Recommended BGM

1. Resident Evil (Remake) - Guardhouse II

2. Resident Evil (Remake) - (SPOILER NAME) Watch for BOLD TEXT below

3. Resident Evil (1996) & Director's Cut (DualShock Ver.) - The Underground

Chapter 23

The building from the outside view looked small and so far, it looked a lot like a ruined guest house, almost as if it were made specifically for researchers and housekeepers for the mansion. Chris had walked inside some sort of break room. There was a small enclosure up ahead, along with pieces of a destroyed fence on the ground inside. A shelf filled with chemical bottles, buckets, and seemingly freshly cut ropes was on his right. A typewriter was placed on the small table, hugging the corner between the enclosure and the shelf itself.

Chris held the typewriter and underneath it was a small note with a written series of equations that corresponded to something in particular.

THE PHARMACY CODE IS ON KEYRING'S TAG

V-JOLT FORMULA

1+3=4, 4+6=10, 1+6=7, 10+7=17, 17+3=20

USE ON ROOTS IN BASEMENT

What does all this mean?

After silently shrugging to himself, he put it away inside his back pocket, in case it would be of any use in the future.

Chris took a closer peek at the shelf and from the looks of it, the settled dust inside had been recently disturbed, as if someone swiped something off from the shelf not so long ago.

Someone from STARS had to be here.

No doubt, it had to be one of them. Why else would there be moved dust from the thick layers that were left behind? Plus, when he stepped inside the smaller house, the filth on the ground was already moved, and either they had come inside the room he was in now or they had to be in Room 001.

He proceeded to explore further inside the enclosure. The environment looked as though the wall had been replaced with an uneven surface of jagged rock and stone and the whole ground inside had been covered with grass, weed, and moss all over. Other than the greenhouse itself, nothing else, in particular, had caught his attention.

Still feeling enthusiastic about the thought that the STARS may be inside, Chris rushed back to the main corridor, and much to his relief, he was now staring at the two STARS members that had been the first ones to enter the building.

"Chris!" Said Rebecca happily, her eyes almost glistening with enthusiasm.

"Hey, Chris!" Richard followed, trying to reach the level of optimism that Rebecca was able to let out.

Chris' smile began to widen. "Thank God you two made it here! Were you two the ones who found that emblem key back there?"

The Bravos shook their heads.

"No," said Richard, frowning. "So that basically confirms it wasn't you then."

"I thought it was either Alex or - someone else who found it…" said Rebecca, changing her enthusiastic tone to a gloomy one.

Chris' smile faded instantly. He couldn't find the right words to describe how strange and equivocal the situation was starting to be for them, but he knew that based on Alex's earlier behavior from the last time he saw him, it did seem quite odd and not the type he was used to seeing from him for the past weeks since they've first met. Then again, he hadn't exactly seen Barry since they first split up and according to Jill, he's been acting strange as well. Whatever the case was, he hoped it was either one of them who found the emblem elsewhere, put it in its place, and tried to find a way to get some outside help. Chris was fully convinced that both of them might've been too paranoid about the whole place and simply wanted to secure a way out as fast as possible; something he couldn't blame them for doing.

As he lost his gaze into space, he caught a glimpse of a pack of papers Rebecca held in her left hand and began to ask her about it.

"What's that you're holding?"

"Oh, this?" She held up the papers in front of her for Chris to see. "It's a report about a special kind of herbicide that can apparently get rid of the infected plant that this building is currently housing."

Chris raised an eyebrow at her. "Infected… plant? You mean whatever virus this is can also affect plants?"

"And it's not just any ordinary plant," Richard responded, his voice becoming slightly shaky. "It's also carnivorous as well; sucks your blood dry til you die."

Rebecca nodded. "To top things up, the virus that has wrought havoc throughout the Arklay Mountains is called the 't-Virus'. Not sure what the 't' stands for, but these papers basically confirm that the virus is much more dangerous than we've ever expected or even imagined."

Chris shook his head in disbelief, moving a hand through his tousled hair as he looked elsewhere, trying to comprehend why anyone would want to play around with such a dangerous thing as the t-Virus.

Infected animals? Checked. Infected humans? Checked. Infected plants? Checked.

How could this possibly get any worse from here on out?!

He jumped slightly in response to the touch of Richard's hand on his shoulder, quickly thinking for a brief moment that it was the infected plant itself trying to grab him for a taste of his blood.

