A Beautiful Nightmare (Leon Kennedy x OC) [BOOK 1]

Chapter 17: The Queen's first move

My feet carried me into the adjacent room before I could even fully react. We need to get her out of there now. Regardless of my suspicions, we can't just let her get killed by whatever the hell is lurking beyond those doors. 

A huge metal door in the corner stopped me in my tracks. It was bulky, with a series of bolts that looked fit to cage the incredible Hulk. What in the world are they keeping back there?

I traced my eyes along the heavy wiring connected to the locking mechanism, following the thick cords until they disappeared into the closest electrical box mounted to the wall.  The lid was flipped open, with a small white chess piece stuck right out of the center of the wiring and motherboards.

My eyebrows pinched together as I stared at the stark white Pawn--a match to the rook I'd seen in the other room. My eyes darted to the table littered with papers and tools at the end of the room. Two more small chess pieces were laying on their side on the table, with what looked like a spark plug sticking out the end. I approached, fingers wrapping around the largest piece present. The King.

I ran my thumb along the smooth neck of the piece and looked to the piece of paper laying beside the queen.

'I lost the thing that tells you how to unlock the door to the U-Area during the last mad dash of a transfers. I know you have to stick one plug into each terminal, but if anyone remembers which plug goes where, please be a pal and share by posting the info on this board.'

I looked up the cork board above the table, finding a small scrap of paper pinned to the bottom:

'Pretty sure the rook and knight are on the same wall and the bishop and queen aren't next to each other. The queen and rook were opposite each other, too. Hope this helps.'

"Who designs stuff like this?" I muttered, pulling the note off the board and picking up the queen. Both pieces were much heavier than a traditional chess piece, probably due to whatever electrical components were hidden inside the cold ivory.

I turned back to face the small fuse boxes, repeating what I had just read. There was already three pieces plugged in. To my right, the Knight was next to two empty boxes. 

"We're missing the Rook," Leon said plucking the queen from my palm and moving toward the middle unit.

I moved toward the box beside him, " I saw it earlier, before we slid down the ramp," I pushed the king into position, and a small green light greeted the new insertion. Fuck, I should have grabbed it, now we'll have to find a way back...

My mind went back to the filthy portion of the sewer, and the creature who had made it's home there.

"We can't get back up that slope, It'd be way too slippery," Leon said, running his hands through his hair, his own box now lit with a green light.

"That's assuming we could even make it past that thing," I added, pointing out the real hurtle in the path. We both remained silent for a moment, considering.

"Wait," I said, breaking the silence and tracking back into the main room. I went straight toward the large sheet of paper on the wall next to the window. A map of the surrounding sewer system.

I stood in front of the paper, and skimmed my finger over the lines trying to mentally chart our plan of action.

"Here," I said, pressing my finger into the area labeled monitor room, "We're right here." My other hand traced along the connecting rooms before stopping on the U shaped area. "Here's the rook. There's no way to get there without crossing that sewer again, but we can take this way and maybe slip by that thing. It'll buy us a head start at least." My finger ran along a set of stairs that led back to the forked tunnel.