Chapter 11

With Eva leading the way, things seemed to go much easier. Together, they defeated at least three more of those strange monsters she called Mannequins. Still, Shawn couldn't help but feel uneasy around someone he felt he hardly knew. He was basically entrusting his life in her hands.

And if she does have any kind of relation with that psycho, Wesker, then I'm done for.

Eva suddenly stopped at a door decorated differently from the rest, a serpent-like dragon design spiraling around the door's frame. Eva had a key shaped like the insignia of her clan's tattoo, reminding Shawn of yet another question he meant to ask her.

"So, how did you escape from Hisaru? Must've been hell for you."

". . . it was actually quite simple, really."

"What? How so?"

She walked on ahead into the room proceeding the fancy door, not another word. He followed, not thrilled that she was evading every important question. The next hall was actually outdoors. It was some walkway with walls and all, except the ceiling opened up to the sky, revealing a partially lit bluish light. It must've been at least four in the morning by now. The walkway led to some altar of some sort with a rather large statue of a dragon. Eva paused again and sighed.

"What's the matter?" Shawn asked trying his best to conceal any uncertainty in his voice.

"Ugh, the damn statue closed on me. Must've been by accident or something."

"Dragon statue, huh?"

Shawn studied the statue for a moment, noticing not long after the square shape indentation.

Aha! Another puzzle, these people are too serious.

Feeling great accomplishment at the fact that he had the key to their salvation, he took out the block he had found at the cave before. When he went to look at Eva, she had been aiming her Uzi at something high above.

"Hmm, not bad, really," the voice of man sounded.

"Hisaru!" Eva spat, hesitating to fire.

"I'm afraid you're too late. Your friends are waging a battle with our . . . pets."

Shawn fired without even thinking twice, his shotgun blast striking the stone decor above where Hisaru stood seconds ago. He then stood on the right wall just a few feet away.

"Even if you reach them now, you'll get annihilated as well. Why don't you both just give up already?"

"Bastard!" yelled Shawn, firing another round. Again it missed. Eva put her hand on his shoulder as to signal his ceasing.

"We can still put up one hell of a fight if get there on time. He doesn't know what he's talking about, he's just trying to scare us. We've got plenty of ammo there. Let's go!"

With the stone in place, the dragon statue shifted slowly backward, revealing some more steps. It was dark and damp the further they went, but it appeared safer than most of the other parts.

"This must be the dragon's den, right?" Shawn asked.

"No, we're about to head there in just a little bit."

There was some loud shout somewhere down the tunnel, the language in Romanian. Realizing it was probably more vampires, Shawn reloaded his gun and readied it. Three villagers, or at least that's what they looked like, stumbled down the narrow tunnel, bearing their abnormal fangs and nails, their motives as simplistic as ever. He fired immediately, the sound of flesh tearing from snapping bone echoing in the dankness of the passage.

"Wait," Eva said, moving in with her Uzi and aiming.

Their was an additional popping noise that sounded liquid and gross. From each of the bodies sprouted pale little vampire creatures, skittering toward them as if they had known, as if they were inside controlling the human hosts.

Eva blasted them with an endless spray of machine gun bullets, leaving fleshy pulps of white and red. No blood poured from them at all, causing Shawn to wonder exactly what this parasite did to these poor victims.

Continuing to the end, the hallway led to an outdoor cliff. A wide bridge made of stone stretched over a rushing river, most likely the same one that washed him away.

"Let's go," Eva signaled him. As Eva took her first steps on the bridge, Shawn peered down into the clear water. Something huge swirled across the water's surface, only offering him a couple of seconds to react.

"Eva!"

She turned around, and Shawn was diving, shoving her out of the way when-

BOOM!

The whole segment of the bridge where she stood on just seconds ago was gone, a flash of something long, bluish, and sticky sinking back into the watery depths. Their way back was blocked. Shawn grabbed her arm and pulled her up from the ground. When they headed to the other end, the only end left, the bluish tentacles rose up again, slamming onto their only escape route. Luckily, the bridge didn't collapse yet. However, the tentacle was still in the way.

