AN: Holy crap it's been awhile since I last came back to this story. The virus quarantine has really put me off my game and plus with the writer's block, I couldn't think of where to take the rest of Chapter 10. Thank god I had my fiancé to back me up on that. So now we start our next chapter, where Alpha Team journeys into the mine shaft. What secrets lie in wait for the gang?
Dawn came soon at 7:30am with the sun just peeking over the horizon. Wesker of course was the first to wake up, being the early riser that he usually was and languidly stretched, moaning a bit in satisfaction as he heard some stiff places let out some quiet pops. Since there was only one bed in the room he was sleeping in, Alana had bunked with him. With a yawn and brushing back some of his blond hair, which had come out of place somewhat, he would gently shake her shoulder, rousing her.
"Wake up, little one.." he whispered softly before heading for the bathroom to get a shower in.
Yawning as well, Alana sat up, rubbing her eyes. Thankfully, Claire found a chest full of her old nightgowns from when she was a kid herself and gave a pastel pink one for her to use while Wesker was given a pair of black sleep pants by Chris. Surprisingly, they had fit. As the young psychic would swing her legs over the side of the bed, she would try to fix her hair, which looked like somewhat of a bird's nest, considering how messy it was. Going to the dresser, she took the brush Claire also gave her and began to brush out her brown locks before pulling it back into a half ponytail, finishing with a clip that had a light green bow on top of it. While her father was in the shower, she began to get dressed back into the clothes she wore yesterday. After 10 minutes of waiting, she heard the shower go off and Wesker had come out after another few minutes, fully dressed in his uniform and towel drying his hair.
"Ready to go?" he would ask her, earning an eager nod from his daughter before the two left the room, going to meet the others in the main hall.
Waiting by the fish tank, Wesker would see his team slowly trickle in, starting with Jill coming down first, yawning a little and waving to the two in greetings. Next would be Chris, to Wesker's slight surprise, all dressed and ready to go considering the amount of times the sharpshooter used to be late to his position in the office. Following him a few minutes later would be Barry and Brad and after nearly half an hour, Joseph would be last, looking groggy and dragging his feet a little.
"About time your burnt ass woke up," Chris would say with an amused smirk. "Still sore after you stupidly busted your radio?" This earned him a one fingered yet tired salute from Joseph, earning a snigger from the brunette male. "You get what you paid for, dipshit. And also that's you get for staying up, drinking."
"Alright, enough tomfoolery. Ready to go?" Wesker says, earning nods from the team. "Alright, Redfield. You know where it is, you take point."
"How amusing it is that you think you can order me around in my own home. Back the hell up. My house, my rules including the surrounding lands. So as long as you are here, you go by what I say," Chris snipped back at him, earning a slight glare from the blond. "So with that in mind, shall we go?"
"That's just what I said not even a few seconds ago," Wesker says, only to get a reply not a second after from Chris. "Shut up, Wesker." That got a snigger from Joseph, whom quickly shut up when the brunette shot him a look.
"I don't know what you're laughing about. If you are last to make it to the mine shaft, you're the one I'll throw down there."
The Alpha Team made their way outside into the crisp morning. The grass was covered with a thin layer of dew, which gave a unique aroma to the mountain air. Wrapped warmly in their coats, they set off down the trail with Chris heading the pack. Alana would be looking around, enraptured by the beauty of the morning the rising sun was bringing to the trees and the surroundings, which glistened by the light that reflected off the dew's tiny droplets. Birds sang in the branches above, filling the quiet with serene song. Once more Wesker took a deep, yet soft inhale and slowly let it out, feeling his body relax. Whenever he was not working, he would love to take walks through the forest, enjoying the isolation from the bustling noise of the city below and the quiet the woods brought. But... it was not as serene as where he would head to if he wanted to let himself go.
Albert... my son...
"Wesker?" He hadn't realized he had stopped until he heard Jill's voice calling his name. Blinking a bit and once again shaking his head, he nodded to her, showing he was fine seeing the slightly worried look in her eyes.
"I'm fine, Valentine. My mind.. just wandered for a moment. My apologies. We can keep moving," he says before trekking on ahead of her a bit while Jill just shrugged and followed behind.
"Hey, Wesker, pick up the pace, will ya? You sure you're not letting age to ya?" Joseph piped up with a teasing tone, earning an eyeroll from the Captain before getting thumped on the head.
"If anything, my age compared to yours is an improvement from your juvenile infancy," Wesker says, earning a confused look from Joseph, to which Barry would add "Translation: he called you a big baby." That earned an indignant "HEY!" from the omni-man, getting a laugh from Chris and high fiving the gun expert.
