Three laser sights illuminated the darkness. Since neither one of them carried a flashlight, they were all equally worried about shooting each other.
"Next time I'm bringin' a flashlight no matter what," Leon says.
"Amen, brother," Billy says. "Anybody got a smoke?"
"Got a lighter," Jill says, "but it's out of fluid."
"Burned too many zombies with it?" Leon asks.
"Exactly!" Jill exclaims.
"Billy, is there a light switch around here or what?" Leon asks.
"There should be a fuse box somewhere," he replies. Suddenly, the lights in the tunnel turn on. "Freaky."
"Someone had to turn them on," Jill says.
"Yeah, and let's hope it doesn't like human flesh," Leon adds. "Come on!"
They race down the tunnel, following the lines of electrical wiring. They come to a stop when they see an opened fuse box and a body lying against the tunnel's wall. Covered in blood, it was easy to see the same fatigues Billy wore, and fit for a woman. The woman's face has several cuts and gashes, along with a few bite marks along her neck. Her left arm hung loosely at her side, and her right hand was holding onto the fuse box. Her blonde hair was stained with a nasty black fluid and her head hung loosely from her neck.
Leon looks to Billy. "Friend of yours?"
"Yeah, she was. Melissa Crawford, head of security. Looks like she'll be turnin' soon." Billy mutters a small prayer.
"Think she's still alive?" Leon asks Jill.
"Probably not, but just to be sure…" she replies grimly.
They all nod to each other and ready their weapons. Waiting intently for something to happen, they noticed something. A handgun was in her left hand and hole in the side of her head.
"So what do you think happened, Matlock?" Billy asks Leon.
"She started to turn and drew her gun and then heard us," Leon explains. "She hit the box and waited, but it was too late and did the dirty deed herself."
"Check for ammo?" Jill offers.
The guys look at each other and say, "Yeah."
Nothing much could be found on Melissa Crawford's body. Some handgun clips and a keycard that could prove useful, but no extra weapons beyond that. They continued down the tunnel in silence, trying to make as little noise as possible. Nothing else stood out in the sewer line, other than the roving cameras and deactivated robot guns.
Catching Jill's puzzled look at the tunnel-mounted weapons, Billy says, "2500E Security Cannons. Equipped with high-powered motion sensors, these babies will lay waste to anything that gets too close."
"That's the plan, right?" Leon asks hypothetically. "We activate these things, and those things get out of the sun and head for us. Suddenly, the tunnel fills up with their bodies and shells."
"Just like Aliens," Jill adds. "My favorite movie."
"I liked Predator better," Billy says.
After traversing the tunnel for the better part of fifteen minutes, they came to a steel door that takes up the entire tunnel. Finding a keycard slot, Billy slides Melissa's card/ID tag through it. Its red light turns green and the door slides into the wall on squeaky hinges. After the door came a series of tunnels.
"Which way, Billy?" Leon asks.
"I don't know," Billy admits.
"How could you not know!" Jill shouts at him. "You work here!"
"Yeah, but we were sent in blindfolded on trucks!" Billy defends. "When the crap hit the fan, I ran down a tunnel and I don't remember which tunnel I took."
Leon and Jill look at each other and mutter, "Yeah, that's a good reason. Yeah, I believe that. It's happened to me before."
"We cool?" Billy asks.
"Yeah, we're cool," Leon answers. "So, we each take a tunnel and hope for the best?"
"Yep," Jill replies.
"Typical," Billy adds.
Jill decided to take the third tunnel from the right, mainly because Leon and Billy took the other two from the right. That left three tunnels unchecked, but that didn't matter yet. With their luck, at some point the tunnels would all intersect. The tunnel didn't offer much light, but that didn't matter to Jill. When facing a nightmarish setting at night, you tended to see better in the dark. At least, that's what she told herself. She didn't want to admit it to the others, but ever since the mansion incident, Jill developed a slight fear of enclosed, dark places.
"Happy place, happy place, happy place…" she muttered to herself, traveling down the tunnel in the half-crouched stance she adopted in the last 24 hours before Raccoon City became a smoking crater.
