Chapter 5: Slithering Surprise

They didn't find much the way they went. There was a hallway that led into a small boiler room. Rebecca and Billy could not pass due to a damaged steam pipe. The steam sprayed out like a geyser, preventing them from even attempting to pass through the harmful vapors. Backtracking, they found a small, dark supply room. To their relief, they found ammo for their handguns, and even found a shotgun and some ammo for it. Rebecca stripped the first aid kit that was also in the supply room.

There was a ladder that led up to the hatch. When Billy tried it, the hatch wouldn't budge. They had no choice but to go back to the main hall. Again, they were met with silence. The portrait of James Marcus watched them from afar, and Billy and Rebecca looked up to the second floor to decide which door to try.

"Why do you get the shotgun?" Rebecca asked.

"Because you would fall on your ass when you shot it," Billy stated, checking the Remington 12 gauge.

"For your information, bud, I shot all kinds of weapons during my training for S.T.A.R.S," Rebecca put in, her free hand going to her hip.

"I have no doubt about that. Now, which door do you want to try next?"

"Does it matter?" Rebecca sighed.

"I guess not," he said, and jerked her with him towards the stairs.

"You can at least warn me before you drag me along!" Rebecca grumbled.

Billy and Rebecca tried all of the single doors on the upper balcony, but all proved to be locked except for one on the east side. The hallway it led into was cold and led to another door and stairs that led up. They decided to go back and make sure before going there. Billy was able to kick one door in on the west side. It led them into a dim study room. There were many artworks hanging on the walls, but nothing useful could be found. The large window revealed black woods and pouring rain.

Just as they were turning to head out, the windows exploded with a burst of flying glass. Dark, glossy wings filled the dim lit room, and they heard the raucous cries of crows. The murder of crows rushed for them with talons and beating wings. Rebecca aimed and fired her handgun just as Billy brought up the shotgun. One bird went down, and the rest scattered. The harsh caws filled the room, and the crows flew for the wilderness outside to escape.

"That was close. Did you see that?! Those crows were infected too!" Rebecca exclaimed.

"Everything out there is a monster, I'm sure," Billy grumbled, slinging the strap of the shotgun over his shoulder.

There was no telling what could be out there, or here in this facility. Rebecca thought about it. The wildlife of Raccoon Forest was most likely mutated monsters just like the zombies and killer dogs they had run into. She immediately remembered the giant scorpion, and became greatly worried. She looked to Billy.

"I think you should save the ammo for the shotgun…just in case we run into something like that giant scorpion."

"I agree," Billy mumbled, nodding his head.

They left the study room in silence. Rebecca led the way over to the final set of doors up in the front of the upper balcony. The double doors sat quietly in front of a large statue. They tried the doors, and found that the knobs turned easily. Rebecca paused when she and Billy entered into some kind of conference room. There were two rows of tables that had built-in computers. In front of them was a small stage and platform for a speaker. A white sheet hung down for a slideshow monitor.

"The more rooms we enter in this place, the more I don't like it," Billy said, clenching his jaw for a moment.

"Me either."

There were no doors to their right. To their left were three doors. They had no idea which door led to where. Rebecca felt her hope diminish. The facility was just getting bigger and bigger. She just wanted to reunite with her team and get the hell out of this nightmare.

"Great…three more doors," Billy growled.

Rebecca rubbed the sore line that was starting to form from the handcuffs. "It's your turn to pick a door."

"Well, we still have that door back in the main hall. Do you want to continue here or backtrack?" Billy questioned.

"This place is a freaking maze. I really don't know."

"I don't have any quarters on me."

Rebecca blinked, looking up at him for a moment. She then heaved a sigh. "Right…again, you aren't funny."

"It's not like we can split up, so what should we do?"

"Yeah, and whose fault is that?" Rebecca grumbled.

Billy's smile dropped, and he glared at her. "Don't bring this back on me, little girl."

"Don't call me little girl!"

Billy smirked down at her. "Don't make me come down there either."

