Resident Evil: 2030 AD
By Gary Stark
CHAPTER 1
Gerald bounced along the corridor. The floors curved upwards ever so slightly reminding him were he was, even though he had never forgotten he was on Freedom, the reduced gravity still mad him queasy. Through the rectangular windows along the outer wall he could see distant stars twinkling and the bilious blue orb of the Earth.
He reached the Cargo Bay door and pressed the switch. There was a hiss of hydraulics and the door whooshed up into the bulkhead. He stepped into the vast hall and greeted the other workers rummaging at the shelves and marking clipboards.
He continued to the very back of the room and began his stock take. Pulling boxes out, reading the labels and putting them back was his job. And it bored the hell out of him.
After two hours when his shift in the cargo bay was nearly over he came across a strange metal container. Carefully picking it up he took it to the entrance to show the other guys.
"Hey, check this out." He said.
"What is it?" asked his friend, John, as he dropped slowly to the floor from a scaffold.
"I don't know. I've never seen anything like this before."
"It looks airtight to me." Said the third guy.
"Why don't you open it?" Said another.
"I don't think you should, Gerald," John warned him, "What if causes a biohazard?"
"If it were dangerous they wouldn't have put it in here with all this other stuff." The third guy retorted. They all examined it for another moment.
"Is there a label?" John asked. Gerald turned it in his hands, wiping a thick layer of dust from it.
"Yeah, it doesn't say anything, just has a weird picture on it."
"Looks kinda like an ... umbrella." John said.
"Stand back, boys. I'm going to open it." Gerald waved his arms making the men take a step back. Gripping the top tightly he grunted, struggling with the tight cap. Everyone looked on as he strained against the ancient seal. Suddenly there was a whoosh and a gust of air breathed out of the container. "What's that smell - gackk! Argh!"
Gerald fell to his knees gasping, the container clattered to the floor. The colour drained from his face, his eyes became red and puffy. His colleagues looked on in horror as his body expanded, tearing his overalls. Thick red and purple veins popped up under his skin. His screams echoed through the room, changing from high-pitched terror, to the deep, threatening roar of a Tyrant.
The other men dropped next, convulsing on the ground, their bodies began to change. The sound of breaking bone and tearing flesh emanated from them. Their hair fell out, their scalps split and their brains expanded outward, obliterating their eyes, shattered their skulls. Hands and feet exploded into bundles of bony grey claws. Their teeth grew quickly and their tongues snaked out of their mouths to slash the air.
The newly formed monsters staggered around the cargo bay, taking in the new surroundings and testing each other's tempers. The Tyrant walked through the door into the corridor and stomped off. The Lickers jostled around and went off their own way.
The grey metal canister rocked on the hard floor. An invisible cloud of germs wafted around the room, floating upwards and being sucked into the ventilation intake. The contagion swept through the station like wildfire, spreading death and destruction in one of the most dangerous environment there is. Space.
CHAPTER 2
David Redfield felt himself being pressed back into his padded seat as the boosters thrust the commercial Orbiter against the pull of the Earth's gravity. Out of his window he could see the hazy blue of the atmosphere fade and give way to the darkness of space. The distant stars glittered and winked at him. At the back of the craft, under the Delta shaped wing the rocket boosters roared. He could feel the entire fuselage shake with the force.
The ripping sound of the Hostess walking up the isle startled him. She stepped on the Velcro strips keeping her on the ground. The illusion that this cast helped passengers to combat the disorienting effects of weightlessness.
She offered him a drink in a cup with a lid and straw. He took it and watched her walk back to the crew compartment through the deserted passenger section. He was the only passenger on the flight. Drafted out to the space station specially so he could repair the main communications antenna. He was the only person with the skills in telecommunications technology and extensive experience in E.V.A.'s (space-walks) and was the only person who could do it.
"Major," Came the soft voice of the hostess. "We've locked onto the docking beacon and will arrive in 15 minutes."
"Thank you." He smiled.
Soon he could see the station through his window. It was absolutely huge. The Docking assembly was visible on the central axis, pitted with round air locks and with a few long vessels preparing to travel to the outer planets.
At either end of the Axis were two massive rings. The far one was partially constructed and made mostly of bare metal girders expose the vacuum. The gentle spin of the station generated the artificial gravity. He spotted the main antenna pointed towards Earth. All around it was bristling with smaller transmitters. It was these that the crew has to use to keep in touch with Earth via a complicated and unreliable satellite relay.
He noticed the tiny form of the original station started in 1999. The cramped modules had been vastly expanded upon in the last thirty years and birthed the new and improved Space Station Freedom.
David floated in the central Axis corridor and watched the Orbiter unclamp and float away from the airlock back towards Earth. He let his holdall tumble through the air as he looked around. He wondered where everyone was; there should have been a crewman to meet him. He shrugged inwardly and ran his hand through his hair to push it out of his eyes. Kicking furiously he swam to his bag and kicked off of a wall to the door.
He was inside the Axis. All down the long corridor were rooms like the one he was just in, some leading to docked ships but most held empty airlocks. Shoving off hard he propelled himself along till he bumped into the bulkhead at the end of the Axis. He pressed the door control and it slid open. He could see the inside of the spinning Spoke section of the station. Once he pulled himself through the door he would be affected by gravity again.
The shift was very daunting, though, but with practice it would become like stepping onto a moving escalator. David swung his feet around and grunted as he hit the deck. He still felt light. The centrifugal force this close to the Axis was very weak, but would grow stronger as he went down, to the outer rim of the wheel.
An elevator took him down through a spoke to the wheel itself. He walked unsteadily along the empty corridor and staggered into the reception. Again, there wasn't a soul anywhere. The room was big, with a large picture window showing the moon in the distance. Potted plants sat in the corners waving gently in the drafts from the Life Support vents. A big desk was at the far end; next to it was an airtight door.
David walked to the desk, papers were scattered on it, and a cup of coffee was overturned, its contents stained the files. "Hello?" he called, "Is anyone here?" He listened and heard no reply.
Leaning on the edge he peered over the desk. Suddenly a woman sprang up at him. He gasped and jumped back. She lunged at him, moaning and swinging blindly. He looked into her dead white eyes and couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Are you all right?" he asked in vain. His voice seemed to irritate her; she struggled to clamber over the desk at him groaning. He walked backwards well out of her reach and watched. She was pale, almost white. Her skin was dry, her eyes sunken and lifeless. Her blue NASA overalls were tattered and splashed with blood.
"Zombie." He couldn't believe it! A real ZOMBIE! His parents had always told him about when they fought zombies when they were in the S.T.A.R.S but he thought they were just stories. Never for a second did he think they were true!
The woman crawled over the desktop and fell onto the floor hitting her face. She dragged herself to her knees, ignoring her obviously broken nose and tried for him again. He wasted no time getting out of there! Opening the door he went out into the main social area locking it behind him.
CHAPTER 3
Massive talons clanged against the armoured back of Yorke's space suit sending him sprawling across the deck. The beast leapt over his prone form as he struggle to his feet. It pounced again, launching itself into the air with its strong hind legs. Yorke jumped aside letting it smash onto the floor.
He bolted for the Air Lock but the green- skinned abomination was nearly on him again. It was hard to move in the stiff suit and it seemed like it was taking forever to reach the controls. He tripped over his heavy boots and clattered to the ground. The monster flew over him into the Air Lock. Yorke seized the opportunity, springing up and slapping the switch.
The door swished closed, locking it in. He grinned and pressed the other button. A light flashed and the outer door opened, sucking the Hunter into the cold vacuum of space.
Yorke sat down on a bench panting. He looked at the atmospheric indicator on his wrist. It still read that the air was clear of contamination, but he wasn't taking any chances; preferring to keep his space suit sealed till he was out of this hellhole.
Suddenly his helmet radio crackled loudly in his ears. "Yorke, are you there?" came a female voice.
He tapped the control on his chest plate to respond. "I'm here, Doctor. Where are you?"
"I'm trapped in the main visitor centre. A Shuttle just dropped off someone but I was attacked and can't reach him. Now I've been trapped by a couple of those creatures with the long tongues in a shop."
"Hang tight, I'll be right there." Yorke told her dragging himself to his feet. Snapping a long piece of pipe from the wall as a weapon, he clumped out of the room towards his comrade.