Feeling along the wall with her free hand, Jill aimed her Beretta straight ahead. Her slender hand comes across a metal box mounted into the wall. Her eyes adjust in the dark and the box reads "FIREPOWER" in bold red letters. Jill grins evilly and opens the box. Resting comfortably inside was a Magnum, one of the most powerful handguns available.
"Won't Barry be jealous," Jill wonders. She snags the Magnum and checks its ammo supply. Six shots. She digs in the box and finds some extra rounds. "We upgrade from six to ten. Better make 'em count."
Jill takes some of the slack out her belt, making it hang loosely on her hips. She slides the Magnum between her left hip and the loose belt. With a quick jerk, she tightens the belt and secures the Magnum.
"Gotta find a holster for this thing," Jill mutters to herself.
Taking up her half-crouched walk again, Jill walks down the tunnel with a bit more confidence. After all, what sane person would mess with a woman carrying a weapon found in Dirty Harry's gun safe?
Billy's rifle swept the entire length of the tunnel as he made his way through it. The only illumination found was the red laser sight attached to high-powered weapon. Billy never got a chance to test it out on the zombie horde, so saying he was on edge was an understatement. His combat boots crunch various debris on the ground, possibly from the masonry being chipped from incoming gunfire.
A clicking sound suddenly draws Billy's attention to his surroundings. He stops moving and readies his rifle. His eyes dart around the tunnel, trying to focus in the absence of light. Then, he saw it! A frog-like creature drops out of the shadows. From what Billy could see, its skin was as red as a tender steak and jagged teeth. Its snake-like tongue darts at the ex-Marine.
Billy quickly gets out of the way and takes aim with his rifle. He aims what he presumes to be its head and fires. The high-powered shell blows out a chunk on the side of its bulbous cranium. The creature shrieks in pain and its jaws close tightly enough to sever its tongue. Knowing that alone won't be enough to stop it, Billy readies his second shot. He fires at the other side of the thing's head and pulls the trigger. A bigger chunk of the thing's head explodes onto the tunnel's walls.
"Had enough?" Billy taunts. "No? All right, have it your way!"
He aims again and fires between where its eyes were supposed to be. The remaining chunks of its brain matter splatter out of its head. The creature staggers back and collapses to the floor. Not taking any chances, Billy unsheathes his knife and approaches the creature. Ready for anything, aims the gun at the thing's body as he hacks away at the creature's neck. Satisfied that the thing's head is separate from its body, Billy continues on his way.
"'And miles to go before I sleep'," Billy recites.
Leon could hear gunshots reverberate in the air. From the sound of it, odds are they came from Billy. His handgun makes a sweeping motion across the tunnel, making sure that nothing took him by surprise. He suddenly stops, hearing something. If he was still that rookie cop from Raccoon, Leon would have run straight through, but Leon the government agent had a different thought process. His eyes narrow, both hands on the gun, and he cautiously walks.
"Keep your cool, Leon," he mutters to himself. "I have to stop talking to myself."
A loud groaning noise snaps Leon's attention to the tunnel's walls. Some thing removes itself from the shadows cast on the wall. Crouching at the knees, the thing looked like a green version of the licker he encountered in the remains of the Raccoon Police Station, except this thing has eyes, scales, and spikes out of its back.
"What are you waiting for?" Leon taunts coolly. "You're here for a reason, ain't ya?"
To answer his question, the creature growls and charges. Not phased in the least, Leon takes aim with his gun and fires into the creature's right eye. It stumbles back, grabbing at the unnatural hole in its head. It growls in frustration and hunches back on its hind legs.
"Bring it on, you ugly puke!" Leon shouts.
The creature roars and charges, its clawed feet making slash marks in the solid concrete on which it stood. Leon lowers the gun and waits. The creature comes within striking range and thrusts its clawed hand Leon. He sidesteps the creature, unsheathes his knife, and impales it through the creature's head.
Blood rushes out of the thing's empty eye socket. With a vicious grunt, Leon removes the knife and draws his gun. With no hesitation, he aims for the thing's neck and fires. The creature's head tilts to one side and a second shot removes the creature's head entirely from its body.