After the shots they left the lab as quickly as they could. Even with the stopgap solution working (or providing a strong enough placebo effect for their minds to keep focused despite it not working), it was still dangerously hot and humid. Even Jill found it uncomfortable, and she was wearing less than any of them when one considered how much of her outfit had been damaged already. She took the UV-light with her, stashed in the long emptied side pouch where her emergency flares had been before. They'd run down on some ammo taking the zombies out, but with the UV countermeasure they'd be able to handle the rest much easier now.
Or so she hoped.
The bodies were left behind them, still twitching in places as bacterial infection tried to reanimate the damaged tissue once more. The now dead SBOW woman hadn't been carrying anything of note, apparently having stripped down to being almost naked to better use her organic camouflage to attack them.
It hadn't been a smart plan.
"I'm not sure she really cared if she won," Jill thought, looking away from the corpse as they climbed up the stairs. She may have been a monster but she'd still been a person too. Without something or someone to look forward to after all this perhaps she hadn't cared if she'd lived through it anymore. Jill ducked down under the door as they exited, jaw set firm as her tongue touched teeth too sharp and more behind them than there should be. By some standards she was a monster too, those with her only receiving a stay from the same fate if that. But that woman had chosen to do acts befitting monstrosity long before she'd had wings or mandibles hadn't she? "Even without the mutation, she was never going to get that happy ending she was talking about."
They passed through an airlock, the reflective metal along the sides showing a warped perspective of her face. The light gray snout of a deep sea predator extending from what once had been the skull and head of an attractive woman. Enough of her wetsuit now torn or damaged from injuries healed over to show much of her equally altered flesh. The T-Abyss maintained strong musculature, humanoid appearance, but wiped away other things. The form of breasts but not their purpose evidently by what wasn't covered by the torn portions of her outfit, ripped and burned away in places. Her stomach now taut and muscled as it had been during her hardest days of training but so smooth, as if she'd never come from the womb of her mother.
She'd done everything right… was she too going to one day face a similar fate? Dying in battle as just some monster against another?
The boat rocked slightly, coming to a stop as the engines went against its motion and they must have collided slightly with something else outside.
"Well, we must be here now," Jessica said, making a slight snorting sound as she tried to clear her enlarged nostrils and talk normally. Her changes seemed to have stopped, but Jill suspected that the amount of plastic surgery it would take to bring her face back to normal proportions would bankrupt even Sherawat's ill gotten gains. Assuming of course the underlying bones hadn't shifted and grown, which was unlikely with her eyes were either larger or seemed to have been pushed out slightly by whatever had been happening to her face before.
"They made good time at least," Armando added, rubbing his face with his mutated hand. Then pulling it away when he noticed the light brown hairs of his mustache coming off onto the gray skinned fingers. "Of course."
"To be fair it made you look like an old Prussian soldier."
"How can you joke about this… you're probably going to lose your hair too!"
Jessica shrugged as she turned the crank on the door leading to the next set of stairs going up. "Lot of women would kill to never have to shave again. And Valentine seems to be making it-shit."
She ducked back in, just as some muffled cries came from up the stairs. Jill peaked her head around and what could only be the skeleton crew Jessica had mentioned going by the Leviathan Chemicals patches on their jackets. But with the slight red glow in their eyes and muttered broken statements it was clear they'd been infected too. But not with this Draug bacteria but something else.
"Plagas? But why?"
"Controllable. This stuff they found in the hydrocarbon sludge might be a miracle cure now if that last report was true, but it hasn't been tamed for weaponized use. And I'd bet that the SBOWs working for Leviathan can still control Plagas zombies which makes it easier for them to keep things running while they take care of anyone else around."
"We don't have time for this." Jill stalked forward, the hood slipping down over her eyes. She could sense the strange electrochemistry of the Plagas as they first stumbled towards her. Limbs dull and leadened, but moving with inhuman stamina and strength. While something larger, twisted, latched about their core and writhed about. Her hand shot out, into the chest claws first as she gripped the neck. The tentacle mass extended, but only struck at the closed and armored cartilage hardened over her face. The smell was disgusting, rotten meat and foul blood. Made all the worse as her webbed talons sunk in and twisted. Through skin, muscle, fat and then bone. Till she got to the thing on the spine and pulled, crushing it as she did.
