***Author's Note***
Holy crap guys!!! I can't stop freaking out, because this story now officially has reached over 1k views!!!!! 💗😂😱😂💗 A thousand views!!! This wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for all of you guys, the readers. Thanks a lot guys!!! Really, from the bottom of my heart. 💗 I can't thank you all enough for this. Also, I entered this story into the Wattys 2017, and it's my first time participating in it. Don't forget to comment & like!
Peace out peeps! ✌🏻
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| 10:37 pm |
Laura's POV
"Dammit!" I muttered to myself, not caring whether I was being loud or not. While I was losing my nerve, Tyler was sitting at the desk, working diligently and tirelessly to regain access to the computer's database and get back into the mainframe system.
I pressed my finger over my comm link, feeling like I'm about to have a panic attack at any moment now. "Chris, do you read me?! Over."
"I copy Laura. Where are you?! Are you still in the office with Tyler?!?" He inquired over the link, using an overwrought tone of voice.
"Yes Chris. I'm still in the office with Tyler, because we got locked in here when the lockdown sequence activated."
"Same here. We're stuck in the lab, and now we can't get to Claire with the lockdown sequence operational," Piers stated the obvious.
"I know, I can see that. Tyler is trying to deactivate it right now. Unfortunately, that's not even the worst of it, we've got company. Uncle Chris, they're the same operatives that've been after me this whole time. Right from the very start. Over," I informed them, pacing around in circles in the office.
When I didn't get a response from Chris or Piers, I halted in place. I couldn't help but panic even more; only hearing nothing, nothing but static on the other side. "Piers! Uncle Chris! Do you read me!? Over."
Nothing... Not a single word.
"Tyler," I turned around, facing the brunette. "can you get a hold of Piers and Chris?! I think I just lost contact with them."
Tyler paused for a moment—lifting his hands off the keyboard and pressing two fingers against his comm link. To see if he was able to get a hold of the guys. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to. Tyler glanced over at me, shaking his head. 'Fuck. We've been cut off! What now!?' I mentally freaked out, while making an effort to come up with a plan to break out of the security office.
"If I were you Laura, I would be trying to find a way out out of there. Instead of standing around, lollygagging like you currently are," A female monotone voice spoke up, using a miff tone of voice.
I shifted my gaze over towards the computer screen—seeing a little girl in white steadily materialize onto the screen at the speed of light. Making her presence completely known to us as of right now.
The girl appeared to be around eleven or twelve years old. With long, dark-brown hair, brown eyes, pale skin, having a thin physique, while wearing only a old-fashioned white nightgown.
"What the– Who are you???" I asked her.
"I'll explain later in time. Right now, you two need get of there as soon as possible. It won't be long before those intruders succeed in restoring power to the elevator, and get it working it again," She notified us, just as one of the monitor screens' turned back on.
It showed live feed coming from inside the elevator. Some of enemy soldiers along with the ginger guy in blue were meddling with the elevator panel, proving how very close they were to restoring power to the elevator.
"But how??? Our only exit is locked since something initiated the lockdown sequence," Tyler stated.
"That something would be me, halfwit. I was one that activated it shortly ago. It was the only to thing I could do to buy you and your little boyfriend of yours some time to escape, before the intruders could reach you both," She spelled out to me. "I believe you're already well aware of why they're here, including their motives...?"
"How do you know—?"
"There's a lot of things I know that you don't Laura," The girl cut me off. "Possibly even more than you know about yourself."
'What the hell is she talking about??? She doesn't anything about me, right...? Maybe she's lying and only trying to baffle us. If not, what secrets could she be hiding from us???'
"But right now, this isn't the time or the place for this discussion," She stated, using a blunt tone of voice. "So listen very carefully you two. Hidden right behind you guys on the other side of the bookcase, there's a large vent on the wall. If you decide to escape the office through the air duct, I'll send you further directions on how to reach one of the larger laboratories here in the facility, where we'll continue this discussion privately. I suggest you get going right now before they reach you." Then the screen suddenly shut off.
***3rd POV***
While Laura and Tyler were still trapped inside the security office, desperately working to find a way out of there, the very elevator they used to get here opened up. Revealing no other than Raymond Vester—leading Alpha team into the Umbrella research facility to go retrieve their two main targets. Claire Redfield and her daughter, Laura Rose.
"Simon, have their signals been jammed yet?" Raymond questioned one of the soldiers, unceasingly walking further into the underground complex.
"Yes sir, now they won't be able to get into contact with one another or receive any sort of communication from outside," He replied acutely, as he checked his small wrist computer. All while the whole group continued traveling down the main corridor.
"Excellent. Joel, what about the BSAA operatives?"
"They won't be much of a thorn in our side now, sir. Thanks to the lockdown sequence operational, they're trapped in one of the laboratories. As long as the lockdown sequence remains online, we should be good," Joel answered.
Raymond held up his right hand, motioning everyone to stop. They easily obliged—halting right behind him. He took a moment to compose himself, before turning around to face his team.
