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Unsung Heroes: Mission Two	By : RavenLadies Category: +G through L > G.I. Joe Views: 1326 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the cartoon(s) that this fanfiction is written for, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Chapter Nine

Signaling a halt, Scarlett stepped forward and shinned the beam of her flashlight in the mouth of yet another tunnel several feet ahead. The team had been wandering around in the dimly lit corridors underneath the Lakeview Institution for several hours. While the group had been trying to maintain a steady direction in the hope of reaching one of the facility's buildings outlined on the map, they had yet to find a way out of the underground maze.

The mag-lite's normally bright beam seemed feeble as it shone down the shadowed tunnel, only a few of the overhead lights glowing to illuminate the plain concrete of it's walls. Scarlett took a few steps forward, the flashlight glancing off the ceiling before pointing back down the tunnel. Not too long after their escape from the spiders near the storage area, the group had found themselves confronted by several monstrous sized rats after having entered a diverging tunnel. The creatures had easily dwarfed even Gung Ho, as they surged around the Joes, lunging in to snap at the humans with teeth that probably could have easily bitten one of them in half.

They were apparently smarter than the spiders, however, dispersing after several well-placed shots of laser, shotgun and Magnum fire. Like the arachnids before them, the rodents had also bled a bright green, almost luminescent looking ooze from the wounds that the team had inflicted on them. As the group made a mad dash down the tunnel, they could hear the creatures scuttling after them, the scrap of razor sharp claws on the dank cement of the tunnel floor while chattering in a high-pitched squeal. Once again, Gung Ho had literally “brought the house down” by blasting away part of the ceiling, sealing off the rats' pursuit.

“Whatcha got?” Gung Ho asked Scarlett as he joined her, peering down the corridor.

“Just checking for surprises.” The red-head replied grimly. The tunnel where they now stood seemed to come to an abrupt end, leaving this new corridor to their right as their only option.

"I should have brought a compass," Rebecca said, shaking her head as she looked down the tunnel. "But... if there aren't any more branches, then maybe it means we're near an exit."

Scarlett nodded her head, her blue eyes still focused down the tunnel. “Let's break for five first,” she said as she flicked off the flashlight. “But keep your eyes and ears open,” she instructed as she reattached the light to her belt. “If it's not walking on two legs, shoot it.”

Rebecca gladly slipped her Magnum away, sighing softly as she looked around for somewhere to sit. Strong moved a little away from the group, careful to remain in sight as she knelt down and let her gaze travel down the long, dark corridor. Gung Ho took up post towards the back of the group, his dark gaze on the way they had just come, alert for signs of movement. Squatting down, Lifeline slid his medkit from his back and stretched his shoulders a bit before looking down at the white shelled kit. During the attack by the rats, the medic had taken the kit from his shoulders and swiped at several of the rodents with it, using it to hold the creatures back while the others fired their weapons at it. There were a few dents in the case, but otherwise it looked fairly well intact. "That's a pretty durable medkit," Rebecca commented, looking at it with a critical eye. "They should've given the S.T.A.R.S. something like this..."

“It's designed to hold up under combat.” Edwin replied as he slipped it back on, adjusting it a bit on his shoulders until it felt comfortable.

"No kidding. Something like that would've been nice back then."

The medic smiled a bit. “It saved my life a couple of times. It caught the bullets instead of me.”

While the others talked or sat quietly, Scarlett tried once again to get a signal on her comm link. After their run-in with the spiders, all the Joes had tried, unsuccessfully, to communicate with Joe headquarters. It was Strong who suggested that the tunnels might be shielded in some way that blocked their signal since the comm links had worked before entering Lakeview, when Scarlett had called in to relay their safe arrival at the facility. Making a frustrated sound, the red-head dropped her hand and readjusted her grip on her rifle. "Still nothin', huh?" Strong asked her, hearing the frustrated sound.

“Dead as the proverbial door nail,” Scarlett replied. “Where's Dial Tone when I need him?”

"Maybe it'll get better once we're out of the tunnels."

“I hope so,” the older woman said as she looked down at Strong for a moment before turning her eyes back to the waiting tunnel. “Alright, let's saddle up,” she said as she moved towards the mouth of the tunnel.

