For my lone reviewer, Slasherbynight6

It was a good 20 minutes before the Colonel finally regained consciousness. And the first thing he did upon waking up, was to make a desperate dive for a nearby washbasin, as his stomach decided to reject that mornings attempt at breakfast.

Stomach done playing up, he slumped against the wall, his breathing somewhat ragged. What the hell was wrong with him? The last thing he remembered was hearing a voice, then everything just went black.

--How the hell could I have fainted? That's NEVER happened. Something's wrong here..--- Even as he thought this, he automatically rubbed at his neck, at the exact spot where the viral injection had been put into him...

Yet he didn't think to check, just got to his feet and staggered towards the door, noting something shiny lying in front of it. A key. Had that been there earlier? He couldn't be sure, but either way, it might help him find his way back to his partner, and that other guy.

While all this had been going on, Leon and Rachel had gotten inexplicably...lost.

"Where the hell are we? This place is like a labyrinth?!" Rach cursed, "And it doesn't help either, that most of the doors wont open!"

"Maybe we need to find a lock system, it's probably electronic." was Leon's suggestion.

As they tried all the doors, Rach noticed they had symbols on. Some had a Biohazard sign, others displayed a shield with an "S" stamped on it, and one door, which looked like it might lead somewhere important, had a card-key reader beside it.

"Don't suppose you know how to pick locks do ya?" Red asked, and sighed when Leon shook his head. At last they found one door, devoid of markings, that opened. It was cold, and a row of containers lined the wall opposite the door. But they were all empty, the glass smashed. There's was a lone workstation next to the row of capsules. To the left of it was a large glass window, which looked into an empty, but blood-splattered room.

-- I don't think I wanna know what went on in here...-- Rachel wandered over, and looked at the screen. It displayed what looked like a building map. She tapped the print icon, and a piece of paper slipped into a tray at the side of the workstation. That was a map found at least.

She poked and prodded a few other buttons, and one finally got a response. A part of the wall rose up, revealing a locked safe. She sighed; she didn't know how to open safes, except with dynamite. She and Leon tried to get it open, but with no combo to go on, it was a pointless task.

Leon spotted a steel storage cupboard over in the far corner. He had to tug at the doors for a bit to get them open, and wished he hadn't. For once he got the doors open; out fell the dead body that had been stuffed in there. But he noticed something sticking out of the body's lab coat pocket. He pulled it out, it was a piece of scrap paper, part of what had to be a fax or memo.

"...-how you always forget the combo, so I changed it to the day and month of your birthday, you should be able to remember that!"

Red took a look at it and sighed, how were they going to know the girls birthday? She quickly checked the body, and found an ID card.

"Miranda Harper, Lab Assistant." she read out. Then looked at the terminal. Surely it had access to a database?

Leon watched in confusion as she started poking and prodding the computer, then typed in something off the ID card. Seconds later it beeped and she cheered, turning to grin at him.

"Bingo, its '22/06'" she chuckled; obviously pleased, and set to work on the safe. The reward for figuring this out was the finding of a key in the safe. On it was etched a biohazard symbol.

They grinned at each other, but barely had they gotten two steps then they heard a cracking sound. They turned slowly, not wanting to see but unable to stop themselves staring.

It resembled a very large primate, its fur a pale white, its eyes a blood red. It raised its massive talons again and battered them against the glass. And again. Then it gave way, the shattering sound jerking the two out of their trances. They bolted for the door, but were dismayed to find it locked somehow.

Rachel panicked, and whipped out her Berretta, and began firing point blank at its head. It charged at her as she kept firing, and with one swipe of its heavy arm, had slammed her into the door. But it didn't get to snap her neck as it hoped to, as another bullet buries itself in its neck.

Leon gave another bullet between the eyes as it turned to face him. He ducked and dodged, firing bullet after bullet into the things body as it swung at him. Eventually, it collapsed to the ground, a grand total of 15 bullets buried in it. The next second, Rachel fell backwards into the hall as the door unlocked itself, and swung open. She blinked, what the hell was that all about?

Still clasping the key, she and Leon high-tailed it outta there, to find the doors that matched the symbol, and start unraveling this strange, nameless building.

In a room located behind locked doors, Wesker sat back in his chair and smirked, they'd passed the first test he'd "released" just for them, a creature known as "Eliminator". And there were plenty more for them to find...
They went right back to where they'd started, and began unlocking the door with biohazard etchings. The first led into a massive room that was full of kennels. Blood was streaked all over the floor and in the cages as well. The cage's occupant's didn't take too happily to these intruders, and they nearly got chewed to pieces by the pack of infected Dobermans.

"Ugh, always preferred cats myself.." Rachel grumbled, poking a dog corpse with her foot to check it was really dead. Leon just shrugged and began poking through the papers scattered on the desk at the far end of the room. Sadly they uncovered nothing new, no name for this strange lab.

The next room was a little more useful, in it they found another researchers body, it looked like it had been mauled to bits by some sort of clawed beast, maybe one of those monkey things that had almost clobbered them? Clutched in the researchers hand was what looked like a small metal square. Red turned it over in her hands, what was it for? On it was engraved what looked like part of a letter, a S, maybe?

She showed it to Leon, but he didn't know what it was either. His only guess was that maybe it was part of a locking mechanism, and with all the pieces they might be able to find something. But how many where there?

They left the room, still in the dark about the whole place, but outside in the corridor, they soon forgot about it. Walking towards them from the end of the hall was what seemed to be a 6 foot tall man wearing a trench coat. But as it stomped closer, Leon stared in shock and recognition, it couldn't be...A Tyrant?

