A/N - And this is where I begin to deviate from the movie story. Not much, but enough to be uniquely mine. Cuz, really, although visually stunning, RE movies are pretty thin on the whole plotline and character development deal. And some of the things that are blatantly ignored, like touching frozen metal in the arctic without gloves on ... seriously? Never heard of having your flesh ripped off your bones? Ugh. I'm done now... Carry on.
Chapter 2
Unexpected
They had been killing the time with Becky attempting to teach Lori some sign language. So far, Lori could do the alphabet with only a few minor mistakes and sign 'Becky', 'stop', and 'go'. She was trying to repeat the alphabet again when a loud screeching reached them. "What the?" Poking her head around the pillar showed her one hell of a scene.
A car was barreling down the tunnel, slipping sideways and taking out what looked like scaffolding. As the car crashed through them, the ceiling started to come down behind it. Through the falling bricks and dust, Lori saw something huge. Teeth flashed before the thick dust completely obscured it. The car came to a screeching halt and the collapsed ceiling sealed the tunnel and whatever the hell the thing with teeth was, behind a mountain of debris. Lori pulled her head back and put a hand to Becky's shoulder to keep her from exposing herself too. Anyone or anything could come out of that car.
Lori hefted the gun in her hand, taking several deep breaths to calm her racing heart. Without thinking, she checked the safety, flicked it off, and slipped her finger over the trigger. She heard the car doors open. More than one set of footsteps exited.
"Hey!"
That voice sounded like Alice. Maybe.
"I'm back! You can come out now."
Lori poked the gun's muzzle from hiding first, then risked a visual peek. Her shoulders sagged in relief at seeing that crazy dominatrix outfit on the familiar woman. "Come on, kid. Your hero's back. Looks like she brought friends too."
Becky dashed out ahead of her, making a beeline for the woman she called mom. Lori was looking over their new companions as the girl bodily leapt into Alice's arms. "Mommy, you came back."
Holding the girl to her, Alice's expression shifted to something soft and vulnerable. "I told you I would."
One of the new guys, a buff black dude grinned playfully. "Mommy, huh?" His tone held an air of familiarity that Lorraine didn't like. It grated on her nerves even more that she had no idea what she was jealous of. She frowned as he turned to Becky. "And who is this?"
Returning the guy's winning smile, Becky replied with her name. "I'm Becky. What's your's?"
Kneeling to be on level with Becky, he held out his gloved hand. "Luther."
The little girl untangled herself from Alice enough to shake his hand, though her other hand still clung to her mom's. Then the kid did something really unexpected and grabbed the Latina's unoccupied hand. "This is my friend, Lori."
Luther's attention refocused on her, taking in her pointy heeled boots, jeans, fashionable spring jacket, and the gun firmly gripped in her hand. His smile was genuine, and his tone only slightly flirtatious. "Hey there. Luther West." Both of Lori's hands were otherwise engaged, so a handshake was out of the question.
Oh, darn, was her overly sarcastic thought.
"We really don't have time for these niceties." The white guy with the 90's boy band hair grumbled. He was blonde, with that ruggedly handsome, I-might-have-shaved-this-week look. His muscles battled with his dark shirt to be contained, had guns strapped to him, just like the other guys, and he looked slightly constipated. Or maybe it was just the giant stick up his rear that gave him that particular expression.
Looking bored, in a red leather vest, was the last guy. He had that similar rugged look about him, but shorter cropped, brunette hair. He nodded at her and spoke in a thick accent. French or Canadian maybe. Lori would have scratched her head if her hands weren't otherwise engaged. "Leon's right. But we lost our map when that thing ate our buddy."
Alice pulled a pair of red-rimmed glasses from her boots. "No problem. These'll show us the way out." She put them on, much to the group's disbelief.
Lorraine had to admit, she looked cute in the eyewear. The lenses flickered like a TV, and Lori leaned in to stare. What looked like diagrams and maps flew across their tiny surfaces. No way, she mouthed.
Green eyes shifted their focus when the lenses were pulled away. Alice smiled at Lori's baffled expression and winked. Fluttering erupted in the tree-hugger's stomach and she licked her lips. Alice put the glasses away, and her features returned to being frightfully serious. Marching toward the edge of the platform, Alice gestured to them. "We can follow these, they'll lead us to the pens."
