The trio sighed with relief, taking these next few minutes to rest after all the shit they had been through. They could feel the rumble of the car almost soothe them by its movement. Once it was at a good pace, Claire walked back over to them and noticed Sherry shivering.
Veronica was trying to rub at her arms to create some warmth, but she wasn't exactly warm herself after being in the cold sewer waters for so long. So, Claire decided to take off her leather jacket and help Sherry into it, leaving Claire in the black tank top she had on underneath it.
Sherry sighed somewhat in relief before gasping out in pain again. At least it was something. But whatever was in Sherry's body was the real source of the problem. Was the G-Virus implanted in her? It seemed like it, considering the circumstances. What would it do to her? How much longer did they have? Veronica's mind was whirling with questions and anxiety.
Claire had wandered over to the front of the tram and stared out of the front window, worry etched onto her features. Clearly, she was trying to plan everything out, the stress causing her to rub at her neck. Veronica wanted to walk over there and soothe out the frown on her lips, but she needed to be here with Sherry.
As if on cue, Sherry suddenly began to groan and whimper while curling into herself from the pain in her body. Veronica tried consoling her by hushing gently and petting the young girl's hair, but it wasn't working. Whatever was happening to her looked too intense for a child to go through. So, she did the one thing she could think of that soothed her own sister when she got hurt.
"You...are my sunshine, my only sunshine," she softly sang. It was a song her mom would sing to her to make her feel better when she was feeling down, and she would do the same for Lily. And for what it was worth, Sherry seemed to enjoy the distraction with how she nuzzled her face into Veronica's shirt. "You make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away." She paused as the ache in her chest grew. "Please don't take my sunshine...away."
"I was right," Claire said from where she stood. Veronica looked up to catch the other staring with a gentle smile. It made her blush. "You are an amazing singer."
"Hardly. I'm just trying to distract Sherry. Make her feel better, ya know?" She reached down and pushed some of Sherry's hair from her face to behind her ear. "Lily, my sister, liked it when me or mom sang when she felt bad. I was hoping to do the same."
"Well, I think it was working. I like your voice, it's pretty." Just as she was about to flirt some more, Sherry groaned loudly and grasped at her stomach. Claire's smile melted away and was replaced with worry as she sped over in concern.
"Hey, are you ok?" she asked while crouching in front of them. One of her hands joined Veronica's in Sherry's hair. Sherry huffed out a tired breath before rolling onto her side to face her. To Claire's surprise, Sherry was trying to smile.
"I think her voice is pretty too. And your jacket's so warm," she said softly. Claire chuckled in response at the girl's change in topic. Talking about the pain probably made her feel worse.
"My brother gave it to me. You know it's supposed to be lucky."
"I don't know what I'd do without you guys."
"Are you kidding me?" Claire jokingly scoffed as she stood back up. "You were doing just fine without us until we came along and got you into all sorts of trouble."
"Yeah, you're such a resourceful kid. I think you could've escaped without us," Veronica joked. Sherry slightly smiled at it. Claire then reached behind her and pulled something out of her back pocket. It was Sherry's locket.
"I have something of yours."
"Oh! You still have it," Veronica noted. Sherry looked at it with a pained expression before closing her eyes and turning back into Veronica's shirt.
"I don't want it," she murmured.
"Really?" Claire asked while kneeling back down. "Why not? It's so pretty."
Claire held it up for them to see and flipped it around. On one side was Sherry's name inscribed, while the back had a strange etching of two snakes intertwined while facing each other in a circle. There was a triangle in the circle and on each side had the inscription of 'reincarnation', 'creation', and metamorphoses. Really weird for a kid to have, but I guess…
"It-it's from my mom," Sherry explained. Now it made sense. The mom didn't seem to have a motherly bone in her body. "For my birthday, last year." She groaned then turned her head to look back at Claire, her eyes full of sadness. "All I really wanted was for her to be home more."
