บท 23: chapter 23
But now, it's not a game. This is a different life, and it is only one here. The characters here are real people experiencing real emotions. And the wounds, like death, are also real here. I understood this, but to some extent, I tried to drive such thoughts away from myself. But he couldn't. I fell in love with this city, I got attached to the people who became my friends. And he could do almost nothing. The city is doomed, Demetrius himself said so, and soon, it will be destroyed. And I did not have the special strength to change this. Well, at least I was able to save some friends. But did I change at least something, or did I not manage to save anyone superfluous? I'm too weak, I barely have enough strength to walk now, and no matter how much I prepare, I couldn't fix something very much. And was it possible to do better than I did?
With a slight start, he quickly looked around. It seems that a light sleep still made me sick. It was almost five in the morning, which meant that I had been dozing for about twenty minutes. Getting up, I turned to Sherry to change the compress. And he was stunned. In addition to pale skin, fever and fever, Sherry had another external change. The sclera of his left eye turned red, and some red lines began to spread from the eye itself. Damn it, where is it...
The creak of the door made me turn sharply, taking aim at it. Only now did I notice that I was out of breath, and the first thought that it was William was clearly wrong. He certainly wouldn't enter so civilized. Claire walked slowly through the door, for some reason without her red jacket.
"Claire?" I put away the aimed rifle. "Where's Leon?"
"I followed Annette to another part of the complex. Only the highest level of the map could be entered, and since we were being chased by the hatter again, he decided to send me here. What's wrong with Sherry?
Redfield approached the bed when she saw the girl's condition. I began to check my weapons.
"It's bad. I think the virus is starting to spread, which means that we are running out of time. How long have you and Leon separated?
"A couple of minutes ago. Do you want to go after him?
"It's just a guess, but the hatter could have been sent by Umbrella to kill the last surviving cops in town. Or on reconnaissance. If so, then the newcomer may meet somewhere not only with him, but also with the mutated William. I'm afraid he won't be able to stand alone. Where to go?
"Straight down the corridor, then to the right. Cass? The girl called to me when I was already at the door. "Be careful. Monsters are much more dangerous here than in the city, and some are only taken by fire. Leon still has a flamethrower, but I don't think there's much left.
"Hah. I didn't go through so much to stay in this complex. I'll find Leon first, and then we'll get to Annette together. We'll be soon.
Closing the door behind him, he shook his head slightly. I had to get ready and hurry, so I ran down the corridor with my rifle ready. The doors were automatic, they opened when I ran up to them, and in a minute I found myself in a huge room. From the center, where the elevator was, there were three bridges, one by which I was now running, turning right.
The next room was almost completely immersed in darkness. Only rare light bulbs were burning, and there was much more chaos. And there were completely dead personnel. Leon was clearly passing here. Following the footprints of the dead, I moved on. I found the newcomer two rooms away, digging through the computer.
"Sergeant?" What are you doing here...
"He came to the rescue. Claire stayed with Sherry, but we'd better hurry. She is only getting worse. What are you doing here?
"I decided to check it out, maybe I'll find something useful." But it seems that everything has been cleaned up here. Claire and I found a few papers, but I don't think it will be enough to drown Umbrella.
"Annette?"
"I haven't found it yet. But I think it must be somewhere here.
"Then let's move on. We need to find it.
Then we walked together. The zombies we encountered on the way were really different - a bullet to the head did not always kill them immediately, unless they were holding a shotgun. Falling into my hands alone, I noted that these zombies had more strength, however, I coped. Pushing the dead man away from him, he immediately fired two bullets from a rifle into his forehead. At that moment, Leon was shooting back at the other two who were approaching us.
In addition to zombies, we encountered corpses of workers and special forces. The same ones I met in the sewers. So, we finally got here. Well, at least the cartridges won't be superfluous.
"Leon," I called to the newcomer, and threw him one of the rifles. - Arm yourself. It won't be redundant.
Moving further and further, we came across another door with a top-level lock. Leon opened the lock with a card, and we entered the room, the light bulbs in which worked and illuminated everything well. This place looked more like a laboratory. On the right there were tables with computers, which we approached. There were no passwords, so there were no problems with hacking. Five minutes later, Leon found old recordings, which he launched. There was no sound, but a regular recording was enough for us.
Well what can I say. Although William is to blame for creating the G-virus, if it weren't for the special forces, nothing would have happened. One of the fighters' hands trembled, and instead of simply shooting him in the arm so that Birkin could not use the pistol, he fired five bullets into his chest. And when he fell, the special forces took away the suitcase he was holding in his hands.