David ran down the curving corridor of the Space Station weaving in and out of the way of the workers. All of them were zombies. Totally mindless, they were just as his parents had described to him. He tried to piece the story together in his mind as he dodged the slow, lumbering corpses.
David skidded to a halt and gasped. He was in the main tourist area, with shops and a raised walkway above his head with big picture windows. Just ahead of him a threesome of weird pink creatures were squabbling and clawing at a metal and glass door. He watched, sickened, as their stringy muscles rippled beneath their slimy skin. Their exposed brains pulsed and long globs of drool dribbled over their razor sharp teeth. The tattered rags of NASA overalls clung to their bodies.
One of them turned to David; its strange eyeless face regarded him for a moment before it started to skulk towards him. Massive claws chinked on the metal floor as it swaggered along. A long thick tongue slithered out between its mandibles and began to swish back and forth. The first two creatures ignored him and continued to scratch at the door in vain.
It hissed loudly scaring the crap out of him! He turned to run but the zombies were approaching from behind. He was trapped. He searched about for an escape. The shops? Locked! The walkway? No, too high!
Suddenly a huge shape plummeted down from the walkway flattening the creature. It began to pound on the thing with a metal bar as it scrabbled and screeched in pain. Thwack, thwack, thwack, its blood splattered over the deck and flipped up into the air to tumble slowly to the ground.
David gawped at the dome headed thing that had saved him then realised it was a man in a space suit. The pristine white if the armoured chest and limbs of the suit were streaked with gore and the faceplate was steamed up.
Whump! The other two set upon him, trying to dig him out of his cocoon. The toughened fibreglass barely scratched and the man shoved one of the beasts off of him easily. The other screamed and speared the man with its lance-like tongue. The liquid crystal screen on his chest shattered.
David charged at the creature as it struggled with the man on the floor. Grunting with the effort in the strange gravity, he volleyed it as hard as he could in the head. It fell off of him, its brain split and gouged open. The other one lunged at him but the man threw himself in front of David to let his suit take the blow. The beast slashed mercilessly at him till its claw finally tore into the soft seal of the articulated shoulder. The stranger fell to the floor in pain, blood dribbled out of the gash. David booted it in the chest and fell backwards. He quickly got to his feet and grabbed up the metal bar.
The monster attacked again but was knocked back by a clout around the head. David never let up till its head was a shattered puree of grey matter and gore.
David dropped the bar and helped the man to his feet. He shrugged him off and stepped back. Fingering at four metal catches around his chest and shoulders he released his helmet with a whoosh of air.
"No point in keeping this stupid thing on now that the seal has been breached." Gasped the sweaty astronaut. He ran his hand over his head so that his short blonde hair flicked sweat about and rubbed his eyes.
"Who are you?" David asked. The stranger pointed to his name printed on his chest.
"Yorke, lieutenant Michael Yorke United States Air Force. You?"
"David Redfield, USAF communications tech."
"Hey, you're the guy that was supposed to come fix the main antenna array. That is, before this happened."
They were both startled by the quiet grating sound of a mechanical door opening. They spun to see a figure step out of the scratched and scarred doorway the monsters had been attacking. It was a woman clad in a similar suit to Yorke's. She had no helmet, though. Her long brown hair was tied back in a tight ponytail and she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
"Yorke, you came." She said smiling.
"Don't I always?" he smirked. "This is David Redfield, the Comm tech you were expecting. Dave, this is Doctor Helen Belfast." David shook her gloved hand and she smiled shyly.
"What happened here?" he asked them.
"We're not really sure," Helen began, " Yorke and I were out on an EVA (space walk) but after a while we stopped getting feed back from control. So we came back in and the whole place was over run. We haven't found any one alive except you but you weren't here when what ever it was struck."
"Our atmospheric scanners detected trace elements of some kind of virus but it seems to have dissipated now." The computer logs say that a huge release started in one of the cargo holds and spread from there."
David furrowed his brow trying to remember the name of the virus from his parent's stories. "T-virus."
"What?" Helen exclaimed.
"The T-virus. My parents told me about times when they used to fight this big company called Umbrella."
"The pharmaceuticals company?" Helen asked.
"Yeah, they told me that years ago Umbrella were working on a bio-weapons program in the form of a virus. It would mutate living tissue changing animals into monsters and humans into mindless zombies."
"Some bedtime story." Yorke commented.
"I thought that was all they were, stories. But it seems that their true. I think that the T-virus has found it's way here."
They all looked at each other in silence. How was it possible? Why? Questions raced through all their minds, but Yorke was the only one to voice one of his:
"What does the 'T' stand for?"
"'Tyrant'..."
RRRRRROOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!
The whole place seemed to shake with the force of the ungodly scream. It was so loud they couldn't tell if it was down the hall of on the other side of the Station.
"My God. We have to get out of here." Helen squeaked.
CHAPTER 4
Yorke helped David lower the torso of his space suit over his head and lock it around his waist. The control panel on his chest burst into life and began to register his heart rate and respiration. David picked up a heavy bag of tools and attached them to his thigh.
"Remember David, you have to work as quickly as possible and fix the antenna array so we can call Earth." Yorke told him. "Helen will be outside with you, "I'll stay inside and go up to the main communications room to call as soon as it's done."
David nodded brushing his brown hair out of his eyes. "Why haven't you tried to use the uplink system to call for help?"
"Without anyone keeping the makeshift antenna pointed at the satellite it's drifted out of our 'line of sight'." Helen said as she hefted his helmet and passed it to Yorke. Yorke put it over David's head and sealed it so that he heard the rest of Helens answer through the speaker connected to an external microphone. "The main array, though, always points towards Ground Control so when you figure out the problem Yorke can call for help instantly."
"Right." David gave the thumbs up and watched Yorke seal up Helens suit through his toughened Plexiglas faceplate.
They stepped clumsily into the Air Lock and the door slid shut behind them. Helen gave Yorke the a-okay sign and he began to decompress the cramped room. They could feel the joints of their suits stiffen as the air was leeched out. Soon the lock was in vacuum and Yorke opened the outer hatch.
David peered out at the glowing blue and white orb that was the planet Earth. His head began to swim. This was the hardest part of any space walk. Taking the first step out of the hatch with every instinct screaming that you were going to fall thousands of miles. Every astronaut felt it but you just had to look 'up' and try to ignore it.
Gripping the side of the hatch tightly he swung himself around and planted his magnetic boots on the hull with a clang. Of coarse there was no normal sound in space. The vibrations were transmitted trough his suit and his own body up to his ear so he heard a muffled version.
Letting go of the wall he stood. Helen smiled at him, to her he seemed to by standing horizontally. She followed him and after a minute of adjusting to their strange orientation they bean the long walk over to the Antenna Array.
* * *
Yorke ran along a corridor towards the main Communications room. He happened to glance across at the large oval windows. He could see the moon far off in the distance, spinning slowly.
His suit made it hard to run but he kept it on even though it was punctured and useless. The strong shell had protected him before so he figured that it was worth being slowed a little.
Up a shallow ramp and in an elevator he stepped out onto the command deck. The gravity was noticeably weaker here because it was high up nearer the centre of the wheel. He walked carefully but stopped in his tracks.
RRRRRROOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!
The horrible scream reverberated through the entire structure of the Space Station. It sounded distant to Yorke but still chilled him to his bones. He walked on trying not to think about the monster that could produce such a cry.
A sign on the wall directed him to the comm room. As he walked a figure suddenly lunged at him from an open doorway. He threw his arms up to block it. Peeling, rotten hands latched onto his gauntlet and pulled it towards a shrivelled, sunken face. The zombie chomped on the fibreglass arm cracking its teeth.
Yorke smirked and tugged his arm back. The zombie staggered and fell over. He was about to boot it in the face when he noticed the name printed on its NASA overalls.
"Stephens! Jesus!" he exclaimed. Yorke's best friend moaned sending splinters of broken teeth flying. "Not you too..."
Stephens showed no hint of recognition and jumped at Yorke. Wrapping its arms around his leg it tried to pull itself up to Yorke's exposed head. Yorke reacted in a second kneeing the zombie in the throat. It cried out and fell to the ground, paralysed by a broken neck. Yorke lifted his foot and stomped on the zombie's head as hard as he could. It imploded spectacularly spraying lumps of grey matter and bone over the deck.
He stared at the twitching corpse for a moment. More zombies began to congregate in the hallway. Yorke ran off before it became too crowded to dodge easily.
