Resident Evil, White Claudia

Part 2/7

By Fenris Ulf

Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil (Capcom does) or Silent Hill (Konami does) which is a good thing as it means that I can write this without biting, screaming, kicking, and other forms of violence.

Sherry looked out over the lawn of the Toulca Labs. A pack of ghoul dogs were still keeping watch over the front door. She left the building by the simple expedient of the back door. She hefted the crossbow as she entered the alley behind the building. She had taken a few test shots in the safety of the building, but she was under no illusions. In time, the building would be compromised. Also, she was a mediocre shot. She wasn't eager to square off against anything really nasty like a Licker.

Just then, she heard the unnaturally deep moan of the giant zombies. She raised the crossbow. This was the perfect time to see if this thing was effective against the creatures of this unholy town. She used the alley for cover as she aimed the primitive weapon. Then she saw two of them, lumbering out of the fog. She slowly let out her breath as she aimed and pulled the trigger, hoping that most of what she learned at the firing range held here.

The bolt hit the creature in the head. Not dead center, but that didn't matter to Sherry as much as the sight of the zombie stopping in its tracks and collapsing onto the street. No time to celebrate, she put her foot in the stirrup and recocked the arms of the crossbow.

She backed up a few feet before dropping another bolt into the groove. She aimed and fired again. Still not dead center, but close enough.

As it fell, she realized that she had been holding her breath after firing at the second creature. She gasped for air, then promptly coughed as she inhaled the foetid odor of the rotting monsters. In spite of the grim surroundings, she alternated between laughing and coughing as she felt as if she might live through Silent Hill as she did Raccoon City.

She slowly tried to sneak up on the lone dog-like figure she made out dimly through the fog. The number of actual monsters remained low, but there were now a number of ghoul dogs on the street. She wasn't eager to meet up with them. The few zombies she met went down easily enough with a single crossbow bolt to the forehead. After getting in her target practice, she figured that it would be better to conserve her shots. There was no way she was going to try and recycle the bolts.

The next mark on the map was on the Midwich Elementary School. It was in the residential disctrict, also called Old Silent Hill. She had tried going the direct route, but a whole pack of ghoul dogs was blocking that route. Same with most of the others.

This was the most promising with only one that she could see. She was lucky that she was able to back away from the others.

She slowly drew her sword, hoping that the creature didn't hear it.

It didn't seem to notice so she executed her plan to kill the sonofabitch. She aimed her crossbow. When she was sure, she fired a shot off.

It hit! The bolt firmly lodged itself into the animal's flank. It gave out a startled yelp before orienting itself at her. It ran with a clumsy, lopsided gait that was a lot faster than it looked. She barely had time to drop the crossbow and grab her sword. She aimed the point at the dog and prayed that she was right about these things.

When it was almost on top of her, it jumped straight for her throat, giving her a fraction of a second to let it skewer itself on the katana then wrenching herself and the blade from the path of its body.

She looked down at her handiwork. It was still alive, writhing and growling at her, but it was severely wounded. She finished it off with a stab into its brain.

She paused for a moment to give her racing heart time to slow down. Hopefully, she wouldn't get too much practice at this.

She was opening her map to reorient herself when she saw it. The fog shifted and she almost dropped it. A seven-foot tall zombie shambled towards her and was only worth a quick dispatch compared to this impossibility.

A neat white house with blue trim. It was two-stories tall. At first glance, it didn't seem different than most of the Silent Hill houses that flanked it. The first odd sign was that half of a car that was parked in front of the house was gone. A circle of cracks surrounded the house that Sherry had to carefully step across. The clincher came when she was close enought to read the mailbox.

"Birkin" it proclaimed.

She stared at the mailbox for a goodly while. It had to be a coincidence. There had to be tons of Birkins scattered around. There was no way that this could be her house from Raccoon City.

Especially since her house had probably been totally wiped out when Raccoon City had been nuked.

The smart thing to do would be to bypass the house. She looked at the circle of cracks around the place. Whether it was her old house or not, something strange was going on.

She sighed and dropped a bolt into the crossbow.

"The universe is just out to get me today," she said.

She walked up to the porch, ready for anything.

The automatic porch light came on as she approached, surprising her. For some reason, her house had power. She turned the knob for the door and it surprised her again by opening easily.

She turned on the living room light as she entered and saw it. It looked like a nurse. It was the right size and shape. It looked like an ordinary woman wearing a whte nurse's uniform. The only flaw was its face. It looked like a combination of a raw red scab and melted wax, as if the red ruins of someone's face had scabbed over then was melted under intense heat. The most disturbing feature was the single eye located on the left side of the face, about halfway down. It was tilted at a ninety-degree angle.

It was holding a scalpel in its right hand. It seemed to be incapable of moving its knees as it skittered past the sofa. Wishing she had a gun for the umpteenth time, she slashed at it with her blade after putting her crossbow aside. She raised an eyebrow in surprise as it lurched backward to get out of the way of the sword. Sherry quickly stepped away to keep the table between her and the nurse. The nurse danced back and forth as Sherry drew the crossbow, cocked it and fired the bolt at the nurse.

The bolt slammed into the nurse and it went down. Sherry frowned as it slowly got back up. That had been a clean head shot. The business end of the bolt was sticking out of the back of its head. Sherry aimed a bit lower and shot again. It went down, then came back up.

