Lance just stared around at the vast expanse of the warehouse "it doesnt make sense...why would a company just up a leave a warehouse like this? NO alarms, no guard, nothing..."
Switching his flashlight on, Leon crept ahead into the darkness "that's what were here to find out isn't it?"
Lance and Rach just shrugged at each other and, pulling out flashlights of their own, split off in different directions.
All that seemed to be in the warehouse was boxes, boxes, and even MORE boxes. Lance, getting more and more irrated by the second, gave one of the boxes a swift kick. And hopped back a second later cursing in his native language.
Hearing a whole stream of german profanity, Rachel and Leon beetled over to where Lance was. The officer was giving the box the evil glare of death he usually reserved for Yanmark whenever she called him "blondie".
Yup. The same annoying name she'd given Leon. But, in contrast to the american, Lance's hair color seemed almost whitish blonde, always tied back so it wasnt in his face, the pale shade making the deep blue of his eyes stand out even more. But sadly his somewhat arrogant nature clashed with this look, making him one of those handsome-but-a-jackass types.
Rachel sniggered at his expression, then poked the box he had kicked. It was solid, and wouldnt budge. Frowning she concentrated on trying to open it, while listening to Lance's continuing stream of swearing, occansionally interrupted by an english curseword.
Seeing her struggling, Leon crouched down by her, and they both stared at the box. It wouldnt open. Then Leon noticed, disguised as a packaging label, a keypad of sorts. And no clue as to the combination.
"Will it open or not?" Lance finally switched back to english to ask.
Leon shrugged "it will if we can find out HOW to open it...maybe we need to have a look around..?"
Lance turned and walked off without another word, leaving them behind.
Leon waited until he was out of earshot before speaking. "Bit cold isnt he?" he asked Rachel.
She sighed wearily "try working with him every day, he can be such a prat..." she shrugged "from what i know, his parents were both military, so he was brought up to be a soldier. It'll be a cold day in hell before anyone ever gets that moody git to smile." She wrapped up the decsription with another shrug. "in short; he's a stroppy git."
Leon snickered "got it in a nutshell. He's been glaring at me ever since i got here.."
Red laughed, shaking her head a little, "don't mind him, he does that with EVERYONE he doesn't like, which is practically everyone. Just ignore him, he'll calm down after a bit..."
Right at the back of the warehouse there was a set of steps, which led up to an office room near the cieling of the building. Evidently an overseers office or something. The door was locked, but the colonel gave it a few good shoulder slams and it finally busted open.
Inside, it was a mess, and sprawled amidst a pile of papers, was a dead body, a gunshot mark in its head, its eyes open in terror, as if had seen the face of its killer.
Lance carefully knelt down by the dead worker, noting a badge on his jacket.
"S Corp? What the hell...?"
Unknown to Colonel Schneider, he was being watched, by the same unknown man that had watched them sneak into the warehouse.
Cold eyes gleamed behind dark glasses, a cold smile on his face as he watched the officer peering at the dead body.
Yes, he'd make a suitable test subject. If his guess about the officers nationality was right, it would bond with him even easier. He had thought about using the female, the one who'd seen him briefly by the RRA building. But somehow he had a feeling the male would be better.
Now to sit back and wait for them to come to him, at the place where he was going to capture the precious subject.
Going through all the papers, Lance suddenly felt cold, like somethign was wrong. He looked up, glancing out the window of the office, but there was nothing there...
Sighing irratably at his own foolishness, he continued his search through the papers. Finally one turned up that looked like it might prove useful. It looked like a memo, but it was all crumpled up, and covered in specks of blood. He squinted at it, reading out a Combination of sorts:
"4UMBR3114"
He ran out of the room, heading back to where he'd left Leon and Rachel.
The figure smirked as it seen Lance finally pick up the paper it had left there.
"Good boy, now go fetch your little friends..."
Both Leon and Rachel were glad to see the combo Lance had found. Hopefully it would work on the box.