"Boys.." Claire would mutter with an amused smile and Chris would softly rib her in the side while saying "And you girls are any better?" That got him a playful slap on the arm as Chris would mock " 'Oh dear, what shoes shall I get? What purse shall I buy? What makeup would look good on me? Oh god, I broke a nail! I need to cancel everything!' " At the end, Joseph, Brad and Barry were laughing while Wesker just gave a miniscule amused smirk and Jill would just shake her head at Chris's ribbing.
Alana would also be giggling and made to say something.. but suddenly the ground beneath her gave way and she cried out in fear as she was sent plummeting down a now large hole in the ground, causing the team to stop and look behind as Wesker yelled out "ALANA!" The team sprinted back and looked down, but to their relief it was only about seven feet deep and she didn't seem hurt, although a bit shaken.
"Kid you okay!?" Brad called down.
"I'm okay! What's a hole doing in the middle of the trail like this!?" Alana called back as she looked around for a way to climb back out.
"Perhaps you found one of the hidden paths. Let's see... walls are not very big so I think we can get down there," Chris says while looking around for a suitable sturdy spot to climb down.
Alana looked around as well before spotting something in the dirt wall in front of her. "Hey... there's something here. It looks like it's been covered over," she says before inserting her hands into the soft soil and pushing it down. As she dug, she smelt stale air and she called up "I see something! I think it's one of the entrances! It smells stale."
"Hold there until we can find somewhere sturdy to tie the rope. Then we'll come down and meet you," Chris called back before the team looked around while Wesker remained where he was, keeping an eye on Alana in case something else happened or she decided to wander off into the newly discovered tunnel. The gang fanned out around the hole until Jill spotted a medium sized boulder and kicked it a few times to make sure it was not going to move.
"Hey Chris, we can use this rock. Tie the rope here and we can climb down," she says, flagging him over.
"Alright. Lemme cut a few nooks so the rope doesn't loosen while we climb down," Chris nodded before slinging the rope around the boulder, making sure to dig a few notches into the rock so the coil would hold. Then he tied it off before repelling down first and went to check on the kid once he was on solid ground. "You hurt?" he asked and Alana shook her head in response. Then he turned his head back up the hole and called up "The kid's fine! And it looks like she's right. There's a passage here. I need a hand to open this!"
"I'm coming down," Wesker would say before taking up the rope and repelling down. Once he had landed, he whistled up and the rest of the team began to make their descent. While they were coming down one at a time, the Captain walked over towards where Chris stood, which was in front of a rusted iron gate with an equally rusted padlock on the handle.
"This gate's too heavy but with enough force, we can kick it in," Chris surmised and Alana would pipe up with "You think I can try? Maybe I can force it open with my powers."
The brunette rubbed his chin for a moment in thought. "Those hinges look a bit too rusted to move it with your power. Let me see if we can ram it down. Wesker, you ready?" Getting a nod, the two got into kicking stances.
"On three, then," Wesker says as he got himself. "One... two... THREE!" Spinning at the same time on their heels, the two simultaneously struck the gate as much force as possible and the gate went flying off the hinges, along with the padlock, both landing with loud clatters.
"Well, that's one way to open a rusty gate. Made a hell of a noise, too. Let's hope there's nothing down there, besides bats that may have gotten woken up by the noise," Chris says before turning to the gang. "Shall we?" he said, earning nods from the group as Claire would take out flashlights from the backpack she brought.
"Here we go, guys," Claire says as each person took one and strode inside the passageway, thus beginning their search for the Redfield vault. This was almost hampered by Chris pulling Claire back when they had gotten a few yards in. "Stop, look below you." The sharpshooter would point, his index finger showing an almost invisible wire at their feet. "Tripwire. Someone didn't want somebody finding this place. Keep on your toes, everyone. I can't see what it's attached to."
Flashlights flicked on as the team began their walk in earnest. Slowly, the light from the morning sun dimmed until they could not see it anymore. Only the darkness awaited them in the tunnel. "Well Toto.. we're not in Kansas anymore," Barry would say.
Alana stuck close to Wesker, almost clinging to his arm; if there was one thing she had come to fear from her time in captivity, it was being in the dark. However, Wesker wrapped an arm around her shoulders, keeping her close. He knew what she went through and he did not blame her. Chris spoke up once again. "It's too quiet in here. Calm before the storm.." he softly said as he slowly panned his light around. "Not even the sound of bats nearby.. that's not good.."
"Chris, I'm a bit nervous," Claire would say with a tinge of shakiness in her voice.
"Well.. I suppose the worst case scenario is that the cave could come down and crush us at any moment," Chris shrugged earning a glare from his sister.
"Not funny, Chris," snipped the young sister.
"I thought it was," Chris replied back with another shrug.