Gung Ho brought up the rear, while Scarlett took point, the others sandwiched between the two. Adjusting her grip on her rifle once again, the flame-haired Joe stepped into the tunnel. Strong was right behind her, Rebecca behind Strong. The tunnel didn't branch off as they walked, seeming to stretch on into eternity and back. The walls around here were more and more solid concrete now, not the concrete blocks they had seen before. As the group walked, Lifeline couldn't help but get the feeling that they were moving downward, despite there being no obvious slopes that would indicate so. Also, the medic found his ears popping every once in a while, something that only happened at either high elevations or lower ones. "Where do you think we're headed?" Rebecca murmured quietly.

"Depths of hell, maybe?" Strong replied dryly.

“I'm with you, lady.” Gung Ho intoned from the rear.

Despite the change in the make up of the tunnel, the group also found itself wading through more puddles of water, fed by small trickling streams that dribbled down the walls. “I think we must be close to water,” Edwin remarked. “And deeper underground than before too. My ears keep popping.”

"We've got to be getting close to an exit, though," Strong said quietly. "But I think it's safe to say that we're probably not gonna be getting out near the asylum."

"If we're lucky, it may just lead to a morgue or something," Rebecca replied. "They were sometimes kept a pretty good distance from the main facilities."

"You call that a good sign?" Strong asked, clearly incredulous.

"There are worse things."

Strong didn't reply to that, just nodding in miserable agreement. The group traveled in silence for about another hundred yards before they were brought up short, the tunnel coming to an abrupt end in front of a reinforced-looking steel door bearing a red and white pinwheel shape outlined in black. Rebecca's expression darkened, and she stepped forward to get a better look at the logo in the dim light. "...Umbrella."

Scarlett glanced at the younger woman, the red-head having stepped forward as well to make a better assessment of the door. “What does it mean?”

"It means that Umbrella definitely had dealings with Lakeview, and most likely that not all of them were meant for public knowledge..." Rebecca's voice was soft. "But whether it just leads into a storage area or a lab, I haven't got a clue."

Scarlett sighed softly, her blue eyes returning to the door blocking their way. The Joe wasn't too keen on the idea of opening it, half afraid of what they might find on the other side in light of what had been loose in the tunnels beneath the asylum. Turning away, she looked back at the remaining members of the team, her gaze settling on each one in turn before focuses on the way they had just come. “Doesn't seem like we have much choice but to go forward. We can't go back the way we came,” Scarlett said at length, her lips thinned into a line as she spoke. Her sapphire gaze snapped back to Rebecca. “What if it is a lab of some kind? What are we likely to find?”

"It would depend on what they were doing here," Rebecca said. "But if it's like most of the labs I've been in or heard about, we're likely to find zombies, possibly more mutated creatures. However, if it's a lab and it's been abandoned as long as Lakeview has, I doubt there'll be much of anything left alive. They may look undead, but they still have to eat."

A visible shudder ran through Gung Ho as he listened. There wasn't much that the big Cajun was afraid of, but what he had seen beneath Lakeview so far had been enough to shake even him. “What if there's no way out?” Lifeline asked, unaware that he had spoken his thoughts aloud until he heard his own voice.

"From what the Big Guy says, that's not like Umbrella," Strong said.

Rebecca nodded in agreement. "He's right. I have yet to find an Umbrella facility that didn't have some kind of emergency escape."

Scarlett seemed to weigh the issue for a several minutes before once again fixing her sapphire gaze on those around her. “It's not like we have another choice,” she said, the look on her face grim. “All we can do is stay together, stay alert and pray that if there was anything loose in there that it's dead now.” Shouldering her rifle, the flame-haired woman dug into one of the pouches attached to the belt around her slim waist. “Gung Ho, give me hand. Looks like we're going to have to blow the door.”

With a nod, the bald man moved forward next to Scarlett as he settled the strap of his riffle on his broad soldier. Rebecca and Strong both backed up several paces, watching the two silently. Lifeline took a few moments to adjust the straps on his med kit, settling it a bit more comfortably on his shoulders before joining the two women as they waited for Scarlett and Gung Ho to finish setting the explosive on the door. Seemingly satisfied with their handiwork, Scarlett stepped back from the door, waving the others back several yards while Gung Ho reeled out a length of fuse wire from a small spool, until he joined the others. Handing the roll to Scarlett, the red-head then attached it to a trigger switch. Once everything was set, she turned her cobalt gaze on the others. “Once that door blows, I want every weapon trained on it. Anything, and I mean anything moves, open fire.”

