Authors Note:

Um, hey guys! It's been a while. 5 years give or take. :P

I don't know why but I decided to publish this chapter I had written of this story but never got the chance to. To be honest, i did drop it but I've been seeing some wonderful reviews and favorites over the years, I would love to continue this sometime soon if I can. Life has been very busy and different when you work so I've been struggling to find time to do the things i love. Such as writing. Anyway, here it is. Sorry it's very small but it's all I had. I will do my best to continue it!

Chapter Eight: The Attack

Chris looked at the fragile girl walking next to him. She still couldn't even walk right. Her coughing wouldn't stop, and she looked like a cancer patient. This wasn't normal at all. It looked like she had a disease, but how could she get one from being out of the capsule for less than an hour?

"Sherry, are you in pain?" Jill helped her walk whenever she couldn't get her footing right.

"No, thank you. I'm okay." Sherry replied, but Chris didn't find it very believable.

They needed to call for backup, get her to a hospital, and get her tested. He noticed that aside from Jill, his other two partners looked very agitated, as if the tiniest little sound would alarm them.

Jill called Elise over to Sherry's side and asked her to watch her for a while. She made her way to Chris who was leading the way, and they walked a little faster to gain some distance between the others.

"I don't know if she's gonna make it." Chris said without looking at Jill. His eyes darted straight ahead, looking for any sign of movement.

"We don't even know what's wrong with her. God knows what they could have done to her in here." Jill whispered, glancing at Sherry.

"Let's just hope whatever it is that's inside her will not be activated anytime soon." He looked around. They had reached an intersection. He took a deep breath. The place was like a maze, and most of the corridors looked alike. "Just keep an eye on her." He said to Jill, and he tried to make a decision.

Suddenly an alarm started beeping, and red lights illuminated the room. "CAUTION." A computerized voice was heard. "THIS FACILITY IS NOW ON LOCKDOWN MODE. ALL PERSONNEL IS UNDER QUARANTINE."

Jill looked at Chris with unease. This was the last thing they needed right now. "You've got to be kidding me." Jill said.

"W-what's going on?" Elise asked.

The voice repeated the message a few more times, and then the lights suddenly went out. Gasps were heard, but the lights came back on a few seconds later except they were a lot dimmer and red.

"It must be working on generator mode." Chris tried to remain as calm as possible. He didn't want to seem agitated since it would cause a lot of unnecessary trouble.

"What the hell is going on?" Ian said.

"Hell if I know." Chris said. "The only thing I know is that we're not alone, and someone really doesn't want us getting out of here."

"What are we going to do?" Elise asked. Sherry was leaning to her, looking as tired and confused as ever.

Chris sighed. "Let's just try to look for a way out. Make our way back to the rest of the squad."

Jill was checking on the doors one by one. She turned around. "This is the only one that isn't locked."

"Guess we don't have any other choice." Chris said. He looked at Ian and Elise and noticed they looked genuinely scared. He had to calm them down somehow. Being in shock wouldn't help at all if something decided to ambush them. "Look guys, there's nothing to worry about. It's probably just an automated command because we broke into the system by taking Sherry out of that capsule."

Elise nodded hesitantly. She seemed to believe him. Ian didn't look as convinced but he gave a slight nod, too.

They all followed Chris and Jill to the next room. It was enormous and looked like a storage area. There were beeping machines everywhere with control panels that looked completely alien to Chris. Ian could probably figure them out, but it wasn't time for that yet.

The radio beeped and Chris answered hoping it would be Claire. "Sir, this is Grimes!" His voice sounded agitated, and the size of the room magnified it and echoed everywhere. "We're trapped in a room-" There was slight interference and Chris couldn't hear him anymore.

"What did he say?" Jill asked. She tried her radio. "Grimes, do you copy? Repeat what you said."

"We've been overrun by… There are infected everywhere!"

Jill and Chris exchanged nervous looks. "Grimes, you gotta get out of there right now, you need to find an exit and meet us!"

"WE CAN'T! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!" Grimes' voice was louder and flustered this time. There were frequent gunshots coming from the radio but they must have been very far away because they couldn't hear anything outside the room.

"Dammit!" Chris exclaimed. Infected? There was no hope in getting them out of there alive if the place was overrun. This changed everything. "Miles, where are we? Check to find some blueprints and give me a location!"

"Oh god!" Grimes yelled. "They got Lambert!" The terror was evident in his voice.

"Miles, unlock the doors, do something!" Chris was yelling by now, and everybody was panicking.

"Sir, I can't gain access and we don't know where they are." Sweat had run down his face. "I'm sorry."

"Oh god." Elise said.

Chris tried to think, but the screaming voice of his squad member made him realize there was no time. The shrieks were painful to hear. Seconds later they stopped, and the only thing that could be heard from the radio was just static. Chris pressed the off button and even though the room was silent as a grave, Grimes' screams still lingered everywhere.

CAUTION. THIS FACILITY IS NOW ON LOCKDOWN MODE. ALL PERSONNEL IS UNDER QUARANTINE.

