Author's Note: Yeah! School's out! I hope I didn't take too long to get this chapter up, did I? This chapter will my first time with graphic violence writing. Tell me what you think! And thank you very much for the reviews ^_^
Skritch. Skritch.
It was that annoying scratching noise again. Steve didn't know what it was or where it was coming from. Every time he stopped to search for the source of the sound, he was pushed forward by one of the scientists behind him. He wanted to ditch them, but they knew more about this mansion then he did. If he managed to escape, there would be no doubt that he would end up lost.
The rooms they had traveled through so far were very dark. Peter had to use the flashlight to guide them from one place to another. Steve had caught a glimpse at what was in the rooms as they passed. A lot of the rooms had been trashed. There were a lot of valuable things that were lying on the ground in pieces. No one had said much about it, they were all focused on finding the control room.
Joel wiped the sweat from his head and coughed.
"Is it just me or is anyone else think it's boiling hot in here?" he asked. Steve looked at him strangely. The rooms had been very cold, in fact some of the windows had either been shattered or opened. Greg stopped to examine Joel.
"It's pretty cold. Are you feeling alright?" Greg asked him.
"I feel kind of sick," Joel said, "I hope nothing is seriously wrong with me..."
"I don't think so. Let's just get out of this mansion," Greg said. Greg looked over at Steve, who was leaning against a desk.
"What are you looking at? Get moving," Greg snapped. Steve frowned, but followed them into the next room. Surprisingly, the room was dimly lit. There were pieces of glass on the red carpet, furniture had been overturned, and the off-white walls were cracked. The only thing that seemed to be untouched in the room was the painting of a young girl playing in a field of flowers.
"Here's a map!" Peter exclaimed. He spread it out on the desk as the other scientist huddled around him. Steve watched them impatiently, testing his restraints a little. Peter pointed out the path they would need to take to get to the control room.
"It's not very far, and it should be safe. I think we'll be okay. It seems that none of the monsters have escaped into the mansion," Peter commented.
"But what about these rooms? I remember when this place looked so nice, and now its all trashed. Don't you think the monsters came through here too?" Joel asked.
"I don't think they'd get here this fast, unless there's more monsters being stored in areas we don't know about," Peter said.
"We shouldn't stick around to find out. Peter, led the way," Greg said. Peter nodded, and led the group to the control room.
Steve and the scientists passed through several of the rooms without being bothered by any kinds of monsters. Peter had commented that maybe there was no emergency after all. They were stopped when they heard a moaning behind them. Steve tensed up. He had heard that familiar noise before.
'No...they couldn't be here...' Steve and the others turned around. What they saw was Joel leaning against the wall. He was covered in sweat and his face was very red.
"Ohhh...uhnnn..." he moaned. Joel slid down the wall, holding his stomach. He looked at the others.
"W-what's wrong with me?" he asked them. He winced in pain. Peter walk over to Joel and kneeled beside him.
"He looks bad, Greg. He's really sick," Peter said. Saliva dribbled down Joel's chin. He looked at Peter, his eyes looked glazed-over.
"Pe...ter, I..." was all Joel managed to say before he tightly gripped Peter's shoulders and sank his teeth deep into his neck. Peter's eyes widen.
"Arrrgh! Ahhhhh!" Peter shrieked as he tried to twist himself out of Joel's grip. Joel bit down harden, making it impossible for Peter to free himself without losing a chunk of his neck.
"Joel! What the hell are you doing?!" Greg screamed at the crazed scientist. Steve backed away from the two scientists. He knew he had seen zombie-like monsters before, but this definitely didn't seem like a zombie. In fact, Joel didn't look like he was trying to eat Peter's flesh, but his Adam's Apple bobbed up in down as if he were drinking.
Peter's gurgled cries were heard as he tried to fight off his attacker. He flailed his arms about and clawed at Joel, but Joel wasn't finished with him.
"Joel! Peter!"
Greg pulled out his handgun and fired five bullets straight into Joel's head. Joel screamed as each bullet punctured his skull, and he let go of Peter's neck. Joel lowered his head and his body went limp. His sweat-drenched bangs prevented Steve or Greg from seeing his face.
