Nemesis: Resident Evil III
Chapter Thirty Six: Countdown
Regardless of whether or not Carlos was carrying the real T-Virus vaccine in the secured metal case, the burden of needing to get it back to Jill was making the trip back down the darkened basement corridors feel like it was taking three times as long, even though the young man was moving at a much faster pace. It felt like one of those dreams where the sleeping person tries to run as fast as they can, but doesn't actually get anywhere, and it was even worse knowing that there could be more of those clawed creatures around.
Nothing so far, though, with the anticipation of running into another of them causing Carlos to breathe rapidly, thick beads of sweat forming on his forehead with every corner that he checked around with the rifle's flashlight. At least with as dark as it was in the subterranean hallways, he might be able to momentarily blind one again like with the first one he encountered, but on the other hand it had taken an entire magazine to kill even one of them, so if he did encounter another of them, and there was more than one…
The directory signs led him back toward the elevator, but the young man must have traveled all the way to the far side of the hospital, because there were so many twists and turns along the hallways that… wait, what was that? A tiny flicker of light was up ahead in the darkness, and Carlos's heart started to beat even faster when he realized that it was the elevator's floor indicator light… he had made it! But there was something else, too, this time a sound… like the shriek of one of those clawed creatures… from behind.
Tick-tick-tick… the sound of the monster's clawed feet tapping heavily across the concrete floor as it ran toward him made the young man get ready to start shooting again, but then he heard it… the sound of a second creature's footsteps joining the first one… and then another. There was no way he could have taken on even two of those monsters at the same time, let alone three, so Carlos sprinted toward the dim indicator lights of the elevator, pressing the button, and then aiming his flash light back down the hall to see that the three clawed creatures were rapidly gaining on him.
Rat-a-tat! Rat-a-tat! Firing his rifle down the hall toward them in short, controlled bursts while the elevator doors slowly opened, this attack was not meant to kill the creatures, but to simply keep them back long enough for him to squeeze through the opening doors, and then rapidly press the button to close them again once he was inside the car. The monsters hissed and shrieked, shielding themselves with their big arms until the young man ran into the elevator, and then they leapt forward, landing gracefully right in front of the closing doors… just in time for them to close.
"Go, go, go!" Carlos exclaimed, hitting the 1F button more than a dozen times before the elevator started to move. "Si rapido, rapido!"
And good thing it started moving, too, because the clawed creatures could still be heard shrieking, denting the doors slightly inward with their claws until the elevator moved out of reach, finally allowing the young man to catch his breath, lowering his rifle while leaning on the back wall. There was only the distance of one floor between B1 and 1F, so only a short time passed before the bell went ding before the doors slid open once again, returning Carlos to the main lobby.
Beep-beep-beep, a new sound reached his ears as he stepped out of the car, but at first the young man couldn't tell where it was coming from, looking around at the reception desk, vending machines, and mangled bodies strewn over the rows of waiting chairs. Beep-beep-beep, the sound was definitely electronic, high pitched but not loud like an alarm, and the strangest part was that it seemed to be coming from all around. Then he saw it, a small white device that was attached to one of the room's support pillars, while a flashing red light coincided with each beep.
"What the hell?" Carlos whispered, walking up to the device and taking a closer look. "Oh, mierda."
It consisted of a large block of a white, malleable substance, and from that a set of wires connected it to the part that was beeping… while a digital timer was counting down from just less than a minute. Any idiot could have seen that it was a bomb, but the young man wasn't worried, since plastic explosive like this was easy to diffuse, simply by removing the blasting cap from the block. However, he was reaching back to get his knife, when he gasped upon seeing another device on the opposite wall… and another back behind the reception desk…
Beep-beep-beep, oh God, they were everywhere, Carlos realized when he looked around at the dozens of identical devices placed around the first floor of the hospital… and the timers were probably identical as well, so he ran for it. Shouldering open the back doors of the hospital, and running back out onto the street, he ran away from the building as fast as he could the whole area was suddenly illuminated as brightly as if the run was already rising.
