Resident Evil. Y-VIRUS.
The bullet pierced through the skull of the un-dead monster causing it to emit a low, hollow moan, a moan she was used to now. But no one should be used to it. It made her insides churn whenever she thought about it.It'd been a whole year now since the Racoon City disaster and yet she was in an abandoned mine tenmiles from the "extinct" city roaming the dreary tunnels in search of the new virus. It was obvious that the T-VIRUS had spread far from the confides of the city, what did the idiots at Umbrella think would happen? Did they think that nuking the whole site would destroy it? Idiots that's what they are…………
"FUCKING IDIOTS!" she screamed.
The words trailed off in the distance. Claire got her head together and raised her gun. A shiver went up her spine, three times now she was out in the freezing cold wearing a T-shirt! She looked down at her electric pink T-shirt and matching skirt. She chuckled to herself remembering the thermal underwear Leon wore when they infiltrated the Planet, maybe she should ask him where he got them when she returned.
She wished Jill hadn't brought up the idea of splitting up; damp, musty, claustrophobic areas weren't exactly her thing. She still felt she the need to prove herself to the others; she was the only one without military training and always felt the others looked down on her because of it. She pushed the thought out of her mind for now as she came upon a crossroad. She stood for a while racking her brains to remember what David had said to her in the briefing. Suddenly, she heard a crackling noise from behind her. She spun around and ducked, Beretta in one hand, torch in the other. She heard it again this time……….underneath her?
"Claire, Claire do you read me? She let out a sigh of relief and reached for the radio behind her back. David had given one to her and one to Jill, in case they ever split up.
"Jill I'm here"
"Claire I've hit a dead end and I'm gonna make my way back to you okay? So stay where you are, have you gone down any other tunnels?
"No, I'm at one now but I can't remember what David told us in the briefing about which way to go!" Claire replied. She felt so embarrassed, her face went bright red. She sounded like a little kid asking her mother to show her how to use a remote. Luckily, Jill found it hilarious.
"God, scatter brain! Mommy will be with you in a minute and will show you where to go and if a strange zombie comes up to you an offers you a lift don't take it!"
"Ha ha Jill very funny, I'll see you in a few minutes." She felt better knowing that Jill would be with her soon.
God listen to yourself girl, no wonder they treat you like a baby!
She had a few minutes to spare so she decided to review the mission.
"The Y-VIRUS is even more deadly than the T or G virus. It's still airborne and can infect if an open wound comes in contact with it but the real difference is the speed of mutation. In the T and G virus you have a few hours to cure the disease with the antidote, but with the Y virus effects are almost instantaneous. This is why we need to get this sample, it's the only known one in existence but with this one Umbrella would be able to infect an entire city in a matter of minutes…"
Rebecca's lectures were always more exciting than David's cuz there was always a part about Umbrella taking over the world or something like that which made Claire's blood boil. Her mind was about to go off on another tangent when she heard footsteps coming down the corridor.
God, she thought, Jill must have sprinted her way down here or else…………………
Jill was almost halfway there when a zombie decided to make its presence known. It had shuffled out from the opposite corridor. It was wearing a yellow construction workers helmet and coal stained overalls. Its cheek had been ripped off its face divulging soft red tissue and also revealing six teeth missing from its mouth. Jill shivered with disgust. The worker raised its arms and let out a dull groan. Jill lifted the handgun and shot. Nothing. She tried again. Empty. She panicked and released the empty clip and slid another full one in. It snapped into place. She shot two rounds into the chest of the zombie, as she didn't have time to aim. It fell to the floor. She flung her boot into its head, cracking the skull.
"CRUNCH!"
She'd always hated that sound. Blood splattered onto her jumper and her boot was covered in the monsters entrails.
"Yeuch, oh that's just horrible!" She wiped her boot on the workers overalls and continued down the tunnel.
The footsteps were getting louder now. Claire was positive that it wasn't Jill because she more glided silently than thudded on the ground like her up and coming guest. She stood up and held the Beretta close to her face. She realised how cold she was again when she saw her breath on the shinning surface of the weapon. She sidestepped carefully to the entrance of the last tunnel. The individual came into view now. It was a man, late thirties early forties, stocky build with brown hair and glasses. She noticed that he was wearing a laboratory coat. He walked straight through the entrance and didn't even notice her.
