Page 15 (1/2)

In the midst of Rebecca&039;s brief battle with the proto-Tyrant, William Birkin sneaked out of the facility, his head low, his proverbial tail tucked between his legs The young man had lost track of him a few hours earlier, had assumed that the scientist had followed Wesker up and out--those people from Rebecca&039;s little adventure tea through one of the hidden exit tunnels, his pallid, twitching face a mask of fear Terrified by the sounds of the battle, certainly, entirely unaware that he was alive only because his life was so very unih he&039;d wished to deal with hio now, prey for another day He was too enraptured by the fight, too eager to see Rebecca torn liain, a combination of deftness and stupid luck that was quite a marvel to behold He watched as she left the Tyrant behind and came across Billy only alike a barnacle to a rock as a sea of seater churned around hile blow by one of the water creatures sent hi away to one of the plant&039;safter him, surely halfman smiled, a cold and nasty smile, calmer than he&039;d felt for some time as he watched Rebecca cross the ay, find another elevator in the plant&039;s operations room, wend her way toward the depths of the plant--where he and his hive waited, curling together in their cocoon of glittering liquid excretions With luck, she&039;d come across Billy soon, possibly even alive Probably, in fact He understood now, that he&039;d simply tried too hard to rush matters, to hurry their fate A confrontation was inevitableAnd hadn&039;t he truly wanted an audience all along, so? Besides, the daould be soon, a dangerous time for the children, their delicate bodies easily burned by even the weakest sunlight; better that he let the two interlopers colory before he crushed them himself

He watched and waited, excited for the final chapter of his triuin

Rebecca wasn&039;t sure where she was, the descending levels and roo, keptdown The hallere clear, but two of the rooh--yet another small control rooe--were infested with zombies She only had to shoot two of seven that she saw, the rest too decrepit, too slow- to constitute a real threat She wished she had the time and the ammo to put all of the Billy again kept her hurrying He was hurt but alive, and hidden so layout

The new facility was a water treatment plant, she could tell that frons and control boards that seeht that it was also a front for al activities; why else would it be connected to the training facility, albeit indirectly? She went through a small courtyard area on the seventh baseht it was the seventh--that had been under construction before the virus had hit, and she doubted very much that the rock-carved bunker--replete with forklift--had much to do ater treatht randoh another door, a rooht, she hadn&039;t believed in zombies, or bio-weapon conspiraciesTruth be told, she hadn&039;t really believed that such deliberate evil could exist What she&039;d seen, what she&039;d experienced since stepping onto that train all those hours agoEverything was different, now She didn&039;t know that she&039;d ever again be able to turn such a naive eye to the world around her, that she&039;d ever be able to look at a person or place without wondering what hidden face lay behind what she saw She wasn&039;t sure if she should be angry or grateful for the loss of innocence; if she stayed with the STARS, it would undoubtedly serve her well

At the back of the room with the crates, a ht her breath as she looked down, gri with distaste, unsure of how to proceed There were leeches on the stairs, at least a few dozen scattered across the steps, hanging froray et near theot too close, or hurt one of them--but she didn&039;t want to backtrack, either She felt like ti fast and faster, that she had to keep up or risk being lost

Or risk running into that thing again That clawed killing ry scream still echoed in her mind She&039;d wounded it, but the chances that it had crawled away in sos like that were never so acco

Gritting her teeth, she carefully stepped over and around the leeches, pausing after each step, sing bile as one slid over the toe of her boot before continuing on its way It was a short flight, at least; she got doithout stepping on any of the horrid little things, reaching the door at the bottom without further incident

When she opened the door, a coolpipes likeconduits to one side, water fro down and over a series of mesh filters--

--and there, amid a scatter of random flotsam--

"Billy!"

Rebecca ran to Billy&039;s prone for down beside the tags aside, shaking insideBut there was a strong, even pulse--and at her touch, he opened his eyes, looked blearily up at her

"Rebecca?" He coughed, started to sit up, and she gently placed one hand on his chest, pushing hi one

"Just rest ato force the words around the hardness in her throat She&039;d wanted to believe he&039;d be all right, but it had been so hard"Let me check you out"

A faint smile played across his lips " &039;Kay, but then it&039;s ain

He answered her questions without any confusion as she pushed and prodded, checked his range of motion, cleaned a few of his deeper scratches The knot on his head see him some dizziness and nausea, but it wasn&039;t nearly as bad as she&039;d feared--and after only a few minutes of hera weak s as she touched his tea surprisingly deep satisfaction; she&039;d set out to find him, and had She&039;d had no idea that such a basic sense of acco, could so easily overwhelatives in their situation, even if only for a lad you&039;re alive, Billy"

He nodded, wincing again at the movement "You andhih, he stepped away--and she saw a look of disgust cross his face, hisdown as he moved past her, toward one corner of the room where a slick of dark water poured over another mesh filter

The corner of the room was heaped with bones Hu water, thick with a greenish bacterial sli the tumble of femurs and cracked ribs, most of them crushed or broken

"Some of Marcus&039;s old experiments?" Billy&039;s tone was low; it wasn&039;t really a question, and Rebecca didn&039;t answer it, only nodding

"It&039;s Ued it They were all in it together"

Now Billy didn&039;t answer, only stared at the bones, soaze After a second, he shook it off, turned away from the sad remnants of human life

"What say we blow this Popsicle stand?" he asked, and though his words were light, neither of therab his hand for a htly in her own He squeezed back "Yeah, that sounds good"

Billy felt like shit, but he soldiered on as Rebecca led theet free of Marcus&039;s daround before he allowed hih a maze of corridors and rooms--Billy was hopelessly lost after their second turn--she told hied off the cable car platforht with some super-creature Frankenstein that she very nearly didn&039;t survive She&039;d also found a 50 Magnu around, soun In all, he thought she&039;d done better than he probably would have, in the same circumstances

They found an enu of water under one of the bunks and they took turns gulping it down, both of the in seater didn&039;t dodecent and fully loaded weapons, Billy finally felt like he h the rapids They took the southern exit froh an industrial treatether for Billy, all looked the sae walls of unknown equipment covered with dials and switches Soe rooh God only knehat it was controlling Billy found that he didn&039;t h as they continued on, they could both hear the rush of water getting closer, big water--and when they went through a massive pump room that opened out into the chill of predawn, they found a ay that spanned an actual dath of reservoir that ran alongside the building they&039;d e curtain of water that punctuated it at the far end It was too loud for them to talk, and they stepped back into the pu They&039;d found a way out, at least; true, the ay over the da stars, the sinking h the Umbrella coht as surely as the new day would soon dawn