Ch. 12: The Three Tablets...?

A/N: Not dead yet!

Scout Party

"This don't look good," Jessica declared bluntly.

The night sky was still cloudy, but another storm wasn't likely. And the moon provided ample illumination of their current situation. After being cooped up in the training facility for so long, Daniel enjoyed the breeze on his face. He imagined that Rebecca and Billy couldn't share his simple pleasure of being outside. Then again, he knew about the broken bridge since the beginning. You'd think with all of the money can throw at construction, they'd build better bridges.

Then again, it was doubtful the bridge just collapsed due to poor construction. Say what you will about Spencer's obsession with traps, but the man built things to last. It was as luxurious as the rest of the front porch. Two pairs of marble columns stood on both sides of the white metal doors with curved brass vines covering it, giving the impression of an eighteen-century mansion. Two old-fashioned lamps attached to the pillars (with electric lights, of course) negated the need for moonlight. The pathway reminded Daniel of an ancient Greek temple ruin, with the marble sidewalk and the two parallel rows of broken pillars.

Outside of the straight stone walkway, two little patches of grass overran the small segments of land .To their left was an elevator that connected to the third floor's terrace. It was out of order, of course, because the battery had been removed. There was nothing other than the metal and stone fence off to the right. A mirror metal fence barred the other side too. It wouldn't have been difficult to jump over, but after a few feet, there was no way to traverse meaning that they simply couldn't walk around the facility to find another way to the forest. Because past the fourth pair of pillars, the marble bridge was divided into two by a yawning gap. It was as bad as Rebecca said. No way across.

Billy muttered a cuss word, while Daniel tried to nonchalantly glance at the top of the only unbroken pillar. "...what's that?"

"Ya sniff somethin' out, Sims?" Jessica asked as she turned her attention on him.

"Up there." He pointed and Jessica, followed by the other two, could make out a vague object on top of the pillar. "Might be useful."

Daniel still didn't know which was better. The previous suspicion or the bland acceptance that Rebecca and Billy now treated him with. "It'll have to be a two-person job," Billy noted as he walked over to the pillar. He looked over the others. "Who'll be climbing up?"

"Ooh, ooh, me, me!" Jessica cried while she hopped up and down.

"Three people would be more stable," Rebecca suggested, glancing between the pillar's top, Billy, and Jessica.

The cowgirl turned to Daniel and froze. Instantly, a devilish smirk appeared. "You're right, Rebecca. Three people would be better. Me and Billy will get yer legs so that ya can reach the top."

Rebecca and Daniel fixed a wary look on her.

"...what? Ya just said, it'd be better, and I agree wit'cha," Jessica said innocently.

"That's what's so suspicious," Rebecca muttered.

"Oh, c'mon. Time's a-wastin'," Jessica countered as she formed a foothold with her hands.

Billy shrugged before making a second one. "Remember, use your legs, not your back."

"Got'cha."

"Hey Army, come here and be a safety," Billy told Daniel.

Daniel frowned at Billy before slinging his rifle. He held up both of his hands. In case Rebecca fell, he'd slow her fall.

While keeping a close eye on Jessica as best as she could, Rebecca hoisted herself up. Jessica and Billy did their best to steady her before slowly lifting her up. Rebecca reached before she clasped onto the stone object. "Got it!"

"Whoops! Butter fingers!" Was Rebecca's only warning before her right foot was suddenly walking on air. Well, trying to, at least. Billy did his best to keep her up, but it only took another second before she was falling backwards. Never should have trusted her...

"YARGH!"

Rebecca winced. That's not my voice, she knew. Her landing was soft and kinda squishy. She could not say the same for the poor soldier beneath her. "Sorry!"

"It's...all right," Daniel groaned, wishing that he simply had left his rifle next to something instead of slinging it. Now it was digging painfully into his back.

Rebecca scampered off of him as quickly as she could. Jessica offered a hand to Daniel with a grin. "Sorry 'bout that. Guess I just weren't ready for the weight."

"Suuuurrrreee, you weren't," Daniel replied sarcastically while he accepted the helping hand. The cowgirl pulled him onto his feet with a single yank. He immediately took off the rifle before he massaged his back as much as he could.

