Chapter Seventeen: Darkened Past
One day later...
Another day had begun, Cypher sat at his desk staring at the monitor, reading the illegal documents of Umbrella. After 15 years, he was still doing what he has done; hiding from Umbrella, while trying to expose them of their crime, 'or shall I say crimes.' He was tired hiding, he was fed up with all the worthless shit he had been doing, and he was a secretly wanted man, more like a terrorist to the corporation.
He couldn't quit, if he did they would come down on him hard and blind him from society as society itself stood blind to what they were doing. Both his company and Umbrella were fighting a war, invisible to the government. If only he had not made the choice of accepting the job, he would then be happy and still with his family. But he didn't know the consequences, until it was too late. He closed his eyes and remembered to that very day.
Abraham J. Andrews, which was his name, was one of the finest detectives in the United States. He walked down Main Street of the bustling Metropolis. Overhead, dark clouds formed, blackening the blue sky. A loud shout of thunder exploded across the sky. Everyone around him fled into nearby buildings, shouting and putting whatever they had above their heads to keep dry.
He muttered to himself ignoring the rain as it pelted his jacket as he continued down the sidewalk. Everything surrounding him was quiet; he looked all over the place finding no one on the street. He shrugged and continued walking. A car then zoomed down the street with both the headlights and the bright lights on, stopping in front of him with an abrupt screech.
The doors opened as Abraham struggled trying to find any visibility of the man's face, as the lights were still on.
"Mr. Andrews?" the man said walking toward him, his body coat gliding in the fierce howling wind, "I have something for you."
He shielded his eyes with his hands as the man came towards him holding a small bronze colored envelope, "Who are you?"
"My name is not important. It's what I'm offering." The man said smoothly.
"What is it?"
"A gift, but to you, it's more like a piece of evidence."
"And what is that gift?"
"A job. This is the offer which comes only once in your lifetime." The man answered, his collar blocking his face as he spoke, "I work for a classified group unknown to the government, and the world. We need your help to bring down a massive multi-billionaire corporation. We need you to finish the puzzle we created."
Abraham looked down on the ground, he was confused. But the man said once in a lifetime, it must be a good deal. He looked at the sky, his eyes beginning to flinch as the rain fell against his face. Looking towards the mysterious man, the envelope was held towards him.
"Do you accept, Mr. Andrews?"
He took the envelope and placed it in his pocket, "I accept."
"Well good. Just open it when the time comes." The man said turning toward the car, "and you will know when that time is. Because that envelope will might as well change your life."
A big mistake he made, if Cypher had one wish, it was to change what happened that very day. And like what the mysterious man said about changing his life, it did. That very envelope that very little choice and that response of accepting it changed everything that very day, when he got home.
Sitting in his white Buick as he drove the car up the driveway, he thought nothing but what was in the envelope. He switched the key out of ignition, and sat there staring at the lit windows of his house hearing the rain strike the windows wondering if he had made the right choice.
He got out and went up the stairs to the front door, keys jingling in his hand as he slid them in, and turning it, hearing the lock release. He stepped in feeling the warm air, and the smell of food in the air. "Honey, I'm home." He said cheerfully taking his jacket off and putting it on the hanger. No one answered as he entered the kitchen, seeing the stove overcooking the food. "Oh shit." He said running to the stove and turning it off, seeing the boiling food cool down.
He wondered where the hell everybody was. He moved into the living room, wondering if his daughter, Nikki was in there. The television was on playing one of her favorite shows, but there was no sign of her. "Sarah? Nikki?" he shouted.
Thump! Abraham looked up toward the ceiling and figured that they were hiding. Walking back into the hall, he walked toward the staircase, catching a glimpse of something move up. A black boot. He heard heavy whispering on the second story of his house.
He felt his heart starting to beat hard and fast as he reached for his weapon on his shoulder holster. He edged toward the stairway sideways against the wall gun forward. He placed his foot on the step hearing it creak under his weight. He went up looking in the direction wherever his gun aimed at. The stairway began to turn as he edged against the wall, seeing the floor of the next story as he got up seeing the master bedroom door close and lock, as he heard the lock echo out into the hall.
Abraham was scared to death now, edging toward the master door he got to it and stood to the side from it feeling sweat trickle down his spine, "Sarah?"