Claire was startled by the voice. She didn't know where it was coming from. Leon was shaking her shoulders trying to wake her up, but she was still dizzy from the hits she took from that monster.

"Claire, get up, we gotta go." Leon said.

"What's going on?"

"The facility is on lockdown." Leon got up and went to the barricaded doors. He started removing the chairs and desks as quickly as he could.

Claire tried to regain her composure. She got up to help him. She suddenly noticed the room had gone dark. She looked at the windows but there was no light coming from them. Metal shutters obscured the world from the outside. Not that anyone would think about jumping out a window from that high, but whoever ran this facility took some drastic measures.

"Did you try contacting the others?" She asked Leon.

"Yeah, but I got nothing. There must be some kind of signal blocking communications in this room."

"Do you think someone's watching us?"

"It wouldn't make any sense otherwise unless the facility has an A.I."

"What if Steve is doing this?" It could make sense. He was the only… living person they'd encountered so far. But why would he say he need her alive?

"I don't know but if we want to get out of here, we'll have to find out."

Claire nodded and followed him. The corridors were dark and red because of the emergency lighting. It wouldn't work to their advantage if another monster came at them. But then again don't they always seem to be in the dark when shit like that is happening? "Leon, we need to find my brother."

"Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for. But we have no idea where they are."

"We'll just keep checking the radio and we might be able to contact them eventually."

What the hell was B.S.A.A. doing? They should have sent backup the moment they realized they couldn't establish a connection. That always meant something bad was going on. That's why Claire was getting paranoid by now. Anything happening inside could also be happening outside. The last thing they wanted right now was another virus outbreak.

They kept walking to nowhere in particular. Suddenly Claire noticed a tiny red drop on the dusty white floors. She stopped at her tracks and examined it. It was blood. "Leon, look."

He turned and didn't have to take another step closer to realize what it was. "Dammit." He loaded his gun and looked around. "Stay behind me."

Claire nodded and followed him in silence. They heard some moans and knew it could only mean one thing. There was a door leading to a dark room full of desks and lockers.

Leon took small, careful steps, examining every inch of the room before going forward. There was a large trail of blood leading to a corner behind one of the lockers. Leon turned to Claire, and she gave him a nod, letting him know she was ready for anything. He took cover behind the locker and turned around with swiftness, gun ready to fire, but he dropped it to his side instead. "Shit." He said.

Claire walked to the direction of the blood, and saw a bloody figure lying on the floor. She gasped as soon as she realized it was none other than Lambert, one of the squad members. There was a wide cut on his stomach, his blood soaked clothes sticking to the surface. "Oh, god. Is he dead?"

Leon checked his pulse even though he didn't have to. A wound like that was definitely fatal. He nodded. He got back up to his feet, looked at the dead body and sighed. He tried for the radio but there was no response. "I guess we're on our own."

Suddenly, a low moan was heard and Claire turned her attention to the door. A zombie was standing in front of it, looking disoriented, probably trying to figure out the source of the noise it must have heard. "Leon!" Claire yelled. Before he had time to see what was going on, Claire had her gun out and shot the zombie in the head. It stumbled back from the impact, and then fell lifelessly on the floor.

"Okay, this is gonna get ugly. Let's go." He said and grabbed her by the arm leading her out. But she wouldn't follow him as if something was holding her back.

Claire screamed as that something tugged at her pant legs, and she fell to the floor. She tried to shake it off, and caught a glimpse of Lambert's rabid face trying to take a bite out of her leg. She kicked him in the face, and he let her go.

Leon helped her up as quickly as possible, and then took a shot at its head. There were numerous moans sounding closer and closer by the second. "Let's go, let's go!" Leon ushered her out of the room, and they ran as fast as they could when they saw the horde of zombies that had gathered in the corridor. They must have heard the gunshots and followed them.

They ran through them and shot some on the way but there were too many to count. It was ridiculous how quickly they appeared in an area that seemed to be empty moments before.

Claire saw a pair of double sturdy looking doors and pointed to them. Leon followed her and they kicked at the door but it wouldn't even budge. They stood with their backs against it, shooting at zombies that were making their way towards them. "What should we do? Everything's locked!"

"We have to make it to the other side of the facility!" Leon yelled so that she could hear him between the gunshots.

"Where is the other side?"

"I don't know, but I'm willing to take a guess right now!"

"I'm running out of ammo!" Claire said as she loaded another clip to her gun. She only had two more left and there were too many zombies coming at them.

"Okay, let's go on three." They both braced themselves. "One!"

"Two."

"Three!" they said at the same time but they didn't make a run for it when they felt the doors open behind them. They fell back into the room, and the doors closed almost as fast as they opened, trapping a zombie's arm in the process. Leon went to shoot at it, but he didn't have to as the doors shut tightly, cutting the arm as well.

They both panted on the floor, taking deep breaths for a couple of seconds, and then turned around to see Chris running towards them.