Ch. 8: Monsters & Suspicions

A/N: Continued!

Daniel and Rebecca

"How can you stand it?" Rebecca interrogated, her voice echoing out of the vent. She sniffed, trying to get the metallic smell of blood out of her nose.

"It's pretty easy," Daniel answered as he picked himself off the floor. "My sense of smell is pretty weak."

And Daniel was very thankful for that as he peered around in the room. Next to the spot where he landed was an old-fashioned well. But he knew that the water at the bottom of it was not safe for drinking. The biggest hint for that conclusion was the iron cage that hung over the entrance of the well. He knew he was in a torture room. Right next to the well were a pair of iron maidens, stained with dry blood. Past them, lined against the wall were spiked chairs that had been hosts to several victims. He took an unsteady breath. The room had been creepy in the video game. Here, it was nightmarish and drove the point home to how inhumane Umbrella had been. The flickering torches only added to the sinister mystique.

Above him, Rebecca finally reached the vent's exit. Her gaze was locked onto the height between her and the floor. "Can you help me down?"

The simple request was enough to snap Daniel out from his disheartening gaze. "Yeah, sure." He quickly turned around, eager to look at something much more pleasing than this place. He placed his rifle against the well, and held up his arms toward her.

Even with Daniel's now standing beneath her, there was still several feet between them. She wasn't sure that she could reach him. Cursing her height, Rebecca slowly pulled herself out of the vent, inch by inch. When half of her torso was out, she tried to reach down with her hand. To her vast annoyance, she still couldn't reach Daniel's own hand, though he was now standing on his toes. Hesitantly, she pulled her body out another inch. But when she tried to reach again, she accidentally caught sight of the rest of the room. "Oh...my..." The zombies were terrifying at first. The z-dogs were a rare opponent and a quick fight. But here, there was nothing to stop her from just staring at the fingerprints of humanity's dark side. "How could anyone do this?" She mumbled to herself.

"REBECCA!"

She blinked and looked down to find a wide-eyed Daniel. She didn't know how long she had been staring, but she quickly understood what the soldier was anxious about it. While her mind was occupied, her body continued to slide itself out. And as gravity was finally able to clasp firmly on her and pull her toward the ground, it was obvious that she was too far out. Daniel's decision to stand on his toes backfired as the medic came falling down, crashing them both to the floor. "...ow."

"Sorry, sorry," Rebecca rapidly declared as she tried to get her bearings back. As she adjusted to the new change of location, she blushed when she realized that her face was only an inch away from Daniel's. The high school student didn't notice since one of his hands was now rubbing a small bump on his forehead. Rebecca knew that bump was caused by her head, since a mirror bump was forming on her forehead. Before Daniel could notice how close the two were, she pushed off the floor and away from him. "This is happening way too often."

"Well," he grunted as he sat up. "Better this than getting bit."

Now that he didn't fill her entire line of vision, she was stuck with looking at the rest of the room again. She shuddered. "How can this help with medicine?" She breathed.

"I'm pretty sure that no kind of research was going on here," Daniel reasoned, grabbing his rifle. He stood. "Beyond the sadistic kind," He amended.

"I don't like this place," Rebecca whispered, finding herself transfixed again.

"Neither do I, come on," Daniel commanded, eager to be done with the room as soon as possible. He grabbed onto her hand and led her past the iron maidens into a large nook in the wall. He paused as he saw the power box. He involuntarily glimpsed at the ceiling. With deep displeasure, he marked the large hole up there. So, that's where it comes in.

"What is it?" Rebecca asked, looking between the power box, the hole, and him.

"Nothing." He stepped up to the electronic and didn't bother with the manual on top of it. To stop the bleeding steam in the broiler room, he needed to adjust the pressure from here. Why the heck is this important equipment in here and not the broiler room itself? Right, good, ol' crazy Spencer just has to have his little tricks. The thought made him angry. He reached out and flipped the five switches. He didn't remember the exact order, wasn't even trying to really. But to his small surprise, (and Rebecca's larger one) the machine alerted them that Daniel had fixed the problem. The door agreed with the power regulator as it clicked open. Daniel could feel the ceiling hole staring at him. I'm not prepared!

"How did you -?"

"Never mind," Daniel cut her off as he tried yanking her toward the door. "Let's get out of here, I don't like it."