"Abraham! Help me! I-" his wife shouted in fear.
"Shut the fuck up!" Someone shouted within the room.
Boom! The sound of a gunshot entered his ears and he banged against the door, "Sarah!"
The door wouldn't budge. Someone was in the room and they had probably shot her, the bathroom. The bathroom had another door leading in the room which looked like a closet door. He ran into the bathroom seeing that the door was closed and crashed through it into the room. The bed caught his first interest and he saw Sarah laying there with a bloody hole in her forehead.
"Don't move!"
He turned around seeing a man covered in head to toe, with some combat suit on aiming his weapon at him. Abraham felt the anger arouse inside him, filling every emotion up with rage, pain and hatred, as he began shaking in what he saw. He jumped to the side firing his weapon at the man as he screamed in blood fury. Hitting the ground, he ran to the man and continued firing, not caring if the man was dead or not. The man was dead, but he didn't care, he-
"Daddy!" Nikki screamed from her room. Abraham jumped out of the room and reached for the door handle when a shot rang out. He ran in finding his daughter sprawled on the floor and the killer was making his way out of the window.
He raised his gun and fired madly at the man sending him falling out the window.
Ring! Ring! Ring!- the phone ran and he took it off the receiver and spoke. "Who's this?"
"They know you now. They're coming for you. Get out now. Don't forget the letter?"
The person hung up and Abraham bolted down stairs for the coat, were he left the letter. He took his coat putting it on and took the envelope out, tearing it open and glanced at the paper:
Boston Airways First Class Ticket Gate: 24 Date of Departure: 12/12/95
He set him up. The man set him up. He wiped his face of sweat and walked out the door and got in his car, as he was about to make his way to the airport.
Cypher wiped his eyes of forming tears and looked at the phone. 'It might just work.' A plan was forming and he figured he could make a deal with the corporation. A very smart deal that would stop them from what they were doing from the rest of the world. He picked up the phone and dialed.
Charice had fallen asleep and was now in a deep dream after a hard day of work of filling out papers today and training in the gym for the upcoming mission.
Charice was walking all alone on the beach feeling free of everything. No work, no worries, no shit. The wind blew in her face making her shudder a little. I feel much better. She jumped up smiling making this remind her of her childhood when her dad took her o the beach in the summer.
She lay on the sand and looked at the sky. She began to change her imagination and she got up in a large concrete field surrounded by gray walls, each one lined up with weapons. This was a reoccurring dream she had only a few days ago. She took a gold bladed sword off the wall and twirled it forward to back. She remembered she had to press a button to get the show started. A blue button formed on the wall and she quickly pressed it.
Masked men dressed in black fell onto the field and came toward her and she jumped forward and swung the sword feeling it reverberate off the blade of one of the men. The man swung at her and she struck slicing the man in two pieces and he disappeared. Another man came to her and she jumped back and forward and slammed her feet into his chest and pushing off sending him into the wall opposite of the room fifty feet back.
The men stopped and ran to the walls and pulled down some automatic weapons and began firing as she ran up the wall and jumping off it sideways and sticking the sword into the man's chest and he evaporated into thin air. She combed her hair back and turned around and swung the sword at the next man behind her. She swung and the man changed into something else. A man in a long coat, dreadlocks, and shades, was now the form and he snatched the blade from her hands and snapped it in half. She stopped looking at him wondering if she knew him or not.
"Do I know you?" she said. He ignored her and faintly smiled.
"Have you ever died in a dream?" he said coldly.
She looked at him confusingly and shrugged, "Not that I know of. Why?"
"Because I have a feeling that your about to have a nightmare." He answered. He then quickly brought his fist back and slammed it into her stomach sending her flying down the room. She hit the wall shattering it to pieces and she landed on the ground clutching her stomach. The man came up and looked down at her adjusting his collar, and smiled coldly at her, "Corin will suffice."
She loosened herself and looked at him, "You."
He grabbed her by the neck and lifted her in the hair, and she clutched his hands trying to break free. Corin removed his glasses and she gazed at his greenish silver eyes. He lifted his other hand and held it in front of her face and looked at her, "The beginning of your doom is now quite inevitable. I knew I was going to find someone to help me finish off Tange and your pitiful base from stopping my insurrection. Goodbye, Ms. Smith, you have been assimilated."
