40: A Devil Put Aside For Me
Completely unaware of the events unfolding upstairs, Amber walked down the corridor and stopped outside the door at the end. She took hold of the door handle and pulled the door open.
She walked through it and into what was probably the biggest room she'd ever seen. It was massive, easily twice the size of the room that had been divided by the glass partition, and it must have been at least two storeys high, if not three. She was currently standing on a rusty iron catwalk, high above the bare stone floor, and at the other end was a rust-covered door with a sign that was unreadable, having corroded long ago.
This made sense. The catwalk had obviously been the long, thin rectangle in the diagram that Lucifer had drawn on the wall of its cell. And the circles…
She looked down. The circles turned out to be vast simmering metal vats, filled with unknowable substances that gave off an incredible stench of old chemicals. They looked, and probably were, highly toxic.
"Amber Bernstein. We meet again."
Amber jumped at the sound of the voice, and looked up sharply to see Christina standing in front of the door at the other end of the catwalk. She was smiling smugly, as if in the possession of superior knowledge.
"Oh, it's you," said Amber. She didn't feel particularly relieved, but even an unfriendly face was better than being alone down here. This whole environment was giving her the creeps.
Christina nodded.
"I see you have my torch," she said mildly, pointing to the object tucked into Amber's belt. "I'd like it back, please."
"Of course," said Amber. "Though I should warn you that the battery just ran out."
She crossed the catwalk and handed it to the mercenary. Christina's smug expression melted seamlessly into a look of distaste as she took the spent torch from Amber's hands.
"Thank you," she said stiffly.
"So how long have you been down here?" said Amber, quickly changing the subject. Being alone with a disgruntled Christina was a prospect that she wanted to avoid at all costs.
"Oh, I've been down here for quite some time now," said Christina, smiling faintly. "Just waiting. Waiting for you to show up."
It was an innocuous little sentence in itself, but something about the way she said it triggered something deep inside Amber's brain. In spite of this, Amber tried to steer the conversation towards the polite exchange of information. A narrow, rusting catwalk with a solid concrete floor twenty feet below it was no place to duke it out with someone who was trained to kill for money.
"So… uh… did you find out where that door leads?" she said, nodding towards the door behind Christina.
"As a matter of fact, I did," said Christina. "It leads through an old weapons storage room and into a small stairwell, and then out onto the platform for the emergency escape train."
Amber smiled. This was the best news she'd heard all day.
"Great work, Christina," she said. "Come on, let's go and fetch the others so we can get out of this dump."
She turned around and headed back for the door, feeling slightly self-conscious as she did so. She had taken no more than four steps when she heard the click of metal on metal behind her. Amber froze, but despite her panic, she made an effort to keep her breathing slow and steady. Keeping calm was absolutely essential if she was going to survive this one.
Without turning around even a fraction of an inch, she could see what was behind her; Christina, still smiling her faint and slightly unnerving smile, was pointing a gun right at the back of her head. When Amber did eventually turn round, at something approximating the speed of continental drift, she saw exactly what she'd predicted - except now the gun was aimed at her forehead.
Keep calm. Maintain eye contact. Don't blink. Just reach down, slowly…
"Don't even think about it," said Christina sharply.
Amber's hand stopped halfway to her waist, caught in the act of reaching for her gun. She gave up, and let her arms hang at her sides.
"I knew it," she said hopelessly. "I knew I should have killed you when I had the chance."
"Yes, you should have," said Christina, in a tone of voice which sounded almost sympathetic. "Why didn't you?"
"Lisa and Jack," said Amber. "They talked me out of it, back in the park when we were following you."
"More fool you for listening to them," said Christina grimly, all traces of sympathy now gone. "Children are in no position to advise adults, and you should know that. Of course, that's rather irrelevant now, since you're going to die anyway."
Amber gulped.
"L-look, Christina," she said, stammering a little in her nervousness, "I know we hate the sight of each other, but there's no need for this. I'm sure if we talk about this, we can - "
Christina smirked.
"You really think this is personal?" she said. "You should know better than that. I'm a mercenary, Amber - that should give you some clues as to why I'm doing this."
Amber's heart sank as her negotiation attempts fell flat. Of course that was why Christina was doing this. She'd known that right away, deep down, but a very tiny part of her had hoped that maybe this was just a grudge, something that could be talked about and dealt with in the name of peace and harmony. Stupid, really. There was no room in Christina's head for peace and harmony, or anything else that dealt with mercy, forgiveness or human kindness.
"I know why you're here, Christina," said Amber wearily. "There's no need to explain. The "rescue mission" was a cover story. They sent you and Renée here to take me out because I tried to help the STARS survivors bring down the company and expose the truth. I'm going to die down here because I know too much. I knew that all along. I just hoped that there might be a chance that I was wrong."
Christina gave the tiniest of nods. In a competition for "smallest, most perfunctory movements in the history of human body language", it would have been a definite contender for the top ten.
"Correct," she said. "Well, mostly. The rescue operation conducted by our unit was real. Lavelle was telling the truth when she said that we'd been sent here to save civilians - that was what she and the other members of the unit were told to do. I, however,was sent here specifically to track you down and kill you. The other STARS survivors are being dealt with even as I speak."
"But why didn't you kill me before?" said Amber. "You had plenty of opportunities to kill me when the kids weren't around to see. You could have shot me when you found me in the sewers, or in the living room in the clock tower."
"No," said Christina. "This mission was originally top secret. Lavelle wasn't supposed to know about it - for all she knew, I was helping her to rescue you and the others. Letting you live this long was part of the subterfuge. However, while I was tracking your movements - oh yes, that reminds me, there's a tracking device underneath the collar of your shirt. I'd like that back before I kill you, please. Those are quite expensive."
Amber, stunned by this new revelation, felt the back of her collar and found the little tracking device that Christina had carefully placed there. She pulled it off and stared at it.
"How did you put that there?" she said, frowning.
"That's been on your collar ever since our journey through the sewers," said Christina casually. "Give it to me, please."
She held out her hand; Amber, still stunned, handed it back without a word.
"Now where was I?" mused Christina aloud. "Oh yes. While I was tracking your movements from afar, you came across another of my targets, and I realised that separating both targets from the rest of the group so that I could shoot you without either Lavelle or the children noticing would be virtually impossible. So I enlisted Lavelle's help after my last meeting with her - I believe that was while you and the other target were battling a Tyrant. Congratulations, by the way. You performed remarkably well under the circumstances. I was quite surprised that it didn't save me the trouble of killing you both."
"The other target… you must mean Clarissa," said Amber, shocked.
Christina nodded.
"Dr Harlech also knows far more about this company than she should, and her attempted resignation from the Lucifer Project made her a liability. She had to die. It was most convenient that you came down here looking for a way out. While I take care of you, Lavelle deals with the good doctor upstairs. A very neat arrangement."
