Resident Evil Recall: Operation Arklay

Episode Eleven: Case Closed

Part One

Unknown Location, Outer Quarantine, 2:00 AM…

Expecting heavy resistance the moment they moved past the hallway junction into the quarantine area, Lopez was both relieved and disappointed at the same time when no one was there to greet them. The hallway took several turns, passing multiple rooms, but no one was inside any that they stopped to look into. There was plenty of science stuff, like beakers and machines that he didn't understand, but no sign of their teammates or the mysterious black-armored people.

The half-blond man couldn't help but wonder who they were, or better yet, who had put up the funding for a facility like this. McGee had shared his theory about animals being used for testing, but if that was true, then why weren't there a bunch of kennels with a variety of subjects to test… whatever this place was used for? It was also strange that this place seemed to be suffering from an extreme lack of staff, being that the two administrators were the only people that appeared to work there.

"Where the hell are the workers?" He asked as they crept down the hall. "All the lights are on, and the machines are going, so where is everyone?"

"Maybe they're all with Liquid and Carver." Chambers suggested. "That scientist guy really seemed to hate him, so maybe all the others do too."

"I don't know." McGee said. "Tobias makes enemies easier than anyone I've ever met, but something tells me that this place is supposed to be a secret. The more people you have that know a secret, the harder it is to keep, so I think that those two we saw earlier are the only staff assigned to this place. Look around; no personal possessions in the rooms, no spare gloves or shoes laying around… someone sure wanted this place to stay off the map."

"But then why bring us here?" Lopez asked. "There was a million to one odds against us ever finding this place, especially considering that we weren't looking for it, so why did they ambush us like that? They could've stayed quiet until we gave up, and we would never have known it was even here."

There were so many unknowns and bizarre factors about this case that the half-blond man thought his head was going to explode. So far they had seen freaks in the resort, a giant at Liquid's cabin, and now covert ops with secret facilities… it all seemed more like something out of a bad science fiction novel than real life. But this wasn't some lame story, it was real life, and each of them were going to have to keep on living it, regardless of how things turned out. Lopez's thoughts were then interrupted as the hallway ended at a large cargo elevator.

McGee pushed the button, and the three of them readied their weapons, aiming at the elevator doors as the machinery started to move. Was this where the black-armored people were waiting? Was there going to be a shootout as soon as the doors opened. The half-blond man's finger was on the trigger as the elevator came to a stop, but once again there was no one waiting for them when the doors finally slid open. For a second he thought they were hiding behind the wall on both sides, and the three of them waited a little bit before proceeding, but they were still alone when they carefully moved inside.

With only one button available to push, the team was soon on their way down, and Lopez was getting annoyed with getting all worked up during the wait, only to find out that no one cared about them wandering the facility at will. Their footsteps echoed as they left the elevator and moved down the basement-looking hallway toward quarantine, but the only thing waiting for them was a heavy duty blast door. No one was guarding it, but there were plenty of security measures in place, such as twin card readers, the reinforced steel frame, and the total prevention of lock-picking due to the lack of a keyhole.

"Try the card we got off that woman." McGee ordered.

It was as good of an idea as any, so Lopez continued to watch for threats while Chambers took the card out of his pocket. A yellow indicator light came on once he swiped it, but then the light turned red, and the door obviously didn't open. Trying again just to make sure, the Rookie swiped the card, only to have the same result. This was the only way that the administrators and the black-armored people could've come, so Lopez knew that they were beyond this door, but how in the hell were they going to get past it? He considered shooting at it for a second, but with as strong as the door was, the bullets would probably just bounce back and kill them.

"Okay, new plan." The Detective continued. "We need to go back upstairs and search for anything that might help us. Tools, a second key card, a damn plasma cutter, anything."

It didn't feel good to have to go back, but the half-blond man knew that he was right, so he and Chambers followed McGee back to the elevator. Hopefully they would be able to find what they needed before anything happened to the others.

Unknown Location, Quarantine Lab, 2:00 AM…

The creature that used to be Aunt Yvonne roared as Liquid ran out of the laboratory and down the long hallway back into the warehouse room. The security door opened and closed for him automatically, and once he was through, he looked for some way to lock it. There was no kind of manual switch, at least not on this side, and he hadn't been able to grab anyone's key card, so his only option was to barricade it. Unfortunately, there was nothing around that was big enough to push against it, not that he would have been able to by himself even if there was.

"Or maybe I could use that." The Lieutenant said.

There was a forklift parked in the corner, which made sense because this place was a warehouse, so he ran toward it. The abomination didn't appear to move very fast, but there still wouldn't be much time before it reached the warehouse. His first thought was to ram the creature and attempt to pin it down with the forks, but he didn't want to risk getting sliced with its claw, so instead he drove it around behind the large shelving unit that was closest to the door. Turning so that the forks were underneath the lowest part, Liquid raised them up, and the whole thing slowly began to tip over.

