Ch. 15: The Tram to Freedom?

Billy & Jessica

"Hey Billy, how much do ya think this door costed?" Jessica asked as she stared at their latest barrier. The door in question was a blue-painted metal. A box jutted out of the door from next to the handle. A leech indentation sat on the box's top. Above it was a crest featuring Marcus' head...thing. "Billy what do ya call it when they're only lookin' one way?"

"Profile," Billy helpfully supplied. "Now will you please use the leech key?"

"Got it." Jessica shoved the leech key in place and a encouraging click sounded off. "A'ight, dibs on the monsters. Ya've been takin' all my kills lately, and it's high-time I git to fight somethin'."

Billy swung his arm forward. "Be my guest."

"Good boy," She grinned before she opened the door. She hefted her shotgun and charged in...only to find the room empty. "...damn it."

Billy stepped in behind her and whistled. "Fancy." Judging from the large, mahogany desk, this room had to be someone's office. Several large, oil paintings, a wall-to-wall filled bookcase, and an active aquarium combined their efforts to give the room a classy feel. The books sitting on the desk and the model (at least, Billy hoped it was a model) of the upper half of a human skeleton added 'intellectual' to the room's description.

"Are these dead leeches in here?" Jessica tapped on the aquarium's glass. None of the floating blobs reacted. "Creepy."

Billy walked under the slow-spinning ceiling fan as he investigated the desk. He kept an eye on the door at the back wall near the door. Nothing like an ambush to ruin one's night. But then something else grabbed his eye. Next to the human skeleton display, a coil sat on a small picture. When Jessica and Billy had walked back to the door, Rebecca explained their latest discovery, including the missing electronics. Could this be one of the pieces? For insurance, he took it and paused when he saw something familiar. He snagged the picture and held it near the desk lamp's light. In black and white, the photo showed a smiling college graduate in his robes standing near a crowd of other graduates.

"What'cha got there, Billy?"

The convict pointed at the young man. "Look familiar?"

"Hmmmm," Jessica's gaze bore into the photo but eventually shook her head. "It don't. Why?"

"He's the guy who was standing outside the train. The one surrounded by leeches?" Billy patiently reminded her.

"Wha-?" She jerked her gaze from picture to him, disbelief written all over her face. "You can't be serious."

"It's him no doubt." Billy flipped the photo over. "To James. To commemorate your graduation. 1939."

"Wait, James? 1939 You still sure that guy we saw was him?" Jessica prompted.

"It's still him," Billy countered as he dropped the photo onto the desk. "Probably a relative to Dr. Marcus. A son, or maybe his grandson."

"Wait, where does Marcus come in?"

Billy tapped on the engraved nameplate on the desk. It read: Dr. James Marcus; Director. He shot her a knowing look. "Maybe you should focus less on the monster and more on your surroundings."

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Not my fault. Those dead leeches were creepy. And why does the gown-guy have to be a relative of the crazy doc? Hmmm? For all we know, he's some kind of clone."

"A clone?" Now it was Billy's turn to play the skeptic.

"That's right. A clone. It's what all mad scientists like to do."

"They were researching viral weaponry here," Billy pointed out.

"So? Maybe he was doing some research on the side. After all, all of the leech zombies try to look like him. Even Rebecca said the first one looked exactly like him. He probably found something to clone himself," Jessica declared as she piled on the evidence.

"Until I see a cloning machine, I'm not buying it." Billy said before he checked the back door. With one turn of the knob, the door bid him to enter.

"If there is one, it's probably behind six locked doors, all of them needing some kind of special key, combination, or some other weird kind of doohickey to unlock it," Jessica predicted grumbling. "Hey, look, an art room!" She pointed straight at the nearby statue, hoping Billy wouldn't reflexively kill the two resident zombies before she could fire a shot. Half her hope died as he shot the zombie between him and the marble statue. But as the second zombie growled at her, she whirled around and fired point-black with her shotgun. The zombie's head literally exploded, leaving its body to take a few mindless steps forward before her finally dropped to the floor. "Wow, didn't know the shotgun can do that."

"More U.B.C.S soldiers," Billy muttered as he knelt down next to his kill.

