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*****
He flashed her a thumbs-up and a wink.
"Miss me?"
Rebecca flushed crimson, her eyes darting away to the floor. "I just... wanted to make sure you weren't eaten."
"I'm inedible," Atlas grinned.
The tension in the room shifted. It wasn't just survival anymore; there was a warmth there. A connection.
"Okay, lovebirds," Billy interrupted, rolling his eyes as he checked the control panel. "Let's focus. I've adjusted the line voltage. The car is ready to go."
"Let's move," Atlas commanded.
They ran down the metal stairs to the platform.
They were ten feet from the cable car door when the ceiling vents exploded.
SCREECH! SCREECH!
Three Eliminators—zombie monkeys—dropped onto the platform. They were small, fast, and vicious.
But behind them, dropping with a heavy thud, was something worse.
It was a humanoid nightmare. Six feet tall. Its skin was grey, rubbery. Its right arm was a massive, pulsating claw.
Subject: TYRANT.
It roared, a sound that shook the platform.
"Front and back!" Atlas roared.
The three Eliminators shrieked and leaped at Billy and Rebecca. The Proto-Tyrant roared and charged straight for Atlas.
The battle erupted instantly.
Atlas raised his Lightning Hawk. He didn't hesitate.
BLAM!
The Magnum round caught the charging Tyrant dead in the chest. The strong kinetic force caused the large creature to rise from its feet and move backward. It slammed into the back wall of the cavern.
But before the dust could settle, the Tyrant stood up. It shook its head, letting out a low growl. There was a hole in the chest, but far from enough to kill it as it didn't have the obvious weakness of the PROTO-TYRANT (T-001)..
"Tough bastard," Atlas muttered.
Meanwhile, Billy and Rebecca were fighting for their lives against the Eliminators.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
Billy's MP5 sprayed bullets, but the monkeys were too fast, bouncing off the walls and railings. One lunged for Rebecca's throat.
Atlas didn't turn his head. His Combat Instinct painted a 360-degree picture of the battlefield.
He kept his eyes on the Tyrant, but he swung his Magnum to the left.
BLAM.
The shot was impossible. He fired without looking, guided by sound and instinct. The bullet intercepted the mid-air Eliminator, blowing its head clean off just inches before it reached Rebecca.
"Focus on the big one!" Billy shouted, reloading his submachine gun.
"I am!" Atlas retorted.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Tyrant charged again. Atlas didn't retreat. He stood his ground, firing rhythmically.
BLAM. BLAM.
The Tyrant staggered, flinching, but it kept coming, closing the distance.
At the same time, the remaining two
Eliminators tried to flank. One jumped on the railing behind Billy.
Atlas pivoted, his movements a blur of Agility.
He ducked a claw swipe from the Tyrant, spun on his heel, and fired past Billy's ear.
BLAM.
The second monkey's chest exploded. It fell backward into the abyss.
"Two down!" Atlas counted.
He was multitasking violence. He was weaving between the Tyrant's sledgehammer blows while simultaneously covering his teammates. He was the eye of the storm.
Billy and Rebecca poured fire into the last monkey, slowing it down. Atlas finished it with a snap-shot to the cranium.
BLAM.
"Clear!" Rebecca gasped.
But the Tyrant wasn't done.
Enraged by the bullets that tore through his heart, the monster let out a deafening roar. It wound up its massive, mutated claw arm for a haymaker that could punch through a tank.
It swung.
The attack was fast—too fast for a human.
But Atlas wasn't human.
He saw the muscle fibers in the Tyrant's shoulder twitch. He calculated the arc.
Atlas dropped. He ducked smoothly, the massive claw whistling inches above his hair.
"Gotcha," Atlas grinned, ready to counter-attack.
But he hadn't accounted for the variable behind him.
Billy Coen had stepped forward, intending to support Atlas with his shotgun.
When Atlas ducked, Billy was left standing directly in the path of the swing.
CRACK.
The Tyrant's backhand caught Billy squarely in the chest.
"Gah!"
The sound of ribs cracking echoed over the machinery. Billy was lifted off his feet like a ragdoll. He flew backward, over the safety railing.
"Billy!" Rebecca screamed, lunging for him.
But he was gone. He plummeted into the darkness of the water treatment channel below.
"Damn it!" Atlas snarled.
The Tyrant recovered from its swing, turning its beady yellow eyes toward Rebecca, raising its claw to crush her next.
"Oh no you don't," Atlas growled.
The playfulness vanished from his face. The "testing phase" was over.
Atlas unloaded.
He didn't bother aiming for the heart. He aimed for the face.
BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM.
He fanned the hammer of the Lightning Hawk, dumping the remaining five rounds in less than two seconds as he changed the mag again, continuing to fire.
The recoil would have shattered a normal man's wrist. Atlas stood like a statue.
Every single bullet hit the same spot. The Tyrant's face disfigured under the barrage of high-caliber lead. Its skull shattered on many points.
The monster shrieked, blinded, flailing wildly.
It stumbled backward, its footing lost on the slick metal. It toppled over the edge, following Billy into the dark.
Silence fell on the platform, broken only by the hum of the cable car engine.
Rebecca stood at the railing, staring down into the black water where Billy had vanished. She was frozen, her face pale.
"Billy..." she whispered.
Atlas reloaded his Magnum, the mechanical click loud in the quiet.
Then he walked to Rebecca.
