Chapter 6

-Umbrella's First Victim-

Now all eyes were on Eva and when she said nothing, Chris pointed his gun at her. He realized she had probably heard him shout Wesker's name in the flashback but the fact that she hadn't proceeded to point that out told Chris she knew more than she was letting on.

"You may be a kid but if you don't start explaining what you're doing here, there's going to be trouble." Chris told her, his expression proved he was serious.

Eva didn't react at all to the fact that there was a weapon in her face. She met his gaze but remained silent. After a moment of this tense situation, Claire tried to get through to her.

"Come on, Eva. We don't want anyone to get hurt here. Just meet us halfway. Tell us why you're here and you don't have to tell us anything more."

When Chris gave Claire a sharp glare, she quickly added, "At least for now."

Eva seemed amused by this. "You think just because we are near the same age you could understand me better?"

Claire rolled her eyes. "I don't know, Eva, but I'm not the one with a gun to my head."

She blinked calmly back at the other blonde girl. "I could kill you all if I so chose to but there is no sense in killing the weak when there is no gain."

Chris's eyes widened at the insinuation she had just made.

"I've heard that somewhere before... Who are you? Have I met you before?" Chris demanded.

"No and today is the first time I have laid eyes upon you as well." Eva informed him.

It was growing more hostile between Chris and Eva and Claire quickly tried to intervene.

"Look, you said you were here to help us. So just tell us why you want to help us. You can tell us that at least, right?"

Eva paused before replying. "That isn't entirely accurate."

Claire seemed shocked. "What?!"

She shifted her gaze from Claire to Chris. "I actually came here for your help, Chris."

"My help?" Chris asked, confused.

Eva's phone rang. "I'm sorry, Chris."

"For what?" he asked her with a frown.

Suddenly Eva lashed out with her right leg, striking the gun from Chris's hand. Then she was running across the courtyard. She climbed up a wall that would be extremely difficult for most to climb and vaulted to the other side, disappearing from sight. Chris bent down to pick up his gun with an annoyed grunt.

"What is it about honesty that is just so damn difficult for people?" Chris muttered.

No one answered him and he wasn't really looking for anyone to. He holstered his gun and motioned with a hand.

"Let's go. Be on guard in case we run into Eva again. She doesn't seem to be against us but she's also hiding something and that doesn't sit well with me."

The rest of the group seemed to agree with this statement as they continued across the courtyard and through the now open gate. They entered into a narrow hallway of some kind and Chris cursed, kicking the wall.

"We're back in the mansion again!" he complained. "Nothing's where it's supposed to be so how am I supposed to get us out of here?"

"You're asking us?" Matt asked, raising an eyebrow slightly.

Chris sighed. "I don't know. Let's just see where this door takes us."

Since the hallway was so small, they had to move single file down the corridor and into the next room. The room turned out to be a bedroom. To their left was a door which upon quick inspection, was found to be a bathroom. Further into the bedroom, the room opened up more but not much more because there was a corpse hanging from the ceiling fan. The man had either committed suicide or someone else had hung him up there. A piece of paper lay on the desk and Chris retrieved it. The rest of the group lingered near the bathroom because they had no desire to come closer to the hanging corpse.

"My dear Alma," Chris read. "The fact that you have received this letter is both a joy and a sadness for me. I could not even talk to you because of that guy in the sunglasses. Alma, be calm and read this. I think I've told you that I moved to a pharmaceutical company's lab. They headhunted me. Last month, there was an accident in the lab and the virus we were studying escaped. All my colleagues who were infected by the virus are dead. To be accurate, they've become the living dead. They still wander around. Some of them are knocking on my room door desperately right now. But there's no sign of intelligence in their eyes. That cursed virus takes away all humanity from the human brain. Love, joy, sorrow, fear, humor...eternally. And Alma, even the memories of the days I spent with you...Yes, I'm infected. I did everything I could, but I could only delay the progress by a few days. The most frightening thing is, that I forget more about you by the day. So I chose a peaceful death, rather than become the living dead. Within an hour, I will have entered my eternal sleep. I do hope you'll understand my decision...Goodbye and forever yours, Martin Crackhorn."

Chris set the piece of paper back down on the desk.

"Guy in the sunglasses, gee I wonder who that could have been." His tone was audibly sarcastic.

But then his demeanor changed as he glanced around the room and spotted the shelves on the left wall.

"Wait a minute, I think there's a secret passageway behind these shelves."

Chris immediately headed over to them and studied the twin shelves for a moment. One of the shelves was jutting out farther than the other and with a strong push, he shoved the shelf out of the way to reveal a metal ladder. He smiled when he caught sight of the passageway.

"Found it. Okay, this way," He told them and started down the ladder.

When everyone was at the bottom, they found themselves standing in a wide passageway. It was damp down here and smelled faintly of stinky water, like sewage.

"Looks like someone dropped something." Danko pointed out and he trotted over to a piece of paper.

"July 22, 1998. To the head of the security department "X-Day" is approaching. Complete the following orders within the week. Lure members of STARS into the lab and have them fight with the B.O.W. in order to obtain data of actual battles. Collect two embryos per B.O.W. type making sure to include all species except for Tyrant. Destroy the Arklay lab including all researchers and lab animals in a manner which will seem accidental. White Umbrella."