Red knelt by the thing, and punched in the letters and numbers Lance read out. As she entered the last one, there was a muted click, and the flaps of the box unfolded. Inside was a control panel. With another code-lock. Red groaned, what kind of computer WAS this? Why was it there? This was endless. Unless...
With a pair of pliers and a screwdriver, she managed to take of a panel just to the side of the keypad. And got instantly confused, wiring was NOT her specialty. She'd been hoping to find an override button. With a sigh, Lance nudged her out the way, and set to work fiddling with the wires.
Just as Leon was about to suggest they go LOOK for the code, there was a loud beep, and the red light on the panel flipped to green, and from the other end of the warehouse, there was the sound of something moving. All three dashed over to the sound of the noise, and stared at what they saw.
A trapdoor, leading down into what seemed to be a tunnel.
Wihtout question, the three jumped in. It was pitch black, but not as narrow as Rachel has suspected, it fact it was easy to walk without having to crouch down like you would with a normal tunnel. Something told this WASN'T a maintenance shaft.
The silence was broken only by the sounds of their footsteps, and once, Leons stomach growling. But after 10 minuties of walking along the dark, cold tunnel, they heard a faint noise. It grew louder and louder as they walked onwards.
"A Generator?" Lance guessed, Rach shrugged, possibly it was, but where in hell did this tunnel lead to?
At last the tunnel came to an end, and a ladder leading up, and into where, they didn't know.
They emerged in what looked like an old storeroom, more boxes were piled everywhere, but some, Rachel noticed, had a "Biohazard" symbol on them. Which was NEVER a good thing. In the corner an electric generator hummed away, confirming Lance's suspicions.
They split up to search for a door, wandering amongst shelves of boxes and what looked like medical supplies. There was a strange smell in the air, almost like rotten meat, only different, more pungent.
Rachel clamped her hand over her mouth as she walked between the tall shelves. And just about jumped out of her skin when she heard a box clatter to the floor. She whipped round, expecting to see Lance or Leon behind her. Sadly not. What she did see made her stand there with a look of horror on her face.
It was human, at least in appearence. But its body was covered in a disfiguring rash, making its skin look like melted wax. It's features were slanted halfway off its face, and its eyes had that same look she recognised from the villagers. It stared at her as it crouched on the ground, then abruptly sprang, knocking her to the floor, its hands clamping down on her shoulders, its wide maw extending to take a chunk from her neck.
BANG.
The things grip suddnely slacked, and with another bang, it released its hold and fell still. Rachel backed up, shoving the things body off her, glancing up and feeling relief to see it WAS Lance this time. The colonel lowered the SIG-Sauer, then kicked the thing with one boot.
"What IS it? It's disgusting..." he muttered.
Rachel blinked, finally coming back to reality.
"I have NO idea..." she managed shakily. She sat and stared at it, at the melted appearence of its skin, those eyes, and that rotten stench...
"Whats going on? I heard gunshots and-what the fuck is that?" all this was from Leon, whod just come to see what the noise was.
"No idea." Was all Rachel could say, as she got to her feet and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. This was like, almost like...
"Raccoon city all over again.." Leon muttered, then turned and left to carry on looking for a door. Lance frowned, Raccoon City? what was the american on about? How did HE know?
Door found, they emerged out into a long stretch of hallway, harsh white strip lighting making the place seem cold and sterile, almost like a laboratory. Somewhere in this building, there had to be some answers. But what if there were more of those things?
They walked quietly down the hall, there was no sound save thier footsteps. Where were the employees? The researchers? Was nobody home?
Lance stopped as he thought he spotted something moving down the end of a corridor that branched off to his left. Without saying anything, he started down the side-hallway, gun aimed in front of him. As such, he failed to see the security camera suddenly turn on its pivot and focus on him. But what he did hear however, was the sound of a metal door slamming down behind him.
Rachel blinked, as she turned her head slightly and seen Lance sneaking off down a side-hall. She turned to follow him, but before she could even get two steps towards him, a metal gate suddenly slammed down between them.
