35: The Chamber Of Horrors
Drs Belinda Patrick, Stuart James and Anthony Hodgman had been very unhelpful, Amber thought. She'd been disappointed by the lack of proof of any sinister activities in their offices, particularly paperwork. She'd expected incriminating documents, but there didn't seem to be any; she was beginning to wonder if they ate all the suspicious paperwork here.
There was still no sign of Lisa's parents, and the young girl's faith in their survival was clearly fading fast. But there was something worse than the palpable death of hope in Lisa, and that was the growth of fear and apprehension, made plain every time she looked at Jack.
She was worried about him, and Amber didn't blame her. Headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting… the signs pointed to the T-Virus, yet all the people she knew who had succumbed to the T-Virus had died within the space of just a few hours. If Jack had the T-Virus, then he should already be a zombie - but he was still alive and upright.
Something wasn't right. No, not just Jack, although something wasn't right there, either. There was something else, something wrong about this whole situation…
Footsteps.
She could hear her own, loud and clear. Beside her was the fast-paced tiptaptiptap of Dr Harlech's sensible shoes, and the twin pat, pat sounds of Jack and Lisa's sneakers not far behind her.
A little further behind them, but not much, was the rhythmic but not, surprisingly, loud thuds of Renée's eighteen-hole army boots hitting the floor.
That was it.
At least, that should have been it.
It might just have been an echo, but she wanted to be sure…
"Can you hear footsteps?" said Amber, pausing to listen.
"Well, ours, yes," said Lisa. "I'm assuming you mean other footsteps."
"That's exactly what I mean," said Amber. "I think there's someone following us."
"Zombies?" suggested Renée.
"No, they walk with kind of a shuffling sound," said Amber immediately. She'd had plenty of experience in that respect. "Definitely not a zombie."
"Maybe it's Christina," said Dr Harlech. "She might well have caught us up by now - Jack? Jack, what are you doing? Put that gun down before you shoot yourself in the head!"
"I think I'll just go and check," said Amber hastily, taking advantage of the chaos by putting down the briefcase she was carrying and making a surreptitious exit.
Moving as soundlessly as her footwear would allow, Amber crept back along the corridor, keeping her eyes open for any sign of movement.
There were no telltale shadows, nor were there any of the noises suggesting that someone was trying not to be heard. An ordinary person would have assumed that there was nobody there, and gone about their business. Amber, however, had several years of experience in the police force under her belt, and it had taught her many useful things.
It had taught her, for instance, that just because you couldn't see or hear someone, it didn't mean that they weren't there. Your failure to see anyone hiding in a dark corridor could mean that there was nobody there; alternatively, it could mean that the person in question was just extremely good at hiding.
There was someone in here. She could feel it.
"All right, come out," said Amber loudly, trying not to sound unnerved by the way the silence sucked up her words. "I know you're there, whoever you are. Come out right now, with your hands where I can see them."
Not a sound, not a movement. If she didn't know any better, she could have sworn that there was nobody in the corridor.
"I'm warning you," said Amber, as loud as she dared. "Come out now, or I'll shoot."
Shoot? Hah - shoot what? Where? You can't see anything, Amber…
"I won't ask again!" said Amber, her voice shaking. "Come out now, with your hands up, and stand where I can see you! Do it now!"
The last word came out as a sort of frightened squeak. Some dust fell from the ceiling, but other than that, nothing happened.
Suddenly, the corridor felt a lot less intimidating, and now she realised that it was empty - really empty.
Amber rubbed her eyes, and pinched the bridge of her nose. She had barely slept in three days. Perhaps she was starting to imagine things.
"Never mind," she muttered, and turned back.
When Amber returned, she found the group standing pretty much where she'd left them. They were watching her closely, waiting with bated breath for her news. Jack looked like the most anxious of them all.
"Nobody there," she reported, and picked up the briefcase again. "I guess I must have been hearing things."
Jack's nervous expression melted into one of relief. The rest of the group breathed out again, looking considerably happier.
"Good," said Renée. "I've had enough of monsters today. I'm glad there's nothing nasty on our tail."
"Yeah, Christina was really getting on my - aaargh!"
"Will you shut up? She'll hear you!"
"Stop stepping on my foot!"
"I'll stop stepping on your foot when you start shutting up!"
It seemed extraordinary to Lisa that grown women could behave more like children than teenagers, who technically were children. Adults were strange creatures, she thought. They seemed to think that the whole world belonged to them, and that nobody could possibly get anything done without them.
Admittedly, Amber and the others had been very helpful to her and Jack from time to time, but Lisa nevertheless suspected that if she and Jack had been left to their own devices, they would probably have found her parents and been out of the city hours ago.
Still, everything happened for a reason. If they hadn't run into Amber, she'd be a walking corpse by now. Similarly, Dr Harlech would be dead, killed by that giant zombie, and Renée would still be lying in the street, slowly bleeding to death. Christina would probably have been fine, though. People like Christina always seemed to be cheating death, especially when they richly deserved it.
They carried on walking. Amber and Dr Harlech were still bickering as to whether Christina would be able to overhear them.
"Oh, shut up," said Jack grumpily.
"Pardon me for breathing," said Dr Harlech, looking affronted.
"Just let it go, Clarissa. He's had a rough day," said Amber.
"Haven't we all," muttered the scientist.
"No kidding," said Renée. "I think that giant cockroach was the worst. I'm sure cockroaches aren't meant to be the size of a house, with eight-foot-long tentacles, and spitting acid at people."
"I've got no shortage of bad things to choose from, I have to admit, but I think the worst part of my day was probably when a zombie burst in on my sixteenth birthday party and ate my guests," said Lisa.
"It's your birthday today?" said Amber, surprised by this new revelation.
"Unfortunately, yes," sighed Lisa.
"Oh. Um, happy birthday, Lisa," said Dr Harlech, looking sheepish. "Except it's not really a happy birthday, I suppose. I mean, I wish it was, and everything, but… oh dear, I'm just making things worse, aren't I..."
"Hope things get better, Lisa," said Renée sympathetically. "Today must have really sucked for you. It's meant to be a happy birthday, not the worst day of your life."
"Tell me about it," said Lisa.
They fell into silence again as they passed another series of doors, each one marked with the words "LABORATORY SUPPLIES". Amber, deciding to leave no stone unturned, stopped to open one of the doors.
"I can't see anything suspicious," she said, peering inside.
"Doesn't mean there's nothing there," Renée pointed out. "It's not like you can see much when it's this dark."
"Good point. I'll just go and," Amber cleared her throat nervously, "and have a look inside, shall I?"
