"What is that smell?" Rebecca said in disgust, covering her mouth and nose with her hand. Standing in front of the red double doors Jay readied his gun "Smells like another corpse to me". Slowly pushing the doors open he quickly scanned the room, seeing nothing, but a bar in the corner a few tables and a pinball machine in the far corner "Oh please have some fresh water" he said hopefully silently running over to the bar table, but stopping in front of it.
Leaning over the table was a corpse covered with dust and dried blood, pointing out a strange wound on its chest and lower abdomen Jay said "Look at that". As Rebecca slowly approached she saw the body seemed to be shriveled and empty "What is this?" she asked. Prodding the chest region of the body with his gun Jay took a mental note of the frail resistance the chest bones gave.
"This one is definitely strange" he said before poking the gun at the corpse's abdomen where the kidneys would be. "His organs are gone" he said backing away swiftly and pulling the hammer back on his pistol. "What do you mean gone?" Rebecca asked "How can they be gone?" Jay looked around unsure of what to make of it "I say we get out of this room now".
Rebecca didn't argue both of them turned around to head back, but something on the ceiling caught their eyes. Above them hanging from the ceiling was a massive brown spider, slightly turning his head Jay looked over to Rebecca and pressed his finger against his mouth and slowly nodded towards the door. Rebecca seemed to get the message; she turned slowly and silently crept to the door.
Silently following behind her Jay kept his gun ready in case the spider spotted them "Great there's another one" he whispered as a second spider crept around the corner on the ceiling. Rebecca reached her hand out for the door handle, but froze when she heard gunshots on the other side, with a surprised gasp she turned around the two spiders had become alerted to their presence and dropped from the ceiling.
"Perfect" Jay grunted as he began firing at the monsters "Rebecca run". "No way" she said before firing her own gun "I'm not leaving you to fight them alone". Jay smirked after one of the spiders turned onto its back and curled its legs inwards dead "If we survive this I'm taking you to dinner". The second spider proved to be difficult to kill it seemed smarter than its fallen partner it scurried to the side and jumped back to avoid being shot.
After one last round the hammer on Jay's pistol locked itself back, empty "Dammit. I'm out". "Here" Rebecca said handing him a clip, After releasing the empty clip from his gun Jay was sprayed by a mist that burned his skin forcing him to stumble back "That burns" he yelled trying to shake the acidic mist from his arms.
Rebecca stepped in front of Jay to defend him while the spider pounced, now pinned to the floor Rebecca was defenseless and Jay was still blinded from the spider's poison mist. Before the spider could bite into her the red doors flew open and an injured man open fired with a shotgun, forcing the spider off Rebecca and into the corner. "Come on" he yelled firing again forcing the spider to retreat into the furthest corner of the room "Kid get up" he yelled at Jay while reloading a few rounds into his weapon. "Stephen" Jay yelled feeling for his gun "I can't see".
Getting to her feet Rebecca rushed over to Jay and used his canteen to rinse out his eyes "Just hold still" she told him. "Come on back to the hall" Stephen said helping Jay to his feet and using his belt he tied the door handles together to keep them from being opened "Be good now spidey" he said pounding his fist against the door. "Kid you alright?" Stephen asked kneeling next to Jay and Rebecca, Jay managed a small smile as the water from the canteen washed the burning poison off his arms and face "Now I really hate spiders".
Stephen gave a weak snicker before making a quick glance at Rebecca "So is this her then?" he asked nodding his head towards her. Jay held his hand out and Stephen grabbed it and pulled him to his feet "Yea Rebecca meet Stephen Callaway he's with my team". Rebecca held her hand out and shook Stephen's "Thanks for helping us. I'm Rebecca Chambers S.T.A.R.S Bravo team". Getting to his feet Jay gently rubbed his arms "I'm feeling a little dizzy I think that thing may have poisoned me".
