Resident Evil:
The Whole Story.
Chapter Seventeen
Doctor Alicia Smith hated to admit it, but she was very, very afraid.
It started about a week and a half ago when her assistant Abby had come down with a high fever, at the time no one had been worried because a fever did not necessarily mean that someone had been infected by the virus, there had been no reported leaks, the creatures were all present and accounted for and no one else came down with a fever.
But then, a few days after she had been admitted into the infirmary for treatment Abby has succumbed and died...and in less then a minute she reanimated and sunk her teeth into one of the doctor's arm, she had been terminated by a security guard and the doctor who had been bitten had to be put down as well.
Since that day a full blown panic had spread through the entire lab, there were know leaks and yet somehow one of them had become infected and that meant there was a chance that the rest of them could become infected as well. And since that day more and more people were becoming infected by an unknown means. All three infirmaries were now filled up and there was no cure, the best they could do was delay the virus for a day or two.
The laboratory was in complete lockdown, the elevator that lead to the surface was powered down and the emergency elevator that lead up to the heliport was on lockdown as well, she had the authorization to unlock the emergency elevator but it didn't much matter, unless they had a really good reason to Umbrella was not going to send a helicopter to pick any of them up.
A side effect of being on lockdown was the lab was completely cut off from the mansion and the guardhouse so they had no idea as to weather or not the virus had reached that far, if Doctor Thompson was right in his theory however then it was almost a certainty that the mansion and guardhouse had been contaminated as well.
And if all of that wasn't bad enough, Doctor Wesker had completely disappeared. Ordinarily she would be more than happy to run the lab in his absence but now that this happened she was afraid, not just because there was every possibility that she could become infected as well but this happened on her was, Umbrella didn't tolerate failure.
She sighed heavily and rubbed her face, she had a meeting with the other senior researchers and the head of security to discus the incident and what the could do about it and she couldn't be late.
She had spent most of her time locked in her office, she had felt safe in here but out there anything could happen and leaving the room took a great deal of courage, more and more people were being infected every day and while no one had died yet, they would soon.
She unlocked the door of the office and stepped out but not before making sure that the corridor was completely clear. Most of the other researchers were hiding in their quarters or labs, trying to avoid infection by limiting their contact with other people.
Alicia began to walk down the corridor, her heels clicking loudly on the floor in the silence of the corridor.
It was the tensest fifteen minutes of her life as she made her way to the main meeting room, her paranoid and sleep deprived senses working overtime to warn of her any danger despite her mind telling that there shouldn't be any, there wouldn't be any reanimated hosts just wandering around and all the B. were locked up in their cages.
She still didn't even begin to calm down until she saw the double doors of the meeting room however, she jogged over to the doors and pushed them open, practically diving inside before firmly shutting them behind her.
There weren't as many people in the meeting room as she had been expecting, only half of the senior researchers were here, John Howe and Tyron Yusfu were both sitting next to one another and speaking in hushed tones, it was clear to see that both of them were worried about what was happening.
Arnold Thompson was sitting across from them, he looked like a mess. He hadn't shaved or showered in days, he was certain that the virus was in the water system and was doing everything he could to avoid it.
Lucy Otsu was standing near the table but not sitting down, the woman looked like she hadn't got a good night's sleep in days but then Alicia wasn't one to judge and neither had she.
Eric Matheson, the head of security for the entire facility was standing at the head of the table. Alicia had to give him some credit, of all the people in the room he looked the most composed, dressed in his black combat armour and his brown hair spiked up, though to be fair that wasn't saying much.
Eric looked up at her and nodded. "Thank you for joining us Doctor, were there any complications in getting here?" He asked.
"The corridor's are like a ghost town." She said as she sat down on the other end of the table. "Is this everyone who's coming?"
"We believe so." Eric said dispassionately, not caring about the possible lives at risk just the fact that there might be possible hostiles wandering the halls. "I belive we should begin the meeting, Doctor Howe, if you would?"
John nodded and cleared his throat before he began to speak. "I don't believe I need to tell anybody in this room what we are facing, I've been leading a small investigation team to try and find out how the virus began to contaminate the lab and I believe we've found out how it happened."
"Well don't just leave us hanging man, tell us!" Doctor Yusfu snapped, his thick accent smothering his words.
John sighed. "It's in the water, the water system has been contaminated."
