shouted Jill. "Go back! Attack the monster with the other Tyrants!" He turned and ran back into the loading bay swinging his rocket launcher like a mace.
CHAPTER 11
The plastic of their suits rustled as they sprinted across the car park. The sounds of battle drifted to their ears on the night wind and the monotonous recorded voice counted down the seconds.
"Sixteen...fifteen...fourteen..." All around them the corpses of the contaminated workforce stirred and staggered. Chris and Jill ignored them as they tried to get out of the compound. The electric fence was ahead. There was no way to get by it in time. They slowed and ran to the side, taking cover behind a big tree.
"Five... four... three..."
"This is it, Jill!" said Chris, "Just keep your head down.
"Two... one..." There was a moment of calm before the explosion assaulted their eardrums. A massive fireball was blasted out of the tunnel mouth. It opened like a flower and spread over the car park, engulfing the new zombies that walked there.
In the underground labs all the creatures were roasted alive. The Hunters, Lickers and zombies on B3 were destroyed. The viruses killed, baked out of the air. A pillar of black smoke billowed up into the sky as the building burned.
In the loading bay Nemesis lay dead along side Able. The hulking dog-like monster melted in the heat and the flames. The Tyrants burned but still pounded the carcass of the mutation with ungodly determination.
Chris and Jill stood and pulled off their helmets. The plastic that had protected them from the G and the X-virus sizzled. They took off their suits and watched the Umbrella compound burn.
"Something big was going down here that we don't know about. I'm pretty sure of it." Said Chris. Jill nodded.
They both turned away and walked toward the fence. It wasn't electrified anymore, since the generators were probably destroyed so they easily climbed over it.
"It's a pity we couldn't get any kind of evidence against Umbrella this time. I guess this is just another disaster that they're going to get away with." Said Jill
The S.T.A.R.S. walked on into the woods as the morning sunrise glittered over the mountains on the horizon.
EPILOGUE
Peterson's feet crunched in the grass as he staggered through the woods toward the road.
His blackened Biohazard suit was unzipped to his waist, the helmet discarded. His jaw was
bruised and swollen. In his hand he carried a manila folder which he read as he walked. The document was entitled 'Known Militant Opposition Groups In the U.S.' He stared hatefully at the picture of a man named Christopher Redfield. This was the man that had ruined his career. He would pay for it, though. His mouth throbbed at the thought of destroying the S.T.A.R.S.
"Redfield, Valentine, Burton, Kennedy. You're all going to pay." He muttered, fingering a canister of pink fluid in his pocket. "Yes, very soon..."
15
By Gary Stark
PROLOGUE
A black helicopter buzzed over the vast forest near the Rocky Mountains. The pilot was wary, though. Behind him in the passenger seat lay a metal crate. It was marked:
"UMBRELLA: HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE. BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES."
He knew exactly what that meant! He was told at the depot that if the crate was damaged in the slightest way that he would be in serious trouble. He hadn't worked for the company for four years not to know what was going on. This was one of the new viruses! And he wasn't taking any chances. Slow and easy was his motto on this run. Slow and easy.
He was timetabled to arrive at the installation in the woods in two hours. Once this stuff was off his chopper he was getting the hell out of there. After the rumours about Umbrella being responsible for Raccoon City came out he had quit the company. This was his last delivery. He just wanted it to go smoothly...
CHAPTER 1
Chris crept silently through the compound. He ducked behind a small building as a black clad guard walked across the wide car park. On the other side of the open space the Umbrella Research facility lay steeped in shadow. This was the most active Umbrella building the team had ever come across. High electric fences encircled the entire area and around the clock security patrolled every corner with sniffer dogs and hi-tech weaponry. The building itself was only two storeys high but was no doubt mostly underground. It had few windows he could see except for one on the top floor. There was a long tunnel on the right hand side that led downward and ended at a steel shutter big enough to drive a truck through.
Jill put her hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at her pretty face. Her short hair fell about her jaw and was covered by her lucky blue beret that she almost always wore on missions. A heavy black Kevlar Flak-jacket covered her upper-body and she wore black cargo trousers and a utility belt with a desert eagle in a holster.
She pointed to the tunnel with the barrel of the powerful assault rifle she carried. Two of the guards were going down to the underground levels of the facility. That must mean that they have keys, Chris thought. Those two guys were their ticket in. They both dashed out of hiding and stooped behind the few cars that populated the car park. Sprinting behind an inattentive guard they flattened themselves against the wall in the darkness. Chris pushed his rifle behind his back on its canvas strap, drew his Barretta and screwed a suppressor onto the barrel.
At the end of the tunnel Chris could hear muffled voices. Running footsteps came toward the two S.T.A.R.S. One of the guards jogged out of the mouth of the tunnel and went to a bench on his left. He had forgotten his torch! He grabbed it and turned to go back when he spotted them. He groped at his hip for his gun but fell to the ground with a stup sound. Chris edged into the harsh light of the tunnel and watched the second man swipe a key-card through an electronic lock. The door cycled quickly upward as the guard looked back for his friend. Chris fired but the round chinked off of his helmet. He spun and slapped the switch to close the door. Chris and Jill darted toward him; three bullets smashed his chest throwing him through the rapidly closing door. Faster and faster they ran as the shutter came lower and lower. Chris reached it first. He drew his head close to his chest and tumbled sideways under the steel rim. It was hard for him to bend his upper-body much because of his thick Flak jacket but he made it easily. The shutter was barely a foot and a half from the concrete when Jill dived to the ground and rolled under.
The tunnel continued after the shutter for another ten meters before terminating in a large loading area. There was a deep alcove just after the shutter holding a fire extinguisher. Chris and Jill did their best to hide the body of the dead guard there before going any further.
Jill found herself thinking about the other S.T.A.R.S. they had left behind. Barry had taken Rebecca to Seattle when he went to visit his wife, whom he had moved out of Raccoon after the Mansion Incident. Clair and Leon were keeping a low profile, so it was left to the two of them to check out these labs Barry had heard about through his contacts. Unfortunately it's turned out to be a bigger operation than they can handle themselves. The electric fence, although unexpected was easy enough to overcome, but the security around this place was immense. Way more than they could handle. They were definitely in over their heads.