"COLONEL!!" she yelled, dashing to the door and pounding on it with her fists, "WHATS GOING ON?!"
Both her and Leon pounded at the door, but it was no use. Finally, they heard Schneiders voice, muffled from behind the thick metal.
"Keep going, it looks like this corridor leads to another part of this buidling, i'll meet up with you later, just get going!"
"But-" Rachel objected, but Lance just cut her off again.
"-No buts Leiutenant, you can't break down this door, GO. That's an order!"
Rach gave the door a final kick "fine, but you better get your military ass back here soon, get me?" . She heard the sound of the Colonel's footsteps as he walked off down the corridor, then she sighed and turned to look at Leon. "Well, looks like its just us two...again."
Leon laughed slightly as they carried on down the hall "no problem there, "Red"..."
As they set off together, Red couldn't get rid of the bad feeling she had...that Lance was in far more danger then he knew...
Damn security measuers. Lance cursed himself for not being more careful. He'd seen the camera posted by the metal door, and realised it must be part of the buildings security, more than likely this place was on lockdown. Meaning something had gone wrong here, like that creature that had almost eaten his co-worker. Had it escaped, killed the employees then hidden in the storeroom? He couldn't be sure.
The first three doors he tried were locked, but the fourth opened. A quick check revealed nothing inside, and he crept cautiously in. The first thing that caught his eyes was a computer screen, at the far end of the room. It was switched on, its screen glowing a sickly green. Lowering his gun, he walked over to it, reading what was written on the screen.
Day 27,
The test subject is violent, it attacked the worker that came to feed it yesterday, near tore his arm out of its socket. How're we meant to study this thing when it can easily kill us in one blow? The supervisor has insisted we contiue monitoring its behavior, althought theres not much point. All it does is watch us, like its hungry for human flesh.
This THING is supposed to be a B.O.W? Its controllers will be eaten before they can give it an order! How is that useful?
Lance stared in a mix of shock and confusion.
"B.O.W? What in blazes were they doing here?"
Then a voice spoke behind him.
"Oh, lots of things, aren't they interesting?"
Lance whipped round, pointing his Sig-Sauer at the figure advancing on him. The man was tall, dressed in black combat gear, with slicked-back blonde hair, and sunglasses hiding his eyes.
"Now now, there's no need to point that thing at me." The man kept walking towards him.
"Stay back!" Lance ordered, keeping the P228 aimed at him "Who are you?!"
"Oh wouldn't YOU like to know.." the blonde man said softly, a smirk appearing on his face. Then, before Lance could even blink, the man had vanished in a blur, and appeared right behid him. He tried to turn round, but he was too slow. The blonde figure had pulled a hypodermic needle from his pocket, and before the Colonel could even comprehend what was going on, the needle was jabbed into his neck, and the whole world went black.
The blonde, known to many as Albert Wesker, smirked as the pale-haired soldier fainted imidiately after he jabbed him with the needle. He picked the out cold figure up, and walked calmly out of the room with him.
Down the corridor, round a corner, and into a set of double doors at the very end. Into the testing lab. He put his unconious victim down on one of the blood-stained medical tables, and strapped him down, just in case he should wake up during the important part.
He punched a code into a safe in the far wall, and from within this safe he withdrew a single needle, inside which was a dark green fluid. He couldn't refrain from chuckling to himself as he walked back to the awaiting subject.
"You have the honor of being the test subject for my new and improved strain..." He jabbed the needle into the pale blondes neck. Lance flinched slightly, but didn't wake, and still stayed asleep even as Wesker pushed the plunger, injecting the substance directly into the Colonel's body.
"Now, lets see how well you do, my little subject." He undid the straps, and lifted the body from the table. He dumped him back in the room where he'd first knocked him out. All the young man would remember was feeling dizzy, then nothing. Not for a while at least.
Now to just wait for the virus to kick in...
Note #1: Yes, the gun Lance carries is real, the SIG-Sauer P228, military issue firearm.
Note #2: Notice anything intersting about the box-code?