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Best of Intentions (Resident Evil) (DnD Gamer SI)

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I've been looking for a good resident Evil fic for a while now. I'm glad I finally found one. Not only that, but it's actually really good! Love it!
 
That grate sounds like the work of the giant crocodile from original RE2.

I'd definitely like to see what kind of reactions the RE fan base would have to Rude and his changes to the Remakes' sstoryline.

Because of course the Bad Touch bioweapons developer would have magical nanotech in some branch somewhere.
 
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It could be worse. Could be Jehovah's Witnesses.
Those you can't get rid off. I tried very hard.
 
(wish I had more to give you, but you probably know more about those behind this than I do. I just know what's coming -- Raccoon City is going to collapse into total anarchy in a couple of days. The military is going to fumble this all the way to the finish line, and that finish line is the apocalypse. The quarantine will fail, the undead are going to stumble ass backward into towns and cities… then the tipping point comes to pass where there are more walking dead than living people." As I spoke, I put the finishing touches on what amounted to a marble bag. It was smaller than I thought it'd be, but it'd get the job done. I hoped.) hmm I could have swore a raccoon city gets nuked and turned into smoldering crater in the ground and the apocalypse is averted for a Time and there's another outbreak somewhere else down the line that actually kicks off the entire apocalypse. Although I think that's dependent on whether that you're in the movie verse or the games of resident evil while there are some consistencies between them they have very different versions of events.

(Maybe you should stop parking in my spot, you fuckin' dingus," I shot back at him, making him blink. Fun thing about making references to things that wouldn't exist for another couple of years.) the break out of raccoon City take place in the 1990s The word dingus was first used in 1873. The earliest known evidence of the word is from the Milwaukee (Wisconsin) he should know what this means this is not recently invented slang 🚫.
 
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Oh shit I panicked thinking the staff post was for me (Even though I didn't do anything paranoid much) also DAMNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lycan calm down.
 
Sending a thought I had to further the conversation:

With Rude being how he is, for someone seeing this movie/remake game, I can only imagine how the reveal that Rude thought Alice existed is going to go- and it's damn funny!

Audience 1: "So this Rude guy introduced Nanomachines to the series? Well damn and he's unhinged but basically knows the plot of the game?!"
Audience 2: "Yeah for the first one, but they actually had this cool little thing to give him more doubt and to make him seem less like he's reading the script"
Audience 1: "Oh? How so?"
Audience 2: "Well he makes sense and knows some stuff but then he started talking about Alice- you know, the one from the movie?"
Audience 1: "Fuck they didn't make the bad fan fiction movie canon did they?"
Audience 2: "Well I thought so at first, and until the middle of the that's what it seemed to be leading up to... and they Rude learns that Alice never existed!"
Audience 1: "So... I don't get it, why make- Ohhhhhh!"
Audience 2: "Yeah! He's the doomsday prepper conspiracy theorist. He was right about a lot of stuff but making him be so wrong about other stuff helped to make people doubt what he was saying. It was a good way to get Jill to distrust him for a while by the writers- Not only that but making that movie the conspiracy theory was hilarious!"
 
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Ring of Fire
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    • It wasn't often that I locked up. When it came to fight or flight, I leaned pretty unilaterally 'fight' in most circumstances. The last time I froze like a deer in headlights was when I first arrived in this world. Initially, I thought I had been kidnapped or something and it was only when I went to the hospital to make sure that I still had all of my internal organs that I saw the Umbrella logo. It wasn't that I was afraid of Umbrella exactly, but more that the terrifying implications and the memories of a horrific future slammed into me like a brick.

    Seeing Mr. X approaching me with a steady confident gait was terrifying. I knew about the creature mostly through the 'X gonna give it to you' meme, a clip of future Leon Kennedy going to fight three of them with a knife, and… other forms of media. I wasn't sure where exactly he ranked up against Nemesis, but as far as monsters go… if this was a game of DnD, I'd be giving the DM some serious stink eye for being so trigger happy with high CR monsters.

    Then, I took a breath and my mind shifted into the highest gear that it had. "Jill! Get away from him! He's big but slow!" I called out, and it was as if I became hyper aware of my surroundings in that moment. I could feel my back getting pressed into a corner, and I didn't like it. But, as inconvenient as it was, this wasn't unexpected. It was only a matter of time before Umbrella sent something or someone after me.

    For all of my efforts of spreading awareness, I hadn't really convinced anyone of the incoming apocalypse. The information I leaked, while alarming, wouldn't have any real impact on Umbrella. What I expected was to eventually be picked up by a black ops squad to get interrogated about how I knew what I did. From there, I would have used the opportunity to try to convince Umbrella's mouth breathing higher ups to not fuck around or they were going to be spending the next ten to twenty years trapped in underground bunkers while the virus burned itself out.

    But, no black ops ever came. But now that I was running around with claims of access to nanomachines, a little robot, and the vaccine… it seemed that Umbrella had finally decided to put me in their crosshairs. And they'd brought out the big guns to make sure the job got done.

    Mr. X strode towards me while Jill backed off, taking shots with her shotgun that Mr. X just ate them like they were a summer's breeze. He very well might be more durable than Nemesis, which was a whole problem. But he wasn't the only one.

    I made a snap decision, "Jill! The vaccine! Grab it," I instructed before I took two steps back and slid down the ladder back into the criscen. "Activate a purge!" I added, a plan rapidly coming together as I changed my ammo load out to slugs. Popping one into the side of Mr. X's head was enough to convince him into what I wanted him to do. Mr. X was like a machine made out of meat. There might be some intelligence in there, but it was animalistic at best.

    So, without little prompting, Mr. X jumped into the pool area with me. I felt a vibration travel up my feet, and my heart really started to pound at my ribs when he rose to his full height. He utterly towered over me and, without pause, he started to march forward.

    "Rude!" Jill called out from above, getting out the grenade launcher. I held her off with a hand, prioritizing as I slowly gave up ground while Mr. X marched forward with a determined unstoppable gait.

    "I'll be fine. Get everything started and I'll be right up," I said, firing at Mr. X and he really just took the slugs like they were nothing. One slammed against his forehead, knocking his hat off, but beyond snapping his head back ever so slightly, he was undaunted. His pace was slow, but with his massive legs, he crossed the distance terrifyingly quick. I could tell Jill was pissed, but she did what I asked.

    Without Mr. X in the way, she managed to run into the control area to grab the vaccine before I saw her looking over the controls. I backed off slowly, tempted to bring out Dakka, but I didn't want to burn a spell slot. I had to remind myself that while Mr. X was terrifying in appearance, he was far more manageable than Nemesis. Slow. Predictable. It'd be a problem if I got in his reach or was cornered, but so long as I kept my cool… that shouldn't happen.

    Then, almost as if to disagree with me, I heard something echoing down tunnel. At first, I thought it was Jill doing something, but when the sound was accompanied by a low hiss and the crunching of concrete, I managed to tear my eyes away from Mr. X to look down the tunnel itself.

    Just in time to see two glimmering beady eyes looking back at me in the distance. A split second before the creature's maw opened so large it practically filled the tunnel itself and it raced forward to swallow me whole.

    "Oh, fu-" I cursed, throwing myself to the side just in time as the monster erupted from the tunnel, sending a shower of dust and rubble over me. I was quick to roll to my feet and the fact the monster was between me and Mr. X was a cold comfort. The monster was massive, easily twenty to thirty feet in length, covered in albino white scales. The shape of it, however, made it clear what the monster was. "That's a fucking alligator?!" I couldn't stop myself from exclaiming.

    Oh my god. I came down here as a level 1.

    And what the hell, Umbrella?! How many science experiments are you going to unleash in this city?!

    In hindsight, shouting in the presence of a predator that reached the peak of its evolution some ten million years ago before getting super enhanced by a couple of mad scientists wasn't my wisest decision. And the fact that it wasn't my dumbest really made me start to rethink my life a bit, but there wasn't any time to because the titanic Alligator swirled around to face me, tail smacking into Mr. X hard enough that he went flying.

    And, worse, the tail raked against the far wall where the ladder was and the feeble iron didn't stand a chance. It was half ripped out of the wall, along with chunks of concrete.

    Okay.

    Alright.

    I might die here.

    Might as well go down swinging.

    A hand dipped into my bag of holding even as I activated Dakka in her shoulder mount mode. The Alligator lunged at me, and this close, it felt like a semi-truck was out to isekai me again. However, a belch of flames from Dakka managed to dissuade the massive monster, at least temporarily. Enough to jerk it's head to the side enough that I could jump to the side, even as I tossed in my drum of explosive ammo. The creature rushed past me, carried by its own momentum until it slammed into the wall.

    There wasn't any time to stand idle, however, as Mr. X was marching towards me as I rolled to my feet.

    Dakka fired a shot that struck him square on the chest, knocking him on the back foot. A second later, a grenade struck him and exploded, knocking him onto his back. Above, I saw Jill with the grenade launcher. She fired another shot at the Alligator and I heard a hiss that turned my legs to jelly. "You need to get out of there before it floods!" She reminded me and, as if to agree with her, the water began to pump into the pit that I was trapped inside of with two monsters.