Greg, recovering from the shock of what had happened, rushed over to Peter. He turned over his body, and to his horror found that Peter was dead. His eyes were still opened, frozen in a look of terror and pain. His mouth was opened in a frozen scream. Blood was still trickling down the open wound in his neck. Steve stared in shock as Greg looked away from the fallen scientists.
"What...what was that...?" Greg asked, his voice was barely audible. Greg got up and looked at the bodies one last time.
"Peter...Joel...I'm sorry," he said softly. He looked at Steve, this time not giving him a bitter look.
"It's just you and me. Let's get to the control room," he said. Greg scooped up the flashlight. Steve followed him. Greg led him down a long corridor. It was lit too. It was very beautiful, the walls were perfectly white, and the floors were made of wood. The scratching noise was louder here. It made Steve uncomfortable. They quickly made their way into the control room.
The control room was huge. There were computers and machines everywhere Steve turned. Greg immediately went to work. Whatever Greg was doing was displayed on a large screen hanging on the wall.
"The mansion was sealed after all," Greg said, "it seems the reason was because of a virus spill...oh no, that must mean Joel..." Greg trailed off. He went silent and began typing in a few more things.
"There was a virus spill?" Steve asked. Greg looked up.
"That's what it says, but I've never seen a virus like that. I don't think either of us is infected, but we still need to escape," Greg said, "now shut up while I try to figure out how to get these doors opened."
Steve remained silent as Greg worked. He heard Greg groan in annoyance and mutter to himself.
"That's it!" Steve heard him say.
"What did you find?" Steve asked.
"We can't unlock the doors, but there is an alternate way out of the mansion. It's supposed to be used only in emergencies. I'm going to get a map of the route," Greg replied. Greg printed out the map and memorized the route they would need to take.
"This is going to be complicated, but I think we can do it," Greg said. Steve nodded, but didn't say anything.
'That's good. The sooner I get out of here, the sooner I can find Claire,' Steve thought.
Claire was driving to the exact location Wesker had given here. She already knew Chris would be furious at her for leaving in the middle of the night to go on some rescue mission by herself. She cursed at herself over and over for going through with this plan. She knew she couldn't trust Wesker enough for this to be a simple rescue mission. That's why she brought along her handgun. Hopefully, she wouldn't need it. However, she still didn't know if Steve was alive. Maybe it was all wishful-thinking that made her believe that he survived and that she was heading right into a trap.
"Steve..." Claire sighed. She had to make sure. If he needed her help, she couldn't just abandon him. She looked at the map she had made to show her to the mansion. It wasn't very far now. As she looked up, she noticed how quiet it was. There were no crickets chirping, nothing. Just dead silence.
The mansion was up ahead. It was very beautiful. It was probably owned by some rich guy from Umbrella. Claire was too distracted by the mansion to notice a figure standing in the middle of the road. Claire turned her head and gasped, swerving the car to miss whoever it was. The figure disappeared from her sight as she tried to regain control of the car. As soon as the car stopped, she quickly got out.
"Oh please don't tell me I hit him," Claire said to herself. She checked for any trace of the figure, but there was none. She checked under the car but there was no one there.
'Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me,' she thought. Claire decided to make the rest of the trip to the mansion on foot, seeing how the car was stuck in the dirt and it would be hard to get it out.
Claire followed the map to the secret entrance Wesker had told her about. It was a small square-shaped hole in the ground, which had a steel door over it. There was a number pad beside it and the entire thing was lightly covered by dirt and leaves. She brushed some of the dirt away and typed in the code. The steel door slid up and revealed a ladder she could climb down. She adjusted her pack and climbed down, the steel door closing as she descended.
"Please use this door only during an emergency," a mechanical voice spoke as Claire's feet touched the steel floor.
'This is an emergency, pal," Claire thought as she continued down the well-lit tunnel. There was another door at the end which required another password to access. Claire punched in the number and the door slid open, showing another ladder leading up. She sighed to herself.
'Leave it to Umbrella to make an evacuation process as complex and athletic as possible,' she thought bitterly as she climbed up the ladder and into the next room.