Chris and Jill did their best to hide in the harsh fluorescent lights of the loading bay as they watched a group of Umbrella workman shifting heavy looking metal boxes on to lorries. Chris reloaded his handgun and holstered it. Now, sliding his rifle from his back he screwed a six-inch suppressor into it. Jill did the same.
The workmen were talking. Something about tests.
"I wanna hear what they're saying." Chris whispered. "Lets try to get closer."
There was a tall rig that could be attached to a chopper. It held six eight-foot high metal cylinders with numbers T001, T002 and so on. Chris crouch-walked quickly to it staying against the wall. He leaned against one of the cylinders and strained to listen.
"The storage halls have been sealed off."
"Why? What happened?"
"Don't know. Maurice, one of the guards that I know says that there was some kind of chemical spill."
"How d'you mean?"
"Well there are these rumours that the company is makin' some kind a new nerve gas or something. He says that it's supposed to make you go completely mad so you don't know what's going on. And he said that there was no way to counter act it. Even with a gas mask you aren't safe 'cause it can get into the tiniest cut or graze. You need a full body suit."
The two men talking were sitting on top of some boxes on a raised platform that was the same height as the back of the truck they were supposed to be loading. Jill darted toward Chris's hiding place and was almost spotted by a third workman who burst out of a door near some crates.
"Quick, Lads the boss is coming!" he gasped, grabbing up a small box to try to look busy. The two men jumped up and went straight to work as a scientist in a white lab coat walked with authority out of a large warehouse like storage room that lay with its shutter wide open.
"You men, what's taking so long? These samples should have been shipped five minutes ago!" he bellowed.
"Sorry, Sir. Were nearly finished, Sir." Stuttered one of the workmen. They finally shoved the last crate onto the truck and closed up the back. One man jumped down from the platform and climbed in to the drivers seat and drove away down the tunnel.
"You two get down to B1. You're needed to shift some new cabinets into the kitchens." Commanded the scientist.
"Y-yes, Sir!" they disappeared through the door with terrified looks on their faces.
"You can't get good help these days." Groaned the scientist as he followed them.
CHAPTER 2
Chris and Jill waited for sound of the shutter closing behind the truck before standing. So there was another spill. Damn! Umbrella couldn't keep a fly in a bottle, never mind a deadly virus!
"What did those guys say, Chris? I couldn't hear from over there." Asked Jill.
"They said that they thought there was another spill." He replied with a serious look about him. A shiver went down Jill's spine at the though of more zombies and Hunters and Lickers to fight.
"That shutter has locked itself and the key card was dropped on the other side." Chris said, ?"As much as I hate to admit it I think that we're going to have to find another way out of here."
* * *
A door on the far side of the loading bay brought them to a white corridor. They had decided against following the scientist for now because it was likely that he was heading for a very active area. Straight ahead of them was an elevator. Runway-like lights ran against the wall on the floor but apart from that the corridor was featureless. They walked over to study the panel by the elevator.
1st...G...B1...B2...B3
The most logical way would be to start at the top.
"We'll begin at basement level 1 and work our way down." Said Chris. He pushed the glowing 'down' button and waited for the doors to open. They parted with a ping. Inside was like any elevator they had been in before. The walls were shiny stainless steal, and there was an array of sunken buttons. They wanted to be as safe as possible when they came out of the lift. Thinking back to the standard procedure they both knelt on the floor.
"You never know what's gonna be on the other side of those doors when they open so ya better be ready." That's what Chris's instructor at the academy used to say.
Jill lay down flat on her stomach, her rifle barrel propped up in her left hand with her elbow on the floor. Chris jabbed the B1 switch and quickly lay down next to her. The elevator shuddered, moving slowly downward. Glowing numbers above the door blinked:
G...B1...ping!
The metal doors cycled open exposing an empty corridor. The S.T.A.R.S tensed and listened in the silence.
Swish, swish, swish. That ominous sound of slow footsteps filled their ears. They lay still holding their weapons ready. Chris decided to go first. He signalled to Jill to wait back as he stepped into the dim light. Suddenly an ambling shape was right at his side. Its grasping hands grabbed his vest by the shoulders and pulled Chris toward it. Taken by surprise Chris was slow to react. The things distorted face came close to his, its acrid breath washed over him with the smell of... booze.
Chris shoved the drunken worker away with disgust. He stumbled about for a second before falling on his backside and farting violently.
"You know what your problem is, Pal?" he slurred "You don't*burp* know how to have a good time!"
Chris glared at the man as Jill stepped into view. "What should we do with him? He could give us away." She said.
"We'll let him sleep it off." He replied, suddenly pistol-whipping the confused man with the butt of his rifle.
Chris grabbed the man's shoulders and Jill took his ankles when two guards in black gear turned a corner. They were caught out and couldn't hide in time. Jill dropped the workers feet and quickly helped Chris hoist the guy up till they were both supporting him under his shoulders. The guards noticed the scene and smiled. The S.T.A.R.S walked toward them as they approached trying to keep their heads down.
The nearest guard laughed. "Look, Steve. Tony's been out on the town again!" The Drunks head lolled from side to side as he slowly came to. "You two taking him back to the barracks?"
"Uh, yeah, we are." Replied Chris, secretly praying that they didn't notice that there were no Umbrella patches or badges on their black camo. "This Pratt just won't lay off the drink long enough to do any work."
The guard grinned. "You'd both better hurry before one of the scientists catches you. You know how angry those guys can get if anything goes pear-Shaped."
"Will-do!" he smiled nervously. They all walked on, Chris and Jill going as fast as they could without drawing suspicion.
"Hey!" one of the guards shouted back. Their hands were on the butts of their pistols as they turned to see. "Nice hat, Babe." He laughed and disappeared into a doorway behind his friend. They both sighed with relief and dumped the worker against the wall.
"Jesus! That was a close one." Jill said. "It's lucky that our clothes are easily mistaken for their uniforms or we'd be in serious trouble."