"Yeah, that would be nice," said Renée. "You can even borrow my rifle if you want."
"Really?" said Amber hopefully.
"No."
"Oh."
Amber took a deep breath.
"Okay then," she said. "Here I go…"
She stepped inside, and suddenly the whole room lit up. Blinding white light filled the storeroom and corridor, temporarily dazzling her.
"Ow… why is it so bright?" said Amber, shielding her eyes.
"Guess they never got round to installing those energy-saving light bulbs, huh?" said Renée.
"Guess not," said Lisa.
"Shocking waste of energy, just for a storage room," said Amber, scowling up at the lights as her eyesight returned to normal. "I bet this company uses enough power for the whole city. No wonder they say we're running out of coal and oil. Hah! Umbrella's probably destroying the rainforests too!"
"Amber?" said Jack, who'd noticed something strange about the room.
"What?" said Amber.
"About the lights… they turn on when you walk in the room," said Jack, trying to untangle the thread of his thoughts from the mass of cotton wool that seemed to fill his head.
"Yes? What about them, Jack?" said Amber kindly. "There's nothing unusual in that. It's probably just motion sensors or something. Lots of companies use them now."
"The lights turn on when you walk in," said Jack slowly. "So how come they got a light switch in here?"
Amber looked around, and saw what Jack was talking about. On the wall near the door was a small white switch.
"Hmm," she said thoughtfully. "I wonder…"
She turned round, and strode purposefully out of the room. Seconds later, the room went dark again.
"Goes off when you leave," she said to herself. "So then what does that switch do?"
"You've probably been in there a couple of times fetching supplies, Dr H," said Renée, turning to the scientist. "Any ideas?"
Dr Harlech shook her head.
"No, not really," she said. "I always assumed it was for the heating system, but I never touched it. I don't touch switches unless I know exactly what they do."
"But how do you know what they do until you press them?" said Renée, one of life's natural button-pressers. "I mean, I never would have guessed that the UBCS barracks had a self-destruct button until I mistook it for the air conditioning one day… man, you should have heard the Sarge yell. Lucky he knew the shutdown sequence, or I'd have looked pretty stupid."
"You think I should press the switch?" said Amber.
"Oh, no, I wouldn't," said Dr Harlech, looking alarmed. "You don't know what it does!"
"It's probably not a good idea," agreed Lisa. "You might fuse the lights or something."
"Are you kidding? Go for it, Amber," said Renée. "Something cool might happen."
"What, here?" said Jack. "No way! Dunt touch it, Amber! It prob'ly gonna blow us sky-higher!"
"Don't you mean sky-high?" said Renée.
"Higher than that," said Jack darkly.
"So what should I do? Should I press it?" said Amber.
"No, don't! I don't know what it does! Anything could happen!" said Dr Harlech.
"Dunt do it! We all gonna die!" said Jack.
"I really wouldn't," warned Lisa. "They'll probably bill you for it if you break something."
"Hey, you might as well. You never know until you try," said Renée evenly.
Amber looked at them, then at the switch, and made a decision.
"Okay everyone, I'm going to press the switch," she said. "I'm fairly sure that nothing dreadful will happen if I do, but get ready to run like hell, just in case…"
"No!" yelled Jack.
Lisa looked uncomfortable, and Dr Harlech, whimpering, ran and hid behind Renée. Renée was the only one of the group who appeared completely unfazed; the look on her face was merely that of keen interest, as opposed to Lisa's vague worry, Jack's outright panic or Dr Harlech's gibbering terror.
Amber shrugged, and pressed the switch. A subdued humming that they hadn't noticed up until now stopped.
"You see? Nothing to worry about," said Amber, turning to address the group. "Just the heating system."
"Um… Amber?" said Lisa.
A section of shelves behind Amber, apparently identical to the surrounding shelves, was sliding soundlessly aside.
"You see? Perfectly all right," Amber continued. "I don't know why you all looked so nervous. I'm sure they would have put up a notice or something if it had been a self-destruct button. You know, like "Do Not Touch", or something."
It was then that Amber finally noticed her audience's stares and open mouths.
"What?" she said.
A plastic medicine bottle dropped off the shelves and rolled across the floor. Amber automatically bent to pick it up. She looked at it, frowned slightly, then turned around to see where it had come from.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw the big steel door in the place where a section of shelves used to be.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed. "Where did that come from?"
All heads turned to look at Dr Harlech, who had since emerged from her hiding place behind Renée to see what had happened.
"H-hey," she gasped, her eyes and mouth wide open with shock. "Don't look at me! I must have been down here a dozen times, and I have never seen that before!"
"Wow," breathed Renée. "A secret door! That is so cool!"
"So creepy, you mean," said Lisa. "I mean, come on, we're in a secret lab, and yet even down here, they've got a door that they keep hidden? There's obviously something horrible in there. I don't think we should go in."
"Me either," said Jack. "We oughta just push that switch 'gain an' get the hell outta here. This kinda stuff be for dudes like James Bond, no kids like me an' Lise."
"Are you crazy?" said Renée, incredulous. "Not investigate a secret door? What kind of kids are you? When I was a kid I would have loved to find a secret door in a high-tech laboratory! That would have been the coolest thing ever! Come on, what are we waiting for? Let's go in!"
"No. No way," said Dr Harlech, backing away. "I am not going in there. Lisa's right! If they hid that door from everyone who works here, then they hid it for a reason! And I don't want to find out what that reason is! Let's just get out of this lab! Right now!"
"What about my mom and dad?" cried Lisa.
"Oh, come on! You really think they're hiding behind a secret door?" said Dr Harlech shrilly.
"Well… no… but we can't just leave!" said Lisa.
"I agree. We have to check this out," said Amber firmly. "If there's something horrible being hidden in there, then it's my job to find out what it is and deal with it. Umbrella's not keeping any secrets hidden from us. Not any more."
"Good luck getting in," said Dr Harlech. "Look."
There was a control panel next to the door, with a message flashing on the screen.
PLEASE INPUT ENTRY CODE
"And before you ask," said Dr Harlech, "No. I have no idea what the entry code is. Neither do any of you. Let's just go now."
"No, we're not going anywhere. I'm sure there's some way we can figure this out," said Amber, staring at the number keys on the control panel's LCD screen. "It's just a shame I didn't bring some equipment along, or I could have dusted for fingerprints."
"I have an idea," said Lisa. "Can I borrow a First Aid spray?"
Dr Harlech looked slightly puzzled, but she handed Lisa the one that she'd taken from the medical room.
"Of course," she said. "But how will that help us to - ?"
