Things weren't great. Or even good, really. But, they weren't as bad as they could be. Because, simply put, as things stood there was about twenty floors that separated us. Mr. X was a whole ass problem, but he was a manageable one. What he did was compound an already existing issue, like being trapped in a pit with a super massive alligator.
"This is fine," I said, earning a brief look of utter disbelief from Jill.
"It's fine?" Jill echoed, looking at me like I was speaking in tongues. So much for that benefit of the doubt. "That thing just ripped itself out of a dinosaur, and it's coming straight for us."
"I didn't say things were good. I said that it's fine. Best case scenario, we can sicc patient zero for the G-Virus on 'em and they take each other out. Or, we get out, and pull up the drawbridge so he's stuck here." As I spoke, I watched as the data was being compiled into a single server. The transfer was fast, far faster than I expected it to be, but not as fast as I wanted it. It would take a full hour and a half to transfer everything.
That was a long time to wait but not enough time to really do anything.
"Worse case scenario?" Jill ventured as Anette started typing in the chat box.
"We do a lot of screaming before we die," I replied with a cheeky deprecating smile. That took the wind from her sails as I considered what our moves could be. An hour and a half. I had no spell slots left. We were being hunted down by two monsters. We needed to go a couple floors up to get a viral agent so we could kill the G-Virus monster. And, to make matters worse, Dakka had about forty minutes of power left, and I wouldn't be able to bring her back.
'What are you doing in the server room?' Annette questioned in the chat box while I pondered our predicament. I needed more tools available to me.
So, I typed back 'Securing evidence to be used against the corpo overlords. And info on how to deal with virus. Send me access to security cameras.'
I paused.
'Please.' There we go. It never hurt to be polite.
"Okay, so what I'm thinking is this – I have about a half hour left powering up Dakka," I said, setting the computer to the side before my eyes landed on the corpse of the IT guy. Or, rather, the wedding ring on his finger. This felt a little gross, but needs must. "So, we use that time to snag this viral agent, then head back here, grab the server once everything is transferred over, head back up the elevator shaft, then bait the monsters into an arena of our choosing."
"Sounds like it'll work right up until it goes wrong," Jill said, grabbing the computer while I approached the corpse. Sorry, man, but I needed it more than you, I thought before prying the ring off. "Annette says that she doesn't trust you, and that the data on the servers is useless to you because you can't use it. Paraphrasing."
"Well, tell her that I'm not some two bit hack of a scientist and I know what a controlled variable is. Which is more than anything I can say for the muppets that worked here," I replied, testing the ring to find that it mostly fit. I'd have to resize it. "Is she going to give us access to the cameras or not?"
"She's typing," Jill said, and her reply had been far too short to copy what I said word for word. I took the moment to reach into my bag and grab my jeweler's tools. Creating a spell refueling ring from scratch was beyond me at the moment – simply because of the time it would take to layer the enchantments onto it.
However, that didn't mean I couldn't fiddle with the blueprint ever so slightly. A spell refueling ring functioned by restoring a burnt spell slot, with the limit of the spell slot being restored tied into the number of items that the wearer had attuned to them. As it was, I didn't have any items on me that required attunement.
Technically. The closest thing that I had was Dakka, so she was what I would be using.
Only to make those adjustments to the infusion, I had to prep the receptacle beforehand. Which led me to securing the ring with a pair of pliers before I started engraving upon its surface.
When it came right down to it, runes were basically just magical code. And, much like coding on general, I knew next to nothing about runes. I did, however, know enough about magic to attempt to get by. It was the equivalent to speaking in broken English, but I'm mostly sure I engraved 'DakkaMe=Attunement?' Therefore binding the two together, and allowing me to treat Dakka as an attuned item.
Which, in turn, meant I could bring her back one more time or use a first level spell slot.
"I need to get better at this stuff," I sighed, sliding the ring on. As it attuned to me, the ring shrunk, fitting me perfectly. I put it on my thumb, mostly because it felt pretty weird wearing a ring that just belonged to another guy. The point being was that I was forced to improvise too much, and my class really worked best with prep time and prepared materials.
It was as I finished up that Jill spoke up, "I convinced her to give us access to the cameras." She turned the computer around, showing the video feeds of what had to be about a thousand cameras. We would have to sort through them by floor, I reasoned. And keep a separate tab open to keep an eye on Mr. X. I also saw what she said in the chat box – that I was an escaped lab rat of Umbrella, and that I was the last person that would sell the secrets that we were taking here. "Issue is that one of us would need to remain on overwatch."