The room was very big and elegant. There was a spiral staircase in the back of the room, and a large red carpet was spread out across a marble floor. There were statues and paintings everywhere. Most of the statues and paintings took away from the beauty of the room, for they were mostly of demons and other disturbing things. The only thing that wasn't disturbing was the large brass statue of a young girl in the middle of the room. Claire guessed it was the daughter of the man who lived here.
"Steve?" Claire called out, mentally slapping herself as she did. Even though the mansion looked abandoned, she didn't want to attract any unwanted attention. She doubted Steve could hear her from here anyway. She pulled out her handgun, ready to take on anything that got in her way of finding Steve and escaping together.
Skritch. Skritch.
"Did you hear that?" Steve asked Greg as they traveled through the long corridor again. The scratching sounds were getting louder. It was as if something from inside the walls was trying to claw its way out.
"Keep moving," was all Greg said. Steve glared at Greg. He had no fondness at all for the bossy scientist. He had to put up with him if he wanted to escape, though. He'd wait until the right moment and then make his escape. He wasn't sure whether or not he could break the handcuffs on him, but he would have to try. There was no way he was going to get dragged out the mansion only to be placed in some lab for experimenting. Steve would rather die again than have to do that.
Greg seemed edgy about being in the corridor. Every time he heard something, he'd shine the flashlight in that direction. Steve was feeling anxious too. There was nothing that seemed threatening though. The scratching seemed to have stop, and the only sounds in the corridor were their footsteps.
"I guess it stopped..." Steve said.
CRACK!
Steve and Greg froze when a thin, slimy tentacle-like thing broke free from the wall and burrowed itself deep into the opposite wall. Steve had only gotten a glimpse at it, but it looked like at the end of the tentacle, there were two long spikes with a series of smaller spikes lined up next to them.
Crack. Crack.
More tentacles emerged from the walls, launching themselves and embedding themselves into the opposite sides of the walls. They were trying to trap them in one spot.
"Run!" Greg screamed. Steve ran as fast as he could go, dodging the emerging tentacles as he ran. He looked back to see Greg falling behind him. Greg slowed down, but failed to see the wall he was near was cracking.
"Greg! Look out!" Steve shouted. Greg didn't even have time to scream as the tentacle lashed out at him.
Splotch.
Greg's head fell to the floor and rolled away from the rest of him. His body fell to the ground afterwards with a sickening thump. His torso had been neatly sliced through. Greg had died before he knew what hit him. One of the tentacle's spikes dug into his body, and dragged his corpse towards the wall. It was pulled against the wall with such force that it created a hole in the wall big enough to pull Greg through. The sounds of something feasting on Greg's body was heard.
Steve felt something zip past him. His faces was inches away from another tentacle. Shaking off the shock, he began running again. He dodged past most of the other tentacles. As he ran past, another tentacle emerged from the wall.
'It's getting too close,' Steve thought. Instead of burrowing in the wall like the others, this one lunged at Steve. Steve screamed as the tentacle descended on him. Steve leapt at the door, hoping to escape a decapitation. With amazing speed, the tentacle swiped at Steve. The handcuffs fell from his wrists, freeing his arms. The tentacle had missed and cut the handcuffs instead. Steve fell against the door, and quickly stumbled out of the corridor. He slammed the door shut and leaned against it panting.
"What were those things?! That's nothing like I've seen before," he said out loud. He still pictured Greg's head rolling across the ground and shuddered. He looked around the room, expecting to see the corpses of Joel and Peter.
They weren't there.
Steve looked at the spot where they had fallen. The only thing left was a lot of blood. Blood was smeared across the ground and up the walls. There was some blood dripping from the ceiling. Steve glanced up and choked back the urge to throw up. Peter's mangled corpse was hanging from the ceiling fan. It was in worse shape then it had been when Joel had killed him. He was almost completely drenched in blood and his eyes had been ripped out, leaving nothing but bloody, empty sockets. Half of his face was missing and chunks of flesh had been torn from all over his body.
"Wha...who could have done this?" Steve asked.