New tactics. Sherry shot it again, but this time, she immediately dashed over and decapitated it before it could get up.

She held her sword ready in case it got up again but that seemed to do the trick. She frowned as she took another look at the nurse. Most of the monsters she had run into so far were from Raccoon City, or slight variations of them. She was thankful that she hadn't run into any Hunters or, god forbid, a Tyrant.

Nothing like this nurse was in Raccoon City. She frowned again. What could this mean? Only one thing to do. She stood up and loaded her crossbow. Time to clean house and find some answers.

That was easier said than done. The scab nurses liked to hide under beds, in closets and in the blind spots in a room. More than once, they got the drop on her only to be repelled by a well placed crossbow bolt.

Her house wasn't all that large, but she had used up all but two of her bolts in this cleanup process. She was debating the merits of recycling the bolts when she opened the door to her own bedroom.

She cautiously opened the door. The hallway light spilled into the room to reveal a figure. It was tall and slender wearing a lab coat. It had short, blond hair and was holding something in its hand.

"Mother?" Sherry blurted out. She dashed into the room and turned the light on.

It took a moment for her brain to catch up with her. Her mother had been killed in Raccoon City. She had watched Dr. Annette Birkin die. The figure was a wax image, but there was no doubt that it was supposed to be her mother. The figure's face was drawn up in a rictus of fury. In her right hand was a Baretta nine-millimeter pistol.

The smart thing to do would be to simply get the gun, search the figure and move on. Instead, Sherry sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Hey, Mom," she said to the still figure. "Its been a long time, hasn't it?" She looked again into the face full of daemonic fury and hate. She wondered if this was the image of her mother that Claire Redfield saw the most. "A lot has happened since I saw you last. You and Dad. You missed my braces being put in and taken out. You missed my first kiss. Getting my drivers license. You missed my eighth birthday, but then again, you were alive when that happened."

Sherry sighed as she thought about the life she might have had.

"I have a confession to make. While I was running around with Claire, I kept thinking how great it would be if I had a big sister like her, or maybe even a mom. She resuced me from that police station and spent most of her time making sure I was okay. I tried to help her out, but now I realize that I must have been driving her crazy running around on my own like that.

"Did you know about Chief Irons? I found out a lot from this diary. Did you know that he was a serial killer? You probably asked him to watch me, didn't you. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I thought I had gotten over your death a long time ago, but I've never been able to talk to you like I am now.

"There's a memorial to Raccoon City now. I was able to go to the ceremony when they unveiled it to the public. Of course, it wasn't held anywhere near Raccoon City. Umbrella is still cleaning up the mess, worried about what might resurface."

Sherry paused and looked straight into the face of the statue again. "There were a hundred-thousand people that died in Raccoon City. You, Dad, probably everyone you worked with, my friend Lisa Yeats, her family, my teacher, Mr. Markowitz, Mrs. Harrison who would watch me whenever you and dad were working. I didn't know that she wasn't related to me until I was ten."

She wiped at her cheek and looked at the tear. Tears, but no sobs.

"It's time again, Mom. Time for me to be a good little soldier. I don't know why you're here, but I have to go on. Good bye."

She stood up and looked at the statue for a moment. She then decided to get down to business. She examined the hand with the gun in it. The fingers were somehow cast around the grip. She grimaced, then snapped a few of the fingers until the gun came loose. It was a fully functional Baretta, complete with a full clip of bullets. A quick search of the pockets on the statue revealed two more clips and a vial of purple liquid.

This gave her pause. Althought she had never actually seen one, it reminded her of the vials of G-virus described in the journal. The idea that a whole vial of G-virus was just lying around in this manner made her distinctly nervous. She decided to leave it. No telling what might happen to it in this crazy town.

She searched the now cleared corners of the house for anything useful. Nothing real useful came up. She sighed, then decided to continue onward.

There, something gave her pause. In the middle of the hallway was a very large hole. The house had a basement. As a child, she had been afraid to go down it. Matters did not improve as an adult, especially when a scab nurse had come after her from behind the furnance. This hole was not a part of that basement.

She peered down the hole. There was a room down there. Sitting in a pool of light was a boy, perhaps ten years old. The floor did not look all that far down.

She jumped down. The boy was sitting in the middle of some symbol. The only thing she recognized was the pyramid with the eye in it. The boy was sitting with his knees drawn up. His arms were wrapped around his legs and he was gently rocking back and forth.

He was thin and dirty. His straight, brown hair hung limply over his pinched face. He was wearing the remains of a green and white stripped t-shirt with green shorts. He didn't look up as Sherry approached.

"Hi," she said to him. "My name's Sherry."

He didn't respond.

"Uh, Sherry Birkin," she said to him, non-plussed by his lack of response.

At that, he turned his head to look at her.

"Ah. So this little house is your handi-work," he croaked out. His eyes narrowed. "How did you get down here? How did you even find me?"

"It wasn't easy," Sherry said. "There were all these zombie nurses and I had to kill them all..."

"You killed them all!" he yelled out, standing up. "You bitch, they were protecting me. Who sent you? I'll bet it was Lobsel Vith. Yes, you have his stench all over you. I'll get you for that."