Rebecca's Magnum was already in her hand, and Strong was nodding, double checking her shotgun again. "We're ready when you are," Strong said.

“Lifeline, stay with Doctor Chambers,” Scarlett instructed, her eyes on the medic for a few moments before turning away. “On the count of three... “

Rebecca tensed, exhaling a slow breath, resisting the urge to wipe her palm on her pant leg as she brought the heavy gun up again. Next to her, Strong adjusted her grip on the shotgun, swallowing hard. “One... two... three...” The word had just barely passed Scarlett's lips before she tripped the trigger, the blast following within seconds and echoing in the tunnel as the door was blown from it's hinges, sliding to the side with a definite thunk.

As the smoke and dust cleared, the sharp, loud sounds of an alarm could be heard dimly as bright fluorescent light spilled into the corridor. Rebecca's ears were still ringing, her eyes and gun trained on the doorway. But there was nothing there. Strong frowned; that didn't make any sense. There were so few lights, there shouldn't have been enough power left to sound an alarm, much less run the lights.

Their weapons also on the doorway, Scarlett and Gung Ho were motionless, their trained eyes looking for any sign of movement in the haze from the explosion. From his position next to Rebecca, Lifeline squinted a bit from behind the lenses of his glasses as he too waited to see if anything would emerge. It was several long minutes before Scarlett signaled Gung Ho with a slight wave of her gloved hand, the big Cajun cautiously moving forward towards the blasted doorway, his laser rifle up and his finger on the trigger.

There wasn't much to see. The tunnel opened up into a wide hallway that branched to the left and right. To their right, the corridor seemed to lead off into a wall of doors. To the left, it was more difficult to tell. Somewhere down that path, a fluorescent light sputtered and flickered. As he glanced inside, the big Marine wrinkled his nose, an almost rank smell starting to waft out towards him. Without turning his eyes away, he motioned towards the others with his free hand. Strong stepped forward before Rebecca could, keeping her body between the doorway and the two medics. Rebecca lowered her Magnum slowly, and walked after Strong, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck starting to stand up. Edwin followed Rebecca, the Joe medic moving on silent feet as he followed the two women towards the blasted doorway. Falling into place behind Lifeline, Scarlett brought up the rear, the red-head's gun still up and ready as the small group joined Gung Ho. "So which way do we go?" Strong asked once they were all standing inside.

"I say right," Rebecca said. "The light's better that way, and I don't know about you but I want good visibility if we get attacked again."

“God, what's that smell?” Gung Ho said, resisting the urge to bring his hand up to cover his nose and mouth.

“It smells like rot, like something left to decompose,” Edwin answered, the smell causing his stomach to roil.

“Which means that whatever it was is dead,” Scarlett observed. “Which is good news for us.” Her eyes flicked down the two corridors that lay before them. “We'll take Doctor Chamber's suggestion and try the right corridor. Gung Ho, you take the point. Strong, you and the doctor next, then Lifeline. Weapons up, eyes and ears open.”

"Just be careful," Rebecca warned as they all fell into line.

The hallway turned out to house a row of four office doors, the shorter corridor broken on the left side by a single door, marked CAFETERIA in bold white letters. “Don't think I wanna know what's on the menu in there,” Gung Ho said as he noticed the sign.

"Amen to that," Strong replied, making a face.

Rebecca, meanwhile, was making her way silently toward one of the office doors. The door was slightly ajar, a soft sound emanating from it every few moments. Noticing as Rebecca stepped away from the rest of the group, Lifeline followed her. In addition to agreeing to carry Billy's gun, he had also promised the Marine that he would watch out for the former S.T.A.R.S. agent as well; and so he had tried to stay by her side as much as possible. As she neared the door, she held out an arm, motioning for Edwin to remain where he was as she carefully eased the door open with her boot. The sound within ceased, and Rebecca held her breath. “Doctor...” Scarlett started as she finally noticed that Rebecca had moved around from them.