Lisa went into the storeroom. She looked closely at the LCD screen, then gave it a squirt of First Aid spray.
"Lisa, what are you doing?" said Amber, aghast. "You shouldn't waste that stuff! It's not that easy to come by, and we might need it!"
Lisa simply shushed Amber into silence, and watched the screen closely. The vapour gradually faded from the screen, though Amber noticed that droplets of the spray had stuck to some marks that looked a lot like -
"Fingerprints?" said Amber aloud.
"Exactly," said Lisa, grinning.
"Now that's clever," said Amber. "How did you know that would work?"
"I saw something like it in the movies once and I thought it might be worth a try," said Lisa.
"It's surprising how educational the movies can be," said Amber, nodding. "Now, let's see. Which numbers have they been pressing…?"
There were fingerprint marks on top of the numbers 1, 2, 4 and 9. By the amount of smudged fingerprints covering the number 4, it looked as if this number had been pressed a lot.
"They've probably used the number 4 twice in the entry code," said Amber. "Okay, let's see now. 12494?"
ERROR - INCORRECT ENTRY CODE
"I must have got the numbers in the wrong order," said Amber. "Oh well, there's only so many combinations of these numbers. I'll try again. How about 44291?"
ERROR - INCORRECT ENTRY CODE
WARNING - 3 INCORRECT ENTRIES WILL LOCK THIS DOOR FOR 24 HOURS
Lisa and Amber looked at each other.
"Uh-oh," said Amber. "That's not good."
"Definitely not good," said Lisa. "What if we get it wrong again?"
"What's the problem?" Renée called.
"The control panel says three incorrect entries will lock the door completely for the next twenty-four hours," Lisa called back. "We've already got the code wrong twice."
Renée marched into the room with her assault rifle at the ready. She moved Amber and Lisa gently to one side, and stared at the control panel's flashing red error message.
"Twenty-four hours? The hell with that," she said, and fired a stream of bullets at the control panel.
Sparks and bits of plastic flew everywhere, though the two stunned civilians noticed the control panel light turn green:
ENTRY CODE CONFIRMED
before dropping out of the wall completely, trailing wires and smouldering bits of plastic pock-marked with bullet holes.
"Remember, kids," said Renée, as the door opened before them. "Violence solves everything."
"At the police academy, they taught us that violence is not the answer," said Amber primly.
"Ah, well," said Renée, grinning. "I've always said that it depends entirely on the question."
"And what if violence still isn't the answer?" said Amber.
"Then you're probably asking the wrong question," said Renée simply. "Shall we?"
"Of course," said Amber. "You first."
The mercenary stepped through the stricken doorway and entered the passage beyond it, looking around curiously.
"Wow… this is so cool!"
"I'm not inclined to agree," said Amber, but she followed Renée anyway.
Dr Harlech looked at Jack and Lisa.
"I don't really want to go after them, but I probably should, shouldn't I?" she said.
"You could say you be lookin' after us," said Jack helpfully.
Dr Harlech beamed.
"Yes! I'm looking after you two, that's right! You kids shouldn't be left alone, after all…"
"You're just a big scaredy-cat, aren't you?" said Lisa.
"Basically, yes," admitted Dr Harlech. "Linda and I never really had much in common. I mean, she's not afraid of anything. And look at me - I'm afraid of everything."
"You remind me of Amber," said Lisa, smiling.
"Amber? Oh, no," said Dr Harlech, shaking her head. "I'm not like Amber at all. I wish I was, though. She's very brave."
"What? Amber isn't brave," said Lisa.
"But she tries to be," said Dr Harlech earnestly. "She gets scared and runs away, but she comes back to face what she's afraid of. And she stands up for what she believes in, and she cares about us - even me, and there's no reason why she should care about someone who helped to destroy her life. She's a good person. I'm not like that."
"Yes, you are," said Lisa.
"What makes you say that?" said Dr Harlech, puzzled.
"If you were a bad person, you wouldn't feel guilty about working for a company which wiped out a town," said Lisa. "You wouldn't give a damn how many people died, as long as you got paid. But you care whether people live or die, and you feel bad about what happened. You're not a bad person, Dr Harlech. Bad people don't care."
"I guess you're right," said Dr Harlech, with a sigh. "But I still feel like - well, like Nazi scientist scum."
"That means you still have a conscience. That's more than a lot of Umbrella employees do, by the sound of things," said Lisa. "Don't worry about it."
Dr Harlech nodded.
"Thank you."
There was a distant cry from the passage beyond the door. Seconds later, Renée came running back out, white-faced and shaking.
"Oh… oh God… you don't want to go in there," she gasped. "It's horrible! Zombies I can handle, but that… that's just wrong!"
With that, she rushed out of the storeroom and out of sight.
"What was that all about?" said Lisa, frowning.
"I don't know, but now I feel even less inclined to investigate," said Dr Harlech. "Mercenaries don't scare easily. If something's unnerved a mercenary that much, then whatever's at the end of that passage must be pretty awful."
She swallowed.
"But I worked in this complex, so I'm partly responsible for what went on inside these laboratories," she said, trying to put on a brave face. "That means I have to go in there and put a stop to whatever they've been doing down here."
"We'll go with you," said Lisa.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea," said Dr Harlech. "It could be a bit dangerous."
"No more dangerous than that giant zombie I push out the window," said Jack.
"Well… all right. Come on," said Dr Harlech.
They ducked slightly as they went through the door, and walked down the hidden passage as quietly as they could. They soon came to an automatic door, which swung aside at their approach.
The first thing that met their eyes as they went inside was a bank of large drawers, six drawers in height and twenty drawers in length. Every drawer was neatly labelled. Amber was opening and closing each one of the drawers in turn, looking at the labels and occasionally grimacing at whatever the contents were.
"Wow… that be the biggest filin' cabinet I ever see," said Jack in amazement.
Amber paused, her hand on one of the drawer handles.
"Filing cabinet?" she repeated. "Well, I suppose that's one way of putting it…"
Jack frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You know what they're keeping in here?" said Amber.
"No. What?" said Jack.
"See for yourself," said Amber, and pulled open the drawer.
Jack took a step towards the drawer to see what was inside, then reeled backwards with a cry of horror and disgust.
Inside the drawer, lying on a long metal shelf, was the corpse of a middle-aged man clad only in boxer shorts. There were bite marks all over his body, and his blue-white skin had been torn open in numerous places; his arms and legs were still encrusted with dried blood. There also appeared to be some sort of mould starting to grow on him.
