Ch. 11: Arguments and Mysteries
A/N: Slowly getting back up there.
Rebecca and Billy
Not even the sound of gunfire and the moans of the undead could drive the confused thoughts from Rebecca's mind. The clock door in the foyer opened into a luxurious study. A large table occupied the center of the room, surrounded by embroidered chairs. The lace tablecloth had been partially pulled back to reveal the mahogany underneath. A single sheet of paper sat on the wood. A couple of hutches filled with books leaned against the left wall, while windows with red, old-fashioned curtains were on the right wall. At the opposite end of the room was a large fireplace that was lit and provided the room's only light. Rebecca dimly wondered who lit the fire. The room's inhabitants couldn't have, they all wore a researcher's garb.
The four walking corpses greeted them when she and Billy entered. Two of them had been partially eaten. This simple image helped paint a dark story. The four researchers probably had ran into the room in hopes of sanctuary from the virus, only to discover that two of them had been infected prior to their entrance into the room. Whereas the first two had to suffer the slow death of the T-Virus, their fellow scientists were forced to endure a much faster, and more painful death of being devoured.
Since all of Billy's weapons would have been overkill, Rebecca shot all four of them through the head with her Beretta. The room now clear, the pair of them walked around opposite ends of the table as they looked around. Rebecca kept casting glances at Billy every few seconds. Billy glanced over the lone sheet of paper before he started reading aloud.
"The Moon bows to the Earth
The Earth swears loyalty to the Sun
And the great Law of the Sun Governs all things.
This itself is the keystone,
The pointer to glory
All our hands Cannot open the door to the heaven."
He looked at her. "Think it might be a clue?"
"I don't know what to think anymore," She replied honestly before inwardly chiding herself for being so plain to the fugitive. Billy quirked an eyebrow but didn't press her as he folded the poetry in half. She watched for a second before she decided to continue forward. "Billy...what do you think of the others?"
"About what?" Billy answered blankly while he continued his sweep of the room.
"Do they...do they seem a little...strange?" Rebecca asked lamely.
"Not really, the cowgirl needs to think more, and the others I haven't seen too much of," Billy replied vaguely.
"...and what about Daniel?"
Billy picked up another piece of microfilm off the fireplace's mantle. He tapped his pocket to make sure he still had the other set. Now if he could just find something to read the film. "I'd say he's got some good instincts."
"Just good instincts?" Rebecca repeated skeptically.
"You think he's a psychic or something?" He relented as he faced her.
"I don't know, maybe? He knows things before they even happen," Rebecca reminded him.
"If that were true, then why are his two soldier buddies dead?"
The medic frowned as she went over the possibilities in her head. "Maybe...maybe it's limited somehow? I mean, in case he was psychic."
"You don't think that's a little far-fetched?" He pointed out.
"Zombies are supposed to be far-fetched," She answered stubbornly.
"...point taken. But he isn't against us, or I guess I should say, against you. What does it matter if he seems to have a little foresight?"
"He puts a lot of trust in you, you know that, right?" Rebecca countered a little annoyed by that fact.
Billy paused. Yeah. Don't know why he does that. He should know better, no doubt he's been warned about my charges. Yet he doesn't seem to acknowledge them. I wonder... if he knows the truth... The fugitive pushed those thoughts away. "And what about you? You seem real suspicious of him but not me. Aren't you here to arrest me? Or did you forget that?" He inquired curiously.
Rebecca hadn't forgotten that. And she had thought to herself why she was placing any stock in her target. But that answer wasn't too difficult. "I haven't forgotten. And, I'm still going to keep an eye on you. But, I don't think you're going to try and stab me in the back either."
"Why?"
"...you didn't have to save me from the scorpion," She reminded him.
Oh, that's right. Feels like it's been hours since that time. How long has it been? "He was there too. Why does it matter if he gets a lucky guess or two? I'm pretty sure he's on your side."
"I know that, but I really think it's more than just some lucky guesses. He knows things." Rebecca frowned. "But he's not telling us either. And I'm not sure why he would do that unless he had some ulterior motive."
"You think the kid has an ulterior motive?" Billy asked skeptically. "No offense, honey, but I don't think he could be that devious."
"Rebecca," She insisted. "Then why doesn't he just tell us."
"I don't know. Maybe he's from the future and he's not trying to create some black hole thingamajig," The handcuffed man remarks off-handedly before he headed to the door.
Rebecca was about to say something when she froze. "...that might be it," She murmured.
"Hm, did you say something?" Billy questioned as his hand grabbed the door handle.
"That might be it," She reiterated loudly. "He might be from the future, and he can't tell us to avoid a time paradox."
"Are you even listening to yourself Rebecca? People from the future?"
"And zombies are any better!" Rebecca shot back exasperatedly. "I think it might be the best possible explanation. It could explain why he knows about specific events before they happen. How he knew about the baboon before it attacked us. He could have gotten that information from a future report or maybe even from an interview with one of us."