"Eh hmm."
The scientist jumped and revolved around clumsily. He had a gun in his hand, a colt python, Barry's favourite. He obviously wasn't trained in using it as he held it so ineptly.
" What the? Who are you? You scared me half to death," he stuttered.
"Drop the weapon, Umbrella scum!" she hissed. She just blurted it out. She didn't realise what she was saying until she saw the look on his face. Normally she'd be quick to apologise if something like that came out but at this very moment she felt a sudden sense of empowerment.
"Whoa! Calm down. I'm not going to shoot you. This is just for all those horrific creatures back there." He put the gun inside his trousers.
"Happy now?" She holstered her gun and turned back to him.
"What's your name? You do work for Umbrella don't you? My name's Claire, Claire Redfield."
"Redfield…why does that name sound so familiar…you aren't related to Chris Redfield are you?"
"Yes, I'm his sister, why?"
"So your one of those outlaws Umbrella keeps talking about. I must admit I'm very impressed that you managed to escape all those times! My name is Cliff
Johnson; I work for Umbrella in the Bio Chemical Defence Department." Her blood started to boil, she couldn't help herself she just erupted all of her hate of Umbrella onto him.
"YOU HORRIBLE MAN!" she screamed. "HOW CAN YOU WORK FOR AN ORGANISATION WHOS ONLY AIM IS TO DESTROY THE WORLD OF ALL LIVING THINGS? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING? I SHOULD KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAND!"
He dropped his head and stared at the ground for a minute and then looked up again. Claire saw a tear trickle down his face.
"I know, I know," he cried. "I hate working for them. They threatened to kill my family if I didn't co-operate. I'm so sorry for all the trouble they've caused you, I truly am but I can't just let my family die."
"……………Oh, I'm, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…." Her voice trailed off.
"What are you apologising for? You have every right to want to kill me." He looked around his shoulders as if to see if anyone was listening.
"Here, take this."
He handed her a card key.
"Your gonna need this if you want to take down Umbrella, this key will allow you access to most of the facilities here, one of the perks of being so high up in the company!"
She smiled; she could see how much he hated Umbrella.
"Thanks, this will be a great help."
"Oh, by the way you'll want to go down the right fork to get to the laboratory. The other way just leads outside, you look a little lost!"
"Uh, yeah! Thanks again!"
He ran down the left fork, she watched until she couldn't see him anymore. She sat back down and began thinking about what had just happened.
A man paced up and down his office. His brand new leather shoes squeaking as he did this. His suit would automatically make you think he was a very successful businessman. Gunshots could be heard from all around outside.
The door suddenly opened, the man stopped pacing and turned to the door reaching for a gun on his table. When he caught a glimpse of the woman he placed the firearm back down. She was tall and very elegant in her movements even as she fumbled with the doorknob. Her blonde ponytail swaying gracefully as she did this. She put her own weapon on the side table, smoothed her white skirt and straightened her half-moon glasses.
"Sir, they're everywhere, nowhere is safe. We have to evacuate immediately." Her glasses slid down her nose, she instinctively pushed them back up and waited for his reply.
"I know Dr. Lockhart, its much easier said than done though. There's so much valuable research and we never got to see our wonderful specimens in action."
She started to loose her temper now.
"Stand outside, they're everywhere! We have to leave now and destroy this site, it would be catastrophic if they were released uncontrolled. I have the last sample of the Y-Virus with me and other scientists have the most important documents on file, the only thing we're gonna loose is our lives if we don't leave now!"
He sighed and opened a drawer underneath his desk and gathered a few bits. He stuffed them in his pocket and joined the Doctor.
"Would you like to do the honours Sophie?"
He pointed to a bright red button, which appeared underneath a bust. She walked over to the button, hesitated for a moment and finally pressed it. An alarm sounded, blaring that everyone had forty minutes to get to a safe distance.
The man put his hands over his ears and turned to Sophie.