Several more signs directed him but he stopped at one that was different from the rest. A door read "SECURITY". It was unlocked.
Yorke looked in the window beside the door and saw a regular looking office. No one was there, but one thing did catch his eye. A grey metal box was bolted to the wall: A gun box. He grinned.
He went in and opened the box. A rack of four pump action shotguns was there, as well as two full boxes of ammo. He wondered why there were firearms onboard the station but didn't worry about it for long. He quickly pulled three of them out and laid them out on the desk.
He then opened a box of ammo and started to load one of them.
"What the-?" Yorke grunted to himself. He eyed the round in his hand. It was blue, not red like he was used to. Reading the label on the box his heart sank. "'Non-lethal Bean Bag Rounds?'" he cried. "God damn it!
What was I thinking? He scolded himself inwardly, of coarse there are no real bullets, they would puncture the hull! They only need these to keep the rowdy miners in check anyway.
Kicking himself, he finished loading the one in his hand. It was better than nothing. After filling the chamber and the rack on the side of the barrel with spares he set off towards the comm room.
CHAPTER 5
David and Helen tethered themselves to the hull beside the circuit box for the Antenna Array. The metal casing was bashed, with a large hole exposing the internal system.
"What do you think did that?" Helen asked him over the helmet radios.
"High velocity impact. I see this kind of thing all the time. A piece of space junk or a micro meteor has smashed through and damaged it." He answered.
"Space junk?"
"Yeah, nuts and bolts, debris from ships and satellites. They say that in a hundred years Earth with have rings like Saturn made up of all the garbage that comes with space exploration." David pulled a spanner from his tool bag and started to unscrew the cover. He handed it to Helen and inspected the circuits.
"Can you fix it?" Helen asked him.
"Of coarse." He worked away with great skill. Replacing components with ones from his bag and soldering intricate connections. While he worked he talked. "Do you wave any theories about how this virus got up here, Helen?" He asked.
"A few, but one seems to the most likely."
"Well?"
"I think it was sent up with a payload to the original space station thirty years ago, before it was expanded. You see, NASA used to sell space on its shuttle to private companies that wanted experiments done in a low gravity environment. The astronauts would carry them out and report back to the scientists on the ground."
"And you think it was forgotten about or cancelled once it was up here?"
"Exactly."
David fiddled about for a while as Helen watched. She looked up at the massive dish above them. It suddenly burst into life with flashing beacon lights that winked in the darkness.
"Done." David informed her standing stiffly. He helped her to her feet and they both detached their tethers from the hull and walked to the Air Lock. As they walked David felt strange vibrations, like the hull was being thumped repeatedly. He stopped and concentrated on it. It was getting stronger and faster.
"What's the problem?" Helen said.
"Don't you feel that?" He queried. Turning to look all around them, David noticed a strange shape approaching them at terrifying speed over the hull. They both tensed and watched until they could make it out.
It was some kind of big muscular beast with green, pebbled skin and small black eyes. Sharp white teeth glittered in the shadows cast by the bright exterior lights of the station. Tattered pieces of blue overalls clung to its body.
David and Helen ran in opposite directions. It was slow and very difficult to run because one magnetic boot had to be in contact with the hull at all times or they would float away.
The creature speed past them, somehow managing to keep one clawed hand or foot down to grip the hull. It ignored Helen and charged after David. He ran as fast as he could, dodging around windows and stepping over pipes and other obstacles. It could travel incredibly fast, catching up to him in moments.
David felt absolutely helpless, like a nightmare where something is chasing you but you can never run fast enough.
A claw slapped him on the back sending him sprawling. He quickly planted his feet and faced the thing. It screamed silently and raised its taloned fist to strike. David ducked and came in low, ramming into the monster with his shoulder he lifted it up off the ground.
Its claws scratched along his back as he heaved it away with all his strength. It kicked and flailed powerlessly as it drifted slowly away. David allowed himself a smile but it faded when a warning light began to flash in his helmet. He looked at the head up display projected onto the glass.
The scratches had ruptured a seal on his suit; he had a slow puncture that was leaking air! He ran desperately to the Air Lock. Helen's voice crackled in his ear.
"What's happening, David?" She cried.
"My suit's been compromised, I'm loosing pressure!" he croaked.
"I'm coming!"
"No! Open the Air Lock, I'll be right there!" He ran as fast as he could. Halfway there his ears popped and it was hard for him to catch his breath. He spotted the hole in the floor ahead that was his salvation, Helen was half in and half out waving at him to hurry. She could have been talking too but David was so determined to make it he couldn't hear anything but the sound of his breathing.
Nearly there, nearly there, nearly there. He repeated that mantra over and over in his mind till he suddenly found that he was about six feet from the rim of the Air Lock. He jumped at it foolishly.
Both of his feet came away from the hull and he sailed over it with no sign of stopping. Helen quickly grabbed his ankle and dragged him inside. She closed the door and hit the button to re-pressurize the room.
Three long minutes past and the green light flashed. Helen took off her helmet and could instantly hear the hiss of air rushing from the life support system in David's suit. She unclipped the catches and pulled his helmet off of him.
He gulped down huge breaths of air in long gasps. Sweat poured down his face, his hair was plastered to his forehead. Helen led him through the inner door and sat him down on a bench to catch his breath.
"Are you okay now?" she asked him gently.
"Yeah, I'm okay." He replied.
"We should be able to call for help now, right?"
"Yes, the antenna's working fine, radio Yorke in the comm room to call for help."
CHAPTER 6
Yorke's radio burst to life. He listened to Helens instructions on how to activate the comm. system and punched the coordinates for Ground Control. He cranked up the volume so the room was filled with static. A voice crackled through it.
"Freedom, this is Ground Control are you there?" Yorke grabbed the handset and practically shouted into it.
"This is Freedom, requesting emergency evacuation." There was an ominous pause.
"Uh, say again."
"Requesting emergency Evacuation," Yorke said more calmly.
"Please hold, Freedom." Yorke waited gripping the receiver tightly. A knock on the door startled him. He spun around.
"Who- is that you, David? Helen? Come in." He said. More knocking. It became louder and more desperate. A long, low moan came from the other side, followed by another. And another. The hinges rattled as more and more rotting fists pounded the door.
Yorke seized the shotgun from the table and levelled it at the doorway. He could hear Ground Control replying.
"A ship will be departing from a lunar launch pad and dock with the Station at port 16. It will take you to an Earth Base for debriefing."
Crrrraaaasssssssssshhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
The door exploded inwards, bodies toppled into the room. Yorke fired twice shattering the chest of the first zombie. The beanbag rounds splattered right through their soft, decomposed carcasses.
Every zombie in the area seemed to be there. They piled in and were knocked back by every blast. Yorke managed to clear a path and darted between the creatures. Swinging the shotgun like a club he toppled the remaining zombies and sprinted for the elevator.
David and Helen ran through the Tourist area towards the elevator to the Comm room. They passed the corpses of the three pink creatures that had attacked him and carried on. Soon they reached the elevator. Before David could press the call button the doors parted and Yorke staggered out holding a shotgun and covered in blood.
"What happened?" David asked him.
"The Comm room was over run, but I managed to call for help. Their sending a rescue ship." He said.
"Where are they docking?" Helen probed.
"Port 16."
"That's up on the main Axis. We have to get to the elevator that goes up the Spoke." David turned to look back were they had come.
"That's they way I came in. It's all the way back there." He said.
RRRRRROOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!
They all froze. The roar was louder that it had ever been. They turned to look behind them. A massive, hulking beast lumbered into view. Yorke struggled to reload his weapon; David and Helen were totally awestruck.
It was the biggest thing either of them had ever seen. It was humanoid, with two arms, two legs and a head. Its arms were long so it dragged its knuckles on the deck. Its head practically touched the ceiling. Thick ropey muscles twitched and bulged under its blue skin. Veins throbbed over its swollen biceps.
Blue overalls were pulled taut around its legs; the flesh of its exposed chest was split and torn where it was stretched to breaking point over its humungous ribcage dribbling little rivulets of blood down its body. Its head was disproportionably small compared to the rest of it. Its face expressed the only emotion it was capable of. Rage.
Yorke cocked the shotgun and pointed it at the monster. It began to advance and he fired. The beanbags smacked off its skin making a sound like a fist hitting a pillow. It was unfazed and picked up its pace. Clumping towards them it let out another bellow that could have shattered glass.