With that, he stepped out of the circle.

He was a skinny ten year old kid, but something about him made Sherry draw her gun.

"I was protected in the Seal of Metraton," he hissed.

It seemed that a shadow came over him. A shadow eight-feet tall. It appeared to be a humanoid form that bulked huge.

Sherry immediately knew what it was. "No," she whispered. The form of the little boy faded away while the monstrous shadow solidified. As it became clearer, it resolved into a huge, man-like figure wearing a long coat. The lttle skin visible was a grey color and its eyes were like black pits.

"Mr. X," she whispered. The Tyrant that had stalked her for the G-virus she had unwittingly carried for her mother. She resisted the urge to fire at the monstrous creature, nothing less than a grenade or rocket launcher would do any real damage. She backed away to the side hoping to find some way to get away from it.

She braced for its attack. Its cold eyes looked at her for a moment, then it looked up, away from her. It walked away from her while she almost collapsed in relief.

Why didn't that crazy kid/monster go after her?

She thought about that for a moment. The kid might have wanted to kill her, but the original Mr. X was after the G-virus she carried. She looked up to where she had left that strange purple vial.

"I wonder what he would have done after he got the virus?" she mused to herself. She wasn't all that eager to find out what this copy would do. Behind the Circle was an opening to a corridor.

The corridor was dark, but a lightswitch changed all that. It was twenty feet in length. At the end was a little platform. On one side was a little roller coaster sitting on a stretch of tracks.

She decided to take a moment to pause for a little something.

"Come on now," she said out loud. "Is there some logical reason why someone would put a rollar coaster here? Is someone trying to tell me something?" She waited for a moment for something, anything to respond.

When the universe failed to respond, she let out a long suffering sigh and got into the car. On the right side of the front seat was a flashing red button. With a great deal of trepidation, she pressed the button.

There was the steady sound of the drive chain clinking as the car moved steadily foward. Though the tracks neither went up or down, the little car moved faster and faster, shooting forth into the darkness.

After either an eternity or a moment of travel time, she saw a tiny bit of light. The car slowed down, finally stopping at a little platform. Sherry slowly got out of the car, looking at the platform. The floor was made of a metal grate, reinforced here and there with iron beams. The opposite wall was made of rough cinder blocks, liberally covered in grafitti and nameless stains. On the other hand, the door looked clean, sleek and modern, like some of the doors in the Umbrella facility that Claire took her through.

She pulled out her handgun and moved toward the door. It smoothly slid open at her approach, showing a set of stairs going up. As she went through, they slid shut. She was not able to open them again, but she was resigned that no place in this crazy town was safe.

She went up the stairs, the light from her flashlight lighting the way. The decor was the same as the platform, all metal grating and bloodstained concrete.

She cautiously opened the door at the top. She found herself in a small room with a large pit in the center. There was a door to her right and a double door across from her. She cautiously made her way to the other side. The doors opened smoothly as she pushed them open.

She sighed again as she shined her flashlight over the dark hallway. The decor was the same as the platform. The metal, blood-colored grating covering everything with nameless bits of gore offering its own color.

"If it gets any more grim, I'm going to have to do something silly," she said. She squinted as a bright light shined from the opposite door.

"I'm going to hope that that's another normal person trapped here," she said as she held up the handgun. "I'm going to hope," she chanted again, as she crept closer to the window to get a good look outside the door. "Ah, who am I kidding. I just hope that its something that I can kill with regular bullets." She squatted near the window, then slowly stood up to look over the tiny window.

The eight-foot tall Tyrant she had known as Mr. X was standing in the middle of a courtyard of some sort. He was looking up at the sky. At his feet was a flare of some sort which had given off the light.

"Crap, I didn't dodge him." She began to quietly back away from the door. If she was lucky, there might be some way to go around him and get away while he was doing... whatever he was doing. She paused for a moment while a bit of curiosity came over her. What was he doing there?

She was passing a counter-top when a glint from her flashlight caught her eye. "What's this?" She gingerly picked it up. It was a plastic bag of the sort hospitals used for intravenous tubes. On the front was a label: "PTV in saline solution. Potassium supplement."

"Wait, PTV?" She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out the White Claudia file. Sure enough, it was the same drug mentioned in the report. She took a look at the bag again. It was possible that it was just a regular bag for transporting the drug, but it was perfectly in character for Umbrella to be testing it on some hapless guinea pigs.

There was a small corridor set into the wall that led into a small room. This was a bit more disturbing. The room held a number of small cages made out of solid iron bars. Set on the outside of these cages was a small bar with a hook. On one of the hooks was another empty bag of PTV. The cages themselves were disturbing in the detail that the door on the front showed signs of being stressed and beaten from the inside until the more fragile lock was snapped. A more thourough search of the room revealed a few holes in the walls, floors and ceiling of the metal grating.

Sherry shook her head. It was amazing how she was beginning to wish for some good, reliable zombies to show up.

She opened the double door to her left. She found herself in a fairly wide corridor. In front of her was a door with a shiney metal plate saying, "Secondary processing plant."

