The Mansion Incident

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Rebecca Chambers opened her eyes and when she realized she was awake, she immediately reached for her pistol. There wasn’t a single ray of light for her to see by, but she aimed her gun into the complete darkness anyway, trying to hold her breath and listen for any noise at all. She didn’t know how long she’d been sleeping, but she was terrified to think something or someone was in the room with her. But after a few tense moments, she heard nothing, and felt relatively safe. She must have just woken up on her own, because if anything was in the room with her, it would have heard her rustling around and attacked her by now. She knew the room was empty when she went to sleep, and she made sure to block the door securely, but she took no chances.

She didn’t even want to risk sleeping at all, but she had no choice. She was completely exhausted after the events of the last day, and simply needed to take time to rest or she would collapse. If being unconscious counted as rest, then she rested twice last night. Once when the train crashed, and once more after pulling Billy out of the underground river. But she didn’t think that counted for much.

She walked through the woods for most of the day. She must have followed the old dirt road for miles, but in the end she made it nowhere. The road ended at a small lake in the middle of nowhere, and Rebecca was forced to retrace her steps and go back. She saw a plane fly overhead a few times, but other than that, saw no signs of civilization.

Leaving the dirt road was not an option, as it was the only thing keeping her from being completely lost. If she took a chance and walked out into the woods, she might never get out of there. She had no compass and no knowledge of the surrounding area. She could have used the sun to figure out which way was north, but that wouldn’t have helped her at all. She didn’t know which way the nearest road was, so knowing which way was north didn’t really help.

She desperately wished she had just followed Billy. Why in the world did she just let him walk into the forest like that? He must have known exactly where he was going, because he headed straight into the woods. If he knew which direction the nearest road was in, Rebecca could have followed him. Why did they split up at all? They should have just stayed together until they made it completely to safety. Once they reached the nearest road, Billy could have just gone in one direction, and the Rebecca could have gone in the other. They could have stayed together until then.

But she knew why Billy walked off. The longer they stayed together, the harder it would be to leave. He let Rebecca take the dirt road to safety, but he didn’t want to still be with her when they made it back to civilization. Rebecca could not blame him for that. He wanted to make a clean break from her, and going off on his own was the best way to do it. And now he was too far away for her to find him.

Of course, if either of them knew that the dirt road led nowhere, he might have opted to stay a little longer. The dirt road should have lead to somewhere useful. It didn’t make sense for the only road leading away from the treatment plant to go directly to a lake. Rebecca wound up walking all the way back to the treatment plant and found that a second road led in a different direction. She took that road, and after another few hours of walking, finally found something.

The dirt road led to some kind of recreational area. There were three small buildings, a few tables on a concrete patio, and a large fountain right in the middle of the area. Rebecca was thrilled to find the place, but soon discovered there was nothing there she could really use. The first building contained nothing except a few more tables and chairs and some empty vending machines. The second building was some kind of supply shed, but the doors would not open and she could find no way to unlock them. The last building was locked as well, but a simple card reader was on the door.

Rebecca still possessed the security card she took from one of the dead zombies back in the treatment plant, and was almost surprised to see that it worked. The door unlocked and Rebecca found a wide staircase leading underground. After spending most of the last night underground, she was not thrilled with the idea of going back. But it was either that, or more wasted time wandering through the Arklay Mountains. Plus, the sun was already starting to go down, and she didn’t want to be stuck out here when night came

As Rebecca expected, the staircase led down into another underground laboratory, but this one seemed as if it was still in use. Rebecca did not spend long looking around before she found a supply room that suited her needs. She blocked the door with a table and stacked some boxes on it to cover the window on the door. Then she broke down some cardboard boxes and put them on the floor to serve as a bed of sorts. She didn’t have a blanket, but she wasn’t going to be picky. She turned off the light, laid down on the flattened boxes, and fell asleep almost immediately.

She didn’t know how long ago that was, but she was awake now. She felt a little bit better, but her legs felt sore after walking for so long. Plus, she was hungry and needed to use the restroom. Luckily, she knew that there was a restroom right down the hall from her, because she passed it when she first entered the labs.

She fumbled in the dark and found the light switch. Then, she very carefully moved one of the boxes so she could see out the window. There did not seem to be anyone or anything in the hallway, so she proceeded to move the other boxes and slide the table out of the way. The hallway proved to be just as empty as before. She snuck to the bathroom with her gun in her hand, not taking any chances.

When she was finished, she went back in the hallway and tried to decide what she should do next. She could try to investigate this underground lab, but she didn’t think that was a good idea. If she made her way farther into the lab, she would probably get lost and her investigation would inevitably turn into a desperate search for a way out. Right now, she knew the way out.

Of course, going back outside wasn’t a much better option. She walked along the dirt roads all day and never found a major road, and she doubted her luck would get better this time. She didn’t even know what time it was. It might still be dark out. For the moment, she felt safer inside than outside.

She walked down the hall, trying to come up with a plan. By now, some kind of search party or rescue mission must be going on, since Bravo never returned from their mission the night before. If there was a rescue mission, then they would have activated the transponder in Bravo’s helicopter and certainly found it by now. They would also look for the train, since it was the source of the original distress call. All they needed to do was follow the train tracks for a few miles and they would certainly find it. Which meant they would hopefully find the training center too.

Rebecca wondered if they would be able to figure out that she and Billy went to the astronomy tower. She remembered that most of the building was dusty, so it was possible that investigators could follow footprints or other signs and figure out where they went. Of course, even if they did, once they reached the underground river, they would be at a dead end. They would have no way to get to the treatment plant, since Rebecca crashed the rail car. Unless they wanted to swim there, which she doubted.

If they just flew over the area and searched that way, they might find the treatment plant on their own. Since it just burned down, they would have to investigate further. They could follow the roads and find the recreational area. For all Rebecca knew, there were police outside right now.

She considered turning around and going back, but stopped when she heard a noise down the hallway and around a corner. She froze momentarily and listened again, hearing a quiet squeak and a bumping noise. The sound of a door being opened.

She backed up against the wall and tip-toed down the hallway until she was only a few yards from the corner. She heard a door swing shut and the sound of quiet footsteps coming in her direction.

She raised her gun and prepared to take a peek into the hallway. But the safety on her gun was still on, so she held her breath and slowly pressed the button. It made a click, not a very loud one, muffled even more by her hand covering the button. But it must have been loud enough, because the footsteps around the corner immediately stopped.

For a few moments, there was silence. Rebecca could hear her own breath, and when she listened carefully enough, she could hear the breath of someone else. It wasn’t a zombie, at least. That much was a relief.

But who was it, then? If it was just an Umbrella employee, they would not have quieted the moment they heard the safety click. They would have just wandered around the corner to see what the noise was. And if it was security guard or maybe a mercenary like the ones at the treatment plant, they would probably have announced their presence and ordered her to identify herself.

Rebecca made up her mind and jumped out around the corner, gun drawn. As soon as she did so, the person in the hall swung up a gun as well and the two of them stood there for half a second in a stand-off, fingers tensed on triggers. And then the other person lowered the gun.

And Rebecca found herself foolishly pointing her gun at Christopher Redfield.

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