Chapter 4: The Deeper You Go...
The creaking of the rusted pipes and the occasional drip of a distant tap that hadn't been turned off properly made the musty, dank atmosphere in the underground a lot worse than it should have been. That damp, dusty smell that filled the stagnant air was too much for some, and it was no different for Jill. She turned the next corner slowly, the humidity in the passages was making her feel faint. She barely noticed the large boulder and the far end of the corridor. Stepping out into the middle of the wide passage, she looked both ways and kicked the wall with all the ferocity she could muster when she couldn't see a way out.
Almost as soon as she returned her now throbbing foot to the soft ground, there was a creak from up the corridor that didn't sound like one of the old pipes. Looking up, she gasped as the boulder began to roll steadily towards her. Turning quickly, she dove into the alcove by the door and rolled out of the way seconds before she was crushed beneath the rumbling stone. It kept moving down the path, and with a loud crash, it slammed through the wall at the far end and hit the wall behind it, embedding itself in the soft earth.
Poking her head around the corner and slowly standing up, she cautiously stepped forward and looked around the corner of the new passageway. At the end there was a set of heavy-looking, rusted doors. Sighing, she put her hand on the cold steel handle and pushed open the door. Stepping into the dank room, she looked down in disgust as her foot touched the sickly-looking mess on the floor.
Covering the floor, the walls, the roof; the whole room in fact, was thick, stringy spider's web. Thick strands were strung across the doors on the far side, and every step she took across the floor filled the room with a wet crunch, but there was another sound that she could just hear over the top of the sound her footsteps made on the floor. A soft padding sound, coming from the far wall. But there was nothing there. She stepped over cautiously to look. The web was filmy here, and it seemed the wall was reflective behind it, as glinting back at her from behind the film was another pair of eyes. Or was it two? No it seemed more like four.
She realised too late and sprang back from the wall just as the webbing net came down over her head, and a massive grey spider bounded out, pushing her to the ground underneath the heavy web. Jill struggled to free herself from the net that had enveloped her body, but the more she fought the sticky strands, the more persistently stuck to her skin they became.
She went for her gun, but though her hand found the butt of her berretta, the web had stuck it in its holster. Though knowing that she was going to get even more tangled in the web doing so, she rolled far out of range of the spider's fangs and tried again for her gun.
But the spider was faster than she had figured, and she had barely begun to pull at the jammed gun when the spider was upon her again. She miraculously kicked it away and tried again, but the spider was once more up before she could make any progress, and it came at her, its fangs bared. It was preparing to sink its teeth into her side when there was a piercing squeal and a spray of green blood as the massive creature flew back, blood pouring from one of its eight eyes.
Barely able to see, let alone breathe through the thick, suffocating web, Jill saw a figure come up alongside her and fire again. This time the spider hit the metal doors and as it fell, it tore down the web that blocked the door. The grey beast staggered drunkenly to its feet, but as another two shots hit it straight after, it quivered and sank to the ground, unmoving. Jill began to struggle against the webbing again, but stopped when she felt her rescuer grab her.
"Stop moving, will you!" the figure half laughed, half scolded. "You're just making it worse. Here, I'll get this off your face."
She closed her eyes as she felt the sticky film being pulled away from her face, and she could breathe again, even if it was still the same dusty air that she'd been breathing for the last half hour or so. Chris smiled and pulled at the rest of the webbing, freeing her arms. As soon as she was able to, Jill hugged him tightly.
"Oh, Chris! I thought I was done for!"
Chris laughed. "Yeah, yeah. Come on, let's get the rest of this crap off you."
She helped him pull the rest of the sticky mesh off, and rattled her hand to shake the last of it from her fingertips. Pulling at her gun, she made sure it wasn't still caught in the holster. Chris looked at her.
"Okay. Are we alright now?"
Jill dusted herself off and then nodded. Chris led the way around the spider and put a hand on the door handle. Just as Jill was passing it, the leg closest to her twitched, and she shrieked, bolting around behind Chris and through the doors without a second thought, and crashed right into a green-skinned Hunter; a queer, scaly monster with little to no neck. Beady, glowing eyes looked out of its squarish head, and very sharp claws adorned either hand. Jill didn't see it, and toppled headfirst over the top of it and falling on her back on the cold, damp floor.