Meaning that one person was going to be making their way through zombie and monster infested labs alone.
"Lovely," I sighed, realizing that she was right. Our gazes met, and before she could volunteer, I continued. "It should be me. Dakka's range isn't limitless, and whoever goes is going to need her."
"I'm STARS. You're a labrat," Jill argued succiquently. Wasn't wrong there. She was more equipped to handle the trip, only Dakka and literal magic helped balance the scales quite a bit. "You said it yourself, you're out of tricks."
I did say that and it was still mostly true. So, I held up a fist, "Rock, paper, scissors? Whoever loses has to stay in the safe room and whoever wins has to sneak around a lab full of zombies." Despite herself, Jill seemed amused by my antics even as she let out a sigh. All the same, she held up a fist.
On three, our fists bounced twice and on the final time we made our pick.
"Damn it," Jill swore.
"Paper covers rock. Sucks to suck," I said, covering her fist with a hand. Her lips thinned, so I gave her hand a small squeeze. "I have you looking out for me, so I'll be fine. Just let me know when I'm sharing a floor with one of those monsters, yeah?" I requested, withdrawing my hand.
Jill visibly swallowed a sigh, "Two out of three?"
"No one likes a sore loser, Jill," I replied, taking a breath and considering my option. I would have Dakka. I would have my shotgun. I had my Arcane Firearm, and one spell slot to use in emergencies.
I had this.
"Not doing a good job of convincing me to make sure you come back," Jill tried to match my humor but didn't quite manage it. I decided to leave the Bag of Holding with her, but I took out an earpiece from it and tossed her the walkie talkie. It was little moments like these that almost convinced me that I knew what I was doing because that was a lucky bit of preparation.
"I'll get back as soon as I can. But, if things go south-" I started, and when Jill made to interject, I swiftly continued, "Save my dumb ass. The server is a low priority in comparison. We'll have other chances to nail Umbrella to the wall." That managed to get a smile out of her.
"Good. Just… be careful. I don't want to have to rescue you, got that?" Jill said while I looked at the door to what I imagined hell would look like. It was probably a bad time to mention it, but horror was my least favorite genre.
"I'm already doing something stupid, Jill. I don't plan on being an idiot about it," I said, opening the door to the dark hallway and I glanced at her over my shoulder, "See ya' in a bit."
With that, I closed the door behind me and I looked to Dakka. "Come on, girl. Let's get this done," I said, the quiet hallway suddenly filled with the echoing sound of her metallic spider legs and my boots. Time was of the essence, so I hurriedly along to the end of the hallway in search of the stairs that would lead me up. I chose to arm myself with my Arcane Firearm, when I finally spotted it.
The doors opened with a painfully loud squeak of the hinges, causing a low guttural moan to echo out as I approached the steps after making sure the door was closed behind me. The moan was swiftly joined by others along with the wet sounds of movement.
There were quite a few of the zombies on the stairwell, I figured, climbing my way up. There were only so many elevators, so some would try their luck with the stairs. To that end, the upper floors should contain most of the zombies in this place. Provided that no one left any doors open. And given that Umbrella's scientists favorite snack seemed to be lead paint chips, I wasn't going to hold out any hope about that.
I ascended up the stairs, already seeing hints of gore before I saw the first shambling corpse as he fell down a half dozen stairs between floors. The red emergency light illuminated him at first before I popped him in the side of the head with a Firebolt and his corpse ignited. With his corpse burning, the shadows began to dance as more corpses started shambling down.
It was easy to be afraid in moments like these. That fear threw off aim, and when you missed a shot m, it made the fear that much worse. So, despite the stench of burnt hair and flesh, I forced myself to breathe as I slowly climbed up the stairs. Floor by floor, until I reached the twentieth and a quick glance through the door revealed a zombie that was drawn to the noise. Taking a moment to glance up the stairs, I could hear more coming but their moans bounced off the staircase, making it impossible to judge how many.
I really, really, really didn't like the thought of not having a clear exit behind me. I also really, really, really didn't like the thought of lingering too long and letting Mr. X or the G-Virus monster find me.
Between the two bad options, I went with the one I thought I could manage.
Opening the door, I stepped out of the way so the zombie fell forward before I shot it in the head. Kicking the legs to the side and clearing the door, I closed it behind me. A few seconds later, zombies started pawing at the door behind me, but they wouldn't have any luck getting through it. The noise had attracted one other zombie that had been making her way to the door, but with a quick shot, I put her down, and the dark floor was silent once more.