"Wait here I saw some herbs outside that I can use as medicine" Rebecca said cocking her gun and running for the front door of the guardhouse. After she left Stephen looked over to Jay and gave him an unsure look, "We're going to need help to survive this one, especially with Sam missing and Joe dead" Jay told him sliding back down the wall into a sitting position. "So any word from Chase yet?" Stephen asked as he attempted to fix his radio.
Jay gave a silent nod before pointing down the hall Chase and Chris took when they entered the house. After a few minutes Stephen managed to get his radio working, but static cut out everything "No good" he said setting the radio back on his belt "I think it's this place we're in. There has to be some kind of magnetic or electrical interference". Reaching up to his tactical vest Jay unbuckled it and took it off "Its getting hard to breathe" he said after wiping some sweat from his forehead. "Just hang in there kid I'm sure she'll be back soon" Stephen said looking at the front door.
Just as Jay began closing his eyes Rebecca burst in through the door and turned to fire a single shot from her gun before closing the door behind her. "Are you all right?" Stephen asked seeing the bite mark on her hand. Rebecca rushed over to Jay and handed him what seemed to be grounded herbs "Swallow these, they'll neutralize the poison". As Jay placed the grounded herbs in his mouth and forced them down Rebecca opened her medical pack and retrieved a bottle of disinfectant and began applying it to the bite mark on her hand.
"Wow" Jay said quickly scrambling to his feet "I feel great, what was in those things?" After bandaging her hand Rebecca looked up at him and said "The herbs that grow around the mountains here are extremely useful in medicine". "Lovely. Well let's get back to work the sooner we get out of this place the better" Jay said readying his pistol "All right Stephen that room is empty keep trying the radio. Rebecca your with me" he said as he proceeded down the hall Chris and Chase took. Entering a new hall they quickly turned their attention to the vines that made they're way up the walls and across the ceiling "Well this can't be good" Jay said slowly walking forward keeping his eyes on the vines.
"Let's see what's behind door number three" Jay said enthusiastically as he pushed open a door labeled "Dormitory 3". Inside was a bigger room with vines ten times bigger than the ones in the previous hall and the unmistakable sound of a swarm of bees "You know something tells me the bees are gonna be the size of my arm" he complained before slowly peeking around the corner and seeing a massive hole in the center of the wall "Oh good they're on the other side. Let's get out of here before they come this way".
Walking into a side room Jay found Chris reading a file "Chrisy" Jay exclaimed happily. "Don't do that" he said without taking his eyes of the file he was reading. "Chris" Rebecca gasped before running past Jay and over to him "Are you ok Rebecca?" he asked seeing the bandage on her hand. Rebecca nodded "I'm fine, just got a little careless is all". "What is all this?" Jay wondered seeing the many chemicals and empty bottles on the surrounding shelves of the room.
Chris handed him the file he was reading and looked at all the bottles on the left shelf "There's a giant plant in the room across the hall and it's blocking the door. That file mentioned something about a chemical called V-Jolt that will kill the plant, but I can't find it anywhere in here" he explained still scanning the shelf.
"Leave this part to us you go search for more clues as to what's going on here" Jay said placing the file on the sink and scanning the right hand shelf. Chris shrugged his shoulders and walked past them, but stopped after he opened the door "Rebecca" he said in a regretful tone. Rebecca looked over to him with a fearful expression like she knew what he was going to say "I'm sorry, but Richard's dead". Chris left the room without saying another word and Jay tried to not think about what Rebecca was going through he had already lost a friend no more than a couple of hours ago.
After grabbing an empty bottle he saw something scribbled on the wall behind the shelf and moved the bottles to read it. "Now that's useful" he muttered to himself as he turned to the sink behind him. Looking over to Rebecca he saw the grieving look in her eyes, he wanted to try and cheer her up, but he didn't know what to say to her. Without realizing it however he had placed his hand on her shoulder and was staring into her amber eyes. Slightly opening his mouth Jay knew what he wanted to say, but he couldn't form the words.