"Huh? What? Why?" Rebecca had a strong feeling that his new anxiety had nothing to do with the room's ghastly decorations.

"Just move," Daniel implored, ruing the fact that Rebecca was slowing them down. A second passed. Then another. Abruptly, he let go of her hand, and flipped the safety off the M16.

"Daniel, what are yo-." For a second time, Rebecca was interrupted. But this time, it was not a human voice. She thought she heard a monkey, a anguish, hostile howl. But that was too absurd. Before she could analyze it, Daniel, whose face was a mixture of fear and anger, shoved her away from him. She landed hard on her rear end after backpedaling for a few steps. Before she had a chance to be indignant, rifle fire roared in her eardrums. Her hands shot up to her ears to make the sudden cacophony bearable. Her confusion was growing as quickly as her anger.

All of it vanished when it landed in front of her. Time just stopped for her. Numbly, she realized, that it almost was a monkey. Only it was a white baboon. A white baboon that had patches of enlarged muscle actually tearing through its skin. A white baboon that now yowled at Daniel. A white baboon that featured several bullet holes, but showed no sign of slowing down.

An eliminator, Daniel identified through gritted teeth. He squeezed the trigger and another three rounds tore through the Umbrella experiment. The second salvo, when added to the first, took the eliminator down another level.

But it also pushed it back another foot. And, with sudden horror, Daniel saw Rebecca down his sights, next to his target. "Get away from it!"

Rebecca was all too happy to follow the emphatic order as she crawled backwards. The movement grabbed the attention of the eliminator.

Daniel could see this scene as it happened in the game as though he were playing it now. He now regretted what he said as he remembered how the original scene ended. "Not that way!" He yelled as he moved forward.

Rebecca's retreat was brought to a sudden stop when her hand pierced through the stone floor.

The eliminator jumped at the unprepared target. Its target tried to counter but it couldn't stop the monster from sinking its fangs into the human's outstretched arm. Before it could disarm and enjoy its first meal in ages, the eliminator heard the thunder again before it lost everything as metal struck through bone and brain.

The monster went limp and fell to the ground. But Daniel was still moving even as he tried to keep the tears and blood from falling.

Fear replaced confusion as Rebecca felt gravity trying to pull her through the new hole in the floor. Her right made a desperate grab for something, anything to hold onto. Her efforts were futile as her body was falling into the darkness. Then, a hand grabbed her wrist and began a tug-of-war against gravity. Her fall was halted. And without knowing, Rebecca's other arm snapped forward eager to find anything to hold onto.

Daniel roared in pain, but he didn't let go. Now with extra motivation, he pulled as hard as he could. He was rewarded as Rebecca found herself on stable ground. She laid there for a moment, panting, happy to be safe again. But as her mind began replaying what just happened to her, questions exploded in her mind. "Thank you for saving me," She started as she pushed herself off the floor. "But I, oh my god!"

"Please tell me you have some morphine," Daniel whispered as he tried to stop the tears. "It really, really hurts." He sat there clutching his left arm, blood dripping through his palm.

"Give me a second," Rebecca said as she switched to medic-mode. A moment later she had herbal medicine ready as she scooted up to him. "You need to move your hand out of the way."

Daniel nodded and slowly did so. Rebecca frowned as she pulled back his sleeve, ignoring his hiss as she accidentally touched the injury. The baboon's fangs were long and punctured four new holes into his arm. But she had enough to cover each bite area. Once she stopped the bleeding, she pulled out a strip of gauze bandages and wrapped it around the arm. "There, you should be okay now."

"Thank you," He said as he steadied his breathing, the pain receding. He gazed at the monster's corpse. I can't remember. Does it carry the T-Virus? Am I infected now? Or am I immune? Daniel frowned. Only time would tell.

Rebecca followed his gaze and shuddered as she studied the new creature. "It shouldn't even be possible." She whispered to herself. Then she thought about it for a moment. "It shouldn't be possible." She turned to Daniel, suspicion flaring in her eyes. "How did you know about that?"

Daniel blinked as he was pulled out of his own dark thoughts. "Excuse me?"

"You...you knew this would happen," Rebecca accused him. Her mind was having trouble with the implications but she kept talking over them. "You knew that this...this...thing would attack us here. You knew about the power regulator. You even knew about the hole! How!?" She cried as she felt the confusion overwhelm her.

