It was dark, solemn, and cramped in the little area they found themselves in. They enter a few steps ahead of them that lead into a brighter room, one covered with books and a well-furnished desk. They didn't pay mind to the random literature and searched for anything useful. After they gathered everything, they entered the open door to their right.
It led to an elevator with only one floor to go. Leon silently reached forward to press the button, still anguished after what happened with Marvin a few seconds ago.
Jasper noticed how silent his friend was and placed his hand on his shoulder to console him. "Are you OK?" He asked softly.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm OK," Leon nodded quickly. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."
The gated door opened and Leon stepped inside. Jasper can clearly tell that Leon wasn't okay. He can read him like a book and he's terrible at hiding his feelings. But Jasper decided to not push him and stepped inside the elevator with him, and watched the gated door close as they lowered.
"You know you can talk to me about it, right?" Jasper spoke.
"I know," Leon responded.
The gated door opened and they stepped out. They found a dark, cement room with stairs leading downwards. Leon turned his flashlight on and took the lead, while Jasper trailed behind him.
"I'm sorry... for what happened with Marvin," Jasper began, making Leon stop in his tracks. "I know you're probably still mad at me for killing him, which I understand why. But... I had to, Leon. I didn't want him to suffer even more. I... I couldn't let him turn."
Hearing this, Leon couldn't help but feel bad. After everything that happened, he knew that he couldn't stay mad at him. Leon sighed and went over to him. "Jasper..." he gently placed his hand on his shoulder, making the raven-haired look into his blue eyes. "It's OK. I mean, I probably wouldn't have the guts if he asked me to kill him."
"Doesn't mean that it was easier for me," Jasper murmured. "I just wished that I could've stopped it somehow if... if I hadn't gotten myself into that accident."
"Hey. Don't blame yourself, OK? You did the right thing, even though it wasn't easy," Leon reassured him.
Jasper's face softens and sighed, before throwing himself into Leon's arms and wrapping his arms around his waist. This caught Leon slightly off guard, but he lets him as he wrapped his arms around his neck. It wasn't uncommon for them to share their affection like this. It's one of their ways of providing comfort to each other.
They stayed like that for a while, until they pulled away from the hug and pressed their foreheads together. "Thank you, Leon. I don't know what I'd do without you," Jasper said softly and the blonde shot a smile at him.
The duo continued their way down down and found a doorway. They entered it and found themselves walking on metal grates. There was a room with steam coming out of the pipes. When they ventured further, they heard something growling and stomping above them. "What the—?!" They spotted a glimpse of a shadow trodding along the grate.
"What was that?" Jasper inquired, watching the figure run out of view.
"I don't know," Leon admitted. "But something tells me that we're not the only ones down here." After the sound didn't occur again, he motioned him to follow, which he did.
After a few a long pathway, they found themselves a large room with machinery below them. There was a room to their left that was locked and to their right, there was a locker blocking the room ahead of them. Jasper went over to lift the locker and Leon joined him, helping him lift it.
Jasper entered first to scope out the area. It seemed to set something off because the moment Leon took a step forward, a large creature jumped down in front of him, making him snap his head towards it.
"What the—?!" Leon repeated as he got a good look at the man. It was a man with some kind of mutation, his right arm is far bigger than the rest of his body.
"Hey!" Jasper whipped out his gun and shot it twice, making him wail in pain. It didn't seem to effect the monster as turned its anger towards the detective and swung the metal pipe in his mutated hand at him, but Jasper dodged it at the last second. "Leon! Get out of here!" He shouted.
"Jasper!" Leon watched in horror as the monster targeted Jasper. "Hey! Get away from him!" He whipped out his gun and fired at the monster's head. It turned and stared at him with rage, jumping over to him and breaking the floor below them.
"Jesus..." Leon panted once he recovered from the fall. Slowly, the monster got back up on its feet and turned towards the cop with rage and his arm pulsated.
"Leon!" Jasper shouted from the room, catching the monster's attention as well. Before the monster could do anything, Leon fired at the monster's right arm, making him scream in pain.
"I'm fine, Jasper! Just stay up there!" Leon directed.
"What about you?!" Jasper questioned, desperately wanting to help the blonde.
"I'll deal with him," Leon stated before he turned to the mutated man, backing away from the man who jerked up and swung his arm around. "Words won't work on this thing..."
Jasper ran across the grate floors and fired round after round when the monster came into sight. Leon, on the floor below him with the creature, fired at him and kept a small distance between him and the monster to keep out of reach from the pipe in his hand. They repeated the process over and over, but it barely affected the monster as it swung the pole at Leon.
Running around the machinery with a monster trailing behind Leon was not easy for him, because the steam kept coming out of the pipes and blinded him, making it difficult for him to locate the creature.
