Adam Luck - Dude, look at you! Maybe you should take over this crossover instead. You got mad talent! XD But seriously, I like your little summary about what David would tell Claire by the time they start sharing more personal things about themselves. We'll see how it goes when we do get to that part. ;)
Thanks like always! Appreciate the compliments and suggestions!

Recommended BGM:

1. Resident Evil 2 (1998) - The Second Floor

2. Resident Evil 6 - The Riddle

3. Resident Evil 2 (1998) - Wandering Alone

Chapter 7:

After putting the maiden coin on the only empty depression left in the base of the front hall's statue, Claire stepped back next to David, seeing all three coins disappear inside the dense wooden material as a small staircase began to form, leading to a gate that had initially been inaccessible before.

"So… this is what Marvin talked about, right?" Claire surmised, unsure whether or not it was actually safe to go down inside the dark place that seemingly led to nowhere. "You sure it's even safe down there?"

David stepped down near the gate and took out his flashlight, shining it through the gate inside to reveal a small space that looked like it used to be a small exhibition room or an office of some sort. He then turned around to face Claire, looking slightly more confident than he did just seconds ago.

"From the looks of it, it doesn't seem anything dangerous so he might've been right," he remarked and continued to look back at the small space with his flashlight. "I'll go first, just in case."

As he opened the gate and stepped slowly inside, the entrance to the bottom office immediately closed up, catching the duo by surprise as they had now become separated, the material between them having entirely sealed up with no way of telling whether or not David was ever going to have the chance to come back where he came from.

"David! David!" Claire shouted as she began to panic, her heart almost skipping a beat. She knocked on the dense material, hoping David could hear her echoing pleas. "Can you hear me!? DAVID!" After a moment of silence other than her beating heart, she began to hear some muffled shouting inside.

"Claire! I can hear you!" The shouts were barely audible, but enough for Claire to understand what David was saying. "I'm alright! Just go look for a way down! I'll see if there's another way around!"

Even though they were now separated, Claire really wanted to know whatever happened to Chris and the other STARS first before leaving the station. The STARS office was on the west side of the second floor. That was all she could remember from what Chris had told her months prior. If David could find another way back up and if Marvin was right about the whole area being safe down there, they could potentially meet up at the STARS office. As she clears her way through, it would make David's trip a lot easier and safer.

"David!" She shouted for his attention.

"Yeah?!" He replied back through the dense material.

"Listen, I'm going to head to the STARS office first and search for anything about what might've happened to them! Second floor, west side of the building! I'll clear us a way through and we can meet up there if you can find a way back!

"Sounds like a plan! I'll look for a way up! Be careful!"

"You too, David!"

Just like that, they were now in their separate ways, and Claire prayed that David would be okay after going through uncharted territory, just as she was about to do by heading her way to the STARS office.

Looking back at the set of stairs on the left side of the grand hall, she proceeded to climb up, her boots echoing loudly throughout the enormous chamber. Having reached the second-floor balcony, she looked back out to the other side and found out just how massive the entire station was, looking almost like the Grand Central Terminal of New York City that she visited once with Chris. The archways, the grandeur of the marble reflecting the lights of the station, the celestial scene of the ceiling and walls around…

No time for sightseeing though. Gotta get to the STARS office asap…

As she tried forcing herself to head to the double doors on the west side of the second floor, she heard a faint rumble on the other side of the station. Turning her head around to see if there was any movement across, she saw nothing coming out of the east side on either floor. There was no sound either, other than the faint breeze coming from outside the station through the main entrance and she could only assume that it could've been her wild imagination, already feeling a horrible sense of isolation that she hadn't really felt since entering Emmy's. She hadn't been separated from David for more than two minutes and already she began to miss him, despite barely having known him for the past hour.

Just keep moving. The faster you do this, the faster you can get this over with.

She reached the lonely pair of doors, both of which had similar spade markings as the door they had previously gone through. Hoping against hope, she slowly turned the knob of one of the doors and with a satisfying clicking sound, it opened smoothly, revealing a huge library. It had another staircase ahead to her left, leading up to the third floor of the station. The entire room was filled with bookshelves, most of them still filled with dense rows of rather large books, probably used mostly for research purposes varying from many different subjects related to crime and law enforcement. Judging from the labeling of some of the sections inside the library, there were even topics related to chemistry and environmental science, which seemed a bit odd to be in a place like this.

In the center of the room were chairs that had been either flung over or shoved to the ground near the rectangular-shaped tables, the ground littered with sprawled corpses of various officers and even people wearing casual clothing, most of which were probably survivors that tried seeking shelter inside. Most of them had bullet holes all over their bodies, some of which were in the front or back of their heads, and others probably died of their injuries as Claire could only see lacerations and cannibalized markings all over their bodies. She hadn't really registered the horrible stench inside until she saw the mangled bodies, people that have met gruesome ends that she wouldn't even come to wish on her worst enemy.

Trying her best not to gag from the mildewy smell that overcame her senses as she walked closer to the corpses, Claire finally reached the only other door on the same floor she was in. She had been lucky enough that none of the corpses had come back from the dead to try and eat her alive, but so far, she knew that if she were to keep pushing her luck, eventually, it would run out one way or another.

