The groaning was getting rapidly louder, the pipes were definitely
sounding like they were in trouble now. Leon and Rebecca stepped back as
the noise intensified around them; the pipes were now shaking, unable to
control the water flow for very much longer.
"Oh shit..." Leon muttered.
They watched the pipes on the walls; despite their cell being fairly barren, there were several water pipes on the roof and close to the floor. There were just about enough to turn the room into a water tank in ten minutes flat.
Rebecca and Leon stared at Stanton, who took one look at them before turning and running, slamming the door to the room behind him.
"Thanks a lot you asshole!!" Leon bellowed after him.
"Yeah, next time you ask us for a favour you know where you can stick it!!" Rebecca added.
They watched the pipes, holding their breath. There was the sound of something rapidly expanding against a metal skin...there was a snapping sound. They stared at one of the rusty pipes, as a crack slowly spread across its metal surface. A fine spray of water misted the air...then the pipe exploded, its surface torn open to unleash a torrent of water sent blasting into the wall. All of the other pipes followed suit, each one cracking and then exploding.
By the time every pipe was open and pouring its non-stop contents, the room was already ankle deep with water.
"Jesus!" Leon exclaimed, and turned to Rebecca "If we don't think of something in less than ten minutes, we're going to be at the bottom of a self-made Davy Jones's locker."
"Can you think of anything?" she asked.
"No, can you?" Leon replied.
"No" she finished.
They both sighed, almost in unison.
"Crap" Leon said flatly, as the water level rose. Soon, it was lapping just beneath his knees, and he and Rebecca exchanged glances.
"Well, it was nice knowing you" Rebecca said, with a wan smile.
"Yeah, you too" Leon replied, shaking her hand "Sorry about all this..." "No problem" she waved a hand dismissively, "Happens all the time"
Leon sighed.
"Wished I could have met Claire again...she's a lovely girl..."
"You want to hook up with her, huh?" Rebecca winked and nudged Leon.
"Well...yeah, I guess" Leon replied, as the water level slowly went up...then he blinked, and turned back to her "...I'm not doing this"
"Doing what?" Rebecca asked.
"Giving up" Leon said "We got some time, right?"
She nodded firmly.
"Then I'm not either" Rebecca said simply.
They waded through the water, to see if the walls were in any danger of buckling; they weren't. The walls of the cell had about as much chance of collapsing as a bear did from a bee-sting.
The water was flowing quite violently now, the loud rush of water filled their ears.
"There's go to be some way of getting out!!" Rebecca yelled.
Leon looked up towards the hole at the end of the circular tube above them. An idea formed in his head. It was harking back to long gone science classes that he had absorbed like a sponge...some basic physics sprang up; when you filled up a thin tube quickly from a flat base, it shot up quickly and spurted out...maybe, just maybe...
"Rebecca" Leon said, as the water rose up to their shoulders "Swim up to the entrance to that tube!"
"What the hell will that do?" she asked, confused and frustrated. Then, it clicked with her too "Please say you're kidding!"
"Well why not?" Leon asked, as they started to push themselves upwards, the water going beyond their heads.
"Because it's insane!" Rebecca shrieked.
"And you have any other suggestions?!" Leon shouted back.
Rebecca looked indignant.
"Okay!" she said, "I'll follow you on this one; but if it doesn't work-"
"-if it doesn't work then we're fucked!" Leon said, "Come on!"
They were just beneath the concrete tube, the circular opening looking far but also strangely close now.
"See you at the other end!!" Leon yelled, as they felt themselves being pushed up by the water pressure from down below. The water blasted them up the tube, the sewer opening rushing to meet them at quite an unsafe velocity.
Rebecca prayed.
They exploded out of the top of the tube, sent flying into the air by the water blast and shot up for a few seconds before the laws of gravity decided against letting them stay up, and sent them hurtling down to earth.
Their voices weren't clearly heard through the rushing water, but then two voices could be clearly heard; both saying the same thing.
"Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!"
Rebecca and Leon fell and landed with force into the damp ground surrounding the sewer hole, both of them soaked to the skin. They lay for a few moments, spluttering and gasping, water dripping heavily from them. Then, the pair of them staggered to their feet.
As they walked unsteadily through the damp ground, the first person to speak was Rebecca.
"Geeeee-zus!" she managed, as the pair of them fell against a muddy bank "That was...an experience I want to forget quickly"
"I told you it'd work, didn't I?" Leon panted, with a smirk "Heh. Good idea, huh?"
"Oh sure..." Rebecca said, "...it...nearly drowned us but...hey...it did work"
She weakly patted him in the back.
"We're exhausted and we haven't even started yet" Leon groaned, as the pair of them raced to get their breath back "...I...think it'd be best if we checked out where the hell we are..."
They lay there, looking at the water still spraying out of the ground, almost hypnotised by it.
"Leon..." Rebecca said, after a while "Tell me, did all this sort of thing happen to you often when you were in Racoon City?"
"Nearly all the time" Leon replied.
"Figures"
The pair of them stood up, and blinked any excess water out of their eyes. It looked like they were in some kind of sump, or drainage ditch. Looking above them, they saw a chain link fence lining the top of the bank.
"Well..." Leon sighed, "...at least we can see the next logical step"
They climbed, sodden and bedraggled, up towards the metal fence. At first they had worried that it would be difficult to get over; but the huge gash that had been torn in the fence provided both an entrance and a worry.
"That Stanton guy was right" Leon murmured.
"Looks like there are plenty of creatures loose here whether we like it or not..." Rebecca added, nodding. Leon pulled himself through the hole in the fence, Rebecca slipping through afterward. They stood in a large compound, supply crates stacked up against the boundaries of this open area. Exits to the area seemed to be constructed almost entirely of chain- link, although they could see plain concrete buildings in the mid-distance, sombre and lacking in architectural grace. It was floodlit with orange light, which had a somewhat strange effect on the eyes. The gates between the buildings seemed large enough for the forklift trucks that stood abandoned at the edges of the open space in front of them.
"Looks like some kind of loading area" Rebecca noted, gazing at the enormous stacks of crates.
"Funny, the power's still on" Leon said, narrowing his eyes "I thought this place was a mess?"
"It could be" Rebecca replied, nudging Leon. She pointed, he looked; in the darkness were flickers of flame...obviously this area had managed to sustain any structural damage it might have received.
"I don't know about you..." Leon said, turning to her "...but that gash in the fence doesn't look particularly like damage from a bomb..."
Rebecca nodded, her face agreeing with the implication of that.
"I think we'd better move" Rebecca whispered, hurriedly.
Leon nodded.
"Let's go, before we-" he said, but he was interrupted by a reptilian snarl. The pair of them froze, and exchanged a worried glance.
"Does that sound good to you?" she asked.
"Nuh-uh" he replied, shaking his head.
Leon and Rebecca walked as quietly as they could manage, trying to prevent their boots from making sounds on the concrete paved-ground but the task was next to impossible; after being blown out of a water pipe and a thorough soaking, the rubber of their boots seemed hell bent on squeaking as loudly as possible. As they made their way towards one of the chain link doors, they heard the snarl again. Leon and Rebecca spun around.
The creatures were not ones that Leon recognised, but Rebecca sure remembered them. She gulped, her breathing a little too fast for comfort. They stood on two feet, and despite being hunched looked as if every muscle was in total control. Their flesh was green and muscled, lizard-like heads sporting huge razor sharp teeth and slitted yellow eyes, and huge claws, as sharp as their teeth on hands and feet.
"What are they?" Leon said through the corner of his mouth, as they both walked backwards.
"H...Hunters" Rebecca replied, while the Hunters advanced slowly on them.