But what made Jack recoil wasn't the blood, or the wounds, or even the mould. It was the expression on the man's face. His cold, dead eyes were staring up at nothing, and his mouth was wide open, as if he'd died screaming.
"May I introduce Mr Bartholomew Schneider," said Amber, producing some notes from a small compartment inside the drawer and flicking through them quickly. "Formerly of 2219 Autumn Park Drive, Raccoon City. According to this, he used to be in the property business. Owned a bunch of houses and some warehouses on the outskirts of uptown, which he rented out to local businessmen. He disappeared while hiking in the Arklay mountains three months ago. His body was later recovered from the river bank on the outskirts of town, and - ah yes, I see he was taken to Raccoon City General Hospital for autopsy. So quite what he's doing here is anybody's guess."
Jack looked even more queasy, and Lisa wondered if he was going to be sick again. Judging by the look on his face, the man's body must have been a mess. She was just thankful that she couldn't see much from where she was standing.
Dr Harlech apparently could - but surprisingly, she didn't seem particularly unnerved by the sight of a mouldering corpse. She did, however, say:
"Yuck. That's even worse than the guy whose stomach exploded on Ward 12."
"That was when you worked at the hospital, right? Was that why you left?" said Amber. "No, wait, you already told me. Underpaid and overworked, right?"
"Right."
"Thought so."
"That, and the fact that I happened to be standing right next to the guy at the time. Having someone explode all down the front of your new lab coat does absolutely nothing for your job satisfaction."
"I can imagine," said Amber dryly.
"I'm sure you can. Um… I think you'd better close that drawer, Amber," said Dr Harlech. "Jack's looking nauseous, and this is a clean lab coat. When it comes to being sprayed with the contents of someone else's stomach, once is quite enough."
Amber shrugged and slammed the drawer shut, and the late Mr Schneider disappeared into the inner recesses of the body storage units, leaving behind the faint but unmistakeable odour of death. Jack shuddered, and looked away.
"So what spooked Renée so much just now?" said Lisa.
"I don't know," said Amber. "I haven't looked around yet - I've been busy checking these drawers. None of the occupants are a pretty sight, it has to be said, but they're all of considerable interest. Mainly because none of them belong here. They're all meant to be in the hospital morgue."
"What are they doing here, then?" said Dr Harlech.
"Either they were donated for medical research, or Umbrella's ever-growing list of crimes includes body-snatching," said Amber darkly. "I'm inclined to believe the latter, myself. If they'd donated their bodies to science, then they'd still be at Raccoon City General Hospital - the old Raccoon Hospital doesn't have a morgue staff any more, not since that unfortunate incident last year. Besides, Raccoon City General has much better facilities now that they've finished rebuilding it."
"What happen to it?" said Jack.
"Oh, there was an electrical fire there six years ago," said Dr Harlech. "The whole place burned to the ground. Umbrella donated a few hundred thousand to set up the Raccoon Hospital, just to cover the city while they rebuilt Raccoon City General."
"That's why my parents started working for Umbrella," put in Lisa. "After the fire they applied to work at Raccoon Hospital instead, but they couldn't get jobs there because it already had all the staff it needed."
"Just think, if they'd started their own clinic instead of going to work for these body-snatching corporate scumbags, we wouldn't be in this mess right now," mused Amber. "Oh, well. We'd better have a look around and find out what scared off our favourite mercenary."
They moved on, passing the body storage and turning the corner into a laboratory that looked just like an operating theatre. However, it was an operating theatre that not only appeared to have been designed solely for dead people, but was also exempt from all hygiene regulations.
Blood covered almost every surface, including parts of the floor, and there were decaying bits of bodies everywhere. The stench was overpowering, enough to send Jack into a bout of dry heaving.
But that wasn't the worst part, thought Amber, as she watched Lisa fussing over Jack. The worst part was that some of the bodies weren't even human.
Most of them were, and some of the others looked human enough to fool the casual observer, but one or two of them, half-hidden beneath bloodied sheets, looked as if they'd been hacked to pieces and sewn back together inexpertly. That inexpert hand had also managed to add some extra features that definitely hadn't been standard-issue at birth.
"No wonder Renée ran away screaming," said Amber to herself.
She glanced quickly at Dr Harlech, and saw real astonishment and horror in the scientist's eyes.
She really didn't know about this…
"A few months ago, I heard a rumour that Umbrella was kidnapping people to use as live test subjects for its products," said Dr Harlech slowly, after a long and very uncomfortable pause. "I didn't think it was true. Even when Janice told me the truth about the so-called "treatment" we were working on, I never thought that they'd actually test it on human beings…"
She trailed off, staring at the mutilated corpses that littered the room.
"But then how do you explain the T-Virus epidemic?" said Amber.
"The T-Virus outbreak was an accident," said Dr Harlech dully. "There was some kind of spillage at the Birkin laboratory, down in the sewers. They said that rats spread the virus through the sewer system and that they took it up to street level with them."
"Well, that makes sense," said Amber. "It certainly accounts for how quickly the virus spread through the city."
"My neighbour contracted the T-Virus after being bitten by a rat," said Lisa.
"There you are, then," said Amber, gesturing towards her. "Contaminated rats caused the T-Virus epidemic. But if that's true, then I'm surprised that we didn't see any giant rats down in the sewers."
"That's not really surprising," said Dr Harlech. "Rats can be carriers for all kinds of deadly diseases without suffering any apparent ill-effects. I don't think that the T-Virus would do them much harm."
"So what now?" said Jack.
"Spread out and look for evidence," said Amber. "If we're ever going to bring Umbrella to justice, then we'll need proof of what they've been doing. Photographs, documents, anything. I just wish we had a camera… hey, where are you going?"
Dr Harlech had spotted something, and was making a beeline for the far end of the room.
"I think I saw a camera on that desk over there," she said, pointing to a row of desks at the rear of the laboratory.
Amber followed Dr Harlech over to the desks, and sure enough, there was a small but expensive-looking camera sitting neatly on top of some files.
"Well spotted, Clarissa," said Amber, picking up the camera and turning it over in her hands. "Hmm… none of the photos have been used. They must have replaced the film just recently. Oh well, all the more for me. Look after this for me, will you? I'm going to take some pictures."
Dr Harlech took the briefcase from Amber's hand and put it on the floor by her feet, then picked up one of the files from the desk. She opened it, and began reading the contents.
"Oh. These are just budget details," she said aloud.
"Really? That's absolutely fascinating," said Amber, standing back to take a picture of a mutated body on one of the operating tables. "Let me know when you're done."
Dr Harlech frowned.
"But budget details aren't - were you actually listening to me just now?"
