With their weapons poised and their eyes open with caution, Leon's team advanced down the corridor.
The long, metallic corridor was adjoined with pipes and thin, electric cables. Flat, circular lights built into the ceiling shined enough light to keep the area illuminated.
There was no sound, save the soft pat of the team's boots against the metal floor plates.
Leon led the way with Claire, Rebecca and Brian following in order.
Claire was nervous but her determination to bring down Wesker and find Steve didn't falter in the slightest.
She was actually a bit excited.
She couldn't wait to actually find Steve and, if possible, save him from whatever Wesker may have done to him. But then again…..what if it was too late?
Claire shook the negative thought out of her head, refusing to give in to despair so early. She knew there had to be hope for Steve, there had to be…
"Beep, beep, beep"
Thirty feet down the hall, a small, green light embedded into the right wall beside a thick, metal shutter began to blink, emitting a high pitched beeping sound. Leon's team froze in place at the sound.
"Leon, what is it?" Rebecca asked, her voice wavering slightly.
Leon didn't respond. He angled his weapon towards the shutter as it hissed and slowly rose up. Leon briefly caught a glimpse of several warning signs on the shutter; one of them he could have sworn had a Biohazard symbol on it.
"Get ready!" Leon shouted, his sense of logic already kicking in.
The rest of the team trained their weapons on the shutter as it finished rising up, revealing a dark compartment, the inside of which could not be seen.
There was an unsettling silence that lasted only a few moments. There was a footstep emitting from the compartment. A heavy footstep accompanied by a thick clicking sound against the metal floor. It sounded like claws.
The team backed away, making space between them and whatever was coming their way from within the compartment.
There was another footstep, and another. Next there was a deep, rasping snarl that vaguely sounded familiar to Leon. It sounded like…
"Oh no…"
A husky, two meter tall humanoid creature lumbered out of the compartment. It was covered from head to toe with thick, pale green scales. Its webbed hands and feet sported thick, white claws the size of a fist and razor sharp and its dripping mouth was lined with serrated teeth.
It was a Hunter.
The creature snarled again as it turned almost casually towards the team, leering at them with thin, yellow eyes, its teeth gnashing with bloodlust.
Leon knew from Raccoon how savage and quick Hunters were. He and his team had to be quicker.
"Fire!" He cried immediately, already pulling the trigger on his M16.
The Hunter howled as Leon and Claire poured bullets into its reptilian body, killing it before it could take a step forward. The creature fell on its back, twitched for a moment and didn't move, settling in a puddle of red blood.
Satisfied, Leon and Claire lowered their weapons, but then raised them again immediately as they heard another Hunter snarling further down the corridor around the bend at the end of the corridor, its hunched shadow creeping along the wall.
"Here comes another one," Claire said softly.
Leon nodded slowly in acknowledgement as he kept his rifle poised. Brian and Rebecca kept their weapons tight just in case.
But just before the second Hunter stepped into view…..Leon suddenly remembered something earlier. They had passed another shutter before the first one. It was too late.
Another shutter light blinked behind the team and opened, releasing a third hunter.
"Look out!" Brian cried. "Behind us!"
Wesker drummed his fingers on his desk as he watched Leon's team defend themselves against the Hunters. It was a brief fight with three of his creations dying...but at least one of the meddling S.T.A.R.S. was mortally wounded by a swift slash to the neck.
Wesker smiled sadistically as the man with the shotgun clutched his gushing throat and collapsed while the rest of the team killed the last Hunter and tried to aid him. On the monitor, Rebecca was already fishing out her medical pack while Leon and Claire watched helplessly.
"One down...six more to go," Wesker said flatly, actually dissapointed with the Hunters performance.
Apparently things weren't going as smoothly as Wesker anticipated. The Stingers had failed and now the Hunters were destroyed. All for one S.T.A.R.S. member.
He could still dispatch his H.F.C. squad to dispose of the intruders but the opportunity of using Subject C-2 couldn't be ignored. Wesker wanted Claire to look at what was once Steve Burnside before her untimely demise. He wanted to make her and Chris suffer so much for the troubles they caused him.