She opened the door and was surprised to see a long, narrow room. Mounted on top of the metal grating was a platform of white tiles. On top of the platform was a very modern and clean looking laboratory. With the exception of a bit of a mess and a few blood splatters, it was actually a very nice place. She cautiously mounted the platform. She flipped a few of the switches for the lamps and lights, but nothing came on.

She found a stack of labels, each saying "PTV" on it as well as a few empty plastic pouches. At the other end of the counter was a stack of plastic bags filled with a yellowish powder. The bags were stacked in a bin marked: "PTV."

A further search turned up a filing cabinet. The first thing she found was some sort of company memo.

To all new Umbrella employees to the Midwich facility,

Welcome on behalf of the White Umbrella research team. Remember that there are a few safety and security precautions that must be taken while you are here.

The area outside of the facility is inhabited by a number of strange creatures. The area is not normally accessible, but it is also not secured. While security personelle are on hand to deal with any problems, they cannnot be everywhere at once.

Check out a side arm at the armory and qualify if you need to. Also be sure to carry a radio with you at all times.

Due to the limited access with the outside world, you will be required to live on site most of the time you are here. Do not attempt to explore the environment here if you are able to leave the facility, as this is extremely unsafe. Every effort to make your stay as comfortable as possible has been done.

Remember that in the case of an evacuation order, report to the central courtyard as indicated on the attached map, as this is the only exit point to the real world.

Sherry looked at that last statement for a goodly while. "The place where Mr. X is camped out," she said. She looked at the attached map. Sure enough, the courtyard she saw had the red "EVAC" in the middle.

On the plus side, the place had an armory listed. There might be something in there hefty enough to take out the Tyrant. If possible, a rocket launcher she could fire from the roof.

The rest of the contents of the lab seemed downright uninteresting compared to this bit of news.

As she left the lab, she heard a peculiar sound. It sounded a bit like a hiss combined with the sound of someone retching. She shined her flashlight along the path of her pistol sight to try and zero in on the monster.

She saw it almost immediatly. It had the facial features of a baby, if the baby was the size of a normal man. Sherry was frozen at the sight of the grotesque creature as it dragged itself closer to her. Its chubby arms terminated in fingers that held hooked, talon-like claws. The torso was cut off just below where the ribs were with dark strings trailing the creature. A long, green tube grew out of its mouth like an obscene tongue. A few wisps of hair grew from the top of the head. The eyes were completely black.

She grimaced as she felt the bile on her tongue and she shot the creature. It squealed as the bullet hit its brain. A stream of green liquid flew from its tongue before it flopped on the floor. The stream splattered on the ground just inches from Sherry's feet. It didn't dissolve the metal, but the acrid smell convinced her that letting it touch her would be a very bad idea.

She tucked her flashlight back in the pocket and drew her sword. She gingerly prodded the creature to make sure it was dead.

She wondered if this was one of the creatures mentioned in the memo, or if this was something the Umbrella people had created and then turned on them.

She turned around. Before adding to the considerable number of creatures in her nightmares, she was looking for the armory, which was in the basement.

She descended down the short flight of stairs. The basement was divided into a few rooms. She picked the one marked "Armory." She opened the door and almost covered her eyes in disappointment. It was a small room, but it was covered with what she recognized as weapons racks. The spare spaces were given over to ammunition boxes.

The problem was that every single one looked empty. No handguns, no rifles, no ammo. Certainly there wasn't a rocket launcher or missle evident. She sighed and got down to the business of scrounging. As she got to the back of the room, something interesting looking showed up. A single handgun, a Baretta similar to the one she already had, was mounted on the gun rack. Below it was a small ammo box.

The ammo box was marked with the Umbrella logo. Prying the box open revealed a number of empty magazines and a few boxes of ammo. Sherry frowned as she saw them. They were marked: "9mm, parabellum. Umbrella anti-BOW rounds." Each bullet had a red stripe around the casing.

"This ought to be good," she said. There were a few lockers as well. They held a number of ammo belts, holsters and so forth. Sherry picked out a neat one that allowed her to either swivel the pistol to shoot from the hip or detatch it by sharply pulling the pistol away from her. The belt also had speed loading spaces where all she had to do was eject her empty clips then slide the new clip directly into the pistol. Her coat had a number of ammo spaces, which she stuffed with the new ammo.

She spent a few minutes dutch loading her old rounds with the new ones and making sure her second gun worked before sitting down to think things out.

Part A: There was no way that she was going to try and kill the Tyrant with her handguns, no matter what the so-called anti-BOW (Bio-Organtic Weapon) round did. They wouldn't kill him and they might even allow him to come after her under the clause that she was interfering with his mission.

Part B: Even if she did manage to kill him, she had no idea how the passage to the real world would be opened up.

She sighed and stood up. It was obvious what she had to do. She had to thouroughly explore this White Umbrella base, exterminate as many of the demon babies as she could and immerse herself in the evil that these scientists created.

She unfolded a little map. "Director's office," she read. Nice and simple. If she was really lucky, all the answers she was looking for was right there.

She almost walked right into it. The office was on the second floor of the structure on the opposite side from where she walked into the base.

She noticed the number of large bullets holes, about three times the size of her thumb, that were in the doorway that blocked the corridor where the office was. She shined her light behind her and noted the number of holes in the concrete wall behind her.

