A/N - Revised 13Sept2012

Chapter 6

What Ladder?

"Sewers?" Rain's voice dripped disgust as she peered down into the dark hole in the floor.

Kap exhaled a long suffering sigh. "Utility tunnels," he argued.

Wafting her hand by her nose, Rain scoffed. "Smells like ass. Full of pipes carrying shit. Crappy lighting." She was ticking off each point with a finger. "Sewers."

"Fine. Whatever. You wanna go first?" Kaplan swept his hand toward the entrance to the tunnels.

Anise smiled at their bickering. She hefted her ax and saved them the trouble of who went first and jumped. Her feet splashed in the inch of water on the floor, her legs taking the shock with little protest. Her nose wrinkled and her lips curled back in disgust. She thought it had smelled bad before. Now it was freaking intolerable. Coughing and gagging, she slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from retching. Her sense of smell had always been excellent, and she cursed her inherited genes as she swallowed heavily.

Catching her breath and pretending to be a good soldier, she eyed the area critically and listened with her enhanced hearing. Anise could hear dripping water, the slight flow of liquid and other stuff in the pipes, electrical buzzing from the crappy fluorescent lights, and the breathing of her companions. "All clear!" She called up to the commandos staring at her from 20 feet above her head.

Alice was the first one to descend the ladder anchored to the wall, and Anise politely avoided looking up her skirt, instead keeping her eyes and ears open for danger.

"Don't you like ladders?" Matt asked when he got down to her level.

Anise had the grace to look abashed. She rubbed the back of her head. "Didn't see it."

Rain sidled up next to Anise when she tried to take point. The commando nudged her aside. "A soldier should be in front. Guns always trump teeth," she said and winked. Surprised at the soldier's friendly attitude, she wondered where that had come from. She shook her head and followed Rain's lead. They trudged through the damp tunnels following the map that Kaplan had been given by the computer. Every intersection they passed was unnerving. The team kept expecting something to jump at them. All the walls looked the same, the sounds were distorted, the smells and shadows were unnerving. Even the audacious Rain was obviously unsettled.

"How far do these tunnels go?" Anise finally spoke to hear something normal amidst at the freaky sounds and her companions' heavy breaths and pounding hearts.

"They run the length of the Hive carrying water and gas in those pipes overhead. Be careful where you shoot, Rain." Kaplan admonished his partner.

"I'm a better shot than you. Watch your own damn aim." Which, Anise guessed, pretty much equated to 'fuck off and quit being a bitch'.

It felt like they had been wandering around for hours. Anise checked her watch and groaned, seeing that 27 minutes had already passed. She cast her gaze at the team behind her. Spence glared back. Asshole must be regaining his memories, he was getting grumpier by the second.

Passing by a particularly familiar grating, Anise paused when she thought she heard something. She craned to listen, but Spence blowing up covered up whatever she had heard. "We've been here before!"

"No. We haven't. We're following the map." Kaplan defended his navigation. Spence got in his face and continued yelling about going around in circles. The commotion drew everyone's attention and Rain marched up to Spence and shoved him against the metal grate.

"Enough already." She snarled, just avoiding aiming her pistol at his face. "We don't have a choice, but to keep moving. Those things are..." Those things suddenly reached forward through the gaps in the metal, grabbing hold of Spence's chest and making the man howl in fear. Anise cursed, wishing she'd paid more attention to what she was hearing.

Splash.

Her ax whistled through the air at the damn zombies that had managed to sneak up while she was distracted by Spence's whining. Being too busy splitting open skulls and removing body parts, Anise was unable to turn around and check to see what was going on behind her. All she could hear through the blood rushing through her ears were the snarling zombies and the sloppy sounds of her ax chopping through them. Alice was beside her snapping necks with her bare hands and thighs.

Oh my. Anise was temporarily distracted by the idea of her head between those thighs. Teeth sunk into her arm as punishment. "Ow!" Removing the attached head was easy enough but another set of teeth sunk into the fleshy outside of her already bitten hand and clamped down. "SHIT!"

