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Outbreak: Chapter Five

Neilson City Central Planning Commission, Neilson City

Two Hours Later

"What the hell was he talking about, Mikhail?" Appolonia whispered, her soft, solemn outburst almost indiscernible above the staccato splatter of icy, harsh raindrops against the concrete rooftop.

"I've got no idea, Appolonia.. No idea at all." Mikhail gaped down at the void of impenetrable darkness beneath the summit of the humongous building; he couldn't distinguish any features of the barren, waterlogged streets beneath.

"He's dead now, anyway. I still don't like this, especially what he called 'Omega.'" She leaned against the edge of the rooftop barrier, ignoring the intense jab of the jutting lip of smooth rock against her back. "And what of those frog monsters in the labs? Do you think he let those loose, too?"

"Couldn't tell you," Mikhail just mumbled noncommittally, straining to see to the cracked and pitted pavement thousands of feet beneath him; sporadic streaks of azure electricity pierced the dense blackness of the sky around them, highlighting the benign features of the expansive forest of glass and steel that seemed to have been spawned from their central perch.

"Jesus, Mikhail, could you at least tell me what you're thinking?" Appolonia growled loudly, sour frustration rising up in her brain; the deadening shock that had dulled her mind because of the transpirations in the few hours before had started to wear off, replaced by a directionless fury. She resented that the culprit of the vile acts was lying peacefully, though probably in several pieces, beneath them.

"What do you want me to say, Appolonia?" Mikhail leapt back, staring directly at her; his eyes held a chilly, electric fury. "What can I say? The asshole's dead, our team's dead, and whatever was in the lab is probably roaming the building." He almost snarled, confrontationally inching closer to her like a rival animal fighting for territory; it was a feral display as he brought his comparatively huge height to bear on her.

She just looked back up at him, black eyes glinting with a dangerous flame. "Just say what the fuck is on your mind, Mikhail!" She roared, her glove-clad hands tensing into anxious fists.

"Fine, Appolonia, I'm thinking that this is one goddamn shitty situation, that our lunatic commander probably just released some kind of doomsday weapon, and I'm really not relishing trying to get the hell out of this building with so many freaks of nature running around. Happy?" His thickly-accented voice carried a sub-zero chill, and he turned around with a huff, staring back down into the depths of the chasm of the alleyway.

"Yeah, I'm happy. I'm real goddamn happy, Mikhail." She ruefully sneered, barking a short, hateful laugh. "I'm so glad that our team is dead, that we're probably gonna die here, too..." Appolonia reached up and grasped his arm with a vice-like grip, making even the giant wince with the fury of the hold. "Listen to me, Mikhail; we have to get outta this hellhole before it swallows us whole."

He turned, one eyebrow quirked condescendingly. "Oh, and how're we going to do that? We don't have a helicopter, and I don't think Umbrella will be very happy to hear that their competitors sabotaged their operation, so I think that pretty much rules them out as someone who could help."

"What about the police?" Appolonia asked with startling clarity, acting as though it had been an astonishing epiphany. "Why can't we just ask for assistance from them?"

"That would work if we weren't heavily-armed and trespassing on city property.. Not to mention that we've pretty much guaranteed that something unpleasant is wandering around down there." Mikhail bit his lip pensively, still mulling over the idea despite his dismissal.

"I suppose you're right. We could still flee the city on foot, and maybe call for a chopper once we're in the desert." Appolonia mumbled contemplatively, staring up at the thick, atmospheric soup above them; the oppressive humidity was a palpable haze that clung to them, the stickiness an odd juxtaposition to the pervasive chill of the night air.

"I think we might have to do that. Even if we have to shoot a few of those monsters from the labs, at least we'll be out of the rain." Mikhail affirmed calmly, a slight smile cracking his serious face; it was a silent apology, and he clasped a hand around one of Appolonia's wiry, wet cloth- covered arms.

