Ch.10- The Saviors Enter the Madhouse

-------LILIE'S POV-------

The TV was working as I had hoped it would although the vision was staticy. The only things that got the best reception were the channel 4 news and an episode of South Park. By request of Catie, I went onto the news station.

Through the static, I could tell that a report was upon Catie, Liana, Mari, July, Hazel, Sherry, and me. We were counted as missing. Too bad they didn't know about Hazel being practically dead. Some of the students from school were interviewed on what happened. Some were the students that didn't particularly care about us and pretended to cry their eyes out on camera, acting as though they really did care. Hiroko and May were interviewed, too. At least I knew they cared for us.

After the report, I changed the channel to South Park. Yes! One of my favorite episodes was on: the one about Scuzzlebutt. And it was somewhere at the beginning.

"Now boys, we have to be serious for a moment. I want to go over the basics of hunting since this is your first time. First, don't ever walk with your gun without the safety on, don't shoot anything that looks human, and third: never spill your beer in the bullet chamber."

"Uncle Jimbo...we don't drink beer."

"You WHAT?"

"Oh, that's right. I don't think eight-year-old boys drink beer."

"I like chocolate milk!"

"Well, we'll be doing plenty of drinking on this hunting trip because hunting sober is like...fishing...sober."

I couldn't help but to laugh. South Park always did that to me. Catie and July were laughing, too. It seemed like just for that mere minute, we forgot that we were held captive in a madhouse and being chased by mutated people.

A half hour later, the episode ended and the worry came back. Hazel...she was practically dead and I didn't know how Mari, Sherry, and Liana were doing. From outside July's old room, I heard crashing sounds like a group of people were on a rampage in the halls. Not just Hazel, but other mutants...tyrants.

I shuddered when the thought of tyrants came to me. I'd seen enough tyrants last year in Marysville to last me a lifetime. I did not want to see any more.

The noise outside got louder and louder every passing second, but we waited a little bit to see if it would calm down. It didn't. It not only got worse in the hallways, but the room next door began get loud, too. Thrashing noises echoed and then a fist came crashing through the wall. It was at that second, I realized that if we wanted any chances of us living, we had to leave through the door now.

"Catie, July. Are you two feeling up to running?" I asked the girls. Catie nodded and July answered gleefully, "Let's get to it." I grabbed both Catie and July's hands so that when we started running, we wouldn't lose each other. I knew that July was much faster than Catie and myself and if she ran ahead of us, there would be no way we would catch up to her.

Catie took a deep breath and opened the door. Calmly, she lead July and me out into the hallway. I looked behind and saw Hazel and the giant of a woman...a tyrant similar to the experimented babies back in Marysville crashing through the walls.

"One...two...three...RUN!" I commanded. Catie and July began running with July practically dragging Catie and me down the hallway, laughing as if it was a game.

-------SHERRY'S POV-------

Liana, Mari, and I had escaped from the giant man only to run into another into the hallway, preventing us from going down. All we could do was run over to the stairs that lead to the third floor.

Mari began coughing again so Liana led us both into the first room on our left for her to relax until she quit coughing.

The room we ran into must have been a bedroom of some sort. A bed without a sheet or blanket on it was by a wall. On the opposite side of the room was a sink with a rag next to it. The rest of the room was empty save for the dust that plagued the room.

I helped Mari onto the bed and patted her back as she coughed. "Thanks, Sherry." She said in a raspy voice as her coughs began to subside.

"How are you feeling, Mari?" Liana asked from a sink in the room.

"I'm feeling better." Mari admitted, "But I still feel like shit."

Liana ran some water over the small rag and began to rub the rag over Mari's chin, wiping off the blood. "Well, that probably won't make you feel any better, but you definitely look better."

That was a lie, but I didn't say anything to Liana. Although the blood was gone, Mari's face and body was a sick, pale color. She didn't look any better than she did with the blood on her chin. She looked deathly sick and if we didn't find a cure for her illness before she got very very sick, then it would be impossible to help her. Hopefully, the S.T.A.R.S. members would come soon or Mari or any of the other girls for that matter wouldn't have any chances of survival here in this madhouse.