It was then that I heard Jill's voice in my ear, "You're on camera. So is the big guy – he's making his way to the stairs, it looks like, so I recommend you start moving, Rude." Jill warned me as I did exactly that. Dakka took point as the emergency lights flashed, revealing the open layout to the lab. Something was different with the floor, I swiftly noticed.
Mostly because I didn't think that vines were supposed to be growing along the walls and ceiling. Switching Dakka to flamethrower mode, I reached up to my neck and pressed the mic before speaking in a low whisper, "What exactly am I looking for here? And any eyes on the thing we're supposed to be killing?"
"None," Jill swiftly answered. "I think it's avoiding cameras because I haven't seen any sign of it. If we didn't hear that crash, I'd say it wasn't here." That was pretty much the last thing that I wanted to hear, if I was being perfectly honest. I didn't need a monster with ninja training to sneak up on me. "As for what you're looking for… head straight, take a left, then straight again. That'll take you to the lab that has the viral agent."
"Roger roger," I said, following her instructions. I was keenly aware of the cameras and it was a relief to see that there were plenty. As I ventured deeper into the floor, however, the thicker the vines became. Whatever was in that lab was where I had to go, unfortunately enough.
The door was half sealed, overgrown with vines and what looked like a corpse that had fallen there, which meant the door couldn't close all the way. A quick belch of flames from Dakka pushed back vines even if it meant filling the hallway with smoke. Waiting a moment for them to burn through enough that I could step through the door, I glanced around at the lab that could best be described as a greenhouse gone awry.
Plants grew completely out of control, dozens of species that did their best to consume every empty space. If I had waited a few more days to get down here, I'd probably have to burn the whole room just to move past it. It also let me see that every testing bed of the plants had been deliberately left open.
As well as what had been nourishing them.
"Great," I muttered, looking at what had been a last stand in the lab. A good dozen zombies, their bodies thoroughly infiltrated with vines with plants sprouting from their flesh, slowly got up. Given that they were spread out, my guess was that they hid here, tried to use the plants as a barrier to protect themselves until rescue came… only for one of them to already be infected. The vines made them stiff, their movements more unnatural than they already were, but it was simple enough to put them down with the help of Dakka.
Plants had a natural weakness to fire, after all.
"Big guy has reached the stairs, Rude. He's on his way down," Jill informed me as I crouched down to one of the corpses to see his ID wristband was a different color. Senior Staff. I'll be taking that, thank you.
"I hear you," I said, moving on and burning away the foliage that had sealed another door. I was immediately hit with a blast of cold air, the metal walls covered in frost, and the source was a broken window to a testing lab where they developed whatever they were making here. There was another zombie waiting for me, but given that it was well below freezing, the corpse was frozen stiff. Still shot it for the free xp, though. "I'm in the lab. Looking for the sample now-"
There was a crashing sound somewhere behind me. A distant echo but it made my heart jump to my throat.
"Jill… what was that?" I asked, a sense of urgency flooding me as I stepped into the lab, searching for some agent labeled GV-566. Not as easy as I would like because a lot of the equipment was covered in a thin layer of frost.
"The G-Virus infected was hiding in the elevator shaft! It just tore a hole in the elevator on your floor, Rude!" Jill announced and… yeah. Okay.
"On a scale from one to ten, how-"
"It's a ten. Humanoid, but one side of it is the virus with a large eye at the shoulder." Jill answered quickly and the note of panic in her voice was a damn good argument to hurry it up and grab the viral agent. My hands worked as fast as they could, brushing away the frost to a half dozen vials that were in a cabinet, my fingers swiftly going numb.
I heard another crash, this one closer. "Jill, give me a path to the elevator," I said, finally finding the correct vial. Stuffing it in my pocket, I traded out my Arcane Firearm for my shotgun. "Fastest way, please."
"The fastest is going to take you right past that thing, Rude. He's on you like a hound. It's tracking you somehow." Jill said and I filed that away while I swiftly made my plan. Stepping out of the lab, I crossed the room so I was on the same wall as the entrance in the opposite corner. Dakka crawled forward, sticking to the wall over the greenroom while I prepared a cantrip. "But… get past him and take a right instead of a left at the fork."
My heart was pounding in my chest as I spoke in a low voice, "Jill – start heading up the elevator shaft. We'll have to swing back for the server. I'll meet you there as soon as I can." And, almost as soon as I said the words, I heard the heavy lumbering steps of the monster in question. Crouching down behind some vines, I forced myself to control my breathing.