Rebecca growled out in frustration, only for her to break out with a little laughter. "Are you implying that I am short?"

"Glad you noticed."

"You are very frustrating, you know that? But I'm glad to know that you are smarter than you look."

Billy jerked her forward on purpose. He turned back to the double doors. "Alright, let's go back and check that other section out. Then we will come back."

"Maybe I want to go through one of those doors over there," Rebecca stated, jerking her thumb over to one of the three doors in the conference room.

"If you can manage to drag my ass over there, then let's go," Billy said, staring her down again. He was meaning to look serious, but Rebecca could see his eyes dancing with laughter.

"This is going to be a long night," Rebecca heaved, and followed Billy back out into the main hall.

***

William heaved a sigh for the millionth time. He sat there twiddling his thumbs as he waited for security system to reboot. The wall of video footage around the Training Facility continued to play in front of him. There were zombies and other creatures in various rooms, but his main interest came to the two handcuffed survivors. They were doing extremely well, considering their situation. Another video camera showed his partner walking through the various hallways, heading down to the basement to head out.

William felt compelled to say something smart to Wesker. He got out his walky-talky. "If I get attacked by slimy leeches then you sure as hell aren't getting out of here without me haunting your ass."

He saw Wesker pause very little in his stroll through the hallway. "Would you like me to call Annette for you so she can come up and be your guard dog?"

William glared at his partner. "Smart-ass."

"Are you keeping an eye on our little guests? The male's name is Billy by the way."

William put the walky-talky back up to his mouth, watching the handcuffed strangers. "Yes. They are bickering in the conference room. How the hell do you know his name is Billy?"

"If you must know, I caught Enrico's signal as he was talking on his radio. Don't forget to program the system."

"Is that all you care about?"

Wesker didn't answer him. It would be a long progress to get the Training Facility set to blow. Meanwhile, he would have to keep an eye out for Billy and Rebecca here, as well as his undead mentor and his pack of leeches. He would be safe here for awhile in the surveillance room, but then he would have to leave.

He watched as Billy and Rebecca headed up the stairs into the holding arena. He hardly cared, until he saw the massive arthropod that slipped into the large air duct at the one of the bases. William instantly recognized it as a giant centipede.

The creator of the G-Virus smiled slyly. "If they survive that thing, then they are ridiculously lucky." He then brought the walky-talky back up to his mouth. "Our two little handcuffed guests are about to get eaten by a Chilopoda! What do you think about them apples?"

He only received static. "I said what do you think about them apples?" Still only static came on the other side. "Wesker? Weesskkeerr…okay, you better be getting attacked by a monster if you aren't answering me!"

William typed in a sequence to bring up different locations of the security cameras. One camera showed the basement, where the train wreckage was still burning. He saw Wesker, but he wasn't alone. William recognized Colonel Sergei Vladimir.

"Hey! It's Sergei! What is-oh crap he is attacking Wesker!"

Sergei remained on top of one of the train cars. His sidekick in the white trench coat was taking on Wesker down in the burning rubble. Wesker shot multiple bullets from his handgun, far more than enough to take down a normal human.

"What the hell is that freak?"

Before William could really see much of anything, something suddenly exploded, sending more metal and rubble flying. The man in white was sent flying from the blast. Wesker, who had just barely missed the explosion on the other side, took this opportunity to make an escape. William watched as Sergei joined his side-kick. The Russian Colonel only seemed to be amused on the camera. William couldn't make out what Sergei was saying, but soon the two of them left as well. They walked down the tunnel, heading straight for the Spencer estate.

"Wesker?" William asked into the radio.

"Yes?"

"You almost got your ass handed to you by a comic book freak and all you can say is, yes?" Will grumbled.

"You are distracting me. I told you to only contact me in case of an emergency, not to babble on like a baboon."

"Oh, that's the response I get for being worried about you?"

"I'm about to enter out into the forest, so I am going to lose you. It will take me a couple of hours to get my team into the mansion. I will contact you again when I am alone there. Don't screw around, William."