As long as I don't have to deal with more than three zombies at once, let alone a zombified dog, I should be fine.

Sighing inwardly, she opened the door out into another room that smelled even worse than the last. It didn't take long to find out the main reason why it smelled the way it did as she suddenly began to hear the sounds of munching and crunching of wet flesh, the sounds combined with the hungry moans that she remembered hearing earlier in the night. Quickly aiming her weapon in front of her, she slowly stepped inside a corridor that widened into one big open space to the left, while leading to a narrow hallway ahead on her right. The crunching noises continued. There were multiple, had to be about maybe a few, but if there really was a small group of them, she had to be careful and not disturb their peace in the afterlife, feeding on something or someone's, hopefully, already dead corpse.

Shoot'em in the head. Should be easy enough, right? Pretend they're just monsters… always were and always have been…

She couldn't lie to herself though. Killing them wouldn't be much of a problem if the unmistakable fact wasn't constantly popping up inside her mind, telling her that every infected person had been someone else's family or friend. Someone ordinary, like her, Leon, and David. Someone like her brother…

And to think David was probably feeling troubled to shoot Marvin's dead corpse… At least he wasn't standing back alive when it happened.

Claire turned around the open space…

…and saw there were at least six of the undead creatures that she could count, feasting on two unfortunate officers that already seemed like mangled messes of red bone fragments and tissue in their torsos and faces, their former human identities completely lost as a result of severe cannibalism. One by one, each of the zombies began to stop and slowly face Claire, their mouths covered in dark liquids of blood, some of which were still holding onto red bulbous masses of destroyed tissue as they took their arms away from the corpses.

Claire began to throw up small amounts of bile, her stomach too empty to throw anything out and she immediately hurried all the way back to the dark corridor that stretched out to a barricaded door. She had accidentally cornered herself in the middle of her blind panic, stuck as she turned to face the group of moaning creatures, each of them raising their hands as they were now slowly shambling and staggering towards her. At least four of them were former cops and two others wore matching cyan T-shirts with the word "Megaman", included with designs that looked like a man in a blue suit, holding onto an arm cannon. She didn't know much about video games, but she knew enough to know that Megaman was one of Elza's favorite video games to play.

What are you doing?! No time to think about games. Just shoot them!

She immediately held her Browning in front of her, aiming at the very first zombie that she could see more than several meters away, and fired. The gunshots echoed loudly throughout the narrow corridor, the muzzle flash lighting up the area in quick succession as she continued to fire multiple shots at the group of zombies that had blocked her way out. She was thankful that there was still a bright light in the open space ahead, being able to see the heads of each wailing shambling creature as they began to fall one at a time. Most of her shots managed to land in between the eyes and at least two of them had impacted one of the zombies' eyes as dark liquids dropped over their decomposing cheeks and sprayed just about every surface area around their vicinity.

Claire had emptied her remaining shots inside her magazine as her weapon clicked empty after a few seconds. All of the moaning creatures had fallen, their bodies sprawled on top of one another. As she began ejecting the empty magazine and took a replacement from her hip pouch, she thought about how lucky she had been once again.

Just enough ammo remained inside, and I just so happened to have enough space to keep my distance between them. Thank God.

After finishing reloading her weapon, she decided to check out the door upfront, walking closer to the toppled corpses, a couple of them still spasming before finally becoming still. The death spasms had made her skin crawl, thinking that despite the fact that she had taken them out with headshots, they could still come back to life somehow. She tried her best not to step on any of the revolting bodies, quickly skipping them over as she stepped on the wooden floor that had been drenched in blood and fragments of bone and tissue.

Reaching the door at the right in the open space, she turned the knob and slowly opened it, weapon raised as her face was now covered in sweat, not because she was feeling hot, but due to how nervous and scared she had been feeling lately.

She had now entered another dark, yet empty corridor. There was a door to her right that had a diamond etched in front of it, leading to the linen room of the station. Next to it was a rather long bench that sat on the wall, equipped with handcuffs and shackles, possibly to keep any arrested individual in a temporary place. A window was up ahead, but no light was coming out from the dark sky. However, there was only one light source that lit the whole area from above her, but something was seriously wrong with the whole corridor once she had an immediate glance at the ground.

Beneath her feet, there was a large stain of blood, looking like it had once been a liquified puddle before drying up over time. The dried puddle had also left a deep stain across the whole wood on the floor as if whatever died on top of the puddle had been dragged to the corner that led to the right.

And that smell… ugh what the hell is that coming from?

The stink of death and decay had been empowering since she and David had first entered the station, but something extremely putrid smelled even worse than almost anything she had smelled in the city by far, besides the gross alleyway they had to go through. Walking slowly over the trail of thick blood, she turned to the corner and immediately froze, staring. Her stomach knotted, telling her she was in great danger even before she could tell from her own senses. Through the darkness and with the help of a bulky heavy-duty flashlight that aimed its beam where she was looking, she saw a body, a tangled mass of blood, flesh, and broken limbs with a shredded uniform. Blood and gore had been spattered just about every corner of the walls, ground, and windows. The body had its head missing, almost as though it had been chopped off violently with an axe or sledgehammer, leaving nothing but a clotted mess.