"I knew it!" Arnold shouted as he jumped to his feet and slammed his hands down on to the table, making the thick wood vibrate. "I told you, I told all of you that it was in the water! I told you! Oh god, I told you!" His face crumpled and he sobbed loudly as he began to totally break down.
"Doctor Thompson, please try and control yourself." Alicia said with a look of disgust on her face, she was afraid as well but breaking down wouldn't help anyone. She turned her head to look at John. "Doctor Howe, how is it possible that the water was contaminated? The purification facility has advanced water filters and purifiers, if the virus was in the water then surely it would've been filtered out."
"The only theory I have is that somehow the water system was contaminated in the relay pipes from the purification plant to here, there are only the filters at the plant itself so it would be more than easy for someone to just drop a vial of the virus into the pipes themselves." Howe said, clearly not happy with the implications of his theory.
Sabotage.
Umbrella had their rivals and any of them would be more than willing to commit sabotage to get a leg up but something didn't feel right to her, the Arklay research facility was hardly the company's most important facility, it might have been a key target fifteen years ago but now...the facility was on the verge of shutdown before this, hitting this place as a target for professional sabotage didn't make any sense.
"But what if it isn't professional sabotage? What if it's revenge?" Alicia's mind's inner voice whispered to her and she realised that it was more than a possibility, Umbrella had enemies that weren't just powerful cooperation's, there were plenty of former employees who would want revenge because their contract was terminated and they had to go into hiding to avoid their lives suffering the same.
That would explain what happened to the dogs that had gone missing from subject cages, but why would they steal unimportant dogs? None of this made any sense.
She shook her head, how it happened didn't really matter at the moment. What mattered was what they were going to do now. "Do we know for a fact if the mansion and the guardhouse have been infected?"
John shrugged with a sigh. "We can't tell for sure, total lockdown also means a total communication blackout so we can't reach either the mansion, the guardhouse or the city."
"I think we have to assume that the entire complex has been affected." Eric said as he finally decided to sit down. "We need to evacuate."
"Umbrella won't send a helicopter for us, they won't risk the infection leaving." Lucy said, finally decided to chip in after not saying anything through out the meeting. "I think we need to make our own way out, we tempt another company to send us a helicopter."
"And how do we do that?" Alicia asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We tempt them with data, samples from the experiments. We're the first in bio-weapon market, companies like WillPharma or Tricell would kill for a leg up, they will surely send a-" Before Lucy could finish her sentence Eric stood up from his chair and drew his pistol from his holster and shot her straight through the head.
Everyone around the table was too shocked to say anything, so they simply watched with wide eyes as Lucy's head was suddenly surrounded by a growing red pool that stained the concrete beneath it.
"I will say this one time, we will not be selling company secrets for the sake of a quick ride." Eric said as he lowered his handgun but didn't slid it back into his holster. "I have every faith that Umbrella will soon be sending in a security service commando squad to deal with this, till then we must simply keep our heads, don't drink any water from the taps and quarantine any of the infected ones. Understood?"
They were all spared from answering by Eric's radio rapidly beeping. He took the radio out of his pouch and hit the talk button "Yes?"
"Chief? This is Prospero, we saw an intruder in the power room through the cameras, looks to be a male in his late sixties. Me and Jones are on our way to apprehend and intercept." The cool female voice said over the radio.
"Understood Prospero, stay in radio contact." He let go off the talk button and glanced all of the researchers. "Nobody leave, I think we may have just found our saboteur."
"How did he get in?" Tyron asked. "The lab is in total lockdown."
"It doesn't matter right now." Eric said bluntly. "I'll find that out later, right now what matters is capturing him." He held up his radio. "Prospero, ETA?"
"We are just entering the power room now sir." The voice was hard to make out due to the static, it made sense to Alicia that the reception would be less than optimal down there, not to mention with how loud the machines in the power room were it was a miracle that they could hear her at all.
"We do not have visual contact yet, wait a minute." The voice cut out before coming back in, a little more uncertain than before. "Sir, there's something on the floor here it looks like some kind of...slime."
Eric was quiet for a moment as he tried to think of what to say. "Apprehend the suspect Prospero but proceed with extreme caution."
