Chapter Seventeen: The Concealing Pool
The lift reached the top, greeting Jill with a cool breeze instead of the thick air of the underground passage below. The mechanics finally came to a haul, revealing a paved clearing in the dense forest. She stepped off onto the landing, gripping her shotgun and poised in case anything attacked. Jill wished she still had the grenade launcher but there hadn't been any extra rounds.
She stepped off, expecting to see a door or another lift. This was where she thought the lab would be, or at least, what she was able to glean from the scattered papers in the hidden room. And Barry, Chris, or Rebecca might be there, she thought. After all, it was the only part of the property that she hadn't checked. They had to be alive, she kept telling herself. They were all ex-military professionals who had gotten themselves out of rough situations before (except for Rebecca). Yet, they had never experienced anything like this night... That thought always made her stomach twist. It was that thought that echoed through her mind as she had made her way back through the halls of the mansion, through the underground passage under the entrance hall, and finally out into the center of the clearing. Jill swallowed hard and forced that kind of thinking back as though it were bile.
The path led to a dead end. There was a wall to her left with two rusted doors, though when she tried to open them they refused to budge. To her right was a fountain large enough to be a swimming pool. Three stone plaques stood at three places outside the pool's perimeter. When Jill glanced into the pool, instead of seeing water she was met with a chasm. A portion of the outer pool wall fell back to reveal an opening to a spiral staircase into the pit, leading to a covered lift suspended over the gaping maw of the void below.
The lift shuddered as its rusted doors shut and began to descend. Jill stood, her knuckles white from gripping the shotgun so tightly. Her heart fluttered as the passage outside narrowed, becoming a proper elevator shaft. Into the very labs from which this all came—into the deepest part of Hell. In and out, she told herself. Just find Chris, then take your chances with the woods. Yet, the things that she saw tonight—the snake, those reptile creatures, the goddamn zombies…If she survived any other this, she was going to need one Hell of a shrink.
The lift came to an abrupt halt with such a jerk that Jill nearly fell. Sharp pain radiated from the wound in her leg. She grimaced, fighting through it until the pain subsided after a few seconds. Outside, the walls were devoid of any embellishments—concrete composing the walls, floor, and ceiling. A single light that cast long, ominous shadows over the walls. She stepped out on the landing. The corridor turned, leading to two paths—one was two iron doors blocked by sliding chained barriers. Caution signs were bolted to the barriers with a sign reading—
ATTENTION:
HELIPORT ACCESSIBLE ONLY TO CODE: PURPLE UMBRELLA PERSONNEL. ALL VIOLATORS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT. EXCEPTIONS APPLY IN CASE OF EVACUATION.
Jill couldn't help but snicker sardonically. The Umbrella mantra rang in her head like some bad earworm—Commitment, Honesty, Integrity. After reading the warning and after the night Jill had, a mantra that seemed amenable before now sounded like some weak joke.
She tried to push the gates aside, but they remained in place—locked by some mechanism that had no key or panel. The only other way forward was a ladder leading deeper into the complex.
Right, Valentine, Jill told herself as she looked down into the abyss below. Into the Ninth Circle.
One corridor seemed to bleed into another. Moans drifted down the concrete passages and mingled with dripping water from the rusted pipes attached to the walls, creating an uneasy symphony. Jill encountered a few zombies ambling about in torn and soiled lab coats. There was one, in particular, that was faster than the others, smacking others aside to get to Jill. Its skin was a nasty shade of red, as though all the blood in its decaying body had risen to the surface. Jill didn't hesitate before she raised her weapon and took the creature's head off with one well-placed blast. It thrashed about, its clawed hands reaching blindly for one last victim before its body collapsed. She tried not to think about it too much as she stepped over the decapitated corpse and continued.
She found a flight of steps that led to a circular passage. Jill chose the door directly to her left. Beyond it was another sterile passage with three doors. She quickly checked the rooms to her left and right but they turned out to be nothing of note—just two bare rooms with a few zombies shuffling around. The one at the end of the hall opened onto another corridor that turned right. A camera was mounted in the corner.
"Hey!" a hostile, yet familiar voice said from around the corner. "Is that you, you dirty son of a bitch!"
"Chris?"
Two iron doors stood to the right before the corridor ended. Chris, his face streaked with dirt and sweat, peered out of the port window at the first door. Rebecca peeked over his shoulder, relief flooding her face at the sight of Jill.
"Chris!" Jill said, grinning as she stepped forward hurriedly.
"Glad to see you," Chris replied.
"I'm going to get you out of here, alright," Jill said, going to her knee and retrieving the lock pick from her back pocket. Though, when she turned toward the lock, her face fell. "Shit," she muttered.
"What's wrong?" Chris asked.
"The lock on the door is a magnetic lock," Jill said. "The kind you see in safes."
"Can you not pick it?"
"I don't know," she replied, edging the pick into the keyhole opening. "This might beyond my expertise. I'm going to try though."
Jill heard Chris sigh and a muffled thud as his head hit the metal. Silence filled the corridor as though any word spoken would bring forth bad luck. Jill breathed slowly, trying to find the tumblers. Yet, the silence was nearly defending. Sound from every footstep or subtle movement made Jill jerk, making her lose her place within the keyhole.
"So," Chris replied, his voice softer. "Where did you learn to do this? Pick locks?"
"Oh, this?" Jill said. Her first instinct was to deflect the information, to hide it away for the shameful past that it was. What's the point though? she thought. Death seemed to bring things into perspective.
"I…didn't have such a great childhood," Jill said. "Mom walked out on Dad and me when I was seven. A few years later, he smoked himself into an early grave. I didn't like the whole foster-thing and well…"
"You ran," Rebecca added.
"Yeah," Jill said. "Was in juvie more times than I could count. It got to the point where it was either wind up in prison or get on the straight and narrow. So, I joined the army." The dry heat of the desert whipped through her mind. She pushed it back. Guess the threat of death didn't heal all things. "So, how did you guys end up in her?"
There was a pause, where only the gentle sounds of Jill's work filled the corridor. Her stomach tightened as she waited for the response she knew was coming.
"Wesker," Chris replied through his teeth.
"Thought so," Jill muttered. "I found a file back in the mansion. He was one of the people who's been working with Umbrella to make these…things. He set this up…"
"To be subjects," Rebecca said, her voice uncertain at first but then growing steady with confidence. "To test Umbrella's weapons."
"And to clean up the mess," Chris added. "That mother—"
Snap.
"Shit!" Jill said. A jagged piece of the pick remained in her grip, while the other half out of the door's lock. Jill wrenched the broken pick out of the lock and tossed it to the corner of the corridor. "My pick broke. I'm going to have to get the key."
And Wesker has the key. Again, Jill's stomach churned at the thought. Having to see her "Captain," someone that they had all trusted and had led most of his team to their death…she pushed the thought away.
Come on, Valentine, she thought—something she hadn't told herself in years. Time to be a soldier.
"I'm going to get it," she said, standing. "I'll be back."
"Jill," Chris said. When Jill glanced back at the port window, she saw Chris glaring at her through the bars. "Do not hesitate."
"Yeah," Jill replied. That knot in her stomach only tightened as she broke eye contact and continued for the double doors at the end of the hall.