Chapter 24: Teamwork in the Dark

Claire had finally found her voice again. What Rick had just done had left her utterly speechless and she wasn’t able to say a single word because it had been so awing that her mind had been blown.

Rick gave her a nod of acknowledgement and walked through the door to the side. She was right behind him and began asking questions.

“How did that happen?”

He was looking around, shotgun aimed forward and swiping right and left in case of a threat. “You were right there, no?”

“I meant for you. From your perspective. You reacted so fast. Faster than…”

“Humanly possible?”

Claire immediately denied his words when she heard them and the hint of, she didn’t know if it was sadness or pity but she knew it wasn’t good. “No! I was going to say Bruce Lee.”

Rick turned around and gave her an incredulous look. “Bruce Lee?”

“Yeah. Greatest martial artist, movie actor… Fist of Fury? The way of the Dragon? Classics, you know?”

“Not really. I didn’t have the opportunity to watch tv. Sometimes Jugs paid for my ticket at the theater but we usually watched action movies.”

Having forgotten that there was no way he had access to TV when living in the streets, she explained herself. “Well, Bruce Lee is known to have had very, very, fast reflexes.”

“I wouldn’t say I was fast. To me, they were slow.”

Claire tilted her head to the side in confusion. “Slow?”

He nodded, “Yeah. When the cover fell, I saw it fall in slow motion. The same for the tongue. I saw it in my peripheral vision and I just grabbed it normally like I would grab something thrown at me.”

“That’s even more amazing, you know?”

Rick simply shrugged and turned left when confronted with the end of the room by a wall. His shotgun was lowered and he drew his cleaver when he saw a dead researcher leaning against the wall on the ground.

“We found our cryo room.” He pointed to the left with his chin.

Claire looked in the direction and saw through a window a room plunged in total cold. So cold there was ice over most of the machines and furniture. When she heard a loud thud, she knew Rick had split open the corpse’s head and didn’t bother to look. Instead she went to the open terminal at a desk and searched for useful information but found none.

She quickly joined Rick into the next room and together they entered the cold area. He quickly found the right machine to cool down the compound and Claire handed him the cartridge for it. All in all they were done and out within three minutes.

Instead of going back the way they came from they chose to continue forward. That meant turning left instead of right when they exited the lab. From what the map said, there was a corridor leading to stairs leading back to the lobby. It was a small detour but they would not go through the greenhouse again and face the ‘Ivy’ as Claire had started to call them. Rick was non-plussed about the name.

They met one of them along two regular undead and dealt with them promptly. The way to the control room had been a breeze after that. It was to be expected they had cleaned it up the first time they went through it.

Claire inserted the full cartridge back where she got it and the herbicide was immediately sprayed all over the greenhouse.

“Wow, that sure is effective.” She commented when within seconds everything died under their very eyes. All green writhed for twenty perhaps thirty seconds before dying. The ivies but also and more importantly the giant plant were gone for good.

From their vantage point they saw the body holding the level 3 chip fell from the window to the ground. The pair didn’t waste a single second the moment the spraying was over.

Claire crouched down to pick it up and in sign of triumph held it for Rick to see. His small smile turned to horror when he saw Mr. X passing through the lobby door and walking straight towards the bay window right behind an unaware Claire.

Rick grabbed her and lifted up to throw her to the side feet away. She landed badly on the ground in a low thud and rolled a few more feet.

“WHAT THE—”

“RUN!”

Just as he screamed the window burst open. Mr. X didn’t even bother making a detour, he jumped straight through and landed a couple feet in front of Rick. Considering he had already gone through a brick wall earlier in the night a window was child play.

His arm already extended to catch Rick, who dodged at inhuman speed to the side, the colossus barely following the moment. Rick punched him square in the jaw with everything he had and to his surprise it was with enough force that the head not only snapped back to the side but made him fall to the ground.

Not staying standing there like an idiot, he saw that Claire was already gone and decided to lure the bio-weapon away into a merry chase around the greenhouse. Rick may not have as much strength but he was certainly faster so it has been an easy thing. When from the corner of his eyes he saw Claire run past the bay window and enter the lobby, he knew it was time for him to escape. He went to the trapdoor and made sure Mr. X would see him jump down into it.

Stalker that he was, the bio-weapon followed. Once he got confirmation of that, Rick went through the door back to the break room and began to run as fast as he could. It only took him a few seconds before being back in front of the stairs and going up. Within a minute he was out of the East Area and catched Claire’s attention. She was waiting for the bridge to the West Area to finish its deployment.

“Thank god!” She took him in a heartfelt hug.

“Sorry for throwing you away like that.”