Jill's description really hadn't sold how monstrous it was. Most of the creature was humanoid, but on the shoulder, almost like it had been grafted on, was a massive bulbous mess of muscle, bone protrusions, with a single massive eye the size of a small satellite dish at the shoulder. The entire arm was a massive claw, and from the looks of things, the transformation wasn't complete yet. That was a frightening thought.
But I couldn't afford to get scared right now.
Casting Prestidigitation, I conjured an illusion in the greenroom of myself ducking behind a row of plants, and I watched as the massive eyes immediately locked in on the movement. With a massive lumbering breath, the monster rushed forward into the greenroom and the moment it was inside, I broke into a dead sprint to the door while Dakka dropped down and bathed the creature in flames.
Its roar echoed down the hallway behind me, and I didn't even need Expeditious Retreat to haul ass. Dakka trailed behind me, running as fast as her spider legs could carry her, firing a shot at the monster that decided to give chase. With every shot, the monster was knocked back, giving me the room I needed. Taking a right so quickly I half bounced against the wall, I saw the opened elevator shaft that looked entirely too much like a ripped apart tin can for my liking.
I barely slowed down before I jumped into the elevator shaft, reaching a hand out to give me enough spin that I could hop onto the ladder. Jill was already on it, a good two floors above me, telling me that she had rushed up. She glanced down at me as I chased after her, Dakka making it as she secured herself to my back. My heart plummeted when I heard the creature still giving chase. I knew I shouldn't have, but I dared to glance down to see the G-Zombie stab its claw into concrete like it was wet tissue paper before clumsily following us up.
"Dakka, hit him," I hissed, climbing as fast as I could while Dakka did exactly that.
And, as it turned out, the monster had a really glaring weakness.
The eye made an excellent target that Dakka took aim at, sniping it even as I jostled around in my haste. The creature roared in pain, taking a swipe at me that felt entirely too close. The ladder beneath me jerked in a way that had my veins full of nothing but adrenaline, but that opened the creature up to another shot that struck it directly in the oversized eye.
With another roar, it tried to right itself but the damage was done. It fell down about six stories, crumpling the elevator that it landed on, and giving us some breathing room. Even still, Dakka didn't stop shooting as we continued upward, not wanting to give it a chance to close the sudden gap. She only stopped when we were nearing the top of the elevator shaft, minutes later, and I sent her ahead of Jill to clear any zombies at the top.
And there were a few, I soon saw, grabbing Jill's hand as she half yanked me out of the elevator shaft. Leaving Dakka to cover our rear, the two of us sprinted out of the lab, racing across the walkway and as soon as we crossed the halfway point, the bridge started to retract.
Dakka came running after us a moment later, jumping across the gap into my waiting arms, and it was only then did I blow out a sigh of utter relief.
"That sucked. Oh… oh, man, I didn't like that. I didn't like that at all," I muttered, the adrenaline abruptly leaving me, and my strength felt sapped even as my heart still pounded at my ribs.
Jill was hunched over as the walkway finished retreating, breathing heavily, "At least we trapped them both in the same wing. With a little luck, they'll kill one another."
"I'll be honest… I don't think we're that lucky," I replied and Jill visibly swallowed a sigh.
"Neither do I. In any case, we have some time. They don't have any reason to go after the server room either, so all that's left is to make this antiviral and kill the both of them." Jill decided, straightening up while I secured Dakka to my back. I didn't have much of a charge left in her, but I was very glad that I didn't need to burn the one spell slot I had left. I got the impression that I was going to be needing her again soon enough.
Rounding the central elevator, the walkway to the other wing connected itself. Walking along, the automatic doors slid open to reveal a woman. Annette, I'm guessing. She was in her mid thirties if I had to guess, pale skin from a lot of time in the lab, long blonde hair that told me she hadn't showered in a couple of days.
She also had a gun.
"Oh. The Umbrella scientist has betrayed us. I'm shocked. Shocked, I say!" I said, dramatically throwing my hands in the air while Annette leveled the gun at us. "Well, not that shocked."
"If I was betraying you, you'd be dead already," Annette replied coldly. "I don't trust you and the world itself is in danger, so I can't risk trusting you. The samples in this lab…" Her voice trailed off when I rolled my eyes to the ceiling. This was annoying, but in line with what I expected. She also kinda had us dead to rights. There wasn't much cover on the thin walkway. "What I want you to do is give me the antiviral. I'll make it. Then… then we'll kill the subject together, but you will never step inside this wing."