    The Alligator's size worked against it ever so slightly, I noticed. The cistern was large enough for it to turn around and get comfortable, but it was just small enough that making tight turns was a pain. Not enough to stop it, but enough to make it slow. As it did so, wheeling around, I glanced up at the railing above it. The gap was there. If I was a NBA athlete, maybe I could make that jump, but…

    "Try to shut off the purge! I don't want to taint the water," I said, watching as Mr. X got up, and man, he really was built like a tank.

    "Rude-" Jill started this, but I gave her a thumbs up and a grin that was only mostly faked.

    "I'm good. I have a plan," I said, watching both the alligator and Mr. X. Between the two, I was far more worried about the alligator. But, Mr. X was adding pressure that I really didn't need. If it was just one of them, I'm pretty sure that I could out maneuver them and escape. Both? That was a tall order.

    So, I had to remove one from play. And I had just the thing.

    I'm pretty sure that Jill didn't believe me, but she decided to have a little trust. The water started flowing over my ankles as I took a low steadying breath, slowly shifting myself in position. The alligator finished turning itself around, while Mr. X was taking freakishly huge strides towards me. I only had one shot at this, so I had to make it count. I couldn't afford to play conservatively.

    I cast Expeditious Retreat upon myself, essentially doubling my speed when I was hauling ass. Dakka took aim, ready to make some adjustments if needed.

    The alligator seemed to sense some kind of change in me, but it was an animal. A predator. And I'm guessing it was pissed off that I wrecked it's home. So, with a low hiss, it launched itself forward, and I took a moment to note that I still saw the explosive drum wedged between two teeth. But, that's not what my goal was.

    Mr. X closed in, a hand reached out to me and I also noticed that his hand was large enough to crush my skull in his palm. The alligator closed in from behind, a gaping maw so large that it could swallow Mr. X whole.

    And that was exactly the plan.

    Dakka fired, stumbling Mr. X while I used my daily use of Misty Step. My vision turned a silvery white as I felt a pull in my gut. Teleportation was weird, I decided, only taking a single step yet I traveled a good thirty feet behind the charging alligator. Mr. X just barely missed me, and he was too late to react to the Alligator attacking him from behind. The alligator, however, only knew that it had bitten into someone and started chowing down. It spasmed a bit, and I took that as a sign that Mr. X wasn't content with being a meal, but none of that was my problem.

    I dashed forward, sprinting towards the back of the Alligator as it thrashed. If I thought about what I was doing, I'd probably screw it up. So, for that reason, I only realized how stupid this was when I was sprinting up the length of the alligator, and it threw its head back, feeling me there. Which made its head a perfect ramp to jump to the railing.

    Sailing through the air, a hole opened up in my gut when I realized I was going to be short a couple of inches. At least, until Jill's hand caught my wrist, banging me against the railing, before starting to pull me up with a heave. I scrambled up the railing, glancing down to see a very pissed off Alligator that had already eaten Mr. X by the looks of things. "Move! Move!" I shouted, realizing what it was about to do the moment that Jill pulled me up.

    Without so much as a thought, I cast Expeditious Retreat on Jill, and even with it, it was a close save when the Alligator lunged up, its maw clamping down on the railing and pulling as it stood on its back legs.

    "I opened something up with the controls! This way!" Jill decided, and I realized she was right and we both made a mad dash away from the alligator. A wall that had previously been there wasn't. I spotted an immediate issue that it was a wide open space on the other side, but given that there was a dinosaur behind us I wasn't in the mood to complain. We sprinted across the threshold, the railing wobbling while the Alligator gave chase.

    The hidden space concealed a railcar that descended into a hole in the ground. It was pitch black at the bottom, making it impossible to tell how far down it went.

    My mind leapt to a conclusion. "This leads down to the Hive," I said, pulling ahead to the railcar. The door was closed, an icon flashing red before a computerized voice said, "ID wristband required."

    The wristbands, I thought, reached into the bag of holding to pull out one of the wristbands I had looted from a corpse. I had no idea what they were, but I thought that they seemed important.

    "Uhh… Rude…!" Jill exclaimed a split second before there was an ear piercing sound of metal rending. I looked over, completely missing the railcar accepting the ID wristband because I was too busy picking up my jaw upon seeing the alligator climbing up into the hole we escaped through and was forcing itself through it.

    It snapped its jaws in our direction and I hastily grabbed Jill, pulling her into the railcar and rushing to the controls. Slamming the crank forward as far as it would go, I felt the railcar start to move and carry us down to the Hive. Where, honestly, we probably had more problems waiting for us. This wasn't how I wanted to get into the Hive.

    I foolishly believed we got away, right up until the railcar shook as something massive slammed into it. I was slammed into the wall, while Jill managed to grab hold of a handrail. The sound of tearing metal echoed out even before the back end of the railcar started to crumple inward. The railcar surged forward, the few extra tons of the Alligator causing it to get knocked off the rails and we were left skiddinding down the way.

    "Today is just not my day," I decided, switching Dakka to health mode because I got the feeling the temp HP would be needed. At the same time, I reached out to Jill while the Alligator tore a chunk out of the railcar and spat it out by flinging it to the side. "Take my hand!"

    Jill didn't hesitate. She leapt forward just as the railcar began to shift to the side, metal squealing in showers of sparks that we left in our wake. She flew through the air before I caught her hand, bringing her in close while I considered our next move with the precious seconds we had left before we met an abrupt crash landing. I had two spell slots left, which was enough for something. Expeditious Retreat was still active too.

    The real issue was the Alligator that was clinging to the railcar, determined to force its maw inside to snack on the two of us. It was then that I knew what we had to do.

    "Jill! Upper right side in the back!" I exclaimed, holding on for dear life and we were lucky that's all I needed to say for Jill to understand what the plan was. She hefted the grenade launcher, taking aim as the Alligator surged closer, treating steel like it was soft aluminum. The grenade sailed forth at the Alligator's back teeth, precisely where my explosive drum magazine was wedged. The grenade went off, causing a chain reaction and the next thing I knew, there was an explosion of gore.

    I didn't stay to see it because, as the railcar started to flip without the Alligator acting as a counterbalance, I sprinted forth and cast Feather Fall on the both of us, burning my last spell slot, as we jumped from the railcar. Jill was shouting in panic as we fell, letting loose a spew of curses, right up until we were about to hit the ground. Then, we inexplicably slowed down, hovering off the ground for a short second, before touching down just as the corpse of the Alligator and the railcar slammed into the welcome area of the Hive.

    The ground rumbled a bit, shaking from the collision, but…

    "Would you look at that? We lived. Gotta say, I didn't see that coming," I admitted, the adrenaline starting to leave my veins as I let go of Jill. We stood on the incline that the rail traveled down, and I thankfully saw a service ladder to climb up to where we should have gotten off.

    "What did you do to piss that thing off that much?" Jill breathed, taking a seat on the incline as she caught her breath.

    "You mean what did we do," I corrected, "And we destroyed its crib." To that, Jill just snorted, shaking her head.

    "You also teleported. And we flew," she noted, glancing up at me and, to that, I could only grimace.

    "That's a one time thing, I'm afraid. I've officially run out of tricks up my sleeve." I had hoped that killing the Alligator might be enough for a level, but no such luck. That revealed the downside of an exp based leveling system because that was 100% a milestone level right there. Instead, I was about a third of my way to level 7. So, the Alligator had a challenge rating of around CR 6, netting me 2,700 exp for a single kill. Not bad considering I would have had to kill 54 zombies for the same amount of exp.

    I expected more questions from Jill. I really did. Some of what I was doing was pretty far outside of the realm of what nanobots were feasibly capable of. So, either Jill had fully bought the nanobot excuse and decided not to bother thinking about it any further -- doubtful, on account of that whole 'elite police officer' thing. Or, she was just taking me on faith. And that was a little humbling, if I was being honest.

    "No more miracles out of your ass then. We'll just have to make do," she decided, standing up and checking her ammo for her shotgun. "Don't suppose you know anything about this place?"

    I glanced at the wreckage of the railcar and the corpse of the Alligator. They did both more and less damage than I expected to see. Less in the sense the platform was mostly intact. More in the sense of… well, the place had just gotten a new paint job in the form of a crimson red. "Not as much as I would like," I admitted. "I knew it existed, and that Umbrella was doing moronic experiments down here. But, that's about it."

    There were a couple of things I was hoping to find down here, however -- the railgun, more vaccines, and Alice. Between the three of those things, we would be golden.

    "Didn't know this was here, though. The entrance I did know about was underneath the hospital," I added and Jill cocked an eyebrow in my direction while we started heading into the Hive. "Secret door that only Umbrella personnel could enter. Dead give away."

