Project W: Third Cycle

PG16A/W: Lights, Security Cameras, Death

April 6th, 1991; The Hive, B-15:

True to her words, their Southern conductor got them safely to their destination. Albert timed their several mile trip down the dark tunnel at around nine minutes by his watch that was slowly counting down with the clock they'd passed in the station. Whatever they had to do down here, Albert wanted to be done and clear of the facility in four hours and twenty eight minutes. Though somehow...he doubted that was going to happen. Not that he was relying on whatever horrors that dwelt in this facility to emerge only after his watch hit 00:00:00. He very much doubted that they'd wait so long to rear their, most likely, rotted heads. It was safer to approach this entire mission as though some form of death lurked around every corner. Albert wasn't going to let his guard down until he was completely clear of the European facility known as the Hive...maybe even longer. With Umbrella you could never be too sure about these things. In all reality, he'd probably never be able to let his guard down again. Better to be plagued by the constant presence of stress in his life then to die a horrible excruciating death at the hands of Umbrella and her monsters.

So far their journey had been unhindered, a good thing since he really hadn't wanted to deal with any B.O.W.s while speeding relentlessly down the narrow tracks. But now the train was slowing, guided to a steady chug by the Southern Wesker, meaning they were arriving at their destination and were probably soon to meet whatever forces had caused the Hive to be abandoned in the first place. A crazed super computer was the last thing on his mind as the doors opened and...absolutely nothing greeted them.

From his position behind the dark skinned Wesker who had retaken his position of leadership from earlier, the brunette touch-me-not female he'd nearly bumped into when they'd first arrived, and the hulking brute who'd opened the train doors, Albert could see that the station was completely, disturbingly empty.

Following Captain Wesker, the rest of the Children disembarked the train, some more cautiously than others. Many including Albert had their guns drawn, and under the signals from their self appointed leader, were sweeping the room. The station was largely similar to the one they'd left from, though arguably much bigger. It was made from the same rough concrete and supported by identical thick stone pillars. Sacked in various, semi-organized plies were a vast array of shipping crates that nearly reached the stone ceiling in several places. There was no sign of life in this place. It felt abandoned...and not just recently. The ghost station gave off the feeling that no one had set foot in it for some time and the significant layer of dust only added to his suspicions.

Once Albert was fairly certain the room was indeed clear of any hostiles, he holstered his pistol and advanced towards the nearest pile of crates where he brushed off the dust obscuring the metal box's shipping label.

It was dated three months ago.

It wasn't as though Albert was surprised, but he couldn't stop the little chill that went through him. This wasn't a crisis event that had just taken place yesterday. The dust covered date spoke of something more sinister: a premeditated plan.

How did he know this? Though it was true that the cooperation wasn't known for cleaning up its messes, the descriptive sticker on the crate indicated that it was packed with "progenitor carriers" AKA the flower commonly referred to as Stairway to the Sun; the one that only grew in a certain region of Africa. They were hard to get, extremely expensive to order from Umbrella's South African branch, and very difficult to maintain during the shipping process. These days they were usually cryogenically frozen for transport, but the box Albert had been scrutinizing wasn't even cool to the touch, meaning the flowers and the, in this state, innocuous virus had long since expired. Umbrella was filthy rich, but there was no way they would waste such a valuable asset. Albert knew that from experience.

Back when he'd been working with Marcus, a box much like this had been transported to the wrong area of the facility and wasn't aptly handled. As a result, the flowers had been lost and Dr. Marcus had flown into a rage that lasted all the weeks that particular line of research had been set back. The people he'd deemed responsible hadn't been seen since the evening the mess had been discovered.

"Hey Blondie, China-man!"

Wesker nearly turned around and shot the Wesker who just yelled at him from a few feet away. He was sure he'd jumped, as had the second Wesker he hadn't even noticed who seemed to have also been examining the outdated shipping crates cloaked in the deep shadows to his right.

"You guys looking for souvenirs or something?"

Arrogance and superiority poured off this individual in higher amounts than it did many of the other Weskers Albert already had the displeasure of meeting. And that would have been fine if he hadn't just severely startled Albert, didn't even look old enough to have even graduated college, and wasn't directing his condescending gaze and tone towards someone who it was painfully obvious was his superior.

This individual reminded Albert of himself when he was a lot younger; far too full of himself, and a lot stupider about the way things worked. It severely bothered him now to realized how ridiculous and bratty he must have seemed to all those around so many years ago. Though to be fair, he had been in charge of a facility back then where all he had to do was snap his fingers and you became his next test subject. Albert very much doubted that this boy had ever held that kind of power.