"What about Jack and Lisa?" said Amber, already dreading the response. "They're just kids - even if they did try to expose Umbrella, nobody would believe them. They're not a threat to the company. You won't hurt them, will you?"
"Well, I left that entirely at Private Lavelle's discretion," said Christina, shrugging. "However, she's not being paid for them, and being the soft and weak-willed thing that she is, I have no doubt that she'll let them live. Not that it matters much. The boy's dying from the L-Virus infection, and the girl won't last long with the subject after her."
"The subject…?" said Amber.
"Lucifer," said Christina matter-of-factly. "What with one thing and another, the team responsible for Lucifer's training never taught it to seek out a target, and so it seems to have decided to kill everything and everyone even remotely associated with the project that spawned it. Lisa's parents, as you may already know, created the L-Virus and were ordered to test it on the corpse of a STARS member found at the site of the Spencer mansion. I believe he was rather close to you at one point."
Amber gasped.
"You don't mean - oh, no. Not Joseph…!"
"Joseph Frost? Yes. His name now is Lucifer. Oh, Amber, don't cry," said Christina, noticing the tears glistening in Amber's eyes. "You shouldn't cry. After all, he is already dead."
"I'LL KILL YOU!" shrieked Amber, throwing down her briefcase. She drew her gun and launched herself at Christina, pulling the trigger of her handgun.
Christina yawned, and stepped aside almost lazily to dodge the bullets. Then, with cobra-like speed, her arm shot out and gripped Amber around the neck, forcing the police officer into a headlock.
"Oh, you'll try, I have no doubt," she told Amber. "But you won't kill me. And if you think you can, then you're quite mistaken. I'm the one who's going to kill you."
Amber's necklace, which up until now had been carefully tucked inside her shirt, chose that exact moment to come untucked and fall out. Christina saw the pendant dangling a few inches above the floor, smiled nastily, and ripped the necklace from Amber's neck.
"Give that back!" yelled Amber, trying to make a grab for it.
Christina shook her head and tightened her fingers around it.
"Do you even know what this is?" she said, her lip curling. "Or how important it is? It's the laboratory key, of course, but there's much more to it than that. It's the property of Umbrella Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, on loan to Dr Elizabeth Hartley for the duration of the Lucifer Project, and now Umbrella wants it back. They want it back so much, they're willing to put two million dollars directly into my bank account if I retrieve it for them."
"Why is it so important?" yelled Amber. "It's just a stupid neckla-ow, ow, ow!"
Christina hauled Amber to her feet by her hair.
"But it's not just a necklace," she said softly, tucking the necklace into a pocket and putting her gun to Amber's head. "That pendant gets its smoky colour from the liquid inside it, and that liquid just happens to be the last surviving sample of the finished L-Virus. The company put a lot of money into this project, and they're not about to see it go to waste. They want this virus, and I'm going to be the one who hands it to them and walks away with pockets full of cash and two targets crossed off my hit list. And nobody - you, or anyone else - is going to stop me."
"Haven't you ever watched the movies, Christina?" said Amber, through clenched teeth. "Don't you know what happens when the bad guy says "You can't kill me! Nothing can stop me now! Mwahahahaha!" to the good guy? I'll tell you what happens! The good guy kicks the bad guy's ass and the bad guy falls backwards into the flaming pit of death with a "Nooooooooo!", that's what!"
"Well this isn't a movie, Amber," said Christina scornfully. "This is real. And in real life, there are no happy endings, no lucky escapes, no miraculous victories. Good guys die and bad guys get away with it. And I am going to tell you how this story ends."
She leaned closer, and murmured into Amber's ear:
"You die here. Dr Harlech dies upstairs. Jack turns into a monster. Lisa gets killed by her parents' own creation. Renée escapes alive and well, providing she never breathes a word about her part in my mission. I get away with the L-Virus and get rewarded with millions of dollars for my trouble. That's how it's going to be. You're going to die, Amber Bernstein. And you know, there really isn't anything you can do about it."
"Maybe not," said Amber. "But tell me one thing before I die. As a cop, it's something that I've always been curious about."
"What?"
"What does it feel like to be a murderer?"
Amber knew she'd touched a nerve when she heard the long silence, and the faint hiss of indrawn breath.
"I am not a murderer," came the reply, distant and cold.
"You've grabbed a defenceless woman from behind and you're about to put a bullet through her head," Amber pointed out. "That sure sounds like murder to me. A really cowardly kind of murder."
"I'm not a murderer or a coward. I'm a mercenary, and I only kill for money."
"Plenty of murderers kill for money," said Amber.
"And I'm not one of them," said Christina. "I'm a soldier. I'm paid to follow orders."
"And when you're ordered to murder other people?" said Amber.
"Assassinate," corrected Christina. "Not murder. Murder implies personal motives and an autonomous decision to kill. I don't make the decisions - I just kill whoever I'm told to kill."
"Why? Too stupid to make your own decisions?" Amber retorted.
"Exactly what are you trying to prove, Bernstein?" Christina demanded to know. "If this is some sort of pathetic attempt to talk me out of killing you by persuading me that I'm on the wrong side, then it won't work. I'm on the side that pays me money to fight, and that's always the right side when you're a mercenary."
"I don't care what you say, Christina," snapped Amber. "You're a liar and a coward, and a murderer too. You're not even a real soldier. A real soldier doesn't need to kill defenceless people by grabbing them in a headlock from behind and shooting them in the head!"
"Very well then," said Christina calmly. "If you persist in being deliberately obtuse in an attempt to make me angry, then I'm happy to rise to the challenge. I'm no gun-reliant coward and I'll prove it - I'll fight you right here, though I should warn you that you don't have a hope of winning. I'm more than capable of killing you with my bare hands. To be honest, you would have been better off if I had just pulled the trigger now. It would have been quicker and less painful. But if you want to play silly games…"
"Oooh," taunted Amber, raising her fists. "Is that meant to scare me? It's not working. You wanna fight me bare-handed, huh? Huh? Well, bring it on, bit-"
The punch came out of nowhere and sent Amber flying. Amber staggered backwards, but regained her balance and flung herself at Christina, fists flailing wildly as she tried to land punches on the mercenary. Christina dodged these effortlessly, then sent back a right hook so fast and vicious that it knocked Amber flat on her back.
Slightly dazed, Amber picked herself up - just in time to be kicked back down again. She suddenly found a knee planted firmly in her stomach, another one pinning her down by the right shoulder and punches raining down on her as Christina took full tactical advantage of her prone position.
Dizzy, bruised and bleeding - well, possibly, she was a little unsure on the last one - Amber was beginning to regret her rash choice of words. She may have avoided a bullet through the head, but instead she was getting beaten to death; it wasn't much of an improvement. Still, at least this way she had some chance of retaliation, and a tiny sliver of hope. But first she had to get Christina off her…
Amber concentrated hard, then moved her head sharply to one side just as Christina's fist came down again. There was a muffled screech of pain as the mercenary's knuckles hit the spot on the iron catwalk floor where Amber's face had been five seconds previously. Wasting no time, Amber brought up her free arm and raked her fingernails right down Christina's face.