As the team stayed silent, besides their quiet footsteps subtly crunching in the dirt, Barry kept a hand on his gun in case they would run into something.. unsavory. Wesker's eyes darted back and forth beneath his sunglasses before he would take them off, not needing them inside the already dark tunnel, and placed them in the breast pocket of his vest. At last, they would finally see some light up ahead and coming around the bend, they would see strings of lights illuminating the tunnel, some of having burned out from years of use and being left on. They clicked their lights off as they would come to a T junction. Pinned to the wall ahead of them was a map, but it seemed to show only one portion of the mine they were now in. Wesker took it off the wall while the team gathered around him.
"This is where we are now. If we head to the left, it'll take us down a ways and go around the corner. From what I can see, there's a room right here, but I can't make out what it's labeled as. But if we were to go right, it seems there's a pit with a bridge that goes across it. From there, there's a switch here that can open this gate right here. At least, I think that's a gate from what I can assume," Chris explained.
"So which way do we go?" asked Joseph.
"Well, I can't tell what is down to the left but there could be something useful there so that may be worth checking out later. However, if we were to head right, we could use the switch near the gate to forward and leave that room alone," Chris replied after a moment of thought and tracing out the path on the map. "Given we don't know anything about this place, I highly advise against splitting up. So we need to stick together. Besides, if we were to split up and your lights went out, you'd never find your way out of this place." This would make Brad audibly gulp in fear.
Barry would roll his eyes, hearing that. "Soil yourself later, Chickenheart. Let's keep moving."
Heading down the right path, the lights along the wall continue to guide them along the passageway and their ears began to hear the soft, muffled sounds of rushing water. "Is there... a river beneath here?" Jill wondered as they came to the said bridge about a minute or two of walking. It spanned about 50 yards across a large river that was 60 feet below them. From the looks of it, the current was strong and would spell certain doom if anyone were to fall in. The bridge looked old and decrepit in some places and there were planks missing. As Joseph made to go across, Wesker stopped him by holding out an arm in front of the omni-man.
"Bridge is frayed and old. It may not be to hold all of us. Someone needs to go first and make sure it's safe," says the Captain with a tone of warning.
"Well, thanks for volunteering, Wesker," Chris says with a smug grin, earning a glare from the blond male.
"I hate you, Redfield... fine, I'll go first." With that Wesker faced ahead and slowly began his way across.
The bridge would creak beneath him as he trekked across, holding onto the rope in case one of the planks were to break beneath his weight. Alana looked on in trepidation, hoping and praying it was not going to suddenly snap and send her father plummeting into the raging river below. Halfway across, two of the planks broke beneath him and Wesker thanked his quick reflexes as he grabbed onto the rope, stopping himself from falling. "WHOA!"
"Daddy!" Alana cried out as she made to run to him.
"No! Alana stay back! I'm fine!" Wesker quickly called back, making her freeze before she set foot onto the rickety bridge. "I expected as much from this old bridge.." Pulling himself back up, he sighed a bit in relief. "The rest of it held up, so this is promising."
Alana and the others sighed in relief as Wesker finally made his way across and coming onto solid ground on the other side. Turning to his team, he called out "Barry you're next!"
"Sure, send the biggest guy over next.. however, if it can take my weight, it can take everyone else's," Barry says before starting his own trek across the bridge.
"Be careful, Barry," Brad piped up as the gun expert started on his way while keeping his hands on the ropes in case something like earlier happened. Once more, the team watched with slightly nervousness while Barry crossed over until finally, he joined Wesker on the other side. Turning back to the team, he would yell back to them "It's all clear! Come on over!"
"I'll go next," Jill says before going ahead of the guys and Alana and crossed the bridge. Next was Joseph, then Brad (whom Chris shoved ahead of him when the former refused to go across in fear of falling through the gaps), followed by Chris with Alana bringing up the rear.
With the team now together once more, they moved into the next tunnel ahead. Once more, guided by lights on the wall, they would come to a small niche in the wall with something carved into the rock above it. 'One is on and two is gone', it read. Chris moved ahead of the pack and stuck his hand, feeling around until his fingertips would brush across two small switches. Feeling his way around, he would hit the first switch. There was the sound of a chain being moved and the gate ahead of them was raised. Walking down a little ways, they would come across a door to their right, which was dark oak and had an iron handle on it. Barry would press his ear against the door, but heard nothing, so he twisted the handle and gently pushed open the door. The room smelt musty at first and there were cobwebs in the corners of the small room. Looking around they would spot a large wooden table with chairs pushed into it, along with a small fridge and countertop, which had dirty dishes stacked in a messy, stinky pile from the food left on them for years.
"Ugh, gross!" Jill groaned, holding the collar of her shirt over her mouth and nose in an attempt to block out the rancid stench that permeated from the countertop.
"Jesus, dude, that's nasty," Joseph agreed, taking off his bandana and fanning the smell away from him, coughing all the while.