"I'm scared too, man," he said, noticing Chris' apparent worry on his grim expression, "but we have to get going and look for a way out of here. Plus, your Alpha pilot is still flying around somewhere. We just need something to grab his attention somehow, but considering the lack of resources around, I doubt we'll ever have the chance to do so before he runs out of fuel sooner or later."

"Brad?" Sputtered Chris, almost with a mixed emotion of excitement and anger all at once. "How do you know he's still out there?"

Richard took out his small personal radio, showing it to him. "Forgot I had this with me until Brad was barely in range, close enough to hear him plead for any type of answers from anyone stuck out here—"

"And you didn't answer him back?!" Chris fumed almost fiercely.

"It's the first thing we tried doing!" He protested, putting away his radio as he did. "We think that either we were still too out of range, or Brad's radio might be broken and cannot receive any incoming transmissions, even if we tried any other alternatives."

Chris quickly took his word for it. After all, Richard was the communications expert for the Bravo team and if he said the radio didn't work, it really didn't work.

Not seeing any other options, he gave an inward sigh before finally responding in a more calming manner, switching gazes between him and Rebecca.

"So, where do you think we should head next from here?"

Rebecca pointed at the double doors in the far back of the gloomy corridor they were in.

"Let's see what we can dig up from there," she suggested.

The two other STARS members nodded and Chris took the lead to open one of the doors and check their surroundings before giving them a heads up to follow him inside.

Seeing no immediate danger, he gave the go-ahead and the duo immediately followed after him, Rebecca closing the door behind them.

The place looked a lot like a recreation room. The good news was that there was no carnivorous-looking plant on site so nothing to worry about so far.

However, before they could even see what else was inside the room, a series of thick, thumping noises could be heard from someplace inside the room, making Chris' hairs stand up and immediately becoming quite unsettled about what could be causing such noises. As the trio scanned around, Chris looked behind them and what was once the red double doors, was now covered by a large, hairy body of something extremely terrifying that he'd wish no one would ever see in a nightmare, let alone in real life.

Paralyzed out of fear and without words, he simply gasped and stared at it for a moment, not knowing whether it was actually real or not. The impossibly large arachnid was slowly crawling from the ceiling and across the wall all the way through the double doors, staying still as if it were observing them almost menacingly with its large, shining black eyes, close to the size of large marbles.

Wh— what… in God's name is this thing?! How can a spider be… this gigantic!?

As the other duo turned around to see what Chris began to stare at, both of them were hit by a massive wave of fear and panic. Rebecca, in particular, was never fond of spiders, and seeing one this giant, the size of possibly six feet wide and a couple of feet tall, she began to shriek and scream in terror, her face becoming paler than a zombie's deathly face. Panic became her controlling emotion as she accidentally dropped the research papers she held in her hand. She quickly backed away to a corner as she aimed her gun at it with shaky hands.

Richard felt his spine chill and his heart skipped a beat, his eyes widening in horror about the kind of monstrosity they were looking at. The researchers in this place were completely insane if they purposefully tried experimenting with the t-Virus to create bioweapons like a giant spider. Though if the use of it as a bioweapon was to cause people to have panic attacks and either die or become completely insane out of pure fear, it was definitely working.

"Chris! Back away! NOW!" Richard yelled at him, seeing the giant arachnid now inching closer to Chris' position.

Chris snapped out of his blinding fear and did what Richard told him to do without any further hesitation. As the trio stayed together while trying to put as much distance as they could, the spider quickly turned towards them, its whole body rumbling for a few moments, indicating it was planning on doing something to them as a response.

Almost without further warning, the mutant creature hissed and spewed acid in front of them, close enough to almost hit Chris, who was in front of the Bravo duo. The acid it threw had begun to completely burn away most of the dropped research files and melt through the hard surface of the ground, seeing the potential danger the arachnid posed, even at a fair amount of distance inside the room.

"Damn! How's that even possible!?" Chris' shaky voice blurted out in shock, still trembling at the sight of the giant mutated tarantula itself.

"Arachnids like that shouldn't even exist!" Rebecca exclaimed, still aiming at the giant spider, not sure whether to shoot it or not, afraid that bullets could spray deadly toxins from its body all around. "Their bodies would be too heavy for them to move around like that, let alone produce that much acid or venom as well, but considering the t-Virus' capabilities… - we have to get out of here! Now!"