She looked at his risen hand and noticed something slowly slither out and split in three stopping a few inches from her chest. A tentacle. "She struggled trying to get free of his grasp, and she then felt something dig into her chest. She gagged and dropped her arms and looked down. The tentacle had driven into her and millions of little rope-like threads dug in and out of her body, covering everything in a thick dark purple blanket. Her vision began to fade as the blanket continued weaving into her body, creating unbearable stinging. The ropes came to her face and blanketed her eyes and she could no longer think.
Corin pulled his hand back and dropped her body to the ground and took a few steps back. The small weaving rope-like tentacles had disappeared under Charice's skin and she looked up at him with, as for what he did was taking away her life and replacing it with another life form which he could control in anyway he wanted. He looked at the new 'Charice,' were she or it stood standing up straight looking forward, "what is your response to my command?" he said.
Charice looked at him and spoke with no emotion, "To follow your commands, and bring chaos to everyone you hate in order for you to accomplish your objective."
"That is correct." He replied putting his shades back on, and pulled a vial of the T-virus out of his pocket and handed it to her, "You know what to do. You will wake up... now."
With that command Charice disappeared into thin air leaving him alone in her dead imagination.
Caitlyn woke up to the pounding of her door. Getting her pants and shirt on she answered the door seeing Tange and Cypher in the doorway fully dressed. "What is it?" she yawned loudly, "It's four o'clock in the morning."
"I'm sorry to wake you Ms. Anderson, but we have to leave." Cypher said. "I arranged a meeting in South America."
"Okay I'll get Charice and we'll be ready in a few minutes."
Cypher nodded and Tange walked off, "Ms. Anderson. Wear something nice, our guest our rather 'disturbed' on how people dress, and have a taste in shall we say, 'royalty.'"
Caitlyn closed the door and opened her closet finding a nice set of white clothes set with bell bottom pants and a white silver buttoned shirt with a leather coat that stopped at her knees. It was the only nice thing in the closet and considered it to be 'royalty.'
She slipped the pants one filling the smooth texture rub up against her knee. She put the shirt over her white undershirt and buttoned the silver buttons wondering why they had to leave so early and why was it in South America and not here. For what ever the reason it must be important 'if it isn't I'll choke the living shit out of Cypher.'
She had finished buttoning her shirt and slipped the coat on and looked in the mirror. She looked like a host on a reality show except she had morning hair. She picked a brush off the dresser and brushed her blonde hair behind her ears and parted it on the right.
She decided to button the coat figuring it would be cold outside which it would. She was about to walk out the door when she realized she had forgot her shoes and she was still wearing her socks. She turned back and looked back in the closet seeing a white pair of boots on the ground and quickly put them on.
Checking for anything else Caitlyn walked out the door and headed for Charice's room and knocked on the door.
The door slowly opened and Charice stood there. She didn't look okay, pale face, rings around her eyes. "Are you okay?" she asked. Charice leaned against the doorway and wiped her forehead withdrawing sweat.
"I'm fine, I think." Charice replied with a mumble.
"Maybe you should stop by the medical room today." Caitlyn said putting her hand to Charice's forehead. "My God your burning, you do need to see a doctor. Like now."
"Okay."
"Well I got to go."
She turned around and headed for the lobby wondering what was wrong with Charice. She didn't look good, or sound like she usually does. Caitlyn shook her mind off of the subject and hopped in the elevator.
Tange and Cypher stood in the lobby waiting for Caitlyn and Charice to come up. Tange had on a black tux coat and pants with a red buttoned shirt, and Cypher had the same as usual. The elevator doors opened and Caitlyn walked out into the lobby.
Tange walked toward her followed by Cypher, "Where's Charice?" he said.
"She's not feeling well." Caitlyn answered, "We going?"
"Yes." Cypher said, "The sooner we get there; the sooner we get back."
Cypher led them down a hall Tange had never been to ever since he found out he was here. The hall turned to a staircase and they all went down. The hall was dead silent and Cypher led them through a set of doors and they where in a giant hanger with a fleet of fighter jets. Outside the hanger was a small plane about the size of an average family house warming up on the runway. A man ran up to them holding a clipboard and removed his helmet. "Sir your plane is ready to depart." He said to Cypher over the drowning engines.