"Is that what they're called..." Leon managed, heart thumping as he frantically patted his pockets "...we don't have any weapons"
"What do you suggest we do?" Rebecca asked, a sliver of panic working its away into her voice.
The two Hunters bared their teeth again, a reptilian growl echoing around the courtyard.
"Running would be a very good idea" Leon answered; and on cue, both of them turned and ran for it, feet hitting the ground hard as they fled towards the exit. The Hunter's screeched, the sound of a predator in the heat of the hunt. The hunted were currently heading for the exit at speed. They reached the gate, Leon yanked it open and the pair of them jumped through, slamming it shut and pulling the latch down just as the hunters powered into the strong metal gate. They hissed, snarled and shrieked but they couldn't break it.
"Well" Leon breathed a sigh of relief as the pair of them broke into a walk, making their way down the supply corridor walled by chain-link fences "...at least we held them off"
"Yeah" Rebecca said, with a smile.
There was a soul-crushing clunk behind them. They turned around, to stare back at the gate. The latch had been pulled up, and the gate was swinging outwards...the two Hunters, claws clicking on the ground, advanced inside.
Only fifteen metres lay between Rebecca and Leon and the two Hunters.
"They can open doors...?" Leon murmured.
"Uh...so it seems." Rebecca replied, staring at the Hunters.
"Typical." Leon remarked, before in a comical repetition of the minutes before hand, they ran again. The Hunters were closer now, the clicking of their claws seemed to get closer no matter how hard they ran; they just kept their heads down and sprinted for all they were worth. Just as they were beginning to run out of steam, a door loomed ahead in one of the concrete buildings from earlier; even if there were things inside, whatever was in there seemed immediately more appealing than what lay outside of it. Leon reached it first, yanking the handle and pulling it open.
"INSIDE!" he bellowed; Rebecca hurled herself inside, and Leon followed suit, slamming it shut with a solid metal bang, Leon then twisted the lock. The pair of them sighed in belated relief, sagging against the door. The Hunters muffled screeching could still be heard...but they couldn't get in; and eventually, the creatures gave up. Soon, there was silence inside.
"Now," Rebecca panted, "What's inside?"
"Oh shit..." Leon muttered.
They watched the pipes on the walls; despite their cell being fairly barren, there were several water pipes on the roof and close to the floor. There were just about enough to turn the room into a water tank in ten minutes flat.
Rebecca and Leon stared at Stanton, who took one look at them before turning and running, slamming the door to the room behind him.
"Thanks a lot you asshole!!" Leon bellowed after him.
"Yeah, next time you ask us for a favour you know where you can stick it!!" Rebecca added.
They watched the pipes, holding their breath. There was the sound of something rapidly expanding against a metal skin...there was a snapping sound. They stared at one of the rusty pipes, as a crack slowly spread across its metal surface. A fine spray of water misted the air...then the pipe exploded, its surface torn open to unleash a torrent of water sent blasting into the wall. All of the other pipes followed suit, each one cracking and then exploding.
By the time every pipe was open and pouring its non-stop contents, the room was already ankle deep with water.
"Jesus!" Leon exclaimed, and turned to Rebecca "If we don't think of something in less than ten minutes, we're going to be at the bottom of a self-made Davy Jones's locker."
"Can you think of anything?" she asked.
"No, can you?" Leon replied.
"No" she finished.
They both sighed, almost in unison.
"Crap" Leon said flatly, as the water level rose. Soon, it was lapping just beneath his knees, and he and Rebecca exchanged glances.
"Well, it was nice knowing you" Rebecca said, with a wan smile.
"Yeah, you too" Leon replied, shaking her hand "Sorry about all this..." "No problem" she waved a hand dismissively, "Happens all the time"
Leon sighed.
"Wished I could have met Claire again...she's a lovely girl..."
"You want to hook up with her, huh?" Rebecca winked and nudged Leon.
"Well...yeah, I guess" Leon replied, as the water level slowly went up...then he blinked, and turned back to her "...I'm not doing this"
"Doing what?" Rebecca asked.
