Chapter 5
Wesker ran through the room as fast as caution allowed and went to a large mahogany bookshelf against the far wall. He nervously looked down the dark hallway at the back of the room, listening for any sound. He reached up and pressed a switch at the top of the bookshelf and it moved away from the wall, revealing a narrow staircase. He snuck inside and the bookshelf returned to its former location, clicking into place.
The staircase was just wide enough for someone to walk down, as long as that someone wasn’t too fat. Wesker’s shoulders brushed the walls as he descended. The lights overhead were bright white fluorescent bulbs.
In retrospect, Wesker had lied to Barry and the others. If he ever saw Brad again, he would definitely kill him. The stupid coward single-handedly ruined the entire plan. Not only did he stay inside the chopper and then fly away at the worst possible moment, all the noise attracted the dogs long before Wesker intended. Instead of heading to the mansion with all of Alpha team, only three of them even made it that far. Wesker felt lucky that he made it himself. If he had tripped and fallen in the woods like Chris did, then he’d be dead too, and all of his careful planning would have been for nothing.
Of course, the real problem was Bravo’s helicopter. How it crashed was a mystery to him. He didn’t even want to land near it because it was farther from the mansion that he would have liked, but to do otherwise would have been suspicious. The sight of the wrecked chopper spooked Brad, and then he took off as soon as the dogs arrived. Who knows where he was now, probably flying in circles above the mansion. Wesker disabled the radio long before they left, which was why he got no response on the walkie-talkie. Brad didn’t even hear him, and was probably freaking out because of the lack of radio contact. Wesker hoped against reason that Brad did not turn around and go back to Raccoon City. If he did that, then even Wesker didn’t know what would happen.
Everything was ruined thanks to Brad and his stupid cowardice. Even Barry and Chris backed him up there, thankfully. Wesker only hoped that he didn’t seem too panicked in the woods. He knew that something might come after them, but hopefully the others thought he was only being extra careful. Running through the woods with a pack of undead dogs on his heels was undoubtedly the most terrifying moment of his entire life.
He expected Alpha team to get to the mansion alive, giving the numerous monsters running loose plenty of prey to go after. But now it was just Barry and Jill. Joseph and Chris were dead, and Brad was gone. It wasn’t what Wesker wanted at all. He even went out of his way to ensure Barry’s complicity when he needed it, and now that would probably be pointless. If Jill was the only other one left alive, what good would Barry’s help be? Wesker wanted them all there to fight, not just two of them. The entire thing now didn’t seem like it was even worth the effort.
He came to a long white hallway under the mansion, which led to a private lab in the small Beta complex. An elevator there would take him to the lowest level of the labs, three stories underground. There was never anyone in the basement, since there was nothing there but two boilers and the original power generator, so Wesker felt safe going through that area to get to his labs in Sigma. He needed to get somewhere safe so he could relax and try to calm down.
He needed a stiff drink. That would help too.