Resident Evil Recall: Operation Arklay

Episode Seven: Investigations

Part Four

The Arklay Resort, 5:00 PM…

Being that it was still Spring, the sun was already starting to set by the time that Five O'clock rolled around, and Chambers was only having marginal luck with his task of finding more information about the mysterious noises that were reported at night. Following McGee's instructions, he began his search at the pool house, but aside from getting to see some rather attractive women walking around in their bathing suits, only a couple people even knew what he was talking about.

The majority of guests seemed genuinely surprised by this topic, and actually ended up asking even more questions than he did, but it wasn't like the ones who had something to say were very helpful either. Most of them grumbled something about what sounded like thumping or dragging sounds waking them up for a moment in the middle of the night, but they just assumed that it was coming from outside. None of them had bothered to investigate further, and that was the end of their usefulness.

After finishing at the pool house, he went to the gym, and it was a mirror of the same surprised ignorance or half-interested indifference that he had received before, so Chambers decided to be proactive. Everyone that had known about the noises had suggested that maybe they were coming from outside, so that was where he went. There had still been a little light left in the sky, and he wasn't supposed to meet with McGee again until about Six O'clock, so he left the gym, and returned to the main hotel building to do a walk of the outside perimeter.

The first thing he thought of was animals rummaging through the trash, so the dumpsters were the first place that he investigated. The smell was awful, and even worse once he got the hard plastic lid open, but that was it. None of the bags had been ripped open or disturbed in any way, so he closed the lid, and resumed walking. His next thought was that maybe some animals had gotten into a fight, which would explain the thumping sounds, and the victor dragging away the loser's carcass would explain the dragging. However, once again, there was nothing to be found. The grounds outside the building were in pristine condition, just like the rest of the resort, so he had to admit that he had nothing when he finally returned to the hotel room.

"I hope you had better luck than I did." McGee grumbled as Chambers walked into the room. "Damn rich people; either they have their heads shoved so far up their rear end that it's almost back in the right position, or they are so disconnected from reality that they couldn't tell you a single useful detail even if they did know something."

Well, this made him feel a little better as he sat down at the room's small table across from him. If the experienced Detective couldn't track down any leads, then how could anyone expect a Rookie to do any better? Still, Chambers had been hoping to find some case-breaking clue that everyone else had missed so that he could be given credit for figuring it out. Oh, well, at least he had managed to write down the names and room numbers of everyone who knew something so that he would at least be considered an organized failure. It had been easy to get room numbers from people, but the hard part had been to write them down both without anyone noticing and before he forgot them.

"I didn't find much, either." Chambers replied as he took out his note pad. "Mr. Jenkins in 903 said he heard sounds coming from outside but didn't bother to investigate. Ms. Atkins in 912 said she heard some thumping and dragging, but seemed more interested in my opinion on her bikini than talking. Mr. Oppenheimer in 917 actually invited me to stay the night so that I could hear the sounds myself, among, um… other things, but I declined, so…

"Hold the phone!" The Detective shouted suddenly as he grabbed the notepad away from him. "Now, let's see… 903… 912… 917… 901… Chambers, are you absolutely sure that this is a list of everyone who heard strange noises?"

Hesitating before giving an answer, Chambers mentally ran back through all of his encounters with the people who actually had something useful to say, and he couldn't remember speaking to anyone whose names he hadn't written down. The way McGee was studying the notepad, Chambers was sure that he had missed something, but what was it?

"Yeah, that's everyone." He replied while straining to see what part of his notes were being looked at. "Why? Did you find something?"

"Yes, I did." McGee answered calmly. "But I wouldn't have if you didn't write all this down, good job. So… all of the windows on this building are double-paned to protect from the weather, right? And from what I saw when we arrived, there is only a single fire-escape located at one corner of this building, right? That being said, my question to you is: How did a bunch of people on the 9th floor hear thumping and dragging coming from outside?"

Chambers hadn't thought of that, and found himself grabbing the notebook to make sure that the Detective was correct. He was; everyone on the list was staying on the 9th floor, but if they were that high up and still heard noises, then the only way that was possible was if the noises… weren't outside. He looked up at the ceiling, and McGee nodded in approval before they both jumped up from their seats.

Nothing needed to be said as they left the room and ran down the hall to the elevator, but when the doors closed and they pressed the button for the Penthouse floor, nothing happened. The button didn't even light up even after being pressed five times, so they left the elevator, and ran through the stairwell door. It made a soft echo as it closed behind them, and after running up the last two flights of stairs, they tried the door, only to find it locked with some kind of covering over the narrow window from the other side. Like all the resort's doors, it was too heavy to force open, and neither of them were willing to risk shooting it, not that it would have worked anyhow, so there was only one other option.

"Let's go see our good friend, Reginald." McGee said as he started back down the stairs.