"Yeah, now, what are we going to do with this guy?" Chris asked.
"Let's just throw him in one of these rooms right now." answered Jill.
"Oi! You hit me ya Ba-urp!"
"Quiet." Jill grabbed him by his greasy hair and slammed his head against the wall mercilessly. Chris glanced down at the pathetic drooling figure then looked around the corridor for a hiding place. He spotted a janitors cupboard and nodded toward it. Jill grabbed his ankles again and they both dragged him across the floor, locking him in amongst piles of cleaning chemicals and mops.
CHAPTER 3
The lights in the Lab clicked on rousing the caged creations from their dreamless sleep. Peterson smiled. Life was good for him. The spill in B3 was a mild set back, of course but the air locks were sealed up like a drum, preventing any leakage to the upper levels. As long as the news didn't get back to White Umbrella HQ before the air filters had cleaned up the G-virus he and the other scientists were sitting pretty.
He strode to the wire mesh cage nearest to him. It was small. It sat on a steal lab bench and was filled with cotton wool and saw dust. Peterson tapped the cage, annoying the little hamster inside till it gave out a squeak of outrage.
"Now, now, my pet, settle down." He cooed staring into its beady eyes. "Soon I'm going to make you big and strong, aren't I? Hmm? Yes I am!"
After putting on some heavy duty rubber gloves he opened the top of the cage and gingerly removed the brown bundle of fur. The animal struggled in vain to escape from his grip as he carried it toward the larger cages at the far side of the vast laboratory. Lickers and Hunters hissed and growled at him as he walked past but he was totally oblivious. Row after hideous row of Plexiglas cells holding disgusting Umbrella monsters went by till he reached the sample of the G-virus he needed.
"Hang on, my dear this won't take a second." Carefully putting the helpless specimen into his coat pocket he took a small syringe from its paper seal and drew fluorescent green fluid from a small bottle. He then placed the hamster on the bench and injected the fluid into the scruff of its neck.
At first nothing happened. But in less than thirty seconds the rodent began to cry out in agony. Squealing and squirming it swelled up, blood vessels popped and bulged under its skin and its tiny claws grew at an amazing rate. Its entire body grew until Peterson struggled to hold it down. Starting to panic he spun round and kicked the control that opened the last, empty cage. He ran to it with arms outstretched to keep the gnashing teeth and flailing claws from wounding him. The door finally opened and he tossed the hamster like a baseball into the back of the cell. Infrared sensors detected the creature in the cage and the door shut automatically.
Damn! That always took him by surprise. They changed so fast, much quicker than with T-virus.
"You will have to be more careful in the future, Peterson" boomed a voice from far above. Peterson looked toward it. The Director of the facility stood high up on the security catwalk. Usually it was patrolled by armed guards but only during working hours. "Been doing more overtime?"
"Yes, Sir." He replied trying to sound as though he wasn't as shaken up as he felt. "I wanted to see how a hamster would fare after being exposed to the G-virus." He indicated the dark cage were the 'hamster' had now grown to the size of a large dog and continued to do so, sprouting new limbs and claws.
The truth was that Peterson only did so much over time because at twenty-eight he was the youngest scientist on the team and was constantly trying to prove himself. His fears of inadequacy had driven him to do some extreme things in the past. Like the time he pushed himself to hard in the Lab and accidentally opened a Hunters cage. Not wanting his mishap to be made public he tried to recapture it himself, and was almost killed in the process! But he managed it, using a powerful stun gun and his wits.
"Come, our colleagues and I would like you to join us for a late meeting before you turn in. We have things to discuss about moving on to the next stage of testing."
"You mean...?"
"Yes. Our first shipment of the X-virus has just arrived via helicopter. We have much to prepare."
CHAPTER 4
Smack! Crunch! The two soldiers hit the ground like stones. The Guard House was blocking the entrance to the restricted area of the compound were ordinary workers weren't permitted. Jill and Chris ambushed the men as they dozed on the job, knocking them out and stealing their personnel badges and Umbrella insignia to stick on their clothes. They already sported all black trousers, shirts and Flak jackets like the guards so they used some super glue to secure the Umbrella red and white symbol onto the tops of their arms.
Feeling a little more at ease they stepped over the little barricade and walked briskly into the restricted area hoping to find some kind of emergency exit, like the train Leon and Clair found in the Labs under Raccoon.
There was little difference between the rest of the place and the restricted area. On the surface at least. There was more guard activity, though. And many doors with
"AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY"
Stencilled onto them.
They continued walking down a long corridor till they came to a large foyer area. The black marble floor had a huge mosaic of the Umbrella symbol on it and potted plants sat in all four corner of the room. A single elevator was at the back of the room. Two guards stood on either side of the elevator. They nodded to the S.T.A.R.S as they arrived.
"Now what?" asked Jill smiling in their direction.
"I have an idea, but if it doesn't work we'll have to act fast." Chris strode towards the two men confidently. He indicated his rifle, which was slung over his back and said:
"Hey, guys we've come to relieve you." The guards looked at each other then at their watches.
"There's still thirty minutes on our shift." One replied.
"Uh, yeah. But there's a crisis on the surface, your needed up there. Only skeleton crews have to stay underground."
"What kind of crisis?" asked the second man. His eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"Uh...a bunch of those hippie animal rights protesters are storming the gates. There's about a hundred of them. They need soldiers topside to fight them with rubber bullets and tear gas." Chris tried to look annoyed, both by the fictional protesters and by the guards questioning.
"Damn! I hate those guys!" The men jogged past them down the corridor. Jill and Chris breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's twice now we've come close to being busted." She groaned.
"Tell me about it! Come on, there's nothing on this floor we can use, lets go down to B2."
* * *
Their boots clattered heavily on the marble floor as the two guards ran down the corridor toward the Guard House. When they reached it they stopped and shouted:
"Yo! What's the situation with the protesters, Phil?" There was no answer.
"Where the Hell's Phil?" The first said.
"I dunno, be quiet." They drew their guns and carefully stepped over the waist high barricade to investigate. They found the bodies of two men unconscious on the floor.