"Hardly," Albert responded, only allowing a fraction of the iciness he was feeling to come through in his voice. He wasn't planning to share his observations yet, especially not with this Wesker. He doubted it would change much of anything anyways and he hadn't missed the security cameras around the room, their red recording light still flashing. On the more than likely chance someone was listening—so called super computer or Umbrella agent—it was best to keep a few cards up his sleeves.

"We're merely observing our surroundings." Albert turned to see who'd he'd included in this "we," and suddenly the brat was the last thing on his mind. He knew this Wesker. It took him a second or two to place him as the oriental Wesker who'd been a member of the U.B.C.S. trainees and had gotten himself mixed up in the chaos of testing Marcus's failed B.O.W.s. Hiro Wesker.

"Whatever," the brat scoffed, "Just hurry up, we're moving out."

Albert nodded, not even looking at him as he did.

Seeming to noticed his stare, Hiro turned his brown eyes, hidden partially by the unruly strands of his blue black hair. There was a tension filled pause before Hiro broke it, his voice coming out soft, almost like a loud whisper that contained a hint of a Japanese accent. "The boxes are too old."

Albert blinked in surprise but then nodded. "Yes."

Hiro returned his nod and moved past him, deciding to turn at the last second to address him a second time. "Good to see you are still breathing too." With that he was gone, disappearing seamlessly among the other Weskers, his short stature and small build adding to his ability to slip away from Albert's sight.

First Laura now Hiro. It seemed he might never quite escape his past or the people in it.

Shaking his head to clear it, Albert lengthened his already impressive stride to quickly catch up with the other Weskers, following the group out of the station, an into the Hive proper.

The map they'd been given was easy enough to follow and though now, more than ever, Albert was expecting to run into some form of hideous B.O.W. Around every corner, so far, he'd only been met with stainless white halls. Perhaps most would have relaxed slightly, but so far the emptiness was only proving to unnerve him further. Between the outdated boxes of deadly flowers, what he knew about Umbrella and her tricks, coupled with the security cameras that were not only on but subtly following their movements as they progressed through the first level towards the elevator, Albert knew something bad was waiting for them around one of these corners and he was honestly sick and tired of waiting for it to make its move.

The quiet halls made no sense. If there had ever been some sort of disaster, like a viral leak, there should be some sign of the chaos that would have ensued, unless Umbrella had already cleaned it up, which also made no sense as there was no point in sending them to a once infected but now safe facility.

Assuming for one second that Albert bought the whole computer gone crazy story, which he didn't, that meant it was this Red Queen who was watching them through the security feed. If that was true, she knew they were here and, if she was on "homicidal mode," why hadn't she tried to kill them too? And where were the bodies of everyone else she supposedly dispatched of? No, that theory was far too full of holes to hold any water. First off, there was no such thing as artificial intelligence—there weren't superposed to be such things as zombies either, but he could explain their existence, not to mention had seen them first hand, so zombies hardly sounded as far fetched as something stolen from the Terminator's script. This was man made. Someone from Umbrella was in control and watching them.

The thing Albert couldn't figure out was why? Unless...unless the only reason they were here was to test the effectiveness of some new virus or B.O.W., like what he and the other scientists had done to Hiro and his team... That was something Albert didn't even want to contemplate, but right now, it seemed like the most likely possibility.

That got rid of the why, how, and what the only question now was when? Albert had several unpleasant guesses on that one too.

Not that knowing changed what he was doing at the moment. It was impossible that whoever was running this experiment would just let him walk back to the train and leave. If he wanted to get out alive, he'd have to face whatever monster Umbrella had built and destroy it. So much for being invaluable to the company...he supposed he'd given up that status when he left Birkin and their ground breaking research behind. He'd known the path he was taking was a dangerous one, but he refused to let it destroy him. He was going to survive this, he was going to get the answers he was searching for, and he was going to get his revenge. Nothing was going to stand in his way.

Except maybe the fifteen flights of stairs they had to transverse in order to get to the lowermost level where the queen's chamber was located—of course the elevators were "offline." It also certainly didn't help that spurred on by some unseen force they were all persuaded to practically race down all of them. Even though it was downhill and he had undergone significant prior training, he found himself a bit winded. He was thankful no one had tripped and broken their neck or worse, had toppled into the rest of them and sent them all tumbling down the stairs like dominoes. Albert nearly prayed that once they did...whatever down in the control room that the promised express elevator would work again, though somehow...he seriously doubted it.