Who—what could've done this?

She didn't think it was the same group of zombies from before since from what she'd witnessed, they could barely understand, if at all, how a door even works. She hoped it wasn't a serial killer on the loose as it would complicate things even more, especially if they were out on a rampage in response to the city being destroyed. She'd have to be extra careful if she wanted to survive her ordeal…

… and then something moved. A shadow, soft and darting over the remains some meters ahead, somewhere from above the ceiling through a flickering light before it finally died out. At the same time, Claire heard a strange grating sound, breathing heavily…

…and she slowly looked up, her eyes widened as a sharp gasp of terror let itself out from her panicked state of mind before immediately stopping herself from making any further noise. She wasn't sure what exactly she was seeing or hearing; the ragged breathing, the tick of thick, curved talons on wood, looking sharp and huge, the claws of a slimy creature that was impossible to exist. The size of the creature was that of a big, fully grown-sized man, but the resemblance ended there. The sight itself was so impossible, Claire could only see it in small details of a terrible jigsaw puzzle, her mind struggling to understand and piece together what she was staring at. The exposed, dark red muscular flesh, skinless with a half-protruding deformed skeleton, a long-limbed creature that clung to the ceiling. The inflamed, greyed-pink overgrown brain tissue had completely taken over half of its entire head, even where the eyes should've been.

Oh my…

The creature's rounded head drew back and opened its wide jaw as it slowly slid out a snaking, rough-looking tongue, whipping carefully from side to side as if searching for its potential prey. It was so long, Claire could see it almost touching the ground itself where the mangled corpse was. The breathing became louder, the wet, raspy noise from the thing itself sending down shivers that felt like sharp stings from a small group of bladed knives…

…and the creature dropped itself to the ground, twisting its own oozy body to land on all fours and once again, opened its terrifying jaw to reveal the long, snaking tongue, the thick beam from the flashlight itself revealing small sharp teeth-like serrated blades covering most of its extended tongue.

Claire was still frozen in fear, horrified with disbelief as the incredible tongue continued to whip around, snapping almost in all directions as it flicked droplets of blood through the shadowy air. Everything had only taken a couple of seconds to sink in the entire process, but for Claire, everything had turned into slow motion, her heart beating so fast, it had caused time itself to draw to a massive crawl.

However, it only took the creature to draw its tongue back inside its mouth again before it began to hiss and scream in a loud, screeching noise…

…and Claire had been broken free from the fear that had paralyzed her in place in response to the bizarre, hollow shriek from the monster itself, now being able to immediately aim her pistol and fire without a single pause. The thundering rounds of the nine-millimeter had drowned out the terrible howl that echoed through the tight hallway…

…and still, it screamed that spine-chilling, rasping cry as it was thrown back by the hailing bullets, its elongated frontal arms flailing as it continued to wail in pain. Its legs had also managed to kick up the eviscerated body it had most likely preyed upon, splattering blood and leftover tissue fragments that began to slap against the surface over the walls and ground in a disgusting wet sound…

…and the creature immediately twisted its vile body over on all fours once again. Before Claire could grasp what was about to happen next, the creature turned, jumped to the wall and spidered its way toward her in a lightning-fast run, and lunged itself forward almost in a weightless form, howling louder than ever before.

Claire continued to fire, unaware that she had begun to scream herself, but her aim was knocked out by the powerful push it sent on its way toward her, pinning her to the ground with its massive claw in one hand, her weapon painfully sliding away from her as she began to struggle to get out from its huge grasp. The sinewy creature's stench was overwhelming; the bitter, oily smell felt as though it was more of a deadly toxic chemical rather than something organic. It hissed at her loudly before raising the other massive claw at her, preparing a fatal attack she knew she wasn't going to survive after. She was going to die, the horrible realization quickly hitting her that she had been outsmarted by an impossible monster that was about to rip her to shreds, leaving her with the same fate as the body that lay just several feet away from her.

NO! I'M NOT GOING TO DIE LIKE THIS!

Desperate to cling to life however she could, she immediately took out the knife that her brother had given to her and with a strong stab to its large exposed brain, it caused the oozing creature to halt its final blow, wailing in a trumpeted cry, and Claire continued to stab its pinkish brain as much as she could, screaming in a sharp cry of rage and terror as all she could think about was survival and killing the starved-looking creature for good…

…and as suddenly as the attack had come and gone, it was over. Thick blood had fallen over her vest, arms, and thin black T-shirt underneath, but it was a price she was more than glad to pay in exchange for her own survival. The creature had fallen over to her side in a whimpering whine, its head wobbling ever so slowly, its huge talons tapping on the wooden floor in a sporadic rhythm until it finally became motionless. It had died, there was no mistaking it now.

Claire stood up, wiping away the gore that had been splattered over her clothing and arms, and immediately began staring at the dead creature near her feet. She had stabbed it multiple times, not bothering to count or remember how many times it had been, but enough to say that its brain was no longer in working order. Her mind was still in complete shock, her body still trembling from the fear she felt when facing death straight in the face. She tried her best to relate it to anything she had heard of in the past before, or even an animal that she could compare it to, but after a few seconds of trying, she just gave up. All she knew was that it was no ordinary human or animal…

…and it could be an alien from Mars and smell like cinnamon-spiced coffee, who gives a shit? Raccoon has monsters like infected people, dogs, and other kinds of abominations like this one. Stop being surprised when you see one for God's sake!