"Jesus!" They ran in to check for pulses on the men. They were both alive. "Sound the alarm!"
The second guard smashed a glass cover over a big red switch and hit it. Then they left the Guard House and ran back toward the foyer.
Chris and Jill stepped into the elevator when suddenly a wailing siren went off. The lights dimmed and red emergency lights began to flash.
"Oh no! The guards must have found the bodies in the Guard House!" Jill cried over the noise.
"STOP! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" shouted the guards as they ran around the corner. Chris opened fire immediately. The whooshooshoosh of his suppressed rifle and the tinkle of brass shell casings bouncing on the floor drove the men back. Jill smacked the first button she saw. The guards fired their M16's shattering the marble around the elevator as the doors closed.
"Crap! Where are they going?" One growled in rage. They watched the glowing indicator.
"Down...ha! They've stopped at B3! That floors full of carriers from the spill!"
"Quick! Call the elevator back and then shut it down! We'll trap them in with the zombies."
CHAPTER 5
The Executives sat around the long conference table. Bespectacled madmen debated how to use their newly acquired 'tools'.
"As you all know," began the Director, "Our first samples of the new 'X-virus' have just been delivered to us from HQ and are waiting for us in the Labs on B2." A quick round of applause burst from the greying scientists. The Director smiled politely then cut it off with a gesture. "I have called you here to ask you all: what are we going to do with it first?"
"Why, there is so much we could do that it's hard to decide were to start." Grinned Dr McMurphy, a Scottish scientist in his sixties. The Director stood, straightened the jacket of his immaculate black suit and walked over to the large bay window. The only window in the entire compound.
"Of course, Dr McMurphy. It goes without saying that a drug with this many possibilities could go to work in many projects and experiments." He stared through his own dark reflection at the car park below him and the snow capped mountains in the distance.
"But I have something in mind that is far better than anything past or present."
"Oh? What is that, Sir?" asked Peterson. The Director turned to face the assembly again.
"The ultimate Super Soldier." The men laughed
"What, another 'super soldier' project? You must be kidding, surely."
"No, no. Forget Nemesis and the Tyrant series. I'm talking about an all-new creation.
I call it 'The Abel Project'." The smirks around the room faded slightly as they tried to contemplate anything surpassing the latest specimens made here or anywhere else.
"So what will mark out this 'Abel' from the rest?" Asked McMurphy, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. The director retook his seat.
"Think, if you will, of a virus that will turn any human into a being of immense size and power with zero surgical procedures. A virus that has to merely touch the skin to infect its victim and produce and indestructible killing machine. A killing machine that can be programmed by us to fulfil any mission we desire." He looked around the room at the baffled faces of his colleges.
"Uh...how are you going to do this, Sir? Do you know something about the X-viruses capabilities that we don't?" questioned Peterson.
"A little. I have been working on my own specimens. You see I managed to procure a small sample of the virus from a friend at the top of the corporation and have been working with it for some time. Admittedly it has taken a great amount of work to get as far as I have using the vast surgical resources in this facility but I have finally perfected the prototype that will spawn the next stage in the evolution of the X-virus and herald a new age in Biological warfare." There was quiet around the table for a moment. The scientists looked around at each other till finally McMurphy spoke.
"I want to see it. Your prototype. Were is it?" The Director opened his mouth to answer when a faint tweet interrupted him. He sighed and picked up the telephone in front of him.
"Yes what is it?" There was a pause as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line. "What, Intruders? Were? When?" Another pause. He smiled and chuckled. "And they're defiantly trapped down there? Excellent. Just leave them, we can pick up their bodies when the decontamination process is finished." He replaced the handset.
"Trouble?" inquired McMurphy
"No, it's taken care of. Were was I?"
"The prototype."
"Ah, yes. Abel is in my personal lab in Basement Level 2. Would you all join me and we will visit him together."
CHAPTER 6
The doors opened and Chris and Jill stepped out of the elevator. They found themselves in another foyer. As they took in the scene they were surprised by a ping from behind them. They turned around in time to see the doors slamming shut. Chris swore under his breath as they watched the numbers above the doors going up and a red sign reading:
"OUT OF SERVICE"
appearing in the liquid crystal display.
"Dimmitt, we're trapped!" he raged. He looked over at Jill who seemed distraught.
"Uh oh. How do we get out of here?" she said.
"We need to find another way up to the surface." He put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
They looked around slowly for any visible means of escape. The corridor adjoining the foyer was blocked by a large glass construct of some sort. They walked closer until they realized what it was. It was an air lock. A thick glass wall had a circular door cut into it, then there was a long room, and then another glass wall. Inside they could see two benches running along the concrete sides and yellow Biohazard suits hanging on pegs. In the ceiling there were massive vents and Air Scrubbers.
"This must be were they store the bulk of the virus." Said Jill, " They probably only keep small amounts in the actual laboratories."
"The workmen we overheard must have been talking about these when they said that the spill was sealed in." Chris mused. He inspected the door closely. There was a small liquid plasma screen on a pedestal next to it, which read:
"WARNING, AIR CONTAMINATION. EXPOSURE IMMINENT. PROTECTIVE CLOTHING MUST BE WORN."
Chris looked at Jill.
"So, you got any ideas?" She furrowed her brow and stepped up to the glass. Putting her hands against the wall she peered through the air lock down the far corridor. At the other end, about a hundred meters away she could see another air lock. Beyond that she got a distorted view of a red door. Straining to see better she noticed a short green sign above it.
"There's a door at the other side of a second lock down there. I can't really make it out but I think it's emergency stairs." She turned back to face Chris, "We could put on those suits and make a run for the other lock."
"It's worth a shot." Chris pressed a button below the screen and the round door hissed and popped open. Jill pulled it out and they both went inside. It closed automatically as they looked at the suits hanging before them. They grabbed one each and took off their utility belts. Once the suits were on they put their belts on over them, (other wise they couldn't draw they weapons.)
