"Hmmm," Bryan thought, "I always assumed they traveled in bigger teams then that."
He had been watching the woods in the general direction of the crash for about 45min, and hadn't seen anything until just now. Out of the woods walked 4 men, a tall black man, a Hispanic man, one very lanky Caucasian man with rather long black hair, and a blonde man, Caucasian as well. They were all garbed out in their respective S.T.A.R.S attire, and appeared to flank the mansion, the Hispanic and the lanky man going around the sides, while the black man and the blonde were headed for the front door, all in arms.
"Well, I don't think force will be necessary," Bryan thought out loud, "but just in case…"
He expelled his clip to see how many shots were left. He could have sworn that he should have had 6 shots in the 10 shot clip, but for some reason he only had 4.
"Lets see," he said, "two on the plumber in the east wing, and one of the Doberman by the pantry…that makes three…and then two on the maid by the main staircase," he shuddered for a second, "man that bitch was heavy to move out of the way," he thought.
As he continued to count he heard a bang on the front door of the mansion, and he jolted into position.
Bryan had always had a knack for acting, ever since he was a youth. Back in grade school he had attended a theater camp for many years, and later on went to star in shows like A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Radium Girls. He had learned the ins and outs of being truthful to your character, which in most cases meant being false to yourself, but hell, acting was acting.
And he was about to play the greatest role he had ever taken on in his entire life.
The encroachers knocked yet again on the door.
"Is anyone inside? This is the Raccoon City S.T.A.R.S unit Bravo Team. Our helicopter had to make an emergency landing in the woods outlying this mansion. If anyone is there please open up or we will have to enter forcefully!"
"Hell of an emergency landing," Bryan thought as he ran panting to open the door.
"Oh thank heavens; I thought I was the only one left!" Bryan exclaimed, dressed entirely in hazmat suit, his pistol hidden underneath, looking completely distraught.
"Sir, are you alright, what is going on here?" said the black man, as he and the blonde walked into the foyer of the house.
"I'm…well…it's just that…you see," Bryan was almost beginning to convince himself of his façade.
"Sir, please relax, take a deep breath, we are here to help. My name is Lt. Kenneth J. Sullivan of the Raccoon City S.T.A.R.S Bravo Team, and this is our communications expert Richard Aiken."
"Hello," said Richard, looking as terrified as Bryan was pretending to be.
"My name is Charles, Charles Woorly," Bryan replied hastily. He had stolen his hazmat suit from a man of the same name who he had never met, and just in case good ol' Rick and Kenny decided to get all moral on his ass and check ID at least he'd have proof.
"Alright Mr.Woorly, our helicopter had to make an emergency landing on the grounds just outside the Spencer Estate, and we already have lost two of our team members, a Ms. Rebecca Chambers and also our pilot who was killed on landing. Who haven't happened to see Ms. Chambers have you?" Kenny was trying to remain as professional as possible, or so it seemed to Bryan.
"No, you don't understand," Bryan replied hastily, the more small talk that went on the less time he had to deal with the other two interlopers who chose to use the back entrance, "There has been an even more horrible accident here!"
"What do you mean?" Richard asked.
"Well, I don't know very much about this place, I'm kind of new, but there are these people roaming around, acting totally insane, and they are hurting people! It's way to dangerous to be anywhere in this house anymore and I was worried no help would ever come. I mean this way to intense for me to handle all by myself and well, I just…I don't…I….I," Bryan stammered until he ran out of breath.
"It's alright Mr.Woorly," Kenny said, "are there any other people than yourself here that we can speak with?"
"I've been trying to answer that question myself actually," Bryan replied, "if you don't mind I sure could use the help searching the place."
"Well, let's see what we can do." Kenny replied.
"Alright, follow me." Bryan said, removing his hazmat helmet.