"Good" Cypher replied. The man led them to the plane. First Cypher, then Caitlyn.
Tange got in hearing the engines turn into a silent hum as the man closed the air tight door shut. Tange took a seat next to Caitlyn and looked at the several empty seats and spotted Cypher talking to the pilot. He turned to look at Caitlyn who was staring out the window yawning.
The sound of the humming engines amplified to a louder pitch and room started to rumble slightly and Tange reclined his seat and yawned and felt his stomach drop slightly and he sat up and looked at the window seeing the hangar get smaller and smaller. He looked at Caitlyn again and she was now fast asleep. He fell back down and yawned again and felt his eyelids grow heavy. 'Okay, I'm going to close my eyes for just ten seconds and sit back up.' He closed his eyes and counted to ten very slowly. When he was at seven he stopped counting and fell asleep.
Commander Bei Sun was in charge of the outer defense system of the Antarctic base. The system consisted of a dam stretching across a river and towered over two hundred feet in the air. The dam was only a mile long and occupied half the river. The only way to get to this part of the facility was by underground trains.
He stood on the dam sipping a cup of tea feeling the cold freezing wind blowing in his face. Yellow gun turrets lined the structure, which was a number of about sixty turrets. He had lived out here for about ten years and no attack of any kind had ever occurred here. He figured it was a waste of time to be out here, 'but if I did, I would be back in China making Nike shoes for a living.'
His twin brother Chin was in charge of the inner defense system which consisted of an underground stadium of some sort, complete with a cement dome which opened revealing a set of more turrets on a giant elevator platform. Fighter jets were parked in a hanger west of the dome, and everything was of the highest technology.
He gulped down the rest of his tea and threw the paper cup off the dam and went into tower number five and walked down a spiral staircase into the surveillance room which every person occupied a computer. At least twenty five surveillance televisions took up three walls of the chamber. He opened a blue door and walked down a narrow cold hallway passing guards and workers.
Beep! Beep! Beep! The alarm sounded and the intercom system came to life alerting everyone in the dam. "Warning! Power outage in level D-4. Warning!"
"Shit!" he said to himself. He was in level B-2. He pulled his radio out of his vest and spoke into it, "This is Commander Sun. Team A, proceed to level D-4 immediately!" he ran down the hall looking for the maintenance ladder. It shouldn't be far from where he was, he jumped out of the way of moving people and spotted it through a fenced room. He ran right and grabbed the ladder and looked down. It was a long way down and he could barely make out the bottom. He jumped on and loosened his grip and slid down at a fast speed. Bei pressed his boots lightly on the side of the ladder to slow himself down a bit. He passed a small painted sign labeled C- 1 and decided to speed up again. The howling of the wind was flying past his face.
Level D came into view and he slowed down again once he reached level 3. He stopped himself and stepped onto the platform of level 4 and ran down the corridor to the power room. It was extremely hot in there. Dripping pipes and steam enveloped the hall. He spotted a metal door and saw a group of five people standing in the doorway. He walked to the team and looked at them. "Good, you're all here. We go in find, find the problem, and get out. If there's anything suspicious, tell me. Okay?"
His team nodded and he opened the big metal doors and waved his in the air signaling them to spit up. He walked down a metal platform seeing all the stopped machinery. He continued down the platform wiping the sweat off his face.
Charice had stopped the power and had the t-virus vial Corin had given her in the dream. She wasn't the same person; more monster and less human. The only human thing about her was her shell. She hid behind the big power supply box waiting for anyone to pass by so she could attack. She spotted one of the people who had entered walk toward where she was. She stay still waiting for him to turn his back to her. She couldn't see his face for he was covered in ceramic plates and had a gas mask on which reflected the background off the shield. He carried a machine gun in his hands while he looked at the machinery, investigating it from top to bottom. He stopped and headed in her direction and stopped. He picked up a small glass container and held it up in the air.
He had the t-virus; it must have slipped out of her pocket when she went to hide. This wasn't good. She jumped out of hiding surprising him and snatched the vial out of his hands. He grunted and pulled the gun up. She kicked it up and grabbed butt of the gun and pulled it forward and out of his hands. She swung the weapon around his neck and grabbed the other end with her other hand putting him in a headlock. The man put his hands on her hands and tried pulling her hands from the gun.
