Chapter 12
"Clear!" Echoed through the small train station that was once manned by employees of the Umbrella Corporation.
"Alright, spread out and search for anything useful or incriminating that might have been left behind," Captain Marini ordered his team. "Keep your heads on a swivel though, we don't know what else might be hiding in the area."
"I'm not finding anything aside from a weapons case," Forest said as he grabbed a set of bolt cutters off his kit before breaking into it. "I don't know what they thought they were going to face, but they've got three LMGs and some grenade launchers in here."
"NATO or Warsaw?" Enrico asked as he made his way over.
"A mix," Forest replied. "I've got a couple of M240s here and an RPK."
"Grab some of the ammunition," Captain Marini ordered. "I know you only brought three magazines with you."
"We're just going to leave the MGs here?" Forest asked.
"We don't need to be traveling that heavy," the Bravo Team Captain shook his head. "And none of us are trained on a belt fed."
"I'll grab some extra rounds and close this up then," Forest said as he began to grab boxes of 7.62 NATO ammunition and put them into his pack. "We should probably grab one of the launchers though."
"Let me take a look at that," Captain Marini said as he grabbed one of the MGLs that was hung in the case. "We've got HE, Smoke, and some HEPD," the captain muttered to himself as he loaded in six HE grenades and snapped the revolver mechanism on the MGL shut before grabbing a dozen assorted rounds of the other two types he had mentioned.
"Captain, you might want to take a look at this," Richard said from the office he had been looking through. "I just found something important."
"What the hell was those things?" Rain asked as she stood over the remains with her team and looked at the long claw that had embedded itself into the wall. "They looked like something out of a horror flick."
"No clue," I shrugged. "Would that Red Queen you were talking about know?"
"Possibly," Kaplan replied as he moved up to take point. "It depends on if she went down before the rest of the facility," he sighed. "I was a part of the programming team, but I transferred to the UBCS right before she went active, and I think the rest of the team either retired or died."
"Well," Rain said as she followed behind her tech specialist. "Let's go find out."
We began to move to the stairwell and cleared the entryway before making our way down the stairs.
"Do you hear that?" Rain asked as she neared the door to the next floor. "Sounded like someone calling for help."
"No," I replied as I stacked up on her. "But I've got your back if you want to check it out."
"I'll take Mark and J.D with me," Rain told the rest of the team. "Kaplan, I want the power back on and Red Queen active. She might be able to give us more intel on what we're facing here."
"I don't think splitting up is a good idea," Kaplan said nervously. "What if we run into more of those things?"
"He's got a point," Natalia said. "Splitting up could cause some issues."
"Fine," Rain said after a moment. "Power on or potential rescue first?"
"I think we should see if anyone is alive down here first," Edward spoke up. "Your job is to rescue people from these sorts of facilities right?"
"Alright, we're going to go check out this voice. And then we'll move to get the power and the Red Queen online," Rain stated. "I've got a point," she turned and breached the doorway while I followed closely behind.
"Help!" We heard a faint voice coming from one of the closed-off labs. "I'm stuck in here."
"You still got that crowbar?" Rain asked me as she looked at the keypad that was powered off.
"Yeah," I replied as I pulled it out and wedged it into the crack of the door. "Wish we had a breacher though, those shaped charges would be helpful."
"Our breacher was on the train," J.D said as he began to help open the door. "I get the feeling he's not going to be able to help us out."
"Ed, get over here," I told the Bravo Team member. "We've got it open a couple of inches, but we'll need more help to get this thing open."
Kaplan and Edward each grabbed a side and began to help us pull the doors apart as Rain and Natalia stayed on watch.
"It's open enough for someone to slip through," I said as we stopped pulling to move our weapons back into our hands.
"Thank God," and Blond woman in a lab coat said as she squeezed through the cracks. "During a lockdown, all ventilation gets shut off and I was running out of air in there."
"UBCS," Rain flashed her patch at the woman. "Can you tell me anything about what's happening down here in this facility?"
"Me?" The woman shook her head." No, I'm just a smallpox researcher, and my lab is one of the most secure ones in the complex," she nervously laughed. "No one wants smallpox to make a resurgence after all."
"What happened from your point of view?" I asked, trying to get a measure of this researcher.
"Well, it was just like any other day," the woman said. "I made my coffee and then came down to my lab. I'm a couple of weeks away from a breakthrough and I've been keeping careful notes on everything that I've been doing," the woman then got a little heated as she looked back at her lab. "I was in the middle of watching an important interaction when the power shut off, and I forgot to save my notes from today, this could set me back years."
"We're going to head down to the server room next," Kaplan told the woman. "I assume that you would like to come with us, Doctor?"
"Alicia Marcus," the blond replied. "And I'd love to get away from here," she shuddered. "I've been hearing all sorts of strange sounds since the lockdown started. First, there were screams, and then there was a bunch of thuds and it's been quiet ever since."
"You know how to use this, Dr. Alicia?" I brought out the beretta that I had taken from the vehicle earlier and handed it to her.
"My father taught me how to shoot," Alicia replied. "And it's Alice, only my mother called me Alicia," she chambered a round and then looked at me. "All of your gear, and you don't have any extra holsters?"
"Nope," I replied with a shake of my head. "I'm afraid you'll have to make do unless they have an armory conveniently located somewhere in this facility."
"There should be one," Kaplan replied as we began to move back down the stairwell. "You're not allowed to study certain diseases and viruses unless you have the right kind of security," He looked at his PDA with a small map of the facility on it. "I'll have to get an updated map of the complex before I can confirm that though."
"We'll see if we can pick you up a holster later," Rain said as she eyed the researcher's high heels and slacks. "And maybe some more practical clothes as well."