Rebecca didn't look back, barely daring to breathe, as the door swung open. Her gun lowered when the culprit was nothing more than a small mouse, making a nest in some papers littering the top of the desk within. She shook her head as she caught up with the group again.

“Let's get moving people,” Scarlett's voice intoned as the team once again fell into formation and started heading down the corridor.

Their steps clicked on the tiles as they walked, the alarm around them starting to go off again. "Thing's gotta be on a timer or something..." Rebecca said, shaking her head.

“Damn annoyin' is what it is,” Gung Ho grumbled as he led the group down the hallway.

“Must be some kind of generator down here,” Edwin observed. “We must have kicked on some kind of safety or fail safe when the door blew.”

"Maybe both," Rebecca said with a slight nod. "Let's just hope there wasn't a self-distruct involved."

“Self-destruct?” Scarlett asked from her position at the rear of their small column.

"Both the Training Facility and the Spencer Mansion had one," Rebecca replied, looking back at Scarlett briefly. "But they're usually pretty blatant about telling you when it's been activated."

“How nice,” the red head said dryly.

The end of the corridor opened up into a relatively large open space. Off to the left was a large, wood door. It was stained a dark, almost blood red, and had an almost garish brass handle. Rebecca shook her head; the place was starting to hold some of the touches of a typical Umbrella facility after all. “Okay?” Edwin asked as he lightly placed his hand on the young woman's shoulder from behind.

“I will be,” Rebecca replied softly. “Once I get topside.”

“I think all of us will.” The medic said as his hand slipped away.

“Whadda ya think, Scarlett?” Gung Ho asked as he nodded towards the red door.

“Doctor?” The red head asked, moving up near Rebecca. “You've been in these Umbrella facilities before, what's your opinion?”

"I think that a door like that's going to lead to a place we can find some information if nothing else," Rebecca replied. "It's also likely to have traps."

“My priority isn't information at this point Doctor, it's getting us out of here alive.”

"And I suppose you can conjure us a map of this place out of thin air?" Rebecca snapped. "We need information, Scarlett. I won't have the faintest clue what we might find without it."

Scarlett's features tightened as she looked at Rebecca. “You're the Umbrella expert, or so I was told. I suppose we'll have to rely on your judgment.”

Rebecca stiffened at that, but said nothing more, heading for the door. Her grip on the Magnum was white-knuckled and her lips were drawn in a hard line. Gung Ho watched as Rebecca passed him, the big Cajun's eyebrows rising slightly before turning to look at Scarlett questioningly. “Follow Doctor Chambers' lead,” the redhead said without preamble, adjusting her laser rifle before motioning for the others to move.

Strong shook her head slightly, and followed along. The tension building between Scarlett and Rebecca was hitting an almost tangible level, and she wondered briefly what would happen if one or the other snapped. Then she decided she really didn't want to know, as they reached the door and Rebecca tried the knob. It was stiff, but not impossible to open, and Rebecca pushed the door open, letting it swing on silent hinges. The interior of the office was as plush as the door had hinted, giving the room an aggressive, claustrophobic air. Rebecca didn't even glance at the bookshelves or the expensive-looking paintings as she made a beeline for the desk. She didn't know what she was looking for, specifically, but was hoping to find a map, or even just a memo telling her what the facility was.

From their positions on either side of the door, Gung Ho and Scarlett glanced inside, their weapons up and ready as they watched Rebecca move about the room. Rebecca didn't acknowledge them, or even seem to notice the others anymore as she began flipping quickly through the papers on the desk, and then proceeded to start rifling through each of the desk's drawers, one by one. After a few moments Gung Ho moved into the room, the big Cajun's trained eye taking in everything with just a glance. As his large frame moved out of the doorway, Scarlett and the others filterrd in behind him, with Kenya Strong hanging back a bit to keep an eye on the hallway. Passing Scarlett, Lifeline stepped towards Rebecca. “What are you looking for?” He asked as he joined her at the desk.