"Yes sir." Prospero said before cutting out once again, in a moment her voice was back again and it was raised. "Suspect has been spotted! repeat suspect has been spotted we are moving to apprehend! Put your arms up! I said put your arms-What the hell?"
For a moment there was nothing but silence, then the screaming started and then the gunfire and then everything stopped once more.
No said anything, no one looked like they knew what to say. Eric cleared his throat and brought the radio close to his mouth. "Who are you? What do you want?"
A voice came from the mouthpiece, loud and clear that they all heard. "Revenge, on Umbrella." Then the radio died.
And then, following the sound of a muffled explosion, so did the lights.
"Nobody panic!" Eric shouted as he pulled out a flashlight and swung it's beam around, illuminating their pale faces.
"The main generator must have overloaded." John Howe whispered nervously. "Just the lights, the back ups should come on in a couple of minutes." That clearly didn't make any of them feel better, there was still someone down in the power room and he had managed to kill two armed guards.
The nervous silence was broken by a loud, inhuman roar.
"What was that?!" Arnold shouted, his eyes were wide with panic and he was looking around frantically.
"It sounded like one of the hunter's, a beta type I think." Alicia said as she held up her hand to try and silence him, she needed to try and hear it again. "It sounded close."
"How is that possible? How did it get out of it's cage?!" Tyron exclaimed.
"Oh dear god, no!" John whispered and he jumped when everyone turned to face him. "If the generator overloaded then that meant there's been a power surge and it's possible that some of the electric locks on the cages have been tripped, hypothetically."
"Hypothetically." Eric began as he slowly raised his pistol and pointed at the double doors of the meeting room as the air was suddenly filled with the sound of heavy feet coming closer. "How many of the containment cages would have been affected?"
"Hypothetically." John whispered, his eyes wide as the sound of footsteps stopped outside of the doors. "All of them."
The doors burst open and a shrieking dark shape leapt through and landed on the table, the hunter's yellow eyes glowed in the darkness of the room as it searched for it's pray.
As Eric began to shoot at the monster they had created, the researchers ran from the room. Alicia didn't stop running, the lab was suddenly far more dangerous and she had to get back to her office.
She didn't know where the others were running off two and she honestly didn't care, so long as they didn't get in her way then they were free to do whatever they liked.
She made it back to her office without incident but she had to hurry, she could here the shrieks of the monsters they had created and they weren't far away.
She began to pull the drawers of her desk out and searched them, as deputy head of the complex she was privy to some of the most sensitive information and she had copies of all the data on every single project that was being done within in it.
Lucy had the right idea, there were plenty of companies that would kill for this information, but she was going to modify it slightly. She would give Umbrella the information, the facility may have been on the way to shut down but the board of directors would be pissed that all the data on the experiments were lost and all they had to do to get it would be to send her a helicopter and offer her a position as the head of a more important facility.
She wouldn't be left to rot here again.
In just under five minutes she had gathered all of the data she had on hand and placed it on to a disk, she placed the disk into her coat pocket and grabbed the semi-automatic pistol from the small safe in the corner of the office, most of the senior staff kept a gun with them in case they ever needed to fight their way out and right now she needed to do just that.
It wasn't going to be easy however.
Any reanimated corpses that might be walking around would be easy to deal with, a good shot into the centre of the forehead would take care of them but the...zombies, god as a woman of science she hated even thinking that word, were the least of her problems.
The hunters, she dreaded the idea of facing them without anything short of a shotgun, Eric was stupid to try and take one on with only a pistol and he was probably dead because of it. 9mm bullets would just bounce of their thick scales so if she came across one she would have to aim for their eye, the only part of their body that didn't have any scales but the problem was even if she was skilled enough to make such a shot lining it up would leave her open for a hunter to swipe her head off.
There were also the chimeras, they could also be a problem. They were not as difficult to kill as the hunters but they were increadbily fast and could scale sheer walls, hitting them was the problem.
There were also the Cerberuses and the eliminators and the scissor tails and the web spinners and dozens of other Bio-weapons that would make getting out of the labs alive nearly impossible but she would rather try and fail then just keep the door locked and wait to die.
Alicia took a deep breath and walked over to the door, unlocked it and stepped out into the hallway.
"It's only a fifteen minute walk to the emergency elevator, take it slow and steady and don't make to much noise and you can make it. The key is not to panic."
Repeating that in her head she began to walk down the hallway, if she kept at a steady pace she would be there soon.