"It's been God knows how many years and they still have that Angie Ashford bitch as the voice for the computers!"
She forced a smile and continued out the door.
Jill walked out cautiously from the tunnel. She looked around the space and saw Claire sitting on the ground, her face buried in her legs.
"Claire, are you ok?" she questioned
"What? Oh yeah I'm fine."
Jill saw her quickly wipe a tear from her eye but decided not to pry further. She noticed something in Claire's hand.
"What's that you've got there?"
"I ran into an Umbrella scientist while I was waiting for you, we got talking and it turned out that he hates Umbrella as much as we do! He gave me this Card Key, saying that it would be able to open a lot of doors in Umbrella facilities, cool eh?"
"Really cool! So you ready to go?"
Claire arose and brushed the dirt off her skirt. She flicked her hair and wiped her eyes again.
"He told me that we need to go down the right fork to get to the laboratory the other way just leads outside."
They switched on their torches and continued on. After about ten minutes walking they noticed the ground starting to even out as if they weren't in the mine any longer. They turned a corner and saw lights hanging all round the shaft. They switched their torches off and kept going. They came to the end of the tunnel. Straight ahead was a door marked "Laboratory" and to they're right one marked "Storeroom." They decided to check out the storeroom first in case there were supplies or information inside. Claire tried the handle. Locked. Jill turned to Claire.
"Maybe we should try the Card Key?" indicating to a small recess above the handle.
She reached inside her skirt pocket and took out the card. She slid it into the slot. A little light went from red to green and a little tone binged allowing them access. They opened the door slowly and paced into the room. It was about the size of half a tennis court. They scanned the room with their weapons. When they decided that there was no threat they holstered them and walked to the centre of the room. Jill pointed to the right.
"I'll take the right side, you take the left."
Claire nodded and strolled to the left. There was a small desk with three drawers; it was obvious that this was someone's office as well as a storage area as splatters of ink littered the desk and there was a little basket full of leaflets and documents. She flicked through them but found nothing of interest. Continuing her search, she bent low underneath the desk and found a small filing cabinet. She opened it and took out one of the labelled documents. She read it aloud:
"Specimen A (Canine class 3, category 14A7C) Virus-Y type. Rate of success- 30, specimen rejected virus, half mutation, test failed."
She picked out another and it read more a less the same as did all they others she went through. She straightened up and began searching the drawers. She opened the first; it contained stationary- paper clips, pencils, markers, pens, glue, scissors, rubbers and sharpeners all tidied away in a specific order. She scrunched her face.
"What a neat freak."
She couldn't help herself; she placed her hand inside and swished. Everything went everywhere, Jill turned around to see what she doing.
"You okay there, Claire?"
Claire stopped dead; her face went bright red again.
"Eh, yeah, yeah I'm fine."
Jill went back to her rooting. Claire looked up to heaven.
"You're embarrassing yourself you idiot, can't you control yourself for five minutes without doing anything stupid!"
She closed the drawer and went to the second. It was basically the same as the first but this time she resisted the urge to mess it up. Finally she opened drawer number three. To her dismay it turned out to be full of paper. A4 in size, stacked neatly on top of each other and completely blank. She was about to close it but something caught her eye. She lifted up the wads of paper and picked out the red box staring up at her. It was quite heavy but Claire got it out with ease. She turned to Jill.
"Hey Jilly, I've found something." She stopped searching and came over to Claire.
"Why did you call me Jilly? I hate being called Jilly!"
"Sorry I'll stop. But look at this."
She showed the box to Jill who examined it closely. She shook it, and then tried to open it. No good. She stared at the little lock for a minute and finally put it down. She reached inside her pouch on the back of her skirt and exhumed a little device.
"I'll have it open in a jiffy," she said.
Claire realised what she was doing. Her father was a thief and taught Jill all of his tricks including lock picking. It was kind of ironic that Jill became a member of S.T.A.R.S considering her fathers profession. Jill continued fiddling with the lock until she heard a click. The lid swung open.
"Easy!" she said
Claire removed the layer of tissue on top and found a gun. She lifted it out and examined it.