He grabbed her arm.
"Billy..." Rebecca whispered, staring into the abyss.
"He's tough," Atlas said, grabbing her arm. "He'll survive. But we have to go. Now."
He pulled her toward the cable car.
"But we can't leave him!"
"We can't help him from here!" Atlas argued, shoving her inside the car.
---
Location: The Cable Car – En Route to the Factory.
Time: 12:45 AM (Monday).
The cable car descended into the darkness, a metal cage suspended over an abyss.
Atlas sat on the bench, catching his breath. Rebecca stood by the grated window, staring back up toward the platform where Billy had fallen.
"Whatever happened to Billy..." Rebecca whispered, her voice tight with worry. "We have to save him, Atlas."
"I know," Atlas said, reloading his Lightning Hawk. "We're going down. The water treatment channel drains into the lower levels. If he survived the fall, the current would have carried him there. I believe he is still alive. He's too stubborn to die."
Rebecca nodded, grateful for the reassurance. She sat down opposite him.
Atlas glanced at the driver's seat of the cable car. A corpse sat slumped over the controls—a worker who had died weeks ago, a bullet hole in his temple.
Lying next to the dead hand was a weapon.
It was a revolver, but built like a tank. A Magnum Revolver. Heavy barrel, custom grip, chambered for .357.
"Waste not, want not," Atlas murmured.
He picked it up. It was heavy, balanced perfectly. He spun the cylinder. Putting in the explosive round he had brought.
"Nice," he whispered, tucking it into his belt.
The cable car jerked, signaling the end of the line.
Shortly after the two departed, the Tyrant—previously collapsed on the ground—began to stir. It roared, then leapt to its feet, seemingly intent on resuming its pursuit of Atlas and Rebecca. But no one knew how long it could survive with a nice chunk of its skull shattered, its brain riddled with lead
[The Umbrella Factory – Entry Area]
The doors slid open. They stepped out onto a metal walkway suspended over a massive industrial complex. Pipes hissed, and the air tasted of sulfur.
"This is a factory," Rebecca noted, looking at the layout. "Another hidden facility?"
"Umbrella has more secrets than employees," Atlas replied.
They moved forward. There was only one path—a narrow catwalk leading to a heavy steel door.
They entered a control room. It was dusty, lit by flickering emergency lights. A large map on the wall detailed the layout of the Incineration Plant.
"Atlas, this is the main lift control," Rebecca said, examining the console. "But I can't find the activation key. It's locked out."
"Standard procedure," Atlas sighed. "Split the party to find the key."
He looked at the elevator shaft in the corner. A small service lift platform was waiting.
"You wait here, Rebecca. Lock the door behind me. I'll go down to the lower maintenance level and find the key."
"Be careful," Rebecca said. She didn't argue. She had learned to trust his competence implicitly. "I'll monitor the cameras."
Atlas stepped onto the service lift. It descended with a groan of rusted gears.
He reached the bottom level—a labyrinth of pipes and machinery. He moved quickly, his boots clanging on the metal grating.
He found a surveillance room at the end of the corridor.
Lying on the desk, amidst a pile of cold coffee cups, was the Up Key.
Atlas grabbed it.
His eyes flicked to the surveillance monitors.
One screen showed a holding tank deep within the facility.
Inside, something was moving.
It was eight feet tall. Its skin was rotting away, exposing the spine. Its right arm was a twisted mass of claws. And in the center of its chest, pulsating with a sickening rhythm, was an exposed heart.
Subject: PROTO-TYRANT (T-001).
It wasn't the one they had fought on the platform. This was another one, even more monstrous.
It resembled the Tyrant they had just faced—close enough that Atlas's first thought was PROTO-TYRANT (T-001)… or something along those lines. He wasn't entirely sure. After all, he'd only moments ago pumped the last one full of lead and shattered half its skull, and this thing looked disturbingly similar.
The creature lay motionless, yet something about it felt wrong—not dead, merely waiting.
Atlas studied it for a brief second, weighed his options, then turned away.
"Persistant ugly bastard," Atlas muttered.
He didn't stay to watch. He backtracked to the service lift, riding it back up to the control room.
Retracing his steps, he headed back the way he'd come. Moments later, inside the control room.
"Got it," Atlas announced, tossing the key to Rebecca.
She caught it, relief washing over her face. "You're fast."
She inserted the key.
RUMBLE.
Through the window, they saw a massive cargo elevator in the outer courtyard begin to rise.
"That's our ride," Atlas said.
They left the control room, heading for the courtyard.
[The Courtyard Elevator]
They stepped onto the massive elevator platform. Rebecca hit the button for lower levels. The platform descended slowly, passing floor after floor of industrial nightmare.
When it finally stopped, they were deep underground.
They stepped off into a corridor.
CLICK.
The sound of a gun hammer cocking.
Rebecca froze. Atlas stopped, his hand hovering over his holster.
"Freeze!" a voice commanded.
Rebecca's eyes widened. "Captain?"
A man stepped out from the shadows. He was battered, his S.T.A.R.S. uniform torn, holding a shotgun.
Captain Enrico Marini.
He lowered the weapon instantly. "Rebecca?"
"Captain!" Rebecca ran to him. "You're alive!"
Enrico looked relieved, but his eyes were hard, scanning the shadows. Then he saw Atlas.
He raised the shotgun again. "Who is this?"