Chapter 6

The city was partially dark, the looming buildings around him creating a strong feeling of suspense. Unknown soldiers marched alongside him, though, making him feel reassured. He held an AK-47 firmly, sweat moistening his grip even though his fingerless gloves were on. The sky above seemed ominous, darker than what a normal sky would look. And for some reason, he just knew that it was late afternoon...

-Straight ahead, the sound of moans, like dying men. Startled, he raised his assault rifle, nescience of that fact. Although his mind told him he needed to go, his instincts, this other entity inside him warned him, implored him to go back, to leave this place at once.

"What the hell!" His teammates began to open fire down an alley way, the many moans driving needles into his ears. People of all kinds lurched, even crawled toward him. The smell of rot filled the somewhat electric-pervaded air. His heart pounded away as he saw fellow soldiers, faces all the same, get bitten, bleeding, screaming, dying-

And he opened fire, the bullets doing barely anything to the walking corpses, his scream shut out by the many bullets flying out of many guns. The flashes began to fade, the voices, the screams, too. All faded and he woke up...

He could only hear rushing water nearby, the currents calming his limp body. And even as Shawn lay there all motionless except for his half-submerged legs swaying in water, he couldn't find it in him to open his eyes.

His body twitched, remembering all that happened before, and he was fully awake. His whole body ached, as if he were standing still at a mosh pit. It was dark, the nighttime sky and its stars the first things he could see. He sat up, his ears ringing and clogged with the river's water. Was he truly alive? After adjusting to his mild disorientation, he briefly checked himself for any major injuries, but found nothing of immediate danger.

Shawn fell straight into the river and lived, convincing him that luck seemed to have liked him for the past hours. He shook off his soaked clothes a bit and stretched carefully, assessing the locations of his soreness. He quickly took in his environment; a shore of rocks where he got washed up at, the nighted forest up ahead, rocky ravines to the left and right of the river. He was actually incredibly lucky. It could've been much uglier, could've broken some bones on the rocks or gotten squashed by that boulder...

The thought of Eva and Hisaru suddenly flashed in his mind for a second. It wasn't until then that he thought about that recurring dream. That city...he shook it off, knowing that this wasn't the time or place. Bottom line, he survived.

Shawn wiped his drenched hair from his forehead, searching his side pack for his belongings. He still had the weird stone block that he uncovered at the cave...and the seemingly useless stone statuette that dying man meekly tossed to him. He decided to investigate the two objects later. He was relieved when he felt the cold metal in the pack, taking out the Uzi Eva gave him. However, he must have dropped his handgun during the fall.

After damning Hisaru, he also realized the Uzi was low on ammo, and all he had was a clip of parabellum bullets for the handgun; the rest was washed away. Barely armed, he considered his luck and looked straight ahead at the only path he could take.

"No goddamn way I'm stepping foot into that forest without a military to back me up..." he thought.

-A rustling came from somewhere in front of him, somewhere in the horrifically pitch black woods. By then, he was aiming his only weapon around shakily. It could just as easily be a harmless woodland animal...or wolves, a whole pack of them. Or even better yet, a pack of mutant vampire wolves...

As he continued to train his gun at the empty darkness, his heart racing, he heard something to his left, like the sound of crunching gravel. He turned to his left almost instantly, and against the glare of the moonlight emitted directly above the ravine stood a human figure, only it was taller, bulkier, somewhat unnatural. When the creature jumped down, now only a few meters away, he realized that it wasn't at all human, it's skinned features gleaming brightly from the light behind it. It grinned a permanent one for lack of skin on its pallid face, and its fierce, red eyes pierced his very own.

Shit...

But it wasn't until he looked past its naked body and at its twelve-inch needle-like nails on each hand that he pulled the trigger, letting out a spray of bullets that seemed to barely even tickle the thing. The tiny holes in its body from the shots did not even bleed, signaling Shawn that fighting was out of the question. And even as he turned around to run through the woods, unaware that he had dreaded entering them before, he could hear the cold-blooded cry of the beast, unlike anything he had ever heard before. It was the sound of an angered brute.

