Chapter 14: Nowhere is Safe

It was now midnight. Jerome Goldberg, the Compound Supervisor, was asleep in the swivel chair in front of his computer, in his dimly lit office. He had been working late, watching the monitors downstairs with the two brothers who worked in the telecommunications department, Nathan and Joseph Lars. He had come upstairs to do some filing in peace, where he could concentrate. He was rudely awoken by a crash from downstairs.

Frightened from his sleep, he spilled the papers resting on his slightly round belly as he jumped to his feet. He ran to one of the windows that overlooked the main gate to the Bio-Counter compound. There was nothing. But he could swear that, in the dark, he could see some sort of long, thin object snaking its way along the top of the east wall. He blinked and shrugged it off as a result of his tiredness.

Turning away, he rubbed his hand over his eyes, yawning. Walking over to one of the windows that faced inside the building he was in, he poured himself a cup of coffee from the jug on the desk. As he stood and looked out the window, sipping at his mug, he caught a glimpse of movement downstairs in the vehicle storage area.

He was about to shrug it off again when there was another great crash. Putting the mug down on the bench, he picked up a torch and threw open the office door, running along the catwalk that led from his office to the stairs that went down to the main floor.

He slowed down as he reached the bottom of the stairs, switching on the torch as he found himself in the darkness. On the wall was the switch for the lights. Flicking it, he swore under his breath when the lights didn't come on.

"Meant to be a damn maintenance building, can't even have the wiring checked once in a while," he complained agitatedly. He panned the light from the heavy-duty torch around the storage room. Inside were many vehicles that had been brought in for maintenance or storage.

On the other side of the room, there was a black jeep that had come in to be stored for a while. It had been in good condition, but now it had long claw marks down the side, as if it had been attacked by tigers. Not far away from it was a pile of tyres and boxes that had been tipped over. Jerome shook his head.

"Argh, shit."

He shook his head and approached the wrecked jeep and the overturned crates.

"I guess this explains the crash. Those damn rats are gettin' tougher every day."

He inspected the side of the jeep, running the tip of his finger along the deep claw mark. He couldn't make anything of it. Shaking his head, he pondered what could possibly have made them. As he thought about it, he heard a clicking sound echo through the warehouse. Standing up, he reached for his gun. He picked up his radio.

"Lars. Can you hear me?" There was no answer, only static. Jerome shook his head angrily. Aiming his gun in the direction of the sound, he cocked it. "Show yourself or I'll shoot!"

There was a hiss and a stubby, two-legged silhouette appeared against the darkness. It stepped into the torchlight, and Jerome jumped back at the sight of the ugly little creature. It looked like some sort of gorilla or frog. It had a hunched back and no neck. Its long arms hung at its sides, and each hand had four, long claws on it. Its legs were stubby, and it had lizard-like feet. Its skin was green with yellow-splotched lines all over it. The skin appeared slimy, and the jaws were filled with little, sharp teeth.

It hissed again, and sprang into the air with a high-pitched scream. Jerome ducked aside and unloaded an entire clip into the creature as it came down. He wasted no time in loading up again, but the creature was faster, and as soon as it hit the ground, it spun and slashed the back of his legs, causing him to fall to the ground. It pulled its claw back and prepared to swipe his head off, but he pulled his gun and fired it point blank in its head. The monster reeled back with a pained screech, and dropped to the floor with a thud. Jerome dragged himself over to the intercom on the desk near the bottom of the stairs, hoping to goodness it was working.

"Hello!" he croaked.

"Yes? This is Dr Watson. What's the problem over there?"

"I... it's Jerome. I've been attacked down here. I can't walk."

"Dear God, by who?!"

"A monster," Jerome glanced nervously back at the creature lying on the floor in the torchlight, face down in its own blood. "A monster with freakin' big claws. It got my legs."

"Okay, just hold tight. I'm sending someone down now. Stay where you are."

He let go of the button and collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily and leaning against the wall, his gun at the ready in case one of the monster's friends decided to join in.

Lee-Ann Watson was the assistant to Dr Chambers. Dr Watson inspected the wounds on Jerome's legs and shook her head.

"They're pretty bad. I don't think he'll be able to walk again."