BOOM! The noise and shockwave of the explosion caught up to him an instant later, lifting him off his feet and throwing the young man forward while windows shattered and walls crumbled behind him. Like when the helicopter crashed into the clock tower, bits of glass and stone debris rained down around him while Carlos crawled for cover behind an abandoned car, getting into a fetal position to protect the secured metal case from as much of the falling rubble that he could while the whole building collapsed one floor at a time… and then it was over.
Just like the clock tower, the hospital was only a shadow of its former self when he finally crawled out from behind the car, seeing nothing but fire and wreckage where the four story building had once stood. While he laid there, catching his breath, the young man realized what would have happened to him if he had stayed to keep searching the basement instead of leaving when he did, but… but where had the explosives come from? They hadn't been there when he walked in, that was for sure.
Nikolai? It was kind of ridiculous to that that the Lieutenant had not only survived another fall from a high building, while also having the time and resources to rig the whole first floor up to explode, but… there weren't a lot of other people around to pin the blame on, and zombies didn't exactly have those kind of motor skills. Maybe Jill's stalker did, but that thing was dead for sure this time, so it had to be Nikolai… there was no other explanation.
Groaning with pain and soreness as he dragged himself out from behind the abandoned, and now heavily damaged vehicle, Carlos looked over at the small building where he had left Jill… it was only a short distance from where he was, but after everything that happened… it seemed so far away. It took a lot more effort than it should have to sling the rifle over his shoulder, and then pick up the secured metal case before beginning the walk, and even though there were now some zombies shambling around, they seemed much more interested in the burning wreckage of the hospital than they were in him… or maybe they just hadn't seen him yet… either way was fine.
He stumbled back toward that small security office while the undead monsters made their way toward where the hospital used to be, and then the young man pushed open the door, making sure to lock it behind him, before turning to where he had left Jill. She was still there on the couch, but sweating enough to soak the whole thing, while gasping and crying out in pain while squirming around like she was under attack by an unseen force. Pulling down the blinds over the windows and door like he probably should have done beforehand to make sure they weren't discovered, he set the case down on the table next to the couch, and opened it to prepare the syringe.
Jill was speaking too, saying names of people that Carlos didn't recognize, and sometimes even yelling half-sentences that made no sense, but she was probably just delirious from being infected, meaning that he needed to give her the shot as soon as possible. It was easy enough to fill the syringe, but the young woman was squirming around so violently that he couldn't get one of the veins in her arm... he was going to have to restrain her.
"Novia, I am so sorry about this." He said, setting the syringe down for a second. "Now, this might hurt a little, but it's the only way."
Grabbing her by the shoulders, and then quickly flipping her over onto her stomach, the young woman started flailing around and screaming like she thought he was attacking her… but all he could do was keep apologizing while he straddled her lower back to keep her pinned down. Jill was crying now, gasping for breath while screaming for someone named Chris to help her, while the young man twisted her arms behind her back… man, she was strong, but at least her wrists were small enough to hold in place with one of his hands while grabbing the syringe with the other.
Without her leather jacket on, the young man could see that the blackness from where the monster harpooned her was spreading throughout her entire back, so… well, if this purple stuff was really the vaccine, and he really, really hoped it was… Carlos couldn't think of a better place to inject it than right into the original wound. Jill's screams got even louder after the purple substance was injected, forcing him to push her head down into the couch's pillow just enough to muffle her, since such noises could attract unwanted attention from the zombies outside… but after about a minute or so she started to quiet down.
Yeah, Jill was no longer thrashing around or crying, in fact her whole body was starting to relax now, prompting the young man to get off her, and very carefully roll the young woman onto her back so that she would be more comfortable, and now she certainly looked it… not making a sound aside for the way she very slowly breathed in and out. So, had the purple stuff been the cure? Was Jill getting better? There was no way to know just yet, so all Carlos could do was give her a kiss on the forehead and then hold her hand while waiting to see whether or not she was going to survive.