"Anything," she replied shortly, then paused a moment and took a deep breath. "... Sorry. I'm looking for anything that might help us out. Memos, a map, directions to an armory, or an emergency exit. Anything." With a nod of his head, the medic turned away and scanned around the room, his dark gaze falling on a pair of file cabinets in the corner. Without a word, he made his way towards them. Pulling on the handle of one of the filing cabinets, Lifeline was surprised to find it unlocked and he slid it out, his eyes flicking over the various labeled tabs.

“Somebody had some fancy digs.” Gung Ho observed to no one in particular as he looked around the plush office.

“Probably belonged to whoever was in charge.” Scarlett said as she scanned a small bookshelf against one of the walls, the volumes on the wooden shelves were mostly medical and psychological texts judging by the titles. Mixed in with the labeled books however, were what looked like binders of some kind, their various colored spines unlabeled.

"I can almost guarantee it," Rebecca agreed. "Umbrella treats its top tiers very well... or at least, it did."

“Probably hush money,” Scarlett said, her tone taking on a slightly bitter tone. “A pay-off to keep them quiet so no one ever finds out just what they're really doing.”

“C'mon Scarlett, You think a cushy office and a nice paycheck are gonna keep somebody quiet?”

The flame-haired Joe looked up for the bookshelf and turned towards her teammate. “You'd be surprised just what money can buy, Gung Ho.”

"And that's assuming whoever used this office was sane to begin with," Rebecca said, looking up herself. "What happened to Devil Dog and me during that incident six years ago wasn't an accident. Marcus was insane.”

“Anybody who goes around wantin' to play Doctor Frankenstein ain't exactly all there to begin with,” Gung Ho said with a snort.

Strong shook her head. "World's full of fuckin' loonies," she grumbled, keeping watch near the door.

“Ain't that the truth?” the big Marine rumbled in agreement as he strolled over towards Lifeline who was still flipping through the files in the cabinet.

Rebecca finished up her search of the desk, and sighed when she came up empty-handed. "Well, there's nothing in the desk that I can find," She said. "How about the rest of you?"

“Doesn't look like much over here,” Scarlett replied. “A bunch of reference books from the look of things and maybe some notebooks.”

“Nothing that jumps out at me,” Lifeline said, having switched to another drawer in the file cabinet. “Looks like a bunch of supply requisitions, delivery tickets... pretty mundane stuff so far.”

"Well, then I'd say we don't have much choice but to head down to the next level, and keep looking for a clue or a way out."

“Let's get moving, then,” Scarlett said as she started back towards the door, expecting the others to follow her.

With a sigh, Edwin slid the drawer closed with a bit more force than he had intended so that it banged against the frame of the cabinet. The sound made Strong jump and her gaze snapped back to the medic. She regarded him for a few moments, before stepping out of the office. Rebecca's heart was in her throat, but she calmed and headed after Scarlett. Turning, Lifeline met Strong's gaze, the medic coloring faintly as he dropped his eyes down to the floor and moved towards the doors. This place is even rattlin' Lifeline, Gung Ho thought to himself as the red and white clad Joe passed him. Can't say as I blame him. Adjusting his hold on his laser rifle, the big Cajun fell into step behind the medic.

# # #

The stairs only led one direction, and so the small party headed downwards. The new room was large, and seemed lined on all sides with doors. Some were labeled, others not. But Rebecca recognized a nurse's station when she saw one, and was starting to make her way toward it when a quiet sound reached her ears, only reaching her because of a lull in the alarm again. Trailing in a line behind Rebecca, the rest of the team glanced about, grateful when the headache inducing klaxon ceased, even though they knew that it was probably only temporary.

"We oughta try to find some way to shut that off," Strong said. "I don't like not bein' able to hear anything when it goes off."

“It's probably controlled from a central system,” Scarlett said. “More than likely, we'd have to find that to shut it down.”

“Maybe not,” Gung Ho said, as he raised his rifle and fired off a shot at one of the alarm horns, the precise laser blasting it to pieces that rained down on the ground.

“Gung Ho!” Scarlett cried out the Marine's name. “Stand down this instant!”

“Geez Gung Ho, what are you trying to do? Scare us all to death?” Edwin asked with a shake of his head.

“I was just tryin' to help,” the Marine replied a bit sheepishly.