But now wasn't the time to resort to such measures. Wesker figured he'd let Captain McCron have some fun with Chris.
Wesker reached over and turned off the security monitor. He turned in his chair and switched on his intercom.
"Captain McCron?" Wesker said.
"Yes sir?"
"Now is the time," Wesker said. "Intercept Chris Redfield and kill him and his teammates."
Brian was goner. The team was certain he would die from the Hunters fatal attack. His slashed throat profusely leaked blood onto Rebeccas shaking fingers as she desperately tried to stop the bleeding. Her efforts were in vain as Brians breathing rapidly slowed.
Leon and Claire stood over Brian and Rebecca, looking hopelessly at his paling face.
The Hunters lay sprawled on the floor.
"Rebecca, can't you do anything?" Claire asked.
Rebecca looked at Claire and shook her head slowly, a look of remorse on her young face.
"I can give him morphine...but that's it," Rebecca replied softly.
Claire and Leon exchanged mute looks and then nodded at Rebecca. Rebecca nodded back as she dug out a morphine syrette from her med-kit and stuck it into Brians bloody neck.
Brian's breathing slowed more but the expression of pain on his face lessened as he relaxed, letting the embrace of death take him. A few moments later, Brian lay motionless on the floor.
The team was silent for a few moments before Rebecca stood up and washed her blood caked hands off with water from her canteen, a single tear tricking down her face. Claire hugged Rebecca to calm her as the medic wept softly. Leon turned away as he reloaded his M16, his head hung in grief over his fallen comrade.
"So...what now?"Rebecca asked, her voice shaky.
"We have to keep moving," Leon said simply.
"What about, Brian?" Claire asked, not wanting to leave their dead teammate behind.
Leon sighed heavily.
"There's nothing we can do for him now," Leon said remorsefully. "If we can, we'll pick him up on the way back."
Leon slung his rifle over his shoulder and continued down the corridor.
Claire and Rebecca looked at eachother before they fell in behind Leon.
Dr. Murphy had witnessed the destruction of the Hunters but at the cost of one S.T.A.R.S. member. The unfortunate man had his throat slashed open by a Hunters sickle like claw. She couldn't help but feel a surge of pity for him.
But now wasn't the time to feel sorry for the S.T.A.R.S. They had just breached another obstacle and were practically at her doorstep. The Biolab was connected to the corridor the 2nd team was steadily advancing down and if they found her...they would probably try to help her...and that would only spell death for her family once Wesker found out.
Murphy breathed out heavily as she pushed her glasses to the bridge of her nose, unable to ignore how hopeless her situation was.
She had only two choice: Either she helped Wesker kill the S.T.A.R.S. or she and her loved ones would die.
She swiveled in her chair and gazed at the now empty cyrotubes that had once contained the Hunters before she released them into the small compartments lining a section of the corridors snaking through the facility. Only one cyrotube remained, the one containing Subject C-2.
She knew Wesker would order her to release Subject C-2 if the H.C.F. troops failed to stop the S.T.A.R.S. It would be the only option left for Wesker.
"Unless..."
In her spare time, Dr. Murphy had been working on a special type of serum that, if injected properly into the hippocampus section of the brain of a human B.O.W., it could replenish neurons lost in the T-Virus mutation process and make the B.O.W. remember his or her past before T-Virus injection.
Soon enough, Dr. Murphy had a plan of her own forming in her head.
If she could inject the memory serum into Subject C-2's brain, he could remember his past in a short amount of time. The serum worked quickly. She could...
"Stop it! Don't be ridiculous!"
Murphy realized she was being unrealistic. If she even tried such a move, Wesker would give the message to his hitmen to dispose of her family. Besides, she didn't even know if the serum would work properly. It would probably just kill Subject C-2 or render him uncontrollable.
Sighing, Murphy sat back in her chair, waiting nervously for Weskers next order, knowing it would be to release Subject C-2.