Chapter 07: The Third Survivor

Rick was holding his walkie-talkie up in the direction of Claire. She was following Marvin’s instructions to the letter, pushing down the three cylinders in front of a statue in the shape of a unicorn.

The sound of something unlocking was heard. The medallion locked in place inside a stand was released and fell down. With quick reflexes, Rick caught it before it could hit the ground.

“We got the unicorn medallion, Marvin,” Claire said into the walkie. “We’re getting the Lion’s one and coming back to you.”

“Roger… that.”

Rick released the button to cut the communication on their side and put the device back on his hip. Claire put her one-third of their key to freedom inside the biggest pocket of her tactical vest.

“He’s getting worse.” She was worried and sad about Marvin’s fate.

“He is.” Rick agreed. “It won’t be long before he turns.” The coldness with which he spoke those words made it clear what he would do to Marvin if that happened.

It made Claire frown. Marvin had saved her life and had been nothing but kind to her since they met. Hearing Rick consider him already lost and be so callous about the officer’s fate didn’t sit well with her.

“He’s not gone yet! You don’t know if he’s going to turn or not! Maybe he won’t!” She almost yelled in his face.

Rick didn’t back down, however, and the bit of space between them that she had already decreased, decreased again.

“Claire. I’ve spent a week watching people getting bitten left and right. Only one person survived. Only one didn’t turn.” His finger was raised as if displaying the number would have more impact than just saying it. “Everyone else died and became a walking corpse.”

“Maybe Marvin—”

“He won’t. There is no maybe about it, Claire.”

“How do you know?!” This time she shouted, angry beyond belief. It wasn’t that she was furious at Rick. She was furious at the fact that deep down inside she knew there was no hope for Marvin, and she took it out on her partner because of how ruthless he sounded.

“Because he’s still bleeding. The virus makes it so the wound necroses very fast, poisoning your blood further. Killing you faster. From my observation, if you’re immune, the bleeding stops.”

Once again, his tone was calm but cold and firm, despite the anger in his eyes that was right there for her to see. More than the words themselves, it was the absolute certainty they were spoken with that made her stand down.

Rick turned around and walked toward the door behind him. Following the map of the second floor they just found on a rack near the statue a few minutes ago, it led to the library. He waited for her, knife in hand. His cleaver had been put aside because he couldn’t swing it properly with the wound he had. Stabbing, on the other hand, was fine.

Claire exhaled deeply through her nose to center herself. She knew it was neither the time nor the place to have a fight. Walking forward, she readied herself, gun in hand.

“1, 2, 3.”

Counting to three so she could be mentally ready, Rick pulled the door and let her go through first. She immediately went to the left and, drawing her own knife from the holster on her shoulder, stabbed a downed corpse. A good decision since it moaned.

Rick went right, ignoring the stairs directly against the wall, and plunged his own weapon into the eyes of a zombie trying to stand up. He turned his wrist and the undead went down for good.

They cleaned the whole room next. Another zombie played dead near the spade door connecting the library to the Reception Hall. One on the other side of the room was hidden by tall shelves and eating a corpse. A last one up the stairs was playing dead too.

Claire found another knife stuck in a corpse. A good thing because the one Marvin had given her and she had been using ever since showed signs of quite a bit of wear. Not really a surprise when she had been stabbing bones right and left until now. In her opinion, it would break soon. As she put it in the pouch where she kept the one they found in the Safety Deposit room, Rick came back down the stairs.

“The third floor is clear. The door to the West Storage room is open but I think there are some… things there.” The emphasis on the word and his left hand pointing at the wound on his waist made it easy for Claire to understand what he was referring to.

She hid the worry in her voice well. Encountering another creature like the one they had faced wasn’t something she wanted. “How do you know? Did you see one?”

“When I opened the door, there was a zombie half dragged into a destroyed ceiling.”

That made her wince. “Thankfully, we don’t have to go there.” She pointed at the Spade door.

Rick took a moment to say something, as if debating what to say. “Let’s hope so.” It wasn’t a firm denial, but it left it open to doubt that would be the case, even though he wished it was.

They walked toward the exit and he pulled the spade key from his pocket. It fit perfectly in the keyhole and when he turned it, the soft sound of the lock being opened made him smile. Looking at Claire, she had a strange reddish book in her hands.

“Found something?” Rick asked with interest.

“Yes, or rather… no? It’s just the cover… It's weird. Like something was designed to… just fit into it?”

Rick made a ‘gimme’ gesture with his hand and Claire handed him the book. Having a look, he could see the lower half of the cover being ‘squished’, going deeper. And it didn’t stop at the front; it went all around to the back too. When Claire noticed him frown, she got even more curious.