The dazed mutant wobbled for a bit while it regained its balance and raised its claw with an infuriated scream, driving it into the ground right where her head would have been if she hadn't moved just in time. Now even more furious, the creature swung out, but instead of hitting her with its claws, it hit her with the broad side of its hand and sent her reeling to the floor. Showing its intelligence, it used one clawed hand to pin her to the ground and raised the other at an angle, ready to drive it into the side of her face.
Just as it plunged its claws towards her, a shot rang out and the Hunter missed its mark, but sent its two longest claws through the side of Jill's right arm and shoulder. She screamed with pain as the Hunter's dark blood sprayed across her face and chest. Seconds later the Hunter ripped its claws from where it had embedded them in the ground beneath her bleeding arm. She cried with pain again as it pulled itself free and spun to face Chris.
With an aggrivated scream, it ran full pelt towards him and leapt into the air with its claw outstretched, but he ducked it and fired again, this time the bullet hitting the beast in the back of the neck, killing it instantly. Chris ran over to Jill who was now writhing in pain on the floor, her hand clamped over the two deep gashes in her arm. Blood was coursing from beneath her clenched hand and her uniform was stained with blood, both the Hunter's and hers.
"This looks bad," he said, carefully pulling her hand away and examining the wounds. He tore the bottom from his shirt and wrapped it tightly around her arm. Jill gasped with the pain and gritted her teeth, trying not to make a sound. Chris had barely covered the injury when the white cloth was already turning dark red. He helped Jill to her feet.
"Hang on to me, alright? You look a little white. Come on, we'll see if we can't find something that might be a little better than just that cloth. I don't think it did any major damage, but just stick with me, alright? I'll keep an eye on you, you'll be fine."
"Thank you Chris," she replied quietly.
Rachelle poked her head around the corner. The room was dark red and so was her shirt. Sliding the empty clip out of her gun she quietly slipped a new one in, keeping her eyes forward and occasionally glancing behind her and at the ceiling. Somewhere in amongst all the steaming pipes and ticking machinery were the creatures keeping her bailed up in this hot room. Ahead of her was a small machine that looked a little like a video game. She crept forward to see what it was. There was a small flat screen with 'Insert Disk' written in green LCD lettering across it attacked to the black box, and a slot to put a disk. She rolled her eyes.
"Insert MO Disk for passcode. Jesus Christ, where the hell am I going to get one of those?"
Just as she spoke, she sensed a presence behind her. Turning around, she watched in horror as a big, black form lowered itself slowly from the grated ceiling, its long arms suspending it for a moment before it dropped down. It stood up to full height, just a little smaller than her. Its beady little eyes glittered as if it knew she was cornered.
She lifted her gun quickly and its head snapped to the side, its arm swinging up and knocking the weapon from her hand before she could pull the trigger. She yelped as it shot out the other arm, gripping her by the throat and lifting her off the ground. She tried to scream out, but she had no air left in her lungs and all that came out was a quiet squeak. She could see her gun, a dark silhouette on the grating behind the monster. It brought up its other hand and gripped her by the scalp, grabbing hold of her hair and preparing to pull. She closed her eyes. This was the end.
Suddenly a series of shots rang out, and on the third shot, the monster's head exploded in a repulsive shower of bone and brain. The arms fell limp and Rachelle crashed to the floor, rolling to the side painfully and looking up at her rescuer. She couldn't believe her eyes.
Holding her gun shakily, and quivering as though absolutely terrified of what had just happened, Rebecca looked as though she was about to faint. Rachelle coughed and pushed herself arduously to her feet. Pressing a hand to her right hip, she limped forward and leaned on the wall.
"Shit. Jesus Christ."
Rebecca put away her gun and ran over, picking up Rachelle's weapon and handing it to her. She took it with a nod and winced as she took a step forward.
"Rachelle, are you alright?"
Rachelle waved her hand. "I'll be fine. Thanks Rebecca, I owe you one."
"No, it's alright," Rebecca said, shaking her head. "I couldn't let it kill you."
"You're shaking, Rebecca. Is it really that scary to shoot a dangerous monster from a distance when it can't even see you?"
Rebecca shook her head. "I was scared I would miss and hit you instead. Here. This is one of those disk thingies that you need to get the passcode."
Rachelle smiled. "Thanks again Rebecca."
She took the disk and pushed it into the slot, the machine beeped and the slip of paper came out. Rachelle took it and slipped it into her pocket. She nodded to Rebecca.
"Come on, we've gotta find a way out of this hell-hole."
"It's a what?"
"A Hunter."
"What's a Hunter?"