Rebecca nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of the rifle shot, and was geared up to give the bulky Marine a piece of her mind when the odd sound caught her attention again, and she shivered, hand dropping to her gun; it was coming from the nurse's station. "If there's a shut-off somewhere nearby, the nurse's station might have a control panel or something..." Rebecca said, doing her best to keep her voice level as she approached the cubicle-like area.

"Well, if the alarm doesn't bring somebody running, that sure will," Strong remarked wryly.

“Strong, go give Doctor Chambers a hand,” Scarlett ordered. “While you're at it, look to see if there's a phone. I didn't see one upstairs, but if the electric is still going, the phone line might still be working if we can find one.”

Strong gave Scarlett a salute, before heading after Rebecca, slowing her steps when she saw the tension in the other woman. "Uh... Doc?"

Rebecca jumped at the title, and looked back, before smiling wryly. "Sorry... what?"

"Need some help?"

Rebecca shook her head. "No, I just thought I... heard..." The sentence trailed off as the source of the sound became more clear.

It was the sound of fingernails scratching against the tiled floor, and the fingers those nails were attached to were just visible beyond one of the entrances to the nurse's station. "Holy shit!" Strong said at the sight. "We gotta help her. She might be hurt!"

"Hold on!" Rebecca said, shaking her head and touching Strong's arm. "If she's been hurt, then she may be a carrier."

At Kenya's outburst, the other three Joes immediately snapped to attention, Scarlett and Gung Ho once again bringing their weapons up as they immediately moved towards the nurse's station, Lifeline right behind them. “What is it?” Scarlett asked as she looked around the ends of the station.

As they had spoken, the woman started shifting forward. She was able to do little more than drag herself along the floor, and Strong gasped, taking a step back as the woman's ruined face came into view. "W-what the hell?"

“Jesus Christ!” Edwin exclaimed from over Scarlett's shoulder, the taller medic standing just behind his fiery haired team leader.

“Stay back,” Scarlett yelled, as she trained her rife on the slowly moving form.

The woman turned her whitened eyes toward them, drawn by the smell of warm, living flesh. Her lips parted, a hungry moan escaping her as a trail of black ichor dribbled from the corner of her mouth. At the sound, Rebecca's hands came up, her gun went off, and the zombie's head exploded like an overripe melon. "Jesus..." Strong said, taking another step back. "What in the hell?!"

"...T-virus zombie," Rebecca's tone was soft.

His dark eyes wide behind the lenses of his glasses, Edwin's hand came up to his mouth. He had listened intently when Billy had told him about his entrapment inside an Umbrella facility with Rebecca and the mutated creatures and infected people that they had run into; but to actually see one in the flesh ... the medic could feel the bile rising in his throat as he fought down an urge to be sick. “Fucking Christ on a crutch,” Gung Ho said, the bald man visibly paling, unable to tear his eyes away from what was left of the woman.

“Doctor, you and Strong get out of there, now.” Scarlett ordered, her tone even and crisp.

The other two women nodded a silent assent, and rejoined the others. Strong was visibly shaken, and Rebecca only looked tired. Her shoulders sagged a little and she shook her head. “How the hell could one of those things still be alive after all this time?” Scarlett asked as the others gathered together once again.

"Two theories," Rebecca replied. "One, they've developed a new strain of the virus that doesn't degenerate as quickly. Unlikely, but a possibility. Two...it hasn't been down here all that long."

“The smell...” Lifeline said, a frown creasing his features.

“What smell?” Gung Ho asked the medic.

“When we first came in.” Edwin replied. “Now that I think about it, if it had been from three years ago when Lakeview was closed down, it wouldn't have been been so... strong. We would have smelled something, but nothing like that and only when we found it. Whatever was the cause, it was definitely less than three years old. Maybe one, two at the most.”

"If it's even that old," Rebecca said. "In my experience, if the zombies are still mobile, it hasn't been more than a month or two."

“But if this place has been abandoned for three years... “ Scarlett started, only to have Lifeline finish her sentence for her.

“Lakeview might have been abandoned, but this lab obviously wasn't,” the medic's voice sounded grim.

Rebecca nodded. "Exactly."

Gung Ho swore under his breath.

“All the more reason for us to haul our asses out of here,” Scarlett said, her sapphire gaze hard as she looked at those around her.

