Resident Evil
by Snow Tigra and Chibi Shi-Chan
Part 4
"This should be it around this corner." Heero said,
putting his map back. The five peaked around the
corner, guns drawn and ready for anything. Finding it
safe enough, they turned the corner and headed into
what appeared to be the comm room. Or perhaps a
better phrase would be what was left of the comm room.
The door was gone; the thick metal completely smashed
in. Vines and leaves covered nearly every corner of
the room, looping in and out of the smashed video
screens and through the now broken keyboard. The comm
machine was barley even recognizable amidst all the
green. And what was worse, the vines were still
moving, visibly growing and twisting at a fast pace,
almost as if they were conscious of their new
visitors. The only place where the vines didn't move
was over the comm, which was burnt to a dark crisp,
the scorched vines exhuming a putrid smell.
"What could've done this?" Wufei wondered aloud. The
door was metal, and whatever broke it down had done so
as if it were a straw house. They all stepped in,
wary of the moving plants which slithered like snakes
against the walls and ceiling.
Spent bullet casings crackled under their boots as
they moved into the room. Trowa knelt down to inspect
a few of them and was surprised at how many there
were; the floor was practically covered! Whatever had
broken down the door had been shot at and had still
kept coming. There wasn't even any blood on the
floor, so either the thing was wearing some pretty
strong armor or the bullets hadn't done any damage.
"This thing is shot. It looks like someone burned
it." Reported Duo after inspecting the scorched unit.
"No wonder we didn't get a picture back at
headquarters." Quatre noted, his eyes filled with
worry for his other two comrades. They were in the
compound somewhere all alone with these plants, dogs
and whatever else was roaming around. He hoped his
space heart just wasn't sensing them, he didn't want
to think of the other alternative.
Zechs and Noin may have been killed. It didn't look
like there was any way out of the room, and whatever
broke the door down looked like it could easily break
a person apart.
"They have to be somewhere. They had to have
escaped." Duo murmured softly as he looked around the
room. He wasn't about to give up on his two friends
yet. They had made it through plenty of sticky
situations in the past and a couple of plants and some
fucked up dogs seemed small compared to wars and
gundam battles. To think that Noin and Zechs might
have died from something so small, no, it just didn't
make sense.
"Guys, look." All turned at Trowa's words. The Latin
boy was standing at the corner just beside the comm
machine, an area which was quite dark. Yet it was an
opening, partially covered with vines.
"It must be a ventilation shaft." Wufei mused. He
stepped closer to the opening and nearly tripped over
something. Looking down he saw it was the metal cover
for the ventilation shaft, large enough to cover a
hole that they could easily have crawled through.
"Someone was here alright."
"They must have went through there to the other side."
Said Heero, picking up the covering.
"So all we have to do is go through there and move
on."
"Yeah, but what about the plants?" Asked Quatre,
pointing at the vines which had managed to weave
through the vent.
Wufei merely stepped forward and pulled a couple
rounds from his pocket. Loading his gun he glanced at
the others, indicating for them to move back, and
fired. The boys watched in surprise as flames
appeared in the ventilation shaft where he fired. A
single shot sent the plants slithering away quickly,
while a second made sure they stayed away.
"I figured we'd need this. Besides, the comm is
burnt. I figured the two of them used something with
fire to get the plants away."
"Nice job Wu. Now, I should be able to fit through
there. Heero, can you give me a boost?" Duo asked.
The Japanese boy nodded, easily lifting Duo's light
frame so he could climb inside.
Duo found the ventilation shaft to be quite roomy, it
would have been easy for Noin and Zechs to fit
throughl. Crawling on his own hands and knees
he noticed a light at the other end and moved toward it.
"Good, I want to get out of this place as soon as
possible." As he crawled, he noticed the bottom of
the shaft was covered with a strange sticky substance.
Duo squinted in the dim light and discovered it was a
spider's web. He gasped as he felt something bite the
back of his hand. Turning his hand over he found a
small black spider digging into his skin. Quickly he
brushed it off. He shivered as he felt more of them
crawling on the outside of his flightsuit, attempting
to bite through the thick fabric.
Duo crawled as fast as he could, not worrying about
anything else but getting out of the shaft. He ran
into more spider webs, discovering them to be
stretched out across the shaft, so he used his hand to
clean them away, attempting to keep the spiders from
his face and hair. As he neared the other end he gave
a yelp as one of the spiders managed to bite through
his flightsuit and get his leg. Was it just his
imagination or were they getting bigger?
"Ouch!" Duo swatted away one that painfully bit into
the side of his face.
"Duo...you all right?" He heard a voice echo through
the bug-infested tunnel.
"Yeah!" He called back as he continued to crawl.
Finally, after what seemed like ages, he reached the
other side. Jumping out of the shaft he danced
around, trying to shake off all the remaining spiders,
or at least swat them away. He picked the webs from
his hair and off his body and face. He shivered as he
saw the little bugs crawl away.
"Note to self...take a long shower when we get back."
He had little bloody marks on his cheeks and on his
hands from the spiders. He turned to call the other
guys.
"HEY!!! Do NOT come this way! There are spiders
everywhere and they bite hard!" Duo yelled back
through the tunnel, his voice echoing.
"What? We can't get separated Duo. This place is too
big and too dangerous." Quatre called back.
"It's O.K. I'll be fine. I'll just check things out
on this side. Besides, we have a mission to do. The
sooner we find Zechs and Noin and find out what the
hell happened here the sooner we can leave."
"He's right. We have to finish our mission." Agreed
Heero, walking out of the room.
"Where are you going?" Wufei asked him.
"The map can give us an idea as to where Duo is. We
should get moving so we can meet him on the other
side." And with that, Heero left the room.
"Be careful Duo, we'll be over there soon." The other
three boys left.
"O.K." Duo left to explore on his own.
**
Heero led the group as fast as he could, eager to
reach Duo in the shortest time possible. He'd be a
fool to try and lie and say that he wasn't worried
about the braided baka. Not to mention that this
place seemed to be getting worse with every turn.
First the acid burning through the ship, then the
plants crawling over everything, then the dog which
looked like it was rotting away. And then Duo saying
something about biting spiders? He had a feeling that
these creatures weren't the only things the place had
to offer. He didn't like the idea of Duo being on his
own. Not at all.
"You better be all right when we get to you Duo," he
murmured under his breath. Picking up his pace he
turned a corner and came to a stop. The other three
pilots paused behind him as soon as they noticed what
was lying across the ground, blocking their path.
A body...
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