"Yeah, yeah. Get to work," William replied, then tossed the walky-talky onto the control panel. "That's fine. While you get to take a stroll through Raccoon Forest…I get to see a couple of nitwits get eaten by a giant centipede."

***

The only door in the small hallway led into a dark, musty room containing old artwork and broken statues. There was a large, blue steel door, but Rebecca and Billy decided to draw back out into the hallway. They went up the stairs, coming up into a huge hall filled with machines and cages. There were only two doors, one on each side of the long room.

Rebecca had to wrinkle her nose in disgust. It smelled like animal musk in here, and it covered the large hall in a thick blanket. Billy didn't seem to care too much. Though, if he was in the Marines, he was probably used to not letting smells affect his focus. Rebecca looked around, wanting to know what this room was used for. It had to have been used with animals, there was no challenging that. She felt her stomach knot, and she didn't like the feeling she was getting in this room, even though it was empty.

"Stay close…I have a bad feeling about this room," Billy whispered.

"It's not like I could go far or anything," Rebecca answered, but listened to him. He was right. There was something going on in this room.

"There are even cages hanging from chains," Billy said, pointing up towards the high ceiling.

"Which way should we go?" Rebecca headed for the double doors to the north. On each side of the doors was a large suit of armor. The suits were facing each other, and had their swords out and crossing the other, preventing passage through the doors.

They heard a deafening shriek behind them. Both Rebecca and Billy whirled around, both aiming their weapons. They were absolutely stunned at the sight, having to crane their necks up to see the massive monster. The creature was a giant centipede and half of its segmented body was raised into the air to glare down at them.

"That's a centipede!" Rebecca grunted, feeling more stunned then when she came face to face with the scorpion.

"No, that's Centipedezilla! Now move!"

Rebecca felt her legs suddenly start moving again. They bounded forward together, careful not to spread too far apart from one another. The centipede was fast, even for its massive size. It slid around on its many legs to follow them. Billy and Rebecca turned to face the creature. They started firing off multiple rounds. Each bullet sent off a spray of greenish brown pus on the thing's underbelly, but it did not stop it.

They had to move again. The centipede slithered for them with grace and ferocity. They continued to shoot until both of their handguns clicked empty. The giant arthropod slammed into Billy, making him fall backwards into the pit and taking Rebecca with him. They fell ten feet down onto the wet stone floor. Billy immediately unslung the shotgun. The two of them jumped to their feet. The creature hissed loudly, moving down to confront them.

Billy got in front of Rebecca, aiming the shotgun upwards. Just as the centipede's head came just feet away, Billy fired the Remington. The blast took a huge chunk off of the monster's head, brown liquid spraying everywhere. The centipede screeched out, falling the rest of the way into the pit. Billy and Rebecca quickly climbed the nearby ladder back onto level floor, tripping over each other from the pull of the handcuffs.

The centipede wasn't done yet, it slowly climbed out of the pit. Billy fired two more rounds of the shotgun into the creature. It screeched loudly, flailing its body about in aggravation.

"Billy! Look!" Rebecca exclaimed, pointing up.

He followed her gaze, seeing the large cage with the sharp ends pointed down towards the floor. They followed the chain to the nearby machine. A crank was holding the chain up. Billy and Rebecca quickly ran over it. It took Billy no time to release the crank. The cage fell with great speed towards the monster. The chain made a lot of noise as it slipped. The cage crashed onto the centipede's head, digging the spears on the bottom into its flesh. The force was so much, the giant arthropod was only able to thrash once before it collapsed into silence.

Billy and Rebecca continued to aim their weapons a whole minute before they were sure the thing was dead. They stood there in silence, catching their breath. They would have probably dropped down to rest if it hadn't been for their situation. They looked to each other, slightly smiling that they were able to survive such a thing. Neither one had to say a word. They headed back to the main hall in silence, giving up on this area of the facility.

"You aren't allowed to pick doors anymore," Rebecca sighed, finally feeling the adrenaline slow in her body.