On the ceiling, scribbled in blood, were letters that spelled out two words. Two words that sent chills up Steve's spine.
"WELCOME GUEST."
Skritch. Skritch.
It was that annoying scratching noise again. Steve didn't know what it was or where it was coming from. Every time he stopped to search for the source of the sound, he was pushed forward by one of the scientists behind him. He wanted to ditch them, but they knew more about this mansion then he did. If he managed to escape, there would be no doubt that he would end up lost.
The rooms they had traveled through so far were very dark. Peter had to use the flashlight to guide them from one place to another. Steve had caught a glimpse at what was in the rooms as they passed. A lot of the rooms had been trashed. There were a lot of valuable things that were lying on the ground in pieces. No one had said much about it, they were all focused on finding the control room.
Joel wiped the sweat from his head and coughed.
"Is it just me or is anyone else think it's boiling hot in here?" he asked. Steve looked at him strangely. The rooms had been very cold, in fact some of the windows had either been shattered or opened. Greg stopped to examine Joel.
"It's pretty cold. Are you feeling alright?" Greg asked him.
"I feel kind of sick," Joel said, "I hope nothing is seriously wrong with me..."
"I don't think so. Let's just get out of this mansion," Greg said. Greg looked over at Steve, who was leaning against a desk.
"What are you looking at? Get moving," Greg snapped. Steve frowned, but followed them into the next room. Surprisingly, the room was dimly lit. There were pieces of glass on the red carpet, furniture had been overturned, and the off-white walls were cracked. The only thing that seemed to be untouched in the room was the painting of a young girl playing in a field of flowers.
"Here's a map!" Peter exclaimed. He spread it out on the desk as the other scientist huddled around him. Steve watched them impatiently, testing his restraints a little. Peter pointed out the path they would need to take to get to the control room.
"It's not very far, and it should be safe. I think we'll be okay. It seems that none of the monsters have escaped into the mansion," Peter commented.
"But what about these rooms? I remember when this place looked so nice, and now its all trashed. Don't you think the monsters came through here too?" Joel asked.
"I don't think they'd get here this fast, unless there's more monsters being stored in areas we don't know about," Peter said.
"We shouldn't stick around to find out. Peter, led the way," Greg said. Peter nodded, and led the group to the control room.
Steve and the scientists passed through several of the rooms without being bothered by any kinds of monsters. Peter had commented that maybe there was no emergency after all. They were stopped when they heard a moaning behind them. Steve tensed up. He had heard that familiar noise before.
'No...they couldn't be here...' Steve and the others turned around. What they saw was Joel leaning against the wall. He was covered in sweat and his face was very red.
"Ohhh...uhnnn..." he moaned. Joel slid down the wall, holding his stomach. He looked at the others.
"W-what's wrong with me?" he asked them. He winced in pain. Peter walk over to Joel and kneeled beside him.
"He looks bad, Greg. He's really sick," Peter said. Saliva dribbled down Joel's chin. He looked at Peter, his eyes looked glazed-over.
"Pe...ter, I..." was all Joel managed to say before he tightly gripped Peter's shoulders and sank his teeth deep into his neck. Peter's eyes widen.
"Arrrgh! Ahhhhh!" Peter shrieked as he tried to twist himself out of Joel's grip. Joel bit down harden, making it impossible for Peter to free himself without losing a chunk of his neck.
"Joel! What the hell are you doing?!" Greg screamed at the crazed scientist. Steve backed away from the two scientists. He knew he had seen zombie-like monsters before, but this definitely didn't seem like a zombie. In fact, Joel didn't look like he was trying to eat Peter's flesh, but his Adam's Apple bobbed up in down as if he were drinking.
Peter's gurgled cries were heard as he tried to fight off his attacker. He flailed his arms about and clawed at Joel, but Joel wasn't finished with him.
"Joel! Peter!"
Greg pulled out his handgun and fired five bullets straight into Joel's head. Joel screamed as each bullet punctured his skull, and he let go of Peter's neck. Joel lowered his head and his body went limp. His sweat-drenched bangs prevented Steve or Greg from seeing his face.