The three humans scattered causing the creature, the Tyrant, to charge past them into the bulkhead. The impact ruptured the metal tearing a long split in the hull. They all ran as the area depressurised. Horrible visions of the injuries cause by explosive decompression flashed through David's mind. The eyes would explode, the lungs would collapse and freeze, every blood vessel would pop...
He shook them away and focused on their escape. The air whistled past them trying to suck them back. Ahead, emergency lights flashed brightly and a thick pressure door began to slowly lower from the ceiling.
Yorke rolled under first and held out his hand to help the next. Helen stumbled and fell. She struggled to grip the floor with her fingertips as the rushing torrent of wind and debris pulled her towards the cold darkness of space.
A strong hand wrapped itself around her wrist and heaved her up and into Yorke's waiting arms. David lunged in after her just as the door touched down and the hurricane ceased. He smiled at her.
"That's for saving me at the Air Lock, now we're even." He chortled. She smiled back.
"Come on, let's go!" Yorke insisted. "Something tells me it'll take more than that to kill that monster!" They all nodded and jogged after him towards the reception area.
Yorke's suspicions were proved right. As soon as they were halfway down the corridor a huge banging reverberated through the entire station. The door buckled and distorted under the tremendous barrage.
They all dashed along the wide corridor, jumping over corpses and knocking over stands of postcards in their desperate bid for safety. Another alarm sounded and a pressure door they had just run under slide to the floor as the Tyrant tore down the first. They looked at each other. Nothing would stop it, not even every door on the station.
Their only chance was to make it to the Main Elevator and get to the Dock to meet the Rescue Ship.
CHAPTER 7
The door to the reception area whooshed open and everyone piled in. It was the same as it was when David arrived; the coffee was still spilled on the desk, but had dried up. The plants were still in each corner of the room, the zombie woman with the broken nose was milling about in the corner.
Yorke used the last shell he had to kill her and dumped the shotgun. He let David lead the way through the room and along the narrow corridor to the elevator. A massive explosion rocked the station sending the astronauts tumbling to the ground. An automated message began to play over the loudspeakers.
"Alert, alert. Extreme structural damage. Unacceptable Life Support failure. All hands to Axis, abandon ship. Repeat, all hands abandon ship." A woman's voice read calmly.
The room was suddenly bathed in red light, David, Yorke and Helen got to their feet and activated the elevator. The doors slid shut behind them and it started its accent to the Axis.
Bellow them, in the reception room the rotting corpse of the zombie was sucked out into space as the Tyrant punched through the final pressure door and stomped towards the lift shaft. Its dead blue skin was covered in glittering frost, its white cataract eyes bulged but it soldiered on.
Crawling through the last corridor it reached the double doors of the elevator and prised them open with its vice-like hands. The air in the shaft surged out past the creature and it began the slow climb to the humans.
Helen cried out with fright as the elevator shuddered and stopped. Warning lights flared all over the control panel.
"SHAFT BREACH, LIFE SUPPORT FAILURE." It flashed. Helen panicked.
"What'll we do?" she wailed. David and Yorke searched around. They spotted the hatch in the ceiling and looked at each other.
"The hatch!" David began
"Climb the shaft!" Yorke replied.
"But the air..." Helen butted in.
"The seal round the elevator will keep the air above where it is. We can climb the maintenance ladder to the Axis. After about twenty feet we'll be practically in zero-gee anyway."
Yorke reached up and grabbed the handle on the round opening. Putting his whole weight on it, he cranked it till the hatch popped. It swung open easily and he gave Helen a boost onto the roof of the elevator. The men pulled themselves through quick;y and they all climbed up the ladder.
The force of gravity got noticeably weaker and weaker till they could propel themselves upward by their fingertips. Suddenly the shaft shuddered violently, Helen hit her head on the wall and fell slowly down. David grabbed her around the waist and held her tightly as he shoved off of the ladder and soared up to the door.
He hit the emergency control and the doors parted giving them access to the axis. Yorke was the last to go in. He happened to glance down and was astonished when the elevator, still lodged far bellow, crumpled and disappeared as the huge Tyrant barrelled through it.
The seal was broken and the air rushed out of the shaft. Yorke was dragged down but managed to grab the lip of the doorway and hang on. He could see David shouting at him but couldn't hear anything.
Helen was still groggy so David tossed her in an alcove so she wasn't sucked away. He let the storm take hold of him and drag him to the door. Steering himself, he managed to hit the wall and wedge himself with his feet.
Reaching as far as he could he seized Yorke's arm as the atmosphere got thinner and the Tyrant got closer. With an almighty heave they both fell onto the deck gasping for breath as the doors slammed closed.
Helen staggered over to them. "Come on," she said clutching the gash on her head, "Hurry up!" The men got up and helped her into the Axis.
They all floated down the Axis in Zero-Gee. The walls were shaking as the monster clambered up the spoke, still hot on their tails. Spots of blood from Helens cut tumbled through the air behind them as they made their way to Dock 16.
David glanced to his left out of the long rectangular window and laughed at what he saw. A big grey wedge was flying towards the Station, docking clamps ready. Ahead of them, the automatic docking computer started the procedure.
"I see them, they're on their way!" he shouted. Yorke smiled and winked at him.
"We're gonna be okay!" he said.
After what seemed like forever they reached Dock 16 and sealed the door. Seconds later they heard the tearing of metal and the howl of wind as another section of the Station fell to the Tyrant.
"Jesus! It's not stopping for anything!" Yorke exclaimed. The whole room was shaking as they waited for the rescue ship to attach itself to the Air Lock. The starlight streaming through the window in the outer door was blocked, they all watched as the ship's Lock touched and the clamps grabbed onto the Station.
WHHOOOOOOOOSSSSSHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The pressures equalized and the Air Lock doors cycled open. Three men in green scrubs carrying medical bags appeared.
"Where are the rest of the survivors?" the first said.
"We're the only ones." David told him. "Quick, we have to get out of here!"
The men helped Helen into the ship; Yorke and David lunged on after them. The Air Lock closed just as a colossal impact shook the entire Axis.
"Shit! What was that?" the pilot demanded from the Flight Deck.
"You don't wanna know! Just get this tub moving!" Yorke shouted up to him. The clamps unhooked and small boosters thrust the ship slowly away.
Suddenly the whole ship was rocked as the Air Lock blew out. Debris peppered the hull and the escaping atmosphere blasted the craft off coarse.
Outside, the Tyrant watched the ship as it perched on the outer rim of the Air Lock. With a huge shove it launched itself at the vessel.
TTHHUUUNNNGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!
"What the..." cried one of the med officers.
"Something just hit us!" the pilot yelled. David shoved off and sailed up to the Flight Deck.
"It's the monster." He said. "You have to shake it off or it'll rip through the hull!"
"Monster? Your out of your mind." Just at that moment a huge shadow fell across the windscreen of the shuttle. The Tyrants blank face looked straight at the pilot who watched it raise its fist in terror. David leaned over his shoulder and grabbed the stick. He shoved it down throwing the creature off balance. The pilot swore and snatched back the controls.
"It's too strong to shake off!" David told him. "Got any ideas?" The pilot looked around desperately then smiled.
"Yeah, get back there and tell everyone to strap in."
David wasted no time swimming back to the others and buckling up. The craft shook violently as the pilot accelerated; he kept the ship moving on a zigzag coarse so the Tyrant had to hang on tight and headed straight for Earth.
The G-forces increased, almost making David black out, but the pilot was very skilled and had total control over everything. The Tyrant grimaced as he hit the atmosphere. Friction heated the hull, and the monster. The metal glowed red hot and the creatures flesh began to blister and burn. Orange and yellow flames licked up across the glass and the Tyrant opened its mouth to utter a scream that inaudible over the roar of the engines.
EPILOGUE
The shuttle touched down safely at Houston Space Port, the nose of the shuttle was coated with the charred remains of the Tyrant that were streaked over the window and along the roof as well.
David, Helen and Yorke explained everything that had happened to NASA who took samples of the Tyrant and sent a team of armed astronauts to clear the Space Station Freedom of its infestation. An investigation was held concerning the evidence they gave, as well as statements taken from Chris and Jill Redfield about their alleged run ins with the Umbrella Corporation.
The Redfield's were never called to give evidence in court, nor did they hear if any charges had been filed against Umbrella at all. It seemed as though even after nearly forty years Umbrella was still in control and could still get away with anything...