Poor kid. She just wanted a normal family. Claire would've given anything for that too once upon a time. Being raised by her brother and her parents passing away at a young age…she wished she had more time with her own mom. Despite everything, though, Claire didn't want Sherry hating her mom. In a way, she could understand why she did certain things, but at the same time knew that Sherry's anger was warranted.
"I know it seems like your mom doesn't care but-, "Claire tried, but was interrupted by Sherry crying out in pain. It was getting worse. "Hey, Sherry. Come here." To try and ease her pain, Claire had them raise the kid to sit up. Sherry merely did so but reached up to clutch at her swollen eye.
"Is it your head? Your eye?" Veronica tried asking but Sherry was in too much pain to answer.
"Hey…hang in there, ok?" Claire added. Then from above the intercom spoke again.
"Now arriving at NEST."
Looking up at the window at the front of the car, they realized it was true. The car was beginning to slow at the end of the track towards a platform. Claire sprang into action and picked Sherry back up again with Veronica following closely. Once the car stopped, they walked out onto the platform.
"It's ok. I've got you. Come on," Sherry grunted while fixing her hold.
The door slid shut behind them, leaving the cable car to sit there. They made their way across the platform while Sherry groaned in Claire's arms. She was growing paler by the second.
"We're getting you treatment. Just hold on, Sherry. It's ok," Claire reassured her.
Veronica couldn't help but stay silent as she was afraid if she spoke, she would start crying from the stress. She had to be on alert and play security while Claire's hands were busy. Passing by piles of cargo and the sheer drop off into the darkness of the tunnel they were in, they found themselves standing face to face with a large electronic gate.
At first, they wondered how they were going to get in when suddenly the ID wristband around Sherry's wrist beeped and watched as the gate authorized their entry. The green screen flashed that the visitor pass that they had, had given them access and began lifting the gate. They noticed the chip in the bracelet matched the screen just like back at the cable car, Veronica understood now that this indicated the which door they could enter.
"For your safety, stand clear until the doors are fully open," the automated voice repeatedly said while the gate rose, revealing another behind that and another behind that.
"Ok. We got this," Veronica whispered more to herself as she held her gun up just in case.
They stood and watched as the final gate began rising, but something seemed to go wrong. Sparks flew as it jerked while trying to open, but to no avail. Hoping that the door wouldn't close on them, the trio quickly ran in and found themselves at the entrance to the Umbrella facility.
The lights flickered on revealing the brightly lit and sterile atmosphere of the reception area. With the lack of colors and the strange smell of chemicals, it almost felt like a hospital. The Umbrella Corp. logo was planted on the wall behind the large reception desk which was empty. They kind of hoped there would be scientists running around trying to fix the problems that were up in Raccoon City, but they weren't surprised to see the place deserted.
"Welcome to NEST. Enjoy your visit," the automated voice said in the intercom.
The survivors glanced at each other then began searching the room for something useful. There were four doors in the room, one of them being behind the reception desk and it was left open while one nearest to them was closed.
Another was on the far side and had the words 'Main Shaft' labeled on it. However, one of the doors close to them was labeled the 'Security Room' and was already wide open. Veronica took a quick look in and found it to be a safe space. It seemed to be a mix between a break room, an office, and a security room.
"In here," she gestured.
"Ok, um…" Claire hummed as she took it all in.
There was a bed sitting against the wall and there were desks covered in meaningless stuff just lying around. They were able to find a forgotten box of fire grenades and the map to the north end of the facility on the desk facing a bunch of broken security camera monitors. They were either out entirely or just streaming static. But all of that was bypassed as Claire went to set Sherry down on the bed.
"Here ya go," Claire breathed out tiredly. Veronica sat at the youngest's side and brought up one of the blankets to tuck her in. As Claire stood back up, she took another look around. "Alright, now what…?"
"There must be a part of the lab that makes stuff. We just gotta find it," Veronica suggested.
She was recounting some movies she saw in her head, and she wondered if it would be any way similar. Claire hummed in agreement before her eyes landed on a laptop on a nearby desk that was on. The screen was lit up with what looked like emails open.