"Alright everyone listen up," He started off. "It's now time to proceed with plan A. Don't forget, if all else fails during this mission. We'll switch from plan A to plan B. From here on out, we'll be splitting up into three different groups. Team A." Five of the fifteen soldiers step forward, away from the rest of the whole platoon. "Your mission is to capture one of our main targets, Claire Redfield. She's being currently held in cell block A, located in the north-eastern part of this facility. Her coordinates are programmed into all of your PDAs, so tracking her down shouldn't be a problem at all. Once you've managed to retrieve her, you're to escort her out of the facility alive and out of the biohazard zone using one of the evac helicopters that'll be here in less than two hours. Go." They leave the main group—heading off into the facility to fulfill their objective. "Team B." Five more soldiers step forward. "Your task is to hold off the BSAA operatives and keeping them busy while team C goes after our other target, Laura Rose. If anybody else shows up and things start to get out of hand, don't hesitate to eliminate them. Now, let's move out!" Raymond ordered.
***
While team A was going after Claire and team B went to deal with the BSAA operatives that were trapped in one of the laboratories, team C (lead by Raymond) were on their way to the security office. Where Laura and Tyler were presumably located in.
As they approaching their destination, one of the soldiers went up to the key card panel beside the door. Whilst everybody else lined up against the wall on both sides of it; leaning their backs against the wall. Their guns fully locked and loaded. Simon pulled out an extendable cord connected to his wrist computer, before plugging it into a plugin on the panel. Once this was done, he began typing away on his wrist computer, working laboriously to unlock the door.
After a few minutes or so, he was finally able to bypass through the locking mechanism, gaining access into the office. Raymond cautiously went up to the door—signaling everyone to get ready. He then kicked it open and charged in; everybody else following right behind him.
Expecting to find their target and her little companion scared and trapped in the office. Instead, they found it perfectly abandoned. Laura and Tyler were no where in sight. One of the soldiers glanced over to his right at the wall—noticing the open air duct with the vent set aside on the ground.
"Sir, they escaped through the ducts!"
Raymond turned around, facing the agent. "Well, what are you what for! Go after them! Now!"
"Yes sir."
Easily complying, the soldier rushed over, stepped onto the leather chair and started climbing into the open duct. Unaware of the surprise waiting inside for him. Once partially inside, he immediately noticed the remote bomb sitting in front of him. His eyes widening while Laura and Tyler were waiting at the far end of the duct. The blonde having the detonator in hand; ready to trigger it.
"Oh shit," The soldier mumbled to himself, while he tried to quickly back out of the duct, but it was already too late.
As a familiar smirk curled onto her lips, Laura moved her thumb over the button, eager to press it. "Eat this you son of a bitch," She said, right as she pressed the button. Causing part of the duct to explode and cave in with large chunks of debris and rubble—blocking the group off from reaching neither Laura or Tyler. The explosion sent countless parts of debris all over the room, as everybody tried to take cover from the substantial explosion. The soldier propelled out of the air duct, flying back into the office. His bloody body landed perfectly into the leather chair, without his head in one piece.
After it subsided, Raymond got back up off the ground—wiping off both the dust and tiny chunks of debris scattered all over himself. He glanced up at the now closed off duct, then shifted his gaze at the bloody corpse sitting in the leather chair.
"You little bitch... You'll pay for that, you'll see."
Chris's POV
"Dammit!" I cursed under my breath.
Our situation has gone from bad to even worse. Thanks to the lockdown sequence, we can't get to Claire now. We're currently trapped in here in the lab, and we just lost communication with both Laura and Tyler. Since something or possibly someone jammed our signals.
Just as I thought things couldn't get any worse, they did. Surrounding us, the reanimated corpses of former scientists and researchers unexpectedly began moving and twitching. Steadily getting up off the ground—standing up on their own.
"Captain, we need to find a way out of here and quick," Piers uttered, as the B.O.W.s began trudging our way. The sounds of nothing but famished groans resonated throughout the laboratory.
"I know," I pocketed the key card in my hand, while cocking my assault rifle.
As all of them started heading our way, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. A large vent on an air duct secured to the ceiling far ahead of us, past the whole mob of the undead. 'There's our ticket out of here.'
"Piers, over there," I pointed over at the air duct at the other end of the room. "Come on!"
Quickly and carefully, the two of us dashed and maneuvered through the spread out group of undead. Pushing and shoving our way through them without getting neither grabbed or scratched.
"Piers, you get the duct open while I cover you," I ordered him, turning around and facing the incoming horde of infected, with my rifle in hand.
"Got it captain," Piers responded, as he hung the strap of his rifle over his shoulder. He instantly began pushing one of the small desks behind me, moving it to right underneath the duct. While Piers was noisy working on opening it, I fired my XM8 rifle at the approaching legion of infected. Killing them one by one while holding off most of the B.O.W.s coming straight at us.