"The what soldiers?"

"Umbrella anti-zombie troops," He reiterates plainly. "I guess they were Umbrella's back-up plan in the case of an outbreak."

"Well, they suck," Jessica declared resolutely, as she stared at their uniform callously. "Place is still infested with monsters. Heck, we haven't even seen any dead monster bodies, which means they didn't kill anythin'. Useless."

"Little harsh, aren't you?"

"Hey, I'm just pointing out the facts." She countered before going through their pockets for ammunition. "Hope you found somethin' interestin'. Maybe like a dial? 'Cause, if you don't, we've kinda run out of doors. Workin' doors."

"I think I've found another key." Billy stepped over one of the bodies to get to a marble statue of robed boy staring skyward. In one of his outstretched hands was a green, fake leech. "It's just like the blue one," He said as he grabbed it.

"You mean the crazy old guy bought two of those crazy, metal doors? Well, I think we can safely say he was obsessed." Jessica looked around at the various art pieces, her eyes lingering on a taxidermy hawk with wings outstretched, its beak opened as it glowered at anyone who dared to look at it. "Not that any of these provide much argument against that. Especially the hawk. That thing looks freaky."

Billy pressed the radio's button. "Rebecca, we've found a green leech key."

"Roger Billy. Meet us back in your hallway, Rebecca out." Came the excited voice of the team medic.

Jessica stared at the radio. "Did she just say, what I think she just said?"

Billy nodded as he put the radio away. "Looks like they found a way to us."

Daniel & Rebecca

Daniel berated himself for the sixth time. Idiot, idiot, idiot! How could you forget such a big detail! Daniel fully intended to take him and Rebecca through all the hoops to get the dial. Even if that meant fighting the Hunters. But it just wasn't for the dial. He was fully convinced that the output coil was somewhere upstairs. They were just about to enter the undiscovered room when it hit him: the output coil was in the tram room on the first floor. Cursing himself, and hoping they might skip the Hunters entirely, he led Rebecca back in there. The only real barrier between them and the first floor (a barrier much more powerful in a video game than in real life) was the height. But they overcome it by sliding off the platform until they were holding onto it by their hands. Then it was a simple, shorter drop to the floor. No monster was there to challenge them. Which meant it took them less than a minute to find the lever. After Rebecca pulled it down, another thin, rectangle platform slid from over the tram up to the rest of the mezzanine. What it lacked in size made up for it with one key feature: a ladder.

Rebecca nearly squealed for joy when she found the output coil just lying next to the tram. Daniel wasn't sure when was the last time he saw her ran as hard as she did as she went to plug it in. While she took care of that, Daniel waltzed over to the first floor's door. According to the game, the player was supposed to be jump back and forth between Billy and Rebecca to locate the missing dial and send it down the electronic dumbwaiter to open this. The door was never opened from the inside, because it was impossible to jump down from the second floor. With one turn of the knob, Daniel reduced the long side quest to nothing. He slowly opened the door, allowing himself a moment of victory as he looked into the hallway.

The STARS member just rejoined him when Billy contacted her on the radio. After the call was done, Daniel wondered if Rebecca was going to burst from excitement. She would stare at the tram, then down the hallway, back to the tram, then back to the hallway, her foot tapping on the ground impatiently. Almost like a child waiting for Christmas morning to arrive.

Marcus' door opened and Rebecca nearly shouted, "Hurry up! We're almost there!"

Billy and Jessica looked at her amused. "Well now, looks like Becky finally remembered how to smile." The cowgirl quipped.

Rebecca didn't hear her as she asked Billy. "Where is it?"

Billy pulled out the missing piece before lazily tossing it. "Catch."

Rebecca nabbed it mid-air before she hurried back to the control room. "Let's have a look at our new tram," Jessica announced as she sauntered into the room with Billy and Daniel entering behind her. She whistled once she saw it. "Looks like we're gittin' outta here." She glanced at Daniel. "Sims, should we get the others?"

"Let's make sure we've secured the other side first," Daniel advised as he positioned himself next to the tram door, occasionally staring at the tram's roof.

"Kid, we might've ID'd the strange guy we saw with the leeches before the train started moving," Billy began as he pulled out the photo. "I think this is Marcus' grandson."