Shawn could scarcely see where he was going, the many branches smacking and lashing at his face and clothes. Right behind him, he also heard the loud, padded sounds of large, bare feet smacking on rocks and dead leaves, the grotesque gaining ground much quicker than he was. If this continued, its spiny needles for nails would be upon him in no time...

-over there, behind the thick fog. A humongous chapel-like building stood, as if awaiting his arrival, to hopefully shelter him from the creature if not for a little while. The devilish monster seemed to give up pursuit, but all the same, Shawn dashed for the front door, wherever it may be.

"The gates..."

Shawn saw them even through the thick patch of fog. They were already open, the front door only meters away-

-when from above on some branch, the monster flew down, as if native to these parts. It stood up from its crouching stance and its grin flashed again, as if to mock his efforts to outrun the giant. It traced one of its fingers from its left hand over a glistening nail of its right, as if it hinted to Shawn just how he planned to kill him. The monster then broke into a run, only seconds away from reaching him. Shawn had no time to run or to think, only to dive left away from the attack, the sharp pains from his previous injuries giving in again. Fresh blood leaked onto his hands as he got up; the monster's nails had struck...

The beast turned around ever so slowly, facing Shawn. It had become excited by the blood on its unnatural nails, even more so when it smelled it on Shawn. And he saw it, a door on the side of the citadel-of-a-house, hopefully open.

"And if its locked, its back to the forest," he thought grimly, his exhausted body pining for rest. He'd never last out there in the forest with the mutant beast.

Shawn zoomed toward the door, the monstrous golem's face following his movement, trying to figure out where he was headed before giving chase. By then, Shawn was opening the squealing door, the audible "click" a blessing to his ears. He barred the door with a nearby table, hoping that the creature wouldn't somehow burst through the stone doors like it were made of paper; it sure as hell seemed capable of that. And for some inexplicable reason, it did not.

After what seemed like hours of waiting for a response, Shawn lowered his weapon, trying to relieve the tension from before. In the meantime, he took in his surroundings as best he could without diverting his attention from the door. The entire room was made of stones, all gray and dull colored, adding to the austere, gothic look it presented. He was obviously in some sort of kitchen, a large wooden table set with clean and polished plates, silverware, and napkins, as if some meal was going to be served in a matter of minutes. The oven and counter-tops greatly resembled the ones from the village inn. Luckily, and strangely enough, the room lacked windows, preventing an entrance for the creature or creatures outside, a slight relief. The last things of interest were the two doorways, one on the left and another on the right.

"Guess I'll just take a look around..." he muttered to himself, wondering just how he ended up in such a macabre environment, so different from when he first arrived.

S A M A N T H A

She couldn't believe her eyes. When Cliff lowered the military issue handgun, the three survivors stood in awe, Sam the more terrified of the three. On the floor, right in front of her, lay Timothy, the man from the embassy building; he made it this far, even when he was thought to have been dead in one of the skirmishes in the city. However, it wasn't really just the fact that he lived this long that spooked her.

Beside his body, a thin, pale creature convulsed, a creature that had burst out of Sam's coworker's chest. Unlike Timothy Jones' body, which was lying in a pool of thick, dark blood, the monster barely had much blood to spill, despite having taken many blows from Cliff's pistol.

"What the hell just happened?" Drake was the first to speak out loud.

"..."

Cliff had been silent. The worm attacks had been terrifying enough, but embryos being planted inside people...that just brought forth a whole new kind of terror.

Sam hurried over to the man's body, rifling through his pockets. Drake stared at her with curiosity; maybe the guy would have some ammunition or something they could use. He shot a glance at the boy, who looked uneasy at him. Drake helped her search the body and uncovered a box of loose bullets for a handgun, just as Sam found the gun in the pocket of the man's pants, her expression pleasant despite the atmosphere of death surrounding the scene. Her actions caused mixed emotions of terror and sympathy, and of excitement and renewed hope. Well, he wouldn't need his possessions now, this time she was sure.

Drake snatched it, a slight smile forming on his dirty face. The gun was already loaded to the max. Maybe the path the man took had no dangers. If that was true, they may actually get lucky enough to escape without having to use weapons.

"Catch," Drake said speedily, tossing the box of bullets to Cliff. "Load your gun. We're getting the hell out of here, even if we have to travel cross-country."

