Disclaimer: I do not own Jonny Quest or Resident Evil.
A New Nightmare
Chapter 16
By: Sigokat
Dr. Quest followed Salazar into the lab and let out a low audible whistle. His expectations as far as facilities had been somewhat low, considering the crude and inhuman nature of the experiments Saddler had been conducting, yet he found himself in a state of the art facility. The main chamber was quite expansive with numerous smaller chambers along the two side walls. Each smaller chamber had an automatic sliding door and a large window for observation. Along the far wall stood an entire bank of computers, printers, and closed circuit TV monitors, presumably monitoring the rooms and other perhaps watched some of connecting hallways. A deep freezer was tucked away in one corner of the room and next to that were two large refrigerators. Beeps and clicks and other noises from the computers filled the lab's silence. Even though the lab was not nearly as up to date as Benton's labs in Maine and Palm Key, it was still far beyond many of the other facilities he had worked in; it almost made him forget where he actually was.
"Wow." Dr. Quest wheezed. "So how does Saddler finance an operation like this?"
"That is none of your concern, Doctor. " Salazar sneered.
Before Benton could respond, a door at the far end of the lab swished open, he had not noticed the door until now, and in walked Saddler. He had his hood pulled back off of his head and he carried the pulsing staff. Benton couldn't be sure, but the staff appeared to be bleeding.
"Ah, I'm so glad you could join us, Dr. Quest." Saddler purred as he strode next to Benton and Salazar.
"What do you want?" Dr. Quest asked, folding his arms across his chest defiantly.
"Come over here and take a look at this." Saddler raised his arm and gestured to one of the far observation rooms.
Benton gulped and followed Saddler as he walked over the large window. Benton gasped as he followed Saddler's gaze into the room. The set up was like that of any ordinary hospital room, numerous monitors and life-support systems surrounded the single hospital gurney in the center. Two intravenous drips ran down to the bed, but the liquid being fed was not blood or saline solution, one drip contained a thick, dark green liquid, while the other had a yellowish, orange liquid inside. Benton, however, had not noticed any of this due to the fact that his eyes were transfixed on the figure in the bed.
There was no earthly explanation for the creature that occupied the gurney. Its head was massively deformed with large lumps protruding from all around. Its eyes were large and perfectly round, but they had no irises, they were simply black orbs. It also did not appear to have any ears. Its arms were massive, all muscle and sinew and each arm ended in large hands with only three digits apiece. Its molted grey skin had a shiny gleam to it, and its texture appeared rough and patchy. The creature's mouth hung open slightly; two rows of small sharp teeth lined its upper and lower jaws. It made no noise and the only indication that it was alive was a slow, steady rise and fall of its massive chest and the steady stream of displays that appeared on the monitors around it.
"My God, Saddler, what is that thing?" Dr. Quest finally managed to spit out.
"Just another of my more advanced creations." Saddler said, pride etched into his voice.
"You aren't God." Dr. Quest responded, "This is evil."
Saddler sneered and grabbed the Doctor by his arms, spinning him so they were face to face. "You are wrong, Doctor. I am the only God."
"You're insane." Benton retorted.
"Hardly." Saddler smiled. "Besides, I did not bring you here to act as a judge."
"Then what did you bring me here for? Not that it matters all that much, since I will not be a part of any of this."
"Oh yes you will, Doctor. If you value your life and the lives of those that were with you, you will cooperate."
Benton sighed and lowered his head, "What do you want from me?"
"I need you to find out why he is rejecting the Las Plagas." Saddler answered as he nodded towards the window.
"I don't know anything about that."
"My laboratory has all the information and documentation you will need. Once you have discovered the truth we can proceed with the mutations."
"What mutations?"
"Do not get ahead of yourself, Doctor Quest. One thing at a time."
"Is there an antidote?" Dr. Quest tried to pose his question without sounding as if he had any personal gain from an antidote.
Saddler's face scrunched up in confusion, "What for?"
"Perhaps if you administer the antidote to…it…then you could learn what is causing its sickness."
Saddler shook his head, "No, we have tried that. The antidote only seems to have an effect on human hosts."
Benton smiled inwardly. "Well, perhaps I can develop a new formula. It couldn't hurt."
Saddler studied Benton suspiciously for a few moments and just when Benton thought that Saddler had seen through his ploy, Saddler nodded. "You may be right, Doctor. After all, I brought you here for this very reason." Saddler turned towards Salazar, "Show our friend everything he needs to know and then join me in the throne room, we have much preparation to finish before the ceremony tonight."
Salazar's evil grin broadened across his little face, "As you wish, My Lord."
"Ceremony?" Dr. Quest asked, "What ceremony?"