Gunfire sounded and the handful of undead around her dropped. Each had neat exit wounds in their skulls. She glanced at the owner of the gun. Rain had her back pressed to the grating, adding her weight to the guys' efforts holding it up. It was acting as a fence to hold back the mob pouring into the tunnel. The soldier snarled at her to stop staring and kill something. Anise jauntily saluted her and bent down to pick her ax back up. Her smile twisted as her hand screamed in agony. She held up her hand and whimpered at seeing a chunk of her palm gone. Holy shit it hurt! She could barely grip the ax handle. Anise grit her teeth painfully and started swinging her ax again anyway.

Pain or death. Easy choice.

Someone was yelling. Anise couldn't tell who or what, her ears were ringing from the pain in her hand and arm. The blood was making the shaft slippery and even more difficult to wield. She bit her cheek and kept swinging, however sloppily. The undead were piling up around her feet, yet even more kept replacing the fallen. All of them hungry and groaning. Wearing the faces of people she had known, had laughed with, had played pranks on, people she had hung out with at the 'Coon Bar and gotten happily drunk with. Tears were freely running down her face.

"Up! Get up on the pipes." Alice yelled in her ear before decking a guy to her left. She tugged on Anise's arm, pointing up to make sure the woman understood. Spence was already climbing up. Coward, she thought. A few more gunshots echoed as Anise backed her way toward the metal pipes anchored to the sides of the wall. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Kaplan climb next. It looked easy enough if someone else held her ax. The commando's gun above her head dropped a few undead to give her a chance to climb. Spence actually helped by reaching for her ax.

The others followed until only Rain remained on the ground. The woman had stopped moving, and Anise couldn't figure out why until she spotted the other black uniform. Shit. One of the squad had returned from the dead. Everyone was yelling at Rain to climb, but the woman was frozen. Staring at Death in the form of a friend had paralyzed her. She couldn't pull the trigger on the handgun she had aimed at his head.

After taking her ax back from Spence, Anise readied her aim. JD's teeth sunk into Rain's neck just before the ax blade settled between his ears. The dead body took the ax as it fell, the handle easily dragged from Anise's slippery grasp. "Shit." She spat. Rain had slapped a hand to her neck and looked up to stare at her rescuer. Anise screamed at her to climb. The commando's feet remained rooted to the ground, and her dark eyes remained fixed on Anise. The undead were quickly closing around her, they could almost taste her.

"Hold me." Confused, Matt blinked at Anise, who was setting aside her shoulder bag. "Don't let go." Anise demanded as she placed his arms around her hips. Kaplan understood first, and he grabbed hold of the woman from her other side before she abruptly leaned over the edge and reached down to Rain. "Holster your weapon and give me your hands, soldier!" She did her best to imitate drill sergeants' voices from the movies as she glared into Rain's eyes. Much to her delight, Rain responded by obeying immediately and grabbing onto her hands. "Hold on," she commanded.

Every muscle in her body fought to haul Rain up. She could feel Kap and Matt straining as she took on Rain's weight. Fingers dug brutally into her sides, yet she ignore that pain and kept focused on maintaining her weakening hold. Her mutilated hand gushed blood down Rain's chewed up arm and shoulder. Fire raced through her straining limbs. Bright spots exploded in her vision. She clenched her jaw to avoid screaming. Somehow she managed to pull the commando up to where Alice could grip Rain's vest before the undead starting yanking on Rain's pants. The extra weight was excruciating. Her mangled hand spasmed and opened. Her good hand gripped fiercely around Rain's bandaged hand. Unfortunately, the gauze peeled off. Rain slipped from Anise's grasp.

The soldier would have unwittingly dragged Alice down with her if Spence had waited any longer to add his strength, seizing a fistful of Rain's vest. Finally regaining her wits, Rain grabbed her pistol and unloaded bullets into the undead trying to pull her down. With her legs free, Spence and Alice were able to haul the commando up to safety. Kaplan and Matt followed suit with a trembling Anise. They collapsed in a heap, panting. Kaplan was the first to untangle himself, leaving Anise sprawled in Matt's lap.