Prudence suggested that she carefully shine the light through one of the holes and be prepared to step back quickly.

What she saw were two peculiar machines sitting next to a surprisingly dim halogen work light. They looked like two olive-green cylinders about four times larger than a coffee can. They had a number of holes and colored lights on them. There was an especially large hole near the top with a hollow tube sticking out that Sherry had no problem in identifying.

Both devices would occasionally rotate about ten degrees.

Sherry scooted away from the door and thought for a moment.

The only thing she could think of them being was a pair of automatic machine gun emplacements. They probably had motion sensors on them that allowed them to track and fire on moving targets. Like the demon babies.

Then a really wicked idea came to her. If she could deactivate the guns, move them to the courtyard and then reactivate them; they might be able to take down Mr. X for her.

It was also possible that the Director's office had been used as some kind of last stand. She could see it now. One of thier "pets" probably got loose and they had to barricade the office.

She frowned. That actually sounded like a really good scenario for what happened; which could mean...

"Hello?" she called out through the door. "Is there anyone there?"

"Yes," she heard back. It was the voice of a man, sounding very familiar. "I'm trapped in here. Can you get me out?"

"Can you deactivate the automatic sentries?"

"Sentries? I'm locked up. I can't move."

Sherry cursed quietly for a few moments.

"All right, I'm going to see if I can find something to turn off the sentries. I'll be right back."

She stood up and hustled down the corridor. He was lucky to survive, whoever he was. She briefly looked at the map. There had to be some sort of technical office.

She quckly found it. "Power Generator/ Electronic Servicing." It was in the basement, right next to where the Armory was. She allowed a brief moment to roll her eyes before jogging to the end of the corridor. Whoever the man in the office was, he was probably an Umbrella employee and deserved to die a horrible death. He was probably the only person who could tell her how to get out of this fragment of hell.

The door to the power generator room was unlocked. Inside was a large, portable generator attached to some heavy cabling that disappeared beneath the floor. Next to the generator was a series of workbenches. She was about to head over to the back where some books were when something caught her eye.

It was two devices. One was a short flashlight with some additional knobs on it. The other was a transparent square with an orange tinge. Sherry grinned for a moment before grabbing the two. One was a flashlight mount. It went underneath the barrel of her Baretta and could either be contiuously on or it could be rigged to turn on when the trigger was depressed slightly.

The other was one of the new holographic sights. When you looked through the sight, a dot appeared where your bullet would go. It was like the old laser sight, but the little red dot wouldn't give away your position.

She allowed herself to revel in this new find for a moment before going back to work. There was a shelf in the back that held a number of books. They were technical manuels, and she hoped to find the one to the sentry guns.

"Here we go. Primary use of the control for the AS-224 is to be used from its master terminal. Please keep this terminal with you at all times." She frowned at that. Did that mean that the master terminal was in the office and she couldn't use it?

She thumbed through the book.

"If the AS-224 master terminal is not available for some reason, a General Purpose Terminal may be reconfigured to act as a master terminal unit."

She looked at the instructions for a moment. Seemed simple enough. Add a few plug and play components, upload the program and she was good to go.

In a few minutes she was back at the hallway. She opened the terminal and started the program up.

"Please work," she prayed.

Negotiating wth AS-224...

Linking...

Link successful.

"Yes!" she shouted. She looked at the stats for the two guns and she whistled. Both were apparently loaded with five-hundred round magazines, and they both had about four-hundred left. She looked around for the right control before pressing the virtual button marked: Stand Down.

The button flashed for a few seconds before sending the message: Both units standing down.

She turned off the terminal then cautiously opened the doors. Neither gun twitched.

Blowing out a sigh of relief, she walked to the office and opened the door. Then she stopped and stared for a few moments. At first glance, it looked like most of the offices she had seen so far with a few extra luxuries. There was a covering over most of the metal grating muting the depressing decor. There was what looked like a bed, refridgerator and television.

It was the back of the room that was really bizzare. It looked like a solid wall of smokey-gray glass where the back wall of the room should have been. Behind the glass was a great deal of smoke, but it gave the impression that it stretched out for an eternity. A neat trick considering that the smoke was thick enough that you couldn't see more than a few feet.

Standing just behind the glass was a middle-aged man wearing a white shirt and black slacks.

"Don!" Sherry said. She almost smacked herself for not recognizing his voice.

"Sherry," he said, smiling. "I was worried about you."

"Let's see about getting you out of here," she said as she walked up to the barrier. She drew her sword to give it an experimental tap when she suddenly went flying backwards.

She managed to roll with the unseen blow taking most of the force out of the impact.

"I should have warned you, this isn't an ordinary peice of glass. Its some sort of magical barrier."

Sherry slowly stood up, moving her joints to see if anything came loose. "Any idea on how we can neutralize it?"

"Actually, I do. The man who cast this spell used a medallion. He put it into the upper left drawer of the desk."

The desk was uncomfortably close to the barrier. She opened the drawer. It was empty save for a octogonal medallion made of brass with a satin finish. She gingerly picked it up. On one side was a geometric symbol of some sort she didn't recognize. On the other was the word: "Ophiel."

"So, what do I do with this now? Chant some words? Sacrifice a chicken?"

"I don't know. He just pointed it at me and the barrier appeared."

