September 29th 3:32am
LOCATION: RPD (Men's Locker Room)
Carlos was surprised as the Black Widow started to softly laugh
"Sorry, it's just you reminded me of someone I know" he looked at the red head wondering who it was she was referring to
"Who would that be?" regardless of who it was it felt nice to see the Widow smile, a genuine one, not the scary one
"Clint Barton, you probably know him as Hawkeye" 'oh the Archer' Carlos supposed he would take it as a complement
"Uh is that- a good thing?" Natasha smirked, the U.B.C.S Soldier was kind of cute like a puppy and so incredibly naïve
"Yes- well mostly..." and here Carlos thought the Black Widow didn't have a sense of humour
"What's it like? Being an Avenger" her brows raised at the sudden question, but he had to admit he was very curious, although he wouldn't admit it to her,
Carlos was a huge Avengers fan, he even collected the action figures and was particularly proud of his classic Captain America comic book collection
"You ever work with children Carlos?" she asked him, it was probably the most accurate comparison she could make
"Uh- no" she smiled as she went about setting up the explosives with the detonator,
She didn't need to say anymore- the statement spoke for itself, as a trained observer Black Widow still felt like the wrangler of the mess that was the Avengers sometimes.
Tony Stark was egotistical- and unfortunately when he allowed his ego to rule his thought process, people tended to get hurt.
Steve Rodgers was a idealist- he always saw the best in everyone 'including her' however he couldn't always be relied upon to make the hardest of decisions.
Bruce Banner lived a life constantly afraid of himself- 'not that it wasn't justified' but his constant uneasiness with the Hulk put him in a vulnerable place, making him not always reliable when the need arrived.
Clint 'as she'd already covered' is naive and far too trusting for his own good- Clint had a big heart and in their business that wasn't alway a good thing.
Thor 'being a literal god' was naturally arrogant and easily manipulated- as evidenced in his competitive relationship with his brother Loki.
And her... Natasha Romanoff- was the wrangler of this shit show. She could be- cold, detached, impulsive, pessimistic, secretive, and untrustworthy.
The observations that Black Widow kept on herself was by far her longest list of Character Faults.
After a few moments of awkward silence Carlos found it in him to speak again
"It- uh looks like it's gonna need a battery to work, do you happen to have one on you?" Natasha shook her head
"Unfortunately, when I geared up for the Zombie apocalypse I didn't think, oh fuck- better pack the batteries"
Carlos stared at her blankly, he couldn't come to a conclusion weather that was sarcasm or not, he decided on sarcasm.
"Maybe we should check the evidence lockers, if we can get in" Carlos suggested, they had passed the locked room on the way, and he was certain he'd seen the Widow pick up a key whilst they searched for useful items.
Going back to the Evidence Lockers meant a lot of back tracking and a lot more Zombies, but there was something else that was giving Carlos a bad feeling
"You ever feel like something's hunting you?" he asked Natasha who felt the same sense of being watched
"Keep your guard up soldier" she responded in a way that made it seem as if she was completely unbothered.
There were long scratches along the paint work of the corridor walls as if a wild animal had been dragged through here,
Natasha swept her hand across the damage and decided that this was very recent,
The first indication of their stalker happened as they turned a corner a loud inhuman screech cut through the silence like a knife,
Natasha and Carlos heard scratching noises coming from above
"There you are dick f-." he's immediately cut off by a hand clamping to his mouth,
Natasha held up a finger to her lips telling him to keep quiet.
Carlos held his breath as the strong hand removed itself from his mouth and the creature approached them on all fours,
Every thing about this 'thing' was pure nightmare fuel, it's limbs all inclined at an unnatural angle,
Its giant claws made a sickening tapping noise as it prowled the corridors looking for fresh prey to tear into ribbons, but what struck Carlos the most about the creature was its skinned head which was overly horrifying as it had no eyes only a giant ugly brain.
It seemed to use its long tongue to feel its way around, once the creature determined that nothing was there it slowly crawled past them.
Natasha motions to the door leading into the Evidence Lockers, but to keep quiet, she considered herself lucky that the key she found was indeed for the door.
Carlos let go of the breath he's been holding the moment the Black Widow shut the door behind them
"How did you know the thing was blind?" he asked as Natasha went about forcing open all the evidence lockers
"I did my homework before coming to Racoon City- Carlos" it wasn't a proper answer and she knew it, he looked at her with an expression that said 'seriously?'
Natasha rolled her eyes, honesty had never been her strongest trait
"I read some reports on some similar creatures encountered at an incident in the Arklay mountains"
She didn't want to tell him about the Spencer Mansion or Jill's traumatic experiences there a few months ago, it wasn't her story to tell.