Once they'd exited the stairwell, still with no adverse events to speak of aside from a minor leg cramp or two, they turned down a corridor that would supposedly lead them through a few labs—something Albert was not looking forward to—and then into the Queen's Chamber. Or that would have been the case...had said labs not been completely flooded.

"This...is gonna be a problem..." remarked the brat unhelpfully.

"Yep," responded the smoker. "The map says we go right through here to get to that bad-ass computer."

"That's not happening," Laura said grimacing as she took in the murky water that filled the glass enclosed chamber—very thick glass to hold back so much fluid—almost all the way to its ceiling. Mostly unidentifiable debris floated through dirty liquid making it impossible to see the entirety of the lab area.

Albert regarded the scene cautiously. This was the first abnormality they'd come across—aside from the facility's abandoned nature—since they'd arrived, and it was a big one. Albert noted the several seemingly insignificant holes, each a mere pinprick in the thick glass, which were continuously leaking a tiny stream of the brown tinged water out into the hallway. That coupled with the red fire ax leaning against the inside of the glass lead Albert to believe that someone had been trying to get out. Tried and, by the looks of things, failed.

"Is there an alternate rout?" Captain Wesker asked the smoker who had yet to run out of those damn cigarettes.

"Hmm..." he muttered scanning the map. "It'll take a bit longer, but if we take this hallway in the opposite direction, it loops around through...I guess it's some sort of dining hall." He looked up, then we'll be back at the Queen Chamber."

"And right next to the express elevator," Laura added, pointing to an area on the map Albert couldn't see.

"Then what are we waiting for?" asked the brat rhetorically. "Let's move out or whatever." He then proceeded to push past a few Weskers on his way down their new path.

The rest of the Weskers followed his lead, including Albert, though he did it a bit begrudgingly. A sudden yelp halted their progress and caused Albert to draw his weapon again. As it turned out, the computer geek had slipped and fallen in the several inches of water that had collected on the floor and was staring wide eyed into the murky depths of the labs. Floating slowly into view of the glass was a corpse of what had probably once been an attractive female. Her skin was wrinkled by long periods of water exposure and her lab coat equally dilapidated by it. It was a haunting image to be sure, but Albert had seen things far worse. The only reason this drowned female bothered him was because she looked far less rotted than she should have. Her decay was in keeping with the time line the Wesker who'd briefed them had provided, not the ones the dust and outdated shipping labels had. Come to think of it, if this had happened months ago like he's originally thought, shouldn't more of that water, he was trying to avoid as much as possible due to possibility of infection, have leaked out into the hall? Albert didn't like it when facts didn't add up.

"She's dead," gasped the tech savvy Wesker as he picked himself up and moved as far as he could from the glass.

Touch-Me-Not snorted at her frightened teammate. "Oh you've got to be kidding me," she muttered scathingly.

"Uh yeah," answered the brat. "Computer went homicidal remember? Killed everyone down here?" He sighed and continued to move down the hall. "Geez, you act like you've never seen a dead chick before."

The Wesker looked embarrassed as he adjusted his now slightly damp bag. "Sorry," he muttered.

"It's okay, man," consoled the Southerner, clapping him comfortingly on the shoulder. "Jus' gotta pull it tagether, okay?"

He nodded and followed the rest of them down the hall.

Albert gave the out of place corpse one last glance before following them. Things just kept getting better and better didn't they?

Turns out the mess hall wasn't a mess hall at all, though it certainly was a mess, one that made Albert want to turn around and leave back the way they'd came. The team of Weskers had just walked into a massive B.O.W. breeding lab.

Unlike the ones where he'd worked, the test tubes where not transparent, they were encased in metal, thus not allowing the confused Weskers staring at all the rows upon rows of breeding pods to comprehend the horrors within. That didn't stop Albert from recognizing them for what they were.

"Dining hall B?" questioned their leader sceptically.

"Uh...that's what the map said, but I sure as hell wouldn't wanna eat here," answered the smoker, glancing at his map again to confirm his own words.

"What in the hell are all these things anyway..." whispered the Southerner, her trepidation staining her accent.

Touch-Me-Not apparently decided it might be a good idea to take a look closer into the chambers, and was standing up on her tip toes to try and see through the grate at the top.