The chiding tone inside her mind's voice wasn't exactly convincing enough. As much as she craved to feel brave and determined, much like she'd seen David when entering the unknown dark place underneath the stone statue, she just simply kept staring back at the creature and over the sign to the right on the side of a door that read "S.T.A.R.S. Office".

She was glad the trip to the office had been surprisingly short, but not entirely happy that just moments ago, she had been close to dying, and that fact had dwindled down her bravery by a lot, almost quickly thinking about hiding inside the office until David arrived to regroup. She didn't know for sure if the office was going to offer her a safe haven, but even if there were monsters inside, she'd try to find a way to get rid of them before making it an ideal place to hide and wait for David.

But then, she thought what if Leon needed their help or what if David somehow bumps into a whole group of those monsters and needs her help? She was entirely conflicted, not knowing what to do anymore.

Make a choice then. Don't do anything and everyone around you may fall victim to this horrible place. Either you stay in the office or you don't and try to look for David and Leon somehow.

A choice was now made.

She would search the STARS office for any clues regarding her brother and David's father and uncle. Whether she ever finds anything worth checking or not, she'd go back and at least try to look for Leon and David in the meantime. If it ever gets too dangerous anywhere else in the station, she could always run back here to safety and stay put until David arrives.

Taking one last look at the dead creature that had almost killed her, she took out a spare piece of tissue from her hip pouch and began cleaning the blade of her knife before picking up her dropped weapon that had slid almost toward the edge of the hallway from where she had first passed through. After sheathing her knife away, she ejected the magazine and counted seven more shots left, to which she slowly nodded to herself and began her way towards the STARS office, thinking to herself that at least she cleared a way forward and David wouldn't have to worry about more monsters to deal with on his way back.

Claire hoped that he had found a way out of there by now and that if there were any monsters he'd have to deal with, it wouldn't be something as ferocious as the skinless, muscular creature she had to face just moments ago.

David… Leon… please be safe out here…

Keeping her spirits as high as she could, she slowly turned the knob of the STARS office door and opened it carefully, almost wishing in vain that someone from STARS would meet her inside somehow.

Ada barricaded herself inside the old, small office of the Chief of Detectives on the edge of the cluttered desk, resting her aching feet as she stared blankly at the empty steel safe located around the corner. She had grown tired of going through dead-ends after dead-ends, her patience slowly fading away as time continued to progress. Not only was the G sample nowhere to be found, but there was no medallion or crank inside any of the rooms she had explored after the press conference room. Even that complex puzzle didn't offer anything but a simple gear that she had no real need of using at all, and yet she had spent two full magazines entirely throughout her wasted time exploring that part of the station.

It was the fact that she had used about twenty-six rounds in total, yielding no results for her main objectives that made her frustrated, other than dealing with a dozen of zombies and about a couple of those nasty skinless freakshows in the press conference room.

Ada shuddered, simply by just remembering the horrible trumpeting shrieks of the bizarre-looking creatures that could rush at someone at lightning speeds across walls and ceilings, much like a spider. If she remembered correctly, they were a result of the t-Virus mutating starving zombies in order to help them survive and evolve into more ferocious predators, worse than what she read about the crimson heads, according to Clemen's research that Trent had given her to study. It was merely supposed to have been a precaution in case it was the same strain as that of the Epsilon strain that infected the Spencer Mansion.

Now that she thought about it, it was definitely a weird feeling to know she had been in business with two Johns, although Trent seemed to sound much older than her "boyfriend". She never met him in person, but she knew that he had deep connections with various organizations, it was hard to say what his main goals were in reality.

And then, she remembered what Trent had told her a week before; that Umbrella had developed something known as "Tyrant", and if the opportunity arises, they would surely send in their latest T-103 models if the situation in NEST got out of hand, which was quite an understatement, to say the least. She was thankful that none had put in an introduction as of yet, but those damn long-tongued, slimy humanoids were already a great challenge, even for her own standards. With that said, who knew what Birkin had done with the latest t-Virus strain for it to spawn such abominations around the station? Not to mention the fact that the G series is supposed to be twice as potent, if not much more… and who knew if G had been leaked if the samples were to have been, unfortunately, destroyed.

Ada let her gaze wander, taking in the plain, functional office. It wasn't the most comfortable environment to be taking a break in, but at least the whole area was reasonably gore-free. With the door closed, she could even hardly smell the decomposing bodies in the main room. It's been a whole while since she last had to deal with them, their decaying bodies already turning into wet mush much quicker than she had expected.

Even if I can avoid the smell, it wouldn't matter if my hair and clothing had absorbed the stench at this point. Five long baths may not even come close to being enough after all this…

She wished she'd bothered to learn more about the science behind the virus. Even though she knew what the primary use of the t-Virus was, she had no reason to believe it would've been necessary to study more on the physiological and psychological effects of the virus itself. In fact, why would she when there had been no apparent reason for Umbrella to spill a shitload of it in their own hometown? She had been getting plenty of information and experience firsthand on how well it worked on people and animals alike, but it would at least have mitigated some of the trouble if she knew about it beforehand; to know more about how exactly it affected a person's body and mind.