"You're right. I agree entirely," said Amber distantly, going off to the body storage unit.
"You're not listening, are you?" said Dr Harlech, her frown deepening.
"Yes, that's a very good idea," said Amber absent-mindedly, opening four or five drawers and snapping a few photographs of Mr Schneider and some of the other corpses. "Do that."
"I thought not," said Dr Harlech. "Well, Amber, I think it's time that I told you the truth. The truth is, I think you're a stupid cow with a face like a baboon's backside."
"Yes, I think so too," said Amber, nodding as she moved in for a close-up shot of a headless corpse.
"And I'm a member of a secret society that's trying to bring Elvis back from the dead," Dr Harlech announced, slightly louder this time.
"That's nice. Everyone should have a hobby," said Amber vaguely.
"Did I mention that my favourite hobby was robbing liquor stores?"
"Very interesting."
"I'm a Communist too, you know. I'm trying to overthrow the government."
"That's good."
"I kidnapped the Lindbergh baby. And I shot J.R."
"Yeah, me too."
It was quite obvious that none of this was sufficient to attract Amber's attention. Dr Harlech decided to try a different tack.
"Amber, I'm sleeping with Umbrella's CEO."
"You WHAT?"
Amber banged her head on one of the open drawers, and turned to glare at Dr Harlech.
"Just kidding. But it certainly got your attention," said Dr Harlech, smiling.
Amber muttered something under her breath, and carried on with what she was doing.
Dr Harlech shrugged, and opened another file.
----------
While this rather surreal exchange was taking place, Jack and Lisa had found another door, just around the corner from the body storage.
"What you think they keep in here, Lise?" said Jack, trying to look through the gap at the bottom of the door.
"If it's anything like what we just saw back there, I'm not sure I want to find out," said Lisa.
She sniffed the air. She could smell something strange emanating from the door; a chemical odour which, despite its odd familiarity, she couldn't quite pinpoint.
"Can you smell something, Jack?" she said at last.
Jack sniffed once or twice.
"Yeah," he said. "I smell - uh, you know that time when we go on a field trip to the museum, an' we see all the dead frogs an' stuff in jars? It smell kinda like that liquid stuff they keep 'em in. You know. For-what's-it-called."
"Formaldehyde," supplied Lisa.
"Yeah," said Jack. "It smell just like that."
Lisa sniffed again. Jack was right; it was the same smell, but without the hint of museum dust.
"You're right," she said, nodding. "It is formaldehyde."
"We gonna go in an' see what they be keepin' in here?" said Jack, getting up.
"I suppose we'd better take a look," said Lisa reluctantly.
They opened the door and stepped into the room beyond. When Jack saw what was inside it, he froze completely, able only to stare helplessly at the sight which met his eyes.
The shock of seeing the room's contents had the same effect on Lisa, fixing her to the spot and overwhelming every one of her senses. When the full enormity of the horror within the room finally hit her, seconds later, an involuntary shriek escaped from her lips.
----------
Amber was already halfway to the door when she heard the scream. Dr Harlech dropped the file she was holding, and chased after her.
"I knew you shouldn't have pressed that button!" she cried. "Didn't I tell you it was a bad idea?"
"Shut up and run!"
They reached the door and flung it open.
"Lisa! Jack!" gasped Amber. "Are you -"
She stopped dead in her tracks.
"Oh, my…" she breathed.
The massive room was lined with tall cylindrical glass tanks filled with embalming fluid. Each tank contained a human body, pale and dead and clad in a hospital gown. Their expressions of agony, preserved forever in formaldehyde, were terrible to behold.
"Oh, God," whispered Amber. "There's so many of them…"
Dr Harlech was trembling uncontrollably.
"Someone tell me I'm not seeing this," she whimpered. "Please, tell me this isn't real!"
"Oh, it's real all right," said Amber grimly. "And it's even worse than I thought..."
The camera in her hands whirred as she started taking photograph after photograph.
Lisa and Jack wandered past the endless rows of tanks, staring in bewilderment and disbelief at their contents. Occasionally they glanced at each other, silently confirming that what they were seeing was really there.
"This remind me of the time I sneak into the movies to go see "Alien: Resurrection" back in Tijuana," said Jack at last. "You ever see that movie, Lise?"
Lisa, staring in horrified fascination at a young woman suspended in one of the tanks, shook her head.
"Well, in one bit, the alien-lady an' her amigos find a secret lab on the spaceship an' when they go in, they find these tubes with a whole bunch of human-alien hybrids inside," said Jack.
"What happened next?" said Lisa, glad of the distraction.
"I dunt know, I dint get chance to find out," admitted Jack. "I throw up all over the dude in front of me an' I get kicked out by the chicas who sell the popcorn."
"Oh."
Lisa returned her attention to the woman in the tank, who was floating gently in the clear liquid. Before expiring, the woman had apparently started to mutate an extra head; there was a large growth on her shoulder, with what looked like the beginnings of eyes and a mouth.
Lisa reached out and touched the tank, willing the sight to be nothing more than a bad dream or a terrible hallucination, but the glass was firm and slightly warm beneath her fingers.
She closed her eyes tightly and turned away, no longer willing or able to look at the unfortunate woman in her final resting place of glass and chemical preservatives.
"This is monstrous," she said quietly. "What kind of person could do something like this to another human being?"
Jack shook his head wordlessly. If there was an answer to the question, he didn't know what it was.
Dr Harlech did, though. She'd found some desks near the centre of the room, and now she was holding a picture frame in her left hand. She was still shaking, but not with fear.
"The same kind of person who keeps pictures of their kids on their desk," she spat. "Family pictures - in a goddamn torture chamber!"
Amber ducked as the picture whirred past her head and smashed on the floor somewhere behind her.
"Clarissa, calm down," she said, raising both hands. "And stop throwing things. You shouldn't throw pictures of people's kids on the floor."
"What does it matter?" Dr Harlech snarled, snatching up another picture from the desk. "They're all dead now anyway! You know who those kids were, Amber? Those were Dr Dayton's kids! Margaret Dayton! I always thought she was so kind… so nice, and all that time, she was working in here!"
Amber grabbed Dr Harlech's wrist just in time.
"Experimenting on innocent people and turning them into monsters, then going home to her husband and kids every night! How could she?" screamed Dr Harlech.
"I don't know either, Clarissa. But you have to calm down, okay?" said Amber, gently prising the picture from Dr Harlech's fingers and putting it back on the desk.
Dr Harlech breathed out.
"Okay," she said, nodding. "Okay. I'm calm now. Can you let go of my hand, please?"
"Sure," said Amber, and released her grip on the scientist's hand.
