Chapter 32: The Score
The next room had the makings of a lab where five emancipated corpses lay on individual tables. Alice had no doubt that they were part of the experimenting that had taken place on the ship. Behind the cadavers was a large glass panel displaying random electronic readouts. As Alice passed the bodies she looked at one on her right. The pale figure was dressed in white like the rest of Umbrella's captives, but a single black form, almost like a tentacle, was wrapped around the torso; it crossed over the bellybutton and then sprouted off into five different directions creeping around to the corpse's backside.
What is that? she questioned. Whatever it was had certainly killed the man but she couldn't be bothered with it now. Alice continued on and she approached the computer screen it began to lift, revealing another like it. As she passed beneath the first it became apparent that something was behind the next one. The final glass panel rose and Alice saw black boots, a black leather jacket, and finally black sunglasses. The figure exposed was Wesker and the brunette's nostrils flared as she looked at him sitting proudly on his white throne.
"Why am I not surprised?" she questioned with sarcasm.
"You weren't too hard to find. Our satellite system is still operational, and there aren't many people flying now a days. Besides, I always knew you'd be drawn to your friends. Loyalty – highly overrated," he sneered.
Trying to find me? The only justification Alice could think of was that Wesker wanted to get revenge; that was just fine. She could use a little vengeance.
The clicking of nails on tile drew Alice's focus as two undead Dobermans jogged out from behind Wesker's chair. The brunette un-holstered her shotguns as they growled at her, readying to charge.
"Stop," Wesker commanded the dogs and they froze in place. Alice had no idea how he'd gained control over them and she wondered if they weren't completely infected with the T-virus. "Down," Wesker said and the animals sat. "Wouldn't want you harming my pets," he reasoned and Alice lifted an eyebrow as she agreeably aimed her guns at the man instead.
Suddenly Bennett appeared from behind and threatened her with a pistol.
"Drop your guns," he demanded.
For now, Alice had no choice to but to do as he said. She let her firearms drop to her sides and allowed them to fall to the floor.
"Thank you."
He's finally learned some damn manners, the brunette smirked as she thought.
"Kick them to me," he continued.
The brunette forced them backwards with a booted foot as she kept her eyes on Wesker.
"Good," Bennett said, and now that she was unarmed, Alice turned to look at the producer.
His face was sweaty and pale; it was obvious that he was going through some T-virus initiated change. The woman rolled her shoulder as she turned back to Wesker and commented, "you don't look so good, Bennett."
"Yeah, well I'm looking forward to fuckin' with your pretty face."
Alice let the pathetic threat go with an unfazed smile.
"What do you want with me?" she questioned and Wesker answered.
"The T-virus brought me back, but it's so strong. It-" Wesker's speech was interrupted as he doubled over in his white throne. Alice watched as his shoulders moved and shuddered in ways that were not humanly possible.
When his convulsions stilled a moment later, Wesker righted himself, and then felt the side of his face and neck drawing Alice's gaze. Embedded in his pale flesh was a sickly-looking, black, bulging tentacle that crept up the edge of his jaw to his ear like a shadow.
The brunette woman smiled as she confronted him smugly.
"Seems to me you're having a little difficulty keeping face."
Wesker sneered in contempt and kept talking. "I thought if I took in fresh DNA I could redress the balance."
"No wonder your crew jumped ship," Alice snickered.
"No matter; now I have a new subordinate, and a new plan. You were the only one who successfully bonded with the T-virus. Your DNA is stronger than the others. I ingest you – I gain control." Wesker lifted his chin in superiority and the dark tentacle shifted again unnaturally.
My blood – of course, Alice thought. As long as she was alive the anomalies in her blood would be the question and the answer.
"There's only one problem with your plan," she said as she sauntered off towards a pedestal that had on it the tools used to dissect the cadavers in the room.
Bennett tried to threaten her. "Stop, right there."
Alice stilled within reach of the pedestal and Wesker indulged her.
"What's that?"
She looked straight into his shaded eyes.
"I don't go down easy." She kicked the tray off the table causing the medical scalpels to rocket for Wesker's face. The ex-project had counted on Bennett's slow reaction time and she wasn't disappointed. The traitor hadn't even moved, so she turned on him and kicked the gun out of his hand. Her next kick sent him flying onto one of the tables with a corpse and as he collapsed unconscious to the ground Alice turned back to look at Wesker, one of the scalpels had cut through the black tentacle on the side of his neck, but the rest of the blades were imbedded in the headrest of his chair.
She moved to pick up a shotgun, but the Dobermans had surrounded her and were guarding the weapons. The dog standing over one of her guns growled until its head began to split open. The head and neck came apart completely revealing rows and rows of canine teeth as well as a smaller version of the forceps like the undead had in the prison. It was more than enough to give her pause. She started to back away, but the dog on the table behind her opened up as well and its insides were also coated sharp teeth and red-tinted mucus.
Suddenly a door opened across from Wesker, and Chris and Claire emerged with weapons drawn.
"What's this?" Wesker scoffed at the two, "a rescue?"
Alice answered with satisfaction. "I told you I'd be bringing a few friends."
"You should've brought more," Wesker smirked and pulled off his sunglasses exposing his glowing-red eyes. He turned and threw the shades at Chris, then ran at the two. The former S.T.A.R.S. member caught the tinted lenses before they could hit his face and Wesker was instantly in front of the siblings.
The brunette saw Wesker move with unrealistic speed and she couldn't be timid any longer – not now that Claire was in danger.
Wesker grabbed Claire by her outstretched wrist and threw her on her back as he elbowed Chris in the gut and took back his sunglasses before the man fell backwards. Claire writhed in agony on the floor and Alice made her move. She dove for the unguarded shotgun and the dog standing on the table leaped at her. As it descended she fired into its split-open body, and the Doberman fell to the ground dead. The quarters continued on their path and shattered the glass panels above her. The next dog ran at Alice as she stood and brought her arms up to shield herself from the falling glass. A large, jagged plane of glass was descending in the perfect position, so the brunette kicked the center and sent it spinning right into the lunging dog nearly completing the cut down its middle.
As the dog fell to the floor Chris charged Wesker and Bennett ran at Alice. The traitor took a swing at her and she tried to block it, not realizing that he had a scalpel in his hand. The knife pierced right through her forearm and Alice grabbed her elbow in pain. She heard the burst-fire of Chris's assault rifle as she looked at the scalpel. Bennett smiled and Alice grabbed the handle and lifted blade out of her arm; the producer's smirk turned into a look of apprehension. Scalpel in hand, Alice drove the knife right through Bennett's skull. The traitor fell to the floor and Alice turned back to face the action.
Chris had just been kneed in the gut, and Wesker snatched him by his vest and pitched him forward. The adversary had another black tentacle emerging from the one Alice had cut open, and it completely covered his left eye and displaced his shades. Wesker seized them and whipped them to the ground in anger. Chris threw down his empty assault rifle and started to fire his pistol as the ex-project picked up a shotgun to join the fray.
Wesker evaded Chris's bullets by flipping backwards, and the brunette saw that he was headed straight for Claire who had just gotten up and was about to fire at the man. Alice aimed her gun at Wesker, but it was too late. He'd taken a hold of Claire's gun-hand and twisted it around so that the weapon was pointed directly at her chest. No, Alice's internal voice yelled the thought and she rushed to figure out her next move.
Her decision was made for her. Wesker pulled the trigger of the redhead's gun and the earsplitting shot ripped through Claire and him alike.
"CLAIRE!" Alice and Chris screamed in unison.