From what she could work with her observation skills, it took at least less than an hour for an infected individual to turn into a zombie. Sometimes, the infected could enter into a sort of a fever-type of coma, presumably burning off a large chunk of the functional part of the brain, only adding to the impression that they could cheat death itself and wake up to look for any fresh meat. There have also been several instances in which she had seen a victim turn within moments after either being infected or dying by the infection itself. Everyone suffered the same symptoms, but the timing itself vastly differed from person to person. One of the many ways she could tell if a person was a zombie was when their eyes were entirely clouded with a white thin film of eggy mucus. The physical deterioration always started immediately after infection or turning, but once again, the rate of decay varied drastically as some would fall into pieces much faster or slower than others…

…and why the hell are you sitting here and speculating about it? You're not here to develop or find a cure, remember?

She sighed, bending over to rub her bare toes wrapped within her stockings. It was true, but during a break like this, she really needed something to keep her mind busy, and doing speculations about the stuff she had to deal with for the past week, actually helped her reflect on how to better herself in dealing with the t-Virus as a whole.

And there's even more to speculate about this job's more puzzling things…

Like Trent's ulterior motives with G, what did Bertolucci know…

…and the STARS - like what the hell happened to those people?

From the articles that were included in the information packet she received from Trent, she knew all about the STARS suspension and the investigations that led them to an inevitable road of being silenced at all costs. That part didn't require a genius to realize that either Umbrella or Perseus may have gotten rid of them one way or another for uncovering their little bioweapon operations. Not to mention the fact that two of the STARS were ex-CIA agents, turning them into high-profile targets, even in the US government's eyes, making Ada wonder if Trent had played any role in the STARS' little misadventures, or if he ever tried contacting any of them or sending someone to spy on them before or after the Mansion Incident.

Not that he would've told her; Trent was as mysterious as they'd come. He only ever contacted her by email or phone, and although he had given her quite a lot of information about Umbrella and Perseus, there was some particular interest he had in those former CIA agents from STARS, particularly Alex Mason, a guy that apparently, he wanted her to look into, see if there had been any clue about his current whereabouts.

When she had gone inside the STARS office and found his and Frank Woods' desk that they both seemed to share. All she found were old notes of the Spencer Mansion itself so nothing new there. As she looked further inside the office, there was a diary abandoned on one of the other desks that seemed to follow an outline of events that led STARS to discover the existence of G, with at least one of them having gone off to Europe long before the outbreak ever began. Other than that, there was nothing useful that could indicate where exactly Mason had gone himself.

Umbrella probably already dealt with him and the others, if they hadn't successfully gone into hiding that is. Or Perseus may have intervened and hunted each of them down themselves.

It's quite unfortunate, really. That picture on the desk of Mason, his partner in crime, and the kid between them looked like a happy family…and they all looked quite handsome too.

There was a small, portable safe lock underneath his desk. She looked everywhere, for any clue as to what the combination would be, but found nothing. She had been out of luck in that part of her job, but it wasn't part of her main objective either, much like finding Bertolucci himself.

However, it really bothered her why Trent had a seemingly obsessive interest in the Mason guy. Was he somehow related to him? Had Umbrella used him as part of their biological weapons? Is Trent a former Umbrella employee or Perseus agent, seeking revenge for what they could've done to him? If Trent knew so much about Umbrella and the risks Perseus posed along the way, why not just pick up his own damn sample and just do the rest of the job himself? Hiring an outside agent was an act that Ada knew of someone trying to avoid implication of something sinister, much like she felt about Simmons and his own secretive organization, The Family. She knew that Simmons himself had quite a similar obsession with her that Trent seemed to have with Mason, but why they even did was the biggest mystery of all.

And as an agent myself… we are not to question why, how, or what…

…I'm only just getting paid to do the job, not to play psychologist…

It was a thought that stuck strictly inside her mind for as much as she could remember. Even if she were to get paid to figure out Trent's true intentions, she highly doubted she could ever accomplish such a feat. In every interaction she had with him, he always sounded self-controlled, always seeming as though he had a smile behind his vague, collective tone through his heavy accent as if he knew something intensely pleasurable; a secret no one was privy to. Yet somehow, he hadn't come across as an arrogant person either. He was a cool one, his voice rough, filled with a sense of someone who had seen and experienced many hardships throughout their lifetime; hardships that empowered and molded them to have calm humor through the face of true, fearsome power. That power was something that they could bring control over with means to use it to their own advantage.

So what, has the viral outbreak changed his plans, whatever they were?

Or had he prepared for the eventuality that was about to come before his eyes?

Ada leaned back, tired of telling herself to stop worrying about people's ulterior motives before pushing herself off of the desk and putting back on her red heels. There wasn't enough time to let her aches and pains pass away and she knew she had to move on and keep looking for the missing crank. She could worry about figuring out riddles later, at least until she had put enough distance away from the ruined city. For now, she needed to find the damn crank or at least the final medallion if she wanted to go down to the basement and look for Bertolucci in the cells below. If he wasn't anywhere down there, she could only assume he might've escaped the station and gone elsewhere, which she hoped he has as all she wanted to do was look for the sample without interacting with anyone along the way. Her social skills weren't a problem. It was simply the fact that in an outbreak like this, any living person could slow you down, especially if you were on a lone mission to do what needed your utmost attention, instead of splitting that precious attention into caring about others.