"That is! Are you sure you're not just doing this to get a rise out of me? Because if you are, now's not the time, nor place to do it."
"Do what?"
"Isn't that the thing that attacked us?"
"Yes it is."
"It's a lot more ugly up front than it is in the picture."
"Okay, next slide!"
"Shut up and be patient, I'm not finished with this one yet."
"Boring!" Rachelle called out to no one in particular, and held open Rebecca's First Aid pack. "Get to the good stuff! I wanna see them ripping people to pieces!"
"Rachelle!" Chris bellowed, turning to her and knocking the slide machine off the table at the same time. It cut out with a click. "Now look! You made me break the damn thing!"
"I made you break it?" Rachelle hollered back at him. "You're the clumsy oaf, Chris! Go back to the Air Force with the other AJ's."
"Come on guys, keep it down, we don't want to draw attention to ourselves," Jill cut in.
"What's an AJ?" Rebecca asked, looking up from where she was trying to stitch up Jill's arm.
"An 'Army Jerk'. Something I had to put up with while I was in the service," Rachelle replied, picking up the projector from where it lay on the floor. She put it back on the table and plugged it back into the wall, casting a dark glance at Chris. "Dickhead," she muttered snidely.
"If you're all finished now, I want to look at more slides- Ow! Careful there, Rebecca!"
"Sorry Jill," Rebecca replied, not looking up. "But it's a bit difficult to fix a hole that goes right through somebody's arm, you know."
"Yeah, alright. Just be careful."
"I'm doing the best I can. You're just lucky that it didn't sever any arteries or anything like that."
Chris flicked the projector back on. The slides had somehow shifted back to the beginning. Chris quickly flicked past the title slide which said 'Umbrella Biological Weapon Report'. Rebecca glanced up at the first picture, a dog which looked like its flesh was rotting off its bones. The slide was titled 'Ma-39 Cerebus'.
"I remember. That's what attacked the helicopter outside. There's heaps of them running around."
"Yeah well, I haven't had the pleasure of running into this 'Neptune' thing. Don't think I want to. I've seen Jaws enough times to compensate," Rachelle cut in as Chris changed the slide. The comment got a little laugh out of the others. Chris flicked right past the Hunter and stopped at the next slide. There was no actual picture, only the silhouette of a creature with a big claw, that looked almost human. It was titled 'T-001 Tyrant'. Rachelle stood up slowly and looked at the text, scanning over it quickly.
"T? T was the letter on the tag of that cat that I was telling you about. I think that the really strong ones must have the letter T in their ID number. Would you agree?"
"Yeah. Looking at all this information.....Ultimate Bio-Weapon? Is that what this thing is supposed to be?" Chris asked. Rachelle shook her head and hit the switch to change the picture, the next slide was blank, but the one after had a photograph of the Research and Development staff.
"I knew it. Look there. That's Wesker."
Sure enough, on the far right hand side of the photo wearing his infernal aviator shades and his slicked back blonde hair, was Wesker. Jill shook her head silently and flinched a moment later as Rebecca continued on her arm.
"There you go, Jill. That's the best I can do. Here, I'll cover it so it doesn't get infected or anything, but it shouldn't."
Jill smiled thankfully. "I appreciate it, Rebecca. Thanks a lot."
Chris looked around. "See anything in here that should be sussed out before we leave?"
"How about that video room over there?" Rebecca asked without looking up, a safety pin between her teeth as she finished bandaging Jill's arm. "That passcode reader might open it. There might be something useful in there."
"Like maybe a working radio?" Jill sneered, pulling the radio out of her pocket with her free hand and tossing it across the room. Chris caught it just before it hit the wall.
"Hey, careful! We need it to keep an ear out on Brad. We need to know if he's still gonna be there when we get out!"
"Dani's with him," Rachelle pointed out. "She was with him since before I ran into them in the courtyard."
"I was listening to their conversations over this radio. She was trying to contact Richard and Enrico a couple of times too," Jill put in. Chris smirked.
"Well, she's safe up in the sky now."
"She must've had a working radio," Jill said slowly, mocking desire. Rebecca looked up suddenly.
"Omigosh! She did too! She had a headset! I forgot all about it! Brad gave it to her just before we left Raccoon City!"
"Do you think Danielle and Brad may have been in on this?" Chris proposed thoughtfully. Rachelle shook her head.
"No, she probably just forgot. Danielle's good. She's clean. She's hated Umbrella for longer than I can remember. She'd never even take the time to listen to an employment proposal from them. She smack them in the mouth before they could finish saying 'Umbrella'."