"Don't!" hissed Albert urgently. Had none of them ever worked in research before? "No one touch any of the pods and avoid the cords and tubing at their bases," Albert ordered sternly.

"Do you know that these things are?" asked their captain evenly.

Albert hesitated before eventually responding. "Yes, and trust me, you don't want what's inside them coming out."

"And what exactly is in there?" asked Touch-Me-Not in an annoyed fashion.

"Most assuredly B.O.W.s of some sort."

"B O what?" inquired the brat.

"Bio Organic Weapons." provided a stern gruff voice from a Wesker who had up until this point remained silent. He was fairly tall and built though not to the unbelievability of the brute. Everything from the way he held him self up to his calm but intense expression spoke of years of experience. "Umbrella's favorite pass time. Listen to what he said and give them a wide birth. B.O.W.s are the last thing we need to deal with right now."

Albert nodded to him, noting that so far this Wesker and Hiro were the only ones who seemed to know what was really going on. Even Laura didn't seem to fully understand the gravity of what was happening. Albert chanced a glance in her direction and was surprised to find her purposely looking anywhere but at him... Then perhaps, she did remember him, though why this would be her reaction he wasn't sure.

Albert redirected his gaze to the other Weskers and continued. "The pods probably haven't been maintained in quite sometime so they are likely highly unstable. Our best course of action is to leave them be." and pray to whatever gods you worship that Umbrella isn't going to open them all up as a part of this test.

"If they're so damn dangerous, why can't we just blow 'em to kingdom come?" inquired the smoker, giving the nearest chamber a cautious glance.

Albert chuckled. "Do you really have enough explosives with you to blow this entire room?"

"Well no but-"

"Even if you did, depending on the caliber of the experiments and their developmental stage, the explosion might not even damage them enough to render them harmless."

The brat laughed, folding his arms. "Well aren't you the expert all of a sudden."

Albert couldn't help giving him at least a mildly scathing look. "Yes, I suppose you could say that."

"Then can't you render them harmless, or whatever?"

Albert sighed in exasperation. "Sure, if I had a few hours, access to the right equipment, and could get a hold of the research files telling me what's actually in these things. I don't see any of those requirements being met anytime soon."

"Um, ah hate ta be the clueless one here," cut in the southerner, effectively ending whatever argument had been about to take place, "but what exactly are, uh, 'Bio Organic Weapons?' Kinda sounds like somethin' out a' a movie if ya ask me."

Albert felt his patience wavering. Was it really possible that the majority of the Weskers here were clueless as to Umbrella's true colors? "To save time, and put it in layman's terms, monsters. That would be the best way to describe what's in these pods."

She slightly sidled away from the nearest metal tank. "No kidin'?"

Albert gave her a very fake smile. "Afraid not."

There captain stopped any further questions. "Okay, we're all wasting time. The objective is just to the other side of this room. You heard the man. Let's just give whatever's in these things a wide birth and continue on with the mission. Move out, and tread carefully."

Surprisingly, all of them fell in line and did as Captain Wesker had instructed.

Even more surprising, none of the capsules opened up to release their blood thirsty cargo. Everyone made it out of the room in one piece leaving them only one hallway away from the Red Queen's Chamber and their target.

The corridor separating them from the Red Queen was narrow and looked like it was composed entirely of rows upon rows of some sort of strange lighting system set behind numerous glass panels. It was everywhere. The walls, the ceiling, even the floor. Even with all the strange lights off, it gave the entire room a very otherworldly feel and managed to send a few shivers down Albert's spine. Currently, their only view of the room was through a small window set in the metal door baring their path into the hall, and via several huge monitors placed around the anti-chamber, depicting the small hallway from several angles. Albert didn't see the cameras responsible for these views but guessed they were set somewhere behind the strange glass. The whole setup was quite strange, why show them the inside of the weird hallway? Why not the inside of the Red Queen's Chamber?

At the other end of the hall was a similar metal door, leaving the group what looked to be only two more obstacles before the conclusion of their mission. But when was Umbrella ever that simple? Sure, it only looked like the worst the short hallway could do was blind them with it's strangely placed lighting system, but on the same note, all a corpse looked like it could do was rot and Umbrella had certainly changed that.

Truth be told, Albert didn't know what the bizarre circuitry could do, and he sure as hell wasn't going to be the first one to find out. As such, he took a few steps back and watched as the others attempted to get the door open, one nervous eye glancing back towards the door they'd just came from that was all that was separating them from a room full of dormant B.O.W.s.