Jay slowly closed his eyes and pulled Rebecca to him and wrapped his arm around her "I'm sorry" he said as she began silently crying over her lost team mate. After a few minutes Jay backed away from Rebecca and began working on the V-Jolt chemical to neutralize the plant blocking the doorway across the hall. Filling one bottle with water and taking a bottle of red liquid from the shelf he carefully mixed the two together into another empty bottle resulting in a purple liquid. Checking the writing on the wall once more he continued to work mixing a yellow chemical with the purple chemical he just made. "UMB-10" he muttered to himself checking the notes on the wall.
Next to him Rebecca had mixed water with a yellow chemical labeled "Yellow-6" resulting in a green chemical that the notes on the wall referred to as "UMB-7". Handing the bottle filled with the "UMB-10" chemical to Rebecca Jay washed his hands and grabbed another bottle of "UMB-3". Waiting for Rebecca to mix the two chemicals he took the resulting blue chemical and slowly mixed the two together. Holding his breath he held the bottle of brown liquid up to the faint light above the sink and smiled "This is it" he said cheerfully.
Placing a cap on the bottle and turning to face Rebecca he gave her a confident look "You wanna wait here?" Shaking her head she retrieved her gun from its holster and followed him out the door. Returning to the previous hall the immediately came face to face with Chase "Glad to see the two of you still in one piece" he said leaning an automatic shotgun on his shoulder. "Where's that plant Chris was talking about?" Jay asked his captain keeping a tight grip on the bottle in his hand.
"Follow me" Chase said leading them half way down the hall and into "Dormitory 2". Walking to the other side of the room he pushed a bookshelf aside and revealed a ladder that lead down into a tunnel. Following closely behind Chase they eventually entered what looked like an underground aquatic research facility. "Is that a giant shark?" Jay yelled seeing a massive shark in a small pool of water.
"Yep" Chase said looking at the trapped monster. "Yeah. Let's go this" way Jay continued walking in the opposite direction of the shark. Following Chase to the other side of the circular room they entered a small office room and saw giant roots sticking down from the ceiling. "Well this is it then" Jay said walking over to the roots and pouring the V-Jolt on them causing the roots to quickly wither away.
"All right let's get back up then" Chase ordered as he turned around and left with Jay and Rebecca close behind him. Arriving back in the Guardhouse room they quickly ran for the room that contained the plant "Get ready" Jay said as he took Chase's pistol and pushed the door open before drawing his own handgun. Entering the room the saw the giant plant hanging from the ceiling which immediately attacked them "Take it down" Chase yelled.
Just as the three of them began firing at the monstrous plant Chris entered the room and joined the fight. Soon after they started shooting the plant began withering and died its vines dangling freely from its center "Well that was fun" Chase said as he reloaded his shotgun. Seeing something shining in the fireplace Jay sprinted over to it and found that it was a key to the mansion they were in earlier "You know I would ask why a key to the mansion is out here, but nothing else has made sense tonight" he laughed tossing the key to Chris and reloading his guns.
"Well there's nothing else to do here so let's head back to the mansion" Chase ordered as he left the room and sprinted down the hall. "Take care guys see ya in the lobby" Jay said quickly running after his captain. "I'm gonna make one last check around here Rebecca you go on ahead" Chris said walking up the staircase to the second level of the room they were in while Rebecca left for the Mansion.
Finally catching up to Chase, Jay and Stephen outside the guardhouse the four of them went over a search plan before continuing towards the mansion "Keep an eye out for Samantha" Stephen said as Jay and Rebecca went up the lift first. After arriving at the top Jay pressed a button on the lift's console sending it back down "Shall we?" he asked leading the way back around the walkway and across the empty pond. Running through the courtyard the two of them reentered the tool shed and then the mansion itself.
Closing the door behind them Jay slowly walked down the hall with Rebecca right next to him "You know I remember saying something about if we survived those two spiders then I'd take you out to dinner once this is done" he said glancing at her from the corner of his eyes. "I'll think about it and get back to you" Rebecca replied just as the metal door behind them opened a faint snarling sound coming from the other side.