The creature came out of the steam with a growl and swung the pipe at him, but Leon quickly dodged it at the last second. Meanwhile, Jasper quickly reloaded his shotgun and fired a couple rounds on the monster's head. Leon fired at the man's arm once again and the man screamed in pain, making an eyeball appeared on his arm.
"Huh, that's new..." Leon commented. Seeing the eye blink and twitch, he grimaced at the sight. "Hey! It think I found the weak spot! It's in the eye on it's arm!" Leon quickly informed the latter from above.
"Shoot it then!" Jasper yelled as he quickly switched to his pistol once his shotgun was out of ammo.
Leon fired at the eyeball, making it pop and strange substance came out flying. Jasper fired a few rounds at man's head, weakening him. The creature growled in anger and pain before it dashed towards the cop, but he dodged him at the last second.
The echo of bullets firing was all that could be heard as the duo continued to fire at the creature. Eventually, Jasper's gun clicked in his hand. He looked down at it, knowing that it was empty. "I'm out!" He warned.
The creature continued to stumble towards Leon and swing his pipe around. Leon slowly backed away from the creature before he pulled out his grenade that he grabbed from earlier while he was running.
The creature neared him with violent intent. Running under the creature's right arm as it swung at him. He pulled the pin off and threw the green ball at the creature who had just turned his back to him. Quickly, he rushed behind one of the poles.
The grenade exploded on impact, hitting the creature and knocking it backwards. Leon came out of his hiding spot and fired at the creature's upper half, making him stumble back even further. The mutated man stumbled backwards without control, hitting the railing. Its body was tipping over the railing and the creature ended up falling headfirst into the abyss below him.
Leon jogged over to the railing where the creature fell into, seeing where it could've went but it was only pitch black. He was panting heavily and he finally lets out a sigh of relief.
"Leon! Leon, are you OK?!" He hears Jasper yelled from above as he looked around, concerned for his companion.
Leon jogged over to where Jasper was. "I'm all right!" He yelled back and the raven-haired shot a relieved smile at him. "Can you bring that ladder down?"
"Yeah, sure," Jasper nodded before he went over to the the control panel next to the ladder. He pulled down a small lever the ladder unhitching and slide down, giving access for Leon to climb up.
"Oh, thank god." As soon as Leon was back on the catwalk, Jasper pulled Leon into a tight hug. He couldn't stand the thought of losing his only friend, especially when he just got him back. "Don't ever do that to me again."
Leon was genuinely caught off guard by the sudden hug and slowly pulled away from the raven-haired as he felt his cheeks warming up. "Y-Yeah! Sorry... It won't happen again," Leon replied with a small stutter.
"You OK? You're not hurt, are you?" Jasper inquired with concern, immediately examining the blonde for any injuries.
"No, I'm all right. Don't worry," Leon reassured him. "Thanks for bringing down that ladder."
"No worries," Jasper replied, eyeing at the machinery below them. "Let's keep moving. I wouldn't want to stick around in case that thing comes crawling back."
"Yeah, good call," Leon nodded in response, tossing his shotgun across his back.
When they entered the control room, there was a switch in the middle and of the room that led to a pathway. Leon pulled it and the pathway moved to the right, connecting to the room they were in so they could walk across.
"Why the hell would a police station—let alone a museum—have this underground?" Leon asked no one in particular, observing the room as they carefully walked across the grate.
"Beats me," Jasper shrugged. They made it across and entered the next room, where they found another ladder leading up. In the room, Jasper found some ammo there and reloaded his weapons.
Leon took the lead, "I'll go first."
"Be careful," Jasper advised before Leon climbed up the ladder.
He made it up to the top and pushed the lid off of it. At the top, he was blinded by a bright light. Leon lifted himself up and after making sure that the room was clear, peered into the hole. "You can come up now," he told the raven-haired.
Jasper nodded and climbed up the ladder, also pulling himself up. He observed the room, quickly learning to be a parking lot. "The parking lot..." Jasper muttered. Leon looked around and spotted a gate. He jogged towards it and looked at the machine beside it.
"Damn..." Leon muttered.
"What is it now?" Jasper asked.
"We need a key card," he spoke and turned to Jasper. "I assume that you don't happen to carry one around you?"
Jasper shook his head. "No, I wish—"
Suddenly, there was a growl that echoed through the garage. The duo quickly turned around, they saw a dog approaching them. The dog was sneaking, slowly while it snapped its jaws together. Jasper couldn't see much, except for the dog's cloudy eyes.
"You gotta be kidding me," Leon remarked.
The dog growled deeply as it took another step towards the duo. Jasper slowly reached for his weapon when another dog appeared from the corner, also growling at the duo. He gave Leon a nervous glance and saw him inching towards his gun as well.
Suddenly, the dogs darted towards them and pounced at them, pining them to the ground. Jasper acted quickly as he reached for his gun while fighting off the animal. He aimed the gun below the animal's neck and fired, making the dog fall to the ground beside him.
