The North Hall led to a large, well-decorated conference room.

The floors were made of fine black marble and the windowless walls

were covered with a deep gray paint. In the middle of the room was a

grand table of pure emerald, its shimmering green hue almost

hypnotizing. Hauntingly ironic, there were twelve chairs at the table,

one on each end and five on each side - The number exactly the same

as the number of members on both of the teams, now one short. Each

soldier took a seat, the leaders Monty and Lyle sat at each end while

what would have been Todd's seat remained bare. Lyle cleared his

throat before he began.

"Alright, now we obviously know what we're dealing with. We

know our enemy and we know what killed all of the workers here. We

all know how durable these things are. Rule of thumb, shoot for the

head. Guys, try to stick to your Berettas. We're one man short now-"

"Which means we'll have one team of three." Monty interrupted.

"So guys, how should we pick teams? Any suggestions?"

Trying to defend his cause, Lyle spoke once more. "Rich,

should we really split apart like this? We need to stay together, you

saw how many of those things there were. They apparantly hunt in

packs, so we should do the same."

Rubbing his temple, Monty replied without looking at Lyle, "We

tried doing it your way Lyle and look what happened, we've lost a

man. Traveling in "packs" hasn't done us any good. Everybody gets a

partner, we'll be able to cover this place in half, no a third of the

time. So, hmm, Zach, Gordy, you two are partners."

"Well bumpkin, looks like it's you and me." Gordy said with a

sly grin. He lowered his goggles over his eyes and adjusted them so

the drawn-on crosshair was in front of his eye. Zach smiled and

brought up his gloved hand and responded with the middle finger.

Both laughed as Monty continued.

"Next, we'll get the team of three out of the way. How about,

Em, Seth, and Lyle." Em stood up immediately after hearing his

assigned team.

"No way Monty, I gotta stay with Nora! There ain't no way I'm

leavin' her. No way in goddamn Hell!" He looked at Nora with deep

concern in his eyes.

Still holding his head, Monty continued. "Teams are picked

Eric so sit down. On that note, Nora, you and I are paired up."

Monty looked up at Em. "Don't worry big guy, I'll keep a good eye on

her. She'll be fine."

"She sure as Hell better be." Em muttered through clenched

teeth before he sat down and crossed his arms and looked at Nora.

"I'll be alright Em, I can take care of myself. Don't worry."

Nora said, sharing the concern that Em had.

"Next up, Sean and Noah, you guys are a team and finally Grace

and Elizabeth, you ladies are a pair."

With a wry grin on his face, Sean muttered, "No fair, Noah and

I are on a 'team' while the ladies are a 'pair?' I demand a recount."

Brushing off that last comment, Monty finished up, "Well guys,

we got our teams so let's go. We have to search for Sean's sis' and

we'll all keep in touch via radio, got it?"

"Oi cap'n."

"Yeah."

"Got it."

"Sure."

"Alright."

"Whatever."

"Fine."

"Uh huh."

"Sounds good."

"Okay."

"Em, Seth, and Lyle, you guys go and check out the West Hall.

Grace and Elizabeth, East Hall. Sean, you, Noah, Gordy, and Zach

keep checking past this room." He pointed to the door behind Lyle's

now unoccupied seat. "Nora and I will go back through the South

Hall. We're going to check and see if there are anymore rooms. If

there aren't, then we'll come and catch up with Grace and Liz. Any

questions?" Silence. "Good, then let's go."

All but Sean, Noah, Gordy, and Zach backtracked through the

intersection to go explore their assigned Halls.

--------------------

When the group of seven made it into the intersection, Seth

spoke up, "Wait a sec. Wh..Where did Todd go?" he said as he looked

at his comrades, puzzled. "He got shot in the throat, he couldn't have

survived." Montgomery winced upon hearing Seth talk about Todd's

sudden demise. He turned and looked over to where his body had

previously been only to find a puddle of blood with Todd's dropped

gun soaking in it. Monty went over and picked up the gun,

discovering that it was not Todd's Beretta, but his .50 AE Desert

Eagle, a gun which Monty had given him upon joining the S.T.A.R.S.

He shook his head with regret and holstered Todd's gun as his own.

"Mayb-" Monty stopped, on the verge of weeping. "Maybe one of
those undead sons of bitches took him away, I..I guess." Without a

word, the team of three went west while the two women headed east,

both stepping over the fallen undead on their way. Nora approached

Monty and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Come on captain, let's go." He turned and looked at her and

turned around, beginning to walk towards the Main Hall. As he

walked, he took a pill bottle out of his pant pocket and twisted off the

cap, dumping two of the white pills into his mouth. The bottle said

"Umbrella Brand Aspirin."

--------------------

The group of four who had headed North met at an intersection.

"So, what the fuck do we do now?"

"Well, Caps said to split up, so its me and you Gords and you

two head that way." Zach pointed to the hall going left.

Noah shook his head, muttering, "Yeah sure, whatever."

"Why you so blue Shakey? Nervous? What's up?"

"I'm just nervous, yeah, just nervous. Todd dyin' like that

an' all just scared the shit outta me y'know. I..I just wanna get out

of here. Hey... you seem pretty upbeat about your sister bein' here and

all, y'know how you're just crackin' jokes and whatever."

The two came across the hall's end with two doors straight

across from each other. "I'm just trying to look on the bright side,

that's all. Hey, I'll check this room to the left and you check out

the room on the right. If ya find somethin', hollar." Sean started

off and disappeared into the room.

"What bright side?" Thought Noah as he went to check out the

room.

--------------------

"I..I'm so scared now..now that we don't have big strong Noah

to protect us from the big scary monsters!" wailed Gordy in a high-

pitched, whiny voice.

"Don't worry, I'm here to protect you kind pedestrian!" said

Zach in a pseudo-heroic deep voice. Their little parody was ended

when they heard a loud crash. Both men turned to the door to their

right. They went into the room - Pitch black. They flipped on the light

switch. BAM- Another crash. "What the fuck man, what's goin' on?"

Another crash- a box fell in front of Gordy. He turned towards Zach

but was caught off guard by one of the four horsemen standing no

more than ten feet away from him. Fear blotted out Zach's screams,

"Run you stupid shit, c'mon RUUUUNNN!!!!"