She made an expression and twisted the gun right snapping his neck and freed her grasp clutching the gun. She pulled the body away from the platform taking the gasmask off the man. She looked up seeing that it was too late to move the body, seeing another just like the man round the corner. She looked up and jumped to the ceiling clutching the metal railings with her hands and the tips of her feet.
The man ran to the body and he was soon joined by another expecting the body and talking silently to each other. She was right above them and let go landing on top of the first one slamming the butt of the gun into the back of his hand hearing a yelp in pain. The next raised his gun and she grabbed it with one hand and pushed his head back with the other and kneed him in the arms making him release the gun. She swung the gun across his face stunning him and slammed her elbow into his throat making him go limp.
That was three down, and only three to go. She crept down the platform and turned a corner when the machinery suddenly roared to life. The lights flickered on and giant gears began rotating. She looked down the corner seeing two more of the same men she killed at the power box, guarding it. She jumped forward bringing them to her attention and raised there weapons. She landed cart wheeling down the platform and attached her legs to one of their faces and twisted hard.
She grabbed the next man by his shoulder and raised him above the ground and threw him into the gears and turned around hearing a long wet crunch. She had to find the last one and kill him. She spotted the door and decided to instead make a run for it and lock him in. She moved-
"Not one step further, or your brains will be shared by everything it touches after I shoot you." Said a man, "get up nice and slowly."
Charice did as the man said and put the mask around her belt. She looked at him and saw that he was not in the same suits the other men were in. He was a AsVlad person, with buzzed hair and black eyes. She had the virus in her pocket and had let go of the gun when the man took it from her and tossed it aside. "What are you going to do? Go Hiya on me with your kung-fu?"
The man stepped back still holding the gun pointed at her, "no I'm taking you in."
"No you're not."
"Why?"
"Because of this."
Charice flipped backwards out of his way and kicked the weapon out of his hands and landed on her feet.
The woman caught Bei completely by surprise of kicking the gun out of his hand. As she landed on her feet he backed a few more paces back and held his hands in fighting position. She moved forward and swung as he blocked the punch. Quickly, he crouched down and tried tripping her and failed watching her jump in the air.
She looked pretty sick on how she looked. Pale face, greasy hair, and dark rings around her eyes. But still she moved really fast and probably had some fighting experience. He jumped forward bringing his right foot out to strike her face. To his surprise she bent back and caught his foot and twisted it causing him to twist a full three times in the air before hitting the ground. He landed and jumped to his feet and slapped the bottom of his foot and arched down with his right hand forward and his left hand back.
The woman jumped forward and swung up and missed as he moved to his left and swung hitting her in the chest. She hit the metal floor with a clatter and jumped up.
Bei swung his left foot at her face feeling her hand rebuff his attack. Pulling his foot back and punched right with his right and felt her forearm block it, then his left and she did the same. He swung his foot again and kicked two times feeling her palm slam into his ankle. He turned to face her and went left, right and felt his right hand get captured by her cold pale hand. He tried with his left and she counter attacked blocking his punch and made her hand go to his face. He quickly caught her hand and they both stood there for a few seconds holding each others hands.
"You're a good fighter." She hissed. "You got a name?"
He looked at her panting and replied, "My name is not important." With that he pressed his feet against her chest and pushed her back feeling her grasp let go and landed on his feet.
He realized he had a knife in his vest and watched the lady spit at the machinery, and watched her spit evaporate on the hot metal gear. He placed his hand on the pocket where knife was and ran forward and withdrew the knife and swung at her face. She backed up holding her face with her hand and figured he got her. She looked up and had a long clean slice below her right eye running down her cheek. He swung at her face again and she kneeled back and then grabbed his vest and hoisted him in the air. He swung down at her with the knife and she caught the blade between her fingers and broke it off the handle.
She then smiled and threw him into the air, more like above the exposed machines. 'Oh shit!' he thought as he quickly brought his feet toward the ground and landed on a rail above a fast spinning fan. He looked up seeing the woman jump up. Looking back was about twenty more feet of machines. The door was at the end of the room and he turned back to face her.