For several minutes a few of the more muscular Weskers attempted to force the heavy metal door open, a process that looked as though it would involve pushing it up into the ceiling. They were of course unsuccessful. Thankfully, their self proclaimed computer genius was also glued to one of the computer monitors outside the door, and though Albert couldn't being to follow or understand the massive strings of code he was imputing as his fingers flew across the keyboard, it seemed he was making more progress then the Wesker's trying to muscle their way in.

Albert didn't seriously take any interest until Laura made her way over to the madly typing Wesker. "Can you get in?" she asked once it looked like he was at a point that didn't require too much concentration, though who could tell really?

The skittish Wesker, Albert was beginning to believe couldn't possibly have gone though the same physical training as he had, nearly jumped out of his skin at the gentle interruption.

"Uh, yeah, I uh, think so," he responded once he realized it was only her. His eyes never even left the glowing screen while he responded. "The Red Queen has a lot of defenses in place but...I'm pretty sure I can break through."

The smoker scoffed. "I guess it's a good thing Umbrella kept this little shrimp around after all."

Laura sent him a dirty look. "It's certainly more effective then smashing our way in."

His smirk only widened at her retort. "I prefer explosives over brute strength any day, but I'm willing to let the stick play around on the keyboard a little longer before I light this bitch of a computer up."

"I'm sure that won't be necessary," commented their captain sternly.

Albert thankfully didn't see the stick of dynamite or its equivalent that the smoker had just eluded to. However, he was fairly certain that someone that obsessed with explosives shouldn't have picked up the habit of smoking. It seemed like a dangerous combination.

As it turned out, they never found out if the smoker could have blown the doors open or not, because the computer geek pulled through a few moments later. The computer screen turned from red to a welcoming blue, then lock on the door clicked open and receded up into the ceiling with a low rumbling sound. The identical door at the hall's opposite end followed suit giving them a clear path to the Red Queen's chamber.

"Nice job, Man!" cheered the Southerner, clapping him on the shoulder before taking a careful look down the corridor. "Um, y'all sure it's safe ta walk down that? I mean, it don't exactly look welcomin'..."

"All the Red Queen's defenses are down. It's perfectly safe," assured the computer geek.

Albert didn't buy that anything from Umbrella could ever be called safe and was happily waiting for volunteer's to prove it before setting a foot into the hallway that was obviously the furthest thing from both welcoming and safe. Maybe the Italian Wesker would go and Albert could be free of his noxious cloud.

No such luck. Their dark skinned leader was the first in, followed by one of the more ex-military looking Wesker's who'd been straining at the door a few moments ago, and to Albert's dismay, Laura. When she stepped over the threshold, he almost didn't manage to hold back his objections. In a few moments he'd wish he had of voiced them.

The three managed to take about four steps before something bad happened.

Out of the corner of his eye, Albert saw the once blue screen turn instantly red. Then the doors slammed shut, trapping the three Weskers inside the now obviously dangerous hallway.

The initial flash blinded everyone present to what came next. It didn't however deafen them to the blood curdling screams of the nameless Wesker who had accompanied their leader and Laura into Umbrella's latest death trap.

By the time Albert's eyes had adjusted to the flash of every light in the deadly hallway flashing on, several Weskers separated from their comrades in the hall were yelling and screaming commands incoherently. The brute who had man handled the train doors open was desperately attempting to do the same to the unyielding metal door of the hallway from where the worst of the screams were originating. Albert directed his gaze to the monitors set up around the room, and instantly knew why they had been placed in here. It was so they could witness their teammates die.

He saw the nameless Wesker crumpled on the floor, writhing in agony as he clutched, screaming at the stumps that had used to be his legs. His amputated lower limbs lay at his sides. The areas that should have been gushing arterial and venous blood were burned to a blacked charcoal color. Whatever had sliced his legs off also effectively cauterizing the terrible wound.

Albert's eyes immediately left the doomed Wesker and found Laura on a different monitor. She had just landed on her feet, having presumably jumped over whatever had amputated the wailing Wesker's legs at the knees.

More screams added themselves to the mix, the Italian Wesker's cigarette dropped still smoking from his lips, and panic spread like wildfire, manifesting as a cacophony of indistinguishable words that had barely been uttered before a long, thin, wickedly glowing, diagonal line of light materialized at the far end of the room and began zooming towards the trapped Weskers.