And dropping the now thoroughly lifeless body at her feet.
"Save your bullets and follow behind me," Jill said, turning to the next and moving forward.
They didn't have time to waste playing with these distractions.
With the landing area cleared and safe at last, the two BSAA agents moved forward. Anita kept wincing as she either spat or swallowed blood leaking from her jaw. It also felt sore, cramped in places. She didn't particularly like seeing her teeth pop out and fall into the ocean below each time she leaned over the railing but it took a bit of pressure away. Once or twice she reached up and pulled on from her lips when it came loose and out of a tiny bit of sentimentality stuck it in her side pocket.
They were her teeth after all.
"Though don't sharks grow new ones all the time?" She ran her tongue over the triangular replacements that were poking up and making her mouth ache as it failed to contain them all. She hadn't seen Valentine's teeth much, she seemed to keep her mouth closed to hide them when she could, but it seemed to be following the same path. The hair coming off of Joanna's head fit too, and made Anita wonder when she'd lose hers.
Her hand moved up towards her head from where she'd been massaging her jaw, tentatively about to brush through her light blonde hair and see what happened.
When the oil platform shook slightly, a harsh metal on metal sound came from the opposite side from where they had landed.
"I think the boat's caught up," Joanna said, taking the lead and quickening her pace. "Let's hurry up before we mutate further."
"Right, they might have secured the vaccine by now."
"Even just more viral inhibitors would help. Can't believe that the BSAA hasn't at least allowed us to carry them yet." Joanna said this with a roll of her eyes, clearly voicing part of an argument she and other medics for the agency must have had at length. The new treatment worked wonders but the number of survivors that came out alive, cognizant, and talking despite being so heavily mutated had spoked the higher ups from approving it.
"Probably afraid they'll have to start changing uniforms if we end up growing tails or wings or things."
"God no, I can at least do something about the hair. I don't need a tail."
"It would help with your swimming. I almost made the national team without one even so…"
She trailed off as the two of them rounded another corner and saw the oil tanker resting next to them. A long metal walkway was slowly being lowered down to the deck as waves continued to sway the boat back and forth. Though more concerning than the ignored safety issues was what they saw on that deck. Maybe half a dozen figures, standing about.
"You have your binocs still?" Anita asked. Joanna nodded, pulling them up from her side and looked down at the deck.
"Bękart… it's Grady. He's with one SBOW… probably more Plagas by the way the bodies are moving. I don't see any other BOWs or anything else of note."
"Shame we didn't bring a rocket launcher or a sniper rifle."
Joanna nodded as she slid her binoculars away. "Yes. They're lined up like bottles on a wall. Pop… pop… pop ."
She motioned with her hands as if she held a rifle as she made the sounds, before sinking down beside the pipe structure and running those same hands through her hair in frustration that it was just an idle fantasy. Which came out in fist fulls this time. Her expression went from shock, to fear, and then to anger in a rapid flow. Teeth bared as her hands clenched into fists and she kicked a toolbox away and into the depths before slamming her fist against the metal pipe next to her.
"Cholera… cholera!" Joanna cursed as Anita grabbed her shoulders and tried to calm her down.
"Hey, they're here… which means Valentine and the others are hiding on board too. We just need to meet up with them and get the vaccine.
"Right… the vaccine," Joanna said. Her voice still carried a tone of soft resignation.
"The vaccine they have that will stop this," Anita added, helping her friend up. "We just have to stay positive. Keep focused on the mission. Stay out of sight and try and take down anything we see quietly."
"Right. Quietly."
The door gave on the third kick, Jill's foot claws leaving sharp dents in the metal as she drove all her weight and strength into it. Her hands tightened around the railing beside her as she felt the impact up her leg and watched the lock snap open at last. The hinges also bent, the makeshift add-on to this second entrance to the lower hidden lab might have been locked to them but Jill had added some new, more foolproof methods of dealing with that sort of issue since the last time she'd encountered them.