“You know what it is?”

He gave her a shake of his head. “No, but that reminds me of the Spencer Mansion. There were secret passages everywhere and we needed to go through all kinds of nutty loops to open them. Like… well, like playing a tune on a piano. I thought it had been built by the Looney Tunes with how air-brained some… puzzles were.” He traced the ridge of the indentation with his thumb. “Now that I think about it, putting three medallions to open an exit sounds a lot like the mansion…”

Claire understood where he was getting at. “You think this book is part of a… puzzle?”

She was a bit skeptical, but then again Rick had far more experience regarding curious things. The story he gave her in the STARS Office had been quite insane, but after what she had gone through and the traumatic expression he had when he talked, she believed him.

“Yeah. Maybe.” Rick put the book in his backpack without thinking twice about it.

That made her smile. “Better take it with us just in case, huh?”

He just shrugged his shoulders and opened the Spade Door. Looking around, he saw a box of ammo on a bench in the dead end on the right and went to pick it up. Claire was waiting for him in front of the door and they both walked down the other side of the open corridor. They had a view of the whole first floor and saw Marvin where they had last seen him, lying down.

When they reached the top of the stairs, they stopped at the Lion statue. Exchanging a look, Claire climbed down the steps. It didn’t take very long for her to contact Rick through the radio.

“So it’s a lion, then… a branch with leaves and an eagle. You got that?”

Much like his partner had done for the Unicorn statue a bit earlier, he turned the cylinders as instructed. Once again he heard something unlock and the lion medallion fell from the stone shield it had been stuck on.

“We’re good.” Rick replied through the walkie-talkie.

He walked and joined Claire and Marvin, who he suspected had been woken up, and held the medallion up for them to see. Claire picked her own from her tactical vest, grabbed Rick’s, and went to the statue behind him to put them both into the circular indentation in the stone.

There was no unlocking mechanical noise this time, or perhaps there was. It was impossible to tell when because of the loud movement of stone. A circular part of the pedestal opened in two and receded behind the statue. Afterwards, another part sank into the ground.

Marvin was the first to speak. “Fuck me… Elliot was right.”

“One more and we’re getting out of here.”

Claire sounded enthusiastic. Hopeful. Rick said nothing, not wanting to rain on her parade. Perhaps he would have reacted the same way before his experience in the mansion. Perhaps not. He knew it was a small victory, however, and saying anything reasonable and pragmatic would bring morale down.

Instead, he chose to focus on their objective. “The question is, where is the last statue? The only rooms we didn’t search were the one with the chain on the first floor and the West Storage on the third floor because of a claw thingy probably being there.”

“The East… Wing.” Marvin said weakly. “If you came from the… Library then… you have a spade key.” He pointed to the second floor behind him. “There is a waiting room with… a door you can open with it.”

Claire liked the idea. “That sounds a lot better than facing one of those things again.”

Rick agreed with her and, before going up the stairs, opened the door leading to the West Office—the room where they found Claire’s speedloader for her revolver and a locked safe. They had found the combination inside Wesker’s office, but there were more important things to do than checking what was inside. The code may not even work, as it was the default one and the officer it was given to was tasked with changing it.

Following Claire’s lead, who had a bit of a gait in her steps, Rick reached the second floor. It didn’t take long for them to step inside the Waiting Room and salvage anything they could. They found a green herb and another locked safe behind the reception counter. With nothing else to hoard, Rick opened the Spade door.

On the other side, there were two paths for them to go. After checking with their eyes that there was no danger, they strained their ears. No moaning or groaning.

Relaxing her stance, Claire picked up the map of the second floor. She pointed to the right. “This way leads to a terrace and also to stairs. This way,” her arm moved left, “leads to the Chief of Police’s office and stairs going up and down.”

Rick picked a side to go. “Let’s check the asshole’s office first. Bet he had some shady shit which could be useful.”

“Left it is.”

Claire put the map back into the pocket of her tactical vest and walked side by side with Rick. Since the lights on the ceiling were on, her knife was in her left hand instead of her flashlight. When they arrived at the corner, she stepped away from the right wall because of a door. After a tap on Rick’s shoulder signaling she was covering her back in case it burst open, he walked forward to have a look at what was beyond the intersection.

He signed ‘one’ with a finger and disappeared. Claire heard a familiar ‘thud’, recognizing the sound of Rick’s cleaver hitting something, then another.

“Clear.” She heard as her partner came into sight once again. “We have a problem, though. The fire shutter is down. We can lift it up, but we need a crank and I don’t have any.”

“It’s fine. We have more to explore.” Her head pointed at the door in front of her.

Rick nodded and pushed the door ajar slowly. Seeing no danger inside, he opened it fully, giving Claire a thumbs up to say everything was safe. She lowered her gun and stepped right behind him.