Laura threw herself towards the left wall and into a crouch so that the deadly beam would fly over her. The captain who had lead his experimental siblings to their death barely stumbled back from the screaming Wesker in order to fall out of the way of the beam.

The third man didn't stand a chance. Already blinded by panic and agony, he didn't even see the second laser before it passed seamlessly through his head, as if it were a knife slicing through butter.

The results were nothing short of sickening. His scream was cut abruptly short, his face locked in an expression of absolute agony. Then, in slow motion, viscous material from his left eye, where the laser had intersected his head at an angle, began to drip down his lifeless face. Seconds later, the upper right portion of his scull slid to the floor with a disgusting squelching sound, his toneless body following moments later, landing on the ground in a bloodless mess of body parts that looked like something out of a horror film; something impossible to exist in reality, but instead was the farthest thing from fiction. This terrifying room was very real and it was almost inevitable that the other two trapped Weskers would share the same fate in the next few seconds...including Laura.

The panic was tangible as it escalated past any level of reasonability, sweeping over everyone present, filling the room with a din of curse words and barked orders all tossed violently towards the one Wesker who could possibly do anything about this hellish situation. Their screams only served to aggravate the situation as his hands mindlessly pounded the keyboard and his own panicked curses continued to build in urgency. It seemed very unlikely that he would be saving anyone in this state.

Looking back from the computer screen to the monitors depicting the events inside the hellish chamber showed that the lasers were wasting no time. A third beam materialized vertically and began flying towards the remaining two Weskers much faster then the previous two had, barely giving Laura and the captain time to dive out of its way. Thankfully, all it managed to do was slice the dead Wesker's body in two revealing a disgusting mess of blackened organ and bone, but the room was far from finished. Before the current ray had even vanished, another sprang into existence, shooting horizontally towards them from behind at about chest level.

Albert couldn't even comprehend how Laura managed to dodge this blow in time. Perhaps she had heard the buzzing or somehow seen some sort of reflection in the confusing walls or ceiling. Either way she managed to drop to the floor at the last moment and yell a warning to her surviving companion in time for him to do the same.

The now panting Weskers were given a few seconds reprieve before the next laser appeared, shooting across the floor as though it intended on repeating its opening gambit.

With no intention of losing his lower legs, the captain who was first on the chopping block, jumped, intending to vault over the beam, something that would have worked had the laser not suddenly switched its height as though it was anticipating his movements or worse...being manually controlled by someone who could. Instead, their leader offered his neck to the unforgiving ray which promptly removed his head. His body fell heavily to the floor like a marionette whose strings had just been severed. The head followed, crashing to the ground with a sickening crunching sound before rolling across the floor which was becoming littered with body parts.

Albert felt his body held fast in fear's immobilizing grip, In retrospect, he'd find it ridiculous that he cared enough about this girl that he'd met once upon another lifetime to be so fearful for her safety, but in the moment, all he could think about was the fact that she was going to die and there was nothing he could do to prevent it.

In his peripheral vision, he saw Hiro push aside the not so computer savvy Wesker out of the way and take his place at the flashing computer screen. Albert knew Hiro, no matter how good he might be with computers, couldn't possibly stop the deadly beams of light in time to save her. They were getting too fast and too unpredictable.

It enraged him to think that they, in all their strength, intelligence, and firepower could all be so helpless, so powerless against what amounted to no more than fancy lights held behind simple layers of glass.

That's when it struck him, a proverbial light bulb going off in his head (if you're not too apposed to the badly timed pun).

Sometimes brute force did win over brains.

Albert pulled the automatic assault rifle from his shoulder and slammed his way through the clambering idiots and the brutish Wesker who had taken to ramming his broad shoulder against the door in desperation. Once he reached the small window he brought the gun to bear at the glass separating him from Laura.

"Get Down!" he practically screamed at the redhead who was now staring helplessly at a chaotic grid like pattern of lasers that there was no way even the most skilled gymnast could hope to maneuver through.

Though the heavy door had muffled his shout, she heard enough to turn her head slightly, and once she saw his gun, she dropped to the floor, pressing her back to the door frame.

Wesker fired a short burst point blank at the glass which shattered outwards in a fantastic display. He then proceeded to empty an entire clip into the surrounding walls and ceiling, destroying as many of the fancy lights and mirrors that gave birth to the deadly rays of light as he could. Glass rained down all around the ducking girl, causing her to have to shield her face from the downpour of shards.