Snarling with rage, Christina got up and grabbed Amber by the hair, then slammed her head repeatedly into the rail of the catwalk. Amber, desperate for the pain to stop, kicked out at Christina and planted her foot firmly in Christina's stomach. Christina grunted and doubled up slightly, but didn't let go of Amber's hair. Amber kicked her again, and this time she let go.
Deciding that this was the perfect opportunity to do what she'd restrained herself from doing for several hours, Amber slapped Christina in the face. Christina took a swipe at her in retaliation, but missed as Amber ducked out of the way. Amber pushed Christina, briefly catching her off guard, then punched her in the forehead; Christina stumbled backwards, reeling from the blow.
Wow, thought Amber, staring at her knuckles. I actually punched Christina… that felt pretty good. Hey, maybe there's a chance I can actually win this after a-
Smack!
Amber's sense of victory turned out to be short-lived as Christina's fist slammed straight into Amber's face. Amber howled and clutched her nose. Blood streamed down her face and dripped onto her clothes, boots and the floor of the catwalk, like crimson rain.
Maybe not…
There was a muffled crash in the distance, but before Amber could even wonder what the sound was, Christina launched straight into another attack, tackling Amber to the ground and using pretty much every tactic at her disposal to hurt Amber as much as possible. Punches, slaps, kicks, knees in the stomach and elbows in the face were dealt out one after the other in a litany of unrelenting violence. Amber fought back as hard as she could, but it was no use; the mercenary was much better than her at close-quarters combat, and she was too weak and injured to fight back.
Eventually Amber gave up and let the blows rain down on her. Lying face-up on the catwalk, still flinching at every kick and punch even though she'd already been so badly beaten that it didn't hurt much any more, she silently willed her life to end.
Enough already, she thought. Come on, how much more do I have to take? Just finish me off quickly and get this over with…
But as she lay there, hoping that the next blow would be the one that finally killed her, she felt the ground shake, and she slowly became aware of an odd sound in the background.Thud. Thud. Thud.
Amber's blood froze in a moment of horrible recognition. Even the blood flowing freely from her nose seemed to stop in its tracks. She knew exactly what those thuds meant.
"Christina!" she screamed. "Stop it!"
"I take it that you've had enough, then,"said Christina, pausing in her attack. "I suppose you want me to shoot you and get it over with?"
"Yes - wait, no! No! Look, just stop hitting me and listen!" yelled Amber. "That thing, Lucifer, it's here! Can't you hear it? I know you're meant to be beating me senseless and everything, but you have to listen to me! We have to get out of here right now, or we're both dead!"
"Don't be absurd," said Christina coldly. "Lucifer's not after us. It's only tracking down the people connected with the Lucifer Project - Dr Harlech because she worked on the project, and Lisa because her parents made the L-Virus and it probably recognises their genetic material in her. It only infected Jack because the stupid boy tried to stop it from killing Lisa. It has absolutely no reason to kill us - you and I have nothing to do with the project."
"You're wrong," said Amber, shaking her head. "You're about as wrong as you can get."
"And why am I wrong, exactly?" Christina said, with icy disdain.
Amber took a deep breath.
"Because I tried to protect Clarissa and the kids from it upstairs. I shot at it quite a few times, and I don't think it was terribly happy about that. And as for you - oh, yes, you're connected with the project now. There's no doubt about that."
"Why?"
"Because you're the one holding the L-Virus, you stupid bitch!"
For the first time since she'd met her - and quite probably the first time, period - Christina looked slightly perturbed. Amber wasn't surprised by her reaction; anyone in their right mind would be bothered by the prospect of Lucifer coming after them, although it was oddly disconcerting to see Christina look worried. Of course, everyone was afraid of something, but Christina - scared? Was that even possible?
Christina shook her head slowly.
"It doesn't matter," she said. "I may not be able to fight it or outrun it, but I can still outsmart it. There's no way a man can think better and faster than a woman, dead or alive. And even if it does defeat me, my life is secondary to the mission. Either way, it won't affect you. You'll still be dead."
She smiled very slightly.
"Which reminds me…"
Amber swallowed as Christina drew her gun again. As the barrel of the gun swung round towards her, she shut her eyes as tightly as she could. Chilly metal pressed against her bruised forehead.
"Goodbye, Amber Bernstein."
So this really is it. Guess the Tyrant was just a trial run. Well, at least I'll get to be with Joseph again. I just wish I could have saved the kids, and Clarissa. I wish I'd done more and tried harder to stop Umbrella. But it's too late now. One last breath and it'll all be over.
Breathe in…
… breathe out.
Click.
Boom.
Plaster dust rained down on the catwalk as the ceiling collapsed. There was a loud roar, and an even louder thud which shook the catwalk; Christina stood up, cursing, and looked around to see what had caused the disturbance.
She looked up, and looked up a little further, and saw the face of evil staring pitilessly back at her. One eye was dead, the other gouged out; black blood was trickling from the empty eye socket.
"Lucifer…" she breathed.
"Kill…"
"No," said Christina, as loudly as she could. "Not me. You're not allowed to kill me. I'm not one of your targets."
"Kill…"
"We both work for Umbrella, Lucifer. We both kill for the company. I'm on your side."
"Kill…"
"No!" yelled Christina, finally losing her cool. "I'm not a target! I have nothing to do with the Lucifer Project!"
Lucifer stepped forward. Christina backed away, raising both hands.
"Kill…" the monster hissed.
"Christina, run!" Amber tried to shout, but half the sentence came out as a hoarse whisper and the other half as a coughing fit.
"No…" said Christina, now with the slightest of tremors in her voice.
"Kill…"
"No!"
"Kill…!"
Lucifer picked up Christina by one leg and lifted her right off the floor, holding her upside-down. The mercenary kicked and struggled, but it was no good; there was no way of escaping that iron grasp.
"No!" Christina yelled. "No - please!"
"KILL!"
With that, it hurled Christina right off the catwalk.
"Christina!" cried Amber, crawling over to the edge of the catwalk. She saw Christina screaming as she fell, saw the mercenary's long blonde hair streaming in the wind, saw the look of desperate terror on the young woman's face, saw her falling down and down until…
Crack.
Amber winced and looked away, then chanced a look back. After falling twenty feet and hitting solid concrete with considerable force, the once-proud mercenary was now a pathetic, broken figure lying in a small and crumpled heap on the floor. A pool of blood was growing steadily beneath her head, staining her uniform and dyeing her white-blonde hair red.
Amber couldn't believe her eyes. She'd just seen her emotionless and indestructible arch-enemy beg for her life, only to be thrown to her death. All that remained now of Corporal Christina Ardizzone was flesh and blood and shattered bones.