“What’s this place?” she wondered aloud while looking around.

At first sight, it looked like some kind of art room. Plenty of what she supposed to be furniture was covered in white sheets. Further down, against the end wall, was another statue. For a brief instant, she believed they had found the last medallion, but from the size and look, she quickly realized it wasn’t. The statue looked like a king holding a scepter on a basic pedestal, while the one they were looking for was way taller and of a woman. A brief look up and she saw a glass dome, rain pouring on it and making ‘plock’ sounds.

Rick went to the statue immediately, his gut telling him that something was wrong with it. It was missing an arm. Scanning the surroundings with his eyes, he found it in the corner. The missing part’s rear end looked like it could be inserted somewhere. He turned his head to look at the statue and sighed when he saw a hole in the same shape.

“I found a keycard!”

Looking at Claire, she seemed happy, waving the said item in the air like she had won the jackpot. In a way, she did. Now they could get the shotgun and the grenade launcher in the Safety Deposit Room.

“What did you find?”

He showed the arm and handed it to her. Putting his bag down, he picked up the book. It fitted perfectly in the hand. “Either the architect who made the mansion also designed the precinct, or they’re related in some way.”

Claire agreed with him. That puzzles like this existed for no reason was still baffling her. “Possibly. It’s one hell of a coincidence if it’s not.”

She put the arm on the statue and something happened. The other one, holding the scepter, lowered itself. Its hand unclenched, allowing Rick to pick up the object.

“What’s the point of this?”

The question, full of curiosity, was asked naturally as Claire watched Rick turning their loot around. He stopped when he found something. What it was, she couldn’t tell, but he brought the scepter closer to his face to have a better look. With his hand, he pushed up something on the shaft and the red gem at the top of it fell to the ground.

“Another clue, for another puzzle.” Rick grunted, crouching down to pick the jewel up. “Getting tired of this shit.”

“I can imagine. Found anything else?”

“No.” His head moved from left to right. “We better go.”

Just as they turned around, the dome on the ceiling broke and another of those monsters fell to the ground. With fast reflexes, Rick charged forward before the creature landed on the floor. Scepter in hand, he stabbed it in the brain with so much force that it went through its jaw and pinned it down. The creature screamed in pain, but its torment wasn’t over. With his off-hand, Rick pulled out his cleaver and began to slash at its target brain. Again and again.

Claire had frozen. Not from the sudden attack, but from Rick’s reaction speed. She had barely registered they were in danger before her partner was already neutralizing the threat. With a strength she didn’t think he or any average guy of his build had.

Way after the creature’s body jolted around and went limp, Rick kept hacking away with a furious violence that shocked her back to reality.

“Rick, it’s dead.” Claire called out, but he didn’t hear her.

She got close and grabbed him by the shoulder. Immediately, his head turned to her. His eyes were burning with fury and something else which scared her. A bit of insanity. She controlled her fear and didn’t let it deter her. “It’s dead. You can stop.”

His look changed. The rage went away. Claire witnessed it with her own eyes, the return of his cold pragmatism in his grey-blue orbs. Turning back to the beast, he stayed silent. As if something clicked in his mind, he fell on his ass. The breath he was holding was released and he began to breathe again. Heavily.

“Sorry… I…”

Claire’s answer was soft and kind as she knelt next to him. “It’s fine. I understand. You probably saved my life again too, so I can’t be mad.”

The bright smile she gave him made him feel less guilty. His eyes never left her face for long seconds. Closing his eyes, he began to calm himself down. When he opened them again, Claire was on her feet and offering her hand to pull him up.

Standing, he looked down at his cleaver. It was more than chipped. Much like Claire’s knife, it was ready to break. After using it the whole day, it was bound to happen sooner or later.

To break the awkwardness, he planned their next move. “What do we do? Go back for the weapons, or…”

“No, I think it’s better if we check the other end of the corridor. We’ll have to go explore it anyway, and we would waste time.”

“Fair enough.”

Exiting the art room, they went down the right side. At a corner, they found a green herb near a door leading to stairs outside. They were ready to continue down the corridor when they heard a helicopter. Looking to the night sky through the window, they saw it spiraling and falling in their direction.

“Not good!” Rick grabbed Claire by the waist and dragged her back.

The helicopter crashed onto the building in the section they intended to explore. It burst into flames.

“I guess that was 73-Bi—”

He was interrupted by someone shouting for help. “Hey! Is anyone there?!”

It came from outside. Claire removed Rick’s arm from her body and ran to the window to look down.

“LEON!” She turned to Rick. “We’re going down.”

Before he could say anything, he was following her outside.