Back on the island, Hunnigan begins to deal with tech withdrawal. For most of her time there, she's been kept inside the mansion, with nothing to do but read books and wander, with constant supervision, of course. She sits inside one of the many rooms, the mansion was so large that it could fit a small village. Piers stands guard by the door with her, tweaking with his sniper. He notices Hunnigan began moving her fingers, almost like she was in front of a computer. He walks over to her and snaps her out of it. "Hey, you alright?"
She whips her head to him in surprise. "OH, I'm sorry."
Piers steps back and pulls up a chair next to her. "Are you alright, you started looking like a zombie. I rather not shoot you."
"My apologies, it's that… I'm always at my station at headquarters, watching over Leon. It just feels… strange."
He gives a quick chuckle. "Sorry if this place lacks technology. But, to be honest, it's peaceful here, better than back at Base Camp."
"Base Camp?" she said, unsure of what he meant. "What Base Camp?"
"Oh right," he responds. "Well, near the interior of the island, there's a structure built out there, like a Base, or training ground. It's where we, infected and with any form of combat training, live."
"Wait," she asks. "If there are others, why aren't they here?"
"Dylon felt this would be a bad place to do any training. Besides, we chose to live separate, some of us aren't keen to these form of conditions either."
"How many of you are there?"
"Well, you already met Hunter and Scott, me included. In total, there's eight of us, not counting him."
"Who's he?"
"A few years ago, we sent a man named Ryan on a mission. He's a former agent if you will, something like Ada, only less serious. He was sent on the mission with his partner to infiltrate an unknown laboratory we located near the badlands of Utah. He ran into this guy, called himself Agent, and, long story short, ended up helping each other. They keep in touch, even Dylon feels he could trust him."
"So, is he a friend, an ally?"
"We're not sure, but he helps out."
Hunnigan begins to feel uneasy. "Something wrong?" Piers asks.
"Well… what do you mean by 'unknown lab'?".
"...He found it on a recon mission, we didn't know what experiments it was conducting, but we knew it was Entity. So, Ryan set a bomb to destroy the place."
Hunnigan felt more uneasy, a secret base inside the U.S., without anyone knowing. Another thought came to mind. "One more thing. When I spoke to Dylon while you were with Helena, he said something about a 'guardian' in the water. What is it."
"None of us really know. Dylon felt it would be too dangerous to dive in and see. We decided to leave it alone."
"Any idea on how big it is?"
"No. We tried to circle the island, but past the mountains, whirlpools prevent us from going around, and the fog doesn't help much."
Suddenly, the door burst open. They turn to see it was Lisa, looking sad. Piers gets out of his chair and walks towards her. "Lisa, what's wrong?"
She doesn't answer, instead, wrapping her arms around his waist. Hunnigan begins to feel embarrassed, watching this. "Uh… Lisa… what are you…" Piers says, trying to have her let go. She wouldn't, she just continued to stick to him. Behind her, Scott walks into the room, maneuvering around them. "Captain Piers, Lisa… uh… wanted me to watch Hunnigan, with your permission."
"Okay," Piers says, "just go please."
Scott escorts Hunnigan out of the room, Piers shuffles over to the bed in the corner. They close the door to let him deal with Lisa in private. Scott starts walking over to another room. "Come on, it's better to let Captain Piers deal with it."
Hunnigan doesn't give a response, standing in front of the door, curious about what he's doing in their. "Scott," she says, "what is Piers doing?"
"I don't know, but whenever that happens, it's better to give them space and…," he stops mid sentence, checking his left ear. "Crap, I think my communicator dropped when I came in." He walks over to the door, opening the handle slowly, considering if it's even reasonable to disobey his Captain's orders, just to get his communicator. Hunnigan notices a hint of curiosity in his eyes before he opens the door, more curious than she thought. When the door opens, he was about to say why he's walking in, only to jump back in shock. He saw Piers, pinned down on the bed, with Lisa hovering over him.
Scott closes the door, immediately wishing to avoid any embarrassment and disappointment for disobeying his Captain. He and Hunnigan hurry out of the hall. As they do, Piers pops his head out of the door, appearing annoyed and just as embarrassed.
On the other side of the mansion on the ground floor, Helena continues her exploration of the large structure. She's amazed that after about a week, she still finds new rooms or areas of the mansion. As she comes to a split in the halls, one way going left, the other right, she begins to hear noises from one of the rooms behind her. She turns around and looks at the door to her left, the sounds appearing to come from there. She opens the door to find Maya, Theo, and Raph, running around inside. The room was somewhat large, a small lightbulb in the center was the only source of light. The room has stacks of boxes, crowded shelves, and items everywhere. Maya doesn't notice Helena and bumps into her leg. She looks up in surprise to see her aunt at the doorway. Theo retreats behind a few boxes and Raph did the same as Maya, running into Helena's other leg. She gives a quick chuckle before kneeling down to talk to them.
"What are you guys doing," she asks, "and what is this room?"
Maya backs away, giving a childish smile. "This is the 'treasure room'," she says, moving her hands from the top of her head to her sides as she said the name of the room.
"What's the 'treasure room'?" Helena copies her.
Raph moves in front of Maya. "It's our stuff, anything we find outside."
Maya runs around him and grabs Helena's left hand, pulling her into the room. "Aunty, we have something for you."
Helena isn't sure if it was safe, but she thought that they were just kids, it couldn't be that bad. Maya leads her towards the back of the room, there hung a large shelf with a small book and a locked box. Helena stands there for a moment, Maya gesturing for her to take the items. Helena tries opening the book, only to see it has a lock on it too. She kneels down to be as close to Maya as possible. "Thank you, but… what are these?"