He had seen camera footage of accidents involving such shelves during cases, and in each situation the careless forklift operator managed to knock over not only the shelves, but damn near everything in the place, causing millions of dollars' worth of damages. There weren't enough things in this warehouse to cause that kind of destruction, but then his thoughts stopped as the security door opened. The Yvonne creature looked like it had gotten even bigger and more powerful now as it entered the room, but thankfully it didn't notice the gigantic shelf unit falling toward it until it was too late.

With a roar that sounded almost like surprise, the abomination was knocked to the floor, pinned by the shelf unit as it was struck by the heavy items stored on it. Liquid had wanted to barricade the door before it got into the room, but apparently this was all he could get, so he jumped off the forklift, and ran toward the far door. If he could get out of quarantine and back to the elevator, he could try to find the others, and then the most important thing was to report what was going on in this place once they got out. If Umbrella was really responsible for this T-Virus thing Harland had mentioned, then it implicated them in a lot more than just illegal research.

This probably meant that the people at the resort were test subjects, and after seeing what they did to Yvonne, so was that giant at the cabin. So were the killers in The Cannibal Murders just mindless test subjects as well? These were all questions that would have to be answered later, as the Lieutenant searched the door for a way to open it, but there didn't appear to be one. The only access point was two card readers like the ones that Harland and Yvonne had used to enter from the other side, and that made his heart sink.

Harland's card was back in the laboratory, but Liquid couldn't get to it since he had just barricaded the door, and the still moving creature was right in front of it. Yvonne's card was probably still in the pocket of what was left of her coat, but how the hell was he supposed to get to it without being sliced in half? His thoughts were interrupted as the abomination roared, he was no match for it, since his only weapon was a shock baton and his hands were still cuffed, so his only chance now was to hide. The Yvonne creature was slowly starting to free itself from under the heavy shelving unit, but if he was quick, maybe he could climb all the way on top of another one, where it couldn't see him.

This meant that he had to run back across the warehouse, but he had only made it about half way, when the abomination roared as it pushed the shelving unit upward so hard that it not only stood upright again, but fell in the other direction. All of the units behind it fell over like dominoes as the creature got to its feet, and the Lieutenant stopped in his tracks when it turned to face him. Out of desperation, he turned and ran back for the door, but then the abomination did something unexpected. It crouched down and leapt into the air, flying over him, and landing in front of him.

"No!" Liquid yelled as he skidded to a stop and fell on his rear. "No, no, no, no, no!"

Quickly scooting backwards as it walked toward him, he turned over and scrambled to his feet, doing a kind of clumsy run toward the door to the laboratory this time. Again the creature leapt over him, blocking his path, but he managed to stay standing this time. Then he remembered the forklift, and started running in its direction, but his heart sank when he saw that the abomination had knocked the shelving units over on top of it. Now starting to panic, he took off running in a random direction, toward the P-Epsilon tank that he had seen earlier. There was a small space underneath it, so maybe he could squeeze under it.

It was an awful plan, and when he reached the tank, the space under it turned out to be too small anyway. His mind was struggling to form a plan of some kind, when all thought ceased as something very big landed on the floor behind him. Out of reflex mostly, he spun around, and everything seemed to fall silent as he came face to face with the Yvonne creature. Somehow remembering how the shock baton had stunned the giant, he swung the weapon, but the monster knocked it out of his hand with its human looking arm, before stabbing into his chest with the claw.

It easily plunged all the way through, slicing its way out his back an instant later, and the Lieutenant barely registered the sound of metal being cut on the tank behind him as he waited to be torn in half like Harland and Carver had been. But then something strange happened: The creature roared in agony as a burst of what looked like green smoke shot through Liquid's wound, melting the claw all the way up to its shoulder as it stumbled back. The green smoke continued to shoot out through his chest in a concentrated stream that continued to slowly melt the Yvonne creature's flesh as it flailed its remaining arm in a weak effort to protect itself.

The smoke quickly spread throughout the room, leaving the abomination nowhere to run as more of its body melted, and with a final roar, it collapsed as it was slowly dissolved into a puddle of goo. This was great, since the Yvonne creature was destroyed, but Liquid wasn't doing so well either. The sensation of the smoke shooting through his body was like being burned and frozen at the same time, and now the green cloud seemed to be forming tendrils that were purposely aiming for his nose and mouth. There was nothing he could so as he felt the green smoke filling his lungs and spreading throughout his body, but he was finally able to fall to the floor a moment later.

Landing on his side and rolling onto his back, he was able to see that the P-Epsilon tank had been ruptured by the abomination's claw when it stabbed him. Now the green fog seemed to be drawn to him, quickly flowing into his wounds, ears, nose, and mouth while the warehouse room slowly regained its normal color. He couldn't see it himself, but his wide eyes turned yellow just for a moment, regaining their original color just before he lost consciousness.