    That got Jill to roll her eyes with exasperation because she couldn't even doubt me at this point. Climbing up onto the platform, I tried not to slip as everything was covered in a layer of gore. The front door, however, was still intact and putting the ID wristband on my wrist, the same synthetic voice greeted me. "Welcome, Dr. Kendall."

    I was really hoping I wasn't going to be dealing with a schizo murderous loli AI, I thought as the doors slid open to find that things down in the Hive were every bit as fucked as they had been up top. Bloodstains on the wall, busted out light, and the noise of the door opening attracted a zombie that stumbled out of a receptionist area. Dakka fired a shot, blasting the head open.

    "We should be able to find vaccines down here. We get them up top, and I might be able to work my magic to produce more." I said as we started to clear the area. Either this place would have the chemicals necessary to make a vaccine, or failing that, I could make more Alchemy Jugs. "Might be best to grab what data we can while we're down here too. Even if it doesn't have something related to a vaccine, I'm sure it'll be useful in the court dates to come."

    "Smart," Jill acknowledged. "And we're clear," she said. Meaning this lobby area was as safe as we were going to get. She glanced my way as we went up to the next door and shared a nod. I approached with my shotgun raised and Dakka on my shoulder, making the door slide open to reveal a long hallway that was dark except for some emergency lights lining the floor and walls.

    Activating my headlamp, the area was washed in more light, showing an absolute bloodbath had happened here. And, from the sounds of it, there was still a feast going on in the cafeteria. Turning off my headlamp before it gave us away, we approached silently towards the nearest door. Peeking inside revealed an odd dozen zombies that were snacking on a few corpses. I glanced at Jill, who nodded.

    Shifting Dakka to full body mode, I had her remain behind on vigilance mode to make sure that nothing got the drop on us from behind. With our backs covered, the two of us went in and started blasting, dropping the corpses with what was becoming practiced ease.

    It only took a short minute for the cafeteria to be cleared and, once it was, I found myself eyeing a vending machine.

    Fishing some cash out of one of the zombies wallets, I fed a ten into the vending machine. "How do you take your coffee?" I asked her, and I could feel Jill's disbelieving stare on my back.

    Didn't stop her from answering though, "Black, no sugar."

    "Gross," I remarked, a paper cup dropping down before piping hot black coffee filled it. Once it was full, I passed it to Jill, who took a deep sip despite the heat and let out a shuddering breath of pure relief.

    "That's exactly what I needed," Jill sighed before shooting me a look. "A double sweet mint mocha latte?" She questioned and I smiled unrepentantly.

    "Life is short and bitter, Jill. Coffee should at least be sweet," I replied and Jill snorted into her cup while mine was topped up. I needed to make one of these things-- it even had whip cream. Once it was done, I took a sip and licked off the whip cream stache that it left behind. "Hmm… that's good coffee."

    "I'm not even sure you can call that coffee. It's caffeinated sugar and milk."

    "It's delicious caffeinated sugar and milk. Now, stop judging my taste, or I'll start judging your sad bean juice," I warned and that got a small laugh out of her. Then another more genuine one as she shook her head.

    "You're something else, Rude," she said, catching my attention. "We're trapped beneath the city in an underground lab filled with undead, we just about got eaten by a giant monster, Umbrella sent another monster after you, and we're in a race against the clock to stop the world from ending. And now you're standing there calling coffee sad bean juice. Does none of this shit get under your skin?" She asked, and I felt like that was a genuine, earnest question.

    I pursed my lips and shrugged, "Honestly, it's mostly that I'm beating out most of my expectations. I figured I'd be dead by now," I admitted, taking a sip from my latte. "Probably because of Umbrella sending a hit squad after me, or something. Instead, we managed to secure a base of operations, we have a vaccine for the T-Virus, and we're in their house about to ransack it for everything it's worth. So… the secret to my chipper is to keep your expectations low, so you'll always be pleasantly surprised."

    Jill held my gaze for a long searching second before she let out a small huff of amusement before polishing off her coffee and tossing it into a trashcan. "Something to keep in mind, I guess," she acknowledged.

    The moment came to an abrupt end, however, when I heard a crackling from the intercom. A woman's voice, but unlike the others, it wasn't artificial. "You two, in the cafeteria," she began, sounding almost breathless. I glanced at the intercom in the corner of the cafeteria before finding a security camera near it. "If either of you want to live… then you need to do exactly what I say."

    "Any idea who that is?" Jill asked, and just like that, the tension returned in full force.

    I frowned at the camera, "Dunno. Let's go find out."

    ...

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    • Spooky Scary Skeletons
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    • I had no idea who this lady was, I thought as Dakka took point with Jill behind her and me bringing up the rear. But that didn't necessarily mean anything. We were here days earlier than Jill and Carlos arrived in the game. So, it was entirely possible that there were a few survivors that had been holding out before then. I'd call it probable, even. Umbrella was filled with mouth breathing lobotomites, but some had to have recognized the danger of what they were creating.

    It obviously wasn't enough to convince them to not make whatever genetic horror they were commissioned to create, but to take precautions in case there was an outbreak? Or, if not precautions, then a game plan to hold out until rescue?

    Yeah, I could see that pretty easily.

    "You need to proceed slowly," the woman who had yet to introduce herself said, speaking through the intercom. "To avoid leading them to you, I'm having to broadcast across the Hive. It has… agitated some of the infected." She admitted as we made our way through the dark halls of the Hive.

    Jill glanced over her shoulder at me, and I offered a small shrug.

    "Furthermore, if you have any hope of surviving what's down here, you must follow my instructions," she continued, her tone demanding and severe. Jill held up a hand when we reached a corner, sending Dakka out first. My Eldritch Cannon took stock of the situation for only a moment before opening fire, telling me that something not friendly was around the corner.

    A split second later, a creature lunged forward, jumping over Dakka and slamming into the wall in front of Jill. I recognized what it was instantly-- a flayed body devoid of any flesh, revealing only muscle and sinew, with an exposed brain and a long tongue dangling out of its mouth. A Licker.

    No eyes to speak of. They relied on echolocation to find prey, I recalled as that was consistent across the movies and game.

    Jill fired, washing it in dragonsbreath and making the infected ignite. The dark hallways immediately became illuminated, revealing the bloodbath that had happened in all of its horrible glory while filling the air with a putrid burnt stench. The licker screeched, clawing at its own body before falling off the wall in a heap. I finished it off with a slug to the head, popping its top and killing it.

    Dakka acted as an early warning system. Though, when I heard primal screeches echoing through the hall, I could guess that we had company. Jill made a gesture to fall back, so we did. Making our way down the hall, we waited for the lickers to arrive and I took the chance to get Jill's attention. Talking was a bit of a risk, so instead I waved a hand in front of my eyes and shook my head, then I pointed to my ears.

    She nodded, and I got the impression that she already knew that. Had there been lickers at that mansion she mentioned?

    I didn't get a chance to ponder that because a second later, two more arrived. Dakka kept perfectly still while they crawled on the walls, knowing that we were nearby but unable to tell where exactly. My heart really started to pound when one started crawling right towards me, blessed with dumb luck. Or maybe my own bad luck was taking its chance to shine. Almost silently, Jill started to shift her position, lining a shot up for the other one.

    "Once-" the intercom spoke up, but whatever the woman had to say, I didn't hear it as I pulled the trigger when the licker before me suddenly stirred. The first shot killed it, probably, but I fired again, reducing the head and torso into bloody chunks. In that same second, the second licker lunged for me. Dakka saved my life, hitting the licker in the side mid jump and sending it flying away. Jill was quick to follow it up with by planting a handful of shots into the monster until it went still.

    To get rid of the smell, I used Prestidigitation, replacing the scent of blood and burnt meat with a pleasant floral scent. Jill seemed vaguely thankful and let out a sigh, "She just about got us killed."

    I nodded, glancing around, "I don't see a camera here, so she probably didn't know."

    "I can't say I like the idea of doing Umbrella's bidding, survivor or not," Jill said, checking her ammo while we had the chance.

    "I'd be more inclined if we actually needed the help," I agreed. "The Hive has a couple of entrances and exits. I know one of them is at the general hospital, which is probably a problem in itself. But, there could be others." As far as I could tell, that railway was something of a main entrance. The receptionist area was a give away. As for the entrance at the hospital, given that it took the form of a massive platform, I'm guessing that's how they brought down industrial amounts of supplies down here.

    So, it could just be the two. But I was holding out hope that we wouldn't have to leave through what was probably going to be an overrun hospital.

    "Works for me. First order of business is stealing their data, right? Is there a faster way beyond cracking open desktops and stealing files?" She questioned as we began to move up once more.

    To that, I mulled the question over. When I originally decided to come down here, the plan was to bring a full squad equipped with Bags of Holding. We could take our time and do exactly what she said -- crack open every computer for the hard drive and empty the filing cabinets. We could be thorough so it didn't matter if we didn't know exactly what we were looking for.