The suits were made of lightweight plastic and were all in ones with long zips up the front. The helmets were small and claustrophobic with a clear faceplate and a tube coming out of the back and into a rebreather strapped onto the lower back. They were surprisingly form fitting and came quite snug around the shoulders. Chris and Jill found that they could talk to each other easily via a short-range radio hidden in the helmet.
"Are you ready, Jill?" Chris's voice hissed in her ear. She nodded. Chris pressed a button on a second liquid plasma screen and the room was filled with the whoosh of air being pumped out of the space. They felt their suits balloon for a second before the infected air from the corridor was allowed in. Once the room was fully repressurised the screen gave the prompt to open the door. Chris pressed the button and Jill pushed it outward.
Suddenly a black stumbling form appeared from nowhere and fell against the wall. A rotting soldier moaned and clawed at the glass after Chris. Its peeling hands left smears of mucus on the air lock. Jill was right at the door, but her rifle was still on the floor inside. She skilfully drew her Dessert Eagle and blasted the things head open at point blank range. She holstered the pistol as the zombie fell to the ground. Chris handed her rifle to her and they both scanned the area for more danger.
"Everybody on the floor must have been contaminated." Said Jill
"There could be hundreds of those things here, or worse, there could be Hunters or Lickers or anything!" Chris added.
"We better hurry. Look, the lock is just down there." They both jogged toward freedom. Open doors revealed vast halls with floor to ceiling shelves of steel drums. All labelled with the tell tale Umbrella icon. Zombies milled around in the many rooms they passed, some dressed in fatigues and some in the overalls of workers.
The S.T.A.R.S slid to a halt as a dead scientist staggered into view. Chris raised his rifle to his shoulder when another creature followed it, then another. In a matter of seconds the entire corridor was blocked off by an angry hoard of drooling corpses, all baying for the blood of the living.
"We have to find another way. There's to many of them," shouted Chris over the cacophony of moans and cries. They turned to go back but stopped as more zombies lurched out of a room, blocking them in.
CHAPTER 7
Peterson was grinning like an idiot as he waited with the other scientists for the Director to reveal his creation. They were standing in the Directors private laboratory on B2. It seemed extremely spacious. He and the others had to share a lab between two or three people and as a result it became very cluttered. This lab on the other hand was completely immaculate. There was little equipment, which suggested that only one project had ever been under way. Secure cells for Hunters and other live specimens lined the walls like in his own lab but they were all empty. A single man-sized stasis tube occupied the far half of the lab. Tubes and pipes ran into the sides of it sustaining the thing within. The director led them toward it. He was swollen with pride as he prepared to parade his careers work.
"Gentlemen, I am about to show you the finest example of Bio engineering that the Umbrella Corporation has ever produced." Smiling he turned to the long cylinder and wiped all of the frost from the large glass front with his hand. He beckoned the men closer and said:
"I would like to introduce you all to ...Abel."
They all peered in with fascination at the figure floating in purple fluid. Peterson felt cheated upon see it. He expected a spectacular beast of unimaginable power and strength. A monstrous creature of death with razor talons and pulsing muscles.
What he found was a man. An apparently ordinary man. He lay in the nutrient bath with his eyes closed in a peaceful sleep. He had a shaved head, and scraggy stubble on his chin. He had a swimmers physique with toned muscles. His chest heaved with every breath of oxygen fed to him through a thick mask over his nose and mouth. Peterson looked more closely at him trying to get a better view. He noticed something peculiar. (For a normal person, at least.) There were tiny scars in the skin all over his body, each only a couple of inches long. They were especially concentrated around the abdominal area and on the upper arms.
"What is this?" demanded McMurphy. "You said you had a new super soldier for us! You said you had used the X-virus to make an all-new specimen! This is just a regular human!"
"You should wait until you know all the details, doctor, before you make snap judgements. This 'man' used to be one of our grunts. I have used his body to make the fist stage of the evolution of the X-virus." The Director paused to let the scientists take in the spectacle before continuing. "If you would all look closely you will notice that there are small incisions all over his body. These are areas were I have implanted microscopic amounts of the virus into the muscle tissue. If he were to be removed from stasis now and awake he would immediately begin to mutate and infect us all with the contagion."
All of the men gasped and took a step beck. The Director chuckled and waved them back again.
"It's quite alright, I don't intend to do that just yet!" he paced for a second looking for the words to express his intentions. "This man is basically the living embodiment of the X-virus. With one more transplant of the virus it will be ready to birth the second stage. A new strain of the X-virus. Still essentially the same but subtly different. The new strain will then be implanted into another human till it is changed again and so on. In less than eighteen months we will have a completely different and 500% more potent sample called the 'A-virus'.
The new virus can basically create Super-Tyrants on demand. Fast, strong, stupid and indestructible killing machines devoted to us and our every whim."
Murmurs emanated from the group till Peterson spoke:
"What about the T-000 projects? They're fast, strong, stupid and pretty damn indestructible. There are some in storage on the surface, in fact. Why should we wait for your new virus when we already have the technology to build exactly what you propose?"
"Well as you all know it takes weeks to make a T-000, or 'Mr X', from scratch. And of course we all heard how that Redfield girl managed to evade one for hours before destroying it. No. My virus can produce a super tyrant with no fuss or problems. Just think, if you were to release it onto a small town somewhere or into the enemies midst you would have an army of perfect killers. They can't function without direct vocal orders from a human, muck like a Mr X or a Nemesis, so they would just stand and wait to be harvested by our agents once the mutations are finished."
"What about the Tyrants themselves? Will they still be emitting the virus throughout their entire life?" asked McMurphy.
"No, once they absorb the A-virus it is locked within their bodies and cannot be spread in any way. But they can be given samples to release if that is the nature of its mission."
The other men were impressed. Very impressed. They all talked amongst themselves for a minute or two before finally deciding. Dr McMurphy voiced it to the Director.
"Mr Director," he said at length. "We have all agreed that we will allow you to take our share of the X-virus to continue your Abel Project. We wish you good luck and will help you in any way we can in creating your new virus..."