Despite the destruction, Albert knew it might not be enough, if he missed just one Laura could parish and this angle made it very difficult to ensure complete annihilation of the deadly device.

Suddenly Wesker felt himself being shoved aside as he had done the others before, his uncontrolled fire thankfully only pouring into the ceiling of the laser room before he got his finger off the trigger. He turned in time to see the smoker toss in what looked like a blue colored grenade. He didn't even have time to shout in protest before the device went off, filling the room with a loud bang and bright flash.

Albert recognized it instantly as a flash bang, a low powered explosive that effectively broke the remaining glass, rendering the tunnel a harmless pile of shattered glass and sparking electronics that could do no worse then cut Laura a little. Laura was safe.

Several long seconds passed filled with nothing but the sound of Laura's panicked breathing and the tinkle of occasionally falling glass before Hiro broke through the defense system. The computer beeped happily and the doors withdrew into the ceiling.

Laura backpedaled as quickly as she could out of the death trap, barely giving time for Albert and the smoker to move out of her way. For a brief second he thought he saw something like recognition in her impossibly green eyes before it was replaced by forced indifference. Laura nodded to them both curtly before moving over to the nearest wall on shaky legs where she collapsed, head between her knees.

The long spell of aftermath silence was finally interrupted by the Italian Wesker, but only after he'd took a long drag from a newly lit cigarette. "Next time, I say we just let me blow it up."

Albert was almost inclined to agree with him, as it seemed most the surrounding Weskers wanted to do. Unfortunately, based on everything he's already seen, Albert doubted he actually had enough explosives on him to allow them to blast through every challenge that present itself to them.

Albert looked from Laura's shaking form to the room at the other end of the decimated hallway, its interior bathed in a deep red glow. This was only the start of all the horrors to come.

Not a single Wesker made a move to step into the hallway, not that Albert blamed them, that corridor was death and had a smell to match. The overpowering odor of burnt flesh wafted out towards them accompanied by the sick popping sound of human flesh as some of the amputated parts still bubbled from the heat of the lasers.

"You guys know I completely blew out every light, right?" offered the smoker.

"Yeah, well then hows about you go first?" shot back the Southerner, a portion of her good nature having melted away after everything that had just happened.

"Uh, no thanks," he mumbled around his cigarette.

"Let's make him go first," he shot the brat gesturing roughly to their very pale computer technician. "Seeing as it was his screw up in the first place."

Albert was surprised the man didn't faint.

"What, and loose our only chance at shuttin' this Red Queen down? That don't make no sense!" argued the southerner.

"I think China-man could handle it just fine if he got fried."

Hiro shook his head. "No, I couldn't, not if it's near as complicated as hacking into that room for the first time. I only know the basics. The second time it was much simpler. He was just panicking. Jugging by all the screaming, I'd say many of us were."

"I-I'm sorry!" blurted the computer geek suddenly. "I swear the defenses were completely inactivated. It's like-like someone reactivated them remotely."

"And who the hell would do something like that?" shot back Touch-Me-Not. "That other Wesker said they couldn't access the Hive from the outside. That's why we're here. Just admit you fucked up and let's move on and finish this damn mission!"

"I-I'm not saying I didn't!" The techy practically screamed back, his whole form shaking. "They're dead! I can't change that! I'm j-just saying I t-think that there's something else g-going on here!"

Well Albert could have told them all that from the start but they weren't going to get anywhere like this.

"Enough!" cut in the Wesker who'd backed him up in the B.O.W. breeding lab. "We have a mission to do. Let's finish it."

"You two," he gestured to the computer geek and Hiro. "come with me. I don't care what happened earlier, all I care about is that you two shut the Red Queen down. Let's move."

No argument there. Both Weskers followed him into the shattered tunnel, and once the others were sure the doors weren't going to shut again and the lasers weren't going to come back on, they joined them, the smoker admiring his handiwork as he went. To Albert's surprise, right as he himself was entering the tunnel, he saw Laura push herself up and move cautiously towards the entrance.

"You know you could wait out there if you'd rather," he pointed out, deciding to finally talk to her.

"I'm fine," she answered curtly, moving passed him without even looking in his direction before proceeding quickly through the trap that had almost killed her.

Albert was positive now that she remembered him...but she seemed to...hate him. Why he wasn't sure, but now probably wasn't the time to think too much about it. Instead he followed her down the corpse ridden hall, trying very hard not to step on the smoking body parts. It wasn't easy and at one point he was forced to step on the rubbery lifeless arm that had once belonged to the nameless Wesker that had been the first victim of this sick room.