"Thanks," said Dr Harlech, rubbing her wrist. "And now that you've let go of me, I can help you search the desks. Umbrella has to be punished for this, and there must be something here that will help us do that, right?"
Amber smiled warmly, and slapped the scientist on the back.
"Atta girl, Clarissa. Come on, those papers look promising. Let's take a look, shall we?"
Jack watched them set to work on the untidy pile of papers that covered one of the desks, then turned back to look at Lisa. She was still drifting past the long rows of tanks, as if caught in a horrible dream that she couldn't wake up from. Her gaze passed from one side of the chamber of horrors to another, not spending more than five seconds on the same thing.
But then something in one of the tanks caught Lisa's eye, and she froze. She turned round slowly, unwilling to look, but unable to stop her gaze from being dragged towards the tank.
The colour evaporated from her face.
"Oh no…" she gasped.
"Lise?" called Jack. "Hey Lise, you okay?"
Lost in her own personal hell, Lisa didn't seem to hear him. She sank to her knees, tears streaming down her face.
"No… oh, no…"
"Lise?" said Jack, hurrying to her side and kneeling next to her. "Lise, what be the matter?"
Lisa pointed to the tank in front of her. Jack followed her shaking finger, and saw a girl, about fifteen or sixteen years old, floating inside it.
Like the others, the girl was clad in a hospital gown and looked as if she'd died in great pain; her teeth were bared slightly, and her eyes were tightly closed. Her skin was white, her lips were blue, and her hair had probably been mouse-brown once. Now, under the light that illuminated the tank's contents, it looked paler; strands of it drifted slightly in the formaldehyde.
"Poor kid," said Jack, shaking his head. "But why you be cryin' over her? Whatever sufferin' she go through, it be over now. An' at least it ain't you in there, right?"
Lisa's sobbing grew louder. Jack winced - he hated seeing her cry - but patted her on the shoulder.
"Jack, do you remember your first day at school?" said Lisa, sniffling.
"Uh, yeah," said Jack, trying not to sound thrown by the question. "First time I ever see you. I introduce myself, and then you introduce youself, an' then I think you ask me where the girl who used to sit next to you go. Then - "
Lisa cut him off, and pointed back at the tank.
"That's her. The girl who used to sit next to me. That's Charlotte…"
"Oh," said Jack, suddenly feeling very awkward.
"She just disappeared one day," said Lisa softly. "Nobody knew what happened to her. Someone said she'd moved away, but I knew she couldn't have - she would have told me if she was moving! Ever since then, I've been wondering what happened to her. And now I know. Umbrella got her. They kidnapped my best friend and they killed her for their experiments! My best friend!"
Lisa stood up.
"I'm going to find out who did this," she said angrily. "And when I do, they're going to pay. Whoever did this to Charlotte is dead."
On the other side of the room, Amber and Dr Harlech's search for clues among the paperwork had so far been largely unsuccessful. Most of the pages were covered in smudged, near-illegible notes and pencilled calculations that meant nothing to either of them, and one or two pages were completely blank.
"Nothing, nothing… damn, that's no good. Oh, there's nothing here," complained Amber. "Secret evil labs are meant to have mountains of suspicious paperwork, but in this place nothing incriminating ever seems to get written down! What the hell is wrong with these people? They're evil scientists, for crying out loud! They're not doing it right!"
"Hey," interrupted Dr Harlech. "Hate to contradict you, Amber, but I think I've found something."
She pulled some slightly rumpled sheets of paper out of the diminished pile. After giving each one a brief, cursory glance, she handed them over to Amber.
"See what you make of them," she said.
Amber took the sheets of paper from the scientist's hand, and began to read.
The first document was a photocopy of a security document. Most of it didn't seem to correspond to the L-Project lab complex at all - it was something to do with a secret Umbrella facility disguised as a deserted factory - but Amber read with interest the instructions on what to do if civilians were to enter the facility:
If this should occur, do not hesitate to shoot them. If they choose to surrender, arrest and then transfer them to the laboratory as guinea pigs. You will be rewarded.
This was underlined in red ink.
"Good grief," she said under her breath, and turned to the next document.
SECURITY REPORT
Further to the instructions given in the factory facility's Security Manual, the following individuals have been apprehended after entering the facility:
Affleck, Todd (27): Surveyor for J. Hughes Development Co. Sent on behalf of the aforementioned company to report on the possibility of purchasing the factory site for housing redevelopment and extensions to Raccoon Park. Shot in both legs after attempting to escape. Later surrendered and brought to the L-Project laboratory for experimentation. Prior to testing, Affleck's clothes were left near the riverbank outside the city to indicate the man's apparent suicide. No further action required.
O'Sullivan, Lucy (20): College student investigating the effects of pollution on the flora and fauna of Raccoon Park. Strayed too near the facility grounds and was apprehended. Surrendered after a brief struggle and was taken to the L-Project laboratory for experimentation. An attempt to cover up her disappearance by means of faking her suicide has caused suspicion on the part of the RPD and O'Sullivan's college. Situation to be monitored.
O'Neill, Molly (45): Local woman searching for her missing terrier. The dog was shot on sight. O'Neill was apprehended in the facility grounds and surrendered immediately. Taken to the L-Project laboratory for experimentation. A background check on O'Neill revealed no immediate family or close friends, but we have erred on the side of caution and her death has been faked in a car accident outside the city. No further action required.
Shelley, Jacqueline (32): FBI agent sent to investigate the disappearance of Todd Affleck and Lucy O'Sullivan. Initially surrendered but then attempted to escape. Recaptured and taken to the L-Project laboratory for experimentation. Chief Irons of the RPD has been contacted regarding this event and the situation has now been resolved. No further action required.
McMinn, Keenan (21) &Willowherb, Amy (19): Homeless couple searching for shelter in what they clearly believed to be a deserted factory. Apprehended upon entering the facility and taken to the L-Project laboratory for experimentation. Unlikely to be missed. No further action deemed necessary at this time.
Marshall, Stan (15) & Marshall, Hugh (12): Local children earlier seen playing soccer in the Raccoon Park area. Entered the facility grounds after their ball smashed one of the facility's upstairs windows. Apprehended and taken to the L-Project laboratory for experimentation. Parents were informed of their "tragic deaths in an accident at the disused factory" and human remains have been provided for a funeral. No further action required.
Lascelles, Charlotte (15): Local girl found wandering the facility grounds in search of a missing baseball. Initially fought off three guards but was then apprehended and taken to the L-Project laboratory for experimentation. A background check has revealed parents but no other close family. Further action required.