Before she had the chance to walk out of the office after opening the door that brought in the horrible stench of the dead bodies, she felt a powerful crash from somewhere on the second floor. Dust came rushing down from the ceiling above her and very quickly, she knew what it must have been that did the loud crashing noise.

Tyrant… that had to be one of them…

She knew sooner or later, Umbrella was going to send in one of their most powerful bioweapons to date. It was only a matter of time before she'd finally hear or see one somewhere in the station. The thundering rumble shook the entire place, and there was a sudden metallic sound that came falling off from somewhere in the room. Instinctively, she looked over to her left on the shelf that was placed near a corner of the room, skipping over the decomposing corpses of RPD cops, and she immediately smiled, punching herself mentally for having overlooked such an obvious place in the most painful location she could ever come across.

The elusive missing crank for the shutter! How could I have missed that after all this time?!

Partly thanking whatever thing crashed inside the station on the second floor, she began to rush out of the main part of the room and stopped near the closed shutter, putting on the crank as she pushed it over to finally open it up.

Aha! And I thought a Tyrant's introduction was going to be a pain in the ass for me.

After opening the shutter and taking out the ring of keys as she grabbed onto the heart-shaped key, she heard the massive steps above her, possibly already looking for its potential target, seeking to kill anything that comes in its way.

And muffled shots were fired; a survivor, the tyrant possibly engaging with one of the remaining cops left alive in the building.

And that's my cue to leave…

Tyrant was the codename for a particular bioweapon series that Umbrella had worked on over the past decade. It was one of the most destructive applications of the t-Virus itself, and one of the most highly advanced biological feats in the world as well. Within Trent's info files, Umbrella started development of the Tyrant series in the late eighties, until it was soon realized it was unfeasible to do so with the existing strain of the t-Virus at the time. However, only one of the two known subjects that survived the early derivations of the virus itself was later found to be compatible with the Tyrant program and was soon developed into the first and only T-002 series, just before they were able to fully replicate its genes and mass-produce them into the T-103 series, which Ada knew for sure it was the latter that had arrived in the station. The Tyrant would have come here to execute its orders given with the help of Perseus' Soviet brainwashing program, either to hunt down any survivors with its relentless and inhuman capabilities or to retrieve, say, a G-Virus sample…

All of this ran inside her mind like a lightning bolt, not wanting to stay in one place any longer than she needed to. After unlocking the door in front of her, she quickly headed her way inside a corridor that housed at least three zombies that were in her way, quickly dispatching each of them before the Tyrant finished off the survivor and come after her as its next target…

Sherry had been hiding for a long time in the police station, for what must have been at least five or six days, and not once had she seen her mother anywhere as of yet.

Inside the station, she had found the remains of the lunch lady from her school, who always had one of the friendliest smiles she's ever seen every afternoon. Mrs. Asher had died from a zombie. It had been eating her when Sherry found her in one of her snack runs for the vending machines from downstairs. Not long after that, she managed to find a ventilation shaft network that spanned most of the whole building and decided that it would be the safest option than just hiding in that one room that her mother told her to stay in until she arrives.

Except, mommy hasn't arrived yet. I hope she's okay…

She had been wearing her school uniform since her mother had called the principal to excuse her from school. Ever since that day, her mother only sounded more worried after every other phone call she had with her. She tried her best to hide it, but Sherry could tell that her mother wasn't usually a person that would worry so much and it became progressively obvious.

The first phone call was when her mother called the school and got in contact with her, telling her that she needed to go home right away for reasons she had yet to know. After getting home, she called her mother back, and she was informed to take the locket inside a jewelry box that her mother used to warn her not to ever touch as it was a valuable lucky charm. Once having obtained the locket, her mother instructed her to go to the police station and told her that people might be "confused" and not to interact with anyone she knew while also to try her best in avoiding the main street to the station from their home as the road would have become dangerous.

Sherry did as she was told, wandering alone through the city streets. Everything was abandoned, but that wasn't the worst part. Cars were destroyed, fires were burning furiously, buildings looked like they had their windows broken, and there was so much trash thrown everywhere, even in the middle of the road with red smears that did not look anything like red paint or tomato juice. Once she arrived at the station, Sherry quickly called her mother from the receptionist's desk while not seeing a single police officer or any other adult anywhere at all, making her worry and confused even more than she already has been.

On the phone, her mother sounded almost in a hysterical panic that Sherry never seemed to have known her mother could ever have. It was at that moment that her mother began to tell her vaguely about what went wrong. Apparently, there had been a really big accident in her workplace, causing whatever mess she had seen throughout the past week, and the police station would offer a safe haven for her than anywhere else in the city. After Sherry asked where her dad was, there was a terrible growl, a chilling scream from what sounded like a monster on the phone; the same monster that she could've sworn she was being followed by for the past several days.