"If nothing else, it'll be nice to kill something, huh, Mikhail?" She tilted her head, sopping tendrils of hair slapping wetly against her cheek; a small smile graced her darkened, olive-skinned face, and she loosened her clutch on Mikhail's wide limb.

"Yeah, but don't go getting sentimental on me, Appolonia." Mikhail released her arm, letting it fall languidly back to her side. "Come on; let's get out of this downpour." Her stared up again, allowing the glacial chill of the rain flow down the angular contours of his features; the cold soothed away the last remnants of his smoldering hatred, letting him think clearly again.

Appolonia nodded in agreement, and started back to the gaping, buzzing entryway of the bloodstained emergency elevator. Snatching up the comforting mass of the sub-machinegun on the way, she all-but-collapsed within the confines of the dry cubicle; the muted, rapid beat of the raindrops on the concrete roof was a calming litany, and she felt herself letting go of the tension that had built for the entire night. Unconsciously, her eyelids just seemed to crash down, the small beads of crystalline water that had developed on her eyelashes falling free over her drying face at the sudden descent. The broken droplets cascaded down her face in languid arcs, miniature tears that she, herself, couldn't shed; in her semi-conscious state, she replayed the time since Mueller had betrayed them, almost wishing for the relief genuine crying would provide. She was on the border between sleep and wakefulness, the tenacious drone of rain somehow sapping the life from her.

The leisurely thumps of Mikhail's boots in the elevator broke her from her dark reverie, and she snapped to attention, her now-open eyes rising to meet Mikhail's.

"You okay, Appolonia?" Mikhail eyed her curiously, waving a massive hand before her eyes. "You sort of dozed off for a minute."

"Just tired, Mikhail," the words were interrupted by a slow, sighing yawn. "I'm really tired, actually. I don't think we can just fall asleep in the elevator, though. I can make it." She asserted, contesting Mikhail's unspoken thoughts about her condition.

"I don't think we have much of a choice, anyway, Appolonia." Mikhail pressed a switch on a bloodied panel; the once-green light shone with a sickly blue glow, the thin sheen of thickening crimson tainting the coloring.

Appolonia leaned back against the chilly, uninviting, stained steel of the elevator, letting her eyes flutter shut again. Her lips quirking up into a slight smirk, she murmured, "don't worry; just tell me when we reach the ground floor, Mikhail."

"I'm sure you'll be really fun to wake, too, Appolonia." Mikhail shot back with a soft chuckle, trying to control the yawn that threatened to erupt as he spoke. An inexplicable exhaustion had begun to creep slowly into the forefront of his mind, frustrating his efforts to stay alert. With a rapid shake of his head, sending glistening specks of warming water about the tiny cabin, he fixed his eyes on the flickering digital display above his head. Numbers rapidly ticked by, gradually, inexorably advancing toward that coveted '0.'

The persistent, staggered hum of the occasionally-creaking elevator car was an unnatural lullaby, blending with the muted drumming of the torrent of water splattering across the building into a soothing, wordless song; it sent Appolonia's mind regressing into its deepest vestiges. Longing for the darkened apathy of sleep, she contented herself with small spurts of intense rest; she forced her eyes to open intermittently, determined to not collapse completely.

"We've arrived." Mikhail abruptly snapped, startled as the sudden jar of the halting elevator jolted him unpleasantly from his near-trance. "Get up, Appolonia; we've got to get moving." He compulsively snapped back the charging lever on the sinister black form of his assault rifle, letting it crash back against its thick aluminum confines with a hollow clang.

"Gimme a minute..." Appolonia slurred, stirring in her awkward sleeping position; she was slumped against the blood-smeared, dingy side of the elevator, her deep, content breathing indicating that she'd succumbed at some point during the ride to the desire to rest.

"Come on, we can't afford to wait any longer." Mikhail prodded, his voice growing slightly frustrated.

