Chapter 5 : Daylight

Barry sat on a stub, and Hunnigan leaned back on a tree. Barry's thoughts were confused about this young woman that pretended to be a journalist. First thing, was this really her name?

Barry was not sure if he could trust her. Perhaps his confidence in others had been destroyed by Wesker, his long time friend and co-worker, that had tried to kill him, and nearly succeeded.

Focusing on the present moment, Barry realized that he needed a weapon.

''You... you got another gun?''

Hunnigan turned to him, shook her head negatively and made him a small smile. She was cute. Barry was married, and would never cheat on Katie, his wife, but he could tell she was cute. Not an astonishing beauty, but she had a little something different.

''Sorry...'' She said.

''It's nothing...''

Barry accompanied his answer with a small, nearly paternal smile. He was 38, and she was barely 21. She could have been his daughter.

Unable to stand this feeling of weakness and helplessness, Barry stood up, and starting walking around while Hunnigan checked her gun in a rather professional way. Whatever that girl did for a living, she was serious about it. And Barry was not that sure it was journalism.

All of a sudden, in a nearly cliché way, Barry saw something moving in the corner of his eye. He turned around, only to see a tree, obviously unmoving, and plunged in darkness.

But it kept moving, faster than Barry's reaction. The shadow passed from a tree to another with surprising agility.

''Hunnigan, look over there...'' Barry whispered, trying not to attract the thing's attention. But it had already spotted them. They were the reason it was there. They were it's prey.

Hunnigan aimed her lamp at the thing, and it was revealed. The total surprise took over Barry as he recognized the thing. It was, by the looks of it, a large, no, a monstrously big spider. A spider nearly flying between trees. The second the light hit it, the spider stopped moving, and simply turned to face the two frightened survivors.

The survivors kept looking at the fearsome monster, as it scanned them and the environment around. It seemed gifted of some sort of cognitive ability and anticipation of reactions.

Hunnigan took some time to raise her gun, bring it to level, and press the trigger. And when the shot came, the thing was already airborne. The small bullet had not effect on the enormous creature. Neither did the second shot. Before she could squeeze out a third shot, Hunnigan was brought down by a shot of some sort of slime. Halfway between spider web and mucus, the substance was sticky, warm, and seemed watery even though it was rather resistant.

It must have been heavy, because Hunnigan was nailed to the ground instantly. Barry, panicked, ran to her, and tried to get her out of the slimy substance. But her heard a screeching noise behind him.

Barry turned around to see the thing approaching. Grabbing Hunnigan's handgun, laying in the grass not far from there, Barry shot at the creature a few bullets. But the gun clicked dry soon, leaving them to a merciless death.

Barry took a deep breath, and plunged his both hands deep into the slime. He reached for Hunnigan's hands, and pulled her the harder he could. The slime riped and Hunnigan was almost free. She kicked from inside, and the strange substance got off her. She was still covered in it, but at least she was free.

Barry took Hunnigan's hand, and ran through the wood, not caring to grab the empty gun he had left. The rapid footsteps echoed through the forest, followed by another, more mysterious sound. The sound of the spider bouncing between trees.

It was on their case. And it would not give up anytime soon.

The world became blurry. Barry's heartbeat was getting faster. He started feeling out of breath. Hunnigan was getting past him. Barry felt intense muscular pain in the legs and lower back. His lungs soon turned to fire, and he felt like he could not make it any further running, or even walking.

But he had to.

He was so caught up in his thoughts he forgot to look ahead of him. A tree came faster than he had expected, and he dodged it at the last second. Looking back at the tree, Barry felt the ground giving way below his feet. He had just the time to look at Hunnigan, then they both fell down in pitch darkness.

During this time, on the mansion's roof, Chris, Jill and bravo team's medic, Rebecca Chamber, were retreating from spider-like arachnids of outrageous size. Soon, Jill ran out of ammo, and her gun clicked dry. The monsters seemed to retreat, but before there could be comfort, the floor gave way and what look like a caricature of an human being, in taller, stronger and with a grayish skin busted through the gap.

''Holy shit!'' Chris let out over the noise.

The thing was approaching, hesitating in a menacing fashion. Death seemed eminent. But the three agents opened fire fearlessly on the dangerous thing. It would not back down, and closed onto Chris, who ran sideways for cover. But the thing grabbed hold of him, and prepared to lacerate him. Tebecca opened fire on the thing's legs, breaking it's balance and allowing Chris to break free. Jill, out of ammunition, stood in the corner, throwing whatever she found at the thing.

At a point, a loud helicopter sound was heard, and Brad was in sight, commanding his aircraft. He threw Chris a rocket launcher, which Chris grabbed. He aimed at the thing, and then it was over. The monster was gone into a cloud of dust and blood.

Daylight had burst through the clouds, and the evil seemed to end there. But for two survivors, it was far from over...