"Well, let's try this." She held up the talisman, feeling faintly silly. After a few minutes, she sighed and put it in her pocket. "This isn't working, Don. Maybe if I threw the desk at it." She paused after that last statement. "Or I could look through the desk and see if anything useful, like a book of spells, is in there."

She opened the next drawer down. "So, how did you end up here?"

"After you left, I blacked out. When I came to, I was in here. I saw someone put up the barrier, then he left the room."

"Taking the remote terminal for those sentry guns too, I'll bet. I hope he left an instruction manuel." She saw something in the bottom drawer on that side. It was a thin, leatherbound book. The front was blank. The front page read: "Notes on Lobsel Vith."

She frowned. That name sounded familiar. "I think I have something here," she said. She began reading the book. Some of it was insane gibbering. Some of it sounded sane but didn't make sense. Some of it looked insane but looked important.

Then one passage leaped out at her:

Out of all the subjects, Tommy is showing the most promise. He is one of the few to not succumb to the transformation. Unfortunately, he has grasped some of the arts and is currently hiding from us in a Seal of Metraton. While he is doing this, spells cast under Lobsel Vith appear to have little effect in this general region. Until he is found and neutralized, spells cast, especially the Portal Spell, will need to be cast under a different talisman.

Sherry smacked herself on the side of her head. How could she forget that creepy kid? He specifically accused her of working for this Lobsel Vith thing. Her mind was racing. Did this mean that he was preventing all spells from working?

She stood up suddenly. It was worth a shot.

"Don, I'm going to try something," she said to him. "Are you going to be okay in there?"

"Well, I'm bored and tired, but nothing has tried to eat me yet."

"I'll be right back."

"All right," she said to herself. "The first thing I'll need are some ropes or cables to lower those sentries to him." She looked on the map. An area was marked as "Supply" on the first floor.

As she was walking down the stairs, she heard the retching hiss of a demon baby. She extended her pistol, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise. She found it trying to peel back a section of metal grating just above her. She quickly aimed upward and fired a few rounds. It quickly went still and began drooling its garish, green ichor.

She frowned yet again as she proceded foward. The demon babies, while very creepy, didn't seem very dangerous. They might pose a problem if they actually got ahold of you, but that didn't explain the lack of personelle here. As she made her way to the supply room, she heard a voice cry out: "Somebody, help me."

It sounded like a very young girl. Shocked, Sherry opened the door. The room was stacked with those little cages she found earlier. All of them had doors that had been bent open. As soon as she entered, three demon babies began crawling towards her.

No time for aimed shots, they were a lot faster than the others. She drew her other gun and began blazing away at them. She got one, then the other fired a squirt of acid at her. She managed to dodge, only to almost blunder right on top of the third. She aimed down and shot it through the top of the head.

She then quickly tried to orient on the last one. She swiveled left, careful to not let her guard down. The last one seemed to have disappeared. She relaxed a smidgen. She took this opportunity to eject one clip, then reload.

"Are you still here?" she called out.

"I'm over here," she heard from the other end of the room. She dashed over. Huddled in one of the cages near the bottom was a little girl, perhaps eight years old. She was filthy and thin. A bag of PTV was attached to the side of the cage and a tube was inserted into her arm.

"Oh my god," Sherry breathed. "Hold on there, I'll get you out."

"Hurry," the girl begged. Sherry took a quick look around before she spotted what she wanted. On one of the cages, one of the iron bars had snapped off. She picked it up.

"Now, don't move. I'm going to pry the door open."

"Hurry," the girl begged again. Suddenly, Sherry couldn't see her, as if a shadow was over her. Sherry instinctively checked her flashlight, then she realized that the light was still shining bright.

"Honey?" she tentatively asked.

As she drew closer to the cage for a better look, she could see the contents of the cage again. She drew back sharply as she saw the demon baby within.

She barely registered the retching hiss as she fell to the floor and aimed her gun. She almost laughed hysterically as she noticed her hand start shaking for the first time during all of this hellishness.

She gritted her teeth together as she slowly stood back up. She heard the sounds of someone sobbing as she aimed the automatic into the cage. The monster slammed one hand at the door and it bent under the blow, its obscene green tongue slithered between the cage bars.

She pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet sparked on a cage nearby. She watched as each bullet came closer to the target. Finally, a ragged hole appeared just above the left eye.

She pulled the trigger again and another bullet let fly. The gun deformed as it tried to chamber the empty magazine.

She once again heard the sound of someone sobbing. As she lowered her arm, reality once again descended on her and she realized that it was her. She dully and mechanically ejected the empty clip, inserted a fresh one, then chambered a round. She looked at the body of the demon baby she had just killed.

At the remains of the little child she had just killed.

"GodDammit!" she exploded, kicking one of the other cages with as much force as she could muster. "You goddamn sonofbitches! You couldn't be happy with Raccoon! You had to come and bring your filth here too!"

She picked up one of the heavy cages and flung it against the wall. She sat down heavily as she tried to calm down. "The next time I meet one of you sonsofbitches, I'm going to cap you right between the eyes," she vowed.

She reluctantly stood up. Before asskicking could commence, she had to live through this.