That was a promise. And, as annoying as I found it – and, oh boy, did I find it annoying – I did understand why she was going this route. The things in this secret base? They should never see the light of day. I'm sure that some good could come out of them, but all of it was inherently tainted by the T-Virus, or whatever version they cooked up. So, yeah, I was in complete agreement with none of the apocalypse causing viruses or what have you ever leaving.
Jill glanced my way when I stepped forward, one hand in the air and the other taking out the vial. "You're being a massive pain in the ass, but I agree with the goal. So, before we start the battle royale with two bio-weapons, I want to go to Hive Two. You said it yourself – that's where they produced answers to those fuck off massive problems we have in time out."
Annette jerked, "I'm not negotiating with you. Give me the vial, or I'll shoot you."
"Then shoot. Because, I gotta say, taking a bullet to the dome sounds a lot more preferable than going three rounds with those two unprepared. Unless, of course, you can look me in the eyes and promise me that whatever you're cooking up is the silver bullet to both of them?" I was kinda hoping that she could because that would be really convenient. But, based on how her lips thinned, I was going to have to take that as a no.
She shook her head, confirming it, "That's- they're separate-" She started, but I smiled placatingly.
"I'm aware. But that doesn't really solve the issue. So, what I'm suggesting is that you let us go get something that can take out Mr. Trenchcoat." I wasn't particularly charismatic, I have the stat to prove it, but I did know how to talk to people. Annette was a scientist, so logic was the way to go. And, try as she might, she wasn't able to poke any holes in my reasoning.
She licked her lips, "The antiviral first. Then I'll activate the elevator. There's a railcar below that you can use to connect to the other Hive. Getting something that can destroy it… that's on you." Annette decided and that was about as good of an offer as we were going to get. So, I tossed the vial over to her and she managed to catch it, albeit clumsily.
Her guard lowered when neither of us took the opportunity to shoot her, and she offered one final nod to me before she quickly vanished back inside the wing. Stepping back, I glanced at Jill, who seemed rather pensive about the entire thing. At least, until the central elevator turned on.
"That was a risk," Jill noted as we stepped inside the elevator and pressed the bottom floor.
"Yeah, it was," I agreed, leaning against the railing. "But it wasn't like we were going to kill her to get inside. And, while I'm certain that there's going to be entire servers of horrific war crimes in that wing, we don't need it. Maybe we can convince her to give us the evidence of them happening, without all the crap they cooked up."
"Like you said – we're not that lucky," Jill sighed as we continued down- my train of thought momentarily derailed when we sailed by what I could only describe as an ARC reactor of some kind. Two massive spinning wheels with electricity cackling between them.
"You saw that, right? What was that thing?" I blurted, caught thoroughly off guard by the sudden sci-fi imagery. It was over as soon as it began, but Keen Mind let me effortlessly recall it – the two wheels in what looked like a void…
"I think that was a power source. Couldn't tell you what kind," Jill ventured, quick to dismiss the entire thing as non relevant. I wouldn't be so sure, however. "We're taking a lot of what Annette said on faith here. Are we really going to find something in this other Hive that can deal with those things? Because shotguns aren't going to cut it."
We arrived at the bottom floor of the Hive, and I saw the railcar that Annette described. There was a long platform and railway, but I couldn't tell where either way ended. A rather conventional sign, however, told me that we had to go right to reach the bottom of the other Hive.
To answer her question, I shot Jill a grin as we started walking to the other Hive. "If we're going to find a silver bullet, it would be there," I reasoned. Alice should be in the other Hive. And her whole psionics deal was going to be really handy dealing with those bio-weapons.
If everything worked out, we could just throw Alice at the problem and it would probably go away without needing much interference with us much more mundane plebeians.
"And if we don't?" Jill prompted, and I could tell she really wanted a defined plan.
I thought of that railgun that Jill had used to kill Nemesis in the game. How the movies decided to cut that out was beyond me. In any case, I reached back and patted Dakka on the chassis as the last dregs of her power ran out. There were ideas floating around in my head, and I had to say, I was feeling inspired.
"Then we make a couple of silver bullets of our own," I replied, seeing the elevator up to the other Hive in the distance.
Jill hummed, clearly wanting something more concrete, but accepting that things were just up in the air at the moment. "I bet Chris isn't having to deal with some crap like this."
To that, I chuckled. "Here's hoping that Chris is kicking his feet up and enjoying the calm while it lasts."
Based on our shared laughter, I don't think either of us believed it.
...
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