Resident Evil Legends Part Two - The Arklay Outbreak

  Chapter 41

  “This place must be huge,” Rebecca said as they walked down the wide corridor. Pipes and ventilation shafts lined the cobweb-covered ceiling, and the walls were a mixture of rust, water stains, and peeling paint. The air smelled like mold and motor oil. Steam hissed weakly from a few hairline cracks in the old pipes.

  They passed rooms here and there, but they were just old storage rooms filled with useless junk, and none looked secure enough to sleep in. Rebecca wasn’t really tired yet, but it was close to one in the morning, and she knew the fatigue would set in soon. At least they hadn’t encountered anything dangerous since their last battle with the creature.

  One room held rows of dusty filing cabinets. While Billy kept watch at the door, Rebecca quickly flipped through them, looking for anything helpful. All she found were status reports, daily checklists, and copies of memorandums. Most of the memos contained cryptic references to “specimens.” Many of the memos were signed by James Marcus, and she took a few as evidence. She wondered if she would ever have a chance to hand the evidence in.

  It took her by surprise when she realized that all of the other members of the Bravo team were probably looking for her. In all the excitement, she had almost forgotten about them. She didn’t even have her walkie-talkie anymore; she must have left it back on the train. She wished that she had thought to check some of the zombies to see if they carried cell phones.

  In one of the rooms they searched, she found a desk with an old rotary phone. But when she picked it up, she was greeted by the silence of a dead line.

  “The electricity still works,” she said to herself, “but the phone lines don’t work.”

  “Maybe our friend cut the lines,” Billy suggested sardonically.

  “Maybe he did,” Rebecca answered, not taking the bait.

  “Well, I forgot to bring my cell phone,” Billy said, “so I guess we’re out of luck.”

  “You don’t have to be a jerk. I’m just trying to understand this place. I want to figure to what went on down here, and what went wrong.”

  “Yes, of course you are. You’re a cop after all, right? You’re just trying to solve some big case and get promoted to detective.”

  “I hope you realize what an idiot you sound like.”

  Billy said nothing to that and just left the room. Rebecca followed him out into the hallway and they continued down it, saying nothing to each other.

  Suddenly, Billy broke into a run, leaving Rebecca behind. For a moment, she feared that he saw something and was running away from it, but then she realized what he saw up ahead. It was an elevator farther down the hall.

  When Rebecca caught up to him, he was already pounding on the buttons and cursing under his breath. The elevator was an industrial version, like the ones used at construction sites. It was closed off by a thick red fence that slid to the left to allow occupants inside. Rebecca could see through the fence, but the inside of the shaft was too dark to make out details. Billy pressed the UP button over and over, but nothing happened.

  “It’s not working,” she said to him, shoving him out of the way. “Let’s try to get the door open. Maybe we can climb up.”

  She got out her pocket knife and tried to jam it between the fence and the frame, but the fence went beyond the frame when it closed, and she couldn’t fit her knife inside. Billy hooked his fingers through the links in the fence and pulled, while Rebecca braced herself against the frame and pushed on the handle. Slowly, the heard a rusty creaking and the fence began to move. They were able to get it open about two feet before it got stuck.

  “That’s wide enough,” Billy said. He leaned the shotgun against the wall and stuck his head through the gap, looking both above and below.

  “Can you see anything?”

  “Not really. I can’t see the elevator, but it’s probably above us. It looks like this shaft goes down at least a few more floors.”

  “Well, we don’t want to go down, now do we?”

  Billy pulled his head back into the hallway. “I thought you didn’t want to go anywhere,” he said. “You said you wanted to keep investigating.”

  “I’m not stupid,” Rebecca said. “That monster is down here. If we can get out, I’ll try it.”

  “We don’t even know where this elevator leads,” Billy said, being deliberately contradictory.

  “It was probably for the men who worked here. There’s probably a small entrance building and a parking lot. It has to lead to a road.”

  “Yeah,” Billy agreed. “Let’s go.”

  “Can you climb up the cable?”

  “Like climbing up a rope in gym class. Can you keep up with me?”

  “If you can climb it, I can climb it.”

