Disclaimer: When I own the RE characters it'll be a cold day in hell.
Chapter 8
Leon slowly opened the door, only to be greeted by darkness. A thick musty smell crept out from inside the room. He walked carefully; measuring his steps, and pulled out the flashlight he had in his pack and turned it on. He looked around the dank and musty room. Ugh, gross, he thought with a funny face.
All of the walls in the room were covered in what looked like red mud, it was soft, but it didn't move under his fingers.
Leon turned suddenly. Something moved.
"Mmph."
"Hello?" He said loudly, it didn't sound like any zombie he'd heard. He started walking slowly towards the sound. "Hello?" He said again. "Is anyone there?"
"Help!"
That defiantly wasn't a zombie. "Where are you?" He yelled. "I can't see!"
"Over here!"
It was a woman's voice, and he could barely hear her. Movement, from underneath the mud like substance that coated the whole room. Poor girl… When she moved, it made a sickening squishy sound. "Okay, I see you." He said. "Get back, if you can, I'm going to cut you out."
He saw the mass move underneath the skin-like substance. "Okay!" The girl yelled.
Leon holstered is gun and unsheathed the knife, keeping the beam of light fixated on the moving spot. "Okay, I'm going to start cutting!" He yelled as a warning. He cut around the large lump in the red mass, but it was hard, the stuff was tough to cut. The sound was awful, it wade a grotesque cracking sound every time he cut more, like the sound of bones breaking. The smell was even worse, a mixture of bile and rotting flesh. Leon couldn't help but turn his head as he worked.
Finally, after cutting for ten minutes, Leon saw her hand poke out from her prison. "Can you fit though?" He asked.
"I think so…" She said.
"Good." He said, pulling as hard as he could to make small hole a little bigger for her. He held the flashlight in between his teeth.
He saw an arm come out, then another, soon enough her head was poking out. She slowly crawled out of the shell that she was imprisoned in. "Thanks." She said with a warm smile. She was covered from head to toe with red gook, and as far as Leon could tell, she smelled just like the inside of the little shell that she was imprisoned in.
"How long were you in there?" Leon asked, smiling back.
"I was unconscious for a little while, so I really don't know how long…" She said trailing off. "But we have to get out of this room, there's still something in here."
"Something?" Leon asked. "What do—?
Leon was cut off by a shrill scream, followed by a low hissing sound. I've heard that before… He immediately shined the light on the ceiling and un-holstered his gun. What was it called? A long snake like tongue came into view. Licker. He had run into a few in Raccoon, but it probably didn't pose much of a threat now with the firepower he had.
"Go for the door," Leon whispered. "I can't see it in here."
"Okay," the girl said quietly, backing towards the doorway.
The Licker screamed in protest.
"Go!" Leon yelled, running for the door. The girl reached the doorway first, and Leon dived out after her. He rolled onto the floor, and ended up with his back against the wall on the opposite side of the hall.
From the darkness came another scream, then it jumped out from the darkness. Leon took aim, and fired directly at its head. And it didn't go down.
"Shit," Leon spat, jumping out of the way as fast as he could. He heard the crushing of concrete behind him, and as he rolled to his feet he saw that the Licker wasn't like the ones he'd encountered in Raccoon.
It had six legs, and from what Leon remembered it was smaller that the ones he had seen before. It also had large bone helmet across its head. That explains why I didn't kill it… Leon dropped the magnum, and un-slung the Remington.
The licker let out another scream from its perch on the wall and snaked it tongue out. "Eat this," Leon said under his breath, and pulled the trigger. The Remington let out a thunderous boom, and the Licker dropped from the wall. He quickly ran over to it as it let out its dying cries, stuck the barrel of the gun into its mouth, and pulled the trigger.
Brain matter and crimson streaked the walls, as well as Leon's boots and pants. "Bastard." He said, grabbing the Desert Eagle off of the ground.
"Wow." The girl simply said.
She startled Leon a little, he'd almost forgotten about her. "Yeah," he said. "So, what's your name?" He asked walking towards the girl.
"Oh, it's Sara," she paused for a moment. "Nelson," she said finally. "Sara Nelson."
He wasn't even going to ask. "Okay, but I think we should get you washed up…" He trailed off. "I saw a bunk a ways back; maybe they would have a shower there."
"Okay!" She said ecstatically. "Lead the way!"
Leon couldn't help but smile a little; after all that she'd been though she could still smile. And besides, she just looked goofy with that wide grin on her face, and red gook covering most of her body. "Alright," he said. "It's this way."
"Sara, Sara, Sara…" Woodrow whispered to himself. "Going off with a man you don't even know." He was staring at the small monitor with the fuzzy picture of Leon and his wife walking down a hallway.
The insect Lickers disappointed him. They had a tendency to put their prey into small cocoons before they fed. They'll eventually get both of them though. There seven more Lickers on that floor, and they almost always hunted in packs. The guard that Leon killed was a fluke.
Woodrow got up from his chair and walked over to the large specimen on the operating table. He marveled at it's magnificence for a moment before giving it its hourly injection.
It slightly resembled the large green comic superhero, but Woodrow couldn't remember its name at the moment. Pieced together by virus enhanced body parts, it was the perfect killing machine. Its fingertips ended in long claws, and despite its size it could move fast enough to use them. Don't worry my precious, you'll get your chance to shine.