"Do not worry, Doctor, I will send someone to fetch you before the time comes. I know you will not want to miss it." Saddler turned to leave.
"What are you talking about?" Benton demanded.
Saddler turned back, an angry glare across his face once again, "Work now, Doctor, and you will discover the rest soon enough." With those words, Saddler strode out of the lab.
"Come, Doctor." Salazar said, "Let me show you what you will need."
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Race, Estella, Jonny, and Phil walked through the door the priest had indicated and found themselves in a long, semi-dark hallway. Numerous portraits lined the walls, most were of Saddler and a couple bore the face of the bearded man that Race had killed in the cavern. 'That seems like ages ago already.' Race thought to himself as he studied the paintings. They followed the immense passage and at the end it opened into a small rectangular room. On the far wall were three horrific paintings of people being killed and tortured and in the center of the room sat a lone pedestal with three buttons.
"So where's the door?" Estella asked as she attempted, unsuccessfully, to avert her eyes from the images upon the wall.
Jonny and Race were examining the pedestal. "Looks like some sort of puzzle." Jonny said.
"A puzzle?" Corbin mumbled. "What the hell is up with this place anyways?"
"The sacrifice of six lives will reveal the true path." Race read aloud from the pedestal. Everyone glanced up at the paintings on the wall. There were three paintings with a total of eight people being killed or tortured in various medieval ways.
"Ok…" Jonny said and pushed the far left button. Immediately the painting on the left and in the center flipped, revealing three hangings and one beheading respectively; the painting on the far right stayed in place which had three people being crucified.
"Well, that didn't work." Jonny said as he studied the buttons.
"We're wasting time." Estella moaned.
"Well, what do you want us to do, Stella?" Race snapped.
Estella grunted and folded her arms across her chest.
Jonny pushed the button on the right and the far right and center paintings rotated; now one person was being drawn and quartered in the center and one was impaled on a pike on the far right.
"This is sick." Estella said as she looked at the new paintings.
"Let's see." Jonny studied the paintings, which now revealed five total deaths. He pushed the button in the center and only the middle painting rotated, which showed two women being burned at the stake. As soon as the painting locked in place the far right corner of the wall slide upward, revealing the hidden staircase.
"Good work, kiddo." Race said as he clapped Jonny on the shoulder.
"Thanks, let's go. Those paintings are making me sick." Jonny replied.
"Good idea, two flights up." Race said and led the group up the narrow staircase.
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Race passed by the first landing, wanting to get straight to where the priest said Jessie was being held. When they reached the fourth floor, Race slowly nudged the door open, trying to make as little sound as possible. He stepped out of the stairwell and found himself on some sort of balcony which ran all the way around the vast room. As he stepped out, followed by the others, he quickly moved to the railing and looked down, a large open room, similar to the entrance hall lay beneath. A large crystal chandelier hung from the high ceiling above. The balcony was lined with deep red colored rugs, similar to the ones they had seen earlier. All four walls were pocketed with doors. With the exception of themselves, the balcony was completely deserted.
"Shit. She could be in any of these rooms." Race said.
"Let's split up and start checking each one, then meet up over at the far end." Corbin suggested.
"Alright." Race agreed. "If anything happens, just yell."
Each one moved out and started checking the doors. Most they found locked, however Jonny happened upon one empty storage room and Estella found a small bedroom which was also empty. There was no possible way such a small room would belong to Saddler. Only minutes later they had all met up at the far end of the balcony, only one door remained.
"Maybe we're on the wrong floor." Estella suggested.
"The priest said two floors up and that's where we are." Race countered.
"Yeah, but he didn't exactly say where on the fourth floor she was." Corbin added.
"Maybe we should search down there." Jonny said as he pointed over the railing.
Race shook his head, "No, I think it best we keep moving up here. It has to be up here." He reached over and twisted the doorknob of the remaining door. It opened and they found another hallway ahead of them.
"Well, let's keep going then." Jonny quipped.
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Salazar was busy showing Dr. Quest all the information that he would need to complete the tests Saddler had ordered when one of the mutant bodyguards entered the room. Salazar turned and frowned, he had told them that he did not want to be disturbed.
The mutant moved over to Salazar and knelt down next to the little man. It had to lean down even further to whisper into Salazar's ear. As the insect buzzed in his ear, Salazar's frown deepened and he soon became visibly angry.
"What?" He shouted as the insect stood back up. "How could that have happened?"
The bodyguard continued to stare at the man.
"We have to warn Lord Saddler immediately." Salazar blurted.
'Warn?' Benton thought to himself as he watched the little man continue his tirade. 'Race must be on his way.'