Christina was gone. In another time and another place, Amber would have been positively delighted to see the wretched woman meet a horrible end, but all she could feel now was shock and a strange dismay at seeing Christina's life ended so abruptly and violently. That last look of desperation and fear in her eyes as she fell, knowing that she was falling to her death and that she had failed in doing the one thing that had mattered to her… that was going to be stuck in Amber's head for the rest of her life.
"Christina…"
"Kill!"
Amber rolled out of the way just in time as Lucifer's fist swung towards her. The punch missed her head completely and crashed into the rail of the catwalk instead. With a snap and a creak that brought real pain to Amber's ears, the rusting metal gave way and a whole section of railing dropped away into the room below.
Battered and bloody-nosed, her head swimming with pain and fatigue, Amber had had enough. She'd been chased through sewers and graveyards and buildings by zombies and dogs and crows and giant frogs, she'd fought off a Tyrant, she hadn't had any sleep in days, she'd been beaten almost senseless by her worst enemy, almost killed several times, and worst of all, she'd been in the same room as mutant zombie spiders for more than two seconds. She was thoroughly fed-up of bioweapons, and this was the last straw.
"All right, you sadistic mutant scumbag," she snapped, stepping in front of the gap in the railings and drawing her gun. "Come on! I'm an official Umbrella target! So kill me!"
"Kill…!"
Lucifer lunged towards her. At the same time, Amber stepped neatly aside, and the monster lost its balance. It fell forward, and then found itself wedged in the gap in the railings. The bellow of frustration and anger was enough to bring a smile to Amber's face.
"Stuck?" she said sweetly. "Oh, dear. Let me help you…"
She stepped back, then ran forwards and kicked the creature's back as hard as she could.
Lucifer came unstuck quite dramatically, taking two more sections of rust-weakened railing with it as it toppled forwards.
"GRRAAAAARRRRGH!"
It plummeted from the catwalk and landed in one of the vats below with a colossal splash, sending a torrent of sludge-coloured liquid cascading over the sides of the vat and onto the floor.
There was no reverse-motion splash, no terrible figure rising from the revolting chemicals in a manner not unlike a certain creature from a dark-coloured lagoon. Amber watched with satisfaction as Lucifer sank slowly to the bottom of the vat. It didn't re-emerge.
Christina had been right about one thing at least, Amber thought, as she watched the steam rising from the spilled liquid on the floor. Joseph was already dead. Whatever now resided in the twisted, empty shell that had once been his body, it definitely wasn't the man she loved. It was small comfort, when Umbrella had killed her boyfriend with their zombie dogs and then used his mutilated body for their own evil purposes, but it was comfort nonetheless.
Still, she was furious. How dare they desecrate Joseph's body? How dare they do this to him instead of letting him rest in peace? Hadn't he suffered enough?
"You'll pay for this, Umbrella," she said aloud. "You won't get away with what you've done. Not while I'm still alive to stop you!"
When the echoes of her words died away, Amber suddenly felt much better. With Christina dead, and Lucifer stuck at the bottom of a vat, nobody was trying to kill her any more. She had narrowly escaped the clutches of two of Umbrella's deadliest killing machines, and escape was now a real option instead of a distant dream. Okay, so she'd been badly beaten up and the smallest movement was torture, and she'd lost the L-Virus, but at least she was still alive to stop Umbrella.
Something caught Amber's eye as she turned back and headed for the door; she hesitated, unsure if she should check it out, then decided to turn back around again and see what it was.
Lying on the floor of the catwalk, miraculously unharmed and glittering in the light, was the pendant containing the L-Virus. Amber guessed that it must have fallen out of Christina's pocket unnoticed when she was grabbed by Lucifer. How it hadn't smashed, she didn't know, but she was truly grateful that the pendant hadn't broken; God only knew what might have happened if its contents had leaked out.
"Whew… that was a close one," she said, deeply relieved.
She picked up the necklace and examined it carefully. The pendant was fine but the chain had snapped, having been ripped from her neck with some force; Amber resolved to fix it later, and slipped the necklace into her breast pocket.
That reminded her - where was her briefcase?
Briefly panicking, Amber whirled round to face the door she'd come through, then breathed out. It was lying on the catwalk near the door, right where she'd left it. She retrieved it quickly, and mentally ran through her item checklist.
Briefcase - check. L-Virus - check. Lighter - check. Torch - gone. Gun - check. Anything else?
Oh yes. Friends. Well, that was easy enough. All she had to do was go back upstairs and -
A memory of her exchange with Christina suddenly surfaced in the most unpleasant way possible.
While I take care of you, Lavelle deals with the good doctor upstairs…
"Clarissa!"
xxxxxxxxxx
Unearthly shrieks filtered down from the room and echoed in the dark forgotten passages below.
"Hold him down! Hold him down!"
"I'm trying!"
Jack thrashed around wildly, screaming in pain as the L-Virus antidote rushed through his system. Lisa and Dr Harlech tried in vain to restrain him; even unconscious, he seemed to be stronger than they were.
Renée, meanwhile, was sitting cross-legged on the floor some distance away, reading through Dr Redmond's diary. The hamster cage was by her side, and every now and then she reached through the bars and tickled one of the hamsters absent-mindedly.
"The vaccine does appear to be slightly painful when first administered, but this soon passes," she quoted, running her finger along the page.
"Slightly painful?" said Dr Harlech incredulously, struggling to keep the unconscious boy still as he writhed in agony. "You call this slightly painful?"
"Jack!" cried Lisa. "It's all right, Jack! You're going to be all right - it'll be over soon! Just hang in there, okay?"
Jack suddenly went limp again, collapsing in their arms. Lisa, Renée and Dr Harlech watched in horror as his breathing gradually slowed to a halt. Dr Harlech pressed her fingers to his temples and felt the pulse fading beneath her fingers.
"Oh, no," she groaned. "Come on, Jack! Don't do this! She gave you the antidote, goddamn it!"
But there was nothing. No pulse, no breathing. Jack's head lolled to one side, and then it was over.
"He's - he's not breathing," said Lisa faintly. "The antidote was never tested on humans, it must have poisoned him… oh, God, I've killed him! He's dead and it's all my fault!"
"Oh, sweetheart, it's not your fault," said Dr Harlech. "You did your best to save him. You mustn't blame yourself."
"You were really brave, Lisa," added Renée, going across the room on all fours and sitting down next to the others. "You went up there all on your own to find that vaccine, and there aren't a lot of kids who would do that for a friend. We're very proud of you."
"But he's dead…" whimpered Lisa.
"Lisa, we're so sorry," said Renée, putting her arm around Lisa. "We know how much he meant to you."
Lisa burst into tears.
"It was my fault that he got hurt," she wept. "He saved me from Lucifer in the first place. I gave him that vaccine to save his life, but he's dead anyway - I either poisoned him or got here too late, but whatever it was, I killed him!"