"Magnum, 8 shooter, packs a bigger punch than the Berretta but its heavier and not as accurate, but damn it looks cool!" Jill blurted. Claire looked up surprised at how much she knew about the weapon by just looking at it.
"Don't look at me like that! Barry told me all about every kind of firearm on the planet, he goes on a bit but his knowledge has come in very useful in crucial times."
Claire shrugged and put the weapon in the lining of her skirt. She collected a good few rounds and put them in with the Berretta ones. They both stood up and faced each other. Jill was about to move but suddenly a blaring voice emitted from the laboratory. Claire looked up to Jill who seemed just as confused as she was. She concentrated really hard to find out what the annoying voice was saying.
"Forty minutes to get to a safe distance from the complex, this is not a drill I repeat forty minutes to get to a safe distance."
It just kept repeating itself over and over; it seemed to have a very snobbish, childish voice that really irritated after a while. She shook it off and turned to Jill.
"What do we do Jill? It'll take us Twenty minutes to get to a safe distance, should we just leave?"
Claire really surprised herself at how well she was taking the situation considering that if something went wrong she would be blown into a thousand pieces.
"Well it's a little tight but I think we should check out the laboratory for a few minutes and besides we know a short cut now thanks to that Umbrella scientist!" Claire sighed.
"I guess your right but only a few minutes, I really don't think David would to happy if we came back dead!"
They both smiled and left the storage area. Claire went up to the door leading into the laboratory, again she placed the Card Key into the recess, they heard the tone allowing them access. Jill went for the handle and turned it counter clockwise. She opened the door cautiously, already knowing why the complex would want to be evacuated. She had already suspected something was wrong with the lack of security in the tunnels leading up to the lab. She shut the door when she realised she hadn't told Claire yet.
"Oh I'm sorry Claire, I never told you why the complex would want to be evacuated, its because………" Claire stopped her mid sentence.
"…… There was an accident, the Y-Virus infected someone and they went on a terrible rampage infecting over half the population of the complex, same old story right?" Jill shook her head.
"I'm sorry, I should have realised you knew when you didn't ask why the alarm went off, I'm sorry." Claire placed her hand on Jill's shoulder.
"Its fine, really, now lets get that sample and get out!"
Jill nodded her head and opened the door again. They walked through slowly inspecting the room for threat. It turned out to be a normal laboratory, all white with apparatus scattered everywhere. It looked as though it was a very tidy room at one point but the accident must have started here as everything was all messed up and a few bullet holes could be seen in the wall. Claire walked up to a window looking into some sort of testing room. A body lay limp on the ground, from first look you wouldn't have thought it infected, all its clothes were intact and there were only a few bloodstains on its white laboratory coat. But its outstretched hand showed the signs of mutation, all dry and flaky with a tinge of bluey green. Claire walked away and joined Jill who was searching through a test tube fridge.
"We were right, there's a mutated zombie in the test room, so any luck?" Jill stood up and shook her head.
"No, the space for the Y-Virus is empty, I knew it would be a long shot hoping that someone would forget the Virus but it was worth a try."
"Oh well, let's get out of here before that explosion comes."
They were just about to leave when they heard something thudding on the glass of the test area. They both twirled around, un-holstering their guns at the same time. The un-dead monster was tapping on the window, blood dripping down from its disfigured mouth. It let out a long deep groan and propelled itself through the glass. Fragments going everywhere. The sound made Claire jump. She raised the magnum and shot. An explosive sound emitted from the end of the gun making Claire fall backwards. She raised herself from the ground quick enough to see a headless zombie collapsing onto the floor. Blood was splattered everywhere. Jill looked down at her sweater and shorts, which were now decorated in red, gooey spots. She shot an evil look at Claire who tried to make herself look as innocent as possible. Jill huffed and walked out of the lab. Claire followed close behind trying to apologize to Jill as she ran.