Lascelles, Robert (42) & Lascelles, Julianne (40): Following their daughter's capture, Mr and Mrs Lascelles have been removed from their home and taken to the L-Project laboratory for experimentation. Their house has been stripped bare of all furnishings and the family's possessions have been put into storage. Their belongings will later be auctioned off. Officially, the Lascelles' home has been repossessed for three months' non-payment on their mortgage, and the family have since left Raccoon City for a new life in Canada. This has been accepted by all those enquiring about the family's sudden disappearance. No further action required.
"My God," said Amber, appalled. "All those people brought here and killed, just because they stumbled across that factory by accident… and some of them weren't much older than Lisa and Jack."
Dr Harlech nodded.
"Those poor people," she sighed, as Amber started reading the third document. "But at least we can do something about it now. We've got documents proving that Umbrella's been killing people."
"Clarissa?" said Amber suddenly. "That bioweapon you found out you were working on - was it called the L-Virus, by any chance?"
Dr Harlech nodded.
"Yes, I think it was. I don't know what the L is supposed to stand for, though. Janice didn't tell me. Why do you ask?"
"Take a look."
Dr Harlech craned over Amber's shoulder to read the document more thoroughly. It read:
"L-Tyrant" Test Results
As we already know, the T-Virus affects living organisms in a variety of ways - it can turn mammals such as humans and dogs into zombies with very little mutation, and its effects on amphibians, reptiles, insects and other organisms have been documented elsewhere.
However, in some cases the T-Virus has turned human test subjects into an entirely different type of creature from the zombie; these creatures are known as the "Tyrants".
The Tyrant was originally considered to be the ideal bioweapon, and our superiors demanded that the bioweapons division produce more Tyrants.
Unfortunately it is not that simple. Only a limited proportion of the population have the correct type of DNA which, when exposed to the T-Virus, will turn them into Tyrants, as opposed to mere zombies. Attempts to increase the numbers of Tyrants produced by other means have so far been unsuccessful.
In addition, the Arklay mansion incident has proved that the Tyrants, while being extremely powerful bioweapons, have a number of fatal weaknesses - the creatures' beating hearts are exposed, they are relatively slow and stupid, and lastly, they can be destroyed by weapons such as the Magnum revolver. We have been ordered to eliminate these flaws entirely.
Other prototype viruses have been used in conjunction with the T-Virus in the hope that better results can be achieved. Birkin's G-Virus - of which we have been fortunate enough to obtain samples through Dr Hartley and his wife - is incredibly powerful and, in addition to its regenerative properties, it enables a creature infected with the G-Virus to implant embryos into other living organisms, in order to spawn copies of itself. On the other hand, the mutations caused by the G-Virus are far too rapid and unstable; in a matter of hours, mammalian test subjects have been reduced from a powerful bioweapon to a large, shapeless mass which can be destroyed with relative ease using sufficiently powerful weapons.
The Nemesis strain of the T-Virus has been found in previous studies to be a more effective way of creating useful bioweapons. So far only one Nemesis has been produced, but happily this was accomplished using a subject who did not have the required DNA to become a Tyrant. The speed, strength and intelligence of the Nemesis are a great improvement on the Tyrant, and it can also infect other organisms with the Nemesis virus. It also appears to be virtually indestructible at present, and mutations have been slower but more stable. However, some of the data gathered on the Nemesis predicts that it will eventually mutate, like the G-Virus subjects, into a shapeless mass with limited potential for use as a bioorganic weapon.
Following the creation of the L-Virus, we hope to create a bioweapon as powerful, intelligent, fast and indestructible as the Nemesis, but without the drawbacks of inconvenient further mutations which will render the subject almost useless as a bioweapon. The L-Virus is still in its early stages of development at the time of writing, but by combining it with other viruses we hope that it will eliminate the unwanted effects of the T- and Nemesis-strain T-Viruses while reinforcing their desirable properties, and thus create new and better Tyrants.
We have tested the early L-Virus on trespassers captured at the "Dead Factory" facility, and our test results are as follows:
Test Subject #1: Todd Affleck
Injected with a mixture of T-Virus and the prototype L-Virus. Some mutations occurred, but regrettably the subject expired before any real progress could be made.
Test Subject #2: Lucy O'Sullivan
Injected with a mixture of T-Virus, Nemesis-strain T-Virus and the prototype L-Virus. Some mutations observed in the facial area. Subject expired before further testing could be conducted.
Test Subject #3: Molly O'Neill
Injected with a mixture of T-Virus, G-Virus and the prototype L-Virus. Mutations at first seemed promising, but rapidly began to spiral out of control. The subject was terminated soon afterwards.
Test Subject #4: Jacqueline Shelley
Injected with a mixture of T-Virus, G-Virus, Nemesis-strain T-Virus and the prototype L-Virus. Subject appeared to be in agony within seconds of the viruses being introduced into her system. Rapid mutations caused the growth of apparatus for infecting other organisms with the Nemesis virus, but the subject's intelligence dropped to an intolerably low level. Subject terminated.
The list went on and on. Anger and disgust briefly competed for control of Dr Harlech's face, but faint puzzlement beat them to the punch.
"What's a Tyrant?" she said.
"And I thought you were the Umbrella expert," sighed Amber. "All right, a Tyrant is… well, imagine the tallest guy in the world. Then imagine he's a few feet taller than that again, stronger than anything you can imagine, and built like a pro-wrestler."
Dr Harlech's mouth opened.
"Goodness," she said weakly.
"Yep. A Tyrant is big, strong, and ugly as sin too," said Amber. "It's also very difficult to kill."
"So where did you see it?" said Dr Harlech, who was starting to look worried.
"Oh, I've never seen a Tyrant, except in pictures," said Amber, and Dr Harlech breathed out again. "But the STARS survivors told me all about them. They're horrible things. Jill and Chris had to use a rocket launcher just to wipe out the Tyrant at the Arklay mansion. Rebecca fought one off too, and she only had a Magnum. Hope I never have to see one."
"Same here," said Dr Harlech, handing back the papers to Amber. The briefcase clicked open as Amber filed their latest finds.
"Whoops…"
A scrap of paper had fallen out of the documents as they had been put away, and it fluttered to the floor.
"It's okay, I'll get it," said Dr Harlech, stooping to pick it up again.
"I didn't even notice that. What is it?" said Amber.
"It looks like part of a memo. Two memos, actually, but the second one's incomplete. The bottom part's been torn off," said Dr Harlech, passing it to Amber.