After that, going to Supply was easy. A helpful amount of ropes, cinches and pulleys was laid out. Getting the automatic sentries lowered into position was difficult, but the monstrous Mr. X made it easy by standing still.

"Now, lets see how well you stand up to this," she said. She pressed the button on the screen marked Activate Unit 6, Activate Unit 8. Sherry then tapped the button marked under unit 8 as Manuel Targeting. She used the reticule to aim the crude digital image onto Mr. X. She locked the sentry onto the target and pressed the Fire button. She heard the chatter of machine gun fire and the enraged howl of Mr. X. The howl chilled her as she remembered hiding in the train that was to take her and Claire away from the horror of Raccoon City. She had heard that inhuman cry when Mr. X had fought with Claire while she had huddled alone in that train.

She heard something on top of all that racket. A sound like the dying scream of yesterday, or the sigh of a score of damned souls.

She ignored the sound and looked down from the roof of the structure. Mr. X's long coat was tattered and full of holes as he resolutely marched for the sentry.

Sherry pressed the virtual button on the screen. "Unit 6, Motion Activate On. Unit 8, Motion Activate On." Both sentries started firing and Sherry let out a big breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding. So far, so good.

Not that she could afford to relax until Mr. X was dead, but she couldn't do anything else until the sentries were exhausted.

The sound grew in volume. Sherry frowned. It seemed to be coming from her pocket where she had placed the Ophiel talisman. She took the talisman out. The symbol on the front and the text on the back was slowly disappearing. She frowned as she saw that.

"What on Earth?" she said to herself. It sort of looked like the time that red symbol got onto her PDA.

On that thought, she took out her PDA. Flashing on the screen was the incomplete Ophiel symbol. In a few minutes, the talisman was a blank disk and the symbol was on her PDA.

A crash got her attention back to the action. She looked over the side and saw Mr. X smash the sentry he had knocked over.

"Ah, crap."

Mr. X was in the perfect position to smash the other sentry. She had made the mistake of placing the sentries in such a way that they wouldn't shoot at each other, but now both were going to be destroyed before they could finish the job. She had to do something.

There was only one chance. She left the terminal behind as she dashed for the door. If she could get to the door behind Mr. X and take a few shots at him, he might turn to get her and put himself back into the field of fire. As she was running for the door, it occured to her that getting Mr. X to chase her again might not be the brightest thing to do.

She burst through the doors ready to do battle. She was in time, the brute was about ready to smash the sentry. She whipped out both pistols and began blazing away. While she didn't expect to do any real damage, she didn't expect him to simply ignore her.

"Come on, come after me," she muttered, swiftly ejecting the now empty clips and pulling a speed load from her belt.

It was all for nothing as Mr. X simply raised one of his ham-like fists and smashed the offending machine. He then turned around and looked straight at Sherry.

It reminded Sherry of the time when she was looking into the transport shaft down to her father's lab. The knowledge that certain death awaited her down there. Only Claire was able to get her moving again.

Sherry had to come up with a new plan quick. She quickly came up with and discarded plans as she reloaded and manuvered to get more space between her and the monster.

Plan A, shoot him until he's dead. One look at his wounds convinced her not to try that seriously. His clothes were tattered and shredded by the sentry, but there was little sign that he was feeling any pain or that it had seriously wounded him. This nixed the next plan to somehow grab the sentry units.

Plan B, run away as fast as possible. This plan sounded appealing until she remembered that she couldn't go anywhere. Here is where she had to be.

Plan C, use the Ophiel symbol to activate the portal?

She thought about the Ophiel symbol on her PDA and suddenly, she was overcome with a massive headache. The feeling was incredible, like she could feel the pain as a contamination in her blood as it zipped around her brain, causing whole areas to light up in pain at a time.

As she staggered she managed to holster one gun. She didn't think she could shoot both at the same time. She then aimed the other one at Mr. X, hoping to keep him at bay until she could crawl away.

That was when she noticed the symbol of Ophiel glowing on the side of the pistol.

"Nothing ventured..." she gritted out, pulling the trigger.

The effect was incredible. Mr. X stopped for a moment. His form became shadowy and she could dimly see the shape of a small boy inside him. It only lasted for a moment. Also, a fresh wave of pain flowed into her head, causing her to go to one knee with the sensation of someone using the back of her head as an icepick pincushion.

The form of Mr. X wavered then solidified again.

Sherry squinted with the pain and lifted the gun which seemed to weigh down her arm, dragging itself down.

Mr. X then did something that Sherry never remembered him doing before.

He smiled.

At that moment, the pain went away. Feeling somewhat detatched, she stood up and lifted both guns, the symbol for Ophiel glowing brightly on each gun. She could not feel them in her hand, but she fired each one as rapidly as she could. She could not feel the recoil as the bullets flew. She could see each bullet as they hit the target. The form of Mr. X would flicker out, leaving the form of the child before solidifying in time for the next round to hit.

Finally, it happened. The first gun deformed as it ran dry. The boy, Tommy, looked at her balefully with his black eyes. He had opened his mouth to reveal needle-sharp teeth in the split second that she pulled the trigger on the second gun.

The round hit him directly in the middle of the forehead. He fell backward without fanfare. The feeling of detatchment left her a bit and she looked down at her pistols. The symbol of Ophiel faded a bit, then disappeared.