"What would Burton have said… something about me having a 'Skeleton key for a foot' now?" Though he'd probably try and fit in a fish pun. Maybe reference to fins or something about her being able to break into Davy Jones's Locker if she wanted to. She hoped Burton was doing okay, she hadn't seen or heard from him in a while even before… Wesker.
Such distracting thoughts almost took her away from noticing the figures turning towards her as the door came down. Multiple men- multiple Plagas infected at least, turning and pointing. Before the last SBOW working for Leviathan raised his hand and they went still. Beside him Grady stood near a long metal ramp which shifted back and forth as the boat moved leading up to the oil platform. She couldn't see well past the glare from the flashlights now being shined on her, but his voice told her all she needed to know.
"Valentine!? How the-"
"Guess that's what kept Carter busy. Must have already dealt with her if you're still alive." Conner moved to the side, picking up a heavy metallic crate and with a snap opening it up. Jill couldn't see what it was, but the sound told her enough. Something long and metallic falling to the ground beside it, a harsh click as a chamber was armed and slowly building whine that she'd once described as teeth grating back in basic training.
"Down!" She yelled out, jumping back and grabbing Jessica and Armando before they could get further up the stairway.
The minigun let loose, shredding through walls around them. She crawled lower, dragging them with her till they were almost a floor below, the shrapnel and possible ricochets dangerous enough if they were too close to that weapon as it continued to hose them down in suppressing fire. The modifications made to the ship weren't armored for such damage and Jill began to fear that the very stairway they were on might collapse if it kept up too much longer.
Then, mercifully, it went silent.
"She's not dead from that-you're not dead from that are you Valentine?" Grady yelled out into the sudden silence.
"I'll reload and handle them."
"We don't have time for that! Let her die to her new infected friends or kill them when they turn. We have to deal with the old man and get out of here before the BSAA sends another team."
"... Fine."
Jill stood up, walking crouched down as far as she could towards the upper floor and peeking her head up.
"Shit."
Conner was leaving, yes, but the minigun was sticking behind. Now strapped to the largest of the infected ship workers, the belt was replaced to a spare as he pointed towards their hiding spot, eyes glowing crimson red in the twilight gloom that enshrouded them. Already Grady was quickly walking up the ramp towards the oil platform, his last ally soon to follow.
"Looks like his first aid did the trick," Jill thought. Not even a limp.
"I'm going to draw their fire. You two try and get behind if you can." Jill said.
Not waiting for a response, too little time before the zombies started using their weapons, poorly but effectively enough to possibly kill or injure her. Which she just didn't have the time to deal with right now. Whether or not she could regrow a limb blown off by something like that she didn't know, but it would take the one thing she had so precious little of.
Time.
So Jill sprinted out through the door and leaped across the deck, tail snaking behind her as the last portion of a gray black blur before she slid behind part of the deck's upraised structure still left from when it used to haul crude oil. The gun began to spin up, but now pointed at where she was, crawling down and away from the fire which tore up the railing beside her. Then a lifeboat as she moved further down, the angle of fire changing as the zombies continued their slow, methodically minded approach. But they were keeping their eyes on her and not the two still hiding a deck below.
"Just a little further," Jill thought, rolling over and taking her speargun out. Laying on her back, tail between her legs as she pumped it up and took aim. She'd have one shot at this and then it would all be on the other two. If she missed she might not survive even if they managed to take the machine gunner down.
He stepped around the edge, hefting the minigun up, barrel smoking and starting to glow in the darkness. Just as she fired, aiming not for his chest or head.
But his legs.
Straight through it went, and Jill's hand snapped out, grabbing the line and pulling hard as her foot claws caught on the railing support and part of the deck beside her. The well large and heavyset man, or what remained of him in that infected body, slipping and falling to one knee, the minigun barrel now pointed at the ground as he reached down and yanked at the harpoon embedded in him.