"We'll need to finish checking out this level, before we move down to the next." Rebecca shook her head. "We need a map, badly. And it could be anywhere."

“Shouldn't there be one posted around here anyway?” Lifeline asked. “In case of an emergency,” he continued on as he met by uncomprehending looks from the rest of the group. “There's supposed to be maps showing escape routes posted near all the exits of a building.”

"I've never known Umbrella to do anything by the book, but it can't hurt to check near the stairwell where we came in," Rebecca replied.

“Gung Ho, you and Lifeline go check it out,” Scarlett ordered, the two men nodding before heading off towards the stairs. “Keep your eyes and ears open.” The blue-eyed woman called after them.

Rebecca sighed softly, pinching the bridge of her nose and watching the two men as they walked off. She found herself again wishing Billy were there. Although she had been pegged as the "Umbrella expert" and in spite of her efforts to do what she felt needed to be done, she knew she was in well over her head at this point, and felt guilty for dragging others in with her. “You alright Doctor?” Scarlett asked Rebecca, the redhead's trained eye missing nothing.

Rebecca jumped a little, surprised out of her thoughts by the question. "Frankly? No, not really. But I will be." She replied. Scarlett's cool blue gaze regarded the younger woman for a few moments before she gave Rebecca almost imperceptible nod of her head. "And for what it's worth," Rebecca went on, "I'm sorry for dragging all of you into this."

“We had no way of knowing, Doctor. It was a chance we all took.” Scarlett said, her tone firm.

"Yeah..."

“And you know that Devil Dog would have come for anyone one of us.”

Rebecca smiled a little at that. "I know..."

The rest of whatever the two might have said to one another was halted by the return of Gung Ho and Lifeline. The big Cajun shaking his head as he approached the waiting women, while the medic had a slight smile on his face. “What did you find?” Scarlett asked, stepping past Rebecca to meet the two men halfway.

“You ain't gonna believe it...” Gung Ho responded.

Scarlett's sapphire gaze slide to Lifeline. “You didn't.”

The medic held up his hand, a laminated sheet between his fingers. “Guess somebody on Umbrella's staff had some respect for the Fire Marshal's requirements.”

Rebecca smiled at that. "Well done..."

Edwin blushed faintly as he offered the diagram to Scarlett. The redhead gave the medic a smile as she accepted the diagram. “Good job.” Turning away slightly, she glanced down at the sheet. “Doctor Chambers,” she said after a few moments, her eyes coming up to find Rebecca, motioning for the younger woman to join her.

Shaking off her weariness, Rebecca stepped up beside Scarlett, and perused the map, it was only for their floor, and displayed a supply storage room off to their left, a linen closet beside it, and a janitor's closet. This particular closet was marked with a black dot, and it was only to be presumed that whatever that dot meant had been so obvious, there was no need to put a key on the map itself. Next to the janitor's closet was another file storage room, an infirmary, and operating rooms. Rebecca shook her head and frowned. “I can't imagine anything being very helpful to us here... although...” she tilted her head to the side. “We might find something on the parasite either in one of the operating rooms, or the file storage. It looks like Lakeview did all the work on their... special patients down here...” Her voice trailed off into almost nothing.

Scarlett spent a few quiet moments contemplating both the map and the younger woman's words. Looking up, she glanced around at the others. “We'll split up. Doctor, you and Lifeline take the operating rooms. Gung Ho, Strong and I will take the file room.” Her sapphire gaze was intense as she leveled on each one of the others as she spoke. “I don't want anyone going off alone for any reason in case there is any... anyone else down here.”

Rebecca's voice was soft as she stepped closer to Lifeline, preparing to head off. "Please... be careful everyone."

“Ain't gotta tell me twice, Doc.” Gung Ho grumbled, the big Marine looking none too happy.

“Just stay on your toes everyone.” Scarlett added before moving off towards the storage area, motioning for Gung Ho and Strong to follow her.

Lifeline glanced down at Rebecca, his dark eyes full of concern as he looked at the young woman. Rebecca's lips set into a hard line, and she took a slow breath. Feeling eyes on her, she looked up at Edwin as Strong and the others headed for the file storage room. “Ready?” the medic asked quietly.

