Objective 2. Abandoned Military Warehouse. 2:05 P.M.
Claire stepped onto a metal girder. The warehouse basement was lit well enough, but was still so dark and so vast. Why any self respect Yakuza gang would run its operations here was beyond her. She expected a few members to be on top of her any minute, guns at the ready, but no one came. It was silent. Claire took this moment to reload her gun, and she put the other hand gun into her empty holster.
Never know when I'll need another one. As she thought this, the silence was suddenly cut by a mixture of bullet fire and screams. Claire hit the deck, peering underneath the railing in front of her into the wide room below.
A couple of the gang members were running away from something. One of them tripped, a gaping wound on his left leg being the most likely reason. The man in front of him didn't even turn around to help him up. In a few seconds, Claire could see why they were running. Zombies. There was no scientific name for the walking dead, and Claire just used the famous Hollywood name everyone else did. Still, from what she could see, these ones looked slightly different. They looked more human and less cadaverous then their predecessors. They were very pale, with grayish blue eyes, and all of their nerves could be seen beneath their skin. Some had Growths on them which pulsated sickeningly, and they walked much faster, and with much more dexterity than the garden variety zombies Claire had seen before.
Two of the zombies held down the screaming man as one zombie behind them watched, making what Claire took for a cackling, gleeful noise. It also seemed to be, to Claire's amazement, talking, or at least trying to.
Claire had once been to a convalescent home with her youth group to help out the elderly when she was a teen. A woman there, who the doctors said had a stroke, tried talking to her. All that came out were mumbled, incoherent noises that Claire may have been able to recognize by the speech pattern as words. The doctors told her that the damage from the stroke heavily affected her brain and thus she couldn't form words clearly. It sounded as if these things were doing the same thing. And Dr. Kimura was right; the T2 zombies looked much smarter than the ones she had faced in Raccoon City and on Rockfort Island.
Claire got up carefully. She stepped quietly across the catwalk to a platform holding iron boxes of some sort. She turned on the communicator.
"Dr. Kimura? Dr. Kimura do you read me?" she didn't expect to reach him underground. Surprisingly though, he came through with as much clarity as he did when she talked to him on the surface. Leave it to Japanese technology.
"Claire, what's the situation like?"
Claire took a look around to make sure that the zombies were still out of ear-shot from her. "Bad news, the virus has gotten out."
Kimura sighed. "I knew this would happen. At least we can breathe easily knowing that we may be dealing with a small group of carriers. Just tell me, do you know of any that got out of the warehouse?"
The man on the top floor was all she knew of. "One of them tried to escape but was killed off by what I think was some sort of mutation."
"Just as I thought. The longer the carrier is infected, the more apparent the mutation. You must have seen one of the first ones to be infected."
Crap. "You mean they all get like that eventually?"
"I hate to say it but I think they can only get less human then what you saw," Kimura took a deep breath. "But if you can find locate the other vials it shouldn't be too much more of a problem. I'll notify our specialists to isolate the warehouse. It should be surrounded by our best shortly. In the mean time, try and find the leader, he should have the case."
"Gotcha'" Claire said, mustering as much confidence as possible.
"And don't worry about communication problems," Kimura said, "The communicator is state of the art, and can reach up to a mile and a half underground. You're in the best of hands Ms. Redfield, good luck."
The communicator went dark. Claire got up and strolled over to an open sided freight elevator. Before she could put one foot on it, a deafening shriek pierced the air. She had been seen by them. They were directly across from her, seven of them shuffling towards her, arms outstretched, ready for a decent meal. The other way was the same; a few of them were crawling up the staircase towards her. She turned to the ones in front of her and began to shoot. Two of them went down easily. Another one stepped out behind them to take charge of the fight. The growth on his right shoulder suddenly burst with a spray of pus. Claire did her best not to throw up everywhere.
From the pus filled wound sprouted a flailing tentacle like appendage. It stretched out and grabbed her gun before she could react. It tossed it aside, far from her reach.
It knew…how the hell did it know how to do that? It looked like she was done for.
"Stand back!" a female voice yelled from across the room. A loud machine started up, and before Claire could realize what was going on, a crane had swept its heavy load across the platform, making a metallic scraping sound and knocking the zombies to the floor. They screeched and moaned as they hit the ground with sickening splats.
Claire had been saved, but there were still more of them behind her. She reached for the crane and pulled herself onto its sturdy wire. It rotated to the other side of the room where the operator's station was. She leapt off of the wire to see who had rescued her.
A pretty Japanese girl stood in front of her. She looked a year older than Claire but was a little smaller than her, off by few inches. The girl wore a white tank top and jeans, a little less combat ready then Claire's leather pants and red top.
"Hello," she said in an American accent. "My name is Yoko Suzuki," she flipped out a Banyo Corp. I.D. card, "I'm a Biochemical Scientist at the Banyo Corporation."
Can I trust her? Claire regarded her with soft suspicion. Still, the girl had saved her and she seemed friendly enough. "I'm Claire, Claire Redfield."
Yoko scratched her head, "Hmm…Redfield…any relation to Chris Redfield of the Raccoon City Police Department?"
"Yes that's my brother!"
"Then I do know who you are."
"Wait…have you met him or something?" Claire knew that some regarded her brother as a wanted man.
"No, I've only heard of him. I used to go to college in Raccoon City…I was there when the incident happened. I suppose you could say I'm one of the few survivors." She gave a little smile.
She must be good then. "So that's why you were assigned to me. You've had experience with this thing before?"
Yoko looked away sadly. "I suppose you could say that I sort of helped to start this thing…indirectly that is."
"What do you mean?" I would seriously doubt that this girl being behind anything evil.
"Before the incident happened I was an intern…at the Umbrella Corporation."
Calm down Claire, that doesn't mean she's the enemy. Claire knew that not everyone affiliated with Umbrella turned out to be a megalomaniac. "So…that's why Banyo sent you. You know something about this virus."
"I should…I was the one who created the brain cell regeneration process. But if it's any consolation, I had no idea that they were using it with the T-Virus. I was told my research was on some sort of Alzheimer's medication."
Alzheimer's my ass. Umbrella would even lie to one of their own. "That's typical of them. At least you're here to help. I would have been lunch if it hadn't been for you." Claire handed her the gun. "Do you know how to use this?"
Yoko nodded. "Yes, and I know I'm going to need it."
"Alright then, our mission is to retrieve the T2 Virus and rescue any survivors."
More sounds came from the floor below them. A large number of zombies hobbled around, looking for any fresh meat.
"We should be going," Claire said to Yoko. "Is there another way out of here?"
"Yes," Yoko said, pointing to an open air vent, "I came in through those ducts. I'm sure they lead to the office of this building."
And to the virus I hope.