"Sounds like we just found your old buddy's orders." Danko told Chris, letting the paper fall to the ground again.

"Wesker is not my 'buddy'." Chris informed him through gritted teeth.

Danko ignored the annoyance, instead pondering the orders he had just read. "So what exactly is this Tyrant? It doesn't happen to be running around here, right?"

Chris shook his head. "Tyrant was in the lab, or at least until Wesker released it that night. Besides, we would know if Tyrant was loose."

"Oh? And why is that?" Danko asked him skeptically.

He seemed unable to believe that anyone could know more than him, no matter what the situation. Chris glanced at Danko.

"Because if Tyrant was loose, it would find us."

The others exchanged looks, each of them now silently hoping this tyrant creature wouldn't cross their paths. Chris was already heading down the passageway though, weapon out to be cautious. There was a metal door at the end and to the right and they passed through it. When they were all through they found themselves to be standing near a lit fireplace in a cabin of some kind.

The group leader cursed silently under his breath. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"What is it?" Noah asked when he noticed Chris's darkened expression.

"This is the cabin where I first met her, when I first met Lisa Trevor. Well, what she had become anyways."

Chris started to back towards the door. "We need to get out of here, now."

The door started to open before they could go back through it. Chris shrank back as an indescribably hideous creature came through the door. The creature was deformed and hunched forward. It wore what looked to be human faces on its head making its own face impossible to find. It wore a very dirty white hospital gown and its hands were shackled together in front of it, along with its legs. When the creature walked, the shackles clanked audibly together and dragged along the ground. Upon noticing the large group, the thing began to moan sadly and urgently. Weird tentacle things sprung out of its back, whipping dangerously close to them.

"Run!" Chris yelled and pointed to a small hallway that none of the others had noticed before.

They ran down the small hall which took them past two beds and into another which held a single wooden door. Chris was at the rear and he shouted for them to hurry up. They all ran through the door and found themselves out in the quiet night. They heard gunshots from inside as the last of them, Matt and Mohinder, came running out of the cabin. A loud, horrific wail sounded from inside and they knew it was from that creature. Then Chris was running outside and he ran past them, shouting for them to follow. He led the way into the woods, weaving around trees and stepping over roots. An audible moan came to their left.

"Is that a-" Matt started.

"Yeah! There are zombies in these woods! Be careful to avoid them!" Chris yelled back.

Only one zombie was actually standing on the path that they found and started running on, but the creature was easily avoided by stepping off the path momentarily and going around it. The undead zombie noticed them after the first two ran past but it merely started after them at a slow shamble, unable to move any faster and so not really a threat to any of them. The path took them through a gate and another path. From this path, they saw that they were no longer in the mansion as they could see it from where they stood. They reached a dimly lit area outside, where there were two sets of double doors to choose from.

Chris stopped and motioned for the rest of them to stop as well so they could catch their breath.

"We should be far enough away. She's immune to bullets so we really had to get out of there." Chris explained.

"She?" Mohinder asked in confusion and disbelief.

"That was her, wasn't it?... Lisa." Claire deduced, her voice quiet. "I saw a photo of a family. Dad, mom, and a little girl sitting on a table near one of those cots. I also found these."

Claire handed a small journal over to Chris. He took it after a moment, his eyes watching her to make sure she was handling the situation okay. She was doing surprisingly well for a girl who was maybe 17 or 18 years old. She really did remind him of his own sister Claire when she had been 19. Chris smiled to himself. His sister had had spunk just like this girl and both of them were incredibly brave in such terrifying situations.

Since everyone was catching their breaths anyways, he decided it couldn't hurt to read the journal.

"November 14, 1967. I feel dizzy after that shot they gave me. I don't see mom. Where did they take her? She promised that we would escape together. Did she escape alone and leave me behind? November 15, 1967. I found mom. We ate together. I was very happy. But she was a fake. Not my real mom. Same face but different inside. Have to find mom. Have to give face back to mother. I got mom's face back. Nobody can have my mom except me. I attach her face to me so she doesn't go away. Because mom sad when I meet her without her face."

"That was, she was, wearing her mother's face. Oh God.." Mohinder bent over.

He looked ready to throw up at the realization that the girl had ripped her mother's face off and wore it. He leaned with one hand against the wall of the shed, taking deep breaths. Chris continued reading despite this.

"November 17, 1967. From inside box, scent of mommy. Maybe true mother there. Stone box hard. It hurt. Steel rope in the way. Can't see mother becuz 4 stones. 19th. Daddy attacked first. Mom attacked second. Inside red and slimy, white and hard. Not true mom where. Dunno dad, found mom again. When attacked mommy, she moved no more. She screaming. Why? Just want to be with her. Mom, where? I miss you."

Chris sighed deeply. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately too. A lot of cursing and sighing.

"Umbrella claimed a lot of victims," was all Chris said before he pushed through the double doors on the left and led them into something unexpected. They were in a hollowed out cavern of some kind. Chris cursed.

"Get out of one hole only to fall into another," he said. "This is basically Lisa's playground."

"Great..." Peter said to himself, squinting to see further into the barely lit cavern.