Once that happened, the headache appeared again. She dimly felt herself fall to the ground. She could feel a wetness on her cheeks. Had she been crying for Tommy?

She heard a sound like that of the Ophiel symbol, the wail of damned souls. It got louder and Sherry realized that it was merely the sound of a klaxon. She was able to stagger to her feet, though the pain was still hot and fresh in her mind. She absently wiped the tears from her cheek.

She wasn't sure what made her look, but she lowered her head to look at her hand. Instead of the clear salt water of her tears, she saw the dark red of her blood.

"What the?" she started to say.

That's when the ground lurched beneath her feet.

"Gah!" she said falling, bumping her head against the metal floor. She didn't think it was possible, but her headache became twice as intense without her loosing consciousness. As she lay there, the rusted, blood-stained metal grating changed, slowly melting away. It was replaced with a concrete walkway, and a small park, of all things. She watched as the sinister Midwich Labs facility became a slightly more benign building, roughly the same size with the same dimensions.

She smiled as light appeared, and she was able to see without a flashlight. She glanced up at the sky, and was surprised to see no blue and flakes of snow coming down. She tried to catch one of the flakes on her tongue.

She immediately regretted succeeding as the flake tasted bitter. She spat out the water, then took an experimental whiff. The air did not have the bracing bite of winter but had the odor of old machine oil.

"Am I back?" she asked herself. There was a thin layer of fog over the ground.

The headache had receded slowly so that it was now bearable. She reloaded her guns while she tried to come up with a plan. The first thing was to find out if she was back in the real world.

She entered through the double doors. The first thing to catch her attention was a large, brightly colored bulletin board. "Midwich Elementary School" were the words boldly displayed. Sherry looked at the words for a moment. The Midwich Elementary School, one of the locations marked on that mysterious map she had collected.

"They collected the kids they used in the experiments right from this school," Sherry said to herself. She could see it now. Some of the children would be taken to a "special room," to be experimented on.

"Dammit," she gritted out, punching the wall once. She immediately regretted it as the minor shock caused her slowly receding headache to pulse again.

She made her way to the bathroom. The lights and water weren't working, but the paper towels and toilet paper worked, as did the mirror. She gasped a bit in shock as she got a good look at herself in the mirror. The blood had crusted around her eyes making her look slightly zombie-like herself. In addition, when she had tried to rub her "tears" away, she had left a red blob over half her face.

She managed to wipe away most of it, except for a few stubborn clots in her eyebrows.

She sighed as she rested her forehead against the cool glass of the mirror. She wished she had something to eat or drink, or that she dared to take a nap.

"Stupid town," she muttered to herself.

Feeling a bit rested, she left the school. As she walked through the fog, she saw something that convinced her that she was definately not back in the real world. There was a police car parked in front of the school. It had been driven up to the steps. A corpse in the tattered remnents of a police uniform had been transfixed to the hood of the car. The body had been pierced with nails, spikes, rebar and other metal objects.

Sherry tasted a bit of bile in her mouth. She was surprised and pleased in a perverse way as she spat it away. She had been afraid that this town had gotten her too used to all the gore.

She searched the cop and the car. The cop was only armed with a billy club attached to the side of his belt. The interior was more promising. Sherry found an automatic rifle that she couldn't identify. It was made entirely of plastic, including the transparent magazine clip. The clip was fully loaded with standard NATO 5.56mm rounds but no other clips were forthcoming.

"Thank you," she said to the fallen police officer as she slung the rifle over her shoulder.

She studied the map of the town. The third circle was a tiny, nameless island in the middle of Toulca Lake. She could only imagine what horrible creatures could be lurking in the lake. Her best option was to try and find a boat in one of the town's two harbors.

She walked carefully down Bachman Road. The monsters were still roving about the town, but nothing appeared that she couldn't handle. One dog and two normal-sized zombies were the biggest problems that she couldn't get around.

Sherry had made it down to the pier when she heard it. It was the hiss of a Licker, one of the creatures of Raccoon City. She quietly holstered her two hand guns and unslung the rifle on her back.

That's when she saw it. It crawled out of the water, looking just as she remembered them. Its body was red in color and looked like a man that had been turned inside out. This illusion was enhanced by the exposed brain. The click of its talons as it crawled up the side of the concrete pier was loud and clear to Sherry.

She held her rifle at ready and held her breath as it crawled to the surface. It was tempting to shoot the thing, but she wasn't about to waste the shots on the best weapon she had unless she had to.

She let out her breath as it moved on down the pier. She moved out cautiously, then she jumped the short distance to the small ship docked nearby. She then entered the cabin quickly. It was a decently sized fishing boat. She really didn't know that much about boats, but this one also had a sturdy-looking rowboat hitched to the side. If all else failed, she could always drop it into the water and row to the island.

She moved carefully into the bridge. There, she saw something that made her pause. It was three clips of the same type of ammunition that her machine gun used.

"Hello, is there anyone here?" she called out. She could accept that there would be a dead cop carrying this type of hardware, but finding these clips on this boat was highly suspicious. Cursing under her breath, she put the clips in her coat and tried to start the motor.

Cursing some more, she got into the launch and lowered it down into the murky water.

To be continued...

Next part: Depth.