"They could ruin everything." Salazar hissed. "Stay here and guard Quest…no better yet, take him to the throne room for the ceremony which will have to go ahead of schedule."
Salazar turned and ran out of the room, leaving the bodyguard alone with Benton. Benton gulped as the bug stared at him with its huge segmented eyes. Finally the creature nodded its head towards the door, motioning for Benton to follow. He hesitated and the creature lashed out one of its insect pincers at him. It clamped Benton by the arm, which elicited a yelp of pain from the doctor.
"Ok, ok. I'm coming." Benton gasped as the mutant started to drag him towards the door. Benton reached out towards the table with his free hand and quickly snatched up two vials of green liquid, the antidote. Before the creature could see what he had done Benton shoved the vials into his pants pocket.
'I sure hope this really is the antidote.' Benton prayed as the creature dragged him out of the laboratory.
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"Lord Saddler." Salazar yelled as he ran down the hallways that led to the cult leader's main bedroom. "Lord Saddler."
Salazar's little legs pumped as fast as they could, but he was quickly wearing down. He rounded another corner and saw the older man sauntering through the hall in front of him.
"Lord Saddler." Salazar yelled again.
Saddler turned at the sound of his name, and saw Salazar running towards him. The smaller man was clearly out of breath and when he stopped running he was hunched over, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
"What is it, Salazar?" Saddler asked.
"My Lord, I was just informed that the other Americans are still alive and…"
"And what?" Saddler sneered.
"And are headed this way…they are coming for the girl."
"What?" Saddler barked. "How could they know?"
"Some of our members found a high priest pinned to the table in the Queens' lair. He was mad with hysteria and confessed to telling the Americans where to look."
Saddler's eyes narrowed and darkened. "This behavior is unacceptable. Where is the priest now?"
"The others left him on the table and summoned the Queens." Salazar responded, a thin smile finally crossing his lips.
"Justice indeed." Saddler said. "Come we must hurry. We cannot perform the ceremony as planned so we will just have to stop the Americans long enough for me to perform the transfer."
Saddler turned and hurried down the hall, as powerful as he was he wished that one of his bodyguards was with him, since he had to reserve his strength for the girl. He had no confidence in Salazar to protect him from the resilient Americans. As he hurried towards the room where the girl was being held, he reached out with his mind and called to the Psion.
"Where are you, my child?" He asked.
After a few seconds, the Psion replied, "I am here, father."
"You must join me in the throne room." Saddler responded, unable to hide all his anxiety even in the mental link.
"Are you injured, father?"
"No, but I need you to protect me during my ritual with the girl. If you run across the other Americans kill them quickly, there is no time to play."
"Yes, father."
"Hurry." With that Saddler broke the link. Two more passages and he would be at the room.
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Moving down the latest hallway, Race heard commotion up ahead. He held up his hand and the others halted. Race listened and soon he heard hurried footsteps getting closer. Someone must have alerted Saddler's people to their whereabouts. Seconds later about dozen black clad cultists turned the corner up ahead of the group. Upon seeing Race and the others, two cultists wiped out heavy wooden crossbows and fired. Race and the others dove out of the path, one bolt skimmed just inches from Jonny's head.
"Shit." Race said as he took aim and fired at the group. Bullets ripped through the crossbow men and they quickly went down, but the others continued to advance.
Phil stood and fired off a 40mm round from his M203, which sailed over the heads of the cultists and exploded behind them; numerous groans could be heard as the wounded cultists fell to the ground.
"Keep firing." Race yelled as he crawled behind a desk along one of the walls and used it as cover. The others did the same.
A small group of the cultists ran forward, maces raised above their heads, while others hung back and fired crossbows.
Jonny fired his .357, but the revolver was so powerful that his hands began to ache. He ran over where Race was and took cover behind his bodyguard.
Continuing to fire, Race realized he was wasting too much ammo and once again cursed himself for not being as good a shot as Phil. He glanced across the hallway and saw the other man carefully picking off the cultists, but not fast enough. The group was quickly closing on them. A well placed hand grenade could do the trick Race surmised and quickly took action. Plucking a grenade off his belt with one hand, and holding his rifle in the other, he combat rolled out into the center of the hallway, took aim and threw the grenade.
"Race, look out." Estella yelled, but not in time. Before Race could get back behind the desk a crossbow bolt ripped into his upper thigh. Race grunted and went down.
The grenade exploded and after the smoke cleared only two cultists remained. Seeing their dilemma the cultists turned and ran back in the direction from where they originally appeared.
Estella dropped her Thompson machine gun and went over to Race who was grimacing in pain in the center of the hallway.
"Damnit, Race." Estella scolded, but the worry in her voice was apparent.