"Again, how come he's not able to prevent his friends' deaths? And why did he come back with a bunch of his friends instead of a squad of soldiers. Furthermore, why come back at all?"
Rebecca bit her lip as she tried to come up with answers. "I... don't know. Maybe that's just the cards he was given? And I think it's obvious that he's here to help."
"A moment ago, you were suspicious of him," Billy dryly commented.
"He confuses me. I don't like being confused," Rebecca admitted, walking to the door. "But now, now I can make sense of it."
"By believing in a far-fetched theory?"
"The evidence I've seen best supports it. And didn't Holmes say, 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?'" Rebecca countered.
Billy rolled his eyes and opened the door. "Let's just get out of this place."
Daniel and Jessica
"Don't you have anything better to do with your spare time?" Daniel asked wearily as they stepped into the other clock door. "Look, zombies. Have at it."
Four zombies began their slow, pointless march to the new arrivals. Jessica eyed them with a critical gleam as she hefted her shotgun. "I ain't goin' to let'cha go that easily." She waited until two of them were close enough, aimed right in between their heads, and pulled the trigger. Both zombies crashed to the floor as buckshot sliced through their skulls. "Heh, I'm goin' to be rich after tonight." Another shell equaled two more dead zombies.
The file had called this room the Operations Control room. It looked more like a large meeting room. The room was lit by three candle-shaped light bulbs that jutted out from the wall. The south wall was dominated by a large world map. The north wall was covered by a blank screen. On the wall opposite of the door was a series of photographs of people. In the center of the room was a long, thin table occupied with a dozen or so documents and folders. An elaborate, dusty rug covered the floor. More importantly, a running projector sat on a podium connected to an electronic, storage device.
Daniel took a seat on the projector's table before he pulled his rifle apart and began cleaning it. "Take a moment to relax. There's nothing we can do here without the microfilms."
"Wait, we came all the way here to do nothin'?"
"You yanked me over here," Daniel pointedly reminded her. "And, apparently, you did so for pointless reasons."
"Hey! It ain't pointless. Unless you find a way to chill, you're goin' to give yerself a heart attack from all that stressin'," Jessica argued. "A nice girl can help with that. And Becky seems to be right up your alley."
"Not interested," Daniel replied plainly.
"Aw, c'mon. Stop bein' such a spoil sport. Ya can't tell me you haven't even at least given it some thought."
Daniel shot her a blank stare before he glanced down at his bandaged arm. "This conversation is completely pointless. I don't even know if I'm going to be alive tomorrow night. We don't even know if we're not simply going to be teleported back to our world when this is over."
Jessica rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I bet the chances of that happenin' are one-in-a-million."
"The odds of us coming here was one-in-a-trillion," Daniel calmly countered.
"Yeah, but it ain't gonna happen and ya know it. I'm bettin' that we're gonna be stuck here for a loooonnnggg time. Might as well try to start fittin' in now, while we're killin' zombies and monsters side by side and provin' that we're good guys."
"I hope you're wrong," Daniel muttered before he started putting his rifle back together.
"You do?" Jessica said, befuddled. "Why?"
"Look at us. We came here with seven and now we're down to five. I want the rest of us safe at home before we lose anyone else," Daniel explained seriously. With a loud click, his rifle was ready to go.
"Okay, I admit, it sucks that we lost Shantia. But, she's a lot happier in heaven now, and Bart made his choice, so that's that. Let's just enjoy the situation. We're here and might as well make the most of it," Jessica suggested earnestly.
Daniel headed to the door with a frown on his lips. "You sound kinda heartless when you put it like that. Did they mean nothing to you?"
"You and I both know about that stunt Bart pulled on me," She replied crossly. "And, let's be honest, you two were never friends to begin with. I mean, sure, you guys might have had that whole 'we're-both-Army' thing, but you two never interacted much. You just feel really down about it because of where he's ended up, and you've never seen someone die before."
"That's not true," Daniel protested as he opened the door. "I saw my Gra..." Wait, I wasn't actually there, now was I.
"That don't count, 'cuz A, you were just a kid. B, I bet he didn't git his throat torn out by a z-dog. C, he was old and probably well on his way out the door," Jessica countered.
"You don't have to put it like that," Daniel grumbled.
Jessica shrugged. "The point is, I'm right. You've got this whole 'hero' thing goin' for ya, and I'm tellin' ya, don't do it. I know ya get a kick out of it, and people like heroes. But we ain't in a Disney movie. If ya don't relax, take it easy when ya can, you're gonna cause problems ya don't need."
He paused and slowly turned his head to aim a precision 'What-the-heck' look on her. "...you think I have a hero complex?"
She rolled her eyes. "Well, duh. Come on, look at yerself. You've been bitten, scratched up. By all rights, ya should be takin' a breather. But ya keep pushin' yerself 'cause you want all of us out of here ASAP."
"And what's wrong with that?"
"Nothin'. But it's classic hero behavior. I'm just tellin' ya, ya need to learn how to chill. And, everybody knows that a good relationship can be a real stress-reliever," She patiently explained while she walked past him back toward the main hall.