12
By Gary Stark
CHAPTER 1
Gerald bounced along the corridor. The floors curved upwards ever so slightly reminding him were he was, even though he had never forgotten he was on Freedom, the reduced gravity still mad him queasy. Through the rectangular windows along the outer wall he could see distant stars twinkling and the bilious blue orb of the Earth.
He reached the Cargo Bay door and pressed the switch. There was a hiss of hydraulics and the door whooshed up into the bulkhead. He stepped into the vast hall and greeted the other workers rummaging at the shelves and marking clipboards.
He continued to the very back of the room and began his stock take. Pulling boxes out, reading the labels and putting them back was his job. And it bored the hell out of him.
After two hours when his shift in the cargo bay was nearly over he came across a strange metal container. Carefully picking it up he took it to the entrance to show the other guys.
"Hey, check this out." He said.
"What is it?" asked his friend, John, as he dropped slowly to the floor from a scaffold.
"I don't know. I've never seen anything like this before."
"It looks airtight to me." Said the third guy.
"Why don't you open it?" Said another.
"I don't think you should, Gerald," John warned him, "What if causes a biohazard?"
"If it were dangerous they wouldn't have put it in here with all this other stuff." The third guy retorted. They all examined it for another moment.
"Is there a label?" John asked. Gerald turned it in his hands, wiping a thick layer of dust from it.
"Yeah, it doesn't say anything, just has a weird picture on it."
"Looks kinda like an ... umbrella." John said.
"Stand back, boys. I'm going to open it." Gerald waved his arms making the men take a step back. Gripping the top tightly he grunted, struggling with the tight cap. Everyone looked on as he strained against the ancient seal. Suddenly there was a whoosh and a gust of air breathed out of the container. "What's that smell - gackk! Argh!"
Gerald fell to his knees gasping, the container clattered to the floor. The colour drained from his face, his eyes became red and puffy. His colleagues looked on in horror as his body expanded, tearing his overalls. Thick red and purple veins popped up under his skin. His screams echoed through the room, changing from high-pitched terror, to the deep, threatening roar of a Tyrant.
The other men dropped next, convulsing on the ground, their bodies began to change. The sound of breaking bone and tearing flesh emanated from them. Their hair fell out, their scalps split and their brains expanded outward, obliterating their eyes, shattered their skulls. Hands and feet exploded into bundles of bony grey claws. Their teeth grew quickly and their tongues snaked out of their mouths to slash the air.
The newly formed monsters staggered around the cargo bay, taking in the new surroundings and testing each other's tempers. The Tyrant walked through the door into the corridor and stomped off. The Lickers jostled around and went off their own way.
The grey metal canister rocked on the hard floor. An invisible cloud of germs wafted around the room, floating upwards and being sucked into the ventilation intake. The contagion swept through the station like wildfire, spreading death and destruction in one of the most dangerous environment there is. Space.
CHAPTER 2
David Redfield felt himself being pressed back into his padded seat as the boosters thrust the commercial Orbiter against the pull of the Earth's gravity. Out of his window he could see the hazy blue of the atmosphere fade and give way to the darkness of space. The distant stars glittered and winked at him. At the back of the craft, under the Delta shaped wing the rocket boosters roared. He could feel the entire fuselage shake with the force.
The ripping sound of the Hostess walking up the isle startled him. She stepped on the Velcro strips keeping her on the ground. The illusion that this cast helped passengers to combat the disorienting effects of weightlessness.
She offered him a drink in a cup with a lid and straw. He took it and watched her walk back to the crew compartment through the deserted passenger section. He was the only passenger on the flight. Drafted out to the space station specially so he could repair the main communications antenna. He was the only person with the skills in telecommunications technology and extensive experience in E.V.A.'s (space-walks) and was the only person who could do it.
"Major," Came the soft voice of the hostess. "We've locked onto the docking beacon and will arrive in 15 minutes."
"Thank you." He smiled.
Soon he could see the station through his window. It was absolutely huge. The Docking assembly was visible on the central axis, pitted with round air locks and with a few long vessels preparing to travel to the outer planets.
At either end of the Axis were two massive rings. The far one was partially constructed and made mostly of bare metal girders expose the vacuum. The gentle spin of the station generated the artificial gravity. He spotted the main antenna pointed towards Earth. All around it was bristling with smaller transmitters. It was these that the crew has to use to keep in touch with Earth via a complicated and unreliable satellite relay.
He noticed the tiny form of the original station started in 1999. The cramped modules had been vastly expanded upon in the last thirty years and birthed the new and improved Space Station Freedom.
David floated in the central Axis corridor and watched the Orbiter unclamp and float away from the airlock back towards Earth. He let his holdall tumble through the air as he looked around. He wondered where everyone was; there should have been a crewman to meet him. He shrugged inwardly and ran his hand through his hair to push it out of his eyes. Kicking furiously he swam to his bag and kicked off of a wall to the door.
He was inside the Axis. All down the long corridor were rooms like the one he was just in, some leading to docked ships but most held empty airlocks. Shoving off hard he propelled himself along till he bumped into the bulkhead at the end of the Axis. He pressed the door control and it slid open. He could see the inside of the spinning Spoke section of the station. Once he pulled himself through the door he would be affected by gravity again.
The shift was very daunting, though, but with practice it would become like stepping onto a moving escalator. David swung his feet around and grunted as he hit the deck. He still felt light. The centrifugal force this close to the Axis was very weak, but would grow stronger as he went down, to the outer rim of the wheel.
An elevator took him down through a spoke to the wheel itself. He walked unsteadily along the empty corridor and staggered into the reception. Again, there wasn't a soul anywhere. The room was big, with a large picture window showing the moon in the distance. Potted plants sat in the corners waving gently in the drafts from the Life Support vents. A big desk was at the far end; next to it was an airtight door.
David walked to the desk, papers were scattered on it, and a cup of coffee was overturned, its contents stained the files. "Hello?" he called, "Is anyone here?" He listened and heard no reply.
Leaning on the edge he peered over the desk. Suddenly a woman sprang up at him. He gasped and jumped back. She lunged at him, moaning and swinging blindly. He looked into her dead white eyes and couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Are you all right?" he asked in vain. His voice seemed to irritate her; she struggled to clamber over the desk at him groaning. He walked backwards well out of her reach and watched. She was pale, almost white. Her skin was dry, her eyes sunken and lifeless. Her blue NASA overalls were tattered and splashed with blood.
"Zombie." He couldn't believe it! A real ZOMBIE! His parents had always told him about when they fought zombies when they were in the S.T.A.R.S but he thought they were just stories. Never for a second did he think they were true!
The woman crawled over the desktop and fell onto the floor hitting her face. She dragged herself to her knees, ignoring her obviously broken nose and tried for him again. He wasted no time getting out of there! Opening the door he went out into the main social area locking it behind him.
CHAPTER 3
Massive talons clanged against the armoured back of Yorke's space suit sending him sprawling across the deck. The beast leapt over his prone form as he struggle to his feet. It pounced again, launching itself into the air with its strong hind legs. Yorke jumped aside letting it smash onto the floor.
He bolted for the Air Lock but the green- skinned abomination was nearly on him again. It was hard to move in the stiff suit and it seemed like it was taking forever to reach the controls. He tripped over his heavy boots and clattered to the ground. The monster flew over him into the Air Lock. Yorke seized the opportunity, springing up and slapping the switch.
The door swished closed, locking it in. He grinned and pressed the other button. A light flashed and the outer door opened, sucking the Hunter into the cold vacuum of space.
Yorke sat down on a bench panting. He looked at the atmospheric indicator on his wrist. It still read that the air was clear of contamination, but he wasn't taking any chances; preferring to keep his space suit sealed till he was out of this hellhole.
Suddenly his helmet radio crackled loudly in his ears. "Yorke, are you there?" came a female voice.
He tapped the control on his chest plate to respond. "I'm here, Doctor. Where are you?"
"I'm trapped in the main visitor centre. A Shuttle just dropped off someone but I was attacked and can't reach him. Now I've been trapped by a couple of those creatures with the long tongues in a shop."
"Hang tight, I'll be right there." Yorke told her dragging himself to his feet. Snapping a long piece of pipe from the wall as a weapon, he clumped out of the room towards his comrade.
David ran down the curving corridor of the Space Station weaving in and out of the way of the workers. All of them were zombies. Totally mindless, they were just as his parents had described to him. He tried to piece the story together in his mind as he dodged the slow, lumbering corpses.