As she turned a corner a loud, pain filled moan sounded out and Alicia felt her blood turn cold.
"Lisa, oh god, she got out!" Alicia spun on her feet and her eyes widen as she saw the insane abomination that the researchers here had created from a little girl all those years ago standing at the end of the corridor, her long pale arms were stained with blood and her solid white eyes stared at her from behind the face of whatever poor soul had gotten to close to her.
The gun wouldn't stop Lisa, it wouldn't even hurt her. Alicia turned and bolted down the corridor, from behind her she heard Lisa scream, it was a cry of rage, pain, hunger and insanity. It echoed in ears as she ran and she felt her legs pulling her father and father away, desperate to get away.
At the end of the corridor was a pair of double doors that would lead to stairwell which would take her to the main entrance, from there all she had to do was take a left at the top of the stairs, go through the double doors that were opposite the main entrance elevator, run till she reached the end of the corridor and unlock the emergency elevator and take it up to the heliport.
Then it was simply a matter of going into the communication room that was off of the heliport, getting in touch with Umbrella or another company and getting them to get her a ride out of here.
The only problem was that Lisa was right on her tail, the immortal monster was faster than she looked and her bloody thirsty cries were close behind.
Alicia picked up her speed and threw the doors open and went up the stairs, taking the steps two at the time she was at the top in moments and ran for the double doors.
The security guard who monitored the doors was standing in front of them but he was completely pale and when he saw Alicia he raised his arms and let out a hungry moan.
"I don't have time for this!" She thought before she raised her gun and pulled the trigger, the recoil shook her a little as had never really fired a gun before but the bullet still hit it's target, going through the guard's eye and blowing out the back of his head and his brain matter painted doors.
Lisa was getting closer, she ran for the doors and pushed them open before running down the corridor. At the end of the corridor was the emergency elevator, next to it was a keypad which she quickly hammered in a code and breathed a heavy sigh of relief when the elevator powered up, slid the heavy gate of the elevator up and dived inside.
Just as she slid the gate back down and hit the button that would take her up she saw Lisa walk in front of the gate, for a moment they just stood there, staring at one another only breaking their sight with one another when the elevator began to slowly climb up the shaft.
Alicia panted and leaned against the back of the elevator, that was far too close. It was almost over, just had to get in touch with the cooperation.
The elevator made it up to the heliport and she stumbled out into the warm afternoon sun, she didn't take too long enjoying the sun's warmth. She had to get out of here.
The communication room's doors were right next to the elevator and they thankfully weren't locked, she really didn't want to go looking for the key, the radio equipment was state of the art and had a direct line to the local HQ as well as keyboard which she could use to enter any frequency and a phone which had the only line out, it was more a communication device than a radio now that she thought about it. She turned the radio on and spoke into the microphone.
"This is Doctor Alicia Smith at the Arklay Research facility, we have a class Five emergency. The virus is loose and has infected a great deal of the staff, the B. are loose from their cages. I need extraction, I'll repeat that I need imitate extraction!" For a few moments there was no reply until a female synthesised voice spoke.
"Your request is being processed Doctor Smith, please stand by."
Alicia shook her head even through she knew that no one could see it. "You've got to be kidding me, I need immediate extraction right now!"
"Your request is being processed Doctor Smith, please stand by."
"I have date from the experiments! You can't afford to let it all go to waste!"
"Your request is being processed Doctor Smith, please stand by."
"Fuck it!" Alicia shouted before closing down the channel, she began to type commands into the computer and programed it to block any communications to and from Umbrella for the next forty-eight hours. She picked up the phone and dialled the number of the local Tricell branch, it was in Latham but it was close enough for them to send a helicopter.
"I can't allow you to make that call Doctor Smith." The exact same synthesised voice said over the line, Alicia felt her stomach drop and clutched the phone close to her ear.
"Who are you?" She whispered.
"I am red queen, goodbye Doctor." And then the line suddenly cut out. Alicia dropped the phone and sunk to the floor as it hit her like a wrecking ball.
She was trapped here, just like she always had been.
End of chapter Seventeen.
(It's been nearly a year since I started this story and I just want to thank everyone for their support, it means the absolute world to me. If everyone could follow, favourite and review then I would appreciate it and I am more than willing to here any constructive criticism.)