"Lisa - " said Dr Harlech, looking concerned.
"If it wasn't for me, he'd still be alive!" wailed Lisa.
"Lisa - " said Renée, a little more urgently.
"I wish I was dead!" Lisa bawled.
"Lisa!" yelled Dr Harlech and Renée together.
"What?" said Lisa, finally looking up. She followed the two women's gazes, and gave a start.
Jack's body was starting to twitch. Lightly at first, then with increasing violence, he twitched and jerked as if electricity was being passed through his lifeless body.
"What's going on?" said Lisa anxiously. "What's happening to him?"
"The L-Virus mutation must be starting," said Dr Harlech. "Lisa, get away from him right now!"
The three of them backed away from Jack nervously, exchanging worried glances.
"We should get out of here…"
"This is definitely not good."
"Do you think we should - ?"
Jack suddenly sat bolt upright. With a gasp, his eyes shot open. Lisa, Renée and Dr Harlech all screamed together in perfect harmony, and ran for the far corner of the room, each one trying to hide behind the other two in their panic.
"Aaaargh! He's a zombie!"
"This is it! We're doomed!"
"I want my mommy!"
"Pull yourself together, woman, you're twenty-seven years old!"
"I still want my mommy!"
Cowering, they watched from the relative safety of the corner as the zombie Jack went through his warm-up routine - groaning, clutching his head, then looking up and asking:
"What the hell just happen to me?"
Lisa, Renée and Dr Harlech looked at each other and said:
"Huh?"
"What the hell just happen?" repeated Jack, studying the palms of his hands and then pressing them to his cheeks. " 'm I dead or what?"
The other three stared blankly at him for a moment, then huddled together in a group discussion.
"… doesn't look like a zombie…"
"… think I saw him breathing…"
"… never seen a talking zombie before…"
"… don't even think he's…"
Once finished, they turned back to him. Dr Harlech cleared her throat nervously and ventured:
"Um… I realise that this might seem like a rather stupid question, but under the, um, circumstances it's probably wise to… uh… are you dead?"
Jack gave this question due consideration.
"I dunt think so," he said carefully, feeling for his own pulse and then breathing experimentally onto his hand. "Could be wrong, of course. I ain't much of an expert in technical medical stuff. But I dunt feel dead, if that help you some."
"Do you mind if I…?" said Dr Harlech tentatively.
Jack shrugged.
"Sure. Go ahead."
Dr Harlech crawled warily across the room on her hands and knees, and repeated Jack's crude methods of self-diagnosis, this time with a little more medical panache.
"Breathing… fine. Pulse is a little fast, but nothing unusual. Eyes - responding normally to light. Now excuse me for a second - "
"Ow!"
"Yes, definite response to pain. Sorry about that. So, Jack, how are you feeling in yourself?"
"Uh… not dead?" said Jack, looking slightly puzzled.
"Eh, good enough for me. I think you survived the procedure," said Dr Harlech.
"I - I did?" said Jack.
"Mmm-hmm. And you have Lisa to thank for that," said Dr Harlech. "She went upstairs and found an antidote for the L-Virus. If it wasn't for her, I would have rather more justification for standing in the corner and screaming "AAAHH! ZOMBIE!"."
Jack turned his head towards Lisa, who was staring at him in wonder.
"You're alive," she said.
Jack nodded, and Lisa broke into a wide smile. She rushed over to Jack, arms outstretched towards him, and hugged him tightly. In turn, Jack folded his arms around her, and the two friends embraced.
"I can't believe it," said Lisa, almost ready to sob with relief. "Jack, you're okay!"
"Yeah, I be okay," said Jack, "But I feel kinda - diff'rent. Like somethin' make a few changes to me on the inside. Dunt feel like plain old Jack Carpenter no more. Ah, hell, it dunt matter. At least I ain't dead or a monster, right?"
Lisa nodded.
"It's good to have you back on your feet, Jack," said Renée, and she went to pat him on the back. "Survival just wouldn't be the same without you."
"Same here," said Dr Harlech, hugging him and Lisa. "We're glad you're all right."
"So… what now?" said Lisa. "Should we stay here and wait for Amber?"
"Amber? Ain't she back yet?" said Jack, looking around.
"No, and I'm getting worried. She's been gone for a long time now," said Dr Harlech. "I think maybe we should go and find her, and make sure she's all right."
"Yeah, we should go and look for her," said Renée. "I'm fed up of sitting around and twiddling my thumbs while we wait for her to come back. Who knows how long she'll keep us waiting? And if something's happened to her and she's hurt, she won't be coming back for us - which means she needs us to go and rescue her. In any event, it means we need to get a move on. We've waited long enough."
They all agreed that this was the best course of action, as by now Amber was probably either lost, dead, rendered helpless by injury, in another form of unspecified mortal peril, or somewhere in Australia. It therefore came as quite a surprise when Amber - bloody, bruised and bedraggled - burst in through the front door, brandishing her gun and screaming at Renée to get away from the others.
"Amber?" gasped Dr Harlech. "What's going on?"
"Renée's trying to kill you - "
"Was," said Dr Harlech.
Amber blinked.
"What?"
"She was trying to kill me," Dr Harlech corrected her. "But we've sorted all that out now, so don't worry about it."
"You… sorted it all out?" said Amber, taken aback. "Oh. Uh, that's good. Very good. Well done. Everyone's friends now. Wonderful. That's very wonderful."
"Yeah, it's a wonderful world," said Renée. "Can we go now?"
"Yes, please, let's go," said Dr Harlech. "I've had enough of this hellhole. I assume you found a way out, then, Amber?"
"I most certainly did," said Amber, relieved that the conversation was taking a more mundane turn. "There's an emergency escape route, complete with train, and it's quite a nice walk if you ignore all the forgotten storerooms and dark corridors and creepy secret testing laboratories and things. And in the meantime, perhaps Renée can explain why she was trying to kill you, but has now apparently changed her mind," she added hopefully.
"Sure," said Renée. "It makes for quite an interesting sob-story, if I do say so myself."
"Great," said Amber, and she put away her gun. "That's great. I'll look forward to hearing all about it. Well, now that we're all here, we - "
She stopped and stared at Jack.
"Hey, I thought you were meant to be dead?" she said, frowning.
"Nope," said Jack simply.
"Christina said you were dying from the L-Virus infection and that you were going to turn into a monster," said Amber, suddenly feeling very foolish as the words escaped her mouth.
Jack shook his head.
"Nope. I feel good."
"Oh," said Amber, slightly dazed by these unexpected new developments. "Uh… glad to hear it. Well, then, let's go."
Gathering themselves and their possessions together, they went down the steps - Amber first, followed by Renée, Lisa and Jack. Dr Harlech, the last one to leave, closed the door neatly behind her.