    But with two people and one Bag of Holding? "We need to find the server room. This place isn't going to be hooked up to the internet, and keeping the servers in another location is a point of weakness when you already have a fuck-off sized secret base," I reasoned. That's why major companies always had a server room on site. I'm guessing that went double when you were performing hella illegal human experiments in a secret bunker. "Though, I doubt the good doctor will just let us be."

    "She has access to the security cameras and intercom. It could be a pain in the ass if she locked us out of somewhere important," Jill agreed.

    "Play along until we get what we want?" I ventured and Jill seemed to debate with herself for a moment.

    Then she sighed, visibly unhappy with her decision. "Umbrella or not, I'm not going to leave someone to die." She admitted and… yeah, I could understand that a little too well. "Not to mention, she could be useful as a witness. I'm not sure what is going to happen after this, but I don't want Umbrella to weasel out of justice because they could dismiss whatever digital evidence we gathered."

    That was a good point. In the movies, the world ended so it never really came up. I was rather curious as to what would happen to a company that caused one of the single worst man-made disasters since Chernobyl. I'd like to say that the US government would take them apart, but the genre savy part of me knew that at best, a few scapegoats would be hung out to dry while the real perpetrators would get off scot free. Or, worse, find themselves working under Uncle Sam's thumb.

    I didn't voice my thoughts, simply nodding in agreement as we reached a doorway. The wristband activated it and the door slid open to reveal-

    "What the fuuu…?" I trailed off, momentarily stunned when we entered a massive chamber that was about a hundred yards wide in diameter. It was almost entirely comprised of empty space with a very long drop. There was a walkway connecting to a central pillar, and there were two other walkways that were currently pulled up, connected to two doors. The central pillar, interestingly, looked like some kind of elevator.

    "Looks like an anti-contamination measure," Jill noted, far less baffled than I was. Despite myself, I looked down to see that the chamber went on for so long, I couldn't see the bottom. Looking up, I did see a ceiling that the elevator was connected to-

    I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly, recalling the map of the city. My enhanced intelligence wasn't something I really felt before, but I felt it now because I knew there was absolutely no chance in hell that I would have been able to figure this out before. But, with my perfect memory of the map, a few guesstimations about how long we had fallen and how fast, along with an estimation of the incline of the railway…

    "That leads up to the orphanage. Or the police station," I said, pointing up at the elevator with a thin grimace. That was… all kinds of screwed up, but experimenting on orphans would fit the bill for Umbrella. They really were doing their damndest to tick every box of the comically evil organization list.

    Jill seemed more baffled by my deduction then she did about the massive vacuum chamber that we crossed. "How'd you figure that?"

    "Math," I answered with a shrug.

    She shook her head before glancing up at the elevator. "It could be our way out, so let's keep the option open. Though, I'm more curious how exactly the outbreak happened. This place looks like it's in lockdown." She noted, gesturing to the pulled back bridges.

    "That," the woman's voice rang out, "is because of me." My gaze went up to a security camera and intercom, realizing that she could overhear us now. "When the initial outbreak happened, there was an attempt to evacuate. Some managed to leave through the railing that you used before I shut it down. Since then, I've been… containing the more dangerous projects."

    Huh. "And you are?"

    "Unimportant," the woman dismissed. "What is important is that you follow my instructions to the letter. I had hoped for a retrieval team, but the two of you seem capable. Across the bridge, you will find a lab marked B-13. Inside that lab, you will find a viral agent labeled GV-566. You will deliver it here, to the elevator, before returning to the lobby area before awaiting further instructions."

    "Okay -- let's make one thing clear. We don't work for you," I said, throwing up my arms and making a big X. "And we're here for our own goals. The vaccine for the T-Virus you muppets released into the water system along with industrial amounts of the chemical compounds to make more of it." I could tell Jill had questions about what I was doing, but she seemed to guess my aims.

    Simply put, it would be far more suspicious if we meekly obeyed her.

    "You're in the wrong place if you're looking for the cure to the T-Virus," the woman replied, her tone curt. Clearly unhappy.

    That was a flat out weird way to deflect and obvious bullshit. "Uh, no? Unless you're telling me that Umbrella has another fuck off massive secret underground base under Raccoon City?" I ventured, knowing that it was here. I saw it in the game. Maybe I would be inclined to have more doubts if I hadn't already confirmed the vial of vaccine in Dr. Bards' office.

    However, there was a very telling pause on the other end and I felt like I got punched in the gut.

    "Wait. Hold up. You-...! You're telling me that Umbrella has two secret bases under Raccoon City? What the fuck? How much money does this company make!?" I blurted, caught thoroughly off guard as I felt the ground shifting underfoot once more. That, I hadn't expected. It was so damn dumb that I couldn't anticipate it. I had fully believed that we were in a different part of the Hive than what Jill had descended into. I just figured that it was one massive base.

    Because building two was so absurdly wasteful and pointless that I just…

    "Hive One focused on the development of biohazards ranging in use from domestic products, medicine, to bioweapons. Hive Two is a separate facility that was focused on providing… solutions to what we developed in Hive One. Vaccines, anti-virals, weapons. So both the problem and solution could be sold together. Or individually to competing markets," the woman elaborated and I was dragging my hands down my face.

    Meaning that I had to get to Hive Two if I wanted to get my railgun and establish a pipeline for the vaccine. Frustrating. Very frustrating.

    "Ignoring all of that -- what do you need this viral agent for?" Jill asked while I recovered from the physical pain that I was in. Umbrella really was the worst. I mean that in every sense of the word -- comically over the top evil and so stupid that it made my brain hurt. "So far, Umbrella doesn't have a great track record and I'm not going to help you unleash some other monster on the city. We're already dealing with enough of them as it is."

    There was another worrying pause from the woman. "It's a weapon to be used on one of the infected," she answered tersely. "The T-Virus wasn't the only outbreak. The G-Virus happened first, which facilitated the outbreak of the T-Virus."

    I feel a migraine coming on. "Uh Huh," I said, rubbing my temples. "And this G-Virus is an ongoing problem, is it?"

    "It is unlike the T-Virus. It acts less like a disease and more of a parasitic infection. The… patient zero is currently within the W-02 West Wing. By eliminating him- it there, we can prevent further outbreaks of the G-Virus." The woman said and I paused at the emotion that leaked into her voice. She strangled it back down, but it was clear that this was a personal matter to her. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

    Then I looked across the bridge at one of the doors marked with W-02 above it. The same place that we had to go for this viral agent. She really was sending us into the belly of the beast, huh?

    Sharing a look with Jill, I could only shrug and she made a decision. "We'll retrieve the viral agent and deal with the patient zero. On two conditions," Jill said, looking up at the security camera. "You get us into the second Hive. And when the time comes, you'll testify on what happened here."

    "You really believe that Umbrella is going to have its day in court?" The woman asked, sounding utterly dismissive. Jill might have overplayed her hand with that.

    "Either that, or we'll cut the head off the snake," I replied evenly.

    There was another small pause of consideration before the woman spoke. "The former, I can arrange easily. Both Hives are connected by an emergency railcar. While both Hives are isolated, I can safely trigger an evacuation without activating the self-destruct sequence." The what now? "As for the latter… provided that you can prove to me I wouldn't be throwing my life away for nothing, I will agree. Tentatively." She decided.

    That was about as good as we were going to get, I figured. But Jill wanted a little more, "Your name, then? I'm Jill Valentine. STARS. Or, at least I was before the team got disbanded."

    "Rudeus Rain. Professional menace to society and Umbrella in particular," I offered.

    "...Annette Birkin," Annette replied with some reluctance. "All of this is moot unless we can destroy the G-Virus. I'm opening the passage now." She informed before the bridge began to shift forward, two halves of the walkway meeting in the middle. "I've also granted your access token senior staff privileges."

    That was convenient, I decided, taking a step on the now connected walkway and approached the door. The information that we'd learned swirled in the back of my mind, fitting itself in the restructuring game plan. We had to get rid of the G-Virus. Things were bad enough without throwing another viral spanner in the works. So, we killed it, gathered up what data that we could here, then we went to Hive Two which actually had the stuff that we wanted.

    I let Dakka take point once more as the door slid open, revealing dark hallways with the emergency lights covered in blood, dying the little light available a dark red. I resisted the urge to turn on my headlamp as I followed Jill inside the new part of the Hive. There was a lot of blood on the floor and walls, and in the heavy silence, I could hear distant shuffling around. It was as we passed an elevator that I started to understand what exactly we agreed to.

    Halfway inside the elevator was a ravaged corpse, leaving the doors forcibly open. On the back panel was a poster. A 'you are here' sign, essentially.

    It marked this as the top floor of twenty five floors in this portion of the Hive. It was almost a half circle, going down hundreds of feet with a large degree of separation between this side of the labs. Then on the other side was the half for senior lab members. That massively opened up the scope of what we were dealing with. I half figured we had already killed most of the scientists that had been in the Hive.

    But, based on sheer size… there had to be more. Hundreds more.