"Huh…There's gotta be something here," she wondered as she walked over to read it. Glancing over the words, she found what she was looking for. "'Antiviral agent'? That's it! That's gotta be it!"
"So, we have a plan?" Veronica asked.
"We have a plan!" Claire walked back over and knelt at Sherry's side. "Hey…hey Sherry…" she tried nudging the fading girl awake. "I gotta go. You stay right here with Veronica till I get back, though. Ok."
"What?! No! Claire, I'm going with you," Veronica couldn't believe she could even suggest that.
"You need to stay here and make sure Sherry's safe," Claire said sternly while unlatching Sherry's I.D. bracelet to put onto herself.
"As if I'm just gonna let you go out there by yourself. You're gonna need help!"
"I can manage. Sherry can't since she's so sick. We don't know what's out here."
"Exactly! We don't know. What if you are up against something that actually ends up killing you 'cause I'm not there!?" Veronica reached down to grasp onto Claire's hand. "I need you to be safe too," she pleaded. Their eyes locked and Claire couldn't resist the big sad eyes she was given. "Please."
That did it.
"Ok…Ok, ok," Claire gave in exasperatedly. "Then what should we do about Sherry?" Veronica looked around then remembered there was a giant black sofa in the waiting room.
"We blockade the door for now," she suggested before leading them to the door. Claire got the idea then leaned over Sherry so she could talk to her.
"We'll be back soon, I promise," she whispered.
"No dying on me, little chickadee," Veronica added, but neither got a response as Sherry fell unconscious.
The duo looked at each other in worry before going through their pouches to update what they needed. With things a little more organized and a better search of the room, they were able to take a closer look at the map they had found to their side of the building. It was a small section composed of only the room they were in, the main lobby and the small cafeteria on the other side.
"We should really take a look in there to make sure there's nothing that could come out and hurt Sherry," Veronica noted.
Their blockade plan wasn't foolproof, so they may need to take an extra precaution and just clear out this side. Claire seemed to agree as they left the room before shoving the black sofa in front of the door. The sofa itself wasn't hard to move since it was lightweight, but at least it was an obstacle.
Once done, Claire finally checked the only working computer at the front desk while Veronica searched the small room behind was a typewriter sitting on a table, which was weird considering there were three computers at the front desk, lots of scattered paperwork, and a box. To her surprise it was the same kind they had seen all over the police station. These places really were connected.
"Find anything?" she asked her partner once she was done looking for anything that could be of use.
"Just a nap room log was accessible," Claire shrugged.
"How riveting. Anything interesting?" she inquired sarcastically.
"Just that a Wayne Li never left."
"Then he might just still be in there."
"Sucks to be him."
Instead of moving to the door with the flashing blue screen, the pair decided to go with the clearing out plan in the cafeteria first, just to be sure of Sherry's safety. Carefully creaking the door open, it opened to a pitch-black hallway that reeked of blood.
"This might have been a bad idea," Veronica muttered as they walked in while taking out their flashlights.
As they drew closer to the end of the hall, they noticed a sign on the wall pointing them towards the cafeteria. Below it, there was a window that peeked into said place but was hard to see through due to the design etched on it.
Turning the corner, they were met with the sight of where the smell was coming from. Blood was splattered across the walls and all over the floor. It wasn't fresh, but it wasn't old either. Turning the next corner, they could hear zombies growling and eating coming from the room next to them.
The door to it was for guests to access, but the nap room they had seen the logs to earlier, was through the other door at the end of the hall. Unfortunately for them, that door required something else. The screen was a baby blue color and as soon as they drew close it flashed a red 'Access Denied' across it.
"Authorized staff only beyond this point. Guests must refrain from entering," the automated voice informed them. Claire looked down at her wristband then at her partner.
"I guess we're technically still guests," she whispered.
"Crap. The other door back in the lobby looks like this one too. If that's the case, we're gonna need something to get in somehow."
