Nemesis: Resident Evil III

Chapter Nine: Sewer Demons

Click… click… click, the sound of something lightly tapping against the stone surface of the sewer tunnel continued to slowly get louder as if something were approaching, but as the three soldiers scanned the area with their flashlights, they saw a whole lot of nothing. Scooting so that they were now back to back facing three directions, while also continuing to move down the corridor, Carlos was confident that nothing could sneak up on them like this… until the tunnel opened up into a wide chamber.

Branching out into three or four separate routes that could be taken from the central junction, this area was partially illuminated by the sunlight coming down from a grated storm drain cover, but their flashlights were still needed to see the darkened corners. This place was even more acoustic than the tunnel, with every noise echoing off the walls sound like it was coming from all directions at once.

"Keep moving toward nearest tunnel." Mikhail whispered. "Olivera, aim light at ceiling just in case…

They had just been passing under the grate at the center of the chamber, when the Captain's words were interrupted by a flash of dark movement when part of something large passed through the light beam as it dropped down from its hiding place. For a moment the chamber was filled with startled gasps and groans as all three of them were knocked to the damp concrete floor by the weight of… whatever it was that had just landed on them.

Whatever this thing was, its exterior was hard, yet crunching a little when it hit the floor, like a shell, and the thing was back on its feet before the three soldiers even had a chance to start scooting away. The young man aimed his rifle toward it as soon as he had enough room to do so, but he was not prepared for what he saw in the center of the flashlight's beam… nor was the creature, by the look of things, since it made an almost surprised sounding noise that was like a mix between a hiss and a shriek while jumping backwards.

Unlike the zombies that shambled their way around on the surface, this thing was yellowish-green in color, with six powerful legs that each ended at a sharpened point, and a hardened exoskeleton that covered its whole body. For the second that it was in the light before shrinking away, Carlos had seen his own face reflected in the shiny surface of its many eyes, and when the thing shrieked, its long jagged mandibles had opened almost wide enough to bite off a man's head.

Ratta-tat! Ratta-tat! Mikhail was the first one to start shooting at the insectoid creature, causing a small spray of greenish blood as the bullets pierced its exoskeleton, causing it to rear up to its full height of more than six feet as it scurried away to find cover. Using short controlled bursts to save ammo, the Captain kept shooting at the giant insect, joined by Nikolai a moment later, but by the time that the young man was on his feet to join them, the creature had escaped by climbing up the wall into the darkness.

"Where did it go?" The Lieutenant asked, scanning the ceiling with his light. "Can you see anything?"

"The blood trail goes up there, over that arch." Carlos replied, pointing with his own beam. "Should we go after it and finish it off?"

"No, we must escape." Mikhail decided. "Continue down tunnel, and leave monster here to… Olivera, look out!"

Hearing a clicking sound on the ceiling right above him, the young man looked up and gasped just in time to see the giant insect diving right for him… and he would have been killed for sure if the Captain hadn't shoved him out of the way at the last second. Carlos was knocked off his feet, hitting the ground the same time as the insect landed, and then the chamber echoed with an outcry of agony when one of its sharpened legs stabbed right into Mikhail's lower torso so that the tip was sticking out his back just a little.

Thankfully the ends of the creature's legs were small, so it wasn't like he was cleaved in half or anything like that, but the scream that came from his lips was awful to hear… although there was one single good thing that came from this situation. With the giant insect right there stabbing into him, it wasn't able to get out of the way when the Captain used his free arm to raise his rifle once again. Ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta! Now it was the creature's turn to scream when the chamber was filled with the light and noise of fully automatic gunfire… gunfire that went right into its soft underbelly, spraying out green blood and bits of exoskeleton while the creature convulsed.

In about ten shots or so, the gunfire stopped as the creature collapsed in a pile of its own filth, causing Mikhail to scream again as well when its fall caused the sharp leg to be ripped back out of his wound, with Carlos and Nikolai having to catch him by the arms so that he wouldn't fall over. Okay, he might have been hurt… pretty badly judging by how much blood there was, but at least the creature was dead, and now they just had to get to…

Click… click… click, all three of them froze as the sound of another set of sharp legs moving slowly along the walls was heard… and then another… and then another… from different directions. This time it was Nikolai who gave the order for them to not only keep going, but to run for it, and with the two of them pretty much picking up their wounded Captain, they moved down the tunnel as quickly as they could, while the sound of hissing and shrieking insects could be heard behind them.