"Get it off me!" He heard Leon groan to his left and saw him, struggling with the other dog who was trying to bite his neck. Jasper aimed the gun at the dog, but the animal growling at the cop was moving rapidly, making it difficult for Henry to fire since he didn't want to accidentally shoot Leon. Suddenly, a bullet went through the beast's neck in a different direction, causing it to whine and fell to the floor.
"Hey!" A voice called out in the distance, making the duo look up to see a woman standing in the dark.
"Who is that?" Leon questioned, keeping his eyes on the woman.
"Stay sharp," the woman warned.
Jasper looked at the woman with confusion, not noticing the dog slowly rising up again. Leon was able to react as he raised his gun and fired at the animal, making it go limp. Jasper snapped his head towards the blonde, worried for his companion.
The duo turned to the woman and raised their guns at them as she neared them, her own gun pointed at the two. "Lower it," she threatened, the bright light illuminating her.
Jasper finally got a good look at the woman when she stepped out of the dark. She was wearing a tied-shut light-brown trench coat. She had a a short black bob that was slightly asymmetric, her pale face was hidden behind the dark sunglasses. Her legs were covered by see-through black stockings, with black heels at the bottom of them.
The woman reaches down into her pocket and pulled out an ID card. "FBI."
"Sorry..." Leon apologized to the stranger as he and Jasper lowered their weapons. "Thank you—"
The dog came back to life again, but Jasper was the fastest out of the three to react and shot the dog, successfully killing it. "...For your help," Leon finished.
"Surprised you both made it this far," the woman admitted, beginning to walk away from the two.
Jasper quickly walked over to Leon and helped him off the ground. The raven-haired male narrowed his eyes at the woman, and asked with a suspicious tone. "FBI, huh? What's going on here?"
"Sorry. That information's classified," The woman spoke, somewhat casually.
"Where are you going?" Leon followed up before the woman was out of earshot.
The woman came to a stop and faced them with a stern look. "Do yourselves a favor; stop asking questions and get the hell out of here." Without another word, she started to walk away.
"Hey! We're not done talking to you!" Jasper called after the woman but was ignored. The woman walked away without another word, entering a door. Jasper narrowed his eyes at the area she left and scoffed at her behavior. "OK, rude," he muttered under his breath.
"Let's follow her," Leon offered to Jasper and he nodded.
"Yeah, there's something fishy about her," Jasper added before they went over to the door where the woman was.
They were met with a reception room with metal bars and a metal gate that lead to a hallway. Leon entered the reception room while Jasper walked to the door, peering through the door to see more bars and an officer's body on the floor.
"Hey, I found a map," Leon informed the latter, walking out of the reception area with a piece of paper in his hands.
"Nice," Jasper nodded as they observed it for a moment, before they decided to continue further.
The two opened the door Jasper looked down at corpse in front of them. He took precautions as he pulled out his knife and stabbed the corpse's skull. Jasper's took his blade back from the corpse.
In front of them was a long hall of cells, but it was dark. To their right, there was a door. When Leon tried to open it, however, it was locked, so they decided to go down the dark hall. Jasper turned on his flashlight and took the lead.
A loud growl sounded from the cell to his right, and Jasper flashed his light at the female zombie reaching out. Another growl was heard from the left, seeing another zombie in the cell. Leon and Jasper looked forward, noticing that every cell in sight had a zombie inside.
"Stay close with me," Jasper advised and Leon nodded.
Slowly, the two trekked forward, careful to avoid the reaching hands. They reached the end of the hall and found another locked door to the right and more cells to the left. They decided to go left and found a single light illuminating a cell.
"Hello?" A masculine voice questioned from inside the cell.
Leon and Jasper exchanged glances before Leon rushed to the cell. "Hey," the blonde answered the stranger.
The man stood at the sight of him. "I don't believe it. A real human," he said with relief as he walked over to the bars.
Jasper got a good look at the man and immediately recognized him. "Ben Bertolucci. What a nice surprise to see you here," he acknowledged, walking up to the man with folded arms.
"You know him?" Leon questioned.
"He was a suspect from one of my interrogations once," Jasper explained before turning to the man. "You been here long?" He inquired.
"Long enough. Are we the last ones alive?" Ben pondered.
The officer shook his head. "No, no, there's a few of us..."
"Oh... that's good news, I guess," he nodded, before adding. "Unless, of course, Irons sent you."
Jasper sent a questioning look to Ben. "Irons...?" He repeated. "You mean Chief Irons? Is he still around?"
"Who cares? Hopefully, he's somebody's dinner by now," Ben shrugged off carelessly.
Both Jasper and Leon were taken back at the response. "What do you mean by that?" Leon questioned.