The 3 men walked through the foyer towards the dining room. Bryan figured if he took just enough time to befriend Kenny, he could easily get the two men to separate. His plan could work perfectly, so long as he could leave one man to the mercy of the zombies and the other locked in the reptilian testing wing.
"Though I may not know what went on up there," he thought to himself, "if it's anything similar to the rest of this hell-hole, Richard will be kept busy until I can handle him later."
They finally reached the middle of the dining room, which was exceptionally large, and, as far back as Bryan could remember, was used for no other purpose then to show off the Spencer family's wealth. In fact, he could never recall ever seeing food come within 50 feet of the room. It was spotted with many a grand chandelier hanging from the ceiling, a grandfather clock, and a gigantic renaissance era mural on the east wall, and a huge fireplace with the family crest above it along the north. In the middle of the room sat a table that stretched nearly the entirely length of the room, with one candelabra set in the middle and chairs all around. In the far southwest corner of the room sat an old-fashioned typewriter on a table about waist-high…Bryan was never quite sure what that piece was for exactly, he always assumed it was just for show. Above them, and below the high-raised ceiling was a balcony that overlooked the room from every side, it could only be reached from the upper level of the house.
"Some place you got here," Richard said, breaking the silence.
"Yea," Kenny added as he looked at the mural, "You folks sure do have a hell of a decorating sense."
Bryan glanced at the portrait, and even though he had passed it many times before it had always made him uneasy. Supposedly, Lord Spencer found gore to be quite pleasing and had won this at an auction in England many years back. It was a painting of 2 men in Elizabethan garb, donning fencing foils, and one man had stabbed his through the other's head, while the other had skewered his opponent's midsection. There was a caption underneath the mural, but Bryan felt they had wasted enough time as it was.
"I guess so," he said trying as hard as possible not to sound irritated, "but we better keep moving."
Much to his chagrin however the men remained motionless and continued to look around the room.
"I see you have a fire going there, Woorly, was it?" Kenny asked suspiciously.
"Yes sir, but I didn't light it; it's a gas fireplace, whole place runs on timers, to big for one staff to handle on their own." Bryan thanked the powers above for helping him pull that one out of his ass at the last second.
"Alright, where are we looking then?"
"When I heard your 'copter go down I had been searching this hallway here—." Bryan said as he pointed to the door at the northeast corner of the room.
"Then lets get moving, Richard, see if you can get Enrico or Forrest on the C/B and tell him what we got going on." Kenny ordered.
"Alright," Richard replied.
Bryan chuckled to himself quietly. What they didn't realize was that there was frequency interrupters installed all over the grounds of the mansion. Only one C/B channel worked on any walkie-talkie used on the grounds, and since Bryan wasn't about to share that with them, he knew had a little extra time to get to Enrico, who he assumed must've been the Hispanic man from before, and Forrest, the lanky, long haired man as well.
They walked to the door and opened it up leading into a very narrow hallway that lead to either their right or left. Each side of the hallway was adorned with doors, some regular old doors, some made of oak and very skillfully carved, and all with locks. The plainer the door, the simpler the lock.
Bryan had a ring of keys in his pocket that would unlock most of the doors in the mansion, but like always Umbrella never was a fan of one person having too much power.
What they were fans of however, were puzzles and riddles.
Lord Spencer, one of the creators of Umbrella, and George Trevor, the mansion's architect, had rigged the old mansion full of tests, traps, and puzzles, all leading to hidden crests, keys and other various items, that only the head honchos at Umbrella HQ knew all about. The Department heads only knew of a few of them each, and were told not to share their knowledge with the others.
The three large men crammed into the tiny hallway and Bryan motioned them to their right into a small sitting room, whose door was already unlocked. He motioned Kenny to take a seat, and then his first test began….separating the S.T.A.R.S.
"Alright, this is as far as I got when I heard the 'copter come down," Bryan said. "I then was about to run out of here when I…" he paused, "did you just hear that?"
"Hear what?" Both men replied in unison.