"Maybe we'll be lucky and find a blue chip lying around."
Claire peaked through the window of the cafeteria via a clear spot on the glass and checked the room for a way through. Just on the other side of the room was a ladder that was lit up by an emergency light and it led up to the vents.
"There!" she pointed out for Veronica to see.
"Ok, that could work with getting us into the room, but what about the zombies?"
Claire hummed before reaching for her waist while stepping in front of the door to the cafeteria. It automatically whizzed open and with the opportunity given, she pulled the pin to the grenade she had grabbed. Then she tossed it into the middle of the room and backed off so the door would close again. Some zombies noticed the commotion and straggled toward the noise.
Only the groaning didn't last long as a loud boom set off and most of the zombies were taken care of. The girls did have to go in and take care of the rest of them that had somehow survived, but with most of the damage done, it wasn't too hard to handle. When it was clear, they searched the corpses for I.D. chips or other supplies but only found some Sparkshot needles, another grenade, that had somehow not gone off when the other one did, and some bullets.
There was a giant kitchen window on the ordering counter, but the glass stopped them from jumping in as it made of sturdy plexiglass. And they were not about to waste bullets on it. So, they continued up to the open vent which dropped them right down into said kitchen. To their luck they even found a large can of gunpowder and an extra knife just lying around.
There was also a door that led out and when opened they found it led to the other side of the locked blue one. But it also slid open to another blood-splattered hallway and a zombie in tactical gear standing in the corner unbeknownst to their company. Claire was about to sneak up behind it and stab a knife in the zombie's head to save ammo, but it somehow managed to notice them before she could get close enough.
Since it had tactical gear on, there was no useful shot until they finally headshot it. Which meant if there were more of them wearing this type of gear, they would be harder to take down. The girls only hoped that wasn't the case. They didn't need stronger zombies on the run.
With it now clear, they finally managed to make it to the nap room. The door screen flashed green which was easy access for them thankfully. Walking in, they were met with a smaller room that had three gated-up nap beds lined up on the wall.
In the middle bed, a hand was stuck out and jutted under the gate with blood spattered along the metal. Blue light from the hand caught their attention and picking it up, they found out it was the chip they needed.
"I guess Mr. Li never left after all," Veronica said as Claire changed out the chips on the bracelet. She kept the green chip in case she ever needed it as a backup.
"Handy," Claire responded before looking at a contraption on the far wall with her flashlight. "What is this thing?"
It looked like an electric box composed of a bunch of wires with a large square space meant for something to be plugged into it, and a set of letters just above it spelling MUF. There was a picture in the space that looked like it was the mechanism they needed to plug it in with.
"Not sure, maybe it gets the power going. The only way to find out is to find the thing," her partner responded. There were also some more fire grenades lying around, but nothing else of note. This section was at least safe for Sherry, and they could finally move on.
Since they were now done with that entire area and they had what they needed, they quickly made their way back towards the reception area. As they drew close to the door to the main shaft, the automated voice spoke out for the man the chip came from.
"Dr. Li, your presence is urgently requested by Chief Cartwright in the East Area."
"Well, unfortunately, Dr. Li won't be able to make it," the elder joked as the door slid open.
Walking out, they were taken aback by the sight of the facility. The pair stared in awe at the immense size of the place. The cement ceiling stood high above them with many cold bright lights shining down on them. Peering over the edge of the platform gave Veronica a serious case of vertigo. It looked like it could go down for miles, disappearing into a black abyss. It looked like something out of an alien movie like it was Area-51.
"Holy shit!" they both whispered in unison.
From where they stood, they could see an elevator shaft sitting in the middle of the room on the middle platform as well as the two other areas of the facility: the East and West areas on opposite sides. It was cold in that large room, but they weren't surprised. They couldn't imagine there being a functioning heater due to its immense size. It was chilly enough for Veronica to take down her hair to keep her neck warm.