Chambers followed, but was suddenly uneasy. There were no construction warnings or signs at the door or elevator, so what reason was there to seal off an entire floor like that?

Arklay County Sheriff Station, 5:00 PM…

"Don't Aunt Yvonne me, Tobias." Commissioner Yvonne replied harshly after being introduced. "You are way outside of your jurisdiction, and if that wasn't bad enough, I come in here and catch you trying to recruit my Sheriff and his men to go along with you. Don't get me wrong, Tobias, you're family, so you and your… friends are welcome in Arklay Village, but you will not, I repeat, will not conduct any investigation of any kind outside of Raccoon City, especially without my permission."

"Jesus, lady." Lopez found himself saying mostly out of reflex. "What bug crawled up your ass? Seriously, we're out here trying to do you guys a favor, so why do you gotta come at us all hostile like that?"

Everyone in the room, including Liquid, seemed to be surprised at this reply. Apparently this woman was someone really important who was used to being respected and getting her way, but unfortunately for her, Lopez didn't give a damn about that. Her whole demeanor and attitude toward investigating a case as horrible as The Cannibal Murders reminded him of Chief Irons, and that made him hate her. There were children and teenagers getting ripped apart right in her own backyard, and she was out here talking about stupid crap like jurisdiction? Really?

"I mean, what the hell is wrong with you?" He continued without missing a beat. "The Sheriff understands, and Liquid might be an unstable jerk who's probably gonna get us all killed, but at least he's out here doing something. Sure, he probably doesn't even have a plan, and we'd all be better off if he was locked in a rubber room with a strait-jacket, but if he's the only one willing to get off his butt and take action, then I've got no choice but to go with it and hope that he doesn't drag the rest of us down with him when this whole operation goes down in flames and we all get…

"Okay, that's enough flattery for now, Lopez." Liquid interrupted before he could say anything else. "What he's trying to say, Aunt Yvonne, is that we can no longer sit back and do nothing while more people get killed or go missing every week. Your own niece and great-nephew were victims of this, and now we have a chance to do something about this."

"Enough!" Yvonne shouted while slamming her hands down on the table. "Get out of town, Tobias, and take Billy Idol there with you. No one hurts about Lilly and Isaac more than I do, but this little operation of yours ends right now. Sheriff Thompson, if Tobias and his little friends are not out of Arklay Village in ten minutes, I want you to arrest them."

"You can try." Lopez replied harshly.

"Hey, maybe we should just go." Ashwood said quietly. "Everyone's overemotional right now, but maybe we can try again in the morning."

"Ashwood's right." Liquid answered. "Let's go, Lopez."

He wanted to stay and teach the old woman a lesson by beating up her little Sheriff and his Deputies, and Lopez was pretty sure that he could, even without the others' support if he had to, but this whole thing was more important that his own pride. If little kids weren't being ripped apart in their homes, he probably would have attacked them, but if there was still a chance of getting them to join in on the operation, than he would restrain himself. Letting out a frustrated grown, he followed the others out of the Sheriff Station, and the angry expression stayed on his face as Liquid started the engine and the three of them drove away.

"A strait-jacket?" Liquid asked as they went down the road. "Is that really what you think of me, Lopez?"

"Hey, I tried to put it nicely." Lopez replied. "Who knows, Liquid, you might even like it in the nut-house. You'd get twenty four hour supervision, arts and crafts in the afternoon, and a healthy diet of applesauce and sedatives. What's not to like?"

"I think we're getting a little off-topic here." Ashwood interjected as they passed the village limits. "So far we're a bust on gaining new allies, and if I were you guys, I would focus on trying to find a way to make the Commissioner see reason. The Sheriff and his men were willing to join us, but I don't see them doing anything without her permission."

Lopez started to say something, but instead let out another frustrated growl before leaning back in the seat. He hated all this dancing around in order to get important idiots to try and understand things that should have been common sense. What he really wanted to do was tie up people like Chief Irons, Mayor Warren, and Commissioner Yvonne, and then beat them with a hose until they woke up from whatever la-la land their minds were trapped in. It was a nice thought, but honestly they were probably so far gone that it would be easier and more productive just to shoot them and put someone else in charge.

The sun had completely set by this time, and now the only light was that from the SUV's headlights. In the city, there was always a kind of ambient light in the sky that made it possible to see at least the outline of everything around, but here in the Arklay Mountains, there was nothing. This also made the ride back to base/Liquid's cabin feel like it was taking forever, and he was relieved when they finally turned into the driveway. The SUV came to a stop, and Lopez was about to get out, when he noticed that something was wrong. Instead of turning off the engine and getting out, Liquid and Ashwood remained still as if looking at something.

"Is that a hole?" Liquid asked.

Lopez sighed as he leaned forward to look, and then his eyes widened when he saw that there was now a large hole in the roof of the cabin as if something extremely heavy had fallen through from above.