"They for you. Mama says we can't have them. Aunty have them."
Helena gives a small smile, enjoying how childish her sister's kids act, which shouldn't be surprising since they are very young. She walks back to her room to see if she could open the book or box. The box is made of old and almost fragile wood. With little effort, she brakes the screws of the lock handle off. When she opens the box, she was surprised. Inside lays a Hydra, a small three barreled shotgun, along with a few shells. The small to medium sized gun brings back many memories. During the Tall Oaks incident, she had one handy, only to lose it during the escape from the catacombs, but that's for another time.
She is amazed that how well the gun looked, showing to have been cared for greatly by its previous owner. She isn't sure if Dylon would allow her to keep it, seeing as he destroyed her handgun. She plans to find him and ask if she could keep it. She couldn't find him anywhere, however. Not in his medical room, bedroom, or the library. She finds herself in the foyer, confused and tired of searching the whole mansion. At the corner of her eye, she sees a figure outside the window. As she looks out to get a better view, she sees it's Dylon, heading towards the shore.
She feels it wouldn't be too much of a bother to ask him now. She noticed that anything outside the mansion he did, it wasn't that important. He was moving at a quickened pace, as if he was in a hurry. Helena finds it a little difficult to catch up to him. As he heads towards the shore, the fog grew thicker. She soon loses him completely. She tries calling for him, knowing he will hear her. "DYLON, WHERE ARE YOU?" No answer.
Helena couldn't see anything, except for the ground by her feet. Even the sound of the waves were useless, they sound as if they were coming from all sides. As she continued to listen, she notices another sound mixed in, a strange rocking sound, like something floating near the shore. She tries to follow it, hoping it would lead her to Dylon. The noise grew stronger, and stronger, until she finds herself face to face with a boat. At first, she thought it was Piers's, but the boat has unknown markings, appearing cross-like, four sharp ends extending from a staff-like shape.
The noise appears to be coming from behind the boat. She goes around it to find a small object, bobbing around the surface. Suddenly, the atmosphere around her becomes heavy, as if she was being watched. Helena slowly backs away, about to bolt the opposite way off the shore. Suddenly, she hears loud footsteps behind her, like someone running towards her. Before she could react, a figure appears before her and pushes her out of the way. In a split second, she sees large blades behind the figure, they would have hit her if the figure didn't save her.
She soon realizes it was Dylon, but the figure with the claws was unknown. He jumps back up, along with Helena, to confront their assailant. The figure becomes clear all of a sudden. He stands taller than they did, a foot or more than Dylon. His head and upper torso are relatively armored, but nothing else. The most striking features are the eyes, which were sewn shut, and the meter long claws on the gauntlets on his hands. Helena readies her shotgun, good thing that she brought it. Dylon goes into a battle stance. The creature gives a loud grunt before charging at them. He swipes his left claw at Dylon, his right to Helena. She dodges by diving under them, Dylon jumping over and landing behind the creature. He extends a spike from his palm and jabs it into the creature's back. It goes down in pain, Dylon was surprised that did more than he thought. He sees a strange growth in the spot he hit afterwards.
Helena aims her shotgun, only to see a tentacle appear above her head and grab onto it. As she struggles to regain her weapon, she follows the tentacle to the other end. She finds it to be originating from another figure, standing on the front of the boat. Dylon sees Helena struggling and decides to leave the downed creature. Out of nowhere, a third figure appears. It jumps from behind the second one, spinning in the air, grabbing Dylon's attention. Without warning, it lands a kick right into his face, knocking him down, and proceeding to pin him down. It grabs him by the head, moving it, erratically, from side to side. Dylon moves his legs onto the creature's chest and shoves it off. He squares off with the creature as it paces around him on all fours. Helena is finally able to regain her shotgun, the tentacle having given up. But as she tries to locate it and the second figure, they both disappear. Suddenly, she feels something hit the back of her head, knocking her down.
She turns over to see the figure appear out of nothing. As she readies her weapon, the figure knocks it out of her hands. Dylon sees her pinned down. He tries to help her, but the creature blocks him. At that moment, Dylon extends his arm, hand open. A large spike begins growing from the center, before shooting out towards the second creature. It jumps back before the spike hits it. With that, Helena springs for her weapon and fires off a shell. It wasn't a direct hit, but what did hit knocked the creature down. She stands up in relief for a second before the first creature reenters the fight.
It swings randomly, trying to hit its target. The back of the blades hit Helena, knocking her against the ship. Dylon becomes frustrated, but was still struggling to get around the third creature. Suddenly, a loud noise is shot off. A bullet flies by Dylon and hits the large creature in the same spot on the back, taking him down. The third creature looks pass Dylon to see the shooter on the edge of the beach, Scott. Scott calls out to Dylon, who couldn't hear what he said. The creature takes its chance as Dylon was distracted. He leaps over him and charges for Scott.
He aims his assault rifle and tries to hit the creature. Unfortunately, it's too fast and dodges each bullet. It knocks him down and grabs him by the legs. It starts spinning him around before tossing him into the forest. Dylon was both worried for Scott and amazed at the creature's strength. It soon runs towards the forest, Dylon following behind. He stops to find Scott leaning against a tree and helps him up. "I'm fine," he says, "I'll help Helena, you go stop that thing."
Dylon gives a quick nod before continuing his chase.