The Tyrant spotted them staring, and from the folds of its coat it pulled out a grenade launcher.

There was no time to think of a plan, all they could do was run, hearing the sound of that thing prepping the weapon, its firsts hot missed red by mere inches, and left a smoking crater in the wall. They tore round the corner, and tried to open the door at the end, but it was locked shut.

Rachel shook her head, this couldn't be happening...no way. The thing re-loaded the grenade gun, and strode towards them , leveling the weapon. But it didn't get a chance to fire, for the door behind them opened, and someone yanked them into the room, the door slamming shut in the Tyrants face.

As soon as their mysterious helper released her collar, Rach whipped round, and stared in surprise and relief.

"Colonel!"

Lance looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "well who were you expecting?" he asked coldly.

Leon sighed in relief; it was only that blonde snobby officer, not some crazed lunatic.

"Get a move on, that thing will have the door open any second, this way!" Lance pointed to an air vent he'd sued to get into the room.

With some effort they squiggled up into the vent, which led back to another room some distance away.

The room they emerged in was an office, with a massive desk in it, the walls lined with bookshelves crammed full of folders.

Red showed lance the piece of metal she'd found.

"What d'ya think this is?" she asked him. He turned it over in his hands, and red thought she seen them shaking a bit, but when he spoke a second later, she forgot about it.

"Yeah, I found one just like it.." he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a second piece of metal. Red started, looking at the two pieces. But she still couldn't figure out what they were for.

"How did you find your way here?" Leon asked, looking at lance.

Lance held up a silver key, "this. I found it I one of the rooms." He decided not to mention the passing-out-then-throwing-up part of his adventures. Truth be told, he STILL felt like crap, but he didn't fancy telling those two, it'd slow things down.

Leon stared at the other, something was weird. Where was the by-now standard grouchy complaints about their lack of speed/info?

Before either one could ask questions Lance strode out of the room, not waiting for them to catch up. The sooner they were out of here, the better.

Wesker smirked as he watched the three walk down the corridor. He could see the officer he'd infected was slowly starting to feel the effects of the virus, but if he thought it was bad now, it was about to get worse. Much worse.
"Did you find anything else?"

Red blinked as Lance finally spoke again. She held out the "biohazard" key. "Just this, but so far it hasn't unearthed anything useful. Except that they kept insane monkeys in here."

Lance was about to ask what the hell she was babbling about monkeys for, when they heard Leon swear. They looked ahead to see what he was swearing at, and added their own profanities to the mix, one British and one German.

It was tyrant, and it had gotten UGLIER. Its muscular capacity had almost doubled, its claws longer then before, and stained with blood. Behind them, there was the sound off any access doors locking. They were shut in.

--again?!-- Red swore mentally, then realized she could curse about the buildings systems alter. When they were less like to be deadified.

Tyrant roared angrily, started at these intruders, then ran for them, claws ready to disembowel whichever he got first.

Only he didn't get any of them, for all three split off and bolted different ways from him. So he went for the slowest. Which happened to be Rachel. Another swipe from its claws tore a gash down her arm, but not before she managed to fire 6 shots into its face. It staggered back, its angry cries echoing in the vats corridor.

So busy was it taking aim for another stab at Rachel, it didn't hear the two behind it. But it felt the combat knife slam into its neck.

Poor tyrant, you almost had to feel sorry for it. No sooner would it set its aim on one, then the rest would barrage it with gunshot. Fury overrode its instinct, and it began slashing blindly, hoping to catch one in its radius.

Finally it managed to corner the colonel. But he wasn't about to become a snack to this brainless freak. As tyrant raised its claw back for the final stab, lance fired upwards, at the ceiling light. It came free, swinging down and smacking tyrant with god-knows-how-many volts of electricity right to the skull.

It gave one final cry and collapsed tom the floor with a THUD that made the ground shake. Lance sighed in relief. Thank god that was over...

Red slumped against the wall with a weak sigh, blood dripping from the tear in her arm. Leon quickly moved to her, and the two set about stemming the blood flow, using some sprays and bandages.

All done, Red smiled at Leon. "Thanks, you two saved my ass."

Leon chuckled and poked her upside the head "all part of the job!" he laughed.

They were interrupted in their chat by an odd sound. A sound like someone about to be sick.

They turned to stare at the only other person it could possibly be.

They saw Lance holding onto the wall, hunched over slightly. One hand was covering his mouth, and his face was flushed. Overall, he didn't look so good all of a sudden.

Rachel blinked, then frowned, stepping over to his side "hey, what's wrong? You going to be sick or something-"

She was cut off as Lance suddenly shoved her away, and with amazing speed, hightailed it into the nearest washroom, just as the doors unlocked themselves again.

Leon started after him "what the-? what's with him?"

Red shrugged, still looking worried "I don't know. He's never gotten that sick before, he was fine when we came here, maybe-"

But she trailed off as her fellow officer finally stumbled back out of the bathroom door. Darting over, she brushed aside his attempt at an excuse and put her hand on his forehead. And pulled away instantly.

His temperature wasn't just off the chart; it was off the freaking planet.

"what the fuck..?!" lance managed to say at last. He'd felt like crap earlier, now he felt like he'd been run over by a Mack truck, which had then reversed and hit him again.

They dragged him over to a bench set against one of the walls. While Leon tried to ask the Colonel if he'd come into contact with anything, Red tried to think where she'd seen symptoms like this before.

Then, with what felt like a punch to the gut, she realized. The infection in the report. First high fever, then vomiting. The same one those kids had fallen prey to.

The one they hadn't found an antidote to...