Night had already set upon the land, the last of the sun's light dissipating. Lucky for them, they were traveling on a set path, an obscure road for anybody driving by. Just as long as they remained together, they'd be safe; they could see just about anybody or anything for a good dozen yards. Still, the darkness of night didn't make things easier.

Except for spotting several overturned cars broken beyond repair and many burnt and broken corpses, their travel was pretty uneventful. It wasn't until about a half hour later that a well-lit building off the distance caught their attention. The chance of it being a sign of escape was minimal, but it was a sign of life. They rushed toward it, realizing that it was strangely built for any kind of home. It was white all over, was actually quite large, and was secluded, only several trees hugging it. Strong winds began to make its way over, the trees' branches wavering back and forth, making the house not so safe-looking.

"Here's the front door," Drake called, signaling the rest over. "Should we knock?" As he said this, his hand had pushed the door slightly ajar; it was open.

They entered inside, what looked like a receptionist's office greeting them. No one was present.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Sam added as Cliff shut the door.

"What if everyone in here was planted with an embryo?"

Cliff's question went unanswered, the expression of the other two appearing quite nettled. Besides containing several chairs, bushy plants, and magazines, all the things a waiting room would hold, there was nothing else of interest. Drake pulled the silver knob on a door labeled "Do Not Enter", but the knob wouldn't give, some kind of lock with buttons on it probably the cause.

"Over here!" Sam called out.

She opened the other door, the one to the receptionist's desk area. Feeling a knot of anticipation inside her, she walked in, the others following dumbly, feeling almost drawn into the room. Another door stood silently and mysteriously across the tiny office, but she was more curious to find out what this building was doing all the way out here. She immediately made her way to the desk, papers scattered haphazardly throughout.

While the other two scrounged for anything useful, she skimmed through the papers. Many of them were schedules for certain people. What was cryptic about it was that none of the names were Romanian, but American. She could easily spot a Romanian name, or word for that matter.

"Lets see, 'Ronald Palmer, William Summers, Holly Harrison...'" The names just kept going, a set of dates and notes set next to each; nothing worth looking at. After rummaging through some more seemingly useless items, she came across an important-looking document titled "Urgent: Regarding X", a ripped seal on its edges. She took it, her eyes narrowing to read the small-print letters on it.

"Find anything good?" Drake asked them indirectly.

"Just some weird claw marks on some of the tables here," answered Cliff. Drake examined the marks for only a couple of seconds and decided that he did not want to even think about what had caused them. He veered toward Sam, who'd been reading the piece of paper for a couple of minutes already.

"Hey, what've you got there?"

"...You gotta read this," she said, her eyes pressing importance on the article.

-Regarding the progress on X, the resurrection of variable A has been a complete success. It immediately reacted to the administered variable B positively, as if it were the perfect piece to the puzzle. The first two days, variable A began showing signs of life, but lacked any kind of intelligent behavior. At first, we assumed that a higher dosage was needed, but after the third day, variable A changed dramatically. By then, it was voracious, acting aggressive around its environment, searching for a host. Stunned by the sudden growth and reconstruction of its cellular composition, we began testing posthaste. We call the combined A and B variable X. Here's what we've found so far.

Experiment A Results: Oryctolagus cuniculus (Rabbit)

Four rabbits were placed together, two injected with variable X. Another group with four rabbits stood as the constant, that is for the basis of variable B. After several hours, the variable X rabbits exhibited many physical changes regarding appetite behavior and overall bodily growth. A few hours more, and the variable X rabbits had been feasting on the other two non-carriers. The most peculiar feature was their thirst for its victims' blood.

In the end, the variable X rabbits grew into carnivorous creatures, while variable B rabbits began to die and decompose. Test subjects were kept for additional research.

Experiment B Results: Corvus corone (Crow)

Crows injected with variable X died immediately. However, variable B crows engaged in cannibalistic activity not shortly after. No other immediate effects detected.

Test subjects disposed.

Experiment C Results: Homo Sapiens (Human)

Three subjects were tested. Test subject #1 took several hours to react to variable X. Even as #1's body fought hard against variable X, the transformation was successful. The result was a combination of both variables X and B, with slow tissue-deteriorating effects, increased circulatory efficiency, and outstanding neural augmentation. However, the most distinguishing change was the enhancement and addition of body organs in the body. Blood vessels and related organs, such as the kidneys and liver began to grow new appendages, the blood itself began to thicken. At the end, #1's appetite increased, most likely for blood.