As the darkness of the corridor closed in around them, two flames suddenly flickered into life, chasing away the shadows again. In the dim but adequate light, Amber saw that Lisa had also decided to use her lighter as illumination.
"Good idea," said Amber, with a nod of approval. "That's what I did. Oh, and by the way, there's something I want to ask the rest of you. How come Jack was dying by inches when I left, but he's now the picture of health?"
"I saved him," said Lisa proudly. "I went upstairs and found a cure for the L-Virus, and I brought it back down to the shelter. Dr H and I managed to give him the antidote just in time, and now he's okay."
"That was a very brave thing to do, Lisa, but it was also very reckless and stupid," said Amber severely. "You could have died up there - and anyway, what were you two thinking, letting her run around up there on her own? I thought you two were meant to be looking after her!"
Renée and Dr Harlech both blushed and looked away, too embarrassed to meet Amber's gaze.
"It dunt matter," said Jack. "She save my life, an' nobody get hurt doin' it. Dunt worry 'bout it."
"I guess you're right. I'm just grateful that nobody got hurt," said Amber.
"So, you wanted to know about Renée and my most recent brush with death?" said Dr Harlech, to break the silence that followed.
"I'm all ears," said Amber.
"Renée pretended that her stomach wound was hurting her, and when I came over to see what was wrong, she put a gun to my head and told me that she'd been sent to kill me, because I knew too much about the project. Obviously I didn't want to die, so I kept her talking and tried to dissuade her from killing me, and eventually I found out why she was doing it - well, you tell her, Renée."
"It's because of my sister, you see," Renée explained. "She's seriously ill and my family can't afford to pay for her medical treatment, so Umbrella agreed to foot the bill, on the condition that I was sent to work for them in the UBCS. My original orders were to help rescue survivors, just like I told you, but then Christina told me about her assassination mission, and blackmailed me into cooperating with her. She told me that if I didn't, I'd get shopped for desertion and executed, and my sister's treatment would be permanently suspended."
Lisa and Jack gasped at this revelation. Amber was similarly shocked.
"That's awful," she said.
"Yeah," said Renée. "But new orders or not, I couldn't kill Dr H - she's my friend. Thing is, I don't know what I'm going to do now. Christina's going to turn me in once she finds out that I disobeyed orders, and then my sister and I are dead for sure."
"I don't think she's going to turn anyone in," said Amber. "Not now."
"What do you mean?" said Renée.
"Christina's dead," said Amber darkly. "And before you ask, no, I didn't kill her. Lucifer got her - but I'll tell you about it some other time. Let's just concentrate on getting out of here first."
Lisa felt her face burning in the darkness, and felt quite glad that nobody would notice the redness of embarrassment colouring her cheeks.
"Amber? A-about Lucifer?" she said timidly.
"What is it, Lisa?" said Amber.
Lisa opened her mouth, and found herself suddenly confessing to everything that she knew about what had happened to Amber's boyfriend. Amber's expression didn't change. Eventually, she held up a hand, silencing Lisa mid-sentence.
"Lisa, I know," she said. "Christina told me everything. And I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't angry or upset, but I'm not blaming your parents for this. They were good people, Lisa, and I know that because their daughter's a good person too. And over the years, Umbrella's made a lot of good people do terrible things against their will. It's not your parents' fault if they were coerced or threatened or blackmailed into doing this, and it's certainly not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong."
"But your boyfriend - "
"Joseph was no monster, and that monster's not Joseph," said Amber sharply. "Joseph died a long time ago. Whatever that thing is now, it's not him. The man I loved is gone forever, and nothing can ever bring him back, or change who he was inside."
"You're right," said Lisa. "Still, I'm sorry that they did this to Joseph."
"I know. The thought's appreciated."
On and on they walked, mulling over the latest developments in their mission to escape the city of the dead. Christina was dead, Jack was alive, and their most feared enemy had once been Amber's much-loved boyfriend. And then of course there was Renée, who had shaken off the nastier part of her job description, but at great personal cost.
"Renée?" said Amber. "About your problem? I don't think you need to worry too much about that. Christina can't report you now that she's gone, and there's nobody else around to do it for her. I think perhaps the best thing for you to do would be to go M.I.A., at least for a few years. They won't go looking for you if you're missing in action, presumed dead."
"Yeah, going A.W.O.L. might sound like a good idea, but what about Thérèse? I can't just leave her, and without Umbrella paying for her medical treatment - "
"Don't worry about your sister, Renée," said Dr Harlech. "We'll make sure she's safe. Where do your family live?"
"I'm from New Orleans."
"Well then, you're in luck, because I have some friends there who work at a hospital," said Dr Harlech. "I'm sure they can help your sister. As for the cost… well, don't worry about that. I can take care of that for you."
"But it's thousands of dollars - " gasped Renée.
"I'll take care of it," repeated Dr Harlech patiently. "Now stop worrying. Your sister will be fine; Amber and I will make sure of that. We won't let either of you come to harm. Just stick with us, and maybe consider taking on a new identity for a while, at least until Umbrella are convinced that you must be dead. Then you can go home and be with your family again. Right, Amber?"
"Right," the policewoman agreed.
"Thank you," said Renée, her voice suddenly quiet and muffled. "You don't know how much this means to me… I know I don't deserve your help, after what I tried to do, but I'm very grateful to you both. Thank you so much."
"It's all right," said Dr Harlech. "You're our friend, Renée. That's what friends do."
Renée looked up, and smiled; not her trademark cheerful grin this time, but a warm smile of gratitude and real happiness.
"I'm glad to hear that."
Dark and gloomy though it was down here, the oppressive atmosphere seemed to lighten considerably with this conversation. The group were almost starting to feel relaxed as they neared the end of the passage and saw the outlines of the double doors etched in the shadows.
"We'll be there soon," promised Amber, and reached out to grab the door handle.
There was a horrible mechanical screech, then several klaxons began to sound at once, scaring the group almost senseless. Unable to figure out what the noise was at first, they looked around in confusion, before it eventually dawned on them that these were alarms.
"All right, what did you do?" said Dr Harlech accusingly.
"I didn't do anything!" complained Amber. "Come on, it's not like I pushed a button and - "
"What did I say about pushing buttons when you don't know what they do?" the scientist yelled. "You don't push mysterious buttons! EVER!"
"I didn't push any buttons! Quite apart from the fact that I didn't feel the need to do so, there weren't any buttons for me to push! I don't know what's going on, but whatever it is, I'm not responsible for it!" shrieked Amber.
"Attention all Umbrella employees," said a pleasant, slightly robotic female voice. "The emergency biohazard contamination prevention system has been activated - the building will automatically self-destruct in thirty minutes. All employees must proceed immediately to the nearest escape route and begin emergency evacuation procedures. This is not a drill. Repeat - this is not a drill. All employees must evacuate immediately. Self-destruct in thirty minutes."
"Self-destruct. Oh, great," said Jack sourly.