Sender: "Dr Elizabeth Hartley" (queenofhearts(a)umbrellamail. com)
Recipients: "Dr Margaret Dayton" (maggy247(a)umbrellamail. com); "Dr Dean Forrester" (lumberjack(a)umbrellamail. com); "Dr Theresa Goddard" (thereisagoddard(a)umbrellamail. com)
Re: L-Virus testing
I have recently discovered that human test subjects are being used in parts of this facility. Testing on live human subjects has not been authorised and is to be stopped immediately. No subjects obtained by Umbrella's security guards are to be brought to this facility in future. The recent spate of disappearances at the "Dead Factory" facility has raised eyebrows and may arouse further suspicion. One FBI agent has already been intercepted and there may be more to follow. Stop this practice at once or suffer the consequences.
Further to the discovery of these experiments, I refuse to allow you to test anything on the subject named Charlotte Lascelles. She is to be released unharmed as of now and returned to her parents at once. All documentation will be handled by myself and my husband.
Dr Elizabeth Hartley
------
Sender: "Dr Margaret Dayton" (maggy247(a)umbrellamail. com)
Recipient: "Dr Elizabeth Hartley" (queenofhearts(a)umbrellamail. com)
Re: Test Subject #9
Contrary to your memo as of 6/20/98, we have permission to carry out experiments on live human test subjects. These tests have been ordered by Dr Lampeter and Dr Hazlitt. Dr Fisher has been made aware of the existence of live human test subjects in the L-Project facility and is satisfied with our progress. The tests will continue as planned.
Test Subject #9, the girl named Charlotte Lascelles, cannot be released. Testing had already begun when we received your memo via e-mail and she is now infected with the Nemesis strain of the T-Virus and the prototype L-Virus. Releasing her now could result in contamination of the entire city and the exposure of Umbrella's bioweapons programme, and that is absolutely unacceptable. We are aware that Subject #9 is your daughter's best friend, but you must remain impartial in these matters…
There wasn't any more. In Amber's opinion, this was probably just as well. She folded it up and tossed it into the briefcase along with the other papers.
"I don't think we should tell Lisa about that memo," she said quietly.
Dr Harlech shook her head.
"I don't think we should either. It would only upset her."
"Yeah. Don't mention anything to her."
"I won't if you won't."
"Good. Are there any more papers left?"
Dr Harlech picked up the remaining papers from the desk and sorted through them hurriedly. She was just about to put them down again when she noticed something. Her expression, already stony, hardened further.
"What is it?" said Amber, who'd seen her scowl.
"Hey, I wonder what happens when you press this button?" said Dr Harlech, pointing to a small red button on the surface of the desk. "Does it call room service? Hah! Knowing these people, there'll be another secret room right next door, full of tanks just like these ones!"
"Then press it," said Amber. "We have to know."
Momentarily forgetting her fear of pressing unknown switches, Dr Harlech stabbed the little round button savagely with the tip of her index finger, as if poking out the eyes of everyone who had ever worked in the room.
A section of floor in the middle of the room opened up to reveal a gaping hole, and something large rising slowly from the depths.
"What is that?" said Amber, peering into the hole. She stepped back quickly as whatever it was passed floor level and continued its inexorable climb upwards.
"It look like another one of those tanks," said Jack, as the object came into view. And sure enough, it was a cylindrical glass tank, identical to the others in the room but built on a much larger scale.
"I wonder why this one's kept apart from the others?" said Dr Harlech.
The tank had risen just enough for them to see the test subject's head; whoever was inside was startling ugly, like a hairless, scarred and very disgruntled caveman with chalk-white skin.
The tank rose and rose, and now they could see more - a huge bald man with impossibly broad shoulders, biceps to spare, and a muscular torso covered in scar tissue. This in itself was not particularly shocking; what made them gasp was the sight of the man's heart, which appeared to be growing on the outside of his chest. It was still beating, with thuds that made the glass rattle.
More of the tank was emerging from beneath the floor. Lisa averted her eyes after chest-level, since she had been well brought up. The others, however, stared in shock.
"No wonder that guy look pissed off with the world," remarked Jack. "No cojones, an' if that ain't bad enough, someone kill him an' he end up floating in a tank. I think I would look real pissed too if that happen to me…"
But that wasn't what Amber and Dr Harlech were staring at. Their attention had been drawn to one of the giant's arms, which ended in a strange growth of spikes instead of a hand.
Amber swallowed.
"I think we're in big trouble," she said, trembling.
"If that's what I think you were describing earlier, I'm inclined to agree," said Dr Harlech, who looked as if she was about to cry. "Let's get out of here."
"We can't just leave the tank like this," argued Amber. "Look, it's still alive. It could break out of that tank at any second."
"That's all the more reason for us to leave, then," said Dr Harlech. "Just take a picture of it to prove it exists, and let's get out of here. Perhaps if we leave quietly, it won't wake up and it'll stay put."
"No, Clarissa, we have to get rid of it," said Amber.
"How? We can't kill it, and it's way too big to flush," said Dr Harlech.
"Put it back, then," Amber told her.
"Um… okay," said Dr Harlech, and she pushed the button on the desk. Instead of retracting into the floor like she'd hoped it would, the tank stayed exactly where it was. She frowned, and pressed the button again. The tank stayed resolutely in place. Panicking inwardly, Dr Harlech pressed the button as hard as she could.
There was a rumble from inside the tank. Slowly, dreading what they were about to see, the little band of survivors turned their heads towards the tank.
"Uh-oh…" said Lisa.
The formaldehyde in the tank was draining away with a horrible gurgling noise. They watched in horror as the liquid dropped to chin-level, waist-level, and then ankle-level in a matter of seconds.
"Oh, no," said Jack. "That ain't good."
Pearly white eyes snapped open. A fist clenched and unclenched, then clenched again and slammed into the side of the tank. Jack and Lisa both jumped as cracks formed in the glass like spider webs.
"Put it back! Put it back!" screamed Amber, over the noise of the Tyrant pounding the tank again and again.
"I'm trying!" screamed Dr Harlech, frantically pressing the button again and again.
But it was too late. The cracks in the tank grew longer and longer, before finally exploding outwards and spraying shards of reinforced glass across the room.
Like the world's ugliest duckling hatching from an egg, the Tyrant emerged from the broken remains of the tank to an accompaniment of screams from its audience. Though not quite as big or as hideous as the giant zombie that they'd faced before, it was just as effective at striking terror into their hearts.
"You said they needed a rocket launcher to take out one of these things, right, Amber?" said Lisa, as they backed away from the monster.
Amber nodded wordlessly.
Lisa gulped.
"Oh boy," she said weakly. "We're screwed…"