Chapter 8

Christopher Oranzi darted down the long steel hall, the large letters on the wall spelling out the words "CORRIDOR 9". He clutched his automatic burst pistol tight to his chest, his loud footsteps echoing through the empty halls. He made a sharp turn around the corner and fumbled through his pocket for his Umbrella lab card. He found it and looked at the border of a tight reinforced steel door. He slid his card key through the card reader located on the right border of the door that was marked "2". As the door opened, he turned around and saw some of the scientists shuffling towards him. He felt a short burst of relief that was followed by a sharp feeling in the pit of his stomach. He soon realized that the workers were some more of the monsters. Christopher swore these demons were straight from hell. He lifted his gun and took careful aim at the bloody head of the zombie closest to him. He fired three quick burst shots into the head. When the bullets sunk into the torn face, the creature stumbled back and fell over into the other zombies. Christopher wasted no time. He ran through the door behind him into a large medical room filled with many computers and gauges. He spun around, pressed a key marked "Lock" on a keypad by the door and watched the door slam to the ground, locking out the foul beasts. He felt true relief as another door further across the room opened, and another human stepped inside. The man's card key read "Daniel Schoeneman", along with a big labeled two. He was tall, had spiked hair and an Asian- American look. He was carrying a fire escape axe stained with blood and other gory substances. "What the hell were you thinking!" moaned Christopher. "You know that won't do anything against these things." Daniel looked upset and outraged. "Well, I couldn't find anything better, okay! At least it slows them down." Christopher couldn't blame Dan for being upset. It really wasn't a great situation they had put in. All back up was cut off and X1 escaped the labs. "What do you know about X1?" asked Christopher. Dan sat down and handed him a piece of paper. Christopher scanned it and found it to be nothing but technical junk. "What the hell does this mean?" he said to Dan, who he had known to be a genius in these fields. Dan grabbed the paper and quickly read it. "It's a Tyrant-class killing machine, codenamed-T0X. It is carrying a large rocket launcher, anti-tank, custom Umbrella weaponry model. So it's basically big. Have you ever known Umbrella to go small?" Dan didn't give Christopher a chance to answer. "It's weapon training and hunting skills are similar to the Tyrant class known as Nemesis. European scientists developed the creature as a supreme Tyrant assassin. However, it was destroyed by one of Raccoon's ex-S.T.A.R.S members, Jill Valentine." "Well why create such a creature?" "Umbrella has always been experimenting with creatures like these. Every time they try though, they wind up with disaster." "It seems they never learn the error of their ways." Christopher and Dan looked out of the window on the door and saw a skinless face peering through the scratched window. Dan flinched a little and Christopher raised his gun slightly. "Anyway," Dan continued, "It has the physical capabilities of a T-001 class Tyrant: Anything that has firepower less than an anti-tank weapon is practical useless against it." Christopher finally sat down and took a deep breath. He felt ashamed. He was just assigned security officer and on the first week he let one of the most destructive creatures free to attack innocent people. Because of it's spread infection capabilities, it was the creature who started all of this. He looked at the door and wondered. Dan and he were expecting one more person to come. Christopher untied the heavy knot in his stomach. The thought of Jim and Cindy not coming was devastating. They needed to work together and rescue any other survivors locked in this hellhole. While Christopher was busy thinking about the horrifying events, Dan was busy at the computer filing maps and data. He printed out a map of the labs, thinking it would help them get through easier, and trying to break a strange code that was built into the system. Christopher felt a burning hatred towards Umbrella. Now he realized why the employees couldn't talk about their work, couldn't access outside contacts from the computers, couldn't speak a damn word to an employee at a lower rank about the latest project. He clenched his teeth to resist destroying everything in the room. Suddenly, he broke out crying. Dan looked over and saw Christopher's salty tears running down his red cheeks. He walked over and patted him on the back. Dan was about to say something when he heard a beeping noise emitting from the transmitter in the corner. Dan and Christopher walked over to the transmitter and flipped the switch to Receive. Dan listened hard and tried to make out the words through all the static. "This. Jim. help. zombies. Cindy. backup. boiler. south. sector. help!" Christopher turned to Dan and saw the look in his eyes. They both knew that it was their duty to look for them. Dan was looking around the room for a gun, and seeing there wasn't one, he grabbed the fire axe again. "Well, let's go!" Christopher nodded and they both walked towards the southern door. They looked out of the window and saw nothing outside. Christopher gathered all of his strength and pressed the unlock button. Dan was walking out of the door when he turned to Christopher. "The only way we can get out is through the aquarium, then the lounges, the engine sections and lastly the X labs." Dan made a sharp left and increased his pace from a light walk to a jog. Christopher caught up, his eyes scanning the corridor for any undead. Dan looked at Christopher. "We have to find Jim and Cindy. They should be in the boiler room, were stopping there on the way." Christopher nodded approvingly. They both briskly turned the corner to their right and froze, as a group of zombies turned around and spotted them. The group of undead scientists slumped towards them, craving for a taste of live flesh. "Uhhhh" The zombies let out a soft groan as they approached, Dan watching them come closer. Move move move! Dan's conscious got the better of him as he rushed towards the closest zombie a released a powerful vertical slash to the head. There was a soft crack as the head was severed, falling from the body. Christopher squeezed the trigger on his gun, shooting at a zombie in a torn lab coat. Blood stained the coat, but the monster still was approaching. Once again Christopher aimed and fired, this time causing the zombie to fall back. Blood seeped out to the floor around it. Dan heard a louder groan as a zombie grabbed him and toppled on him, pinning Dan to the floor. It bit hard into Dan's upper arm, causing him to scream out in pain, blood flowing down his arm. Dan propped up the axe as a bar in front of him to protect himself. Christopher ran up the zombie and shot it right in the head. He saw three more approaching Dan and pulled him away. Dan whimpered slightly and Christopher took Dan's axe. Instinctively, he threw it at the zombie. It hit the head and became lodged in. Christopher angrily rushed towards it and pushed it back, causing all three zombies to fall. Christopher, absorbed in a rage, reloaded his gun and kept firing straight into the crowd of zombies. When he ran out of ammo he picked up the axe and began beating down on the zombies with it, not bothering to reload. When the last sickening crunch echoed through the hallway he looked down to see the torn corpses of the scientists. He ripped off a part of his lab coat and wrapped it around Dan's arm. "You're going to be okay, don't worry." was all he could say. "F-feel itchy, h-h-hungry..." Dan moaned in a coarse whisper. Christopher knew that was a bas sign. He told Dan to wait there as he ran off to get the vaccine. He hoped Dan could make it much longer, for both their sakes.