"Oh well, look on the bright side, at least they're giving us plenty of time to escape," said Renée brightly. "Thirty minutes is more than enough time for us to get out of here."
"Well, let's hope so," said Lisa, who wasn't so confident.
"Come on, we have to hurry! There's not much time!" said Amber, yanking open the door and hurrying through.
"Why rush? There's plenty of time," said Renée breezily. "The automated voice thing said we had ages. The place will - "
"Self-destruct in twenty-nine minutes," repeated the robotic female voice.
"Yeah, what she said," said Renée, gesturing towards the ceiling.
"Renée, don't just stand there! We have to go!" yelled Dr Harlech, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her through the door.
Having already visited the laboratory/labyrinth once before, Amber felt no need to stop and look around, and kept running as fast as she could. The others, however, slowed their pace a little as they entered the divided room.
"What's with this weird laboratory? How come they split it in two?" said Renée, looking around.
"Is that a maze on the other side?" said Lisa, squinting in the dark to make out what was on the other side of the glass.
"Why would they use glass for a wall? An' why ain't there a door?" asked Jack.
"I wonder what they used this place for?" said Dr Harlech.
"They used it for conducting tests on Lucifer, and it'll all be blown to bits pretty soon, so don't hang around to admire the scenery! We don't have time to start sightseeing!" yelled Amber.
With these words of wisdom, the scientist, the mercenary and the two teenagers picked up their pace and followed Amber out through the other door at full speed. It took them all of ten seconds to hurry through the little corridor and then through the door at the end.
"Self-destruct in twenty-eight minutes."
"How much further?" gasped Lisa, who was running out of breath and beginning to lag behind the others.
"Not much further, I promise!" Amber called back. "Just through the room on the other side of this catwalk, and then into a stairwell, and then we're there!"
"That's good…!"
As she ran across the catwalk, Amber glanced down at Christina's body, and once again felt a stab of pity for the mercenary. Had things worked out differently, Christina might still be standing here on the catwalk beside her, alive and well and with a drastically altered worldview, no longer a hated enemy but a trusted friend. Instead she was lying dead on the floor far below, with all her useful skills and icy professionalism lost to the world forever. It seemed like such a waste of a short life.
"C'mon, Amber, we gotta move," said Jack, grabbing her by the arm and tugging her along with him.
Reluctantly, Amber tore her eyes away from the spot where the mortal remains of her old enemy lay, though she felt a chill go right through her when she saw the vat where Lucifer had landed. She couldn't see the monster's body, but she told herself that it must already have sunk to the bottom of the vat and out of sight. After all, what other rational explanation could there be?
"Self-destruct in twenty-seven minutes."
Amber and Jack reached the other side of the catwalk at roughly the same time, and paused to allow the others to catch up. Renée wasn't too far behind, but Lisa looked as though she was struggling to keep up, and Dr Harlech had gone back to make sure she was all right.
"Nearly there, guys!" Amber shouted encouragingly. "Just a little further now, we're almost there…"
Renée smiled and nodded, and then the catwalk let out a sudden and very loud creak. It was a nasty, treacherous little noise which brought to mind the words "metal fatigue", "perilous" and most of all:
"Uh-oh…"
Lisa, Dr Harlech and Renée all froze, hardly daring to breathe. Their eyes darted from rivet to rivet, trying to find the exact source of the noise. When they eventually looked behind them, they discovered to their horror that the rusting supports that kept the catwalk bolted to the walls were bending alarmingly.
"Don't move!" yelled Amber, from the other side. "It must have been weakened when Lucifer landed on it! Whatever you do, don't make any sudden movements, or the whole thing could give way completely!"
"What are we going to do?" Dr Harlech yelled back.
"Take real small, light steps!" Jack called out, before Amber could even think about responding to the question. "One step at a time, an' take it in turns to move, real slow! You first, Renée!"
Renée lowered her head very slightly to show that she understood, and took one small, hesitant step.
"Great! Now you, Lise!"
Lisa moved forward cautiously, letting her foot come down lightly on the catwalk.
"Good work - Dr H, you next!"
Dr Harlech closed her eyes and advanced by a tiny step, then jumped as the catwalk creaked again.
"Self-destruct in twenty-six minutes."
"Can't we go any faster?" grumbled Renée, shuffling forward again. "We'll be here for hours at this rate."
"Oh, we won't be here for that long," said Dr Harlech gloomily. "Twenty-six minutes at most."
"That was not a helpful comment…"
Amber and Jack watched the others trying to cross the catwalk with increasing anxiety, as every tiny step from their friends brought forth the tortured groans of rusty metal under stress.
"Jack, this was a good idea, but there's not enough time," said Amber quietly. "Renée's right, this is taking far too long. That catwalk isn't going to stay up for much longer. We're going to have to try something else."
Jack's solemn nodding indicated his silent agreement.
"Change of plan, everyone!" Amber bellowed, trying to make herself heard above the catwalk's increasingly loud creaks and groans.
The others looked up with interest, then winced in perfect unison as a metallic screech set their teeth on edge.
"What's the new plan?" said Dr Harlech.
"Run like hell!"
"I like that plan!"
Abandoning their original strategy, they started to run, trying hard to ignore the horrible metallic squeals that signified the catwalk's imminent collapse. They were almost within arm's reach of their destination when the creaks stopped. The sudden cessation of loud noise meant that they could now hear a tiny little one:
Snap.
Renée made it across just in time as the supports on one side broke. Lisa gave a little shriek and took a running jump as the closest half of the catwalk sank downwards. Barely clearing the gap, she landed right on the edge and tottered precariously for a few moments before Renée and Amber grabbed hold of her and hauled her to safety.
The other supports, already weakened, were now shrieking in protest at being made to do twice the work, and the other side of the catwalk was already beginning to sag. However, Dr Harlech still stood on the catwalk, too terrified to move despite the urgent pleas of her friends.
"I can't!" she wailed. "I can't jump! I'll never make it!"
"Yes, you will!"
"No, I can't! I can't!"
"You have to!"
"I can't do it!"
"Clarissa, it's going to collapse and it'll take you with it! Now jump!"
Dr Harlech hesitated, then she closed her eyes, summoned up all her strength and leapt -
Snap.
The catwalk plunged downwards, and Dr Harlech's eyes opened wide as she felt the surface fall away beneath her feet. With a gasp, she realised that she hadn't jumped in time; her trajectory fell just short of safety. She concentrated hard on pushing herself further forward, and then her arms shot out automatically to grab the edge of the platform where her friends stood.
She made it, but now her position was just as dangerous as the one she'd been in five seconds ago. Hanging from the edge by her fingertips, with a yawning twenty-foot drop beneath her dangling legs, she knew she couldn't hold on for very long.
"Help me!" she shrieked, scrabbling desperately at the edge.
"It be okay, Dr H, we gonna save you!" said Jack, leaning down and reaching towards the scientist. "Now grab my hand and we pull you up!"