"He's the bastard that locked me in here," Ben admitted casually.
"Well, I'm sure he had a good reason," Jasper answered.
"He did," Ben nodded, taking a puff out of his cigarette before flicking it to the ground. "I was about to blow the whistle on his dirty ass. I'd have done the same thing too, I guess."
"You're a piece of—" The raven-haired male went to snap back at the man for accusing Chief Irons, but a loud metal creak from a distance silenced him.
The noise caught their attention immediately. Jasper and Leon looked around, trying to see if it was an upcoming threat. However, Ben perked up at this. "Hey! I'll make you guys a deal..." Ben spoke up desperately and the duo looked at him. "Unlock this cell and I'll give you this." He held up the key card around his neck.
Jasper and Leon glanced at each other unsurely. "How can we even trust you?" The raven-haired questioned.
"There's no other way out of that parking garage! Believe me!" Ben snapped.
"Sorry, we can't do that. We'll have to talk to the chief first," Leon apologized, sharing the same doubts with Jasper.
The same sound was heard, this time louder, and Ben grew more irritated and desperate. "Look, we're all prisoners at this station," he tried to reason. "So either we play nice and help each other out—"
Ben was interrupted when the same noise occurred. "Shit, it's coming," he said as he begins to back away from the bars.
Jasper snapped his head towards the man. "What's "it"?" He interrogated, anger and concern present on his expression.
"What's coming?" Leon demanded.
Ben continued to back away until his back hit the wall, ignoring their questions. "C'mon—c'mon, don't be an asshole... OK? You need this!" He shouted, referring to the key card. "Just get me the fuck out of here!"
"What the fuck are you—" Jasper was interrupted when a gloved hand suddenly broke into the wall, making debris of the bricks fly into the air and make a dust cloud. The hand wrapped around the man's head and slammed his head against the brick wall. Ben screamed in pain as his body was lifted off the ground by the hand.
Leon and Jasper pointed their guns up, aiming at the ruckus but neither of them knew whether or where to shoot. As a result, the man screamed louder as the enormous hand tightened and his head popped against the wall, his eyeball popping out through the large fingers of the beast. Jasper and Leon gasped at the horrific sight in front of them. Eventually, the gloved hand dropped the man to the floor and disappeared from the broken brick wall.
"Oh, my god..." Leon's jaw dropped at the gruesome sight as he latched his fingers around the bars of the cell.
Jasper was still processing what just happened. When he did, he searched the hole on the wall, but he didn't see anything. Only heard loud footsteps fading away.
"What the fuck was that?" Leon whispered.
"I don't know," Jasper replied. "But it can't be a zombie, that's for sure."
Suddenly, a clacking of heels against the floor alerted them. Leon and Jasper whipped their guns out and pointed it at the figure approaching, ready to shoot. "Who is that?!" Leon interrogated.
"It's just me," the woman from before approached to the light. "So you can put those things away."
Both of them lowered their weapons as the woman walked over to the bars. "We didn't even know what happened—it just... happened so quick," Leon tried to explain to the woman.
She leaned on the bar, examining the gruesome scene for a moment. "I told you guys to get out of here," she said with irritation. "Wouldn't want to end up like Ben, would you?"
Jasper furrowed his eyebrows at the woman. "You knew him?" He interrogated.
"He had information of use to my investigation," the woman explained, folding her arms as she observed the corpse in front of them.
"So what he said was true?" Leon questioned. However, the woman didn't answer him and begins to walk away.
"Hey, you can't keep walking away from us!" Leon called after her, his hand reaching for her arm. The woman ripped his hand away, glaring at the cop under her sunglasses. "We don't even know your name!"
Leon looked at Jasper before introducing himself. "...I'm Leon Kennedy."
"Jasper Park," Jasper added.
The woman glanced at the duo before responding. "Find a way out, before it's too late... Then we'll talk." Just after she said that, she turned around and walked away before adding. "Name's Ada."
The two males watched Ada as she walked away until she was out of view. Leon then turned to Jasper, finding his eyes narrowing suspiciously at the area she left. "What is it?"
"I still don't think we should trust her," Jasper expressed his doubts.
"Why is that?" Leon questioned.
"Even though she does have the badge on her, something's telling me that she's not exactly who we think she is," Jasper explained before he turned to Leon. "She definitely knows more than she's letting on. What do you think?"
Leon shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, she is acting strange, but... maybe we could give her the benefit of the doubt for now?" He offered.
Jasper nodded for a moment. "Maybe," he replied. "But still, we need to be cautious. We still don't know what's down here or who's responsible for this mess."
Leon nodded. "Yeah, I agree."
Slowly, the duo looked at the corpse in the cell. "Well, I guess the deal's on," Leon said.
"Yeah," Jasper sighed.
"Yeah," Leon repeated, agreeing with the sigh.