Greg, recovering from the shock of what had happened, rushed over to Peter. He turned over his body, and to his horror found that Peter was dead. His eyes were still opened, frozen in a look of terror and pain. His mouth was opened in a frozen scream. Blood was still trickling down the open wound in his neck. Steve stared in shock as Greg looked away from the fallen scientists.
"What...what was that...?" Greg asked, his voice was barely audible. Greg got up and looked at the bodies one last time.
"Peter...Joel...I'm sorry," he said softly. He looked at Steve, this time not giving him a bitter look.
"It's just you and me. Let's get to the control room," he said. Greg scooped up the flashlight. Steve followed him. Greg led him down a long corridor. It was lit too. It was very beautiful, the walls were perfectly white, and the floors were made of wood. The scratching noise was louder here. It made Steve uncomfortable. They quickly made their way into the control room.
The control room was huge. There were computers and machines everywhere Steve turned. Greg immediately went to work. Whatever Greg was doing was displayed on a large screen hanging on the wall.
"The mansion was sealed after all," Greg said, "it seems the reason was because of a virus spill...oh no, that must mean Joel..." Greg trailed off. He went silent and began typing in a few more things.
"There was a virus spill?" Steve asked. Greg looked up.
"That's what it says, but I've never seen a virus like that. I don't think either of us is infected, but we still need to escape," Greg said, "now shut up while I try to figure out how to get these doors opened."
Steve remained silent as Greg worked. He heard Greg groan in annoyance and mutter to himself.
"That's it!" Steve heard him say.
"What did you find?" Steve asked.
"We can't unlock the doors, but there is an alternate way out of the mansion. It's supposed to be used only in emergencies. I'm going to get a map of the route," Greg replied. Greg printed out the map and memorized the route they would need to take.
"This is going to be complicated, but I think we can do it," Greg said. Steve nodded, but didn't say anything.
'That's good. The sooner I get out of here, the sooner I can find Claire,' Steve thought.
Claire was driving to the exact location Wesker had given here. She already knew Chris would be furious at her for leaving in the middle of the night to go on some rescue mission by herself. She cursed at herself over and over for going through with this plan. She knew she couldn't trust Wesker enough for this to be a simple rescue mission. That's why she brought along her handgun. Hopefully, she wouldn't need it. However, she still didn't know if Steve was alive. Maybe it was all wishful-thinking that made her believe that he survived and that she was heading right into a trap.
"Steve..." Claire sighed. She had to make sure. If he needed her help, she couldn't just abandon him. She looked at the map she had made to show her to the mansion. It wasn't very far now. As she looked up, she noticed how quiet it was. There were no crickets chirping, nothing. Just dead silence.
The mansion was up ahead. It was very beautiful. It was probably owned by some rich guy from Umbrella. Claire was too distracted by the mansion to notice a figure standing in the middle of the road. Claire turned her head and gasped, swerving the car to miss whoever it was. The figure disappeared from her sight as she tried to regain control of the car. As soon as the car stopped, she quickly got out.
"Oh please don't tell me I hit him," Claire said to herself. She checked for any trace of the figure, but there was none. She checked under the car but there was no one there.
'Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me,' she thought. Claire decided to make the rest of the trip to the mansion on foot, seeing how the car was stuck in the dirt and it would be hard to get it out.
Claire followed the map to the secret entrance Wesker had told her about. It was a small square-shaped hole in the ground, which had a steel door over it. There was a number pad beside it and the entire thing was lightly covered by dirt and leaves. She brushed some of the dirt away and typed in the code. The steel door slid up and revealed a ladder she could climb down. She adjusted her pack and climbed down, the steel door closing as she descended.
"Please use this door only during an emergency," a mechanical voice spoke as Claire's feet touched the steel floor.
'This is an emergency, pal," Claire thought as she continued down the well-lit tunnel. There was another door at the end which required another password to access. Claire punched in the number and the door slid open, showing another ladder leading up. She sighed to herself.
'Leave it to Umbrella to make an evacuation process as complex and athletic as possible,' she thought bitterly as she climbed up the ladder and into the next room.