David skidded to a halt and gasped. He was in the main tourist area, with shops and a raised walkway above his head with big picture windows. Just ahead of him a threesome of weird pink creatures were squabbling and clawing at a metal and glass door. He watched, sickened, as their stringy muscles rippled beneath their slimy skin. Their exposed brains pulsed and long globs of drool dribbled over their razor sharp teeth. The tattered rags of NASA overalls clung to their bodies.
One of them turned to David; its strange eyeless face regarded him for a moment before it started to skulk towards him. Massive claws chinked on the metal floor as it swaggered along. A long thick tongue slithered out between its mandibles and began to swish back and forth. The first two creatures ignored him and continued to scratch at the door in vain.
It hissed loudly scaring the crap out of him! He turned to run but the zombies were approaching from behind. He was trapped. He searched about for an escape. The shops? Locked! The walkway? No, too high!
Suddenly a huge shape plummeted down from the walkway flattening the creature. It began to pound on the thing with a metal bar as it scrabbled and screeched in pain. Thwack, thwack, thwack, its blood splattered over the deck and flipped up into the air to tumble slowly to the ground.
David gawped at the dome headed thing that had saved him then realised it was a man in a space suit. The pristine white if the armoured chest and limbs of the suit were streaked with gore and the faceplate was steamed up.
Whump! The other two set upon him, trying to dig him out of his cocoon. The toughened fibreglass barely scratched and the man shoved one of the beasts off of him easily. The other screamed and speared the man with its lance-like tongue. The liquid crystal screen on his chest shattered.
David charged at the creature as it struggled with the man on the floor. Grunting with the effort in the strange gravity, he volleyed it as hard as he could in the head. It fell off of him, its brain split and gouged open. The other one lunged at him but the man threw himself in front of David to let his suit take the blow. The beast slashed mercilessly at him till its claw finally tore into the soft seal of the articulated shoulder. The stranger fell to the floor in pain, blood dribbled out of the gash. David booted it in the chest and fell backwards. He quickly got to his feet and grabbed up the metal bar.
The monster attacked again but was knocked back by a clout around the head. David never let up till its head was a shattered puree of grey matter and gore.
David dropped the bar and helped the man to his feet. He shrugged him off and stepped back. Fingering at four metal catches around his chest and shoulders he released his helmet with a whoosh of air.
"No point in keeping this stupid thing on now that the seal has been breached." Gasped the sweaty astronaut. He ran his hand over his head so that his short blonde hair flicked sweat about and rubbed his eyes.
"Who are you?" David asked. The stranger pointed to his name printed on his chest.
"Yorke, lieutenant Michael Yorke United States Air Force. You?"
"David Redfield, USAF communications tech."
"Hey, you're the guy that was supposed to come fix the main antenna array. That is, before this happened."
They were both startled by the quiet grating sound of a mechanical door opening. They spun to see a figure step out of the scratched and scarred doorway the monsters had been attacking. It was a woman clad in a similar suit to Yorke's. She had no helmet, though. Her long brown hair was tied back in a tight ponytail and she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
"Yorke, you came." She said smiling.
"Don't I always?" he smirked. "This is David Redfield, the Comm tech you were expecting. Dave, this is Doctor Helen Belfast." David shook her gloved hand and she smiled shyly.
"What happened here?" he asked them.
"We're not really sure," Helen began, " Yorke and I were out on an EVA (space walk) but after a while we stopped getting feed back from control. So we came back in and the whole place was over run. We haven't found any one alive except you but you weren't here when what ever it was struck."
"Our atmospheric scanners detected trace elements of some kind of virus but it seems to have dissipated now." The computer logs say that a huge release started in one of the cargo holds and spread from there."
David furrowed his brow trying to remember the name of the virus from his parent's stories. "T-virus."
"What?" Helen exclaimed.
"The T-virus. My parents told me about times when they used to fight this big company called Umbrella."
"The pharmaceuticals company?" Helen asked.
"Yeah, they told me that years ago Umbrella were working on a bio-weapons program in the form of a virus. It would mutate living tissue changing animals into monsters and humans into mindless zombies."
"Some bedtime story." Yorke commented.
"I thought that was all they were, stories. But it seems that their true. I think that the T-virus has found it's way here."
They all looked at each other in silence. How was it possible? Why? Questions raced through all their minds, but Yorke was the only one to voice one of his:
"What does the 'T' stand for?"
"'Tyrant'..."
RRRRRROOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!
The whole place seemed to shake with the force of the ungodly scream. It was so loud they couldn't tell if it was down the hall of on the other side of the Station.
"My God. We have to get out of here." Helen squeaked.
CHAPTER 4
Yorke helped David lower the torso of his space suit over his head and lock it around his waist. The control panel on his chest burst into life and began to register his heart rate and respiration. David picked up a heavy bag of tools and attached them to his thigh.
"Remember David, you have to work as quickly as possible and fix the antenna array so we can call Earth." Yorke told him. "Helen will be outside with you, "I'll stay inside and go up to the main communications room to call as soon as it's done."
David nodded brushing his brown hair out of his eyes. "Why haven't you tried to use the uplink system to call for help?"
"Without anyone keeping the makeshift antenna pointed at the satellite it's drifted out of our 'line of sight'." Helen said as she hefted his helmet and passed it to Yorke. Yorke put it over David's head and sealed it so that he heard the rest of Helens answer through the speaker connected to an external microphone. "The main array, though, always points towards Ground Control so when you figure out the problem Yorke can call for help instantly."
"Right." David gave the thumbs up and watched Yorke seal up Helens suit through his toughened Plexiglas faceplate.
They stepped clumsily into the Air Lock and the door slid shut behind them. Helen gave Yorke the a-okay sign and he began to decompress the cramped room. They could feel the joints of their suits stiffen as the air was leeched out. Soon the lock was in vacuum and Yorke opened the outer hatch.
David peered out at the glowing blue and white orb that was the planet Earth. His head began to swim. This was the hardest part of any space walk. Taking the first step out of the hatch with every instinct screaming that you were going to fall thousands of miles. Every astronaut felt it but you just had to look 'up' and try to ignore it.
Gripping the side of the hatch tightly he swung himself around and planted his magnetic boots on the hull with a clang. Of coarse there was no normal sound in space. The vibrations were transmitted trough his suit and his own body up to his ear so he heard a muffled version.
Letting go of the wall he stood. Helen smiled at him, to her he seemed to by standing horizontally. She followed him and after a minute of adjusting to their strange orientation they bean the long walk over to the Antenna Array.
* * *
Yorke ran along a corridor towards the main Communications room. He happened to glance across at the large oval windows. He could see the moon far off in the distance, spinning slowly.
His suit made it hard to run but he kept it on even though it was punctured and useless. The strong shell had protected him before so he figured that it was worth being slowed a little.
Up a shallow ramp and in an elevator he stepped out onto the command deck. The gravity was noticeably weaker here because it was high up nearer the centre of the wheel. He walked carefully but stopped in his tracks.
RRRRRROOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!
The horrible scream reverberated through the entire structure of the Space Station. It sounded distant to Yorke but still chilled him to his bones. He walked on trying not to think about the monster that could produce such a cry.
A sign on the wall directed him to the comm room. As he walked a figure suddenly lunged at him from an open doorway. He threw his arms up to block it. Peeling, rotten hands latched onto his gauntlet and pulled it towards a shrivelled, sunken face. The zombie chomped on the fibreglass arm cracking its teeth.
Yorke smirked and tugged his arm back. The zombie staggered and fell over. He was about to boot it in the face when he noticed the name printed on its NASA overalls.
"Stephens! Jesus!" he exclaimed. Yorke's best friend moaned sending splinters of broken teeth flying. "Not you too..."
Stephens showed no hint of recognition and jumped at Yorke. Wrapping its arms around his leg it tried to pull itself up to Yorke's exposed head. Yorke reacted in a second kneeing the zombie in the throat. It cried out and fell to the ground, paralysed by a broken neck. Yorke lifted his foot and stomped on the zombie's head as hard as he could. It imploded spectacularly spraying lumps of grey matter and bone over the deck.
He stared at the twitching corpse for a moment. More zombies began to congregate in the hallway. Yorke ran off before it became too crowded to dodge easily.