"What now!" Eva exclaimed, obviously not expecting something like this.

Something rose from the broken end of the bridge, something that was beyond comprehendible. It was a long, snake-like creature, its mouth shorter than a serpent's. Its fangs were fully exposed for lack of lips, and its eyes weren't reptilian at all, but more . . . unnatural. It had spikes protruding from all over its back, putrid bodies impaled on nearly all of them. Apparently the beast was feasting on anyone crossing the river. After the gruesome view, Shawn was convinced this was the end of the road for him.

C L I F F

Things were beginning to look up for Cliff. Despite the horror he had to witness, he'd finally be able to find his brother. He was a very smart kid, so it was more likely that they'd find him with the team of agents. He had told him to follow them since it was safer than following him to who-knows-where. And suddenly, he was glad. He hadn't felt this close to anyone since his brother. He began to wonder if he was truly a young adult or a mere child . . .

"Hey, Cliff, she finally woke up," Drake said, waking him from his minor daydream.

"Oh, cool. Now we can find a way outta this miserable place."

"Uh, ugh, Drake? Cliff?" Sam was a bit disoriented for awhile, but she managed to sit up and all, a very good sign. "What the hell happened to me?"

"To make a long story short," Drake began, "you got injured, we killed the monsters, but our only way back was blown to shit."

"So, we need to keep moving so we can get the hell away from everything," Cliff added. "But not before we look for my brother."

"Your . . . brother?"

"Let's keep moving, we've no time to waste," Drake said, not sounding too enthusiastic about the idea.

"Well, where do we go?" she asked, her voice still a bit weak.

"We need to find a way to get the electricity going so we can get the computer console in this room," Drake answered. "Only then can we get this friggin' door to open just outside the hall."

Sam nodded, taking in the eerie surroundings of the lab. Meanwhile, Cliff took notice of the generators stored away in a corner of the room. The generators seemed to be not operating, several parts missing from the sides.

"Hey, take a look at what I found. Looks like a generator of some kind. Maybe I can get it to work . . ."

"You go do that," Sam said, holding a couple of sheets in her weak hands, "I want to continue reading this."

S A M A N T H A

The report was directed toward some assistant in the lab. Apparently, it spoke of a passageway leading to the Dragon's Den, wherever the hell that was. Recovering from her dizziness, Sam began reading as quickly as she could, the constant humming of giant test tubes giving her shivers all the while.

" In case you forget where everything has to go, I've made this memo for your incompetent sake. Don't go and lose this, because, trust me, this will be you last!

Firstly, all MA series must go together, end of story! I'll give you their code names just because I'm nice. The Hunters, the Mannequins, and the Elitists go in that category. Next, don't forget that the "Tyrant" series have got to be delivered separately, not in bundles! This is important, since there are such limited amounts. This will include Tyrant, the Marauders, and Darkside.

By Wesker's orders, one of our Hydras has been released into the nearby rivers. It has grown into maturity, so its replication process should be underway. We just need a smaller supply of the infant Hydras.

If you think you can handle it, take these test subjects to the room next door and continue down to the very end. The password should be apparent. My name. My date of birth. My wife's name. And don't forget my middle name, too. If worse comes to worse, use someone nearby who ISN'T busy to use their fingerprint I.D.

Good luck! You're going to need it. "

Sam switched her gaze to Cliff, who was working on the generator. He appeared to have some sort of trouble, though.

"Almost done?" she asked, glancing from side to side at the tubes around her.

"I just need something to give it the volts it needs."

"Well, how about your cattle prod thing?" Drake mentioned.

"Hmm, maybe . . ."

Both Drake and Sam were quite astounded at how talented he was with handling things. He was amazing with a gun and did a fine job assembling the generator. He even managed to create a makeshift battery for it using the high-voltage gun he found before. With his gifts, he would make a great mechanic or member of the NRA.

"There, it won't last very long, but it'll be long enough for us to use the computer."