Speechless and afraid of the behemoth nightmarish eight-legged freak, Chris grabbed Rebecca by the arm as Richard followed after them and the trio wasted no time rushing around the scariest mutant by far. Through the chaos, Rebecca managed to pick up a couple of the untouched papers, feeling mad at herself for letting go of the files and letting them burn away by the arachnid's potent acid. The spider was fast for its size as it turned once again to face the running trio and raised both of its frontal legs for an incoming attack, rushing at them almost just as fast as a running dog before it hit itself against the now-closed double doors, making dust fall from the upper walls and ceiling itself inside the main corridor they were in just earlier.

Standing away as far as possible, the three waited it out for a whole minute until they knew it was safe to even get close enough to search through the right side of the building.

"Giant spiders, huh?" Richard panted, still out of breath from simply seeing the horrible sight of something that can keep you awake at night for weeks on end. "What's next? Giant scorpions?"

Chris shuddered. "Don't jinx us now."

Rebecca was still pale but managed to be able to finally control her heavy emotions.

"...Now I wish we could simply burn the whole place down. It'd probably be the only solution to getting rid of something that huge - and it would be a bonus kill with the plant as well," Rebecca frowned. The only thing she was able to recover was an incomplete list of chemicals and steps that she needed for potentially creating the herbicide required to kill Plant 42.

Chris nodded, remembering that as a kid, a small spider inside his and Claire's home was already bad enough as it was and he was glad that no huge spider ever exists like that at all; at least by the terms of nature itself.

"Somehow, this makes me slightly appreciate snakes more than before now," said Richard after following up with a nod himself. "Still wish they didn't exist though, especially after this injury."

"Alright, let's head to the right, and hopefully, no more snakes or spiders for any of us," said Chris, trying to be hopeful, even though the thought of an infected carnivorous plant was still haunting his mind over and over again. Though at least not as much as the sight of the nightmarish huge tarantula they'd encountered not even a few minutes ago, making him slowly shiver in fear.

Richard and Rebecca nodded, their grim and terrified expressions still etched on their faces as they marched forward with Chris, turning to the right, reaching towards a door that led to another corridor.

The corridor was almost like many of the corridors they've seen throughout the mansion, except there was no decorative wallpaper at all. A few windows were lined up against the right wall. At the end of the hallway's initial stretch before the churning corner was a table covered with various newspapers, regarding STARS and everything about the rescue squad that the press have released to the public for the past several weeks leading up to their involvement with the recent bizarre cases that's been occurring around the city limits.

The trio was confused as to why would the researchers in the area even care so much about STARS, unless they may have planned their involvement since the very beginning, but that was as far as being just as truthful as a mere conspiracy theory. Without any further evidence to prove anything against a big pharmaceutical company like Umbrella, they were all out of options.

After the corner, there was a door that read "GALLERY" on top of it. A trail of withered vines covered half of the whole sign, making them glance at it nervously before Chris finally decided to turn the knob and slowly push the door open.

Warm, humid air flooded out of the huge room and a growing thick smell of tainted tropical spoiled fruit hit them as they entered the gallery room, filled with old books on display, alongside some expensive-looking earthenware as well. Lab equipment was scattered all over the table in the center of the room, seemingly as though there was some sort of experiment going on before the whole place was hit with the virus.

"That smell…" said Rebecca, contorting her face in response. "It's a lot stronger here than the dormitory's main entrance."

Richard shuddered as he stared and pointed at the same double doors that were in the picture he remembered seeing. "You mean… Plant 42 is…there?"

"Plant forty-what now?" Said a perplexed Chris. "The same infected plant, you mean?"

"That's right," nodded Rebecca. She then switched her gaze onto the double doors, slightly shaking in response. "Well… I'm not entirely sure if we should take a peek at the plant inside that room."

Richard slowly backed away in protest. "I don't think I'm going in there, even if I get paid in the millions." He then looked at their Alpha teammate. "Chris?"

"You said it sucks your blood dry, right?" Stated Chris and was met with a nod by Richard. "Well, if it can't move from where it sits, what's the worst thing that can happen?"

As Chris approached the doors, Rebecca tried to warn him about the dangers of the huge tentacular-like vines, but as he barely managed to slowly push one door open, he was met with a huge vine entangling him by sudden surprise.

"AAGGHH!"

Chris' screams echoed inside the gallery room and both Richard and Rebecca began to rush to his aid, and what they saw inside was a huge bulb-like flower in the center of the large room, filled with swinging vines the size of at least fifteen feet long. Underneath the giant bulb from the ceiling were liquid drops of some sort of acid, but the plant kept swinging Chris away from its bulb elsewhere, preventing him from being bombarded with the acidic liquid it was producing. They were now staring back at the monstrosity that was Plant 42… (BGM #2 Plant 42)

"HOLY—" Richard gasped.