Sherry shuddered at the thought. She had been extremely scared since then. Even after her mom had told her to hide in one of the empty rooms on the second floor, she simply couldn't.

So instead, she opted to go to the knight room she found inside one of the exits of the ventilation shaft system. The knight room was a safe place as there weren't any of the dead people around, and the only way to get in, besides the ventilation shaft behind one of the suits of armor, was to go down a long hallway, guarded by a giant stuffed tiger. She assumed that the scary and mean-looking tiger would scare any monster away, including the one she had been stalked by for days. Part of her thought that was dumb, but the thought made her feel better and safer anyway.

After finding the knight room, she had spent most of her days sleeping there, not seeing a reason to stay up all day long and be scared all the time when not one living thing had ever dared to enter her safe place. Sleeping was like freeing herself from the horrible place she's been; feeling no worry, no anxiety, no loneliness. And the knight room offered her just that. Plus, it was much warmer inside than in any other place. When she'd awake, she would usually find herself hoarding as many candies and snacks as possible from the vending machines downstairs before heading straight back inside the ventilation system.

She had been asleep, warm, and curled up behind the row of big knights, when she'd been awakened by a tremendous crash somewhere outside. It couldn't be anything else but that monster… the stalker that had been relentless since she first arrived at the station. She only caught a glimpse of it once before, but that was enough to say it looked much more dangerous than the zombies or even the inside-out men she had witnessed before. Through a steel grate inside the vents, the monster had a giant broad and a terrible-looking back before it walked away out of view, screaming and howling her name throughout the building many times since then. It was a mystery how the monster knew her name, but the worst part was that it sounded almost exactly like her dad, almost like he was the monster himself, searching for her…

…and what if he really is? What if that's really daddy, and he needs my help?!

She had been too scared to find out the answer to that question. All she knew about the monster was that it may sound like her dad, but deep down, she knew better than to call it dad and risk getting killed by it. The screams it made had been terrible, violent, and hungry. No way she would ever get any closer to it.

Sometimes, it would disappear for hours at a time, letting her hope grow that it had finally given up, but no matter where Sherry would go or what would happen next, it always seemed to come back somehow, always sounding as though it were nearby, calling out for her to no end.

The loud noise that had ripped her from her sleep sounded a lot like what a monster would make by tearing the building apart, and immediately, she huddled inside her own hiding place, ready to rush towards the shaft if the sound came any closer.

For a long time, it didn't, and she simply kept herself still, frozen in place as she waited with her eyes fiercely shut, holding on to her mother's golden locket as tight as she could, silently hoping she would meet up with her soon enough. It was her own good luck charm and so far, it worked, even now that the loud, scary noise did not come back anymore.

However, there was another loud noise, distant, but just as terrible as the last and that was the last straw for her as she wasn't willing to stay in the knight room any longer than she needed to. Even if the tiger were to scare whatever monster was making those noises, she could not risk getting caught and decided to quickly dart her way to the shaft, continuing her journey throughout the station once again. It was tiresome, but she did not care, so long as no monster could ever catch up to her, especially the one that kept repeating her name, which she strongly thought was the same one who did those terrible noises.

She quickly thought about heading to the basement. For the past several days, she had been avoiding going there since she had last seen those inside-out men, breathing and sticking out their stretchy tongues. Though she'd seen a few police officers through the grating, calling them "lickers", fighting them as each of them got killed by them, except one, who managed to kill the remaining two monsters, but not before they themselves suffered a large slash on their chest. The officer quickly laid on their back, bleeding as they looked straight back up at a frightened Sherry until they moved no more, their eyes frozen at a blank stare. Sherry found herself having nightmares about it after that, but she ended up getting used to them a lot quicker than she thought she would.

Through her busy mind, she managed to slip on a small section of the shaft, sending her way down in what felt like a giant slide, screaming in fear as she thought she was going to hit the floor really hard, hurting herself in the process. However, the shaft suddenly shifted to a straight line, managing to put a halt at her speed when she hit a grated hatch with her feet, bursting it open. Feeling slightly relieved, she proceeded to go through the narrow exit, which led her to a place she was entirely unfamiliar with. There was no way she could go back where she came from as the shaft inside would be too steep for her to make her way back up again.

Sherry assumed she was most likely around the basement floor, but exactly where in the station's basement was a question that had yet to be answered. Seeing no other choice, she walked through a narrow corridor that had a heavy metal door placed near a set of controls on one side, and a narrow space ahead leading to a right corner. The walls were mostly covered in multiple pipes of some sort. Some of them were releasing white steam of smoke, while others were dripping water on the concrete ground.

What is this—?

Before she could finish asking the obvious question in front of her, something made a pair of echoing sounds; something like… someone walking near a set of stairs from somewhere close.

And then… there was a large crashing noise from somewhere in the vicinity like a pipe bursting or breaking apart by something rather huge and powerful.

Oh no… the monster's here?!

Sherry did not have the time to find out what caused the noise or who was walking close by, her heart pounding almost louder than the sound of steaming pipes and distant machines powering something huge, and began a swift sprint at the metal door…

…only to painfully find out that it was firmly locked in place.