"Don't wanna go. Lemme alone." She shrunk away from Mikhail's insistent askance, clutching her sub-machinegun life a child would a teddy bear; it was an odd clash of baleful maturity and youthful innocence.

"Damn it, Appolonia!" Mikhail growled exasperatedly, reaching over to grab her arm with a demanding pressure. He shook her lightly, inciting an agitated reply from the reclined woman; the chilled muzzle of her large sub-machinegun pressed roughly against the whisker-dotted flesh of his chin, making his ordinarily serene eyes widen in surprise.

"I'm awake." Appolonia bit out matter-of-factly, lowering the smooth ring of the barrel away from his chin. "Sorry about that; it's an instinct of mine."

"Just glad it's not an instinct to also pull the trigger." Mikhail tentatively laughed, stepping away from her and offering a gloved hand.

"'Don't think that's ever happened," Appolonia drolly mumbled, grasping the offered hand and hoisting herself to her feet; she stretched languidly, her body rolling in a fluid movement that was almost feline.

"'Don't think,' huh? At least it didn't happen this time." Mikhail smirked, resting a hand atop the blinking button marked 'open.' "Are you ready to do it, Appolonia?"

"As ready as I'll ever be. Let's just get this over with and escape the city." She affirmed, raising the comforting weight of the sub- machinegun's stock to a slowly-drying shoulder. When the elevator doors parted with a soft, metallic squeak, she peered out intently, sweeping the rings of the gun sights over the expansive atrium ahead of them.

Only an ominous, deafening silence greeted the pair as they slowly, cautiously crept into the cavernous entry hall. Previously, they had not had time to really assess the truly splendorous elegance of the towering vestibule, but this time they scoured every inch of the glass-enclosed marvel. It had seemed earlier that shutters had been drawn across the vast, untarnished walls of glass, but it was truly the overwhelming darkness produced by the humongous building's shadow that enveloped the entire ground floor; rapidly flowing streams of blued water ran across the tinted windows, sending odd, undulating shadows across the barren floors.

"We never closed those doors to the labs," Mikhail whispered heatedly, harshly, the soft outburst resounding like a hushed shout in the yawning foyer. "Why didn't those things," he furrowed his eyebrows, not truly certain what to call the horrors that they'd seen, "come out? They looked like they were ready to burst through those steel doors, didn't they?"

"Just be glad that we're alone right now," Appolonia shot back, twisting her body as she shot forward, the rapid thrumming of her boots on the heavy tile flooring booming through the massive space surrounding them. When she reached the oddly comforting island of the front desk in the midst of the vacant ocean of glass, steel and resin, she stopped, her chest heaving slightly. "I don't see anything here, but the power's still down. This computer won't turn on." she pushed the power switch several times as if to prove her point. "I think we're pretty much SOL here unless we just want to shoot open those electronically-locked doors.

"What about the labs, Appolonia?" Mikhail called back to her, his voice a thunderous roar, almost as menacing as the hushed crashes outside. "Do you think they might have an emergency exit, or at least some type of means of contacting the outside?"

"Remember what's in the labs, Mikhail?" She lectured mock- condescendingly, a sigh escaping her. "I'm sure whatever didn't come up here to join us is in the lab complex, ready to slaughter anybody that enters."

"Do we have any other choice? What if those doors are bullet-proof?" Mikhail raised the heavy rifle to his shoulder, sighting a pane; it glinted and flickered occasionally as azure bolts traced across the sky.

"We still need to try first." Appolonia suggested, resting her hands against the cool metal of the desk.

"Yeah, I know." Mikhail retorted, steadying the slightly-wavering muzzle of the rifle. A rapid, roaring staccato series of booms followed, small splinters spewing forth from the dense glass in reply; when the magazine clicked empty, the blinding sun-flares erupting from the barrel receding in the face of the darkness, only a long spider's web of cracks were visible on the wounded pane. It still held firm in the face of the barrage, however, its lack of any severe damage taunting the pair.