By the time he got into the crowded room, both the computer geek and Hiro were standing around a large central device that was at the epicenter of all the humming technology, security monitors, cords, and wires. He'd seen a lot of advanced computers from his days in research, but this one was certainly the largest and most impressive he'd yet witnessed. It literally took up the whole room, leaving many of the Wesker's present unsure of where to step for fear they'd disconnect something important—though that was far preferable to standing anywhere close to the laser room.

Albert watched as the computer geek rapidly put in massive strings of code, much as he had earlier while Hiro stood by with an extremely heavy looking...Albert guessed it was a hard drive. The large piece of equipment seemed even bigger when held by someone of Hiro's stature. That was probably where the new programing from Umbrella was stored. Programing that might just be the death of them. Albert probably would have objected more to their current actions if he didn't already believe Umbrella was in full control of everything that went on down here.

A few more long minutes of seemingly endless typing passed, before a young female's voice suddenly filled the room, seeming to come from every where around them at once: The Red Queen he presumed.

"Error...Error...Hard error committed...Attempting cash rebuild...Cash rebuild failed. Attempting reboot...Reboot failed...Warning...Central programing failure...Shutdown imminent..."

"What the hell is that?" questioned the brat, covering his ears against the overly loud noise.

"I believe that would be the Red Queen," answered the Smoker.

"And are those errors good or...?"

"Yes," answered the computer geek nervously over his typing. "We're shutting her down so we can reboot her with the coding that's on the hard drive Umbrella gave us. That should give them access to her internal programing."

"Shutdown initiated..."

Suddenly all the computers in the room went dark.

He turned to Hiro. "Okay switch out the central drives.

Hiro nodded and proceeded to do so. Seconds later the humming restarted and the monitors started flickering to life.

"New core programing detected... Decrypting... Downloading... Installing... Installing...Installing... New Programing accepted...Rewriting...Initiating Unit W protocol—

Suddenly all the monitors went red and everyone had a very bad case of déjà vu.

"And what the hell is happening now!" yelled the smoker over the sudden alarms.

By the confused look on the computer geek's face, he didn't have an answer for him.

"Error...Warning...Error...Security breach detected...All Firewalls down... Warning... Warning... Warn-"

Suddenly every light in the room went off and all the electronics stopped their whirring and humming, leaving the room in complete blackness and silence.

"Please tell me you didn't kill us again..." said a voice accompanied by the bobbing of a little red light that represented a lit cigarette.

Before anyone could answer him, all the lights flashed back on and everything seemed to go back to normal function...except for the Red Queen which seemed to be completely dead.

"Perhaps that was supposed to happen...?" asked Hiro cautiously

The techy shook his head. "I'm not sure..." He was pounding repeatedly on the keys in front of him. "The internal system's been completely wiped. All core functions are completely gone."

"In English?" questioned the brat.

"Well...I hope it was supposed to happen, because the Red Queen is completely non-operational. Who ever is controlling the facility now, it's from an external source and there's nothing I can do to stop it."

"Maybe that means Umbrella's back in control?" offered Touch-Me-Not.

A few whispers of agreement moved throughout the crowd but Albert had stopped paying attention a long time ago. Yet unnoticed by everyone else in the room, were the chilling words etched across the monitor placed directly to his left at an angle that made it impossible for anyone else to see in their current positions.

The final test has begun... Do try not to die, Albert.

AN: And the new chapter is posted! /Flinches/ I know it's been forever, I'm so sorry, please don't hate me! The thing is...I've gotten so much praise for my work that I'm starting my first serious-I-want-to-publish-this original story. I finally got all the frame work and characters developed and I'm going for it. First few chapters have been written so now my goal is, switch between it and Project W until I finish one. So in short, sorry for the wait, but know that I've been writing pretty much the whole time /smiles/.

Anyways, about the new chapter. I'm super curious to know what you think of my incorporation of the first RE movie in this chapter. Things are going to seriously diverge from the plot of RE1 in the next chapter but there will be a lot of references ect. On that note. Oh my gosh the horrible laser room! That single plot device used to scare me way more than many of the B.O.W.s in the series so I really hope I did it the justice it deserved.

As usual, I appreciate all comments and concrit. Thank you for reading. Love ya all!

-Asiera