Anise rolled her head to check on the others. Satisfied that everyone had made it to the pipes she closed her eyes, concentrating on breathing through her nose to calm her racing heart. She wrapped her good hand around the mutilated, bleeding mess of the other. Her teeth hurt from clenching her jaw so much. The group was quiet so she didn't have anything except pain to distract her from the sounds of hundreds of mouths moaning for their flesh. "Damn."

"You OK?" Matt asked her quietly.

"No." Looking up, she caught his concerned blue eyes. "You?"

"I've had better days."

Tired eyelids fluttered. "Me too."

Someone snorted. It sounded like Rain.

"You are one crazy bitch." Definitely Rain.

Silence settled over them again. Despite the horde just feet below, clawing the air, hoping for their flesh, everyone managed to grab a few moments to relax and regain their strength. Anise drifted off for a nap.

Anise found herself waking up feeling rested. She dragged herself from Matt's lap. Smiling weakly, she patted his thigh and put her back to the cold concrete wall.

"Hey, Sleeping Beauty woke up. Nice of you to join us." Spence's sarcasm grated on her nerves.

"How long?"

"Twenty minutes." Supplied Kaplan. "I'm jealous."

"You should be. I feel better." And she did. Her hand still throbbed and so did the bite on her arm. The bleeding, however, had stopped. She did a little happy dance in her head, grateful for her body's extreme healing factor. Fully opening her eyes, she surveyed the motley group she had joined. Mostly they looked exhausted, instead of piss their pants terrified. Embarrassed, she remembered doing just that when the mutated dog had attacked her. "Dammit," she murmured. At least she blended in with the smell of the place.

"Rain." Alice was prodding the grumpy soldier. "Rain, we have to do something about your wounds."

The soldier was checking through the pockets of the vest she had taken off. "I'm fine." She pulled out what looked like her last bit of ammo.

"Rain." Alice grabbed her arm for emphasis.

Yanking her arm from Alice, she said more forcefully, "I said I'm fine. Why don't you check on Sleeping Beauty's wounds?" Rain loaded her gun with the fresh ammunition, aimed down the sights, and squeezed. An infected head erupted. Blood, bone, and brains decorated the tunnel wall. Anise looked away and reached for her bag.

"I already did. She's not bleeding anymore."

Sleeping Beauty, who had been retrieving a protein bar from her stash, froze. The cat was suddenly out of the bag with a really bright spotlight on it. She swallowed nervously.

"That's not possible!" Exploded Rain. She grabbed Anise's hand to prove that... Alice was right. Dried blood surrounded a delicate new scab. Her face twisted in confusion. "What the fuck? Part of your hand is GONE. My hand is still oozing from when that first bitch took a chunk outta me. How the hell aren't you gushing? You aren't dead yet."

"I'm just that lucky?" Anise joked half-heartedly.

"Lucky my ass. I can't tell where your blood ends and mine starts. I'm soaked in it. That kind of bleeding doesn't just decide to stop while you take a power nap!" Rain's voice was hoarse and cracked at the end of her tirade. Was it the effects from infection, fear, or something else? Anise wondered.

Rain shook the other woman's hand in her face. "Spill."

Anise bit her cheek against the sudden stab of pain from Rain's manhandling of her wrist, and seriously considered lying. She had a good imagination and these people would probably believe anything after the shit they had already been through. Glancing at Alice was enough to discourage that. The head of security had dropped the issue earlier, now though, her face told her she would not. "Tell us." Alice ordered softly.

Anise pursed her lips for a moment, then began. "I was part of a highly classified experiment called Project Afterthought."

"What kind of name is that for a top secret project?" Sneered Rain.

"The kind that saved your bitchy ass. Do you want my story or not?" Anise wanted to slap the woman. She chose to simply glare daggers at her instead.

Rain looked ready to argue again, though she held her tongue and nodded.

"Project Afterthought." She glowered at the commando still holding her bloody hand hostage. "Was put together by the more sensible Umbrella scientists in case they lost control of the T-virus. The name, well, it was exactly what a cure was, an afterthought."