"Huh- I think I recall hearing something about it" she smirked as she could literally see his last brain cells trying to work, it was actually kind of cute
"Ah come to papa!" Carlos exclaimed as in the locker he opened he found just the battery they needed for the detonator.
Their heads both snapped towards the door as a sudden loud bang of the door being broken in made it pretty clear that they weren't alone anymore,
A Zombie quickly followed by the four legged 'Licker' creature from earlier had suddenly got wise that they were in here.
Not bothering with the silent method this time Natasha grabbed a grenade from her belt whilst Carlos fires with his assault rifle.
The Zombie went down quick, but the 'Licker' was like an ammo sponge,
Natasha shot out an electric blast from her Stingers which caused the creature to wither and convulse which gave them both the perfect moment to race out from the Evidence Lockers, back through the corridors, up the wooden staircase although a body immediately fell from the banisters above neither of them stop to deal with it.
They bolt back into the men's locker room when Carlos's communicator started to beep
"Carlos, Romanoff, I've hit a dead end with the terminal here, I'm heading your way" Tyrell announced through comms as Natasha set up the explosives on the unstable wall
"Copy that T, be careful there's an ugly fucker about and its definitely not a Zombie, but it's blind so... stay stealthy"
Natasha pulls the switch only to find out the hard way that the detonator only came with a pre-set three second timer.
"Shit!" she exclaimed and ducked into the shower cubicle pulling Carlos with her as the explosives destroyed the wall,
The heavy blast blew the pipes running through the showers sending hot steam blasting behind them- clearly there was no going back now.
However, the room on the other side of the explosion turned out to be already heavily occupied by countless Zombies and very little room to fight them in.
They both fired at the approaching group with their assault rifles-
"It sucks to be popular!" Carlos yelled over the sound of gunfire,
"Well, when you're this good looking, what else do you expect?" Black Widow yelled back, the moment one Zombie fell another one would appear then another and then another and then more almost as if the explosion had opened out into an endless passage of the undead.
"One at a time a time, take a number!" Natasha shared Carlos's frustration, they did not have the time for this, but at least they knew now why the corridor had been barricaded.
The dusty air began to settle as the pair stopped firing sensing that all the Zombies were now 'dead, dead' in a mountain of corpses that covered the floor,
Natasha lifted her leg high and wide to avoid stepping on top of the corpses and into the Women's Locker room where they find themselves in the same hallway where the S.T.A.R.S Office was located.
September 29th 04:00AM
LOCATION: S.T.A.R.S Office (RPD)
Weapons raised they both check all corners of the room as they entered which turned out to be completely empty,
The only thing out of the ordinary was the soft beeping noise coming from one of the computers
"Carlos, what's that?" she asked as he approached the terminal before she could, Carlos found that a video link had been set up on the screen
"Doctor Bard?" he asked as an older man matching the picture of the scientist she had seen earlier appeared on screen, she made sure to stay just out of view
"Oh thank god, do you know how long I've been trying to reach somebody?" Natasha rolled her eyes, the scientist was clearly agitated and for good reasons she supposed, but she wondered how the scientist had been given a direct link to the S.T.A.R.S office
"Don't worry about it, we're gonna get you out, just let me know where you are"
Natasha checked the comms link on her Stingers, it was strange, but for a second she thought she'd heard some static coming through
"I'm trapped in a goddamn hospital surrounded by every kind of abomination. Look just send in S.T.A.R.S they're gonna know what to do"
Of course they would know what to do, the S.T.A.R.S team had already fought against similar monster and Bard knew about the incident at the Spencer Mansion and was now counting on that experience to come in and save him.
Natasha shook her head as Tyrell suddenly burst into the S.T.A.R.S office,
Carlos held up his hand to let him know that he was busy and for the other officer to hold his position-
"Negative, the RPD's over run too"
Clearly Bard wasn't happy with Carlo's response, the doctor was typically entitled and was everything Natasha Romanoff couldn't stand
"Then figure it out! Umbrella's gone crazy they're killing all the researchers"
Carlos's eyes met Natasha's who really wasn't surprised by that statement.
'Why would Umbrella do that' Carlos thought to himself, they were U.B.C.S and this was the first he'd heard of murdered researchers, did the company have some other team in Racoon City besides them?
"Look I'm the only one who knows how to make the vaccine to stop the Zombies, so you can either sit there with your dick in your hand or you can send somebody capable of getting me the hell out of here!"