The convict wasn't surprised when the soldier only paid a superficial study to it. "He could be," Daniel answered vaguely. "I didn't get much of a look last time. It was raining pretty hard."

Motors hummed to life and lights flickered on as power finally brought the tram to life. Daniel cautiously opened the tram doors with Billy in a support position next to the doorway.

"I still think he's a clone," Jessica threw in. "With all the crazy, sci-fi stuff going on, I think that's the logical answer."

"Try to be realistic," Billy chided as he scanned the interior. The interior of the cable car was very straightforward. Benches lined against the bare, faded blue walls like an old subway car. The controls were up front. And, on one of the benches was a body. For once, there was no danger of reanimation since this human decided to end his struggles with a well-placed bullet to the brain.

"Says the man who fought a giant scorpion!" Jessica countered as she followed them in. "And -hey! Is that another gun in his hand?"

"Yeah." Billy knelt down next to the body and pried the weapon out of the suicide's hands. "It's a magnum," He announced with a hint of surprise. He holstered his weapon before he checked the magnum's magazine. "Full minus one round." The former lieutenant paused when he heard a distinctive click. He looked behind him, right at Daniel. The grunt held his rifle at the low ready as he stared out the tram's open door. Billy shifted and leaned to the right and saw what his ears recognized. The rifle wasn't on 'Safe'. It was on 'Burst'. Past him, outside the tram, Rebecca was climbing down the ladder as quickly as she could. Billy decided to wait and see what would happen.

"So, who gets the magnum," Jessica piped up as she looked at her weaponry. "I've got three as it is." Rebecca hopped the rest of the way onto the floor. "Billy, ya can't fit anything else in your arsenal." Rebecca rounded around the tram's corner. "Sims, ya-"

An animalistic shriek interrupted her as the most disgusting monkey Billy ever saw leaped down in front of the tram's door. Naked, bulging muscle ripped through dirty, ivory fur. Two hungry, dark red eyes sat in a black, contorted face. Rebecca shrieked as she came to a sudden, horrified stop.

It roared at her. Then twitched as three rifle slugs slammed into its side. It screeched as its head jerked to stare at the soldier only two feet away. Rat-tat-tat. Three bullets shot through its head, one for its mouth, one through its nose, and the last traveling through its forehead. It died.

Daniel paused and looked down at the rifle's firing chamber. "Jammed," He muttered unhappily before he went about fixing it.

"A'ight, hero. Now that ya've saved the girl, maybe ya can help me figure out who get's this?" Jessica pushed as she looked between him and Rebecca. "Hey Becky, ya got room for another piece of firepower?"

Rebecca didn't hear her as she stepped lightly by the eliminator corpse. She smiled gratefully at Daniel. "You saved my life...again."

He returned with a tired smile. "Ah, I'm sure you could've handled it. I just had a bit of luck."

Some luck, Billy thought wryly to himself. He knew exactly what was going to happen and was ready for it. Maybe Rebecca is... He shook his head. The zombies. They made some kind of sense. Umbrella created a new virus that could make them. There was an explanation. The kid. What could possibly explain that scientifically?

"I think you have me confused with someone else," Rebecca replied wearily but still smiling. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"Yay, we're all gettin' along so well, now about the gun," Jessica butted in as she stared impatiently at Daniel.

"Your welcome." Daniel finally addressed the cowgirl. "I can't use it. It hurts just to use the M16." He explained as he lightly rubbed his left forearm.

"Congratulations, Becky!" Jessica shouted out in her best impression of a game announcer, complete with a dazzling, forced smile and throwing her outstretched arm to the brunette. "Ya've just won yerself a brand, spankin'-new magnum!" Her other arm snapped forward, holding out the heavy piece of metal to her, handle first.

Rebecca stared at the magnum much like a vegetarian would stare at a piece of meat. "Don't they have a powerful recoil?"