"That scream, it sounded like someone in trouble….you didn't hear it?" Bryan was laying it on thick.
"No, we didn't," Kenny replied, "Should we check it out?"
"Not all of us together," Bryan said, "Someone should stay here in case someone comes this way looking for help. I vote you." Bryan said as he pointed to Kenny.
"Why me?" Kenny asked.
"Because," Bryan replied, "I don't have anything to protect myself from danger, plus you are also a lot stronger and more capable-looking then either him or myself." Bryan pointed to Richard who still was furiously working on his C/B communications.
"Hey, Aiken," Kenny said.
"Yea?"
"Any luck man?"
"Negatory, sorry. I agree with Woorly though, maybe if we head back towards the foyer I can get a better signal. Plus he seems to know his way around, so no sense in leaving him alone here" Richard replied.
"Alright, but don't take too long, I'm starting to get bad vibes about this place." Kenny said.
Bryan was shocked, he couldn't believe it fell out easier then he had planned it to. He patted Kenny on the shoulder and wished him the best, and then he and Richard headed back to the foyer.
Just as they left, Kenny heard the noise that he thought Bryan had heard. He paused to listen, but there was no way that was a human screaming for help. As it got closer, it became more distinguishable. It sounded more like an empty moan than a call for help. As soon as it was within earshot Kenny moved in to investigate.
As he rounded the corner, he met their "estranged victim" face to face within seconds.
"Oooaoaoooo" it moaned.
Kenny gasped for air, in a state of shock. This man was missing a quarter of his skull, and his flesh had turned grey as if it was decaying. His teeth were practically gone, and he just walked forward arms outstretched, moaning.
"Stop right there!" Kenny shouted.
The man continued to walk.
"I said stop!" Kenny said more desperately.
The man didn't stop.
"I warned you!" Kenny shot a warning shot into the man's leg.
The man paused for a second, reeled off the shot's momentum, and then continued in Kenny's direction.
"What the fuck?" Kenny screamed. That was no man, it wasn't possible, that was a monster, a zombie.
"Jesus-fucking-Christ" Kenny said. He had always been a religious man, but he never knew that those words would be his last prayer ever.
The foyer was one of the largest rooms in the house. It had a grand staircase, carpeted in red, with gold lining, in the center of the room, that lead up a level and then split off in two separate directions that linked to a above pathway/balcony that lead to other rooms on the upper level, the reptile room included. Where the stairs split off was a huge mural painted from the ceiling to the floor, and unbeknownst to many, it contained a hidden door right at the bottom that lead to the family cemetery. The ground floor was tiled like a checkerboard and lead off to a few rooms as well. Underneath the main staircase were pathways that lead to a gated set of doors. Those doors lead to the basement of the mansion, but nobody had been down there since George Trevor, had locked it off many years ago.
When they got there Bryan paused and claimed to hear the scream again, but Richard was so busy trying to contact his teammates that he didn't listen for it himself.
"I think it came from upstairs," Bryan said.
"Let's move out then," Richard replied.
They moved up the stairs, Richard in the lead, gun in one hand C/B in the other. They approached the door that lead to the reptile lab and Bryan proceeded to unlock it.
"I think it was this way," he said.
Richard paused. "How can you be so sure, Woorly, I'm getting a little suspicious of you…"
Bryan hoped it wouldn't have come to this.
"Well, you see," he said, as he pulled his pistol out of his suit's lining, "I don't really care what you think, now give me your gun, and your walkie-talkie, get into that room, and shut the fuck up."
Much to Bryan's pleasure the man obeyed orders, and even more pleasingly had a look of terror on his face the whole time. Bryan knew that without a weapon the man would never be able to defend himself, but at this point he didn't care. These people were nothing but a deterrent to his master plan, and at this point, with everything that had happened around him already he was numb to death's cold touch.
He locked the door, leaving Richard to the prey of the reptiles.
"Together you stand," he said to himself proudly, "divided you die."