"Giving up" Leon said "We got some time, right?"
She nodded firmly.
"Then I'm not either" Rebecca said simply.
They waded through the water, to see if the walls were in any danger of buckling; they weren't. The walls of the cell had about as much chance of collapsing as a bear did from a bee-sting.
The water was flowing quite violently now, the loud rush of water filled their ears.
"There's go to be some way of getting out!!" Rebecca yelled.
Leon looked up towards the hole at the end of the circular tube above them. An idea formed in his head. It was harking back to long gone science classes that he had absorbed like a sponge...some basic physics sprang up; when you filled up a thin tube quickly from a flat base, it shot up quickly and spurted out...maybe, just maybe...
"Rebecca" Leon said, as the water rose up to their shoulders "Swim up to the entrance to that tube!"
"What the hell will that do?" she asked, confused and frustrated. Then, it clicked with her too "Please say you're kidding!"
"Well why not?" Leon asked, as they started to push themselves upwards, the water going beyond their heads.
"Because it's insane!" Rebecca shrieked.
"And you have any other suggestions?!" Leon shouted back.
Rebecca looked indignant.
"Okay!" she said, "I'll follow you on this one; but if it doesn't work-"
"-if it doesn't work then we're fucked!" Leon said, "Come on!"
They were just beneath the concrete tube, the circular opening looking far but also strangely close now.
"See you at the other end!!" Leon yelled, as they felt themselves being pushed up by the water pressure from down below. The water blasted them up the tube, the sewer opening rushing to meet them at quite an unsafe velocity.
Rebecca prayed.
They exploded out of the top of the tube, sent flying into the air by the water blast and shot up for a few seconds before the laws of gravity decided against letting them stay up, and sent them hurtling down to earth.
Their voices weren't clearly heard through the rushing water, but then two voices could be clearly heard; both saying the same thing.
"Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!"
Rebecca and Leon fell and landed with force into the damp ground surrounding the sewer hole, both of them soaked to the skin. They lay for a few moments, spluttering and gasping, water dripping heavily from them. Then, the pair of them staggered to their feet.
As they walked unsteadily through the damp ground, the first person to speak was Rebecca.
"Geeeee-zus!" she managed, as the pair of them fell against a muddy bank "That was...an experience I want to forget quickly"
"I told you it'd work, didn't I?" Leon panted, with a smirk "Heh. Good idea, huh?"
"Oh sure..." Rebecca said, "...it...nearly drowned us but...hey...it did work"
She weakly patted him in the back.
"We're exhausted and we haven't even started yet" Leon groaned, as the pair of them raced to get their breath back "...I...think it'd be best if we checked out where the hell we are..."
They lay there, looking at the water still spraying out of the ground, almost hypnotised by it.
"Leon..." Rebecca said, after a while "Tell me, did all this sort of thing happen to you often when you were in Racoon City?"
"Nearly all the time" Leon replied.
"Figures"
The pair of them stood up, and blinked any excess water out of their eyes. It looked like they were in some kind of sump, or drainage ditch. Looking above them, they saw a chain link fence lining the top of the bank.
"Well..." Leon sighed, "...at least we can see the next logical step"
They climbed, sodden and bedraggled, up towards the metal fence. At first they had worried that it would be difficult to get over; but the huge gash that had been torn in the fence provided both an entrance and a worry.
"That Stanton guy was right" Leon murmured.
"Looks like there are plenty of creatures loose here whether we like it or not..." Rebecca added, nodding. Leon pulled himself through the hole in the fence, Rebecca slipping through afterward. They stood in a large compound, supply crates stacked up against the boundaries of this open area. Exits to the area seemed to be constructed almost entirely of chain- link, although they could see plain concrete buildings in the mid-distance, sombre and lacking in architectural grace. It was floodlit with orange light, which had a somewhat strange effect on the eyes. The gates between the buildings seemed large enough for the forklift trucks that stood abandoned at the edges of the open space in front of them.
