Disclaimer: I own nothing. Someday I hope to...but today is not that day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either.
Chapter 27: Priority
Alice was never big on swimming, or at least being completely submerged in water. It tended to remind her of waking up naked inside the tank in the Umbrella lab in Detroit, and then rousing every one of her clones from their aqueous solution outside of Vegas.
The water was dark, but her flashlight illuminated small air bubbles, and other bits and pieces of floating debris as she continued forward. She saw a door in front of her, and painted on the wall above it was STAIRS. Alice pulled on the handle. The oxygen in her lungs had been wholly converted into carbon-dioxide nearly a minute ago, and it caused her claustrophobia to augment. She opened the door, and came upon the staircase that led upwards and hopefully to an air pocket. Her insides burned as the urge to inhale grew stronger with every passing second.
Alice's head broke the water and she gasped at the stale air. Her dizziness dissipated with each deep breath she consumed. Chris surfaced next, and choked as he expelled liquid from his lungs; then took winded breaths just like Alice. The actress wasn't far behind, but she rose from the water with practiced ease.
The brunette woman felt a little ridiculous for being shown up by Crystal. At least I don't look as bad as Chris, she thought and walked up the stairs with the other two close behind her. She flashed her light down the hallway, and it fell on a door with a sign above it that read ARMORY. I'm liking all these signs, Alice thought, makes this a lot easier. It also meant that she didn't have to rely on the former S.T.A.R.S. member, but Alice wasn't going to admit that. Almost as if in response to her optimism the water bubbled and rippled silently behind them.
Chris withdrew a flare from a pocket in his vest, cracked it, and threw it to the door. The resulting vermilion light canceled out the need for Alice's flashlight, so she put it away, unsheathed the kodachi sword resting between her shoulder blades, and smoothed her dripping hair back.
"Alright, let's go," Chris said, but right as he finished Crystal screamed.
Alice and Chris jerked around to see the actress get snatched by the forceps of a modified-undead. Crystal struggled, causing Alice's gun to fly out of her hand and land next to Chris, but it dragged her beneath the swirling water anyways as another fiend materialized.
Its mouth was already opened and poised to devour, but Alice jammed her blade down its gurgling throat and lodged it right into the back of the undead's skull. As the creature fell back into the water her sword was wrenched from her grip. Damn it, she thought. If there was one thing that annoyed her more than anything else it was losing weapons, but this time it couldn't be helped. She'd embedded the sword too deeply, and she was not about to go in after it.
Once the excitement passed the water calmed again, and Chris bent down to retrieve Alice's fallen gun. Alice wasn't sure exactly what Crystal had meant to him, so she gave the generic response.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be," the man declared, "to be honest – Claire's life is the only one that matters to me."
"Then you and I have the same priorities," Alice said, and Chris seemed to contemplate his response as well as the surrendering of her second revolver.
"Hm, but perhaps by extension I should watch your back too." The man offered her the gun in his upturned palm. "She's quite fond of you, you know?"
"I guess that should go both ways," she said as she took the weapon. The two shared a meaningful smile, and Alice wondered if the redhead knew she was so loved.
The murky water churned again, but this time Alice and Chris were ready. They stood side by side each holding their pistol steady as the water erupted with undead. A wave of seven creatures ran at them. The fighters walked backwards as they opened fire. Alice decimated the right flank with three bullets, and Chris gunned down the left leaving the middle fiend to gain ground.
They both turned their weapons on the last creature at the same moment, but neither fired as it rushed them. Alice said to Chris quickly, "You gonna shoot?" It seemed that neither wanted to be the one who was a bullet down.
"Ladies first," he said rushed.
"Oh what a gentleman," Alice scoffed as she pulled the trigger on the last undead right before its forceps reached her. The mass fell and she had to sidestep to avoid it landing on her feet.
The water surged with the coming of more undead, and Alice was done wasting ammo and time.
"Let's go," she said, and they both sprinted the last few yards to the armory. She opened the reinforced door; more than thankful that it wasn't locked, and was inside the dark space with Chris on her heels. They both strained to push the door closed as the horde of undead struggled to get in. Once it was shut all the light from Chris's first flare vanished, so he pulled out another and cracked it.
The red-orange shine reflected off the metal of countless weapons. Racks in the center of the space were filled to the max, and guns covered every inch of wall available. That was the one thing Alice missed about being a security operative – gun selection. The possibilities here made her nod in satisfied approval.
"Nice," she said. The question now wasn't what she wanted to take most, but what she wanted to leave behind the least.
Chris chuckled lightly and said, "I thought you might like it." He handed Alice back her revolver, and moved to fill a large duffle bag.
First things first, Alice thought as she reloaded her Smith and Wessons.
After that Alice helped Chris pack up sufficient weapons, ammo, and explosives without a problem, but the issue of how to leave the armory was upon them.
"There must be a hundred of them out there by now," Chris stated and a hint of anticipation lilted his words. Alice looked at the man, and raised an eyebrow as she tried to keep her smile subtle. Chris saw right through it with a bloodlust driven grin of his own, and purposefully took hold of an assault rifle. Claire may have found her brother, but Alice found someone who appreciated the fight as much as she did.
Alice ran her fingers over the loaded MP-9 machine pistol in her hand. It was the same kind of gun her clones had used, and for good reason; it had the fire power of a rifle-sized submachine gun, but the weight of a pistol, an efficient killing machine.
The ex-project considered the tactics they could use to ensure their victory in light of the coming bloodshed. The second they opened the door the undead would attack, but the small entranceway would cause them to funnel making them easy targets. Her line of thought was interrupted suddenly by the subdued roar of a machine.
"You hear that?" Chris asked, and they both looked up in the direction of the noise. It was coming from an air duct in the ceiling.
"Mother-fucker!" Alice cursed as she realized what the sound was. "New plan – we're taking the vent."