CHAPTER 8
The zombies staggered closer and closer. Chris and Jill launched volley after volley of auto fire from their rifles at the swaying horde but as one fell more would join their number. There was a door less than four feet away from one of the mobs. It lead into another of the huge warehouse sized storerooms. Jill pointed toward it. Chris nodded and they both made a desperate dash for it. But the zombies were coming too fast. As the S.T.A.R.S. got closer the zombies seemed to become more desperate. Jill and Chris skidded to a halt inches away from the door as the decomposing swarm engulfed it. The gaunt fingers scrabbled at them as they jumped away and back to the centre of the corridor.
The skeletal corpses lurched on as the two intruders searched for salvation. As the end neared Chris looked upward and got an idea.
"Jill, grab the pipes!" he shouted. She looked up and saw the thick steam pipes he meant. They ran the entire length of the corridor and were right below the ceiling about ten feet above the ground. Chris clasped his fingers and Jill threw her rifle over her shoulder. She put her foot in his hands and reached up as he lifted her as high as he could. She dangled there on the pipe until she pulled her legs up and wrapped them around the pipe.
The zombies were less than an arms length away from Chris when he tried to grab Jill's outstretched hand. She caught hold of him but when she tried to take his weight her other hand slipped and she barely managed to hang on by her knees. Thinking fast Chris decided that he had to sacrifice his rifle if he was going to survive. After quickly flicking the safety catch on he planted the butt onto the floor against the wall and stepped on the handle. Pushing hard off of it he put the extra height to good use snatching the pipe as the zombies reached him. They latched onto his utility belt and tried to drag him down. His flailing legs easily knocked a few heads off of their rotten necks and he used their shoulders to help boost his feet over the pipe.
Together they dangled there above the grasping hands and gasping, moaning mouths, safe for the moment.
"Quick, shimmy along the pipe! We can drop down behind them and sprint to the air lock!" Chris shouted. Jill went as fast as she could manage. Hand over hand; their progress was agonizingly slow. The withered faces of the dead groaned and gnashed at them, wanting them to fall. Until the old pipe squeaked and shuddered. Chris and Jill began to panic as the implications sunk in and they realized that the pipe was about to break. They tried to go faster but it was too late. The metal peeled away from the wall spewing steam into the air and dropping them into the throng.
The bodies buckled under the impact of the people landing on top of them. For a second they lay on their backs recovering from the fall. Blood pooled around them and the dying zombies struggled to grab them. The nearest creatures were thrown off balance and reeled on the spot. Chris and Jill quickly regained their wits and climbed to their feet. Jill was about to draw her Dessert Eagle but didn't knowing that there were just too many. Instead she followed Chris who used his bulk to smash through the crumbling things. They charged into them in a last ditch attempt at living. Their hands tugged at the rubber suits and hungry faces tried to bite them but somehow the never got the chance.
The S.T.A.R.S. burst through the pack and ran harder and faster than they had ever run before and didn't stop until they had reached the glass door of the second air lock. Chris hit the button and pulled open the door as Jill watched the rabble lunge slowly toward them. It opened and they both jumped in. As they waited for the air to leave the room they were hosed down by high-pressure water jets, then dried by hot air. The prompt to open the door flashed and they leapt out and slammed it behind them.
Chris and Jill pulled their helmets of and watched the zombies through the glass walls. They pushed and scrapped at the wall, moaning and screaming. Jill realized that she had dropped her rifle in the corridor. Her hand rested on the butt of her Dessert Eagle, though. It bolstered her confidence a little. She turned to Chris.
"Do you think that glass wall can hold them?" she asked.
"I should think so." Chris gave it a boot. The hollow sound resonated in the air. "Its really thick. If it's built to hold in a serious chemical spill it'll be made of tough stuff."
"Yeah, but Umbrella aren't exactly known for their careful attitude toward deadly chemicals, are they?" Chris drew his Barretta and turned toward the stairs.
"Lets not think about that just now. There's enough on our plate. Come on."
He led Jill through the emergency door and up the steps toward the surface.
CHAPTER 9
The steps were wide and steep. Six flights took them up to Basement level 2. Jill stopped as they passed the door. Chris was half way up the next flight when he noticed. He hopped back down and found her looking through a small reinforced window into the corridor.
"What do you see?" he asked her. She stepped away from the door and said:
"Look for yourself." Chris gazed through and saw something strange. Scientists were coming out of various doors all along the corridor. They were all carrying plastic and metal containers the size of Coke cans filled with luminous pink liquid. As he watched they all trooped away chattering to each other and disappeared one after the other into a room at the end of the hall.
"I think something bad is going on," he said. "We should check it out." Jill nodded.
Once the scientists were all gone Chris silently opened the door. They crept together into the corridor listening for anything moving. The doors were all open and the rooms inside were dark and quiet. Suddenly two of the scientists strolled out of their 'meeting' and walked toward Chris and Jill talking amongst themselves.
Thinking fast the S.T.A.R.S. leapt in opposite directions and ran to the back of two adjacent rooms. They crouched behind counters in the shadows and watched the men stop outside the doors. They talked for a second more and parted company, going straight into their hiding places and turning the lights on.
The harsh halogen lights cast Jill's shadow across the floor forcing her to dash out from behind a counter and roll under a table. She took a moment to glance around the room and realized that she was in a laboratory. All around her repulsive monsters shrieked and screamed at her from behind Plexiglas doors.
"Settle down, Boys! Jeez, what's got into you today?" Shouted the scientist over the noise. He took off his white coat and threw it over the counter. Jill watched him closely and tried to mirror his movements, keeping a piece of furniture between him and herself.
Across the corridor Chris was having trouble staying out of sight. In the lab he was trapped in there was a single worktop that ran the entire length of the room and Plexiglas cells lined the walls. When ever he crawled around the worktop a Licker or a Hunter would ram into the glass to get at him making the young-looking scientist run around the room trying to see what was annoying them. Each time he got even close to the door the guy would change direction, forcing Chris the opposite way.