She was trapped. The shaft and the knight room were her safe places, but now they were out of her reach, and the shaft was no longer big enough to even hide her short body. With no other way to go, she turned a one-eighty and immediately dashed forward and turned to the corner, leading to a grated hallway filled with more pipes around and several suspended yellow lights lighting the entire way. There was a dark corner at the end and yet she continued to run, desperately hoping that the monster won't catch up to her somehow like it always seemed to do. Then, a deep, smooth voice began to echo underneath the grating below her feet.

"Hey!" The voice called out. "Hello?!"

It was another grown-up, a concerned person like anyone would be if they'd find a twelve-year-old girl like her running around in a place filled with frightening monsters. It felt awful, but as much as she wanted to answer them, tell them that a monster was after her, she did not bother to care who it was. She just ran, not looking back or underneath the grating, and continued forward past the dark turn. Plus, her mother had warned her not to interact with any stranger, even if it were someone she knew, dead or alive.

And that's exactly what she did, even after all this time being alone for almost a whole week. She really wanted to be with an adult who knew what they were doing; an adult she could trust and rely upon in the meantime while they looked for her mother. She struggled to hold back the tears of longing for someone to come rescue her, but she had to be strong, she had to survive, to live long enough to reunite with her parents.

Within the darkness, she missed her footing as she fell to the ground inside a small dark room. She let out a quick yelp but stopped herself instantly in order to prevent the man from hearing her. The noise she made in response to her fall was much louder, proving her silencing efforts to be fruitless. The stranger was coming as their footsteps got louder, and she debated whether or not she'd talk to him, growing anxious and afraid at the same time.

She didn't have time to make up her mind when all of a sudden, a bright flashlight had begun to shine in her direction underneath the heavy chunks of debris that blocked most of the way. She gasped and immediately hid behind a group of stacked boxes. There was this feeling of horrifying fear she began to feel. It wasn't because of the man who saw her hide in the dark corner, but due to the fact that she knew wherever an adult was, a monster would suddenly hurt or kill them, much like the other adults she'd seen when hiding throughout the station. It might've been her good luck charm that harmed other adults around her, but she wasn't willing to give it up either as it had helped her survive on her own this far.

"Hello…?" The voice said again.

Sherry anxiously peeked out to see it was a young, handsome man, probably looking like he was just twenty, maybe less. He had short, brown hair with small spiky hair on top that she'd also seen on some of the boys her age. His eyes were a hazel color and he wore a cool-looking army jacket as if he were a soldier from the army itself. He had blue, dirty jeans, and black and white Nike shoes, similar to the ones she remembered her father wearing on very rare family occasions.

"Hey, hey, it's alright… Won't hurt you, I promise," he said softly, his expression giving hints to Sherry that he was somehow feeling scared himself, but his tone expressed the opposite as he seemed to be trying his best to stay as calm as possible. "You must be so scared because I know I am too. And that's okay. It's what makes us human after all."

The man looked sincere, and Sherry was caught off-guard by a grown-up who had just admitted to her that they were feeling scared, which made her feel somewhat relieved from the inside. She could finally be able to relate to a grown-up directly without having to hear them being entirely untruthful, even though the truth in itself was obvious enough for her to understand. She hated that from adults, but this man seemed different than just about any other she had met previously.

She was about to open her mouth to say something in return but nothing could come out as she began to see something moving in the shadows behind him, silently. Cowering behind the boxes even further, she trembled, not knowing what else to do as she immediately thought about the monster that had been following her, thinking it could be the same one behind the young man.

The man looked even more concerned, his hazel eyes still fixed on her.

"Do you need help?" He asked, his deep voice growing softer before he held out his free hand to Sherry. "Here…take my hand. I can help you out."

Sherry moved slightly to see his hand closer, almost thinking of taking his hand for a quick second before she then saw a glimpse of a huge shadow, covering half of what she was able to see from the man's back.

It's… the monster!

She froze, the color of her skin fading away as her eyes widened in fear, wanting to warn him about her stalker that was now ahead, but as much as she tried, she just couldn't get the right words out of her mouth.

"Yo…ne…he…" Her overwhelming fear wasn't allowing her to formulate a sentence through her panting and shaky breath.

The man frowned and got slightly closer, apparently not having understood what she'd just said. "Sorry, sweetie... didn't catch what you said."

Sherry was now feeling a horrible dread and agonizing fear, she could hardly speak anymore, but through her own determination to at least try and save him from being killed like the other adults she's seen, she found the energy to fix her words and proceeded to say in a clearer, but shaky voice.

"You. Need. Help," she said as she struggled to keep her words steady with each breath she took.

The man shot her a look of confusion, his eyebrows furrowing. "Why do you say that?

The large monster was now closer than ever, his body huge and horribly disfigured, she could now see the deformed face of her relentless stalker, terrifying her at the horrific realization of something she did not want to accept before...

…Daddy?!

"He's right behind you!" Sherry gasped as she quickly pointed a finger behind the young man before she immediately went back to hiding in the dark corner behind the stacked boxes, her head put over between her knees, cowering down with both arms wrapped around her legs, silently beginning to cry to herself.

"What?" The man said shakily before she then heard the terrible sounds of the entire grated ground breaking apart, with Sherry now imagining the worst for the poor man.