"CHRIS!" Rebecca cried out. Both of the Bravos tried shooting at the giant hanging plant's large vine that had Chris entangled, but it was a futile effort to do so as the shots did not rip the strong vine apart, let alone Plant 42 refusing to release its grip on a struggling Chris.

"Re— …becca! Richard! —It's no use! If you can— AHH!"

He shrieked as he struggled to take any breaths with the vine holding him up as it pressed against his arms and chest altogether, feeling small sharp stings across the exposed skin on his arms. The plant had already begun to kill him by slowly draining his blood out of his system.

"NO!" Richard yelled out, noticing there was nothing they could do at this point, feeling a sense of extreme helplessness.

Chris had just remembered the note he found earlier and managed to figure out that the note most likely referenced the name of the herbicide Rebecca had mentioned to him before. Feeling his way through the tightened grip the vine had on him, he fumbled out the note from his back pocket and let it go to land on the ground.

"The—herb… —herbicide! Take that note… —with you! Should give you…some of the… required information— …to make it! Use it on its roots— in the basement!...HURRY!"

Rebecca quickly grabbed the note Chris dropped for them and immediately backed away to prevent herself from being hit by the dropping acid from above them as she continued looking at Chris, helplessly.

"Chris…!" She cried out once more before leaving, her heart pumping loudly with worry. "Don't die!"

Richard stood in the doorway, studying the plant's unique physiology. The bulb-like flower was protected by thick layers of pedals, preventing any outside harm for its possible weak point from firearms. The hanging vines seemed like they could stretch more than their actual length, as seen firsthand with its sudden entanglement with Chris. Even if they tried shooting it down for good, it would most likely take more ammo than they currently have to take it out and brute-force their way through helping their Alpha teammate by confrontational means.

"Don't die on us, man!" Richard echoed. "Still need to return the favor from the last time you and Alex helped save me in time!"

Chris nodded through his intense struggles. Richard and Rebecca left Point 42 soon after and both Bravos hurried to read whatever they now had in possession about the steps in making the herbicide as fast as possible.

They were now in a race against time.

Wesker stood in the darkness of the unlit area of the huge elevator's machinery, waiting for the duo under his thumb to come out. Wesker knew that they had automatically known it was him who had shot Enrico and couldn't wait any longer to face him for what he's done. However, he had to catch them alone first before Jill would become wary about his actions.

Come on you two… stay together and away from Jill…

Since they'd left the mansion altogether, he'd finally begun to feel that everything was going according to plan. One thing he didn't account for was the disposed test subject he thought the Umbrella Security Service had taken care of to be in the deeper levels of the underground. The monster in chains was still wandering around somewhere, being able to hear those familiar moans he had grown to get used to during his time in the Arklay Labs.

Thankfully, the test subject didn't see him around when he was tinkering with one of the doors' safety lock mechanisms, which triggered a protocol that allowed the 121s to come out free from their cages deep underground.

With the dead body of one of the hunters now in front of him, it proved that the STARS were much tougher and more resilient than he might've given them credit for. Though it didn't matter to him anyway. As long as he was getting his money's worth, he couldn't care less if they live or die. He finally managed to find the lost hexagonal crank for the underground mechanisms and with it, he'd be one step closer to finding the Eagle medal and reaching the lab first in order to start executing his final plans.

After what felt like hours, Barry and Alex were now alone, waving their guns at the light of the elevator and into the darkness of the machinery's area. Wesker became tense, waiting for them to walk through the darkness of the machinery's hidden alcove. This part could be tricky - Barry and Enrico had been close friends and Alex had the heart of a hardened warrior.

As the duo stormed closer to the dark alcove, Wesker stepped closer behind Barry and jammed the muzzle of his Samurai Edge into his lower back, hard. At the same time, he looked back at Alex, who immediately raised his gun directly at him, but Wesker began talking low, fast, and menacingly at him to try and prove a point to both of the immensely angered STARS members.

"Don't think I don't know you both want to kill me for what I just did, but think of this again - I die, your loved ones die. And as of right now, it may look like Jill will have to die as well if she gets out of that door at any moment, but you two still have the chance to stop this; a stop to all the killing."

Barry and Alex did not move from their positions after he had caught them by surprise. However, Wesker could sense the rage from Alex's piercing gaze in the darkness, and the barely contained fury, driving hatred from Barry's voice began to slowly erupt in front of him.