Alice leapt down and reached back for Becky as the guys plopped down on either side of her. Lori hesitated at the edge, thinking she'd like to show these people she wasn't some pansy suburbanite, but her impractical boots said otherwise. Still with that friendly smile, Luther reached up for her. Lori sighed to herself before accepting his help. His arm around her waist lowered her to the tracks. Quickly, she squirmed out of his grip the second her feet touched the ground. Lori nodded her thanks, and the man thankfully withdrew his arm to bring up his gun in a ready position. Without question, the group followed the impressive blonde down the dark tunnels.
The closer they got to wherever it was that Alice was leading them, the more the temperature seemed to drop. Concrete walls, dusty and frigid surrounded them. Everything had that industrial, slightly military kind of feel. It was creepy and … Lori's thoughts trailed off when she saw the massive humped shapes of submarines. "What the hell?" Her breath came out in a puff of white, verifying that the temp had definitely dropped.
Luther answered her question with, "Umbrella Corp's submarine fleet."
"Umbrella Corp? What's that?"
Suddenly, four sets of wide eyes were staring at her. Fidgeting, Lori resettled her balance several times. Becky's eyes flicked from face to face, as confused as Lori felt. Alice was the first to speak up. "The people responsible for the monsters around here."
"But," Lori shifted her weight yet again, aiming a hand at the immense Soviet crest on the wall in front of them.
"Former Soviet secret facility. I guess Umbrella doesn't care about the décor." Luther shrugged as he continued ahead.
"We aren't here to sightsee." Passing her with a disgruntled look, the shaggy blonde guy grumped.
"Leon's kind of a spoilsport." Luther grinned over his shoulder.
Smiling back, but keeping her uncharitable thoughts to herself, Lorraine jogged to catch up with the others.
Not much happened during their journey from the submarine pens to the elevator they gathered onto. At least, the guys called it an elevator. It looked like a giant dinner plate at the bottom of an incredibly tall, vertical toilet paper roll. Lorraine shrugged, she was grateful and oh-so-ready to be out of the scary place. If it got her out of there, she didn't care if they called it a cheese sandwich.
Leon cranked the controls and the platform began to rise. It clanked to a stop. The crew argued over power flow, time limits, access codes, and someone called the Red Queen. Lorraine sank to the floor beside Becky just before gunfire erupted around them. Bullets blew chunks out of the wall behind where Lori had been standing seconds ago. She grabbed the kid and huddled around her, pressing them close to the wall. Alice spared them a glance before hopping off the elevator and returning fire.
It was during a minor lull in the incessant noise of gun reports that Lorraine heard something like a growl. She looked up in time to see a massive freak with two stupidly long tongues and huge claws appearing from a passage in the wall. The gun in her hands was up and firing before she could curse, "Fuck this shit!" Bullets ripped into the monster, sending blood flying, but it batted away red-vest-guy and then herself with little effort. She skidded off the platform, to the concrete floor, stopping only when her head and shoulders crashed into a support pillar.
Alice was suddenly above her, fingers pressed to her neck. "Rain!"
"Oh, ow." Lorraine groaned.
"Thank God." The blonde muttered as she pulled Lori into a hug. "I couldn't lose you again."
"Again?" Dazed, Lori questioned.
The other woman didn't respond, merely hugged her tighter.
Over Alice's shoulder, Lori saw red-vest guy had gouges ripped into his chest and face from the monster's attack. Abruptly, she shrank back from the hug to examine herself. Her shirt and jacket were torn, showing some of her green bra and flat stomach, but otherwise she was whole. She sighed gratefully, but then took a sharp breath. "Becky!"
The women scrambled up to look into the elevator shaft. "Where is she?"
"That thing took her." Looking into Alice's eyes, Lori could tell that the woman was going after Becky. Lori hopped up to the platform and swayed unsteadily until Alice was beside her, steadying her. She pressed fingers to her woozy skull and moaned. "I don't think being dropped on my head is good for my health."
"I'm coming with you." Luther grunted as he pulled himself to the platform with them. A bullet clipped him in the arm, jerking him sideways. Alice returned fire even as she dragged Lori to the side, behind the dubious safety of the curved wall. To the other side, Luther jumped and shot back as well. "OK. Guess I'm not." He muttered, glaring at the ladder anchored to the wall that they would be climbing up. The bullet lodged in his bicep, leaking bright red fluid, looked really painful.