Several more signs directed him but he stopped at one that was different from the rest. A door read "SECURITY". It was unlocked.
Yorke looked in the window beside the door and saw a regular looking office. No one was there, but one thing did catch his eye. A grey metal box was bolted to the wall: A gun box. He grinned.
He went in and opened the box. A rack of four pump action shotguns was there, as well as two full boxes of ammo. He wondered why there were firearms onboard the station but didn't worry about it for long. He quickly pulled three of them out and laid them out on the desk.
He then opened a box of ammo and started to load one of them.
"What the-?" Yorke grunted to himself. He eyed the round in his hand. It was blue, not red like he was used to. Reading the label on the box his heart sank. "'Non-lethal Bean Bag Rounds?'" he cried. "God damn it!
What was I thinking? He scolded himself inwardly, of coarse there are no real bullets, they would puncture the hull! They only need these to keep the rowdy miners in check anyway.
Kicking himself, he finished loading the one in his hand. It was better than nothing. After filling the chamber and the rack on the side of the barrel with spares he set off towards the comm room.
CHAPTER 5
David and Helen tethered themselves to the hull beside the circuit box for the Antenna Array. The metal casing was bashed, with a large hole exposing the internal system.
"What do you think did that?" Helen asked him over the helmet radios.
"High velocity impact. I see this kind of thing all the time. A piece of space junk or a micro meteor has smashed through and damaged it." He answered.
"Space junk?"
"Yeah, nuts and bolts, debris from ships and satellites. They say that in a hundred years Earth with have rings like Saturn made up of all the garbage that comes with space exploration." David pulled a spanner from his tool bag and started to unscrew the cover. He handed it to Helen and inspected the circuits.
"Can you fix it?" Helen asked him.
"Of coarse." He worked away with great skill. Replacing components with ones from his bag and soldering intricate connections. While he worked he talked. "Do you wave any theories about how this virus got up here, Helen?" He asked.
"A few, but one seems to the most likely."
"Well?"
"I think it was sent up with a payload to the original space station thirty years ago, before it was expanded. You see, NASA used to sell space on its shuttle to private companies that wanted experiments done in a low gravity environment. The astronauts would carry them out and report back to the scientists on the ground."
"And you think it was forgotten about or cancelled once it was up here?"
"Exactly."
David fiddled about for a while as Helen watched. She looked up at the massive dish above them. It suddenly burst into life with flashing beacon lights that winked in the darkness.
"Done." David informed her standing stiffly. He helped her to her feet and they both detached their tethers from the hull and walked to the Air Lock. As they walked David felt strange vibrations, like the hull was being thumped repeatedly. He stopped and concentrated on it. It was getting stronger and faster.
"What's the problem?" Helen said.
"Don't you feel that?" He queried. Turning to look all around them, David noticed a strange shape approaching them at terrifying speed over the hull. They both tensed and watched until they could make it out.
It was some kind of big muscular beast with green, pebbled skin and small black eyes. Sharp white teeth glittered in the shadows cast by the bright exterior lights of the station. Tattered pieces of blue overalls clung to its body.
David and Helen ran in opposite directions. It was slow and very difficult to run because one magnetic boot had to be in contact with the hull at all times or they would float away.
The creature speed past them, somehow managing to keep one clawed hand or foot down to grip the hull. It ignored Helen and charged after David. He ran as fast as he could, dodging around windows and stepping over pipes and other obstacles. It could travel incredibly fast, catching up to him in moments.
David felt absolutely helpless, like a nightmare where something is chasing you but you can never run fast enough.
A claw slapped him on the back sending him sprawling. He quickly planted his feet and faced the thing. It screamed silently and raised its taloned fist to strike. David ducked and came in low, ramming into the monster with his shoulder he lifted it up off the ground.
Its claws scratched along his back as he heaved it away with all his strength. It kicked and flailed powerlessly as it drifted slowly away. David allowed himself a smile but it faded when a warning light began to flash in his helmet. He looked at the head up display projected onto the glass.
The scratches had ruptured a seal on his suit; he had a slow puncture that was leaking air! He ran desperately to the Air Lock. Helen's voice crackled in his ear.
"What's happening, David?" She cried.
"My suit's been compromised, I'm loosing pressure!" he croaked.
"I'm coming!"
"No! Open the Air Lock, I'll be right there!" He ran as fast as he could. Halfway there his ears popped and it was hard for him to catch his breath. He spotted the hole in the floor ahead that was his salvation, Helen was half in and half out waving at him to hurry. She could have been talking too but David was so determined to make it he couldn't hear anything but the sound of his breathing.
Nearly there, nearly there, nearly there. He repeated that mantra over and over in his mind till he suddenly found that he was about six feet from the rim of the Air Lock. He jumped at it foolishly.
Both of his feet came away from the hull and he sailed over it with no sign of stopping. Helen quickly grabbed his ankle and dragged him inside. She closed the door and hit the button to re-pressurize the room.
Three long minutes past and the green light flashed. Helen took off her helmet and could instantly hear the hiss of air rushing from the life support system in David's suit. She unclipped the catches and pulled his helmet off of him.
He gulped down huge breaths of air in long gasps. Sweat poured down his face, his hair was plastered to his forehead. Helen led him through the inner door and sat him down on a bench to catch his breath.
"Are you okay now?" she asked him gently.
"Yeah, I'm okay." He replied.
"We should be able to call for help now, right?"
"Yes, the antenna's working fine, radio Yorke in the comm room to call for help."
CHAPTER 6
Yorke's radio burst to life. He listened to Helens instructions on how to activate the comm. system and punched the coordinates for Ground Control. He cranked up the volume so the room was filled with static. A voice crackled through it.
"Freedom, this is Ground Control are you there?" Yorke grabbed the handset and practically shouted into it.
"This is Freedom, requesting emergency evacuation." There was an ominous pause.
"Uh, say again."
"Requesting emergency Evacuation," Yorke said more calmly.
"Please hold, Freedom." Yorke waited gripping the receiver tightly. A knock on the door startled him. He spun around.
"Who- is that you, David? Helen? Come in." He said. More knocking. It became louder and more desperate. A long, low moan came from the other side, followed by another. And another. The hinges rattled as more and more rotting fists pounded the door.
Yorke seized the shotgun from the table and levelled it at the doorway. He could hear Ground Control replying.
"A ship will be departing from a lunar launch pad and dock with the Station at port 16. It will take you to an Earth Base for debriefing."
Crrrraaaasssssssssshhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
The door exploded inwards, bodies toppled into the room. Yorke fired twice shattering the chest of the first zombie. The beanbag rounds splattered right through their soft, decomposed carcasses.
Every zombie in the area seemed to be there. They piled in and were knocked back by every blast. Yorke managed to clear a path and darted between the creatures. Swinging the shotgun like a club he toppled the remaining zombies and sprinted for the elevator.
David and Helen ran through the Tourist area towards the elevator to the Comm room. They passed the corpses of the three pink creatures that had attacked him and carried on. Soon they reached the elevator. Before David could press the call button the doors parted and Yorke staggered out holding a shotgun and covered in blood.
"What happened?" David asked him.
"The Comm room was over run, but I managed to call for help. Their sending a rescue ship." He said.
"Where are they docking?" Helen probed.
"Port 16."
"That's up on the main Axis. We have to get to the elevator that goes up the Spoke." David turned to look back were they had come.
"That's they way I came in. It's all the way back there." He said.
RRRRRROOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!
They all froze. The roar was louder that it had ever been. They turned to look behind them. A massive, hulking beast lumbered into view. Yorke struggled to reload his weapon; David and Helen were totally awestruck.
It was the biggest thing either of them had ever seen. It was humanoid, with two arms, two legs and a head. Its arms were long so it dragged its knuckles on the deck. Its head practically touched the ceiling. Thick ropey muscles twitched and bulged under its blue skin. Veins throbbed over its swollen biceps.
Blue overalls were pulled taut around its legs; the flesh of its exposed chest was split and torn where it was stretched to breaking point over its humungous ribcage dribbling little rivulets of blood down its body. Its head was disproportionably small compared to the rest of it. Its face expressed the only emotion it was capable of. Rage.
Yorke cocked the shotgun and pointed it at the monster. It began to advance and he fired. The beanbags smacked off its skin making a sound like a fist hitting a pillow. It was unfazed and picked up its pace. Clumping towards them it let out another bellow that could have shattered glass.