Thankfully the bunk had a shower in it, and there were some clothes left behind from the person that used it last. Sara was still in the shower, and Leon was sitting on one of the three beds that were in the small living quarters.
Sara had short blonde hair, she was about 5'4'', and looked maybe 18 or 19 and from what Leon could tell, she had an energetic and relatively happy personality. It surprised him how much she reminded him of Claire. Yeah, but Claire's gone…
He closed his eyes, and fell back onto the bed. He thought of Claire, smiling. Thought of her during happy times, when they were together in Arizona. He smiled, thinking of how she would nag on Chris to take her lingerie shopping just to see him blush, or how she would scream at the T.V. when someone got the word wrong on Wheel of Fortune.
"You're not sleeping, are you?" Sara said, startling Leon.
He let out a yelp, and practically fell off the bed. "I didn't see you come out." He said, regaining his composure.
"I guess not." She said giggling. "What were you thinking about?"
Leon sat up on the bed and looked up at her. "Nobody." He said quickly. "I mean nothing." He said again, shaking his head.
"C'mon, don't give me that, now you have to tell me!" She said, letting out another small laugh.
"A friend, but she's gone now." He sighed, looking to the floor.
"Oh, I'm…I'm sorry…" She said, looking ashamed.
"That's okay; I needed to tell someone before I snapped." He said looking up at her again. He then suddenly realized she was still in a towel, and he was looking straight down it. "Jesus Christ!" He said, looking back down at the ground.
"What?" Sara asked startled. She looked around the room, as if searching for something. "What's wrong?"
"Towel! You're in a towel!" He said blushing.
"Oh, I thought you saw something." She said with a sigh of relief. "I'll change, if it bothers you that much."
"Oh, no, that's okay." He said. "I mean, yes! I mean…whatever makes you comfortable…" He said, still looking at the ground.
Leon saw her make a funny face out of the corner of his eye. "You're pretty weird…" She started towards the closet in the back of the small room. "What did you say your name was?"
"Um, Leon." He replied shakily. "Leon Kennedy."
"Okay, Leon." She said as she took a pair of pants out from the closet. "Don't peek!"
"Y-you're getting changed in here?" Leon said his voice cracking.
"Yes, I am. The shower room is too wet, so close your eyes and don't open them until I say so, okay?"
"Alright, alright." He said, turning around on the bed so he was facing the wall.
"Are your eyes closed?" Sara asked.
"Yes, don't worry I won't peek." Leon replied, still facing the wall.
"Good." She said giggling.
Leon heard the sound of clothes ruffling, then a loud thud, followed by a yelp. He immediately turned around what was wrong. "What hap—
No peeking!" Sara yelled crawling behind one of the beds.
Leon quickly turned to face the wall again, blushing slightly. "Sorry, I thought—I mean, I didn't mean to… I didn't see anything." He said confusingly.
"Sure you didn't." She said, giggling.
Leon sighed heavily, and started playing with his holster. There was a long silence; the only sound was Sara putting on more clothes. "So," he said, breaking the silence. "What's your story? How did you end up here?"
"Well, I was married to one of the head scientists here." She replied. "Key word was. We got into an argument, and he locked me in the basement. One of those things knocked me unconscious, and dragged me into that nasty room you found me in."
"You mean you're not a scientist?" Leon asked, checking over his magnum.
"Nope, we just got married three months ago. Biggest mistake of my life." She said laughing a little. "I lived here with him and his son, along with all the other researchers' families."
"Why did all the other scientists' families live here with you?"
"I dunno, something about protection—you can look now—against the company." She said, letting out a big sigh.
Leon turned to face her again; she was wearing gray pants and a blue shirt. Her hair was still wet; it dangled just above her shoulders, and she didn't wear any socks, her blue toenails glinted in the soft light of the room. "So you said he has a son?" He asked.
"Yeah, but he was a prick, just like his dad." She laughed at herself.
"I see…" He trailed off. "But what happened here, why is everyone dead?" Leon asked.
"There was some kind of leak—I heard one of the other researchers talking about it. All of the families were forced to stay down in the lower levels for weeks. It sucked so much."
Leon laughed. "I'll bet. What was your husband's name again?"
"Woodrow. Woodrow Oliver Stone." She shuddered at the sound of his name.
"Sounds like a serial killer's name." Leon laughed.
Sara looked at him serious for the first time since they met. "You have no idea." She said flatly. "He actually enjoyed killing and experimenting on animals. Mainly killing them. I wasn't kidding when I said that was the biggest mistake of my life."
"Why didn't you just divorce him?" Leon asked, looking puzzled.
"Couldn't, like I said, the company made us stay here, they wouldn't let us leave. He seemed like a nice guy when we first met, he wasn't stationed here; we both lived in California." Sara said as she sat down next to Leon, and started to dry her hair.
"Talk about black and white…" He trailed off.
"Tell me about it." Sara laughed as she continued to dry her hair. "So tell me Leon," she asked as she turned to him. "Why are you here?"
"A girl." He said. "But I don't know if she's dead or alive."
"Hmm, well...I guess we should get going…"