For just a few moments, Leon genuinely had no clue where he was. A strange internal voice was telling that if he didn't enjoy those moments now, then he wouldn't be enjoying himself in quite a remarkable length of time. His senses were the parts of his being that kicked in first…now what was it he was sitting on?
Concrete, it felt like concrete. Wet concrete too, the moisture soaked into his trousers, sticking to the skin of his legs. He couldn't actually see anything though; the darkness hugged close to him. Leon started to panic for a moment; was he blind?
Then, his skin started to react to touch too. As he wrinkled his cheeks, Leon felt that there was something digging into them. It was hard, after a fashion…then it dawned on him. His eyes had been taped over. A solid square of thick masking tape, it felt like. His mouth was dry, but in a way this was what he expected because a gag was lazily pushed into his mouth. Obviously whoever had done this had not really been bothering that much with the gag.
Maybe he could work the cloth out of his mouth. Then he could breathe properly. Leon pushed his tongue up, and curved his lower lip to force the gag forwards and then tugged his chin up sharply so the gag fell to beneath his chin. He breathed the air in. It was damp air, and a sniff confirmed that it was also dank, the sort of smell you'd find down in a disused cellar.
His body was sore and stiff, propped in a sitting up position, hands bound behind his back with a strong cord. However, his back was not pressed against the same solid concrete that his legs were. It was solid – to a point. Soft as well. How could something be soft and solid at the same time? The mass was also warm…
Then his mind's logic circuits clicked. He was tied to somebody.
"Who is that?" he croaked, vocal chords coming to life.
After a while, a soft female voice spoke.
"Wha…who…is that you Leon?"
Leon's mind raced to identify the voice. It wasn't Claire, it wasn't Jill…it was…
"Rebecca?" Leon managed.
"Why are we tied together?" she asked, groggily.
Suddenly, his memory returned. All of it. The colour drained from his face as he recalled the series of events that had led to him being bound, gagged and tied up in wherever it was he was tied up in. It was Umbrella, wasn't it? It was them, no doubt about that, the Umbrella Marines were distinct to say the least. He'd recognised the badges sewn to their T-Shirts, the familiar red and white Umbrella logo prominent against the dull green colour of their combat jackets. They'd gone on a mission immediately after Claire had sent him that message and he'd related it to Chris…they'd left pretty much straight away to Australia, leaving a message for Chris, Jill and hopefully Claire to tell them that that was where they had gone.
His memories collated together; he'd led the group, with Rebecca and those STARS members from out of town. The infiltration into Umbrella's Sydney HQ had been a total cinch; the security hadn't been anything they weren't expecting, they'd breezed through it. However, somebody or something had been ready for them. The sound of the alarm echoed in his ears…it was at that point it had occurred to everyone that something had gone dreadfully, badly wrong. A small army, equipped with enough firepower to start a war was crawling over them like ants within minutes. The other STARS had escaped, mainly because Leon had yelled at them to go ahead.
For some reason, Rebecca had elected to stay behind. She'd told him she wasn't going to leave him behind, while he said something along the lines of 'don't be so bloody stupid, you'll be killed, get out while you can'. After running and gunning their way through the higher security levels, making death defying leaps and sliding along either marble floors or metal gantries, they were cornered.
It wasn't simply a case of being cornered; surrounded, described it a little better. Assault Rifles, all held by men with itchy trigger fingers, pointed from every angle towards them, each barrel end less than six inches from their faces.
The slightest movement would kill them. Rebecca and Leon were disarmed, bound and gagged. Presumably they had been knocked unconscious; Leon recalled little of what happened there, but his memory next flowed in when he was hurled to the floor of a red-lit helicopter, head throbbing and being pummelled relentlessly by questions he couldn't possibly answer; Where was Chris Redfield? Who led the STARS? Where were the remaining STARS? What happened to Claire Redfield? Where was Sherry Birkin? What do you know about the G-Virus?