"Luther..." Looking guilty, Alice started.
"Go. I'll cover you. Go on, I'll be fine." He fired down the passageway to emphasize his point.
Alice nodded and began to climb. Right behind her, Lori followed, although the gun in her hand would make it a bit difficult to grab the rungs. She paused to jam the thing into the back of her pants. Luther gave her a thumbs up and turned back to shooting at well, whoever was shooting at them.
Together, the women climbed the ladder to the ledge where the monster's claws had left a very easy to follow trail. The ledge opened up to a dark passageway, and Lori plucked up her gun and practically glued herself to Alice's side. Sparing the frightened Latina a quick glance, Alice flicked on a little flashlight she pulled from her tall boot. She swung it from side to side, over the floor, walls, and ceiling. They moved forward cautiously, expecting the monster to pop out at any time and start chewing on them.
Alice suddenly surged forward. Lori was about to start running after her when the blonde stopped and knelt down. She held up a backpack covered in slime. Becky's backpack. Clenching her jaw, Lori's fist tightened around the gun. Nothing she thought of to say sounded good enough, so she lightly squeezed the blonde's shoulder and smiled at her. It seemed to be the perfect thing to do, because Alice clutched at Lori's dark hand until she nodded and released her. "Let's keep moving."
The trail led them to yet another vertical shaft where they had to climb up another frigid ladder to follow the claw-gouged concrete. They were a couple stories up when she heard Alice gasp. "What?" She followed Alice's pointing finger to a fleshy thing stuck to the wall several stories up. Squinting, Lori saw it move. Inside, Becky's hands beat against what looked like a mucus membrane. "Oh, icky. That's just nasty"
Both women heard the snarling at the same time. That monster was back, poking its grotesque head out of the tunnel that Becky was trapped in. Alice pulled out a pistol that had what looked like a fishing reel on it. "I'll distract it." She growled. "You get Becky." The blonde aimed at the monster and a grappling hook shot out, lodging into the shaft wall just beneath the freaky beast. The gun whisked the woman up and away from Lori, who stared in awe. Alice disengaged the hook and with an amazing display of acrobatics, flipped over the mutant, shooting into it as she went. Both were lost from view as they ran down the tunnel.
"That was insane. Who the hell is this chick, anyway?" Shaking her head, Lori muttered. "Get a move on, girlie." She encouraged herself. "Got a little ways to go." She hustled up the remaining few dozen feet. When she reached the same level as Becky, neither Alice nor the creature were in sight. She achingly clambered over and stared in horrid fascination of the girl's pulsing prison. Becky's cries pulled her from her reverie. "Hold on, kiddo!"
Not sure what to do and thoroughly grossed out, Lori put her hands to the surface, feeling for a seam or... something. She lucked out as her fingers discovered a line in the middle. Hastily, she dug her hands in and started yanking away. Many sweaty, sticky moments later, Becky tumbled into Lori's arms. Poor kid was shaking like a leaf.
"It's OK. I've got you."
Becky whimpered and clung to her waist. Lori had never been particularly maternal, but the girl's terror had her thinking like an angry momma. She really wanted to pound someone's face in for putting the kid, and her, for that matter, through hell. The sound of running footsteps had Lori whipping around, keeping the girl behind her and pulling out the gun. Alice appeared a moment later. While she heaved a sigh of relief, Becky leapt into her mom's arms.
"Mommy!"
Lori stepped forward and touched a hand to Alice's. "Did you get it?"
"It's down for the count." Alice gave her a little crooked grin that Lori felt herself imitate. "Come on." Alice rearranged the still clinging Becky so she could walk back down the passageway. "We need to get going."
"But, shouldn't we..." Lori trailed off, pointing at the elevator shaft.
"We need to get to the surface." She glanced at Becky and grimaced. "Soon." The blonde shook her head when Lori opened her mouth to ask 'why'.
Despite the burning curiosity, Lorraine realized Alice was trying to protect Becky from something. Still feeling that burn of maternal protectiveness, she kept her questions to herself. "Okey dokey. Right behind you."