Chapter 102: Alone Below

The sound of hurried footsteps echoed through a long corridor plunged into darkness. The screech of fury from a not so distant licker made Angela’s heart beat even faster than it already did. Cold sweat was running down her back and dampening the cotton of her clothes as she fled the bio-organic weapon hunting her down.

She reached an intersection leading either to the left or to the right. Following her instincts, she went left. Not a bad decision in normal time. The path to the right, from her memory of the map of the complex, led to the control room and testing area. It was where Rick and her got separated and the way blocked. It was now a dead end in more ways than one with a licker and perhaps more on her heels.

The path to the left, led to the infirmary and the living quarters. A path neither she nor Rick, be it together or solo, had explored yet. It was also full of different rooms which provided many opportunities for Angela to duck into and hide.

‘Now’ however, wasn’t a normal time. BOW were free and running rampant all around the underground complex, which explained why she ended up face to face with not one but two others lickers.

One was on the ground, crawling in her direction while the other was on the ceiling. She didn’t see the second one but her ears told her it was there when it let out its usual screech. The first one decided crawling was inefficient and jumped at her. Her reflexes kicked in then. Her P90 fired the dozen or so bullets left in its magazine to shred to pieces the oversized brain of it while she jumped to the side to avoid being mauled.

On the floor now, she rolled to avoid the whipping tongue of the one above by a couple inches, missing her torso. Angela didn’t hesitate a fraction of a second, it was her body acting on its own when she grabbed the tongue and tugged on it so hard the licker fell to the ground. Unfortunately, it was right on top of her. Remembering Rick’s advice, she let go of her submachine gun to draw her Colt Python. With the hand which got the tongue she pushed the monstrous and eyeless head of the bio-organic weapon to the side to not be bitten and with her right shot twice under its shin, completely obliterating everything the flesh and bones on its way and its surroundings.

The death of this second licker didn’t allow her to relax however. She was now trapped under it and there was the very first one of the BOW, which had been chasing her, to deal with.

It came from her left. Not in position to aim with the gun in her right hand, she grabbed the knife holstered on her left shoulder and threw it as best as she could. Her aim was good as it sank into the right part of the licker’s brain. It didn’t kill it but it was enough to make it recoil from the pain and stagger it a little.

That was enough for Angela. She rolled herself and the licker on her to find herself on top but more importantly, free to use her magnum. One shot was enough but she fired a second to make sure the beast was well and truly dead.

In case of more or others BOW coming her way, there was no respite for her. Not yet. Getting up, her P90 hanging from its strap, she moved deeper into the area, abandoning her knife behind, and went through the first door she encountered. Gun in hand, raised and aimed, a quick scan of the room revealed it was a safe space.

A simple, small office. Two wide desks facing each other with terminals on one side and ledgers and documents all over the other side. Against the wall was a shelf with more ledgers and cardboard boxes. Opposite to it was a white board with molecules, chemical formulas and annotations she couldn’t make sense of.

The electronic and automated door closed behind her while she stepped inside and checked for air vents. Just in case more lickers wanted to pay her a visit and use her as a snack or target practice. Thankfully there were none.

Only when she loaded a new mag in her submachine gun, replaced the used bullets in her revolver and changed her remaining knife at her ankle to her shoulder did Angela finally relax. Her movements were hurried but not to the point of letting her emotions get the best of her and make a mess. No shaking hands, no batted and heavy breaths.

“God, dammnit. What a clusterfuck.” She cursed as she exhaled, releasing the tension in her muscles.

Rick had been right with his bad feeling. At first, when the elevator stopped and the heavy, thick, metallic doors of the lab presented themselves to be opened, everything was fine. There weren't any bio-organic weapons around, there wasn’t any trail of blood or even a drop of it. Everything was organized, cleaned and dare she say, more sterile than a hospital.

To the side were crates containing food. From the expiration date on the diverse packages, it confirmed the death of Collins around mid to late December. More importantly they were full, putting into question the role and the relationship of the man with the rest of the Umbrella employees.

The next room after the lobby was a hall, reminiscent of Nest, minus the elevator in the middle and the abyss separating each area. There wasn’t any reception desk however, giving the idea that this lab didn’t receive visitors. Considering the lack of unknown people going through Mackenzie, the personnel either must have been living underground for years or simply stayed in the chalet above to see the light of day.

Collins' time of death revealed a small issue; the first victim was discovered in October. Why continue bringing food to the lab if there was a BOW free at large in the wild? It didn’t add up. Rick and her idea was that Collins wasn’t as aware as they believed he was of what was happening here or he knew and the release of the leopard was intentional. Ironic in the latter case since the beast killed the man.

Things immediately turned bad when they were a few yards into the hall. The door behind them completely shut and locked while an automated female voice made an announcement. Their unauthorized presence has been detected and initiated a total lockdown of the place.