Whilst my attention was mainly focused on the undead horde in front of me, I noticed one of them within my peripheral vision coming in from my left, trying to take me by surprise. Right as it was about to grab me, I blocked its attack with my rifle before kicking it back. Prompting it to stumble momentarily in its steps. Using my rapid reflexes, I grabbed ahold of the rotten corpse and chucked it at mob of undead. Stunning the front line of infected for a brief moment. Once the opportunity had presented itself, I grabbed an incendiary grenade from my utility belt, pulling the pin with my teeth before hurling it at the very center of the horde.
Within seconds, the majority of them are engulfed in barbarous flames, killing the utmost of them and leaving a smaller portion of the legion for us to deal with. It didn't take long for the ventilation system and sprinklers on the ceiling to actuate, right when smoke from the burning corpses started to fill the laboratory. Even after most of them were burned to a crisp, a vast amount of infected still remained. Parts of their bodies blazed with flames; the smell of burning flesh filled the air as I emptied my first clip of ammo into the incoming mob.
As I was reloading my second clip into my XM8 rifle, one of the undead grasped onto my gun. Wrapping itself scrawny, decaying fingers around the very end of it.
I immediately yanked my rifle from its grasp—striking it aggressively in the face using the butt of it. Prompting the creature to fall back hard into on ground. I finished it off by shooting it in the bed; dark, coagulated blood seeped from the gun shot wound in the middle of its forehead. Pouring onto the tiled floor.
Gradually over time, it was becoming more of a problem for me to maintain both my balance and my footing. The sprinklers above us continued to pour, soaking not only Piers and I, but also the floor. Covering it in a thin layer of water. Not that it was a major setback at this moment, but it would be if we don't get out of here soon. After I finished reloading my rifle again, I continued firing at the undead. Shooting each of them one at time in the head.
"Captain, I got it open. Let's go!" Piers spoke up, just as he pried open then vent.
I rapidly turned around—making my way towards Piers rapidly, right as he was pulling himself up into the air duct. When the sniper managed to get into the duct, I climbed onto the soaked desk he used to be able to reach it. Piers held out his hand to me, to help pull me as well
Right as I was about to reach out and grab his hand, the desk began rocking violently back and forth beneath me. Engendering it more hard for me to keep my footing on the wet desk top. Glancing around, I was completely surrounded by B.O.W.s—trying to do whatever it took for them to get ahold of me. Even it meant tipping the desk over and separating me from Piers.
"Captain hurry!" Piers yelled out, as he extended his hand even further to me.
At this rate, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to reach Piers in time. Even if I tried right now, it wouldn't end very well for me at all. Only bloody and unpleasant. So, I improvised. Right when the desk beneath me was about to fall over, I jumped off as far as I could. Landing into a safe small clearing a few feet away from the mob of B.O.W.s.
"Captain!"
I looked behind me, inside the air duct where Piers was. He was fixing his MP-AF rifle—getting ready to come down and help me out as the rest of remaining undead were making their way towards me.
"Don't worry captain, I'm coming—"
"No Piers, don't! Go on without me! I'll be fine," I cut him off.
"But captain—"
"Piers, I'm not the main priority here! You need to go and find Laura and Tyler! They could be in trouble right now and your the only one that can help them. I'll meet up with you as soon as I can. Now go!" I told him, cocking my XM8 rifle and began firing at the incoming mob of undead.
Piers glanced at me one last time from inside the duct, his eyes flickering with unease, before disappearing into it to go find my niece and his little brother. Soon after, I started running a bit low on rifle ammo, so I switched out to my Nine-Oh-Nine pistol.
As I was slowly backing away from the incoming, infected mob that was closing in on me, I slipped and lost my footing, landing harshly onto the fully soaked ground. As if on cue, one of the B.O.W.s lunged right at me, ready to sink its teeth into my tanned flesh.
At that very moment, I thought it was actually gonna be the end of me. That this was the end of the line, all hope for survival seemed lost. I was completely surrounded by an enormous undead horde just within a few feet of reaching me. One lunging forward ready to take a bite out of me. With no way out of here—having only a couple full clips of handgun ammo left.
All of a sudden, the door far behind me automatically unlocked itself and opened up a bit. Revealing a familiar friend I didn't expect to see here. The next thing I know, he swiftly aimed his handgun and fired it from far off behind me. The bullet instantly lodging itself into the thick rotten skull of the B.O.W. that tried lunging at me. Some of its blood splattering on me in the process.
"Chris, this way! Hurry!" The familiar voice yelled out me.
Without a moments hesitation, I grabbed my rifle and instantly turned. Sprinting as fast as I could at that moment for the only open exit, with a massive horde of B.O.W.s following right behind me. Whilst running for my life, I almost slipped a couple times along the way but quickly regained my footing and kept going, trying my hardest to stay afoot and not lose my balance again.
Once the I made it out the door safely, he pulled the pin and threw an incendiary grenade inside the lab, immediately closing the door and locking it. Trapping what remains of the undead horde inside, that were now completely consumed in flames. The explosion of flames burned their bodies to nothing more than skin and bones, blazing to them to death.
After kneeling down and taking a moment to catch my breath, I glanced up off the ground, looking at the very man who just saved my ass from getting eaten.
"Leon? What are you doing here?"