"So, what was it?" Billy inquired, staring at the small tablet, conveniently shaped like a gravestone in Rebecca's hands.

She held it up for him to see. "It says 'Discipline'."

Jessica groaned loudly.

"Now what's wrong?" Daniel wondered, though he already suspected the cause.

"Don'cha git it? It's probably part of some stupid lock or somethin'," Jessica guessed miserably. "I'm gettin' sick of these little scavenger hunts and all of this backtrackin' crap."

Daniel shrugged. "That's how this place was designed."

"I'm gonna kill the architect!"

He's already dead, Daniel noted to himself. "Anyway, we still have two other knight doors to check out," Daniel reminded them all.

"Fine, let's git this crap taken care of." Jessica shifted her gaze on the other two. "I think it's time that Billy and I got to know each other. We'll take the knight door in the conference room."

The handcuff-wearing man shrugged and headed back inside with Jessica right beside him. Daniel looked wearily at Rebecca. Curse you, Jessica. "Well, we'd better get a move on."

"We should," She quietly agreed before following him back inside.

After that little bit, they lapsed into a tense silence all the way up to the third floor. As uncomfortable as it was, Daniel couldn't say he was happy when Rebecca spoke. "So...would you mind if I... got to know you a little better?"

Daniel's first thought was that Jessica had somehow gotten to Rebecca. But then he immediately discarded that thought. As if Rebecca would ever agree to any of Jessica's ideas. "I guess not."

Rebecca immediately ran into a dilemma. Which question should I ask first? Is there even a point to this? If he's really from the future and worried about creating time paradoxes, he would have to lie for all of his answers. She pondered on this conundrum before she realized the simple truth: her curiosity had to be sated. "Why did you join the Army?"

Okay, simple enough question, Daniel thought to himself. "Pay for college. I was planning on going after I completed the second half of my training, and the university I'm looking at is pretty expensive."

He seems honest enough, Rebecca judged. "What do you want to study?"

"History."

"Why history?"

"It's my favorite subject," He replied, slowly easing his guard down. "I've always liked it."

"I kinda found it dry," She admitted.

"That's probably 'cause you don't think of it as a story."

Rebecca looked at him curiously as they stood outside the knight door. "A story?"

"Have you never thought about it like that? History is essentially one big, long story about humanity," He explained, his enthusiasm picking up. "And I love stories."

"No, I never really thought about it like that," She confessed thoughtfully before they entered.

They were now in a large observatory with a grated walkway traveling along the circumference of the round room. Another set of steel doors were on the opposite of the room. At the halfway point between both set of doors was a ladder that went down onto a grated platform where the telescope's viewer could be accessed. With a grated floor, it was where the telescope resided along with pieces of electronic equipment could be accessed. Beneath all that grating, they could see water happily sitting and waving. Currently there was one zombie on the walkway, two in the center, and one still body in the center. The two humans took turns picking off the zombies before Daniel fired at the last body's head for insurance. The body twitched before it went still again.

"A trap," Rebecca muttered fretfully. "Do you think it was a conscious choice to do that?"

Daniel shook his head as he refilled his clip. "They're not intelligent. It was probably low on energy, laid down, and was simply waiting for something to walk to close to it." He awkwardly climbed down the ladder since it still hurt if he put too much pressure on his bitten left arm, while Rebecca checked the other set of double doors. She sighed when the door handles refused to obey her whim. "Locked."

"I found something interesting."

Rebecca walked away from the new barrier and joined Daniel on the central platform. At the base of the telescope were three indentations with corresponding lights. She pulled out the 'Discipline' tablet and saw it was the right fit. She pushed the tablet into the first indentation. "Looks like we still have to find two more."

Daniel was involved in a mental argument. It's not the right space. It's supposed to go into the middle one. Then, by all means, tell her that. How can we? She already suspects us, why add fuel to the fire? Does it even really matter? The light is on anyway. I guess the order really doesn't matter. You'd think Spencer would have made it so that it did matter. Don't jinx us now.

"Daniel." The soldier pulled himself out of his thoughts as he regarded her. Rebecca wore a thoughtful expression aimed at him. "Is there something wrong? ...maybe something I overlooked?" She asked invitingly.