They were about to reach the door to the laboratory when three zombies attacked. One was Sophie's best friend and work colleague, her skirt was ripped exposing the mangled and decomposed flesh underneath. The other two were engineers, working inside the complex to get the security cameras back working. All three let out a chorus of moans and groans. Sophie hated the sound of them and really regretted now being part of the Y-Virus project. She raised her pistol and shot the first it plummeted to the ground, its lifeless corpse no longer among the living. She was about to kill the second when she saw her best friend lunging on Aaron; her teeth penetrated his skin as easily as a knife through butter. She began her feast. Sophie screamed making the zombie loose concentration on Aaron and turn on her. His body rigged and stiff fell to the ground, in a few minutes he would be among them. Sophie shot the female zombie; side stepped gracefully and kicked the head off the third. All three were now on a pile on top of each other with Aaron's to the side. The mutation was already starting to take place; his skin was quickly going the sickly green colour she hated so much. She wanted to cry but she knew that she had to leave. She picked up the case with the Y-Virus inside. She scrambled inside her coat pocket to get her card key. Her hand was dripping with sweat; the normally easy task of grabbing hold of her card key was a million times harder. She finally got a hold of it and slid it into the slot. She opened the door but as she was walking through she felt something on her back, she turned around to see Aaron drawing blood from her neck, she screamed and pushed him off. She tried to run away but her legs were like jelly. She fell to the ground feeling very weak. Her eyesight was going blurry all she could see now was outlines of two figures, she mustered all her strength to say…………
"I'm really sorry Jill, I didn't think the blast would be that powerful! Oh come on Jill, I'll buy you a new jumper when we…….."
Claire's voice trailed off by the sound of someone screaming. They both pivoted around to see a woman falling to the ground in the distance in the lab. They ran back as fast as they could. Jill saw the creature behind the woman and shot as she was running. They reached the laboratory in time to see the zombie fall and a pool of blood emit from its head. Claire bent down to the woman. Claire knew she was about to turn into a zombie but the woman was trying to say something. Jill had her Berretta poised just in case the woman transformed.
"Take, Th-this case, it con-contains the Y-Vir, ………..destroy it, pl-pl-ease……."
Claire grabbed the case and stepped back quickly, she knew what was about to happen. The woman, whose name was Sophie (Claire saw her name tag) started to shake violently, her eyes turned a pale white colour and her skin started to go all green and flaky. She let out a scream, which halfway deepened to a hollow moan. She was about to rise but Jill shot two bullets into her skull. The corpse just fell back down to the ground motionless.
"You now have ten minutes to reach a safe distance I repeat ten minutes to reach a safe distance, this will be your final warning from Red Queen.
Jill and Claire both looked at each other, horror on their two faces. They both turned for the exit and sprinted. Claire never knew she could run this fast but she had to, to keep up with Jill. They both didn't talk, all that could be heard was Jill and Claire's boots on the hard rock surface and they could hear the faint cries of hundreds of zombies coming from deep within the complex. After about four minutes running they got to the split in the road, they didn't stop they just kept going down the fork Two zombies attacked after about two minutes sprinting, one was a construction worker the other was…………Cliff. If she didn't have only five minutes to escape she would have felt worse. Jill shot Cliff dead unknowing that this was the man who had made there search for the Y-Virus successful. Claire mowed the other down with the magnum, blood spurted everywhere including Claire's electric pink outfit and she knew damn well that if it wasn't such a crucial time, Jill would have been splitting her sides laughing at her. As she was running she turned back to see Cliff's comatose body lying there, emotion was building up in her now, thoughts off Cliff's family came rushing into her mind, she hated Umbrella, no, she loathed Umbrella. They kept running, it seemed hours to Claire, so much had just happened in such a short time and her mind hadn't tried to comprehend any of it yet, but finally they reached the exit. The cool air hit Claire like a person being slapped in the face. They didn't stop running until they heard the massive explosion behind them. They stopped, knowing that they were a safe proximity from the blast. Neither said a word, they just looked at the mine collapsing in on itself. Claire was now hit with emotional trauma of Cliff and Sophie's death. She started to cry, she couldn't help herself, all the emotion of the last year was just welling up in her, she just bottled it up until now but thinking of all the innocent people inside now dead just pushed her over the edge. Jill held her in her arms not saying a word; Jill knew how sensitive Claire was although she tried to hide it with the whole tom-girl act. The explosion had stopped now leaving Claire's sobs the only sound to be heard.
The End.