-------BILLY'S POV-------

I sat in the back of the van, impatiently waiting for us to get to the hospital so I could find my sister. My hands were shaking and wouldn't stop even after Rebecca put her hands over them. I don't think anything could have calmed me down. I finally knew where my little sister was and that made me feel good, but she was experimented on. That made me scared and nervous.

From the radio, Mari said she was fine along with the other girls. When Marc called the S.T.A.R.S. room after the first time the boys spoke with the girls, he said that Lilie sounded fine. I was grateful for that, but when I heard Mari's coughing and Sherry's scream about blood and help, it occurred to me that the same thing could have happened to Lilie and that scared me.

As the van drove through the woods, I began to wonder why the hell the hospital was in the middle of the forest. The question wouldn't go away each minute we drove, so I asked it.

"It was built there to hide the fact that there was a madhouse even around. See, if people knew about it, then they would come here every day in packs and disrupt the recovery of the ...ill patients or even get hurt. Only a few people know about this hospital." Rebecca explained to me.

It still didn't make much sense to me, but I kept my mouth shut and focused on my plan: Find the girls, kill whoever infected them, and leave. There was, however, another question on my mind: Why the hell were we taking a van instead of a helicopter?

Barry answered this one, "We thought it would be easier to hold our ammo. Plus, our third most experienced flyer will fly with our biggest helicopter to get us when we call for help. Besides, who knows what could happen to our helicopter if we flew it to the hospital?"

"Who's the flyer?" I asked. I knew that the two most experienced S.T.A.R.S. members that flew helicopters were Chris and Barry, but wasn't sure who the third one was.

"Cara Bright." Jill answered.

"Rick's wife? Isn't she on maternity leave to take care of her baby?" I asked.

"Cara is strong enough to handle this. Plus, she left Carolyn with my sister, Courtney. They'll be fine." Matt answered.

I didn't tell him this, but I definitely didn't approve of what Matt told me: putting his cousin, who was taking a break from work, in this sort of danger. That'd be like me throwing Lilie into a room falling apart just so I could do an investigation. Oh well. They were both S.T.A.R.S. members and they had the right to do what they wanted.

Finally, the van stopped. "We're here." Chris explained.

All the S.T.A.R.S. members piled out with their weapons and equipment. I stood next to Rebecca and took a look at the exterior of the hospital. It looked more like a prison. The building needed a serious paint job; the windows were barred; the yard, if you could even call it that, was over grown with weeds; and the front door was large and stone.

"Everyone ready?" Chris asked the group of us S.T.A.R.S. members. All of us nodded in unison. "Good. We got seven girls in there that need help. Let's go!" He led us inside through the unlocked front door.

The foyer of the hospital was filthy and quiet. It sure looked abandoned since not a trace of the dust in the room had been touched by anything and the room was cold.

"Everyone go their radios?" Chris asked the group. Everyone held theirs up.

"Are we going to split up into groups?" Claire asked her brother.

Chris nodded, "Jill and I will go searching the first floor. Leon, Claire, and Barry and take the second. Rebecca, Billy, and Matt can take the third. Once all the girls are found, meet back in the foyer. If you find them or run into any trouble, contact the others on the radio. Clear?"

"Yes sir!" the rest shouted.

Chris didn't smile, but he did nod, "Okay. Move out."

Jill walked up to Chris and they walked down the hallways with their guns drawn. The rest walked up the stairs. Leon and Claire followed Barry down the second floor. Rebecca and Matt followed me up another flight of stairs and down the third floor.

-------MARC'S POV--------

As David drove his van with the rest of us boys inside, he explained to me, his relationship with Mickey. Apparently, they had been friends since he was six and she was nine. He introduced her to her husband and she helped him gather the courage to ask Liana out. They helped each other out over the years. After that explanation, I assumed it was appropriate to tell Sky about what happened to the girls.

"So, all the girls are trapped in a madhouse?" Sky asked as we drove through the forest with Lucas navigating. He was the only one of us five that actually knew the way to the madhouse.

"Yeah," I answered, "and as far as we know, they're all in big trouble. One of them has already gotten sick."

"Which one?" Sky asked.

"My little sister." Casey answered.

"Don't worry, Casey. I'm sure that Mari is okay. All we need to do is find her and the other girls and get them to a hospital. It won't take more than...AH! SONOVA!" David yelled that last part before swerving his van to the side. Without being able to stop, the van crashed into a tree.