    The tension swelled to to the point you couldn't even cut it with a knife. It had to be smashed with a sledge hammer. I got Jill's attention, pointing at the elevator and she saw where our targets were. The viral agent was on the twentieth floor. The server room, likely just for this half of the Hive, was all the way down on the twenty-fifth. Meaning that we had a very long way to go.

    Jill frowned, her lips thinning. Then she made a gesture. 'Fast or slow?' She seemed to be asking, and I considered the question for just a moment.

    I was tapped out for spells unless I leveled up. Part of me wanted to post up in a secure position and start grinding away until I hit Level 7. Another part of me knew that was reckless. So, it really was a question of what was safer? What was better? Not just for us, but for everyone?

    I knew the answer, even if I didn't like it.

    'Faster,' I confirmed, inclining my head to the elevator next to the one filled with gore. Jill knew exactly what I was thinking and she seemed to hate the idea as much as I did. All the same, she nodded in agreement, knowing that it was the right call. We needed to get out of here and off to the second Hive as fast as possible.

    Jill took up a covering position while I went to work. Dakka first fired a shot at the seam between the elevator doors, revealing that the elevator itself was on a different floor. The metal bent inwards enough that I could fit the car jack that I pulled out of my Bag of Holding. There was a muttering from the undead on the floor, followed by a squeezing of metal as I began to expand the elevator door. They were heavy things, I noticed, even with the car jack.

    But, it only took a short minute for me to wedge it open enough for us to slip through. Dakka crawled up my back, settling in the pack while she went into shoulder mounted mode. Jill glanced my way, satisfied that we had a way down. "Let's secure our way back out," she said, and I nodded. Wanting to conserve some ammo, I switched to my Arcane Weapon and took up a position across from Jill so we had a decent crossfire.

    Slowly, the sounds of shambling and moaning drew closer before the first of them appeared down the hall. I pulled the trigger, picking him off, and the rotting flesh around his head ignited in flames. The shadows danced as the first undead collapsed, its brain flash burned, but it was swiftly followed by more. All of them were wearing bloodied lab coats, their faces and bodies noticeably more decayed than the ones above in the city.

    Dakka and I started firing, thinning them out as they mindlessly shambled forward. Only when they got close enough did Jill start firing. One by one, the bodies dropped and there were an alarming number of them. They paid no mind as they climbed over the corpses of those that were killed before them and I realized odds were most of the scientists in this wing had been crowded around the only exit. An exit that Annette had sealed off.

    Soon enough, the corpses started to act as a physical barrier for the undead. They had to crawl forward, their poor coordination making it a challenge for them. It was a full fifteen minutes later before the horde seemed to thin out. I wasn't really counting how many we had killed, but it had to be around fifty. Yet, even then, I got the feeling that wasn't all of them.

    But, the area was clear enough. Though Jill and I still grabbed a vending machine and maneuvered it in front of the elevator. Just in case.

    With the prep work done, I peeked past the elevator to see that it was somewhere near the halfway point in the elevator shaft. More importantly, there was a readily available service ladder that would take us right past it. I was up first with Dakka still on my back and I began to shuffle down. Jill joined me a moment later and the sounds of us making our way down echoed out in the elevator shaft.

    My suspicions that we hadn't killed all of the undead in this part of the Hive were confirmed. The sounds of gunfire had echoed down the elevator shaft, alerting whatever undead were down below. Now they beat their hands against the doors, moaning and groaning as they tried to get through. I swallowed my nerves each time I crawled by an elevator door, hearing what sounded like dozens of them trying to get through.

    But they had no chance to. Even with undead strength, they weren't going to get through solid steel.

    So, I continued on with no worries, making my way past the elevator that rocked gently from the undead scrambling inside of it. That was a little more concerning, but was still a non-issue.

    I had almost started getting comfortable with the tension. Right up until we were near the twenty-third floor, almost at the end, when we suddenly heard the awful sound of metal screeching. My heart jumped to my throat as I looked up past Jill just in time to see the elevator shake violently as something heavy landed on it.

    My lungs went still, refusing to breathe in as I froze in place. Jill wasn't much better, pausing mid step down the next rung. We both watched as the elevator shifted, the steel cables groaning under an unseen weight. From my position, I couldn't see much, but I did see the top of the elevator getting peeled open like it was a soda can shortly before the thing that had dropped down on it entered it. That was then followed by the sound of more screeching metal as the elevator doors were ripped open.

    Then there was silence except for the groaning undead that continued to beat at the elevator doors.

    My mouth was dry and it felt like I swallowed sand when I swallowed thickly.

    Whatever that was, it sounded big. And I was already topped up on massive zombie monsters, thank you very much. We waited in silence for another sign of whatever that creature was, but it seemed to have moved on. After a few minutes, Jill looked down at me and gestured for me to keep going.

    Taking a bracing breath, I continued to shuffle down to the final floor, careful to be as soundless as I possibly could. And, just like how it was when you were trying to be quiet at two in the morning, every sound that I made felt impossibly loud. None more so than when we reached the 25th floor and we had to knock in the elevator doors.

    The first hole that Dakka punched in revealed that there was no undead waiting for us. Which made sense since it was as far away from the exit as you could get. Fitting in the carjack, I began to open up the doors wide enough that we could slip through and with every spin, a horrible screeching sound echoed out. A low squeal of metal resisted and it was absolutely deafening.

    Soon the sequel of the elevator doors was joined when the elevator above us shifted once more. Jill and I both froze, looking directly up to see the elevator shaking. There was a loud thump inside of it. I had no clue what exactly was going inside of it, but I knew I didn't like it one bit.

    That was before there was a strained pop that echoed out a split second before the elevator lurched down a half foot. I felt Jill's hand grip my shoulder, her fingers digging in. "Rude-!" She cut herself off and I abandoned all attempts of the slow and steady route, spinning the carjack as fast as it would go. The low groan became a screech of metal on metal and that seemed to agitate whatever was above us.

    There was another pop up above that was followed by the sound of more metal screaming. Acting on instinct, I threw myself forward, forcing my way through the gap that I had made as I dragged Jill in behind me.

    Not a second later the elevator hit the ground with a powerful impact, but not an explosive one. Jill and I skidded across the floor a few feet, feeling a strong shockwave run through us while a cloud of dust was kicked up from the impact. I half expected that to be the prelude of our next problem, but as we scrambled to our feet no horrible monster erupted from the fallen elevator. The warped insides were filled with gore, blood covering the walls and floor, but only pieces of bodies were inside.

    "There goes our exit," Jill muttered under her breath and I saw the busted remains of my carjack.

    To make sure we weren't dealing with a clever monster, I had Dakka crawl forward towards the elevator. When she didn't shoot, I was convinced that it wasn't lying in ambush in the elevator shaft above. For that reason, I shuffled forward, entering the elevator to see that the top had been completely removed. Peeled upward like it was a tin can.

    It was because I was looking up that I saw a zombie falling down the elevator shaft and I stepped back just in time to avoid getting crushed. It hit the elevator with a meaty smack, falling around a hundred feet. It wasn't killed on impact, but it was a mess of broken bones.

    "I'm leaving Dakka on overwatch," I decided. And, as if to agree, there was another thump as another zombie fell from whatever hole that monster had made. "She should let us know if something follows us."

    "She?" Jill echoed, examining the hallway that we were in. It was dark and, unlike the others, it wasn't covered in gore. Seemed like the people at the bottom managed to escape up top, only to encounter a problem there.

    "Cars, boats, and robots are always a she," I said, patting Dakka on the chassis before moving on. I trusted her with my back. And, if nothing else, I knew she would go down swinging. "Let's find this server room and another way out. I don't suppose this place has a set of stairs?"

    "It's a safe bet. Secret base or not, elevators malfunction and that could leave entire floors cut off otherwise. When you're making multimillion dollar bioweapons, that's going to be an unnecessary risk." She reasoned and it made sense to me.

    "Still can't believe these troglodytes built two secret bases under the same city. The bioweapon business has to be booming. This place alone has to cost billions," I reasoned, giving Dakka one last lingering look before we continued onward. The server room should be nearby.

    "Thinking of signing on?" Jill asked, sounding amused with my disbelief.

    "As if. More worried," I corrected, earning a look. "You don't make this kind of money unless someone really wants your product. Umbrella feels like it might be in the territory of 'too big to fail.' If not because of the sheer amount of cash they're apparently raking in, then because people in powerful positions won't want them too." Like the military.

    Jill was silent for a moment as we pressed on. I scanned the placards above each door as we slowly explored the floor. "What could we do about that, realistically?" She questioned… and that was the golden question.

    "No idea. Yet," I admitted before pointing out the door marked with Server Room. "But we have time to figure that out. If nothing else, we could give away some of their least dangerous patents. That'd tweak their nose," I reason, taking out a crowbar and wedging it into the doors. With a heave, Jill managed to get her foot inside and give us some leverage to slide the doors open.