"Okay then," Chris said, and walked over to the password reader on the wall, and started to punch in random numbers. Suddenly a wall slid aside, revealing the way into the video room.
On a table in the little room, glinting in the light behind the column was a strange-looking black and silver key. Rachelle picked it up and flipped it in the palm of her hand.
"Alright. Let's see what we can do with this."
Hours passed, and once again, Brad tried to raise someone on the radio.
"Hello? This is Brad. I know you can't answer me. But if someone's down there, please. Just give me some sort of sign. I can't stay here for much longer. Running low on fuel. This is your last chance to get out of there. Hello? Can anyone out there hear me at all?"
Danielle shook her head and looked out the window at the helipad.
"Brad. Why don't you set down there?"
Brad looked down. "You crazy? Not after what happened last time I landed in a closed in area. I'll circle around for a while longer."
"How much fuel do you have left?"
Brad looked at the controls. "Well, give or take about five or ten minutes, but if you take out the time it takes to get back to town, which is about 15 to 20 minutes, we can circle for another 25 safely. And when we land in Raccoon, we'll probably be running on fumes."
Danielle shook her head and continued to look out the window.
"Surely there's some way to contact them."
"The radio doesn't work."
"What about my headset?"
"Their radio doesn't work. You should've given the headset to Rachelle."
Danielle frowned. He was right. They could circle for about 25 minutes, and there was no real way to find them. Danielle was growing more and more anxious as the time ticked by. She checked her watch. They had 10 minutes to get out. Suddenly a flare went off in the direction of the helipad. Brad turned the helicopter and flew towards it. Danielle sighed with relief when she saw the five people alive and well on the helipad. She looked up at Brad and smiled.
"Hardly any time to spare."
Brad raised his eyebrows in a gesture of agreement.
"Running on fumes."
Rachelle, covered in blood and feeling very depressed, set the flare down in the middle of the huge helipad. It burned brightly as it shot up into the air. She watched it fizzle out into the night sky before she turned back to the small group of ragged-looking survivors behind her. Jill, Chris, Barry and Rebecca stood there, looking very worse for wear. Too tired to stay on her feet a moment longer, Rachelle sank slowly to the cold concrete and leaned against the wall. She could hear the droning, dull beeping of the self-destruct alarms, and she wished that she could hear the blades of the chopper over the incessant alarm.
"You don't think they just left, do you?" Rebecca asked. Chris shook his head.
"Even if they were about to fall out of the sky, I have a feeling that Danielle wouldn't let Brad leave."
Rachelle didn't say anything, but strained to hear even the faintest sign that the chopper may be coming. So far, nothing. She almost gave up even trying when she heard something. Faintly, over the top of the repetitive alarms was the droning of another machine. It became swiftly louder, and she knew it was the helicopter. She smiled weakly.
"Looks like we're out of here."
Jill nodded. "I can hear the chopper now."
The helicopter shot out over the rim of the high wall and circled, the searchlight sweeping over them all as it slowed and came down towards the ground. Danielle slid open the side door and waved her hand.
"Come on! We're almost in the red with the fuel situation here! A couple more minutes and we'll be lucky to make it back to Raccoon City!"
They all climbed into the back, and sighed with relief. But just as they lifted off, the chopper jolted to one side, and everyone fell on top of each other with a mass yell. Jill dropped back onto Chris' shoulder, squirming in pain as she'd hit her arm on the metal frame of the wall. He grabbed her.
"You alright?"
"I hit my arm!"
"What was that?" Barry growled, struggling to see from where he was on the opposite side of the chopper. Rachelle was slammed against the side door. As she glanced out the window, she stared down in horror. There, with its blood-covered, clawed hand gripping the helicopter's skid, was a huge, grossly greyish-white monster. It was human-like in form, yet horribly disfigured, its insides practically on the outside and it was massive. Jill gasped.
"The Tyrant!"
Danielle turned around, remembering having read about the Tyrant somewhere in the mansion.
"What?"
Rachelle ran over and opened the door on the other side of the chopper.
"That ugly beast killed Wesker.... In a fashion that I'm sure he enjoyed!"