"As ready as I'm going to get," she replied in an equally hushed tone, slowly pressing open one of the swinging doors and easing into the room, gun in hand.

Edwin was right behind her, his steps silent on the tiled floor as they entered the first of the operating rooms. The overhead lights flickered on as the pair entered the room, the lights having been set with motion detectors so that staff wouldn't have to manual turn them on and off after scrubbing up. The room itself was antiseptically cold, all the counters and tables made of stainless steel, the operating table dominating the middle of the room. There were leather restraints shiny and worn, laying open on the table, and Rebecca shivered. "The animals..." she murmured, mostly to herself.

Standing behind Rebecca, Lifeline shivered slightly as he looked at the stainless table, memories flooding back to him of his capture by Cobra almost a year ago and being strapped down to a very similar table. Unconsciously, the medic lightly put his hands on Rebecca's shoulders. She inhaled a gasp at the unexpected touch, and jumped a little, before her hands came up to cover Lifeline's. "I-I'm sorry," she whispered. "You startled me."

“I-I'm sorry...” Edwin stuttered out, flushing slightly.

Rebecca shook her head. "No, it's okay," she murmured softly. "This has gotta be tough for you, too."

The medic squeezed the young woman's shoulders slightly before moving to pull his hands away. Rebecca let her hands fall from his, and started crossing the room slowly, her eyes and ears alert to anything that seemed out of place, or anything moving that wasn't the two of them. "I wonder... if there were any survivors of this particular outbreak..." she murmured to herself, as she neared the door that led from one operating room to the next.

“One, at least.” Lifeline said softly, feeling the bile rise in his throat as the thought about the woman they had found near the nurse's station.

"Try not to think too hard on it," Rebecca replied. "She... wasn't really human anymore..."

“I've been thinking,” the medic said, stopping just as Rebecca was reaching to open the door to the adjoining room. Rebecca paused as Edwin began to speak, turning enough to look at him. “The smell, when we came in and the w-woman... “ Lifeline's voice faltered a bit. “If this place had been abandoned when Lakeview was closed, then the scent of putrefaction would never have been that strong; and the woman... “

Rebecca nodded. "I know. They may have closed Lakeview down, but this place didn't close at the same time. That zombie proved it."

Edwin nodded as well. “I'd say they were using this place up to at least a year ago, probably less then that if I had to guess...” the medic trailed off, a thought coming to him. “I wonder...” he tapped his lips with this forefinger. “The bodies that Billy's team retrieved... “

"It isn't totally out of the question they came from here," Rebecca replied, her own tone becoming thoughtful. "After all, he does tend to get called all over the country with this new position, right?"

Lifeline nodded. “It's just that... it was almost like someone wanted them to be found.”

"What do you mean?"

Edwin shook his head. “I don't know, there's just...” his brows crooked together. “There's something that's been bothering me, I just can't put a finger on it.”

"The bodies themselves? Or something else?"

“Something else. I don't know, but I think Billy's tied into it in some way. The bodies... his unit getting ambushed... the lockdown at the base... and now... this... “ the medic once again shook his head.

"You're right, I think..." Rebecca frowned slightly as she let herself mull it over.

The pair fell into silence for a few moments before Edwin spoke again. “We won't find our answer standing around.”

"Right," Rebecca said, turning toward the door again. "Let's keep looking around, and see if we can find something useful."

# # #

While Rebecca and Lifeline were speaking inside the operating room, Scarlett and Kenya Strong were rifling through a bank of metal filing cabinets, Gung Ho stationed next to the door his gun up and at the ready. While the trio had not encountered anyone, they had found evidence that something had happened in the form of an overturned medical cart and several smears of blood on the wall.

Strong, already wound tight, couldn't help but feel a little jumpy as she picked her way through one of the rows of filing cabinets. In spite of all her training, she couldn't help but think about Hopper, and see over and over again the surprise on his face right before he collapsed, and was carried away into the shadows. She swallowed hard, trying to ignore the panic that was ever so slowly creeping up on her, she suddenly remembered something she had heard Billy shout at them more than once.

"Be where you are."

It wasn't until the words left her lips that Strong realized she had spoken them aloud, and she quickly shook herself and went back to work.
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Unsung Heroes: Mission Two