    The server room wasn't particularly large, I saw. There were six server racks in total, three on each wall. "They're still on. Good," I said, looking around the room before I spotted a laptop. It was, however, in the hands of a corpse.

    The IT guy, I figured. He was in a desk seat with the wall covered in blood and brain matter from where he killed himself. A bloodstain on his leg revealed the reason for his suicide. Taking his laptop, I saw that it required a fingerprint scan, so I helped myself. With that, I saw a farewell note that he wrote in a word document -- minimizing that, I pulled up his access to the server diagnostics.

    "What exactly is the plan here?" Jill questioned as I started typing. "I doubt all of this would fit on a thumb drive."

    "No such luck there, but we did get lucky," I said, gesturing to the laptop. It vastly simplified things. "I can tap into server maintenance programs that'll compile the data onto other servers. It's a shortcut to avoid down time for the whole base. I'll probably have to trim some fat, but I can probably put just about everything on a single server. Then we take out the memory storage and toss it all into a Bag of Holding."

    Jill, rather than being impressed, looked thoroughly amused. "I was right. You are a D&D nerd," she remarked, and I realized that was the first time I had called it a Bag of Holding out loud.

    "You were," I admitted, and she was more right than she realized. "But still, hurtful."

    "You'll get over it, I'm sure," Jill said, still amused. "So, we grab the server, head up to the twentieth floor, grab the viral agent, kill the patient zero for the G-Virus… then we go to the other Hive to pick up the T-Virus vaccine. That about sum it up?"

    "You're forgetting about any shenanigans that we'll stumble across between those steps, but yeah, more or less," I replied. And, speaking of shenanigans, I got a message from the security team.

    'What are you two doing in the server room?' I'm guessing that was Annette rather than the Jacob Smith, the security guy whose ID she was using.

    I debated on answering while glancing around for a security camera. I didn't see one. So, it was either well hidden, or we had tripped some flag. 'Told you, we're here for our own goals. The servers are loaded up with evidence. Or, failing that, it's one hell of a bargaining chip to use against your corporate overlord.' I typed back and sent the message as I began flagging servers as needed for maintenance.

    Had to disable a few safety checks, but I was able to offload the data and tasks onto a single server. It was as the data was being transferred over that I got another message from Annette.

    'You have more pressing issues: Link.'

    Clicking the link, I saw it was security footage from the entrance of the Hive. I froze when I watched the short clip, my blood draining from my face. Something that Jill didn't fail to notice.

    "What happened?" She asked and in response, I spun the laptop around and pressed replay.

    The video showed the Alligator corpse bulging and writhing a split second before Mr. X tore his way out of the body. He seemed injured, covered in gore and bile, but otherwise unaffected before he began to march towards the entrance with a slow and steady gait.

    "Things just got a little more complicated."

    ...

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  • Threadmarks
    • No it isn't the first time he's called it a bag of holding with Jill, he called it that when talking to Chris and Jill about their plan.
     
    Ah, I was concerned this was the Red Queen AI that pulled a Cerberus on Umbrella. She's... tentatively a good guy? But she also killed a bunch of the STAR team sent to her facility.

    So that should be the next step because the movie covered STAR getting the vaccine.
     
    diner99 said:
    No it isn't the first time he's called it a bag of holding with Jill, he called it that when talking to Chris and Jill about their plan.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I mean, I'd assumed before he thought about that angle that she was calling him a nerd because of his computer skills, something that would be even more unusual for the time period than they are today. The bag of holding comment just specified what kind of nerd for her, reminding her about his earlier references.
     
    The AI might be what's running Hive Two.

    And if they're compiling in to any servers, why limit yourself to just one? Take two if it's too large for a singular drive. The Bag won't care, the only limit would be time, which shouldn't matter between storing over two versus taking the time to trim what's stored.

    ...and they're probably going to want multiple copies anyway for the inevitable Hostage situations: "Give us the evidence or we'll kill your family" says the Umbrella Hitsquad.
     
    Last edited:
    Might as well copy all the data and stuff the servers full on the copies, thus extra resources to burn once the hit squads come.
     
    Welcome to the Jungle
  • Threadmarks
    • Things weren't great. Or even good, really. But, they weren't as bad as they could be. Because, simply put, as things stood there was about twenty floors that separated us. Mr. X was a whole ass problem, but he was a manageable one. What he did was compound an already existing issue, like being trapped in a pit with a super massive alligator.

    "This is fine," I said, earning a brief look of utter disbelief from Jill.

    "It's fine?" Jill echoed, looking at me like I was speaking in tongues. So much for that benefit of the doubt. "That thing just ripped itself out of a dinosaur, and it's coming straight for us."

    "I didn't say things were good. I said that it's fine. Best case scenario, we can sicc patient zero for the G-Virus on 'em and they take each other out. Or, we get out, and pull up the drawbridge so he's stuck here." As I spoke, I watched as the data was being compiled into a single server. The transfer was fast, far faster than I expected it to be, but not as fast as I wanted it. It would take a full hour and a half to transfer everything.

    That was a long time to wait but not enough time to really do anything.

    "Worse case scenario?" Jill ventured as Anette started typing in the chat box.

    "We do a lot of screaming before we die," I replied with a cheeky deprecating smile. That took the wind from her sails as I considered what our moves could be. An hour and a half. I had no spell slots left. We were being hunted down by two monsters. We needed to go a couple floors up to get a viral agent so we could kill the G-Virus monster. And, to make matters worse, Dakka had about forty minutes of power left, and I wouldn't be able to bring her back.

    'What are you doing in the server room?' Annette questioned in the chat box while I pondered our predicament. I needed more tools available to me.

    So, I typed back 'Securing evidence to be used against the corpo overlords. And info on how to deal with virus. Send me access to security cameras.'

    I paused.

    'Please.' There we go. It never hurt to be polite.

    "Okay, so what I'm thinking is this – I have about a half hour left powering up Dakka," I said, setting the computer to the side before my eyes landed on the corpse of the IT guy. Or, rather, the wedding ring on his finger. This felt a little gross, but needs must. "So, we use that time to snag this viral agent, then head back here, grab the server once everything is transferred over, head back up the elevator shaft, then bait the monsters into an arena of our choosing."

    "Sounds like it'll work right up until it goes wrong," Jill said, grabbing the computer while I approached the corpse. Sorry, man, but I needed it more than you, I thought before prying the ring off. "Annette says that she doesn't trust you, and that the data on the servers is useless to you because you can't use it. Paraphrasing."

    "Well, tell her that I'm not some two bit hack of a scientist and I know what a controlled variable is. Which is more than anything I can say for the muppets that worked here," I replied, testing the ring to find that it mostly fit. I'd have to resize it. "Is she going to give us access to the cameras or not?"

    "She's typing," Jill said, and her reply had been far too short to copy what I said word for word. I took the moment to reach into my bag and grab my jeweler's tools. Creating a spell refueling ring from scratch was beyond me at the moment – simply because of the time it would take to layer the enchantments onto it.

    However, that didn't mean I couldn't fiddle with the blueprint ever so slightly. A spell refueling ring functioned by restoring a burnt spell slot, with the limit of the spell slot being restored tied into the number of items that the wearer had attuned to them. As it was, I didn't have any items on me that required attunement.

    Technically. The closest thing that I had was Dakka, so she was what I would be using.

    Only to make those adjustments to the infusion, I had to prep the receptacle beforehand. Which led me to securing the ring with a pair of pliers before I started engraving upon its surface.

    When it came right down to it, runes were basically just magical code. And, much like coding on general, I knew next to nothing about runes. I did, however, know enough about magic to attempt to get by. It was the equivalent to speaking in broken English, but I'm mostly sure I engraved 'Dakka+Me=Attunement?' Therefore binding the two together, and allowing me to treat Dakka as an attuned item.

    Which, in turn, meant I could bring her back one more time or use a first level spell slot.

    "I need to get better at this stuff," I sighed, sliding the ring on. As it attuned to me, the ring shrunk, fitting me perfectly. I put it on my thumb, mostly because it felt pretty weird wearing a ring that just belonged to another guy. The point being was that I was forced to improvise too much, and my class really worked best with prep time and prepared materials.

    It was as I finished up that Jill spoke up, "I convinced her to give us access to the cameras." She turned the computer around, showing the video feeds of what had to be about a thousand cameras. We would have to sort through them by floor, I reasoned. And keep a separate tab open to keep an eye on Mr. X. I also saw what she said in the chat box – that I was an escaped lab rat of Umbrella, and that I was the last person that would sell the secrets that we were taking here. "Issue is that one of us would need to remain on overwatch."

    Meaning that one person was going to be making their way through zombie and monster infested labs alone.

    "Lovely," I sighed, realizing that she was right. Our gazes met, and before she could volunteer, I continued. "It should be me. Dakka's range isn't limitless, and whoever goes is going to need her."

    "I'm STARS. You're a labrat," Jill argued succiquently. Wasn't wrong there. She was more equipped to handle the trip, only Dakka and literal magic helped balance the scales quite a bit. "You said it yourself, you're out of tricks."