She was now hopping forward and landed on one foot in front of him and quickly made a strike to his knees. He moved one and hopped back landing on another rail and jumped towards her kicking three times at her face, missing. He kicked again and felt her hands grasp his legs and lift him into the air the threw him. He soared above the machines and gears and landed on his hands on one metal pole sticking up. His vision was upside- down and he saw the woman hop forward doing all kinds of somersaults. He bent his arms and pushed himself into the air and pulled his body back and landed on the pole with his foot.
Charice flipped forward as the man flipped himself to his feet. She made it in front of him and swung her fist in a motion of tossing a ball and hit him in the chin before he could react sending him into the air in a slow moving back flip. He landed on the catwalk and saw that he was close to the door. She jumped a full ten feet forward with her legs in a chris- cross position with her hands stretched out sideways. The man turned his attention to her once again and moved out f her way. She landed slamming both her feet into the walkway bending it in.
She got up and considered it was time for her to pull the virus out. She put the gas mask on and pulled the vial out. The man ran out of the room shutting the door and she hesitated to throw it and ran for the door. She grasped the handle and pushed but the door wouldn't budge; he had locked her out.
Bei locked the door and heard a loud bang on it a second later. He turned for the ladder and ran to it and jumped onto it when he heard the door crash open. He began climbing when something grabbed his foot and pulled him down.
His grip failed and he fell back down past the way he came seeing the woman again in a gas mask. He felt the hard cold ground as he landed with a loud thud. He looked up at the ladder seeing the woman close some sort of hatch on him and blackness enveloped his vision as he was beginning to lose consciousness.
He heard a loud scream and gunshots, and then the alarm sounded off telling everyone something. The only thing he got from the message was biohazard, before passing out.
Chin Sun was standing in the control center in the dome which over looked the turrets when one of the employees came running to him; he knew him; his name was Kay Johnson. "What is it?" he asked.
"Something went wrong in the outer defense system. You have to come sir." Kay said. Chin followed him down a spiral stairway and Kay sat in a chair facing a console. Overlapped talking filled the room. "Sir?"
"What?" he said.
"We just lost communications." Kay answered. "Oh, shit. Now there's an automatic lockdown. Everyone over there is trapped."
"How's that possible." He demanded.
"We have an outbreak in sector C-3." Kay shouted over the people. "It's the t-virus. Halon has now been deployed to decrease mutation."
Chin looked at the screen and thought of his brother who was down there. "Goddamn it! Casualty report."
Kay began typing and pulled up a screen, "We have over fifty casualties and climbing. Sir! Everyone's trapped. There's nothing we can do but wait until the virus dissipates."
Chin stroked his hair and looked back wondering what Bei was going through. "Search for the commander."
"He's not showing up on any of the screens. Wait-"
Chin looked at the screen seeing a figure moving across the bodies, the figure had a gun in hand and a gas mask over their head. It looked at the screen for a few seconds, then came towards it and gave it the finger. It raised the gun and the screen burst into a stream of static. Oh, my God. "Who the fuck was that?" he shouted wondering if that was the main culprit or his twin. He would have to find out soon enough.
Everyone was now dead. Charice moved up down the hall smashing the surveillance cameras with the gun. The air was a blue mist due to the virus. She stopped and then made her way back to the station were she came from in the first place. She came to the elevator and pressed the button for the down switch. Nothing happened.
She placed her fingers on the seam and began pushing her fingers through and tried to pull the doors open. The door began to slide against the metal making grinding noises and she managed to get it halfway open. She looked down seeing nothing and looked up seeing the elevator right above her.
She spotted the cable and jumped on to it and swiftly climbed down. The cable was slightly greasy which made her slide some.
She hit the ground and pried open the next set of doors. She walked into the station and pulled the gun out and shot the cable. A loud sliding noise came toward her as she stood watching the doors and the elevator violently slammed into the ground shaking the room.
Turning, around she looked at the train and saw that the tunnel doors were sealed shut by a shutter. "Damn it." She said to herself and hopped into the train.
She went to the front car and clicked some buttons and found out the power was now out too. She should have stopped it between the tunnel and the platform so that the shutter would not completely close but just stop when it made contact with the train, so then she could walk back.
Note: What would happen next. I have no clue, wait, then a tyrant comes in and has a tea party with everyone and they all live happily ever after. The end. J/k