"You killed Enrico," he snarled. "And you let one of your 'ugly pets' try to kill all three of us, did you?"

Wesker pushed the gun deeper into his back. "Those 'ugly pets', well… It was an unfortunate side-effect of letting them out in order to go look for something I wanted to get to first. And yes, I did kill Enrico, but I also didn't want to. Enrico's nosiness found some sensitive information he shouldn't have known. He knew too much. And if he's told Jill or even any of you, I'd have no choice but to kill her and both of you too..."

"Information about what?" Mason shot back at him, his voice hiding almost nothing from the rage he was feeling within, still aiming his gun at Wesker's blank expression.

"Fall in line, soldier," he spoke authoritatively. "I've warned you before and I'll do it again for the last time - I die, your loved ones die. Which will it be?"

Wesker could tell that Alex wanted to believe he didn't have their families hostages, and he also knew that both of the men weren't risking getting each other's loved ones killed due to either of their possible recklessness.

After a good amount of seconds, Alex wasn't showing any signs of backing down as he still drew his weapon at him, his limbs were seemingly too stiff to do so due to his contained rage.

"No," he snarled back at him, defiantly. "...I can't."

"It won't matter anyway," Barry said in a low growl, still unmoving from the pressed muzzle of Wesker's firearm, looking straight at Alex with worry as he responded to Wesker. "You're planning on killing her no matter what; you're gonna kill us all by the end of it."

Wesker sighed, trying his best not to sound as if he were pleading out to them. "You don't get it. None of you! I just want to reach the laboratory and destroy the evidence before anyone finds it. Once that's done, there's no reason for anyone else to get hurt and everyone can just… walk away."

The Alpha and Bravo were silent, and Wesker could tell that the duo wanted to desperately believe it was as simple as that. He let them waver on for a moment before pressing on about their current situation.

"All I want from both of you is this; Barry, you go stall Jill as much as you can and keep her away from the labs, at least long enough until you are sure I'm already inside the labs. Trust me, you'll be saving her life this way and you have my word that as soon as I'm able to get what I need, you, Alex, and your loved ones will never hear from me again.

And Alex, I'm going to need some additional manpower to help me get through some… things… before I'm able to reach the lab first. After that, you can join up with Barry and forget I ever existed. Got it?"

Wesker waited patiently and after seeing Mason slightly nodding at Barry and finally putting his weapon down, he knew he now had both of them once again.

"The labs… where are they?" Said Mason, coldly, but compliant.

Good boys!

Wesker lowered his own gun that was pressed against Barry's back, keeping his expression blank as much as he could, in order to prevent any further provocative encounters with them in case any of them were able to see him well enough through the darkness of the alcove. He took a folded piece of paper out of his vest and handed it into Barry's hand, showing a map of the whole underground network, including several routes that led directly to the lab's entrance.

"Use the elevator in the center to go with Jill and make sure to ditch her down below. Don't worry, none of my 'ugly pets' are down there so it should be clear for her to go. The route below will eventually lead her back to the mansion. I'm now quite positive the second missing emblem key should be there somewhere, so you two can still meet up together elsewhere underground. I mean it, Barry, no one else needs to get hurt. It's all up to you now."

Wesker stepped back, motioning at Alex to follow him. He stopped for a few seconds to watch Barry, seeing the sag on the man's broad shoulders, the submissive hang of his head. Satisfied, Wesker turned and silently let Alex go out through the door first before leaving out the room himself. There was little chance for Jill or the other STARS members to get to the lab first, but Barry would ensure that small chance would be as minimal as possible, should there be any trouble.

He had Alex walk first through the tunnels of the underground, keeping him at gunpoint in case he decided to do anything funny. Though he was sure enough that he wouldn't go off the rails now that they've gone this far in their current encounter. Wesker silently congratulated himself on bringing things back under control as both he and Mason headed toward the first passage mechanism required to pass through. They'd have to move fast from here on out as more hunters were most likely on the loose around the area, something he neglected to mention to Mason directly.

One other thing he neglected to mention to Barry was about the escaped test subject in chains, who was still down there somewhere and probably just as dangerous as they once were before.

Forgive me, Barry. Slipped my mind.

It was a shame he wasn't going to be there to do some combat data recording; one interesting show that he was going to miss of the STARS against the chained subject.

Lisa Trevor was rumored to be an immortal…and after having personally overseen what should've been the actual disposal of her body, he could now see why.