* * *
Peterson couldn't figure out what was getting the specimens so riled up. For apparently no reason at all a Licker would start to bash into its cell door screaming and clawing. Then, when he investigated it would calm down and a Hunter would start doing it at the other side of the room. He contemplated calling security in, just for his own peace of mind, but thought that if it were one of his specimens that had escaped then he would look a fool. Instead he went to a drawer and took out of it a large stun gun. It hummed when he turned it on.
He used the reaction of the animals to track down whatever was there. He grabbed a trolley laden with equipment and pushed it to block the isle on the right hand side. Then he slowly walked around the left hand side of the long metal table gripping the weapon in his hands.
* * *
This guys taking the initiative, thought Chris. He was boxed in, but the scrawny scientist wasn't the toughest looking guy he'd ever taken down. Chris could easily take him without even shooting him!
He stayed low and tried to ignore the monsters screaming in his ears as the man drew closer. As soon as he rounded the corner and saw him Chris didn't hesitate. He leapt to his feet and bolted toward him. The scientist shouted out in horror as Chris's fist slammed into his jaw knocking him to the ground. He rolled around in agony crying,
"SECURITY!" Chris ran to the door and bolted along the corridor.
Jill watched the entire episode from under her table. The old scientist blocking her route was gawking, confused at the other in the opposite lab. Jill jumped up and made a run for it. The man turned in time to see her back as she dodged around him and out of the door.
She managed to catch up with Chris and they ran down the corridor. Suddenly a group of guards burst through a set of swinging fire doors ahead of them and opened fire. The bullets whizzed past them as they veered hard to the right and took cover in another lab.
A man in a black suit was sitting at the worktop surrounded by the coke can-sized containers. All of the other scientists were crowding around him. He stood and shouted at the intruders.
"What's the meaning of this?" Chris and Jill ignored them and dived behind the long table as the guards shot blindly into the room.
"No!! My specimen! You'll kill us all!" he cried. More guards appeared on a catwalk high above and sprayed the tabletops with lead. The scientists scattered, most of them were hit by friendly fire and tumbled to the ground in agony and pools of blood. Chris and Jill crouched and returned fire with Jill's powerful Dessert Eagle and Chris's Barretta. Through the noise and the screaming Chris noticed the man in black grabbing up the vials of pink liquid and protecting them from the gun fire by putting them under the metal table. There was no time to think about it now though. One of the guards plummeted from the catwalk then another. He looked at Jill who was easily sniping them. He killed two or three more on the ground before he had to reload. Their damn Flak jackets absorbed the feeble 9mm rounds from his little handgun so he had to aim carefully for the limbs.
More soldiers appeared at the door and came closer, forcing the S.T.A.R.S. back. They spun and vaulted over a large glass and metal construct avoiding bullets by a hair. The shots chinked off the thick glass front of it until it finally cracked open.
The Director screamed and risked his life in the cross fire to run across the room to the Biohazard suits in the corner by the door. He struggled desperately to pull it on as purple stasis fluid oozed through the glass.
"That guy's going nuts over this stuff!" shouted Chris. "We better seal up our own suits!" Jill pulled her helmet, which dangled at their backs like a hood, over her head, followed by Chris.
Suddenly the room was quiet. The soldiers ceased firing and stared in awe at the chamber. The fragments of cracked glass pulsed outward until a hand was visible pushing through it. A gunk-covered arm punched away the rest of it and a man sat up inside. He was distraught and pulled at the thick black mask over his nose and mouth. He gasped and gulped down the musty air. Chris and Jill stood up and backed away from him, their own breathing hissing in their ears. The man tried to stand up but instantly doubled over in pain.
"Get your gas masks on! Quickly!" screeched the Director, tugging his own helmet over his face. All of the guards panicked. They threw away their guns and yanked their masks from their belts.
The man in the chamber began to scream horribly. The sound of breaking bone and tearing flesh filled the room as he began to mutate. He sloshed around in the liquid until he was too big for the chamber and it split down the sides.
All around it the soldiers began to choke and die as Abel released the X-virus into the atmosphere. Its body expanded and pulsated. Its hand turned into huge claws and its white skin turned blue and pink. Its face tore in half and a new scared and toothy one appeared. Abel was no longer the man he was. The mutation fell onto its hands and stumbled about on all fours. A new barbed tail slashed the air and disease-bearing puss leached out of its skin.
Chris and Jill knew that their pathetic popguns would have no effect on its tough hide and instinctively ran. Chris hit the switch for the mechanical door as he passed it. The thick steal fell to the ground but Abel's razor claws and mighty teeth made light work of it.
CHAPTER 10
They ran to the stairs, their minds racing. How did we kill the Tyrant? Thought Chris. Rocket launcher! We don't have a rocket launcher! Taking the steps three at a time Chris and Jill bounded desperately toward the surface. In the corridor dead guards began to sit up, hungry for human flesh and were brutally trampled by the monster. The Directors body was dragged along, impaled in Abel's mighty tail.
Abel crashed into the stair well and clambered after the S.T.A.R.S. Its immense bulk made it difficult to climb so it made slow progress. An unholy roar reverberated through out the complex shaking plaster from the walls. Chris and Jill burst out of the doors on ground level exhausted and joined the mass of fleeing soldiers, workmen and scientists. The beast was stuck in the doorframe and shook the very wall to escape. They followed the crowd through a wide shuttered door and out of the other side of a small storeroom. As the last of the Umbrella staff ran up a shallow ramp into the night air Chris realized that they were back were they had started.
"Why have you stopped?" shouted Jill, "Come on!"
"Wait, I think I have a plan." He ran over to the rig of metal cylinders that sat by the door. They had not been moved and when he studied them he saw digital panels on each one.
"What are you going to do? We don't have much time!" begged Jill.
"I think there might be something in these. We can set them free then lock them in to fight that monster."
"Just hurry up!" she glanced back at the sound of heavy footsteps while Chris pressed the 'RELEASE' button on all the containers.
They stepped back as the front of the first one hissed and was thrown off by a gloved fist. A white emotionless face glared at them; the eight foot tall black clad figure stomped into the long loading bay. Another, then another appeared, their dark trench coats flowing about their muscle-bound bodies. At the back of the rig, along with the other Tyrants stood a Nemesis.