Jerome winced and nodded. "Yeah? I think I'm up for worker's compensation, then. Don't you, Doc?"

Dr Watson looked at him and raised an eyebrow, then got set into her task of stitching up the deep lacerations in his legs.

Linda Birkin had since removed the monster and brought it over to the Research building. She stood over the monster in the examining room and prodded at it with her scalpel. Jill, Danielle, Barry and Annette walked in. Jill jumped when she saw the monster.

"Wh.... where did it come from?" she stuttered, taking a step back. Linda looked up. She was wearing a pair of goggles and had her hair tied back. She looked back down at the monster.

"It attacked the Compound Supervisor, Jerome Goldberg, half an hour ago. I'm taking a look at it."

"Be careful when you're standing over the top of it, Linda," Danielle warned, "I've had past experiences with Hunters on examination tables. Undesirable ones."

"It's a good thing that it's dead," Barry said with relief. Danielle agreed.

"As I said though, be careful. It's called a Hunter. Nasty son of a bitch."

"I too, have had some undesirable experiences with these monsters," Annette added. Linda looked up.

"Nothing against you Annette, but why do you have to follow Danielle everywhere?"

Annette looked at her sharply. Danielle laughed.

"You're right, it is nothing against her. We asked her to come."

Linda shrugged and turned back to the beast.

"They are one of the most savage monsters created by Umbrella," Jill added, "They've been around since the beginning."

"Insatiable blood lust, kill just because they have the profound ability to, super fast assholes that they are," Barry said, looking at the creature. "Not to mention, if looks could kill."

Linda pulled off her goggles. "You do know a lot, don't you."

Danielle shrugged. "We've been through a lot. You only stop it. We've lived through the onslaughts that you couldn't prevent."

Linda nodded. "I suppose you found a lot of written pieces along the way that made understanding things easier, telling you what you needed to know."

"Maybe so, but it was worse than you could possibly imagine. And as much as I hate to say this, I think you will be sympathising with us very soon."

Everyone on the board of directors, as well as some other people, had assembled in one of the labs in the Laboratory Compound. There was a lot of noise, and Lachlahn, no matter how hard he tried, couldn't be heard over the top of everyone else. He shook his head and sighed in exasperation. Danielle stood up on a table and drew a breath. Rachelle immediately blocked her ears. Jill looked at her curiously.

"If I were you, I'd follow the example," Rachelle suggested with a grin. Jill shrugged and blocked her ears also.

"Shut the hell up! Someone is trying to organise you so that you can get out alive, and you're not making it any easier on him, therefore in turn, you're making it worse for yourselves!" Danielle screamed at the top of her lungs. Everyone settled down into a nervous silence. Lachlahn smiled tiredly.

"Thank you, Danielle. Now, if you will all listen to me! We have not acted in time to stop this attack, and our only chance is to escape through the main gate. There is relative safety in numbers, so we must not, I repeat, must NOT split up."

There was an amount of unsure chatter, but it all died back down. Just as Lachlahn was about to speak again, there was a rattling pounding at the door to the lab. They all turned to see the blank faces of the most well known of the viral creations. Mindless, open-mouthed zombies crashed and pounded at the doors and windows in their efforts to get inside.

"Out the back way! Now!" Lachlahn ordered. The group rushed out through the back door of the lab and into the corridor. In their panic, they unintentionally spilt up. Rachelle, Jill, Barry, Danielle, Carlos and Annette stood in the hall outside the back door of the lab and looked around. The halls split three ways from where they stood. None of them knew which way was out. Jill shook her head.

"The only way I can see any of us having a chance of getting out is to split up."

Danielle smiled and shook her head. "Normally I'm the one to suggest splitting up."

Jill nodded, shrugging. "But maybe we should try going by ourselves. Pairs never really worked without a hitch."

"That's game," Annette offered bluntly. Danielle agreed, grinning.

"I know."

"Let's pick our directions," Jill said, looking the three ways they could go.

Danielle pointed straight ahead. "I'll go this way."

Rachelle nodded. "I'll go with you for a little while."

Jill and Carlos started off to the left. Carlos turned to Annette and Barry.

"That leaves you two to the right."

Annette looked up at Barry and inertly raised an eyebrow.

"What fun."