Jill, Barry and Rebecca couldn't help but smirk wryly, despite the situation. Rachelle jumped out the side door of the chopper and landed on the concrete helipad, within feet of the Tyrant's claws. The creature let go of the chopper's skid almost instantly, and the helicopter faltered a moment, before regaining its balance and flying higher. Rachelle pulled her magnum from its holster and began to fire relentlessly upon the Tyrant. No matter how many rounds she unloaded into it, it seemed as though it was invincible, and it got back up whenever it was knocked down. Danielle turned to Brad.
"Where's the rocket launcher you used on the 092?"
Brad thought a moment, and slapped his forehead. "Aww, damn! I left it back in the courtyard!"
"Well we can't exactly go back and get it!" Danielle cried, jumping from her seat and running to the back, looking through the arsenal in the rear. She came back with a shotgun and leaned out the front chopper door, doing up her belt to stop herself from falling out. She aimed carefully and shot at the Tyrant, the shotgun shells hitting it squarely, but hardly making a dent in its attack.
Rachelle was running out of bullets at a rapid pace. The dull click from the trigger of her empty gun sent a wave of panic through her. She ran the full length of the helipad with the Tyrant following her at its slow pace. Rachelle searched herself for more rounds. Danielle was still firing, but suddenly her shots stopped too, and in a flash of realisation, Rachelle knew that she too had run out of ammo.
Suddenly her hand touched the butt of another gun. Drawing it from her pocket, she realised that she still had the Ivory; Danielle's personal weapon. She gaped at it for the moment, and grinned. Taking careful aim, she pushed down the charger and fired. The recoil was so great, that she had trouble handling it even with two hands, when Danielle only used one. She fired again, and noticed that the Tyrant was showing its fatigue. It was right upon her when she fired the last shot.
The Tyrant fell back and hit the ground with a crash. Rachelle sank to the ground and tediously kicked its foot. It didn't move. The chopper came back down, and she got slowly to her feet, reaching up for the skid and hoisting herself back in. She sighed deeply, and handed Danielle her gun.
"You were right, I did need it more."
Danielle smiled, and reached over the back of the chair to take her gun.
"You didn't even use it until then, did you?"
Rachelle shook her head. "But I'm glad you gave it to me. Who knows what would have happened."
Danielle slid the reloader back on the gun and the empty clip fell out. Slipping a new one in, she put it back in its holster at her side. Brad turned the helicopter around and flew off quickly back towards town. Danielle looked at her in the mirror that was mounted on the controls.
"You found the others. Did you find your 'truth'?"
Rachelle looked away at the mansion they were leaving behind and shook her head.
"No, I didn't find my truth," The mansion lab suddenly went up in a huge explosion that shook the chopper itself. "My truth just went up in that mansion. Along with everything I believed in."
Danielle turned away, not wanting to admit that she had also lost similar things to what Rachelle had. But she looked up, out the windscreen at the glittering lights of Raccoon City in the early dawn as they flew towards it. 'We may have lost our truth,' she thought, 'but I haven't lost the thrill of the chase'. Danielle looked ahead with a frosty expression. 'In fact,' she thought, 'the chase just got even more interesting'. Brad looked at her.
"You moving on again now that you've done away with another lab?"
Rachelle looked up. "You're not working for Dr McDoughal, are you?"
Danielle shrugged. "Well...."
"Then why were you talking to Richard if you were?"
Danielle smiled. "In case you've forgotten.... Well, it's a long story. No, I'm not really working for him. But I do chase Umbrella and make life difficult for them."
"I still think that your job description sounds like that of a Bio-Counter field agent."
"And if I am? I'd rather be a field agent for Bio-Counter than a lackey for Umbrella," Rachelle's head snapped up and she was about to yell, but Danielle cut her off. "I'm sorry Shellie, I didn't mean it like that. You know I didn't mean it like that. It's just, McDoughal has asked a favour of me, and that is to close down any Umbrella lab I come across in my 'travels', by any means necessary."
Rachelle looked away. "Just like in Chicago."
Danielle looked up. "I'd rather forget what happened in Chicago, thanks Rachelle."
Brad turned to her, but didn't say anything. Danielle looked down at her hands.
"I don't know if I'm going anywhere just yet. I kind of like Raccoon City. It's quiet and nice, and I appreciate the people. They're not like New York, or Los Angeles, or Chicago. They're actual 'people'. Not druggies and rapists and sleaze bags. I think the only person I met in Chicago with a personality was Daionera O'Sullivan."
"Daionera?! She has about as much personality as a turd in a thermos!"
Danielle smiled. "Exactly. Now you get my meaning. Besides. I'm not about to go anywhere. If I do, I'm just speeding up the Crossover Theory."