    I did say that and it was still mostly true. So, I held up a fist, "Rock, paper, scissors? Whoever loses has to stay in the safe room and whoever wins has to sneak around a lab full of zombies." Despite herself, Jill seemed amused by my antics even as she let out a sigh. All the same, she held up a fist.

    On three, our fists bounced twice and on the final time we made our pick.

    "Damn it," Jill swore.

    "Paper covers rock. Sucks to suck," I said, covering her fist with a hand. Her lips thinned, so I gave her hand a small squeeze. "I have you looking out for me, so I'll be fine. Just let me know when I'm sharing a floor with one of those monsters, yeah?" I requested, withdrawing my hand.

    Jill visibly swallowed a sigh, "Two out of three?"

    "No one likes a sore loser, Jill," I replied, taking a breath and considering my option. I would have Dakka. I would have my shotgun. I had my Arcane Firearm, and one spell slot to use in emergencies.

    I had this.

    "Not doing a good job of convincing me to make sure you come back," Jill tried to match my humor but didn't quite manage it. I decided to leave the Bag of Holding with her, but I took out an earpiece from it and tossed her the walkie talkie. It was little moments like these that almost convinced me that I knew what I was doing because that was a lucky bit of preparation.

    "I'll get back as soon as I can. But, if things go south-" I started, and when Jill made to interject, I swiftly continued, "Save my dumb ass. The server is a low priority in comparison. We'll have other chances to nail Umbrella to the wall." That managed to get a smile out of her.

    "Good. Just… be careful. I don't want to have to rescue you, got that?" Jill said while I looked at the door to what I imagined hell would look like. It was probably a bad time to mention it, but horror was my least favorite genre.

    "I'm already doing something stupid, Jill. I don't plan on being an idiot about it," I said, opening the door to the dark hallway and I glanced at her over my shoulder, "See ya' in a bit."

    With that, I closed the door behind me and I looked to Dakka. "Come on, girl. Let's get this done," I said, the quiet hallway suddenly filled with the echoing sound of her metallic spider legs and my boots. Time was of the essence, so I hurriedly along to the end of the hallway in search of the stairs that would lead me up. I chose to arm myself with my Arcane Firearm, when I finally spotted it.

    The doors opened with a painfully loud squeak of the hinges, causing a low guttural moan to echo out as I approached the steps after making sure the door was closed behind me. The moan was swiftly joined by others along with the wet sounds of movement.

    There were quite a few of the zombies on the stairwell, I figured, climbing my way up. There were only so many elevators, so some would try their luck with the stairs. To that end, the upper floors should contain most of the zombies in this place. Provided that no one left any doors open. And given that Umbrella's scientists favorite snack seemed to be lead paint chips, I wasn't going to hold out any hope about that.

    I ascended up the stairs, already seeing hints of gore before I saw the first shambling corpse as he fell down a half dozen stairs between floors. The red emergency light illuminated him at first before I popped him in the side of the head with a Firebolt and his corpse ignited. With his corpse burning, the shadows began to dance as more corpses started shambling down.

    It was easy to be afraid in moments like these. That fear threw off aim, and when you missed a shot m, it made the fear that much worse. So, despite the stench of burnt hair and flesh, I forced myself to breathe as I slowly climbed up the stairs. Floor by floor, until I reached the twentieth and a quick glance through the door revealed a zombie that was drawn to the noise. Taking a moment to glance up the stairs, I could hear more coming but their moans bounced off the staircase, making it impossible to judge how many.

    I really, really, really didn't like the thought of not having a clear exit behind me. I also really, really, really didn't like the thought of lingering too long and letting Mr. X or the G-Virus monster find me.

    Between the two bad options, I went with the one I thought I could manage.

    Opening the door, I stepped out of the way so the zombie fell forward before I shot it in the head. Kicking the legs to the side and clearing the door, I closed it behind me. A few seconds later, zombies started pawing at the door behind me, but they wouldn't have any luck getting through it. The noise had attracted one other zombie that had been making her way to the door, but with a quick shot, I put her down, and the dark floor was silent once more.

    It was then that I heard Jill's voice in my ear, "You're on camera. So is the big guy – he's making his way to the stairs, it looks like, so I recommend you start moving, Rude." Jill warned me as I did exactly that. Dakka took point as the emergency lights flashed, revealing the open layout to the lab. Something was different with the floor, I swiftly noticed.

    Mostly because I didn't think that vines were supposed to be growing along the walls and ceiling. Switching Dakka to flamethrower mode, I reached up to my neck and pressed the mic before speaking in a low whisper, "What exactly am I looking for here? And any eyes on the thing we're supposed to be killing?"

    "None," Jill swiftly answered. "I think it's avoiding cameras because I haven't seen any sign of it. If we didn't hear that crash, I'd say it wasn't here." That was pretty much the last thing that I wanted to hear, if I was being perfectly honest. I didn't need a monster with ninja training to sneak up on me. "As for what you're looking for… head straight, take a left, then straight again. That'll take you to the lab that has the viral agent."

    "Roger roger," I said, following her instructions. I was keenly aware of the cameras and it was a relief to see that there were plenty. As I ventured deeper into the floor, however, the thicker the vines became. Whatever was in that lab was where I had to go, unfortunately enough.

    The door was half sealed, overgrown with vines and what looked like a corpse that had fallen there, which meant the door couldn't close all the way. A quick belch of flames from Dakka pushed back vines even if it meant filling the hallway with smoke. Waiting a moment for them to burn through enough that I could step through the door, I glanced around at the lab that could best be described as a greenhouse gone awry.

    Plants grew completely out of control, dozens of species that did their best to consume every empty space. If I had waited a few more days to get down here, I'd probably have to burn the whole room just to move past it. It also let me see that every testing bed of the plants had been deliberately left open.

    As well as what had been nourishing them.

    "Great," I muttered, looking at what had been a last stand in the lab. A good dozen zombies, their bodies thoroughly infiltrated with vines with plants sprouting from their flesh, slowly got up. Given that they were spread out, my guess was that they hid here, tried to use the plants as a barrier to protect themselves until rescue came… only for one of them to already be infected. The vines made them stiff, their movements more unnatural than they already were, but it was simple enough to put them down with the help of Dakka.

    Plants had a natural weakness to fire, after all.

    "Big guy has reached the stairs, Rude. He's on his way down," Jill informed me as I crouched down to one of the corpses to see his ID wristband was a different color. Senior Staff. I'll be taking that, thank you.

    "I hear you," I said, moving on and burning away the foliage that had sealed another door. I was immediately hit with a blast of cold air, the metal walls covered in frost, and the source was a broken window to a testing lab where they developed whatever they were making here. There was another zombie waiting for me, but given that it was well below freezing, the corpse was frozen stiff. Still shot it for the free xp, though. "I'm in the lab. Looking for the sample now-"

    There was a crashing sound somewhere behind me. A distant echo but it made my heart jump to my throat.

    "Jill… what was that?" I asked, a sense of urgency flooding me as I stepped into the lab, searching for some agent labeled GV-566. Not as easy as I would like because a lot of the equipment was covered in a thin layer of frost.

    "The G-Virus infected was hiding in the elevator shaft! It just tore a hole in the elevator on your floor, Rude!" Jill announced and… yeah. Okay.

    "On a scale from one to ten, how-"

    "It's a ten. Humanoid, but one side of it is the virus with a large eye at the shoulder." Jill answered quickly and the note of panic in her voice was a damn good argument to hurry it up and grab the viral agent. My hands worked as fast as they could, brushing away the frost to a half dozen vials that were in a cabinet, my fingers swiftly going numb.

    I heard another crash, this one closer. "Jill, give me a path to the elevator," I said, finally finding the correct vial. Stuffing it in my pocket, I traded out my Arcane Firearm for my shotgun. "Fastest way, please."

    "The fastest is going to take you right past that thing, Rude. He's on you like a hound. It's tracking you somehow." Jill said and I filed that away while I swiftly made my plan. Stepping out of the lab, I crossed the room so I was on the same wall as the entrance in the opposite corner. Dakka crawled forward, sticking to the wall over the greenroom while I prepared a cantrip. "But… get past him and take a right instead of a left at the fork."

    My heart was pounding in my chest as I spoke in a low voice, "Jill – start heading up the elevator shaft. We'll have to swing back for the server. I'll meet you there as soon as I can." And, almost as soon as I said the words, I heard the heavy lumbering steps of the monster in question. Crouching down behind some vines, I forced myself to control my breathing.

    Jill's description really hadn't sold how monstrous it was. Most of the creature was humanoid, but on the shoulder, almost like it had been grafted on, was a massive bulbous mess of muscle, bone protrusions, with a single massive eye the size of a small satellite dish at the shoulder. The entire arm was a massive claw, and from the looks of things, the transformation wasn't complete yet. That was a frightening thought.

    But I couldn't afford to get scared right now.