"It's set-up like a horror story," Daniel countered uneasily. "The dungeon, the torture room. The hole in the ceiling. It's not that hard to predict if you think about it." He rambled, desperately trying to keep her away from the even-weirder truth.

"And the hole?" Rebecca pressed as she thought over his reply.

"You didn't see the cracks in it?"

Rebecca was about to say 'no' when she stopped to think about it. The room had been distracting in a disgusting way. And Daniel was in a rush the entire time, pulling, urging her to keep moving. When she tried to remember how the floor had looked before the hole, all she could do was draw a blank. "I don't remember," She admitted after a minute.

"Is it that hard to believe?" He asked, referring to his explanation.

"Yes, yes it is," She maintained stubbornly.

"So, what explanation do you have?" He shot back.

That brought her entire argument to a halt. "Er...well..." She trailed off. Daniel watched her expectantly. Suddenly, she found his stare to be extremely vexing. It was now much harder to concentrate.

"...well, what?"

"I don't know!" She snapped back at him. A part of her winced at her harsh reply. After all, he just saved her life, twice in less than a minute. But she was angry and confused. And she hated this place with its monsters and evil giant spiders. "But, but I'm onto you!" She declared.

Daniel rolled his eyes at her. Rebecca barely held back the urge to slap him. "Come on," He suggested as he stood off the floor. "We shouldn't keep Jessica and the others waiting."

She wanted to say something, anything that would make him tell the truth. But then she found herself second-guessing herself. What were the other options? He was too young to be a part of Umbrella. He was a soldier. And, so far, he'd done nothing but help her and Edward. He'd just been bit because he was saving her! Despite all that, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something incredibly off about him.

For the time being, though, she wasn't going to keep arguing. "...you're right. We still need to get Kevin to a hospital." She slowly stood before following him to the door.

Daniel carefully opened the door and slowly marched into the next room, rifle at the ready. The room was trashed. Dead and broken display monitors lined against the wall. A table sat before the monitors, holding a cup and some equipment. On the opposite was a single bed. It was stained with brown splotches all over. From her spot at the door, Rebecca couldn't tell if the stains were from dirt, blood, or something else. In all honesty, she didn't care. Daniel studied a white board with messages on it. But there was nothing of value to glean from it. A busted locker was next to the white board. And, to complete the mystique, a single, overhead light, flickered weakly as it struggled to stay functioning.

But when Rebecca took another step inside that's when she saw the body. It was lying haphazardly on the floor next to the bed. She trained her gun on it.

"It's already dead," Daniel assured her. "Looks like Jessica already swept through here." He gave up on the board and motioned for Rebecca to follow him back to the hallway.

Billy and Edward

"What's going on here?" Edward asked as he descends another flight of stairs. His question was directed at Jessica who just finished climbing back out of the portrait.

Jessica pointed a thumb down the stairway. "Just finished checking out the basement. Ran into some giant spiders." She grinned at Shantia. "Classic."

Edward groaned at the news of a new monster to deal with. "Were you able to find anything else down there? Maybe a secret passage that leads outside of the facility?"

Jessica's cowboy hat shook with her head. "Nada. Found bullets and herbs. But not much else. Oh, and a dungeon," She quickly added.

Billy paused at that. "A dungeon?"

"Yeah," Jessica said excitedly. "A real-live dungeon with chains and everything!"

There was a look of utter disbelief on Shantia's face. "Why the hell is there a dungeon in the basement?"

"This whole place feels like it was designed by a madman," Edward mutters to himself. He pointed up at the balancing statue. "Can we take that handle? It looks like it's a part of a lift we found in the library."

"Uh-uh," Shantia promptly answered. She gestured to the portrait stairwell. "You take that and you'll lock Sims and Rebecca down there."

"We could just replace it with something else," Billy suggested.

"Good idea," Jessica declared, already climbing the stairs.

"Wait until we actually have something to replace it with!" Edward ordered as he scrambled to follow her.

"Or you could just wait for us to come up, Jessica!" Daniel yelled from the basement.

"Even better," Jessica said as she walked up to the statue. "You two have ten seconds to get up here!"

"What? Can't you just wait for us to get to the top?" Rebecca protested, her voice echoing out into the main hall.