"I - I can't! If I let go, I'll fall!" whimpered Dr Harlech.
"'S okay, Dr H, we ain't gonna let you fall," Jack reassured her. "Now just grab hold of my hand."
"I'm going to die!"
"No, no, you ain't, you gonna be just fine. But if you dunt let us help you, then you gonna fall for sure, so you need to grab my hand, 'kay?"
"Attention all Umbrella employees. The emergency biohazard contamination prevention system has been activated - the building will automatically self-destruct in twenty-five minutes."
"Shut up!" Jack yelled at the anonymous voice in the ceiling.
"… must proceed immediately to the nearest escape route and begin emergency evacuation procedures. This is not a drill…"
Dr Harlech's fingers, exhausted by the effort of trying to stop the rest of Dr Harlech from falling to an unpleasant and messy death, could hold on no longer, and let go.
"… repeat - this is not a drill. All employees must evacuate immediately."
"No!" cried the others, horrified.
"… Self-destruct in twenty-five minutes."
Amber turned away, unable to watch. She could already see in her mind's eye what was happening, with echoes of the last time she'd seen someone fall to their death in this room.
She saw Dr Harlech screaming as she fell, saw the scientist's short blonde hair streaming in the wind, saw the look of desperate terror on the young woman's face, saw her falling down and down until…
"Gotcha!"
Hardly daring to believe it, Amber turned around and saw Jack holding Dr Harlech by the forearm, triumphant in having caught her in the nick of time.
"You dint think we gonna let you escape from us that easy, huh, Dr H?" said Jack, laughing, and he started to pull her up.
The others leapt into action, helping Jack pull the frightened scientist up and onto the platform, where she lay shaking all over with the shock of having almost fallen to her death.
"You okay, Dr H?"
"Almost lost you back there."
"See, this is why you should listen to us more often."
"Lucky I catch you in time, you coulda ended up like Christina if I dint."
"Thank you," gasped Dr Harlech, allowing herself to be helped to her feet.
"Any time," said Jack modestly.
The corroded door which they'd struggled so hard to get to was now right in front of them, tantalisingly ajar. Together, as if by silent agreement that this should be a group effort, they pushed it open and walked through into the final room.
This one wasn't as big as the chemical storage room that they'd just escaped from. It was the size of a fairly small warehouse, dusty-smelling and filled with boxes and boxes of…
"Weapons?" said Dr Harlech in disbelief. "Oh, this is just priceless. We're almost out of here, and now we get all the guns and ammo we could possibly need for an escape attempt. Why couldn't we have found this room when we first got here?"
"I was thinking the same thing," said Lisa, vaguely annoyed at having found a veritable Aladdin's cave of weaponry now rather than much earlier, when they'd been most in need of extra firepower.
"Oh well, can't complain," said Renée, shrugging lightly and heading for a crate full of handgun rounds. "I'm going to take this valuable once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help myself to some fun stuff, maybe get myself a five-finger discount on bullets. Anybody else want some?"
"We don't have time to stock up on bullets," said Amber gruffly. "We have to get out of here."
"Ah, come on, we've got plenty of time left," said Renée, beaming as she stuffed her pockets with boxes of bullets. "We might as well pick up some goodies while we've got the chance, right?"
"No, Renée, they're probably all duds anyway," said Dr Harlech, grabbing the delighted mercenary by the arm and trying to pull her towards the far end of the room, where a spiral staircase led upwards to freedom. "Now we - "
Sirens shrieked a warning, and a corrugated iron shutter came crashing down less than six inches from Dr Harlech's face, sealing off the rest of the room and the staircase with it.
"Warning," said the pleasant, robotic voice again, drowning out the identical voice behind them as it announced that there was another twenty-four minutes left until the self-destruct system went off. "Biohazard detected. Emergency escape route cannot be accessed until the threat of contamination has been eliminated."
Amber and the others looked at each other with undisguised horror in their eyes.
"What biohazard?" Dr Harlech yelled, pounding on the shutter with her fists. "None of us is biohazardous! We've all been vaccinated against the T-Virus! Jack's been cured! We haven't even stepped in anything contagious! Let us out, you sadistic creeps! Let us out, you - "
"Huh?"
"Hey!"
Lisa and Jack found Amber and Renée's hands slammed over their ears, presumably to protect their impressionable young minds from the language that Dr Harlech was bawling at the absent Umbrella personnel who had originally come up with the anti-biohazard contamination systems. Of course, being in high school, they already knew virtually every instance of obscene language in existence, but even Renée was looking shocked, so perhaps Dr Harlech was coming up with some new ones especially for this occasion.
When the tirade stopped and Dr Harlech sagged to the floor, defeated, their ears were unencumbered once more, and they were able to take part in the frantic discussion of what to do now.
"You sure the biohazard ain't me? Look, if it be me, I stay behind," said Jack wearily. "The rest of you can go an' escape. I ain't gonna keep the rest of you here to die 'cause of me."
"We're not leaving without you, Jack," insisted Lisa.
"No, we're not," agreed Amber. "Besides, I don't think it's you, you were cured of the L-Virus."
"Maybe it's the vaccines we're carrying on us?" said Lisa, taking off her backpack and looking at it thoughtfully. "Maybe they're being recognised as having viral content or something."
"No, I doubt it," said Renée, without turning around. "I think we should try and gather up as much ammo as possible and blow a hole in this shutter."
This comment went completely ignored.
"Do you think it's the sample?" said Dr Harlech, turning and reaching for the necklace that she knew to be around Amber's neck. "If it is, then we have to discard - where is it?"
"The necklace? Oh, it's here," said Amber, pulling the pendant out of her pocket and handing it to Dr Harlech. For some reason, discovering that the pretty heart-shaped pendant contained a deadly virus had distinctly diminished the necklace's appeal. She no longer saw anything attractive about it; if anything, she was secretly relieved to hand it to somebody else.
"Thank God for that," said Dr Harlech, breathing out. "Now, we have to get rid of this thing right away, or that damn system won't ever let us out. Someone run back into the chemicals room and throw this over the edge."
"All right, I'll go," said Renée, taking the necklace and heading towards the door. She was almost there when the floor was shaken by a massive thump. This was followed by the sound of knocking at the door.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Renée opened the door."Who is it?" she said warily, then shrieked as she saw who was standing outside.
"Kill…!"
"Uh, I'm sorry, Mr Kill's not at home right now, you'll have to come back later!" babbled Renée, and slammed the door again. She leaned against it as hard as she could.
"Uh, guys, you… you, uh, might want to find a couch to hide behind," she announced, making a concerted effort to sound casual and unconcerned, a remarkable feat considering that several large dents were appearing in the door behind her. "Because we have an unwanted visitor standing right on our doorstep, and I'm not sure what you guys did to him, but whatever it was, he looks really pissed…"