"Damn it... A full magazine of five-five-six, and it didn't even shatter; nothing even pierced it." Appolonia loudly lamented, slamming her hands against the desk, eliciting a low, throaty clang.

"Wait, the demolition team had thermite bombs and incendiary grenades, didn't they?" Mikhail started, his eyes widening with the epiphany.

"That's right, but they're all down in the labs." Appolonia frowned, the horrific sight of the twisted, mangled, bloody forms of her friends and compatriots flashing through her racing mind. "But I guess we have no choice; let's just hope the door didn't close and lock behind us."

"Let's hope not, or we're stuck." Mikhail let his eyes wander across the glimmering, immaculate glass ceiling; the rain had not broken, and perhaps had even worsened. Deafening hails of ear-shattering impacts began to fall upon the sturdy glass, overwhelming even the rolling thunder outside the building that could very well be their tomb. The murky silhouette of the skyline was blotted out entirely by the torrential downpour that showed no signs of relinquishing its tyrannical grasp on the city; even the towering shadow of the veritable obelisk rising from their floor was overcome by the rain.

"If we're stuck, we're stuck; just remember to save some bullets for us, comrade." She joked, trying to lighten the thick mood of despair that enveloped them, but the words came out too serious for her liking; they rang too true to what they might expect to happen. Unlike the citizens that would soon be inexplicably struck by the malady that had been released, the pair had some inkling of the work of Umbrella; they had been briefed to a limited extent about their bio-warfare program. They did not, however, know of the true terrors Umbrella had forged in their hellish labs; the viruses and mutated beasts that carried a walking death-sentence- Progenitor, Tyrant, Gamma, and Omega, their pride and joy.

A low, resonant thumping followed their tentative steps to the door that lurked ominously in the distance; the hideous guardians to the gates of a manmade hell silently snarled, seemingly exhorting them to leave. A pure, glittering white shaft of light shone through the portal to what was almost another dimension of human existence, lighting the grayed marble of the corridor that led to the entrance.

"It's time, isn't it? We have to go back in there." Appolonia whispered, as much to the gruesome gargoyles as to her friend and only remaining teammate.

"Da, I don't think there's any other way. What is it that you say, the moment of truth?" He braced himself beside one of the fanged mouths of the left Cerberus, peering inside the blinding maze of glowing lights and alabaster hallways.

"The moment of truth." She secretly wondered if she'd really like to know the truth of this matter, but started inside; her steps wavered slightly, but she persisted undauntedly.

Mikhail's tentative footsteps followed hers into the blindingly-lit cavern, the strange acoustics of the winding halls making it seem as though they were being assailed from every direction by the clamorous noise of soft, synthetic rubber on hard, sterile linoleum. Suddenly, there was a roaring crash in the distance, a deafening, agonizing squealing of tearing metal and sharp talons against tile, and then silence reigned. The abrupt outburst of noise had stunned the two, their hearts racing at the prospect of meeting whatever had made the horrid sound. Straining, they could hear a soft tap-tap-tap of claws echoing on the drum-like ground, but it, too, disappeared.

"What in the hell was that, Mikhail?" Appolonia gasped, straining for air; during the brief, cacophonous pandemonium, she had forgotten to breathe.

"I don't know, Appolonia, but I don't want to see it, whatever it is. It sounded like the monsters from the stories that my parents used to scare me with back home in Russia.. Those ridiculous fairy tales of unholy beasts and hideous demons that prowled the earth solely to torture and kill.." He shook his head, readying the matte-black assault rifle. "But in those stories, their victims didn't have guns. Plus, monsters aren't real, anyway." He sounded as though he was desperately trying to rationalize, denying the problem to make it disappear.

"My mother used to tell me about Cinderella and Prince Charming; maybe Prince Charming's just got some horrible gas." Appolonia sniggered weakly, barely mustering a smile; both were far from home, lost in an industrial hell that had been unimaginable only days before.