"Eight!" Jessica started.

"Give us a break here!" Daniel objected, his boots now pounding on the cement stairs.

"Six!" Jessica happily carried on.

"Jessica!" Rebecca yelled as she charged up the stairs.

"Four!"

The pair burst out onto the mezzanine, gasping for breath. With a sly grin, Jessica swiped the handle from the scales. With a mechanical click, Dr. Marcus slid back into place, barring passage to the basement. "And now where's the library?"

"Library?" Daniel gasped as he calmed his breathing down.

Edward stepped toward the soldier, his eyes locked onto Daniel's bare, bandaged tricep. The bloody sleeve, now velcroed around the middle of Daniel's bicep. "What happened?"

"A new monster," Rebecca announced sourly.

"Wait, a new monster!?" Jessica repeated loudly, and with a look of disappointment on her face. This provoked an annoyed glare from the medic.

"Details," Billy asked as he leaned over the stairway to look at the others.

"It looks like a white baboon with extra muscle and very pointy fangs," Daniel described as he checked his ammo. To his chagrin, his magazine was empty. "It's fast and likes to jump at you."

Edward struggles to keep his cool as he digests this information.

"Kid." Daniel looked up at Billy. "Is that a scratch or a bite?"

Daniel slid a fresh magazine into the rifle before letting the bolt go forward. "A bite." Instantly, he could feel everyone staring at him. ...this sucks.

"Maybe the baboons can't infect people," Katelyn weakly offered from her spot on the floor.

"Yeah, it's probably just the zombies," Tim parroted as he supported his girlfriend.

Daniel had to resist the urge to look at Edward. It wasn't hard to hear the older cop's irregular breathing, though Edward was making a good effort to hide it. "Regardless, we still haven't found the exit."

Billy granted two mental points to Daniel. "You're right. We were just about to check out the library elevator. If this handle works, we can get onto the third floor."

"Sounds like a plan," Daniel declared as he started climbing the stairs.

"Is there anywhere else we have yet to check?" Rebecca inquired of the group.

Edward glanced at the set of double doors opposite to the dining room. "We haven't checked those yet. Everything else we've checked on the second floor is either locked or already searched." He pulled out a map. "According to this map, we've found those double doors lead to a hallway connecting to two new rooms. Of course, there's still the whole third floor."

Daniel froze when he heard Edward mentioned the only set of unexplored double doors. He quickly countered, "We should check out the library thing first."

"There's no reason why we can't check both. We have enough people," Shantia reasoned, an odd look on her face as she stared at Daniel. Billy also raised an eyebrow at Daniel.

What do I do? What do I do? Daniel knew what was in the hallway. And he knew what was needed to take those monsters down. Fire, we need fire. "Make sure you have enough firepower. We don't know where those baboons might be."

"Don't worry," Edward assured him as he patted the new grenades hanging off his vest. One of them was bright red.

Daniel breathed a mental sigh of relief as he noticed the incendiary grenade. Then he paused. "I'll come with you," He said as he started going down the stairs. "Jessica, Billy, and Shantia can check out the library, while us three," He gestured to himself and the STARS members. "Can check out that door."

"I'm afraid not," Edward decreed in his official voice. "I want either Rebecca or myself staying with Billy at all times."

"Rebecca then. You know Jessica'll find some way to get into trouble. We'll need the medic with them," Daniel outlined, speaking rapidly.

"Hey! I like trouble," Jessica yelled out.

Edward nodded his assent. "Alright, let's go with that."

Rebecca, on the other hand, shot an accusing glare at Daniel. He's trying to keep me apart from Edward.

Daniel ignored her as he walked up to Edward. "Is it alright if I get one of those grenades? I have been trained to use them."

The burly Bravo almost said no before he thought about it. Very reluctantly, he said. "Alright."

"The red one, if you don't mind. I like red." Daniel mentally winced at just how awkward that came out.

Edward noticed it to, but did no more than raise an eyebrow before handing over his only incendiary grenade. He gazed up when Rebecca climbed the last step. "Keep an eye on him now."

Rebecca flashed him a thumbs-up before she, Billy, and Jessica departed.

"Stay close to me," Daniel whispered to Shantia. She nervously nodded back, unsure of what was unsettling her comrade.