Natasha nudged Carlos off to the side, she suspected that she may be able to get a more productive response, if her reputation was worth a damn-
"Doctor Bard, my name is Natasha Romanoff" of course he knew who she was
"Oh thank god, thank god, thank god" it was a little too soon to be thanking a god, but clearly her reputation did proceed her
"Yes Doctor Bard every deity you believe in could probably do with your prayers right now, but first things first I need to determine that you're telling the truth about the cure" she refused to waste her time if in fact it turned out that the Doctor was lying
"For fucks sake, I'm telling the truth Ms Romanoff, I have a sample with me right now and if you come for me I'll give it to you. Hell, I'll fully cooperate with S.H.I.E.L.D if you can get your ass over here and get me the fuck out of this city!" the transmission abruptly ended.
Carlos and Natasha both shared a semi-annoyed look, being an ass hole to people trying to help clearly wasn't Doctor Bards best idea
"I like him already" Tyrell laughed,
Carlos was busy in his head trying to organise his thoughts, why did Dr Bard claim that Umbrella were killing their scientists? Was he lying, he sounded pretty adamant over the video link
"Yeah you would. You heard what he said, we can't turn him over to the company" Carlos insisted to Tyrell who really didn't know what to think right now.
Black Widow looked up from the computer screen up at the two U.B.C.S mercenaries.
Tyrell shrugged "Well that's not our call to make, it's Mikhail's call" Tyrell seemed to pause for a moment, they had been out of contact with the other team for too long and it bothered him
"I'm gonna check the signal location" Tyrell insisted,
Natasha moved away from the desk although she wouldn't say that she'd already downloaded the information when neither of them was looking,
The Spencer Memorial Hospital was over the other side of the city,
Not an easy journey given the current situation, but she suspected she could make it in a couple of hours if she avoided trouble.
"This is gonna take some time look around see if you can find anything useful" Tyrell suggested.
Carlos went about raiding the armoury whilst Black Widow ventured into a side office which she suspected had once belonged to the S.T.A.R.S former team captain and traitor Albert Wesker.
She sifted through the desk draws and sorted through the documents left lying around any evidence she could get her hands on would be a welcome reward right about now.
She sensed Carlos watching her whilst she snooped around, but didn't seem too bothered about asking her what she was doing.
Carlos spotted a picture on a shelf of the entire S.T.A.R.S team posing with their weapons in front of a chopper
"Is that Jill in the front?" Carlos asked squinting at the small photograph.
Natasha looked over at what Carlos was referring to
"Yeah they're the S.T.A.R.S Alpha team. Apart from Jill and another three the others are all dead, well- declared dead" Carlos's eyes widened in surprise, that was an awful amount of officers to lose
"Shit" he hissed, Carlos couldn't fathom how most of them died or how Jill must feel about losing so many friends
If he thought that was bad then she doubted he would find reassurance if she told him about what happened to the Bravo team.
"What happened to them?" of course he already knew the fate of the one in the yellow gilet.
Natasha's gaze flickers to the logo on Carlos's uniform, he notices this and decides against pushing the query any further.
They head back into the main office where Tyrell was still working on the computer, suddenly both Carlos and Black Widow heard a familiar voice in their earpieces
"Natasha! Carlos respond!" Jill's voice sounded breathless and distressed on the other end of the comms
"Hey what's wrong?" Natasha asked although she had a bad feeling in her gut, if the train was out of the city then this comms link shouldn't be possible.
"We didn't make it- the train derailed" Carlos and Black Widow shared a worried glance
"Derailed? Was anyone hurt?" Carlos asked which attracted Tyrell's attention
"Jill?" he asked, Carlos gave a brief nod as Jill's voice continued to explain what happened on the comms
"Everybody's dead, Mikhail! Everybody!" Natasha couldn't believe it, after everything how had it gone so horribly wrong?
"Ah shit" Carlos sighed as Tyrell wondered what the three of them were talking about
"Nikolai left us to die!" Jill exclaimed,
"What the fuck!" Black Widow swore if she ran into that Russian man again, she was going to shoot him in his smug face.
Loud noises seemed to come across the transmission, followed by a loud roar
"Get back!" Jill yelled at something that was after her.
Natasha had the unfortunate realisation at what happened,
That monster was so- fucking dead when she found it, quickly followed by Nikolai if she had her way.
"Jill, Jill what happened, Jill come in!" there was no response to Carlos's calls.
Black Widow retrieved her assault rifle from the desk she had left it on
"Bard is yours, I'm going after Jill" Natasha stated as Carlos softly grabbed her arm to stop her in her tracks
"Not on your own you're not" he insisted and turned to Tyrell who was watching them dumfounded by the quick turn of events
"T I gotta go" Carlos hoisted his own assault riffle
"You both do what you have to do, I'll take care of Bard" Carlos and Black Widow quickly left the stars office to go in search for Jill.
September 29th 4:43am
Location: S.T.A.R.S Office RPD