My head, in unison with Casey and Sky's, hit the side of the van. A sharp pain came from the back of my head.

Before I could say anything, Lucas groaned, "Dammit, David. What the hell?"

"Look out the window and you'll see what I tried to dodge." David answered.

I leaned forward and peeked out the front mirror. A big grizzly bear was running scared away from the van. So that's what David tried to dodge. The bear must have gotten scared by the sudden noise of David's van hitting the tree.

"Everyone okay?" David asked, turning to Sky, Casey, and me in the back.

I looked over at Casey and Sky. They didn't look hurt despite the fact that they were rubbing the back of their heads. "We're fine." I answered for them.

David stepped on the gas. The van made noises but wouldn't move. He let out a grunt of annoyance and stepped out of the van. After inspecting the tires, David let out a string of curses, most I knew and some I'd never heard before. After the curses, he opened the door and said, "Tires are blown out. We have to continue the rest of the way on foot." The rest of the guys groaned and piled out of the van. Thankfully, according to Lucas, we were only about a quarter of a mile away from the hospital.

It didn't seem that difficult. As far as I knew, Lucas, Casey, Sky, and me were athletic enough to make it there by walking. Casey and I lived about half a mile away form school, Sky lived ¾ of a mile, and Lucas lived almost two miles away and we always walked to school and back. I wasn't so sure about David, though. Whenever I saw him travel somewhere not in school, he was either in a car or another vehicle.

I almost thought that he wouldn't be able to make it, but he did. He was actually the fastest one in the group. Well, so much for my doubts. As we walked, I remembered something that could help us. We're dealing with the Umbrella Corporation and if we're dealing with them then there's going to be monsters; and if there's going to be monsters, we need weapons; and we had no weapons with us.

I explained the situation to the group, but Casey told me not to worry, "Matt always brings tons of extra weapons and ammo with him. We can just go into the S.T.A.R.S. van and take some of the stuff left over inside."

"Are you sure?" Sky asked him.

Casey nodded, "Trust me. My brother won't even notice the stuff is gone. I've been doing this kind of stuff ever since I was small."

I shrugged and continued my way to the hospital, following Lucas since he knew the way there. Nothing was out of the ordinary in the forest and that surprised me. If the Umbrella Corporation was taking over a building in the middle of the woods, then it seemed logical for them to do something to the forest around it to get rid of the intruders, but there wasn't. A calm breeze ruffled the green leaves, robins sat perched upon branches, and even a few deer were shyly walking along the forest floor, stopping a few times to chew upon the leaves or grass.

I was nervous at the surroundings as I followed Lucas. I expected something, anything, to pop out from behind the trees and bit David, Lucas, Sky, Casey, and me, but it didn't.

Finally, we made it to the hospital. At first it looked like the place was abandoned. I personally thought that Lucas led us to the wrong place and I was about to beat his ass for that until I saw something that changed my mind.

An empty S.T.A.R.S. van was parked around the front. It was a relatively clean van so it was obvious that it hadn't been there for very long.

Casey was right when he said that there would be extra weapons in the van. He led David, Sky, and me to the van and opened the doors with ease. Four berettas with extra ammo sat on the van seats. I guess Matt really did leave extra weapons.

The four of us grabbed a beretta and an extra box of ammunition and walked to the front door. I opened it up and led everyone inside. The room we entered was dirty and empty. I suggested that we split up, but Casey and Lucas disagreed saying that it was a bad idea that all the girls split up in the first place. We all took a vote if we should split up. Sky and David didn't care, Casey and Lucas wanted us to stay together, and I wanted to split up. It was unanimous. We stayed together and searched the first floor.

We couldn't hear any noises as we started to walk down the halls. All we saw were filthy wall and rubble on the floor. Nothing seemed to be happening.

It wasn't until two minutes later when I saw a blurry image of a figure with a brown head and a yellow body...and whatever it was, it was heading right for Sky, rushing at a ridiculously fast speed.

In defense, I aimed my beretta at the thing and placed my finger on the trigger and prepared to pull.

"Marc! Wait!" Lucas shouted at me, but it was too late.

My finger pulled the trigger and a bullet flew out of the beretta.