"You can handle it," Billy said as he marched to the tram's controls. Like the rest of the car, the controls were pragmatically simple. A single lever controlled speed was what Billy was looking for. He wrapped his fingers around and softly pushed it forward. The tram buzzed before it left the station with a whirring of gears. Despite its age, the car barely rocked as it sailed through the artificial tunnel. "Just remember to maintain your posture and don't underestimate the kick. If we're lucky," Billy finished with a glance from the corner of his eye at Daniel. "You won't need to use it all."

"We can hope," Daniel seconded before he looked away. Taking a seat opposite to the body, he sighed as he sat on the leather upholstery. His feet ached from use and he stretched his legs out while he propped up his feet onto their heels.

"Now that looks like a good idea," Jessica declared before she grabbed the seat next to Daniel and released an even larger sigh than Daniel's. "Awwww, yeah. That does feel good. Becky, might as well take a seat while our loyal, gold-hearted man takes care of the drivin'."

Rebecca admitted to herself that she had been walking and running around for the last few hours. Now with the fear and adrenaline wearing off, she realized how much complaining her own feet were doing. While she didn't want to sit by herself, Daniel's bench was full. And she refused to sit next to the corpse. She stared at the back half of the tram, her mind conjuring images of monsters launching sneak attacks, aiming for the foolish female to separate herself from the group. Stop it! What could possibly attack us up here? She walked to the back benches. "How deep do you think this place is?"

"Hmmm, I should've taken my chance to spit over the side," Jessica mused as she rested her head against the wall and shut her eyes.

"I didn't get a good look either," Daniel replied as he glanced through a window. "It has to be deep enough to justify a tram instead of building a subway."

Rebecca took solace in the fact that she did not suffer from acrophobia. It's deep enough where no monster can just jump and claw through the floor, she decided before she sat down. Still, even though the others were only a few feet away, relaxation did not dwell in her.

Daniel wondered what the time was. He was tired. But it was still leftover from his early morning rather than time for him to sleep. Probably won't feel that urge until afternoon. Wish I could nap now. But I don't know how long this trip is. Stupid, vague Capcom. What Daniel didn't expect was the sweeping sense of nostalgia. He peeked down at the rifle across his lap. That must be why. The M16. The boring ride. The sleepiness. It's Basic Training all over again. "No escape," He whispered to himself with a small smile.

"Hey Billy," Jessica called out as she looked toward him. Billy silently frowned and tensed as he waited for the next annoying question. "If this looks like it's gonna be a long trip, just say when and I'll take care of drivin' so ya can git a break." He glanced back at her; his eyes wide and his mouth open a little. "What? I can be nice," The cowgirl countered defensively against his open surprise. She turned to her friend. "Sims, ain't I a nice person?"

In a bare monotone, Daniel told Billy, "She's a very nice person."

She scowled playfully at Daniel's grin and replied, "To heck wit ya, Sims."

"Well, thank for the offer," Billy interjected as he faced forward. "But I think we're nearing our destination anyway. I can see the cave's floor now."

"How well can you see it?" Rebecca inquired, her voice a little shaky.

"I don't see any monsters," Billy confided, shooting her a small smile.

"Not yet, at least," Jessica added as she peered through the front window, staring at the approaching station with disdain. "Looks like rest time is already over." She looked down at her cowboy boots. "I don't wanna git up."

"You don't have to," Daniel quipped as he pushed himself onto his feet. Before he took a step, he felt a hand latch onto his own. He glanced down and quirked an eyebrow at Jessica. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Pull me up."

"Come again?"

"I said," She said louder. "Pull me up. I don't wanna git up. So ya have to pull me," She explained slowly, emphasizing each syllable.

"You're kidding! You're taller and bigger than I am," The soldier pointed out as he tried to tug his hand free without helping her stand. "Standing up isn't that hard," He grunted as he found her grip to be tight.

"But I don't waannnnaaaa," She pouted, her voice turning into a high whine like a child's. Daniel rolled his eyes before bracing his foot against the bench's side and yanking backward. Jessica grinned as she resisted at first, before leaping, releasing all the pent-up energy.

Daniel backpedaled and fell backwards as he slipped free from Jessica's grasp, straight into someone's cold lap. "Gyah!" He yelped as he threw himself off the corpse.

"Jeez Sims," Jessica chuckled. "He's already dead. Not like he's gonna bite you or anythin'."