"Yeah, well, at the rate we are going, the next thing we are going to meet up with is a giant spider. We could also throw in some other creatures. How about a giant snake or a giant-"

"Will you stop that?! You are going to curse us! And we better not run into any giant spiders."

"Why?" Billy asked, slightly smiling.

"Because…I hate spiders."

"You're aren't one of those girly girls, are you?"

Rebecca growled in annoyance. "No, I just don't like spiders. Snakes, mice, and normal bugs don't bother me."

"Just spiders?"

"Just spiders. Why are you giving me that face?"

Billy slightly scowled. "What face?"

"That face…are you surprised that I'm not a girly girl?"

"No, I'm just surprised that you are talking about spiders when we almost got ate by a giant centipede."

As they entered back into the candlelit main hall, she could only laugh. "Yeah, your right."

"Shall we head back to the conference room, Officer Chambers?"

"I don't know if that's worse than doll face or not."

"You told me to call you that back in the train," Billy chuckled.

"Oh yeah, now you start calling me the correct name. Let's just stick with Rebecca, alright Billy?"

"Okay, doll face."

She cringed, but smiled nonetheless. "Let's go see what else we can get ourselves into in this creepy facility, okay?"

***

William choked on his drink. He gawked in horror as the two handcuffed survivors killed the giant centipede without hardly getting a scratch. He scratched the back of his head, utterly confused.

"This just isn't right. Our whole Delta Team gets wiped out, along with all the other researchers and soldiers by the virus and BOWs, and these two are surviving it cuffed at the freaking wrist."

He flopped back down into his chair, making it squeak from his weight. He watched as Billy and Rebecca made their way back towards the main hall of the Training Facility. He even saw them smile and talk a little as they walked, as if nothing had happened.

"Yeah, right, go ahead and freaking flirt while you walk around a monster infested building. I mean, come on, really," William growled. Out of frustration, he butted his head down onto the control panel. "Ow."

Nearby, his cell phone started ringing. He glanced over at it as the ring tone played the Darth Vader theme. Grumbling, he grabbed the phone and flipped it open.

"Did you get lost in the woods?"

"I was just calling to inform you that Sergei and his little friend are heading for the mansion. Bravo Team's helicopter is due east about ten miles. I can see the smoke. Make sure you avoid the area when you leave."

"Yeah, because a Lexus really stands out on the country roads. Oh, and it will look really suspicious coming from a burning facility that just blew up and created a small tremor that could probably be felt for at least a mile," William snorted. "Will you relax, Al? I got it!"

He could practically feel Wesker cringe on the other side of the phone. He hated being called Al. William only snickered. "Did you remember to send Annette those documents?"

"Crap. No, but I will get them before I blow this place sky-high. I can't believe I forgot. I'm surprised she hasn't called."

Wesker started answering him on the other side, but William was suddenly distracted. He saw James Marcus walking around with a horde of leeches up on the third floor where the dead centipede rotted away. He felt his eye twitch, and he wanted to vomit.

"William?"

"Huh? I have no idea what you just said," William answered. He heard Wesker growl on the other side. "Hey, I gotta go. Our undead psycho mentor is wandering around. Contact me when you have your team in. Bye!"

William slapped the cell phone shut, glaring up at the leech man. He looked back to the video feed of the conference room. Billy and Rebecca were deciding on which door to go through.

"Really, if those two make it out of here alive…I am going feel like an ass," he heaved, leaning back in his chair.

Chapter 5 is finally good to go! I had a heck of a time trying to write it! I have to make a lot of changes due to Rebecca and Billy cuffed at the wrist, but don't worry! I will get it done and won't give up! XD As much as I had trouble with this chapter, in the end I actually enjoy it quite a lot! I hope all of you had a wonderful New Years Holiday! I know I did! Did some dancing and drinking at eating and laughing and vomiting....yeah, I threw up in my grandmother's car, lol. But I had a blast with the family! XD I hope all of you enjoy this little chapter that I worked so hard on!!!!