"Good luck," Yamata and Claire said in unison.
Both seemed sincere. Well—my partner probably could have been sincere. After all, I still had to haul the incriminating evidence against Umbrella on my back. That was the real reason I'd volunteered to go ahead: to secure myself a head start and avoid being saddled with too many responsibilities—not because of some ridiculous heroic impulse.
The monsters would attack me anyway—aside from the most basic zombies, perhaps, and those wouldn't be hard to deal with on the way. For the ones staying behind, though, it created the image of I'm doing this for you. And Kate would get some practice fighting humanoid creatures for a change. It couldn't be mutant spiders every time.
"Are we heading to the laboratory now?" Kate asked as we left the platform.
"Not exactly. First we need to check the power supply—make sure it's online."
It was. By the time I finished speaking, we'd reached it, arriving at a crossroads. Four exits led out of the room, including the one behind us.
"So, if I'm not mistaken, we should turn left." I say—and then turn… right. I was mistaken after all.
We crossed one of the narrow bridges—the power supply room stood atop a thick central pillar in the heart of the laboratory, with short walkways connecting it from every direction—and entered a corridor paneled in steel sheets.
Thank God the lab's version of this hallway, though similar in shape to the ones above, was much wider. Otherwise, by the end of this whole ordeal, I'd have developed claustrophobia for sure.
We turned right and followed the corridor to its end, arriving at a staff room. There were no other exits from it, a dead end, in other words.
"Grab any documents you see. The former occupants were kind enough to leave us a bag. And you can take that pistol over there—might come in handy," I said, rummaging through the lockers along the wall.
I ignored the ammunition and small items. The security uniforms, however, went into Kate's sports bag—just in case. There wasn't anything else of interest.
"That's everything," Kate reported in less than a minute. Looks like someone was enjoying her enhanced speed.
I gave the room one final sweep with my eyes, making sure we hadn't missed anything, then gestured for Miss Warren to follow me and headed in the opposite direction—toward a sealed tunnel door.
As we approached it, I asked Kate to step aside—because someone was behind them. And that was strange. Three green outlines. Two almost pressed together, the third about five or six meters away. I only spotted them from a distance of twenty meters, which was odd as well, considering the range of this ability of mine usually stretches for nearly half a kilometer, if not farther.
Gripping the drawn knife, I pressed the door mechanism—and before me stood two mutant plants. Just what I needed!
"Shame I don't have a flamethrower," I muttered sincerely.
I studied these creatures carefully. They resembled massive buds atop short, thick stems with equally stubby root systems beneath. Two additional offshoots sprouted from each stem—like undeveloped buds—serving as crude arms for these botanical monstrosities.
While I was examining them, one of the plants managed spat directly in my face.
As usual, I felt nothing. Only in the faint reflection of the steel-lined corridor did I see the green corrosive substance eating into my skin—before being rapidly absorbed by my body.
Fantastic!
What kind of diet did my body even follow? I'd stopped eating meat. Vegetables had been rejected almost immediately. And now it practically inhaled any liquid that touched it. God forbid I ever stepped in gasoline! And now, what if this poison knocked me flat? But no, my body absorbed that too! What kind of sick joke was this?
I lunged forward and literally tore the main stems of the plants in half.
Beyond the next door waited the third "shrub," but since I'd spotted it earlier, it posed no particular problem. I didn't even bother with the knife—my claws were enough.
Only then did I allow myself to take in the surroundings. We'd emerged at a transition point between floors and a viewing platform at the same time. Directly ahead stood another massive pillar, similar to the one housing the power supply room—except this one was completely entwined with plant growth. It shifted faintly but made no attempt to attack. And if it didn't attack, I ignored it too.
After that, we cleared several more sectors. We ran into just about everything imaginable! Lickers dropped from the ventilation shafts—which were wide enough here to accommodate them easily. Several times we encountered enormous moths the size of me. The ordinary zombies hardly bore mentioning—some in lab coats, others clearly victims of experimentation.
At one point, Yamata contacted us. Before we'd parted ways, she'd slipped me a communication capsule to replace the one I'd lost after that explosive embrace with Silver.
"Cain, it's been decided that Sherry will remain unattended but securely locked in the cabin. Even Birkin couldn't breach it last time. Annette came with us. She clearly doesn't trust me, you, and Ada—unlike the others. We passed through the corridor with the flowers you killed. If you ever think of giving me something like that—better not!" she chuckled at the end.
Some time later, she contacted me again.
"Cain… I'm sorry. I wasn't careful enough. Annette's dead—killed by her husband. She had a G-virus sample on her. I discreetly secured it. The sheet with the vaccine formula—maybe even the virus formula, I didn't check—she handed over to Claire herself. We're finishing the vaccine synthesis now. "
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
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