She released him from her embrace and pulled away. “You probably saved my life by doing so. You certainly won’t hear me complaining.” A grateful smile was on her face.

“We should go. Sherry is waiting and he will catch up soon.”

Without thinking he grabbed her by the hand and walked with big strides over the bridge. What they found behind the entrance door of the West Area was for the first time this night, something they had expected. Umbrella military men dead on the ground.

Claire picked up a grenade near the body of one while Rick cleaved its head. She wasn’t even phased by how natural the action had been. After spending hours killing zombies that way she was desensitized to it to the point of not caring or feeling anything in that regard anymore.

The whole area was plunged into darkness. The only source of light came from a lone computer screen and another panel inside the wall to put the signal modulator into. Rick went to the former and Claire the later.

“Anything useful?” She asked as she tried to match the waves on the modulator.

“It’s Sherry’s dad's account. He wanted out of Umbrella and had a deal with the US army for his virus.” Rick replied, transferring the e-mails to the FBI like Leon had done in Irons’ office. Unfortunately all outside communication was cut off. Nothing came in and nothing went out.

Claire looked up from the tool to Rick in shock. “Our own government is using bio-weapons?!”

“Or intends to use them. It wouldn’t be surprising. Look at Raccoon City. A week after the outbreak started and most people are dead. The more people the faster they will be wiped out.”

“Jesus…”

Claire finished matching the waves and slotted the modulator into the panel. Immediately power went back on, displayed by the light on the ceiling working again.

“You know…” Rick started as he stood up.

Claire joined his side and they began to walk to the end of the room where a door awaited. “Yes?”

“Where is Sherry’s mother?”

That was a good question she had no answer to. She and Rick had been in the complex for a while now. Nearly an hour and Annette never contacted them or manifested herself. Considering what they had encountered, there was the possibility that she had been killed. Either by the zombies, her mutated husband or even Mr. X since he was around.

“I don’t know.” was the only answer Claire could give.

Beyond the door was a buffer room with lockers and hazmat suits they didn’t bother with. The next one was for decontamination. The pair was sprayed with some liquid, the bombed with some kind of lights, probably to kill all germs, bacterias or perhaps even pathogens and finally, dried by powerful fans.

“Well look at that. I didn’t die.” Claire joked. “So much for needing to shower.”

Rick took the loss with annoyance and decided it wouldn’t end like this. “I remember your protests died fast when you got a good eyefull.”

She was taken aback by the accusation, which was real, and blushed up a storm while trying to argue some defense. “That’s!... I didn’t… You literally exhibited yourself in front of me!”

“You could have closed your eyes. You didn’t.”

The smug grin on his lips infuriated her beyond belief but she had nothing to say against it. She could and should have closed her eyes. Except she hadn’t been able to.

In silence, they crossed another bridge inside a circular room with a dome. Reaching the other side they finally arrive at their destination.

A real place of horror.

The room was half in the dark. All over the walls were vertical transparent pods with mutated body parts floating in liquid. Rick recognized a heart with an eye similar to Sherry's father. Yellow and a straight line iris. It was simply disgusting.

The right part of the room almost looked like a bedroom saved for the presence of the bed. There were two desks, a closet, and computers… It was spacious and well lit. It was as if someone lived there. It felt warm, the kind of warmth you only found in an inhabited house or rather home.

‘What kind of asshole makes work his home when he has a daughter waiting at home?’ Claire thought.

“Claire, I think this is it.”

She turned around to see Rick in front of something she wouldn’t know how to describe. It was a contraption made in metal and buried into the wall. Small windows a bit smaller than her palm were neatly organised in two rows going from one side to the other. Through one of the windows she saw a few test tubes. Searching for a way to open it, Claire found none.

“Damnit!” She hit it with her fist in frustration. “We’re so close! How are we—”

Rick interrupted her ranting. “Do you still have Sherry’s necklace?”

“What?” Claire was taken aback by the sudden question who didn’t help in any way with their situation. Until she saw him point his finger down. There, at the base, was a slot that looked like something needed to be inserted. Something round and thin. “You don’t think… Nervermind.”

She stopped her line of thought because that was exactly what Rick was thinking. He wouldn’t have asked otherwise. It also wouldn’t be the first time they encountered something like this tonight. Already the case where they found the sound suppressor for the MQ11, needed a STARS badge.

Putting her hand in the pocket of her jeans she pulled out the necklace and put it inside the slot. It fitted perfectly and the protective metal parts opened.

“Hell yeah!” Without wasting a moment, she grabbed a glass bottle with a yellow green liquid inside of it. “Let’s go.” She said while hooking her arm to Rick’s and dragged him back towards the way they had come in.

‘Hang in there, Sherry. We're on our way.’