On the small platform they were on, there was a machine with the same blue screen as their chip and a button on it. Considering that there was no way to cross towards the middle platform, they figured it must activate some sort of path. And they were right. With a press of the button, a metal bridge stretched out and connected the two platforms.
Before crossing it, they also noticed a body of a soldier like what they saw down in the sewers, slouched against the railing on the opposite side of their platform. Deciding to take a look at it, they saw two things. One, a weird box that looked a lot like the weird mechanism they had just found and two, a recorder sitting on the floor by the body. Claire picked it up and pressed play. The voice that spoke was a muffled man's voice, one they had never heard before.
"Alpha to Ghost. Target moving to the West Area. Must be going to retrieve the G-Virus, and antiviral agent."
"This is Ghost. Understood. Rendevous at Point W-3," another man's voice replied.
"Roger." There was a pause before he spoke again. "This is Alpha. Arrived at destination."
"Understood. Stand by for target." Another pause.
"This is Alpha. I've got eyes on the target. He's going to open the safe."
"Roger. Awaiting the signal," a different voice replied.
"Got eyes on the G-Virus."
"We're going in."
"Doctor Birkin, you'll come along with us quietly," the voice of Ghost could be heard saying in the background before the recording ended. They clearly found their target. Putting down the recorder, Claire nodded over towards the area on the right.
"So…the antiviral agent's in the West Area," she recounted.
As the pair quickly made it across the bridge and around the elevator, Veronica took a closer look at the box they had found. It had a screen with wavy lines across it as well as knobs for moving them. There were words etched on top used to select for specific settings above it.
When turned on, it let out two high-pitched drones that changed when moved. Reading a label on the back, it said it was a signal modulator and its purpose was for equipment maintenance. They realized it would be useful in putting the power back on in specific areas of the lab if they managed to go down.
While they could go back and use it in the nap room, they decided not to as they were low on time but kept the box with them in case they needed it. When looking at the elevator, they quickly realized that they would need a pink, top-level chip to take it if need be.
They also found out they would need a tier higher chip that was a dark blue color to get to the West Area. Which was where the antiviral agent would be.
"Shit. Let's hope they have one lying around in the East Area," Veronica said as she pointed out the mechanism to get to the said area was accessible to them. With a push of a button, the bridge slid out and they quickly crossed over with a new objective in mind.
The first room they were met with was brightly lit and smelled like an odor they had never smelled before. Flies were buzzing around a pipe that had broken, releasing the smelly air into the room. There were two doors, but unfortunately, the path on the right was partially destroyed, leaving them the only option of taking the left door.
Passing through, they found a large waiting room with a couple rows of black leather chairs on one side and what looked to be a nursing station on the other. The medicine cabinet on the wall was thrashed, with medicine bottles lying around on desks and on the floor.
Luckily, they found some medical supplies lying in unopened drawers that they could use for later on their current wounds. Besides that, and amongst everything, there was a green herb and a gunpowder can that they picked up before trying the doors out of there.
One door was locked from the other side, but the other slid open to a horrendous sight. While the room they walked into was completely normal, the giant plant monstrosity that could be seen through the wall-length windows across from them was not. Pressed against the glass was a man in a yellow hazmat suit by a giant plant-like creature. His face was frozen in a silent scream of fear, but it didn't take much to realize he was dead.
Walking up to it, they noticed the glass was shattered but was somehow able to stay intact. The plant stock was thick, and it looked like a mouth was pushing the man against the window. The plant wasn't moving either, but they remained cautious.
"Oh, god. That's…terrible," Claire gasped.
"Plants...What else is there?!" the other groaned in frustration. Finally processing the image in front of them, they noticed a blue light coming from the man's wrist.
"The ID chip!"
"Can't we just look for a wristband that's just lying around?" Veronica asked, nervous to face the horrors of the greenhouse.
"We just cannot get a break! We can keep looking, but if we have to, we'll have to take that one."
"Ok. Fair enough. At least we know where it is, but how would we get it?"
"Beats me. We'll probably find out the hard way."