  Billy borrowed Rebecca’s knife to cut away a long strip of cloth from the bottom of his shirt. He used it to fashion a sling for the shotgun, so he could hang it over his shoulder as he climbed. He also cut strips to wrap around his hands. Rebecca did the same.

  He leaned out across the empty shaft until he reached one of the cables and held on tightly. He stepped off the ledge, grabbed the cable with his other hand, and quickly wrapped his legs around it, smearing himself in grease. He slid down a few feet before getting a solid grip on it. Rebecca held her breath as she watched him slide, and exhaled quietly when he began to climb back up.

  He pulled himself up the cable inch by inch, making it look effortless but breathing hard just the same. The grease on the cable made it hard for him to get a good grip as he lifted himself up. He kept going until he was about five feet above Rebecca, ascending into darkness. She leaned out into the shaft and watched him continue upward.

  “Okay, I’m going to follow you up,” she said.

  “Knock yourself out,” he grunted.

  Rebecca was not as tall as Billy, and had to lean out farther to reach the cable. Holding onto the fence with her other hand, she leaned out until almost her whole body was hanging above the emptiness of the shaft below. Finally she found the cable and grabbed it.

  And then she heard the scream. From far away, the horrifying sound made its way down the hall and reached her ears as a high-pitched echo. It frightened her so badly, she lost her grip of the cable and slipped off the ledge of the elevator door. She screamed herself then, hanging by one hand over the abyss.

  She grabbed the fence handle with her other hand and tried to hoist herself up. Her foot found purchase and she managed to haul herself back up to the ledge. Another monstrous scream came, this one much closer.

  “Billy!” she cried.

  “Run!” he shouted down at her. “I can’t climb down that fast! Just go and I’ll catch up to you!”

  “But it’s coming!”

  “I hear it! Just go! I’ll follow you!”

  Rebecca heard one more scream and knew the creature was just around the corner. She turned and ran as fast as she could, looking over her shoulder just long enough to see what she feared most: the monster turning the corner and coming right at her.

  Each time it attacked them, it seemed less human. The clothing hanging from its body was ripped and tattered, and its skin was no longer the color of any human flesh, it had changed to a sickening greyish-black. The face, once human, was human no longer. It howled after her, lines of saliva streaming from its hideous mouth.

  Rebecca ran for all she was worth. The metal grating under her feet clanged loudly with her footsteps, and her supply belts banged against her hips so hard she was afraid they would fall off. She turned a corner and faced a set of red double doors. She braced her shoulder and slammed them open without even slowing down.

  Beyond was a wide cement platform overhanging the underground river. Steps to her right went up to a walled-off control room overlooking the platform, and to her left was an expanse of cement littered with broken crates, rusted drums and cylindrical cans of propane and acetylene. And ahead of her, she saw something she almost coul
dn’t believe.

  It was like a subway train, but instead of riding on tracks, it hung from a series of heavy clamps attached to a thick metal rail attached to the ceiling by a series of rusted supports. It was three cars long and clearly had not seen use in many years. Rebecca didn’t have time to look very closely. As soon as she came through the doors, she pulled out both of her pistols, holding one in each hand as she bolted across the platform, hoping to maybe shield herself with some of the junk lying everywhere.

  The monster flew through the doors just moments after her, coming with such force that both doors broke right off their hinges and flew into the air. One door crashed through a window into the control room, and the other door missed the rail car by a few feet, falling far into the water below.

  Rebecca knelt down, took aim, and opened fire. She held her elbows and wrists stiff as the guns’ recoils rattled her arms. The creature took a few shots to the face and neck before holding an arm in front for protection, howling insanely, shaking as if it was being electrocuted. It swung its other massive arm out, slamming into a few empty oil drums like a bowling ball striking pins. The drums crumpled with the impact and flew into the air, sailing over Rebecca’s head. She kept firing until both guns clicked empty, and used her thumbs to press the clip releases. The empty clips slid from the guns, trailing lines of smoke.

  The creature took advantage of the lull in gunfire and swatted his arm again, crashing into a row of broken crates. Rebecca was showered in pieces of shattered wood and tiny bits of broken machinery. She fumbled with two new clips, her last ones, trying to load both guns simultaneously. The monster roared and came right at her.