The questions either meant nothing to him or had answers he simply could not get his mind around. Rebecca had been asked the same questions, she was clueless too. However, one thing was certain now; Leon S. Kennedy and Rebecca Chambers were up to their knees in trouble.
'You assholes are gonna love it there' somebody had hissed, before savagely clubbing him over the head with the butt of his rifle.
His memories of where they were restricted to the outdoors, and even then he knew little of the outdoors. It was a blur of dreary, grey rain and framed by darkness, bricks and mortar. Trees too, he remembered, through his stinging skull.
More blackness…and then this.
"Oh geez…" Leon groaned "…I have a bad fucking headache"
"You too?" she asked, "I thought I was the only one…"
"Where are we?" Leon said, still artificially blind.
"How should I know? I've got a great big bit of tape over my eyes"
Leon groaned once again.
"And we're tied together, right?"
"Uh…yep" Rebecca confirmed.
"We need to get these bindings off" Leon remarked, tugging his hands which were currently wedged into Rebecca's, he realised, "I don't want to hang around in a prison that Umbrella's prepared for us"
"You're not the only one" she replied "But if I had a knife I'd be out of here by now"
"I wasn't asking for a knife, I was asking for something sharp"
"How about using your tongue?" she shot back.
"Well we couldn't use your wit to do it then, could we?" Leon retorted "Now come on, got anything in your pockets?"
"Leon, my hands are tied, I can't check my pockets"
"Then I'll do it!" Leon said, shimmying closer to her "Just creating a bit of slack there…"
His left hand slid into her pocket, and he explored the combat-trouser pocket. No, nothing there…his right hand slipped into her other pocket…and he found something. A ringpull from a can. Oh superb. Then he brushed his hand against the sharp edge where it had broken from the can.
He grinned.
"Still collecting ringpulls, huh Rebecca?"
"Uh…yeah" Rebecca replied in embarrassment "It's just a hobby, okay?"
And that hobby has just saved our lives, Leon thought, but you can't waste time.
Leon held it in his fingers, and began to saw from left to right across a length of cord. He kept on sawing, he didn't know how long he was doing it but it was maybe after fifteen minutes of cutting constantly when he felt it ready to tear. He pulled his hands.
The strands stretched and…severed. He stretched his stiff arms and then rotated his neck to ensure that his neck hadn't totally frozen up. Then, he slowly peeled the tape from his face before ripping it off entirely to avoid the pain. Leon touched his forehead; thank god, he hadn't removed his eyebrows in the process.
His sudden ability to see meant his eyes hungrily devoured what he could see around him. Dim moonlight permeated their square shaped and absolutely featureless cell, pale light glimmered on glistening concrete walls and a stained, damp floor. To their left was a solemn and very sturdy looking set of bars, which to his mind didn't look as if they were going to break in a considerable amount of time.
"Great, a prison cell" Leon sighed, scratching his head, before looking upwards. The light came from a circular opening approximately twenty feet above their heads and at the end of a perfectly circular 'tube'.
He turned to look at Rebecca. They looked at each other in amusement. She was grimy and generally a mess, but then again so was he.
"Man" Leon said, shaking his head "You look like shit, Rebecca!"
"Look who's talking" Rebecca replied, with a smile.
They looked around, studying the walls for any means of escape.
"Looks like it was once a sewer or something" Leon muttered "Look at that hole; I bet that's closed most of the time"
"And I'd bet it's the reason it's so damned cold and wet in here" Rebecca added with a shiver "It's freezing!"
"No kidding" Leon replied peering at the bars.
"Looks like a converted sewer" Rebecca remarked "I mean, look at that opening in the roof…"
"Good point" Leon added, matter of factly. I think the question on everybody's lips now is how the hell do we get out?"
"Well, there is that opening…" Rebecca suggested.
"…which is twenty feet above our heads" Leon finished "Nice try anyway"
Rebecca shrugged, and sat down, running a hand through her chestnut brown hair, sighing deeply.
"We're stuck, right?"
"For now, yeah" Leon replied, sinking against the wall opposite her.