"Only a flesh wound." Race said as he glanced down at his leg and saw that the bolt had lodged more then half way into his upper, right thigh. "Pull it out."
"Are you crazy?" Estella said as she motioned to Jonny for a first aid kit. "It could start bleeding profusely and if we can't stop it then you'll bleed to death."
"Yeah, but at least I took out those wackos." Race tried to joke.
"Yeah, good throw, by the way." Corbin said as he glanced down at Race.
Estella shot the man a nasty glare, as if to say stop encouraging him. Corbin smirked and shrugged.
"They're probably going to get more reinforcements." Jonny kept glancing back down the hallway.
"Well…" Corbin urged.
"Think you can walk, Race?" Estella asked.
Race tried to stand, but quickly fell back to the floor. "Estella, you have to take the bolt out. I can't move with it in."
"Race, no."
"It could be poisoned." Race said. "We just have to hope that it didn't hit an artery, I'll take that chance."
"Hell, if it did, I doubt he'd be as cognizant as he is right now, Estella." Corbin added.
"I don't like this." Estella said.
Race glanced up at Phil. Phil rolled his eyes and sighed, "Damn, why do I always have to do all the dirty work?" He knelt down next to Race and grasped the bolt with one hand, with his other he held on to Race's hand. "I swear, when we get back I'm going to lobby Congress to raise the insurance rates for my agents."
Race grinned, "Just do it."
Corbin tightened his grasp and pulled quickly on the bolt. With a sick, sucking sound, the bolt came free in one quick motion. Race arched his back and bit down on his lip to stop from crying out from the pain and he squeezed the other man's hand as hard as he could. As soon as the bolt was free, Estella pressed a bandage against the wound, applying pressure.
"Holy shit that hurt." Race breathed.
"Try having a butcher's knife wrenched out of your shoulder, tough guy." Corbin said.
Estella held the bandage in place and soon noticed that the bleeding was slowing. No arterial damage after all. She sighed in relief and began to wrap the bandage around her ex-husband's leg.
Corbin helped Race up into a sitting position and held the bolt up for him to see. "You want to keep this as a souvenir?"
"Hell no." Race laughed. "Did you keep the knife?"
"No, that crazy bitch that stabbed me wanted twenty dollars for it. Can you believe that, twenty dollars for that rusty piece of junk? I told her ten dollars no more and then she tried to bite my neck off."
Race laughed and shook his head, "You're an idiot, Phil."
"Whatever you say, limpy." Phil replied and after Estella had finished the bandage he helped Race all the way to his feet.
"Jonny's right though." Phil said. "Those goons you didn't kill are probably getting reinforcements and I bet we are close if they are sending that many at once to try and stop us."
"Alright, I'll be fine." Race said. "Let's find Jessie and Benton and get the hell out of here."
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Jessie heard hurried footsteps approaching the room and as she moved as far away from the door as possible it suddenly burst open. Saddler stormed into the room and went straight for the girl. He snatched her up by her arm and snarled into her face.
"It seems your friends are more determined then I had at first anticipated." Saddler injected as he pulled her towards the door. "So, now we have to perform the ceremony ahead of schedule."
Jessie struggled against the man's grasp, kicking at his legs and trying to scratch his hands. He threw her down onto the bed and as she tried to get back up he backhanded her across the face. The blow split her lip and brought tears to her eyes.
"You little bitch. I would take you right here if I could."
"My dad is going to kill you, you sick freak." Jessie yelled.
"No, your father will suffer as he watches the ritual and then I will kill him slowly before your eyes."
Jessie spit blood and saliva into the man's eyes. "Fuck off, you bastard."
Saddler growled, grabbed Jessie off the bed, and pulled her towards the door. "This will all be over soon, my love, don't worry."
"No." Jessie yelled as she continued to struggle. "No."
As they left the room, Jessie saw the mutant insect that had captured her and also brought her the dress, and also another man she did not know. The other man was short and he was hopping from foot to foot, obviously excited.
As Saddler dragged Jessie down the hallway she shouted, "Help. Help me please."
"No one…" Saddler was cut off as a door on the far side of the room opened.
Jessie's eyes lit up, "Daddy." She yelled.
"Jessie." Race breathed as he saw the girl.
"Daddy, help me, please, help."
Saddler snarled and continued to drag the girl away, "Kill them. Kill them now." He barked to his companions.
Salazar began to shake with excitement and the mutant insect shrugged off its robe and descended upon the new arrivals.
"Kill them now and we will be done with this." Saddler barked.
"Daddy, help." Jessie pleaded as the larger man pulled her away.
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To be continued…
Hopefully I can get another chapter or two done while I am in Kuwait, but I can't make any promises. I hope you all are enjoying so far. Let me know what you think.