  And then arched its back and spun around as a shotgun blast rang out. Billy stood in the doorway, a dark black streak running all the way down his shirt and pants. His arms were smeared black as well from the grease on the elevator cable. He racked another shell and fired again, running from the doorway as the monster came after him.

  Rebecca finished loading the clips and slid back the chamber on each gun to load the first round. She got to her feet and ran at the creature, firing between its shoulder blades.

  With Billy in front firing with the shotgun, and Rebecca behind shooting with her pistols, the creature could not decide who to attack. It spun around, screaming its confusion, trying to shield its face from the bullets. It did not seem to be injured at all by the bullets ripping into its body, but it certainly felt pain. Rebecca went around it until she was close to the doors. Billy went around the other side and was close to the railing.

  Suddenly, his shotgun was empty. His eyes and mouth opened wide in shock, as he fumbled in his pocket for some more shells. Rebecca fired her guns, but the creature seemed to know easy prey, and it came right for Billy. He tried to back up out of reach but the monster swung its arm and struck him in a glancing blow on his shoulder. He reeled sideways and hit the railing, his shotgun clattering over the edge.

  Rebecca screamed, shooting at the monster to get its attention, but it was no use. With an unarmed target right before it, the monster seemed not even to notice the bullets hitting it in the back. Billy got to his feet as the monster reared up and rammed him.

  With the ear-splitting sound of cement cracking and metal tearing, the railing ripped right out of the platform and broke away, swinging out across the chasm below like an opening door. Billy hung on to the railing and found himself dangling over the edge like a puppet on a string.

  The monster also hung over the edge for a moment, but it grabbed onto the other railing, which was still attached to the platform. With one hand on the railing and the other on the platform, it began to climb back up.

  Rebecca ran up to it and pulled the triggers again. One gun fired but the other was empty. The bullet hit the creature in the arm, not even fazing it. And then that gun was empty as well. The creature looked up at her and howled in victory as it hauled itself up. She was helpless now, her weapons gone dry. She backed up in terror, dropping the empty pistols at her feet. The creature planted its foot on the edge of the platform and lifted itself up.

  Billy was no use, he was too far away. The railing he hung from bent down, sagging like a tree branch, barely attached to the platform. If he tried to climb across it to safety, it would probably break loose and drop him. He had no chance.

  Resigned, he held on with one hand and reached behind him with the other to pull his gun out of his back pocket. Dangling over the abyss by one arm, he took careful aim at the monster’s hand and fired.

  The bullet hit the monster’s fingers and blew them apart. It shrieked and flailed, trying to regain its balance as it teetered over the edge. Billy fired again, striking it right in the face. It jerked sideways, losing its grip with its other hand, and fell away from the platform, screaming as it went down into the darkness below. The scream ended with a loud splash.

  And then, finally, there was silence.

  Rebecca ran to the edge and grabbed the railing, staring in fear and panic at Billy as he dangled over the edge. The railing screeched with the sound of bending metal and Billy dipped down a few more inches as the railing gave way. He let go of his gun and reached up to hold on with both hands.

  “Climb up!” Rebecca cried.

  “It won’t hold,” Billy said. “I don’t have time.”

  “You have to climb!” she insisted. “I can’t reach you!”

  Billy looked down at the pitch darkness below. “If I hit the water, maybe I can make it.”

  “Don’t be crazy! You’ll be killed!”

  The railing broke free of the cement and swung down until Billy was directly beneath Rebecca, dangling helpless as the railing gave way.

  “I’ll get something for you to hold onto,” she said desperately, looking down at him, her hair hanging in front of her face.

  “Don’t bother, there’s not enough time,” he said, looking up. “Listen, just get out of here, okay? Get back to the elevator and escape. If I hit the water, I can swim to safety. I’ll be fine.”

  “Don’t do this,” she pleaded.

  He shook head and smiled wanly. “There’s no other way. Listen, if I don’t get out of here, I want you to investigate my case, all right? I swear that I never murdered anybody.”

  And then the railing tore loose and gave way. Rebecca reached out and screamed, but it was too late. Billy fell down into the darkness and disappeared.