"Looks like some kind of loading area" Rebecca noted, gazing at the enormous stacks of crates.
"Funny, the power's still on" Leon said, narrowing his eyes "I thought this place was a mess?"
"It could be" Rebecca replied, nudging Leon. She pointed, he looked; in the darkness were flickers of flame...obviously this area had managed to sustain any structural damage it might have received.
"I don't know about you..." Leon said, turning to her "...but that gash in the fence doesn't look particularly like damage from a bomb..."
Rebecca nodded, her face agreeing with the implication of that.
"I think we'd better move" Rebecca whispered, hurriedly.
Leon nodded.
"Let's go, before we-" he said, but he was interrupted by a reptilian snarl. The pair of them froze, and exchanged a worried glance.
"Does that sound good to you?" she asked.
"Nuh-uh" he replied, shaking his head.
Leon and Rebecca walked as quietly as they could manage, trying to prevent their boots from making sounds on the concrete paved-ground but the task was next to impossible; after being blown out of a water pipe and a thorough soaking, the rubber of their boots seemed hell bent on squeaking as loudly as possible. As they made their way towards one of the chain link doors, they heard the snarl again. Leon and Rebecca spun around.
The creatures were not ones that Leon recognised, but Rebecca sure remembered them. She gulped, her breathing a little too fast for comfort. They stood on two feet, and despite being hunched looked as if every muscle was in total control. Their flesh was green and muscled, lizard-like heads sporting huge razor sharp teeth and slitted yellow eyes, and huge claws, as sharp as their teeth on hands and feet.
"What are they?" Leon said through the corner of his mouth, as they both walked backwards.
"H...Hunters" Rebecca replied, while the Hunters advanced slowly on them.
"Is that what they're called..." Leon managed, heart thumping as he frantically patted his pockets "...we don't have any weapons"
"What do you suggest we do?" Rebecca asked, a sliver of panic working its away into her voice.
The two Hunters bared their teeth again, a reptilian growl echoing around the courtyard.
"Running would be a very good idea" Leon answered; and on cue, both of them turned and ran for it, feet hitting the ground hard as they fled towards the exit. The Hunter's screeched, the sound of a predator in the heat of the hunt. The hunted were currently heading for the exit at speed. They reached the gate, Leon yanked it open and the pair of them jumped through, slamming it shut and pulling the latch down just as the hunters powered into the strong metal gate. They hissed, snarled and shrieked but they couldn't break it.
"Well" Leon breathed a sigh of relief as the pair of them broke into a walk, making their way down the supply corridor walled by chain-link fences "...at least we held them off"
"Yeah" Rebecca said, with a smile.
There was a soul-crushing clunk behind them. They turned around, to stare back at the gate. The latch had been pulled up, and the gate was swinging outwards...the two Hunters, claws clicking on the ground, advanced inside.
Only fifteen metres lay between Rebecca and Leon and the two Hunters.
"They can open doors...?" Leon murmured.
"Uh...so it seems." Rebecca replied, staring at the Hunters.
"Typical." Leon remarked, before in a comical repetition of the minutes before hand, they ran again. The Hunters were closer now, the clicking of their claws seemed to get closer no matter how hard they ran; they just kept their heads down and sprinted for all they were worth. Just as they were beginning to run out of steam, a door loomed ahead in one of the concrete buildings from earlier; even if there were things inside, whatever was in there seemed immediately more appealing than what lay outside of it. Leon reached it first, yanking the handle and pulling it open.
"INSIDE!" he bellowed; Rebecca hurled herself inside, and Leon followed suit, slamming it shut with a solid metal bang, Leon then twisted the lock. The pair of them sighed in belated relief, sagging against the door. The Hunters muffled screeching could still be heard...but they couldn't get in; and eventually, the creatures gave up. Soon, there was silence inside.
"Now," Rebecca panted, "What's inside?"