Pain made Cass wince as she moved her arm. Getting off of the hard floor, she ignored the sting in her arm. Darkness shrouded the room as she tried to figure out where she was. Her eyes took a few moments to adjust. The small room was completely unfamiliar and resembled some kind of lab room. Her foot brushed something in the dark, causing her to jump. Luckily, it was just a radio.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" Cass asked into the radio after noticing that it was already on a channel. The voice she heard respond nearly brought tears of relief to her eyes.
"Cass," the captain's voice came in clear over the radio. "So you're awake. Good."
Chills went up Cass' spine as she clutched the radio. That had not been what she'd expected to hear from the captain.
"Where am I? What's going on?"
The captain sighed and explained, "Well, unfortunately I ran out of time. I had meant to train you before this, but alas… it wasn't meant to be. Today is your test day but not for S.T.A.R.S. For something greater. With more… connections."
"Sir… what do you mean by that?" Cass asked, praying that this was all part of some elaborate joke.
"Well, truth be told, I became rather… impressed by you. The other members of S.T.A.R.S. are too brash, too unfocused. You will make a fine subordinate… provided you survive. The others won't be so lucky. I'll see to that myself."
Her blood ran cold as she pulled the pieces together.
"You… work for Umbrella. Those experiments on the children… are we the new test subjects?"
"You know about the orphanage? Hmm. Clever girl. Yes, in a manner of speaking, but not for Umbrella. After this, my work for them is complete. Now… here's the game. You'll want to pay attention if you wish to survive. This room is connected to an enclosure for one of our Hunters. After the door opens, I would suggest that you leave the transmitter as it will start to emit a sound. There is a shotgun, a pistol, and ammo hidden inside, which should be more than enough for your purposes. Should you survive until morning, there will be a team to pick you up. Should you not… it was a pleasure knowing you, Cass."
"Why are you doing this? You're our captain… Don't you even remotely care about us?" Cass asked, hoping that the captain she'd known… that she'd respected hadn't been just a fabrication.
"Don't misunderstand me, my dear. I do hope you survive… but I must ensure that you are fit for your new role. If I didn't want you to succeed, I wouldn't have told you as much as I have. This is still an application of sorts, just one with more severe consequences for failure. Take care and good luck."
The door suddenly creaked open, and Cass took a wary look outside. Trees and grass grew with the help of skylights. The radio suddenly started shrieking. Cass tossed the radio before she took cover in the underbrush. Staying silent, she waited for this "hunter" to come by.
Heavy footsteps approached her. She slowed her breathing as the creature lurched into view. Reptilian skin covered a powerful, muscular humanoid body, but its eyes had no trace of humanity as they scanned the area, hoping for movement. It approached the transmitter with curiosity. Easily crushing the device in its claw-like hand, it looked around the area as though trying to figure out where the radio had come from.
Cass held still. If that thing caught her, it could, and most likely would, tear her apart with its bare hands. She'd have to sneak around it somehow. It let out a low guttural growl as it continued to search for movement. Cass held in a sigh of relief as it turned and walked in a different direction. As she looked around for any other monsters, a glitter caught her eye. Slowly crawling through the underbrush, she focused on creating as little sound as possible. The bullets felt like a small comfort as she scooped them from the ground. Now to find the shotgun. The pistol would likely be useless against that thing. She doubted that even two shotgun blasts would put that monster down. Finding more bullets before taking it on would be the least suicidal choice.
The sound of footsteps made her freeze. An inhuman shriek set her on edge, but she forced herself to stay still. There had been intelligence in those reptilian eyes. No doubt it was trying to scare her into running. Keeping her breathing quiet, she tried to remember what the captain… what Wesker had told her. A team would be here in the morning.
Cass glanced at the skylights to see a bright blue sky. At most it was early evening, and she had a hard time imagining herself surviving the night with this thing lurking about. Perhaps that was what Wesker had truly been hoping for. Everything she'd thought she'd known about him had been swept aside, and even the reptilian monster hunting her down didn't fully take her mind off of it.
How long had he been involved with this "testing"? From before S.T.A.R.S.? Her hands shook with anger. He'd said something about making sure the others weren't as "lucky" as her. She clenched her fist around the bullets as she took a more detailed look at the enclosure around her. Metal walls and a metal door prevented her escape. No doubt the team arriving in the morning would be able to unlock the door, but she had no intention of waiting around for them.
Chris was in danger. Bravo team had been sent out… no doubt to their doom. It might be too late for them… For Forest… No, she couldn't think that way. They were professionals with weapons; it would take a lot more to wipe them out.
Sunlight streamed in through the skylights, giving her an idea. The glass was likely reinforced, but it was still glass. She doubted it could take a shotgun blast without some kind of damage. That would have to be her way out. Now how to get up there?
Putting the bullets in her pocket, she decided that the most important thing on her to-do list was to find that shotgun… if there even was one. Would he have lied about that? She hoped not. After all, the shotgun was essential to her plan; without it, she'd be hunter food. Taking a deep breath, she continued crawling through the enclosure and hoped that her suspicions were wrong. Every couple of minutes she would stop and listen for footsteps. She heard nothing. Anxiety clawed at her throat, but she forced herself to remain calm. Chris needed her. Forest, Joseph, Jill, and Barry… the sooner she escaped the sooner they'd be rescued. She had to believe that to keep whatever sanity she had left. They would be okay. She'd make sure of that.
Her hand pushed down on something hard, and she froze in horror before realizing it was a rifle case. Unburying it from a slight covering of dirt, she brushed it off before pulling it from the hole. Before she unlatched the case, a thought struck her. What if opening this set off some kind of alarm? Better safe than sorry, she thought to herself as she slowly moved to a different area.
Quickly unlatching the clips, she pulled out the shotgun before closing it and throwing it where she'd found it. As she quietly made her getaway, she heard a loud beeping sound. Taking cover behind a tree, she saw the creature making a beeline for the case. There was a flash of light as the monster found the case. An explosion mangled one of the creature's hands as it shrieked in fury. As it ran past Cass' hiding place, she clutched the shotgun to her chest. Another shriek convinced her to slowly move into a nearby bush.
The creature continued to thrash about as she fished the bullets from her pocket. The creature continued to scream as she loaded the gun, thankfully covering up any noise. In a fit of rage, it picked up a large rock and flung it. Narrowly missing the bush that she was hiding in, the rock slammed into the ground nearby, breaking into two separate pieces. The creature took off running with a surprising speed. As it tore through the nearby area, Cass slowly and quietly moved around it. Pulling up the bush she'd been hiding in, it screamed in a rage before running into the distance.
Noticing that she'd been holding her breath the entire time, Cass took a measured breath and started slowly moving away from the sounds. Finding as much shotgun ammo as she could became the number one goal on her list, then she'd focus on finding a way to climb out of this mess. If she got out of this alive, then, after saving Chris, killing Albert Wesker would make the very top of her to-do list.