It's a trap! Well, duh! She's testing us. Do we accept? No! There's no point in pointing it out, if it doesn't matter. The blond man shook his head. "I'm just...eager to be out of here."

She nodded, not quite satisfied by his answer. "I'm sure we all are."

"I guess it's time to regroup with Billy and Jessica."

"Wait a moment, if this is a way out, we should focus on this," Rebecca suggested. "Instead of wasting time trying to find the other two tablets, let's see if we can't trick this. It's just a machine after all."

They're doing it to me again. Outwardly, Daniel nodded in agreement. "Good idea."

Together, they looked back at the two empty slots. "First, let's see if we're lucky and they only require enough weight." Rebecca leaned over the equipment and pressed her hands against the next empty space.

Spencer wouldn't make it that easy...would he? Daniel wondered as he watched.

She frowned as she put more weight into it and still it wouldn't click. "Okay, maybe it's a little bit more than that." She peered around the indentation before she let out a happy cry. "Looks like it has a motion sensor. So, if I just shove it right here..." She shifted where her hands were and tried again. There was a click as the light flipped on. "Yes! Now if we can just find a big enough item, we can trick it."

Daniel struggled to think outside the box. But, truth be told, he was struggling to predict what was going to happen next. If we can get this done...we're going to skip so much. The gun room, the eliminator room. Gyah, is all my knowledge going to be completely useless?

"Maybe we can use these?"

Daniel jerked out of his inner ranting. He saw Rebecca studying some of the electronic boxes with lights on the edge of the rest of the platform. He glanced back at the indentations. "They're a bit big."

"We just need to put them in on their side," Rebecca explained as she carefully checks the wires. With Daniel's help, they unplugged two of the boxes after identifying the right wires. And, as awkward as the boxes were compared to the indentations, they did go in. The moment the last light blipped on, the entire observatory tower shuddered. Both of them grabbed onto the panel to steady themselves while the tower lurched downward. Then, their ride down ended almost as it began. With that last jolt, one of the boxes (which wasn't that secure to begin with) fell out of its hole. Apparently, two out of three was bad. The tower started to rise back to its former position. Rebecca hastily grabbed it, shoved it back in, and kept a hand on it to keep it there.

"Whoops," Daniel idly commented with a small smile.

Rebecca couldn't stop a smile from twitching on her face. It was weird, to think anything comical could happen even here. The tower descended, the water level far below them continued to rise until the tower finally stopped. The water was now only two feet below the metal grating. A click told them the other double doors were unlocked. Rebecca slowly removed her hand until she was convinced that the box wouldn't fall back out. "Well, it worked."

"Yep, let's see where we are now."

Jessica and Billy

If there was anything Billy was sure of, it was that this girl wouldn't shut up. But, some people gave up if you ignored them long enough. But after he ignored the first two of her questions, this is what she warned him. "Ya can try and pull off the 'silent badass' but that ain't gonna stop my mouth from movin'. You can either try and enjoy this conversation, or I swear to god that I will yak yer ear off wit' utter nonsense!"

Billy considered her ultimatum as they passed through the knight door. "...fine."

"That's better," She said appreciatively. They entered into another hallway that went only left before it turned right at a hard angle. A luxurious carpet muffled their steps, which explained why the zombie at the corner, who was currently walked pointlessly into the corner of the walls, didn't notice them.

With a mischievous grin, Jessica pulled out her new shotgun and stealthily advanced on the hapless undead. Billy pulled her back, receiving an annoyed glare for it. He pulled out his knife, walked up, and stabbed into the back of the zombie's head.

"You're takin' away my fun," Jessica growled.

"Need to conserve ammo," He reminded her.

The cowgirl harrumphed. "Fine. Don't blame me when Becky gits pissed off at ya for makin' her pay more."

They both ignored the other zombie at the other end of the hallway, on the other side of the double doors in the center of the main leg of the hallway. Billy arched an eyebrow at her. "Pay?"

"Oh? You don't know? Becky wants me to rein in my 'recklessness'," Jessica elucidated, complete with air quotes. "So, she's payin' me ten bucks per extra bullet when this is all over."

The zombie moaned and shambled towards them.

"Steep price," Billy muttered doubtfully.