"Good, that's all we need."

Sure enough, the computers came on once the generator hooked up to the room's power supply. The monitor sprang to life, the nostalgic and worldwide famous Umbrella icon showing up. They were curious about it since the multibillion dollar corporation was dismantled after their conspiracies with Raccoon City and all was revealed. Sam knew all about it, and suddenly it all made sense.

It was Drake typing in everything quickly and efficiently. Soon enough, they heard the clank sound that signaled the electronic door's lock opening. The three gave each other a small smile, just relieved that they'd finally be out of the horrible lab.

Suddenly, the lights gave out, and so did the computer monitor. The generator began to give off smoke, then started shooting small sparks.

"Ah, I guess that battery wasn't compatible at all," Cliff said amiably. "Did you need the computer for anything else."

"No . . ." Drake said calmly, although Sam as well as Cliff could tell that there was something else he wanted to find on it.

"Well, let's go. The sooner the better . . ."

Just as Sam finished speaking, she froze, feeling a mixture of extreme terror and despair. The humming drone of the tubes was no longer humming. And as expected, things were beginning to move within some of the test tubes, the slow cracking sound of thick glass not able to contain its occupants anymore. And three of them burst open one after the other, whitish liquid pouring out along with several mutants, the high pitched shattering of glass drowning out Sam's screams. The creatures were half reptile, half primate, hunched over and deliberately revealing long claws and teeth as a death threat to the three. No doubt, they were dead if they didn't act fast.

S H A W N

The swimming terror pulled out more dancing tentacles, its mouth beginning to drool perpetually. It roared in excitement, a sharp, high-pitched one that sent chills up Shawn's spine. His knees became rubbery, not knowing what to do first.

In an instant, a massive tentacle whipped from one side to the next.

"Get down!" Shawn cried, Eva ducking right on cue. Had the bluish thing smacked any of them, they'd most likely have knocked off the bridge and fallen onto its endless trail of spikes.

The creature tried once more, but again, Shawn gave her the signal. He glanced at the huge tentacle still blocking their way out. Shooting that enormous thing would probably be a waste of time and ammo. They needed to get to the others and survive this, but it was practically impossible!

The monster cried in frustration, a shriek that sounded like it had three voices. Its face came closer, the head itself at least three times his size. Without thinking, he opened fire on its monstrous face particularly at the eyes. It gave out slight shrieks of pain as each shot punched at its repulsive cheeks. However, it flinched far back when one connected to its left eye. Shaking and trembling, it struggled to keep them in view.

"Shawn, over here!" Eva shouted almost in a whisper, pointing toward their unblocked exit. That was their chance.

They ran as fast as they could, Eva reaching the end first and firing at the approaching beast to back him up. The beast was upon him, its tentacle seconds from smashing his only way to the other side, the difference between life and death-

-and PANG, PSHHH! The monster was writhing in pain as its other eye was blown away, the beast's head smashing at the opposite end of the bridge. Shawn found himself running upward as the bridge started to crumble into the river along with the hybrid monster. Its shriek could be heard just as Shawn leapt up to grab hold of the cliff's edge, dangling like a tiny insect on a branch of a tree.

Eva took hold of his hand and pulled him up.

"Almost lost you there," she said worriedly. "I guess I owe you one, now." Shawn had finished catching his breath when he finally spoke.

"If it weren't for you, I would've been its dinner."

She gave him a guilty look. "It wasn't me," she said pointing across to the other side. There stood Jim, his rifle tossed to the ground. He was injured, but appeared fully aware of what was going on.

"Jim . . ." Shawn whispered, anxiety gripping hold of him at the fact that they were so close, yet so far.

"Behind you!" Eva then shouted. And in a sad split second, the giant monster with the nails ran up from behind Jim and pierced right through his back, its face filled with an insatiable glee.

"No, Jim!"

Jim's face contained nothing but utter surprise and pain, then he was thrown off the cliff, soundless except for the bitter splash at the end. The monster glared at them from the other side, then disappeared into the wooded darkness.