They started ahead again, their eyes neurotically darting back and forth among the homogenous white corridors. The lack of substance and change was disheartening, seeming to be an infinite maze that wound back upon itself to infinity, never to allow anyone to leave. Mere hours ago, they had trekked fearlessly through in the company of their own friends and a commander that they thought they could trust; now, they trembled with every step, not wanting to move ahead another inch for fear of meeting just what the laboratory could hold in store for them.

"Does this lab look different than it did before?" Appolonia whispered, intently scanning the broad passageway.

"It seems a lot longer than I remember." Mikhail replied perplexedly, waving the muzzle of the gun to and fro.

"Wait, I see Adolf's blood; we can't be far." Appolonia pointed to the crusting puddles of dark red scattered about the passage.

"It feels like that was days ago." Mikhail shook his head, clearing his mind of the fury threatening to rise up again.

"I wish that it were days ago; I wish that we were back at the base, sitting at the debriefing and telling everyone that they'd been duped by that son of a bitch." Appolonia growled, letting the annoyance and sheer anger overcome her fear and trepidation.

"I like that a lot, too." Mikhail agreed, and began to advance, following the flecks of dried blood like a relentless hound.

Appolonia followed acquiescently behind her hulking friend, the midnight black, moving shield somehow a comforting sight in the midst of the gleaming white walls. They continued to slowly, almost ponderously, progress through the hall, weapons raised and expecting any of the sundry creatures they imagined emerging from every crevice. When they reached the painful, horrid site of their squad's ruthless massacre, they found nothing but an oozing, spreading puddle of thick, crimson gore and bits of torn tissue. Only a single limb remained, fingers spread as though the arm's owner had been clutching for life as it died. Rent, limp arteries and veins hung from the ripped bicep where it had been wrested away from its rightful body, slow pulses of blood still sporadically spurting with a deliberate patter on the drenched white flooring. It seemed to be floating in a pool of thick, gooey red, a ghastly island surrounded by a gruesome sea.

"Oh, my god.." Appolonia gasped, her gorge rising in her stomach. "What happened here? They were all here when we left. Those... Those things," she paused, wondering just what to call the vile creature that had stolen and mutilated the bodies of her colleagues, "must have done it."

"We have to track down the demolitions team, Appolonia, to get out of here.. No matter just what's happened to them." Mikhail lowered a weighty, warm hand onto his friend's shoulder, trying to calm her as he struggled to contain his own revulsion.

"I know we do, Mikhail; it's going to be hard, though." She motioned hesitantly to the divergent paths of smeared blood that continued for hundreds of meters along every branch of the twisting corridors.

"Warning," a cold, controlled woman's voice crackled through invisible speakers mounted in the walls, "bio-hazardous outbreak detected; sealing laboratory complex to prevent further contamination. All personnel, report to your emergency stations for level four advisory. Escape of fifteen specimens has been confirmed. All security personnel are to contact UBCS and pertinent agencies for control." In the distance, the thunderous clang of the main entrance slamming closed echoed ominously.

"We're trapped.." Mikhail whispered solemnly, the giant arm resting atop Appolonia's shoulder quivering almost imperceptibly.

As he finished, an animalistic, ear-splitting shriek pierced the silence that had suddenly set on, followed by a staccato series of clacks across the linoleum; an otherworldly, clicking call followed it, more claws skittering over the hard surface of the hallway. The noises rapidly approached, and something slowly emerged from the expansive hallway.

Its jagged, spiny, brown insect-like exoskeleton glimmered with a slimy, dripping goop beneath the intense overhead lighting. A gaping maw, lined with jagged, blood-drenched teeth opened beneath a pair of twitching compound eyes. Its manifold legs scrabbled across the smooth surface of the flooring. Giant, lacerating, scythe-like talons tipped the spindly limbs, making a sinister clack-clack-clack as it intently approached the pair. With a screeching, hateful roar, it charged, mandible open and eyes ablaze with fearsome instinct.