Later we saw how Birkin, barely remaining conscious, injects himself with a syringe. A few seconds later, a woman comes running with a first aid kit. Even without sound, it was clear that she was not just shocked, but terrified. William, shouting something, got to his feet (and this after five bullets in the chest from a rifle almost point-blank), and began to move towards the exit, twitching with every movement. The last thing the camera recorded was how the scientist's hand began to mutate.
"Oh my God," said the newcomer when the recording ended. "Umbrella doesn't even spare her own!"
"They didn't spare the whole city." What can we say about one scientist, even if he is a genius. But if those idiots hadn't come here, we wouldn't have had to deal with that monster. Go ahead. Then, if we have time, we'll copy it to a floppy disk.
The newcomer and I went further. The new doors led us to a new room, which can definitely be called a laboratory. And a two-level one. The bridge was now raised to our level, leading further into another room. It was too quiet.
As soon as we stepped onto the bridge, instincts sounded the alarm, and a loud crunch was heard from above. The ceiling has begun to collapse, falling down, along with something heavy, but the newcomer and I manage to jump back to the beginning of the bridge. And this something turned out to be the monster Birkin.
"You're fucking kidding!" I exclaimed, raising my rifle with the newcomer.
Birkin howled loudly, after which we immediately began to pour fire on him. In the background, I heard the sound of the door opening, after footsteps, and before I could turn around, I heard a shot and some kind of capsule hit the monster. When hit, it breaks, and a colorless liquid falls on it. It was as if acid had fallen on the flesh, causing it to melt, and judging by the painful howl, Birkin had done more damage than our bullets.
Behind us stood a woman, a blonde, about thirty-five years old, in a white coat that was covered in blood. This is what we saw on the recording.
"I'm sorry, William," she said, reloading her pistol.
Another shot, another hit, and Birkin howls even harder, taking a few steps back. And while he was recovering, Annette (recognized by his voice) fired a third shot. After the third hit, the monster finally falls onto the bridge, stopping moving. Come on? And that's it? Judging by Leon's face, he asked the same question.
"They were created specifically to destroy the infected," Annette said, walking past us, reloading her pistol again. "He must not get out of here. I'm sorry, William.
As she set her sights on the mutant, the sense of danger howled like a fool. Jumping up, I grab the woman by the shoulders and pull her towards me with all my strength, falling on my back together. A clawed hand of a mutant swept right above us, and rifle shots rang out.
"I thought your bullets were going to kill him," I say, rising to my feet and pulling Annette back with me.
"William's mutated too much. The virus in it is strong enough not to kill, but only to inflict wounds! The scientist got to her feet with a painful groan. The leg was clearly injured even before coming here.
"You should have come to us earlier." It would have been much easier. Leon!
Calling the newcomer, he literally gave him the scientist in his hands, and pushed both of them back to the door.
"Sergeant?"
"Take Annette to Sherry while there's still time!" I'll detain Birkin! If I don't come back in ten minutes, leave without me!
Turning around, I hit the control button that was next to the bridge with my hand. Lamps began to work along the entire length of the bridge, and the bridge itself, along with William and me, began to descend. Damn, it's scary for you!
"Officer!" Annette called to me, to which I turned around. "Don't let him get out of here!" Not only because of the danger, but also because no one should get a sample of the virus from his body! And beware of the girl in red - she is not who she pretends to be!
"I guessed, but thanks for the warning. Now go!
As the bridge fell, the railing seemed to fold, giving me the opportunity to move in any direction.
"It's interesting, isn't it, William?" I say with a grin, cracking my neck. Strangely, now the fear has begun to recede. "Now you and I are left alone, in a circular room that looks like an arena.
Jumping to the side, dodging the claws, I got to my feet, reloading my rifle.
"Come on, let's have gladiatorial fights here!" Let's see which of us deserves to come out of here alive!
***
Since our last meeting, William has clearly become more agile and angry. It became more difficult to dodge his attacks, besides, thanks to the high ceilings, he learned to jump, which he has already done several times, trying to fall on me with all his weight.
There are new attacks when he starts running right at me, swinging all four arms. I didn't want to get into such a meat grinder, so I had to run like crazy, catching William so that he crashed into the walls. One of these moments happened near a device that looked like a generator, which I immediately fired at. The device sparked, and a powerful bolt of electricity hit the monster, causing it to howl in pain. On the second run, the device had already exploded, scorching the monster's flesh.