It had worried her but her focus didn’t waver, neither did Rick’s from the look of it. They started by going East. It contained the testing area, the command room and the storage area where every type of BOW was secured. Supposedly.

It hadn’t been the case as they soon found out when they checked one room. Broken cages, upon broken cages. Some were from the inside and some from the outside. It had been obvious the former’s had broken out and broken into the latter’s to feast. From the disgusting remains and the size of the beasts jailed, their killers were of the size of the mutated wolves they had encountered the previous day.

The next room they visited contained tanks filled with hunters, Tyrants and actual zombies. Two researchers. Rick had let her take the lead, and she used her axe to take them both by surprise. One hit to the back of the neck for one with the blade and one hit of the pike on the other side for the other.

That’s when things went from bad to all hell.

She didn’t even get the time to clean her tomahawk. The light above the tanks changed from red to green all at once and the BOW immediately became active. Her heartbeat had skyrocketed then. They broke the transparent glass and sprung into action. Rick had immediately engaged the two Tyrants, catching their attention, while she put down a hunter before it could leap.

Outnumbered five two one, Rick told her to retreat, while blasting the head of a Tyrant with his shotgun, making it take a knee and using his super speed to avoid a punch from the second, coming from the side.

Her heart had hesitated but her body didn’t. Taking down another hunter, she dodged the claws of a third by crouching while a fourth’s head was split open by Rick’s thrown tomahawk. It allowed her to reach the door who suddenly found itself locked, the sound of an error and denied access echoing through the air between shotgun blasts.

Angela had warned him, while moving around to survive the assault of the remaining hunters. With no other choice, Rick moved in a blink and ran through the wall, leading outside before immediately getting back inside the room to cover her retreat. The next thing she knew, he went through the wall again but this time it wasn’t his doing. A Tyrant had simply rammed him through the concrete.

The uppercut it received from her partner had been loud and heavy but more importantly hard enough to shake the BOW’s brain and make him stagger. Rick was able to kick it so hard in the chest it was sent flying back half a dozen feet away back into the room. Unfortunately the second Tyrant burst through the wall again which destabilized the ceiling quite a bit. This time the creature of nightmare was closer and went after her. Rick shot a leaping hunter and tackled the Tyrant into the wall hard enough that everything above them began to fall on their heads.

Angela had pulled back instantly, killing another hunter in the process. The end result was the corridor being split into two parts. Her alone on one side and Rick with all the other BOWs on the other. Were it not for her knowledge of her mentor’s experience and capabilities she would think he was already done for. Fortunately she knew better or at least hoped for the better.

With not much of a choice, she prayed that he would make it out alive as she went to the West wing of the complex. There was only one thought in mind. Who was trapping them in real time? It led to another question, where are they and how could she stop them? Whoever that was, she doubted they were in the East Wing. They would be suicidal to released all those BOW with them there.

Reaching the West Wing had been easy. Surprisingly the door leading to the hall had not been locked and she was able to cross the room without difficulty. Things got complicated then. Part of the area was destroyed and there may not have been any BOW store there but there were plenty of lickers and zombies. After reloading her P90, she adventured taking care of any she encountered. After reaching the living quarters, she found out the one responsible for everything.

An AI.

A rebellious one at that if what she read from one of the personal computers was true. The artificial intelligence’s servers and core were located in the East Wing, where Rick was currently fighting for his life. Knowing that she had to get there, she got creative. She found a janitor closet with everything she needed to mix not only molotovs cocktails but also a powerful explosive which, hopefully, would be powerful enough to destroy the debris blocking the way.

Now more than ever, she was really glad for O’Brian to have assigned Rick as her mentor. She was sure that had she gotten someone else, she would be stuck here for who knows how long. On her first day, he had told her that he would teach her about surviving, not fighting, BOW. It included how to gather, salvage and be creative with any resources in her surroundings. She had been skeptical at first but the more he talked, the more he made sense, especially with numbers and data with him.

Rick had taught her how to make explosives based on cleaning supplies and the whole chemistry behind it. No one else would have taught her that and that was thinking that they knew about it in the first place. She was alive right now because of him and because she took him seriously and was diligent in her learning.

‘God. Anyone else would be either dead or stuck.’ Taking a deep breath, she straightened herself and took an aiming stance. ‘I need to recover that bag.’

She had thrown it at a licker when attacked inside the supplies room. It had burst through the vent and she had no choice to let go of the bag to take care of it. Unfortunately two others came the same way and she had no other choice but to run, killing a second one in the process, the third running on her heels.

Now the licker was dead, courtesy of her .44 Magnum, and so were more of its friends. Readying herself and after getting no answers from Rick through the radio, she stepped out into the corridor to recover her loot. It’s been two hours since she found herself alone and she couldn’t waste any more time.

Not entertaining the thought that after that much time, her partner may already be dead, Angela focused on her short term goal.