Rebecca looked up. "What is this 'Crossover Theory'?"
"I'll tell you when you're older."
Rachelle shook her head. "No, come on mate. You've gotta tell us. It's not like we're gonna go spilling the beans to Umbrella."
"I can't say. But I can tell you this, if Umbrella were to find out the devastating effects of the Theory, the world of science, hell no the world itself would come crashing to its knees."
"We can keep a secret."
Danielle sighed and shook her head again. "I'll tell you someday, when you've seen the things I've seen and gone through the things I've had to. When you think with the same openness I've thought with for years now, then maybe I'll consider it."
Rachelle forced a smile. Some things never change. They all went quiet and didn't say another word for the rest of the flight.
It was over......or so they thought.
What happened to Rachelle in the laboratory set under the courtyard came out as a jumbled story, which hardly anyone got the idea of. Jill, Chris and Barry kept looking at each other and laughing quietly whenever Rachelle tried to express what she was trying to say. Brad and Danielle were confused so much, they had been talking to each other all the way back to Raccoon City about what really happened. Both had interpreted her tale in different ways, and constantly disagreed on elements of it. Rachelle thought it was funny. What she had been trying to say, was that she had barely made it alive through the underground, and when she had gotten to the laboratory, she was void of ammunition, and had forgotten about the Ivory. In the lab, she had run into Rebecca first, then Jill and Chris in the Visual Data room.
"I was wondering what they were doing in there," she had said, "But I assured myself that my way of thinking was very warped, so it wouldn't be the case."
After meeting them, she had run around like a chicken with its head cut off, 'like Brad would have', she had claimed with a smile. After an amount of mindless exploring, she had found herself trapped by Wesker, who had Barry on a choker chain by threatening his family. Then they had been attacked by a monster, a monster which Wesker called the 'Tyrant'. He had assumed that it would obey him.
"He said that the Tyrant was under his complete control," she said. Then she grinned wryly. "But he was wrong."
The Tyrant had advanced towards him instead of the S.T.A.R.S. members. As Wesker had turned to run, she explained, the Tyrant had rushed at him and swung upwards, shoving his massive claw up Wesker's backside. As Rachelle finished her sentence, they burst out laughing. Barry seemed a little apprehensive to talk about it.
"That's why I said that he would have enjoyed his death."
Rebecca nodded with a grin. "I didn't get caught. Did he die with a smile on his face?"
Everyone cracked up laughing again. Rachelle gave Rebecca a high-five.
"You go, girlfriend!"
"Hey Jill, what happened to your shoulder?" Barry asked suddenly. "I didn't get a chance to ask you."
"I tripped over a Hunter and it got a little pissed off at me."
"How the hell do you just 'trip over' a Hunter?" Danielle asked incredously. Chris laughed.
"She bolted through a door and didn't see it until it was about to plunge its claws through her head. Then she saw it."
Rachelle laughed, but soon faded into a sombre mood. She continued with a sad look on her face. She seemed a little unwilling to talk about the next subject, but she knew she had to anyway.
"Before I reached the lab, something happened. Something really bad. As I ran past a Hunter in the hallway, I stumbled and he ripped my pants, which would explain this." She pointed to a very long row of untidy stitching that ran up the entire left leg of her pants. "Anyway, I got past the Hunter and ran through the nearest door," she took a deep breath and her voice started to tremble slightly. Her voice showed her upset. "Anyway, it was a bedroom," her voice started to break, but she took a deep breath and continued. "I heard a gun being pointed at me, and I looked to see who it was. It was Richard, my husband."
She heard a sharp intake of breath from some of the other members. Rebecca spoke quietly.
"I didn't know you were married," she said. Rachelle smiled.
"Not many people did. Only my parents, Danielle, my husband of course, Forest and Richard knew I was married. Anyway, Rich was lying on the bed, bleeding badly. His side had been sliced off by the Hunter. I was just in time. I only got to spend the last couple of minutes with him before he died. That's why I was covered in blood. It wasn't mine, it was his."
Rachelle's voice choked up and she couldn't hold back the tears anymore. She turned to Jill beside her and cried on her shoulder. Jill put an arm around her. Then she looked up.
"I don't know about everything that happened to Rachelle down there, but you pretty much know the rest of the story."
Danielle turned to Brad, a disbelieving look on her face. He returned the look.
"Married? I would never have guessed," he said, with a surprised tone. Danielle smiled sarcastically.
"Well, there you go."