After two such electric shocks, Birkin became visibly angry. How did I understand this? Well, he tore a decent piece from the wall, about three meters high, which he brought down on the place where I was standing. And although I managed to jump away, the air wave that formed from the blow threw me to the side.
Having wiped my face from the dust, I barely have time to notice how the Birkin monster falls on top of me, extending its claws down. Rolling to the side, I managed to avoid the blow, but a flash of pain showed that I had not managed to escape completely. There were four long claw scratches on the chest that were bleeding faintly.
The bullets in the rifle had already run out, it was impossible to change the clip, so throwing it on the floor, he picked up a grenade launcher, shooting at the eye on his back. The shot missed the target, but caused obvious damage. Rising to my feet, I untied the armature from my hand and ran up to the monster. He had already pulled out his two left hands, waving them in my direction.
Having dodged, I jump on his back and plunge my weapon into that damn eye. A fountain of some incomprehensible cloudy liquid immediately began to flow from the eye, which even smelled terrible. William, tearing his hands out of the floor, began to spin in different directions, trying to throw me off his back, but I stubbornly drove the reinforcement deeper into the eye. Having stuck it halfway, I sharply twisted it to the side, and I pulled it out of the body, immediately flying back, unable to stay on my back. Turning to face me, William takes a few slow, heavy steps before falling to the floor. The monster's body twitched and shrank a little in size, even its claws seemed to become smaller.
After lying on the floor for about a minute, I walked to the body, and hit the head with the rebar several more times, judging by the crunch, breaking the skull. But he did not move.
After catching my breath, I looked around. Not far away was a pistol, dropped by Annette, which she picked up, putting in her bag. Maybe it will come in handy. But before I went back, I decided to go further, to examine the room that William had prevented me from checking. The bridge did not work, but there were stairs that were clearly made for such an eventuality.
The room was familiar to me. It was here, according to the record, that Birkin was injured before he began to mutate. There was still blood on the floor by the wall, and there was quite a lot of it. Next to her lay an ampoule with a needle, which the scientist injected into himself. Looking around carefully, he saw on the wall, right above the place where Birkin was wounded, there was a slightly open safe door. When I opened the door, I saw an almost empty safe, with almost empty boxes for storing test tubes. Why almost? Well, in one of the boxes I found a test tube, which apparently they did not have time to pick up in a hurry.
"G-virus," I read the sticker, twirling the test tube between my fingers.
Sighing, he put the test tube in his bag. And now, we have to go back. I need to check on Sherry.
I returned a little limp from fatigue, and my legs hurt a little after such a run. On the way, he picked up a rifle, reloading it. Taking into account what I found and spent, I had four clips left. I think it should be enough to get out of here.
Going out to the center, where the elevator was, I heard a slight swarming, and then I noticed a familiar figure in a red shirt.
"Ada," he did not ask, but called the girl wearily. Hearing the voice, she immediately jumped up, turning in my direction.
"Castiel," she gasped, stopping her hand for the gun. "It's you.
"Did you expect someone else?" Maybe William? Or Annette?
"Have you seen her?" The girl stiffened, narrowing her eyes slightly.
"I saw it. Even if not for long. You know, I've had questions for a long time that I can't get answers to. Why did you look for Annette? Why not William himself, if he is the creator of the G virus? The answer, I think, can be one – you knew it had mutated, or you thought it was dead. You knew my first and last name, although I didn't say it. So, most likely, she has been collecting data for some time. And who could be interested in me? S.T.A.R.S and Umbrella. But the former are unlikely to share information after what happened.
I was standing in the middle of the bridge leading to the elevator, but I didn't go any further. We were still standing opposite each other, at a distance of several meters.
"To hide what was happening here, you need connections. And at the highest level. Preferably at the level of senior officials, the presidential administration. The special forces that we saw here could hardly just get here, and they were quite well equipped. Were you afraid that William would not give up the development? Or that he knows too much, so he is dangerous? I don't know, these are just my assumptions. But that's where you come in. Not very surprised by what happened, she did not betray any surprise when she saw Birkin's mutations. And she knew quite a lot, although she tried to hide it. So why did you need Annette? Let me guess You needed something from her, something that only she can know.
Putting his hand into the bag, feeling for the test tube, he took it out, shifting his gaze to his hand.
"The last test tube with the virus. As you said, it is more dangerous than the T-virus. Is that what you were looking for?
The sound of a cocked pistol was heard. Looking up, I saw Ada aiming her weapon at me.
"Give it to me." Otherwise, I'll have to kill you.
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