    Casting Prestidigitation, I conjured an illusion in the greenroom of myself ducking behind a row of plants, and I watched as the massive eyes immediately locked in on the movement. With a massive lumbering breath, the monster rushed forward into the greenroom and the moment it was inside, I broke into a dead sprint to the door while Dakka dropped down and bathed the creature in flames.

    Its roar echoed down the hallway behind me, and I didn't even need Expeditious Retreat to haul ass. Dakka trailed behind me, running as fast as her spider legs could carry her, firing a shot at the monster that decided to give chase. With every shot, the monster was knocked back, giving me the room I needed. Taking a right so quickly I half bounced against the wall, I saw the opened elevator shaft that looked entirely too much like a ripped apart tin can for my liking.

    I barely slowed down before I jumped into the elevator shaft, reaching a hand out to give me enough spin that I could hop onto the ladder. Jill was already on it, a good two floors above me, telling me that she had rushed up. She glanced down at me as I chased after her, Dakka making it as she secured herself to my back. My heart plummeted when I heard the creature still giving chase. I knew I shouldn't have, but I dared to glance down to see the G-Zombie stab its claw into concrete like it was wet tissue paper before clumsily following us up.

    "Dakka, hit him," I hissed, climbing as fast as I could while Dakka did exactly that.

    And, as it turned out, the monster had a really glaring weakness.

    The eye made an excellent target that Dakka took aim at, sniping it even as I jostled around in my haste. The creature roared in pain, taking a swipe at me that felt entirely too close. The ladder beneath me jerked in a way that had my veins full of nothing but adrenaline, but that opened the creature up to another shot that struck it directly in the oversized eye.

    With another roar, it tried to right itself but the damage was done. It fell down about six stories, crumpling the elevator that it landed on, and giving us some breathing room. Even still, Dakka didn't stop shooting as we continued upward, not wanting to give it a chance to close the sudden gap. She only stopped when we were nearing the top of the elevator shaft, minutes later, and I sent her ahead of Jill to clear any zombies at the top.

    And there were a few, I soon saw, grabbing Jill's hand as she half yanked me out of the elevator shaft. Leaving Dakka to cover our rear, the two of us sprinted out of the lab, racing across the walkway and as soon as we crossed the halfway point, the bridge started to retract.

    Dakka came running after us a moment later, jumping across the gap into my waiting arms, and it was only then did I blow out a sigh of utter relief.

    "That sucked. Oh… oh, man, I didn't like that. I didn't like that at all," I muttered, the adrenaline abruptly leaving me, and my strength felt sapped even as my heart still pounded at my ribs.

    Jill was hunched over as the walkway finished retreating, breathing heavily, "At least we trapped them both in the same wing. With a little luck, they'll kill one another."

    "I'll be honest… I don't think we're that lucky," I replied and Jill visibly swallowed a sigh.

    "Neither do I. In any case, we have some time. They don't have any reason to go after the server room either, so all that's left is to make this antiviral and kill the both of them." Jill decided, straightening up while I secured Dakka to my back. I didn't have much of a charge left in her, but I was very glad that I didn't need to burn the one spell slot I had left. I got the impression that I was going to be needing her again soon enough.

    Rounding the central elevator, the walkway to the other wing connected itself. Walking along, the automatic doors slid open to reveal a woman. Annette, I'm guessing. She was in her mid thirties if I had to guess, pale skin from a lot of time in the lab, long blonde hair that told me she hadn't showered in a couple of days.

    She also had a gun.

    "Oh. The Umbrella scientist has betrayed us. I'm shocked. Shocked, I say!" I said, dramatically throwing my hands in the air while Annette leveled the gun at us. "Well, not that shocked."

    "If I was betraying you, you'd be dead already," Annette replied coldly. "I don't trust you and the world itself is in danger, so I can't risk trusting you. The samples in this lab…" Her voice trailed off when I rolled my eyes to the ceiling. This was annoying, but in line with what I expected. She also kinda had us dead to rights. There wasn't much cover on the thin walkway. "What I want you to do is give me the antiviral. I'll make it. Then… then we'll kill the subject together, but you will never step inside this wing."

    That was a promise. And, as annoying as I found it – and, oh boy, did I find it annoying – I did understand why she was going this route. The things in this secret base? They should never see the light of day. I'm sure that some good could come out of them, but all of it was inherently tainted by the T-Virus, or whatever version they cooked up. So, yeah, I was in complete agreement with none of the apocalypse causing viruses or what have you ever leaving.

    Jill glanced my way when I stepped forward, one hand in the air and the other taking out the vial. "You're being a massive pain in the ass, but I agree with the goal. So, before we start the battle royale with two bio-weapons, I want to go to Hive Two. You said it yourself – that's where they produced answers to those fuck off massive problems we have in time out."

    Annette jerked, "I'm not negotiating with you. Give me the vial, or I'll shoot you."

    "Then shoot. Because, I gotta say, taking a bullet to the dome sounds a lot more preferable than going three rounds with those two unprepared. Unless, of course, you can look me in the eyes and promise me that whatever you're cooking up is the silver bullet to both of them?" I was kinda hoping that she could because that would be really convenient. But, based on how her lips thinned, I was going to have to take that as a no.

    She shook her head, confirming it, "That's- they're separate-" She started, but I smiled placatingly.

    "I'm aware. But that doesn't really solve the issue. So, what I'm suggesting is that you let us go get something that can take out Mr. Trenchcoat." I wasn't particularly charismatic, I have the stat to prove it, but I did know how to talk to people. Annette was a scientist, so logic was the way to go. And, try as she might, she wasn't able to poke any holes in my reasoning.

    She licked her lips, "The antiviral first. Then I'll activate the elevator. There's a railcar below that you can use to connect to the other Hive. Getting something that can destroy it… that's on you." Annette decided and that was about as good of an offer as we were going to get. So, I tossed the vial over to her and she managed to catch it, albeit clumsily.

    Her guard lowered when neither of us took the opportunity to shoot her, and she offered one final nod to me before she quickly vanished back inside the wing. Stepping back, I glanced at Jill, who seemed rather pensive about the entire thing. At least, until the central elevator turned on.

    "That was a risk," Jill noted as we stepped inside the elevator and pressed the bottom floor.

    "Yeah, it was," I agreed, leaning against the railing. "But it wasn't like we were going to kill her to get inside. And, while I'm certain that there's going to be entire servers of horrific war crimes in that wing, we don't need it. Maybe we can convince her to give us the evidence of them happening, without all the crap they cooked up."

    "Like you said – we're not that lucky," Jill sighed as we continued down- my train of thought momentarily derailed when we sailed by what I could only describe as an ARC reactor of some kind. Two massive spinning wheels with electricity cackling between them.

    "You saw that, right? What was that thing?" I blurted, caught thoroughly off guard by the sudden sci-fi imagery. It was over as soon as it began, but Keen Mind let me effortlessly recall it – the two wheels in what looked like a void…

    "I think that was a power source. Couldn't tell you what kind," Jill ventured, quick to dismiss the entire thing as non relevant. I wouldn't be so sure, however. "We're taking a lot of what Annette said on faith here. Are we really going to find something in this other Hive that can deal with those things? Because shotguns aren't going to cut it."

    We arrived at the bottom floor of the Hive, and I saw the railcar that Annette described. There was a long platform and railway, but I couldn't tell where either way ended. A rather conventional sign, however, told me that we had to go right to reach the bottom of the other Hive.

    To answer her question, I shot Jill a grin as we started walking to the other Hive. "If we're going to find a silver bullet, it would be there," I reasoned. Alice should be in the other Hive. And her whole psionics deal was going to be really handy dealing with those bio-weapons.

    If everything worked out, we could just throw Alice at the problem and it would probably go away without needing much interference with us much more mundane plebeians.

    "And if we don't?" Jill prompted, and I could tell she really wanted a defined plan.

    I thought of that railgun that Jill had used to kill Nemesis in the game. How the movies decided to cut that out was beyond me. In any case, I reached back and patted Dakka on the chassis as the last dregs of her power ran out. There were ideas floating around in my head, and I had to say, I was feeling inspired.

    "Then we make a couple of silver bullets of our own," I replied, seeing the elevator up to the other Hive in the distance.

    Jill hummed, clearly wanting something more concrete, but accepting that things were just up in the air at the moment. "I bet Chris isn't having to deal with some crap like this."

    To that, I chuckled. "Here's hoping that Chris is kicking his feet up and enjoying the calm while it lasts."

    Based on our shared laughter, I don't think either of us believed it.

    ...

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    • Ideas-Guy said:
    Jill hummed, clearly wanting something more concrete, but accepting that things were just up in the air at the moment. "I bet Chris isn't having to deal with some crap like this."

    To that, I chuckled. "Here's hoping that Chris is kicking his feet up and enjoying the calm while it lasts."

    Based on our shared laughter, I don't think either of us believed it.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Meanwhile with Chris......

    Chris: Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!

    Horde of Zombies & Mutant Monsters: RAAAARGH!!!!
     
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