Test subject #2 was clean of any variables and put together alive with #1. After a brutal, yet swift battle, #1 had the hold on #2. It bit down into #2's neck and drained it of blood, then began engaging in cannibalistic activity. Test subject #2 was half alive a few hours later only to die from the infection administered by #1. An embryo life-form, one much resembling #1, grew from #2's chest, obviously had incubated there. It burst out and grew tenaciously, nearly as tall as #1. The rate at which it grew was incredible. After the food source from #2 ran out, the new embryo and #1 fought out of hunger. The embryo won, even after taking heavy blows to the head, barely bleeding or suffering from brain injury.

Test subject #3 was tested in a dead state and resulted negative, variable X not taking immediate effect. Stored for additional testing.

While it is safe to say that spawn of those infected by X are much more potent than that of the infected host, we believe that X is indeed a parasite that works in colonies. To say that the infected are mere zombies, like the products of variable B would be hardly fair. More research on the ecology of X will be considered.

The embryo is currently being tested on as we speak. It is neither human nor an X or B host, but a hybrid. This new species has built neural passages extending to the heart, much of its organs surrounding its heart's many new components. We are eager to continue on project X; new subjects will be needed for further experimentations. Deliver to Dragon's Den.-

Drake was both stunned and confused. While he understood the basics of the simple lab report, he felt overwhelmed by all the emphasis on those variables. To fully understand what the hell they were talking about, they would have to acquire additional information. However, with all the eerie talk of those lab creatures, he couldn't help but wonder if they were held in this building as they spoke. Sam's look was still the same; Cliff's was of fear and interest, like Drake's.

"What in God's name were they doing here?" Drake said softly and monotonously, as if lost in thought at the same time. Sam shook her head.

"I wanna go," she said, the others able to hear the strain, the malaisein her tone of voice. She was sick with both dread and adrenaline-

-and there was a sound on the other side of the unknown door, like another door opening, an automatic one. In the room they hadn't yet ventured since entering the cramped office were footsteps, yet they were steady, sloshing steps, like a drunk person's. The "person" was stumbling about, heading in their direction.

"Shit," Drake muttered as he heard the locked door at the waiting room opened from the other side, as well. They were surrounded.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan. The pathetic humans were wandering about, scuttling like bugs, and that Albert Wesker had fallen for their bait. Although he seemed highly capable of ruining all of their carefully laid out plans, they had made sure that he'd be kept busy for quite some time. Enough at least to initiate the next phase of their plan. It had been so hard to hide out for all this time, scavenging in the darkness of night, hiding trails and so on.

He thought to himself even as he walked through the unnatural forest. He'd be Randolph no more. Everything was beginning, like that of the first domino being pushed, the momentum putting all into progress. The Zalamel clan were readily accepting themselves as his pawns, had been for quite some time. All they needed was to wait a bit as Wesker and HCF put the plans into motion with their careful experimenting.

"And now that Wesker has done his fill, he poses a threat to all. He will be revived very soon, He who started it all..."

Keeping the brilliant schemer busy was easy; he was the type that wanted everything under his control...a control freak. He's seen many of those types in his many, many years of living. So many decades, and people were still so predictable...

He frowned, thinking of humankind's many follies and defects. But he soon after smiled at the reveries of his plans succeeding, his master being alive again, to reign over the foolish mortals, a world where war will be no more, where race does not matter at all.

"And meanwhile, the madman will quarrel with HCF, the agents will perish, and He will be king again!"

He chuckled as he thought about how badly HCF reacted when he told them that little lie. And the U.S. government completely bought the info he gave regarding Wesker's whereabouts. Why they didn't just take his advice and head straight for where he was hiding was a mystery; they had trusted him enough to search for that narcissist here, but wouldn't search at the spot he clearly told them to.

"Oh, well. Foolish. As long as they fulfill their purposes, they can die for all I care. Once I get to the castle, the fun shall begin..."

He glanced at his watch. Only an hour more to go. How excited he was. Oh, yes! An onslaught for his king!