"Jesus..!" gasped Jill. The creatures didn't move an inch once they were free of their containers. They stood; Nemesis clutched his rocket launcher, the Tyrants all looked to the humans for commands.
A gut-wrenching scream filled the air. Abel's deformed head peered through the storage room door, but the Tyrants did nothing.
"What's wrong with them? Why won't they attack?" shouted Jill
"They need to be told what to do!" Chris ran in front of them waving his hands to get their attention. Behind him Abel bounded off of the loading platform and ambled toward them.
"Look at me!" the Tyrants slowly stepped closer to him. "This is your human commander talking! I order you to attack that creature. Do you understand?"
"Understand...attack." growled Nemesis. The Tyrants converged on Abel. Two of them leapt right at it, latching onto the bony protrusions in its skin. Able struggled. The others punched and kicked him with vicious intent. He bucked like a wild horse throwing its attackers against the walls. Its whip-like tail slashed one across the gut and stomped on its head.
Nemesis was apart from the rest of the fray. He heaved his rocket launcher onto his shoulder and coldly aimed at the beast muttering to himself:
"Attack... attack." Able spun, trying to shrug off the Tyrants. His tail crunched into Nemesis knocking him sideways and launching his missile the wrong way. Chris and Jill dived to the ground as it soared over their heads and exploded against the shutter mechanism and dropped it, trapping them in with the battle.
Abel cut and slashed the Tyrants as they continued to hit it with jackhammer punches. Nemesis staggered to his feet and jumped into the fight wielding his empty rocket launcher as a club. Chris and Jill knelt by the shutter trying to avoid the flying fists and flailing tail.
They watched on as Abel's struggles became weaker. The damaged Tyrants soldiered on, splitting its skin with every blow. Chris felt something ringing in his ears. The radio connection hissed with a female voice. A tanoy announcement rang out all over the facility and was broadcast into all of the radios of the suits:
"Warning, air contamination has reached unacceptable level. All personnel must report to specified safe areas before Operation: Fire Wall is put into action."
Chris and Jill looked at each other in horror. It was easy enough to figure out what the Fire Wall was.
"They must have a safeguard that burns the virus out of the air if the entire base is contaminated!" Said Chris.
"These suits can't stand the temperatures it takes to kill a virus. We have to get out of here." Chris searched around as the voice counted down from three minutes. He jumped up and ran to the shutter.
"Help me pull this open!" Jill and Chris gripped the metal as best they could and heaved but it didn't budge. Chris bent down and picked up a piece of pipe broken from the blast and jammed it under the rim like a lever. They both pulled with all they had but the corroded iron snapped in two.
"T-minus two minutes..."
"Crap! Now what?" Chris fumed. His heart was beating in his throat and sweat trickled down his back.
"I know." Jill said. She stayed low and went closer to the fight. Able was out numbered but still putting up a courageous defence. "Nemesis! Nemesis!" she waved her arms around until the tentacled brute noticed her and stomped toward her. Its powerful hand clutched its blood soaked rocket launcher.
"N-new orders?" it grunted in the broken English of a small child.
"Yes, I want you to break down that shutter. Will you do that?" It eyed the charred metal and said.
"Shutter. Attack shutter." Chris jumped aside as Nemesis swung his mighty fist into the steal.
"T-minus one minute." Echoed the ominous voice. After two strikes a big chunk of moonlight was visible through a person-sized hole in the shutter. Another, and the S.T.A.R.S. ran out of a Nemesis-sized hole. He followed them up the tunnel.
"No!" shouted Jill. "Go back! Attack the monster with the other Tyrants!" He turned and ran back into the loading bay swinging his rocket launcher like a mace.
CHAPTER 11
The plastic of their suits rustled as they sprinted across the car park. The sounds of battle drifted to their ears on the night wind and the monotonous recorded voice counted down the seconds.
"Sixteen...fifteen...fourteen..." All around them the corpses of the contaminated workforce stirred and staggered. Chris and Jill ignored them as they tried to get out of the compound. The electric fence was ahead. There was no way to get by it in time. They slowed and ran to the side, taking cover behind a big tree.
"Five... four... three..."
"This is it, Jill!" said Chris, "Just keep your head down.
"Two... one..." There was a moment of calm before the explosion assaulted their eardrums. A massive fireball was blasted out of the tunnel mouth. It opened like a flower and spread over the car park, engulfing the new zombies that walked there.
In the underground labs all the creatures were roasted alive. The Hunters, Lickers and zombies on B3 were destroyed. The viruses killed, baked out of the air. A pillar of black smoke billowed up into the sky as the building burned.
In the loading bay Nemesis lay dead along side Able. The hulking dog-like monster melted in the heat and the flames. The Tyrants burned but still pounded the carcass of the mutation with ungodly determination.
Chris and Jill stood and pulled off their helmets. The plastic that had protected them from the G and the X-virus sizzled. They took off their suits and watched the Umbrella compound burn.
"Something big was going down here that we don't know about. I'm pretty sure of it." Said Chris. Jill nodded.
They both turned away and walked toward the fence. It wasn't electrified anymore, since the generators were probably destroyed so they easily climbed over it.
"It's a pity we couldn't get any kind of evidence against Umbrella this time. I guess this is just another disaster that they're going to get away with." Said Jill
The S.T.A.R.S. walked on into the woods as the morning sunrise glittered over the mountains on the horizon.
EPILOGUE
Peterson's feet crunched in the grass as he staggered through the woods toward the road.
His blackened Biohazard suit was unzipped to his waist, the helmet discarded. His jaw was
bruised and swollen. In his hand he carried a manila folder which he read as he walked. The document was entitled 'Known Militant Opposition Groups In the U.S.' He stared hatefully at the picture of a man named Christopher Redfield. This was the man that had ruined his career. He would pay for it, though. His mouth throbbed at the thought of destroying the S.T.A.R.S.
"Redfield, Valentine, Burton, Kennedy. You're all going to pay." He muttered, fingering a canister of pink fluid in his pocket. "Yes, very soon..."
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