The three humans scattered causing the creature, the Tyrant, to charge past them into the bulkhead. The impact ruptured the metal tearing a long split in the hull. They all ran as the area depressurised. Horrible visions of the injuries cause by explosive decompression flashed through David's mind. The eyes would explode, the lungs would collapse and freeze, every blood vessel would pop...
He shook them away and focused on their escape. The air whistled past them trying to suck them back. Ahead, emergency lights flashed brightly and a thick pressure door began to slowly lower from the ceiling.
Yorke rolled under first and held out his hand to help the next. Helen stumbled and fell. She struggled to grip the floor with her fingertips as the rushing torrent of wind and debris pulled her towards the cold darkness of space.
A strong hand wrapped itself around her wrist and heaved her up and into Yorke's waiting arms. David lunged in after her just as the door touched down and the hurricane ceased. He smiled at her.
"That's for saving me at the Air Lock, now we're even." He chortled. She smiled back.
"Come on, let's go!" Yorke insisted. "Something tells me it'll take more than that to kill that monster!" They all nodded and jogged after him towards the reception area.
Yorke's suspicions were proved right. As soon as they were halfway down the corridor a huge banging reverberated through the entire station. The door buckled and distorted under the tremendous barrage.
They all dashed along the wide corridor, jumping over corpses and knocking over stands of postcards in their desperate bid for safety. Another alarm sounded and a pressure door they had just run under slide to the floor as the Tyrant tore down the first. They looked at each other. Nothing would stop it, not even every door on the station.
Their only chance was to make it to the Main Elevator and get to the Dock to meet the Rescue Ship.
CHAPTER 7
The door to the reception area whooshed open and everyone piled in. It was the same as it was when David arrived; the coffee was still spilled on the desk, but had dried up. The plants were still in each corner of the room, the zombie woman with the broken nose was milling about in the corner.
Yorke used the last shell he had to kill her and dumped the shotgun. He let David lead the way through the room and along the narrow corridor to the elevator. A massive explosion rocked the station sending the astronauts tumbling to the ground. An automated message began to play over the loudspeakers.
"Alert, alert. Extreme structural damage. Unacceptable Life Support failure. All hands to Axis, abandon ship. Repeat, all hands abandon ship." A woman's voice read calmly.
The room was suddenly bathed in red light, David, Yorke and Helen got to their feet and activated the elevator. The doors slid shut behind them and it started its accent to the Axis.
Bellow them, in the reception room the rotting corpse of the zombie was sucked out into space as the Tyrant punched through the final pressure door and stomped towards the lift shaft. Its dead blue skin was covered in glittering frost, its white cataract eyes bulged but it soldiered on.
Crawling through the last corridor it reached the double doors of the elevator and prised them open with its vice-like hands. The air in the shaft surged out past the creature and it began the slow climb to the humans.
Helen cried out with fright as the elevator shuddered and stopped. Warning lights flared all over the control panel.
"SHAFT BREACH, LIFE SUPPORT FAILURE." It flashed. Helen panicked.
"What'll we do?" she wailed. David and Yorke searched around. They spotted the hatch in the ceiling and looked at each other.
"The hatch!" David began
"Climb the shaft!" Yorke replied.
"But the air..." Helen butted in.
"The seal round the elevator will keep the air above where it is. We can climb the maintenance ladder to the Axis. After about twenty feet we'll be practically in zero-gee anyway."
Yorke reached up and grabbed the handle on the round opening. Putting his whole weight on it, he cranked it till the hatch popped. It swung open easily and he gave Helen a boost onto the roof of the elevator. The men pulled themselves through quick;y and they all climbed up the ladder.
The force of gravity got noticeably weaker and weaker till they could propel themselves upward by their fingertips. Suddenly the shaft shuddered violently, Helen hit her head on the wall and fell slowly down. David grabbed her around the waist and held her tightly as he shoved off of the ladder and soared up to the door.
He hit the emergency control and the doors parted giving them access to the axis. Yorke was the last to go in. He happened to glance down and was astonished when the elevator, still lodged far bellow, crumpled and disappeared as the huge Tyrant barrelled through it.
The seal was broken and the air rushed out of the shaft. Yorke was dragged down but managed to grab the lip of the doorway and hang on. He could see David shouting at him but couldn't hear anything.
Helen was still groggy so David tossed her in an alcove so she wasn't sucked away. He let the storm take hold of him and drag him to the door. Steering himself, he managed to hit the wall and wedge himself with his feet.
Reaching as far as he could he seized Yorke's arm as the atmosphere got thinner and the Tyrant got closer. With an almighty heave they both fell onto the deck gasping for breath as the doors slammed closed.
Helen staggered over to them. "Come on," she said clutching the gash on her head, "Hurry up!" The men got up and helped her into the Axis.
They all floated down the Axis in Zero-Gee. The walls were shaking as the monster clambered up the spoke, still hot on their tails. Spots of blood from Helens cut tumbled through the air behind them as they made their way to Dock 16.
David glanced to his left out of the long rectangular window and laughed at what he saw. A big grey wedge was flying towards the Station, docking clamps ready. Ahead of them, the automatic docking computer started the procedure.
"I see them, they're on their way!" he shouted. Yorke smiled and winked at him.
"We're gonna be okay!" he said.
After what seemed like forever they reached Dock 16 and sealed the door. Seconds later they heard the tearing of metal and the howl of wind as another section of the Station fell to the Tyrant.
"Jesus! It's not stopping for anything!" Yorke exclaimed. The whole room was shaking as they waited for the rescue ship to attach itself to the Air Lock. The starlight streaming through the window in the outer door was blocked, they all watched as the ship's Lock touched and the clamps grabbed onto the Station.
WHHOOOOOOOOSSSSSHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The pressures equalized and the Air Lock doors cycled open. Three men in green scrubs carrying medical bags appeared.
"Where are the rest of the survivors?" the first said.
"We're the only ones." David told him. "Quick, we have to get out of here!"
The men helped Helen into the ship; Yorke and David lunged on after them. The Air Lock closed just as a colossal impact shook the entire Axis.
"Shit! What was that?" the pilot demanded from the Flight Deck.
"You don't wanna know! Just get this tub moving!" Yorke shouted up to him. The clamps unhooked and small boosters thrust the ship slowly away.
Suddenly the whole ship was rocked as the Air Lock blew out. Debris peppered the hull and the escaping atmosphere blasted the craft off coarse.
Outside, the Tyrant watched the ship as it perched on the outer rim of the Air Lock. With a huge shove it launched itself at the vessel.
TTHHUUUNNNGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!
"What the..." cried one of the med officers.
"Something just hit us!" the pilot yelled. David shoved off and sailed up to the Flight Deck.
"It's the monster." He said. "You have to shake it off or it'll rip through the hull!"
"Monster? Your out of your mind." Just at that moment a huge shadow fell across the windscreen of the shuttle. The Tyrants blank face looked straight at the pilot who watched it raise its fist in terror. David leaned over his shoulder and grabbed the stick. He shoved it down throwing the creature off balance. The pilot swore and snatched back the controls.
"It's too strong to shake off!" David told him. "Got any ideas?" The pilot looked around desperately then smiled.
"Yeah, get back there and tell everyone to strap in."
David wasted no time swimming back to the others and buckling up. The craft shook violently as the pilot accelerated; he kept the ship moving on a zigzag coarse so the Tyrant had to hang on tight and headed straight for Earth.
The G-forces increased, almost making David black out, but the pilot was very skilled and had total control over everything. The Tyrant grimaced as he hit the atmosphere. Friction heated the hull, and the monster. The metal glowed red hot and the creatures flesh began to blister and burn. Orange and yellow flames licked up across the glass and the Tyrant opened its mouth to utter a scream that inaudible over the roar of the engines.
EPILOGUE
The shuttle touched down safely at Houston Space Port, the nose of the shuttle was coated with the charred remains of the Tyrant that were streaked over the window and along the roof as well.
David, Helen and Yorke explained everything that had happened to NASA who took samples of the Tyrant and sent a team of armed astronauts to clear the Space Station Freedom of its infestation. An investigation was held concerning the evidence they gave, as well as statements taken from Chris and Jill Redfield about their alleged run ins with the Umbrella Corporation.
The Redfield's were never called to give evidence in court, nor did they hear if any charges had been filed against Umbrella at all. It seemed as though even after nearly forty years Umbrella was still in control and could still get away with anything...
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