"Hey, can't help it if she's easy to manipulate, now can I?" Jessica countered with a grin. "She needs to learn to grow a thicker skin. Honestly, if I can bug her into that one-sided deal, how do ya think she'll fare against malicious people?"

Point for her, Billy admitted to himself. Then he paused. What does that say about me after caving into her demands? Well, she hasn't gotten me to pay her to shut up, so, still a level above Rebecca.

"BOOM!" Jessica shouted happily as she pulled the trigger. Her shotgun blew the approaching zombie's head to pieces. "Headshot!"

"Alright, you've had your fun. Let's keep moving." They checked the wooden double doors and found them mercifully unlocked.

Jessica took one look over the room and declared, "Poor Sims is missing out."

A life-sized chess board occupied the center of the room, except it only had three white pieces and two black pieces occupying the furthest three rows from them. With a king & two rooks versus a pawn & king, white had a decisive advantage. Beyond the gigantic chess board was a luxurious mahogany desk. In one corner was a stack of books threatening to overlap over onto the rest of the desk. Behind the desk was three man-sized windows with one facing directly out and the other two aiming off by small angles. While off to the left was a small and homely study area. A small table with an old-fashioned chair stood in front of a empty fireplace. A painting above the fireplace and a large globe in the corner added the description 'class' to the room.

"He's a chess player, huh," Billy commented as he stepped onto the large board. Figured, he looks like the brainy type.

Jessica opened her mouth, then paused as confusion gripped her face. "Welllllll, maybe? I think he is. Never actually seen him play the game." She rapped her knuckles on the pawn. "Wow, solid marble."

Billy mosied over to the desk. He found another chess board (regular-sized) hidden behind the small mountain of books. It was like the life-sized chess board, same pieces still on the board. The difference was their positions, the game was over with one side claiming victory.

"Nothin' over here," Jessica announced after checking the study zone. "How about you?"

Billy looked from the small board to the giant board. "...I think I found another puzzle."

Jessica groaned. "Really? What, do we have to play chess now?"

"Yes."

The cowgirl rolled her eyes. "...fine. What do we have to do?"

Billy walked around the desk. "We need to move White into checkmate."

Jessica stared at the outnumbered black army. "...I don't think that's possible."

"No, I mean, we have to make it so that White wins."

"Ooooooh, well that'll be easy." She moved over to the white king and started to shove it. "...it'd be...easier...if it wasn't so...frickin' heavy," She grunted as she strained against the statue. "Yo...muscle boy...little help?"

Billy quirked an eyebrow at the new nickname but lent his considerable strength to the task. Once the board was properly set, a wooden tick preceded before the smaller chess board opened.

"A'ight! What goodies do we get?" Jessica queried.

Billy pulled out a book, titled 'Book of Evil'. The marine frowned. The weight isn't uniformed. He opened it and found a single, small, demonic wing.

"Oh, come on! That's for that stupid picture puzzle in the main hall," Jessica groused. She peered at the book's hiding spot and saw another smaller one hiding deeper in the desk. She pulled out and opened the first page. "...oh, this is somethin'."

Billy looked over her should to see what it was. "What did you find?"

"Journal." She flipped a page. "It's Marcus'."

Billy could see a mental image of the painting flash in his mind. The director of the facility himself. "What does it say?"

As it turned out, it said a lot. Within the pages, they discovered a story of how Marcus found a new virus, called Progenitor, how his compatriot, Spencer began Umbrella and asked Marcus to become the director of the training facility. The scientist relented only for the sake of improving his research. Then the story took a darker turn as Marcus schemed against Spencer, how he invented the new T-virus, and how he moved from rodents to humans for experimentation.

The cowgirl succinctly made his review in one word: "Sick."

"He's a monster for doing that to his own people," Billy growled. When Jessica glimpsed up at him, she saw a rare, furious look on his features.

"I'm sure the others would be interested in this book," Jessica said before she stuffed it into her cramped pockets. "And we're done here."

Billy took one last look around the room. "I wonder what went wrong. Marcus makes the zombie virus and is about to present it to the board to get his share."

"Come on, it's obvious," Jessica chided. "I've seen this movie before. Either Spencer managed to trigger an outbreak or someone royally screwed up. Either way, we need to get moving. I want to shoot something."

For once, Billy agreed with that sentiment.