Wesker stayed at the entrance of the doorway, the smell having overcome him and he had his gloved hand over his mouth and nose and coughing a bit as well. "Perhaps we should leave this room. There's nothing here, it seems," he says, feeling his eyes water.
"I agree. Let's get out of here, guys," Brad nods in agreement and the team quickly left the room, closing the door behind them and taking deep breaths of fresh air with immense relief.
"Bunch of pussies, afraid of a little stink," Chris would mutter, rolling his eyes before walking with the team once more down the corridor. "You'd think that after that stint with Irons gassing up the entire station, this would've been nothing."
Again they would come to a door to their right and this time, there was a slot to where one could see inside. Jill slid back the small latch and peeked in to see nothing but dim darkness, so she tried the door and it would open easily. It was slightly chilly inside, but could see nothing of interest. As they ventured inside, looking around they would see another entrance that led further into to a larger room. To their surprise.. the walls glittered with minerals and unmined gems that had yet to be picked out. "Holy shit...! This is..!" Brad gasped, his eyes going wide.
"Look at all these gems! This could be well worth a fortune!" Joseph exclaimed.
"Careful... I don't like the look of this. All these gems, left behind? I smell a trap," Chris muttered, narrowing his eyes as he looked about the place. Yet, Joseph didn't seem to be listening as he went over to the left hand wall to a cluster of what seemed to be lapis lazuli.
"C'mon, Chris! The miners must've been mining this place out before it closed down. I am guessing they didn't get to finish, so why can't we take some for ourselves?" asked the omni-man with a grin.
"Because you're a daft idiot. This is clearly a trap," Chris tried again with a glare. "How idiotic can you be not to see it?"
"This ain't that storybook, Deathtrap Dungeon, Chris. There's been no death dealing traps so far and I highly doubt there's going to be any here today," Joseph scoffed before looking back to the wall of gems before looking around on the floor, hoping to find any pieces that might've fallen off.
With a huff, Chris crossed his arms. "Fine, go ahead and take one. But don't go whining to us if you get poisoned or something like that," he snipped.
"I'm telling ya, Redfield, you're worrying about nothing." Joseph finally found a piece on the floor and grinning from ear to ear, he picked up the piece, which was easily the size of his fist.
As Alana watched on, she would clutch her head suddenly as a female voice would scream in her mind... FOOL! GET OUT OF THERE! IT'S A TRAP! Suddenly, the room Joseph was in began to quake and Alana found herself screaming out "JOSEPH GET OUT OF THERE!"
"AWWW SHIT!" Joseph sprinted out of the room that was connected and dived out, just as a bunch of rocks and rubble would come crashing down, sealing off the gem filled room, leaving the team standing in shock at what just happened. "Holy fuck... that could've been me..!"
"That's what you get for being greedy, you stupid bastard! The next time you do something like that, I'm throwing you back in! When I tell you not to touch something, DON'T!" Chris berated him. "You could've gotten us killed!"
"We should leave before something else happens," Jill says before leaving the room with Wesker with Brad and Barry following quickly behind, Chris, Joseph and Alana following suit, shutting the door behind them once they left.
"Holy crap... if that was one trap, how many more are in this place?" Brad asked with a quiver in his voice. "I think we should just get out of here altogether."
"Stop being a sissy, Brad! We have already come this far and we already decided that we were going to find the vault. You can leave if you want to, Brad, but I think the others want to keep going, right Chris?" Alana piped up.
"He can leave if he wants, but I'm committed to this path. I'm going to find my grandfather's vault and I don't care what I have to do to get to it. Any of you can leave if you want, but I'm going to keep going," Chris nods in agreement.
There was a contemplative silence amongst the group but Chris spoke up again. "All things considered, we shouldn't be moving in a big group anyway. So if any one of you want to leave, speak now." Once more, silence came upon the group before Joseph and Brad backed away from the group. "Just you two?" The two would nod with apologetic looks. "Alright, I understand. Head on back up and wait for us at the station. If Irons asks, tell him nothing."
Nodding once more, Joseph and Brad trekked back the way they came, leaving the Redfield siblings, Jill, Wesker, Barry and Alana. Then Chris turned to Barry. "Hey Barry, why don't you go back with them? No offense, buddy, but someone's gotta keep Frost in line with Irons," he says with a small smile, earning a pat on the shoulder from the gun expert. "And again, if Irons asks where we are, tell him to shove it up his ass," he adds, earning a laugh from the older male before he would turn and leave.
And then there were five: the siblings, the father-daughter duo and Jill. Turning back to the tunnel ahead of them, Chris took a calming breath. "You guys ready?" he asked them, earning nods from the group. "Okay, let's go."
AN: WHAT SORTS OF SECRETS AND TRAPS LIE HIDDEN IN WAIT FOR THE GROUP? WILL THE VAULT BE FOUND HERE? FIND OUT IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!