The pair of them was just about ready to accept their difficult situation, when their hearing registered something. It was the sound of footsteps.
Leon indicated for Rebeeca to keep quiet, and the both of them held their breath while the footsteps grew ever closer. A silhouette appeared, even in the dim light of the moon they could vaguely see a well-built figure walking; it was an irregular walk, more of a stumble really. They watched the shape, heard the figure cough and then…
The light bulb illuminated little, but it cast enough light to see more of what lay outside the prison cell. The man was forlorn, face smeared with grime and dry blood. He sat at the desk outside the cell, leaning his elbow on the creaking, dusty wood. It was then he realised Leon and Rebecca were staring at him.
"What?" he asked, with a throaty voice.
"Who the hell are you?" Rebecca asked, suspiciously.
"A guy you don't know and never will" he said, coldly, turning away to face the wall.
"She asked a question that required a real answer." Leon said, a little louder than was necessary.
The man turned back.
"It doesn't matter now. It's over. If you so much as step outside you're gonna become a carcass"
Leon narrowed his eyes.
"It's that bad outside? I thought this place was 'secure'"
"Somebody's messed us up. We didn't know Umbrella were going to leave the rest of us here to die…but they have"
"What are you talking about?" Rebecca asked, confusedly.
Stanton glared at them, fire in his eyes.
"They're either dead or they've become those…things. Umbrella screwed everybody here; we're all going to die"
Leon looked at him, suspiciously. It was Rebecca who asked the next question.
"Where are we?" Rebecca asked.
"South Pacific" Stanton said quickly "What was a secret Umbrella complex, Aguera Island; you were sent here for detention, but it seems the company men had a little extra up their sleeves"
"So why are you still here?" Leon queried, eyebrow raised.
"It's not like I had a choice," Stanton snapped "The airfield's on the other side of the island, with all the structural damage done to the place, you'd be lucky to get anywhere"
Leon leaned against the bars.
"So you wouldn't mind letting us out then, huh?"
The man glared, icily.
"If I had the keys, then I would; I'm not your jailor."
Leon cursed under his breath; behind him, he heard Rebecca kick the wall.
"The only way out is through that hole above you" Stanton said, waving a hand idly "But you can't get to it; the cover's usually sealed down, but people have had other priorities over the last two days"
"Two days?" Rebecca asked "We've been here that long?"
"They had you drugged asleep for the first day and a half; that's why you only just woke up" Stanton explained.
That explained the memory loss, Leon reasoned, brain finally engaging.
"We need to get out" Leon said, leaning towards the bars "Come on! You said yourself Umbrella screwed everybody; we can help you get your own back"
"I said!" Stanton snapped "I can't help you because I don't have a key!"
"Then why did you come back here?!" Leon replied, sharply.
"Because it's the only safe place on this whole fucking island!" Stanton almost yelled "I'd rather stay here and die than go out there again!"
He winced; Rebecca and Leon looked on, he was clutching a deep gash in his side.
"What caused that?" Rebecca asked.
"A…A cerberus…" Stanton managed "…we know 'em by their technical names…"
Both Rebecca and Leon knew what a Cerberus was.
"They're loose on the island?" Leon said.
"Everything's frigging loose on this island!" Stanton spat.
Suddenly, the room shook, dust fell from the ceiling and a deep grumble rose up from the depths.
"Oh fuck…" Stanton muttered, "…the pressure regulator's been destroyed…"
"Is that bad?" Rebecca asked.
The answer was immediate.
The sound was like metal being tortured; something was being stretched and bent…
"Tell me" Leon said, quietly "Does the pressure regulator control the water flow in this place?"
"Yeah" Stanton replied "Prevents it from rising too high; it controls the water flow from the tank and the swamps above"
"Which presumably means that…if the pressure rose too high…the pipes would all go…and the place would flood" Leon finished.
"Yeah" Stanton sighed.
Rebecca summed up the obvious conclusion in four words:
"We're going to drown"