"I can't believe you turned into a matchmaker," Daniel muttered as he followed behind her.
"I'm just tryin' to keep your best interests in mind. I don't remember much about the game series, but I do remember that it lasted longer than one night."
"They were working on Resident Evil 5, last I checked," He remembered quietly. "Resident Evil 4 was set in 2004, six years from now."
"See? We could be looking at six whole years of zombie-fightin'. There's no reason why you and Becky shouldn't git together."
"We might not be her-"
Jessica cut him off as she reached for the door leading into the main hall. "Don't gimme that crap about 'we might not be here for it'. We ain't gonna die and I seriously doubt that we'll get teleported back to our time, place, dimension thing. Might as well as look at the long-term."
Daniel's retort didn't materialize as they stepped into the main hall. Billy and Rebecca were already on the first floor headed toward them. "Find anything?"
"A poem and a microfilm, you?" Billy replied.
"Found a projector that can play it," Daniel offered.
"Handy."
Daniel glanced at the silent Rebecca, and half-surprised to see her usual suspicion gone. The medic looked worn-out, and although she still stared at him and Jessica, her expression was more...curious and confused than hostile trepidation. He wondered why the change, but Jessica took the lead and led the four of them back to the Operations room.
The projector was a huge box with two slots in the back of it with two cords snaking out of it. One by one, Billy inserted the two microfilms. On the wall screen, an overhead picture of the conference room popped up. The second image placed a series of red numbers and letters over the desks, ranging from 0-9 and A-F. One of the cords connected to an electronic device which spat out a blue MO disk after both microfilms were inserted.
Billy took it. "I bet this is how we'll unlock that podium computer."
"There's a computer in the podium?"
"Yeah. It needed a MO disk to unlock it. Guess this is it?" Billy explained.
"Then, what are all of those letters and numbers for?" Jessica asked.
"What do you think, Daniel?" Rebecca chimed in.
Why does she insist on putting the spotlight on me? He inwardly moaned. "Well...if I had to guess, there might be a secondary code to put in to unlock...something," The soldier answered vaguely.
"I remember seeing a lot of paintings in that room. Think one of them will open up and reveal a secret passageway too?" Jessica guessed as the group headed for the conference room.
"None of those pictures are large enough," Billy reminded her.
"Maybe they open up and reveal kick-ass guns," The cowgirl hoped for.
"That doesn't even make sense," Rebecca pointed out. "This is a training facility for medical and managerial personnel. Not a military base."
"Tell that to the grenade launcher."
Rebecca groaned, feeling a headache coming on. "That came with the Umbrella Investigation unit, remember?"
Jessica pouted. "Why do ya have to crush my hopes? Don't ya want some kick-ass guns?"
"We barely have enough hands for our current set," Rebecca countered.
"Do you two really have to argue about this?" Daniel thought aloud.
Both women shot him an annoyed scowl. But since that ended the argument, Daniel thought it was an overall victory. Billy walked silently as though nothing in the world bothered him. The conference room was still monster-free, which led to another complaint from Jessica that there wasn't enough action.
"Why do you need action?" Rebecca demanded before Daniel could run interference.
"Hey, would ya rather be stuck in a monster horror movie where only one person makes it out alive, or in an action film where the heroes only have to go through hell and back for their happy ending?"
The STARS officer blinked, completely surprised by the question. She shook her head after a moment. "That's...that's just silly. This isn't a movie."
Jessica opened her mouth when Billy announced, "47."
Everybody turned to gaze at his spot behind the podium. "The code?" Daniel guessed.
Billy nodded. "47 unlocks the system."
"Well, punch it in," Jessica ordered.
"There's no keyboard, except those," The convict reminded them, waving his cuffed arm over the conference desks.
"Aw right, the puzzle thing," Jessica recalled as she looked at the nearby desks. Each one had a single button and a screen on it. "Which ones do we need to hit again?"
"It should be these two," Rebecca called out, pointing at two of the desks. She pressed one button while Jessica took care of the other. The two screens lit. Then a mechanical noise filled the room as the two mechanical knights lifted their swords, unbarring one of the doorways.
"A'ight! Progress!" Jessica hooted.
"Looks like we're getting out of here," Billy declared with a small, happy smile while he descended from the podium's raised platform.
"...no, we're not," Rebecca quietly retorted.
Billy paused and quirked an eyebrow as he regarded her. She said 'we', so she's not planning on leaving me behind. "Why not?"
Looking miserable, she explained, "While Jessica and I were on the third floor, we could see out the front of the training facility. There's a chasm between us and the forest. And the bridge is out."
"You sure there's no way across?" Billy pressed, well aware of the resigned look on Daniel's face. Almost as if he expected it.
Rebecca shook her head. "I don't think so."
"I want to know so. I say we make sure that there's absolutely no way across," Billy asserted as he took charge, a bit of frustration breaking through his calm exterior.
"Then let's go and see if it's really as bad as it looks," Daniel agreed.