As they moved down the corridor, it became less like a sewer and more like maintenance access like the one leading from the pharmacy, giving the young man hope that it would end at another ladder. Sure enough it did, but the metal hatch at the top was closed, and probably going to be just as hard to pull open as the last one was. Well, whatever they were going to do, it needed to be done fast, because the sound of the approaching insects was getting closer, no doubt following the trail of blood being left by Mikhail.

"You hold them off." Nikolai said, moving toward the ladder. "I will open hatch, then you come up after I help Mikhail through."

There was no time to argue, so while the Captain leaned on the ladder and the Lieutenant climbed toward the hatch, Carlos took a ready stance just in front of them as the first of the insects came into view. There must have been a nest or something down there, because suddenly there were like a dozen of them crowding around at the entrance to the corridor, but as the young man aimed at the nearest one to start shooting, something unexpected happened.

He had thought that he had just startled the first insect, and that was why it shrieked, but when the beam from his flashlight shined onto this one's face, it made that same sound and jumped back. The same thing happened a second later when another one tried to advance by climbing along the tunnel wall, shrieking when the beam hit its eyes, and then falling to the floor and scurrying away behind the others. This must have been why they were down in the tunnels, at least during the daytime, so as long as the flashlight held out, they should be fine until…

Screech! A high-pitched sound of rusty metal now filled the tunnel, seeming to bother the insects just as much as it did Carlos, but then he breathed a sigh of relief when the hatch was pushed open, and more sunlight flooded the tunnel, forcing the creatures to back off a little more. Working together now that the young man didn't have to hold the flashlight, he and Nikolai managed to help their wounded Captain climb his way up the ladder, with the Lieutenant pulling him the rest of the way, and then followed by Carlos, who kicked the hatch closed as soon as he was through.

Not an instant after it was closed, the muffled sound of the insects could be heard, shrieking angrily as they swarmed through the tunnel below, clawing their way up the ladder and smacking against the metal hatch, but apparently lacking the intelligence needed to turn the locking wheel on their side after the young man locked it from on top. Screech! Now it was sealed, and after a minute or two the insects below gave up, scurrying off to find other prey while Carlos looked around at his surroundings.

First, though, now that the danger was briefly over, his mind had a chance to briefly ask himself que mierda estaba mal en esta citudad?! Seriously, it was hard enough to wrap his head around there being a place in the world where the dead actually rose from the grave, but now there were giant insectoid monsters down in the fucking sewers?! From the looks of Raccoon City, it was probably a nice place before all this mierda loca happened, but everything was new looking there, so it couldn't have happened too long ago.

"Olivera, wake up!" Nikolai's voice demanded, bringing him back into reality. "Give me all bandages, and then try to find First Aid box."

Right, he had to keep focused on the most important things, and right now that was helping Mikhail. So he handed over everything that was inside of the medical pouch they had all bene issued, which wasn't much, and then took another look at where they had ended up. The smell of motor oil and grease was in the air, and in this plain looking room with only a single small window and a closed rollup door at the far end, he realized that it was a repair shop that they were in.

Some used tires were stacked against the wall, and there were tool boxes stacked together by a bunch of spare car parts… which were probably for the partially stripped down old car that was up on the lift. It was an old beat up thing, stripped down to the point where they could never even think of using it to escape, and beyond a few bottles of various different kinds of machine oils, there wasn't really much back there. Beyond the small open doorway next to Nikolai, on the other hand, was a different story.

When Carlos saw what was in the front room, as well as outside of the large windows by the door, he realized that this place wasn't just a garage, it was a gas station. There were a couple sets of self-service pumps underneath a covered area next to a giant illuminated sign that said STAGLA, and underneath it was a sign that advertised gasoline at a dollar twenty five a gallon… a dollar twenty five a gallon?! Holy shit, I mean it was nice to pay by the gallon instead of the liter like the rest of the world, but a dollar twenty five?! What, was this city populated by millionaires, or something?

The rest of the place was pretty common; candy bars and sodas up front, oil and other things on the shelves, a couple bathrooms in the back… but what he really needed was a First Aid box… without it, Carlos didn't know how long the wounded Captain was going to last.