While a barrage of bullets hit him in the back. His head exploding outward in a shower of gore. Though whatever hope she'd had that would have been the end of it died quickly. For much like Nemesis long ago, the parasite alone was perhaps more important than the necrotized gray matter it had consumed. The bladed tentacles sliced through the harpoon's rope as he rose again and Jessica let out a cry of pain, one snaking backwards and embedding itself in her thigh before she could duck behind the door. Other zombies moved towards them, ready to support the gunner as it somehow still knew to aim its weapon down the long and narrow path Jill had led it. She dropped the speargun, rolling over and scrambling to her feet as she ran. The bullets began to impact low, the angle of the gun rising up as its aim corrected to saturate the entire volume where she could be with hot lead death.
She could not hear how Armando or Jessica were doing over the gun, but doubtlessly they were struggling against the horde without her strength and training to level the odds.
Jill glanced over the side, briefly considering another jump in the water. But while it would keep her alive, the rest would die by the time she climbed back up. Assuming it didn't also break the possible cure she was still carrying for the rest.
"Damn! I just need a bit more-"
A deafening explosion silenced the gunfire, and then twin cries came from the ramp as a salvation arrived. The other two agents, Anita and Joanna, charged forward, coming to a stop at the bottom and emptied a clip each into the Plagas before they could rise up. As they stopped to reload, Armando appeared in the door, grabbing one of the infected as he came to stand with his infected right hand around the throat. Squeezing tight as the parasite tried to emerge, and then firing shot after shot into the open mouth and the pulsating mass in his grip till it went still.
Jill turned tail and ran back towards the fray, leaping onto the gunner, ignoring the blades as they struck at her body. The carapace slipped over her face, and all it would damage were her clothes. She grabbed at the bladed whips and yanked them off, one by one. Once disarmed of its organic weaponry she slammed her hands down on it again and again till the creature burst apart on the deck and the body beneath her shuddered into final stillness.
She rose up, her breath hot enough to mist the air as the blue-black hood slipped over past her brow and she took stock of the damages. Armando had come out fine, though the rest of his mustache was gone as he wiped the blood from his face. Jessica was clutching at her leg and making a pained expression, running the knife down the side as she cut the material of the dry suit away. Jill could see why.
It was swelling about the injury, tanned and human flesh turning sickly gray as veins bulged out and then shifted to something healthier but different than what it had been. Her thigh swelled perceptively as fat became corded muscle beneath her flesh and Jill winced in sympathetic pain as she heard the soft crack of something that must have been bone breaking… and then regrowing in place a moment later.
It slowed, but now she was hobbling, her other leg twitching at times as if it was soon to follow the growth of its partner. No fins or claws yet, but with how she stepped on her tiptoes Jill wouldn't be surprised if it started to look like her leg soon enough. In either case she wasn't walking fast.
Not till she finished .
"Oh god, did you not find the vaccine?"
Jill looked up seeing the changes on the other two. They'd avoided injuries and the colder temperatures had helped. But Joanna's hair was falling out faster than Armando's and blood ran from Anita's lips. Behind them she saw triangular rows of sharpened daggers pushing out, misshapen and not fully grown but the goal of her new flesh was evident. For a moment Jill wondered why the T-Abyss would move in such a distinct pattern for all of them.
Think Jill! Those with a strong will and the capacity to envision themselves as they should be will become like gods in the embrace of Orubouros!
Before Wesker's mad voice whispered in her mind and it all made sense.
They'd been given an inhibitor, enough to slow it down… enough to give them a chance for a mind in a misshapen body they hadn't wanted. And all of them had had plenty of time to envision the end point of the T-Abyss clearly.
Herself.
No wonder they were taking a fast track towards a particular BOW-type instead of the more uncontrolled and deleterious effects that the T-Abyss had shown before. It was, in a sense, almost a positive outcome. At the very least if the mutations stopped here they'd be able to mostly go on with their lives.
If they stopped of course.
"No, but I have something that will help," Jill said, taking out the injector. Once more wondering if the fate she was offering was better than death. But only for a moment, as the still cooling corpses around her reminded her how much worse it could be. And the anger inside, hot and hungry, calling towards the oil platform above telling her even louder why it was so important to keep fighting no matter what form that took.