The room was very big and elegant. There was a spiral staircase in the back of the room, and a large red carpet was spread out across a marble floor. There were statues and paintings everywhere. Most of the statues and paintings took away from the beauty of the room, for they were mostly of demons and other disturbing things. The only thing that wasn't disturbing was the large brass statue of a young girl in the middle of the room. Claire guessed it was the daughter of the man who lived here.
"Steve?" Claire called out, mentally slapping herself as she did. Even though the mansion looked abandoned, she didn't want to attract any unwanted attention. She doubted Steve could hear her from here anyway. She pulled out her handgun, ready to take on anything that got in her way of finding Steve and escaping together.
Skritch. Skritch.
"Did you hear that?" Steve asked Greg as they traveled through the long corridor again. The scratching sounds were getting louder. It was as if something from inside the walls was trying to claw its way out.
"Keep moving," was all Greg said. Steve glared at Greg. He had no fondness at all for the bossy scientist. He had to put up with him if he wanted to escape, though. He'd wait until the right moment and then make his escape. He wasn't sure whether or not he could break the handcuffs on him, but he would have to try. There was no way he was going to get dragged out the mansion only to be placed in some lab for experimenting. Steve would rather die again than have to do that.
Greg seemed edgy about being in the corridor. Every time he heard something, he'd shine the flashlight in that direction. Steve was feeling anxious too. There was nothing that seemed threatening though. The scratching seemed to have stop, and the only sounds in the corridor were their footsteps.
"I guess it stopped..." Steve said.
CRACK!
Steve and Greg froze when a thin, slimy tentacle-like thing broke free from the wall and burrowed itself deep into the opposite wall. Steve had only gotten a glimpse at it, but it looked like at the end of the tentacle, there were two long spikes with a series of smaller spikes lined up next to them.
Crack. Crack.
More tentacles emerged from the walls, launching themselves and embedding themselves into the opposite sides of the walls. They were trying to trap them in one spot.
"Run!" Greg screamed. Steve ran as fast as he could go, dodging the emerging tentacles as he ran. He looked back to see Greg falling behind him. Greg slowed down, but failed to see the wall he was near was cracking.
"Greg! Look out!" Steve shouted. Greg didn't even have time to scream as the tentacle lashed out at him.
Splotch.
Greg's head fell to the floor and rolled away from the rest of him. His body fell to the ground afterwards with a sickening thump. His torso had been neatly sliced through. Greg had died before he knew what hit him. One of the tentacle's spikes dug into his body, and dragged his corpse towards the wall. It was pulled against the wall with such force that it created a hole in the wall big enough to pull Greg through. The sounds of something feasting on Greg's body was heard.
Steve felt something zip past him. His faces was inches away from another tentacle. Shaking off the shock, he began running again. He dodged past most of the other tentacles. As he ran past, another tentacle emerged from the wall.
'It's getting too close,' Steve thought. Instead of burrowing in the wall like the others, this one lunged at Steve. Steve screamed as the tentacle descended on him. Steve leapt at the door, hoping to escape a decapitation. With amazing speed, the tentacle swiped at Steve. The handcuffs fell from his wrists, freeing his arms. The tentacle had missed and cut the handcuffs instead. Steve fell against the door, and quickly stumbled out of the corridor. He slammed the door shut and leaned against it panting.
"What were those things?! That's nothing like I've seen before," he said out loud. He still pictured Greg's head rolling across the ground and shuddered. He looked around the room, expecting to see the corpses of Joel and Peter.
They weren't there.
Steve looked at the spot where they had fallen. The only thing left was a lot of blood. Blood was smeared across the ground and up the walls. There was some blood dripping from the ceiling. Steve glanced up and choked back the urge to throw up. Peter's mangled corpse was hanging from the ceiling fan. It was in worse shape then it had been when Joel had killed him. He was almost completely drenched in blood and his eyes had been ripped out, leaving nothing but bloody, empty sockets. Half of his face was missing and chunks of flesh had been torn from all over his body.
"Wha...who could have done this?" Steve asked.
On the ceiling, scribbled in blood, were letters that spelled out two words. Two words that sent chills up Steve's spine.
"WELCOME GUEST."