Capítulo 10: I'm Going to Save You – Part 2
Sublevel 2 – Maintenance Tunnels
A thick, sticky silence spreads like a living spiderweb. It's not just the chemical stench of the abandoned infirmary… now there's something more: a dank, rancid smell of decades-old mold and dried excrement. The air is heavy with tension, wrapping around their throats and making each breath an effort.
The smell changes.
A sour trail intensifies as they move forward. The narrow corridor trembles with each step. For brief moments, it seems they hear noises in the walls… or from within them.
"This wasn't on the map," Rebecca murmurs, looking at her PDA. "Maintenance tunnels? There's no record of this level in the original schematics."
Richard walks ahead, shotgun slung over his shoulder. The concrete hallway narrows, with exposed ducts and loose cables hanging like vines. The humidity is suffocating. Every flickering light seems like it could be the last.
A creaking sound.
They both stop.
"Did you hear that?" she whispers.
"Too close," Richard replies.
A manhole cover falls to the floor with a crash, as if something had violently pushed it up from below. Richard aims in that direction… nothing. Only darkness.
But something is there.
Claws scraping against the concrete.
Heavy breathing.
And then, a brutal, guttural shriek that shakes the structure.
"Rebecca, run!"
From a side tunnel, a simian creature emerges, its fur ragged, eyes white and mouth dripping with saliva: an Eliminator.
A hybrid of primate and T-virus. Fast. Intelligent.
Rebecca fires. The creature dodges the first shot. Richard aims and fires again: BOOM! The shotgun blast tears into its shoulder, but the impact barely slows it.
The Eliminator roars and lunges.
Rebecca falls, the creature on top of her.
"NO!" Richard shouts, swinging the butt of his shotgun at the monster. The beast bats it away with one enormous hand, sending him crashing into the wall.
The creature bites.
Rebecca screams.
Richard struggles to his feet, grabs a bar with a broken tip… and plunges it into the side of the mutated ape.
A shriek. The beast writhes, and Rebecca, seizing the moment, rolls to one side, giving Richard a clear shot to fire his last round straight into its neck.
BOOM.
The Eliminator collapses, convulsing.
Silence once more… until a distant roar shakes them.
It was not the only one.
"We can't keep going through the tunnels," Rebecca pants, wiping the blood from her arm. "They're going to corner us."
"Going back isn't an option. They're coming back the way we came. We have to find another way out."
Richard looks at the ceiling. There's a rusty hatch with barely legible lettering:
"Assembly Area – Sublevel 1."
"Here," Richard says.
They can't open it with brute force. Rebecca grabs a crate to reach the edge. Richard pushes it into place. She climbs up first, then offers him a hand.
Just as he begins to climb, another shadow emerges in the tunnel.
A second Eliminator.
Richard takes a swipe to the leg, nearly knocking him off balance.
"HANG ON!"
Rebecca fires two shots with her pistol. The monster barely staggers back. Richard scrambles up and closes the hatch just before the creature can grab him.
Up above: darkness.
Humidity.
Mechanical noise.
But at least... no teeth or claws.
Unknown Sublevel – Corridors of Fear
The halls are bathed in a nauseating gloom. Emergency lights flicker, throwing reddish flashes across the metal walls covered in mold and dried blood. The buzzing of broken fluorescent tubes accompanies their steps, like a dying insect.
"You feeling better?" Richard asks, glancing at Rebecca out of the corner of his eye.
"Yes... a little," she replies. Her voice is steady, but dark circles linger under her eyes. Cold sweat beads on her forehead, even though the air isn't hot.
Richard doesn't press the issue. He is exhausted, too. Both of them limp along, their movements uncoordinated from fatigue, wounds, and the accumulated tension. The silence is a torture anticipating the next horror.
"Wait..." Rebecca says, leaning against the wall and taking a deep breath. Her hand trembles slightly as she touches her neck.
"Are you okay?"
"Just... dizzy. I'm fine. Let's go. We can't stay here."
They move forward, passing a series of metallic cylinders. Empty cryogenic chambers with their glass shattered from within. A plaque reads: "Subject C-09: Eliminator."
Richard stops.
"What is that?"
Rebecca quickly inspects a damaged panel on the side. Amid exposed wires and torn papers, she finds a note taped in place:
"Eliminators become more aggressive with high-frequency sounds. Keep them isolated. Do not let them escape. If they do... seal off the entire sublevel."
A low roar, like a cross between a monkey and a pig, echoes ahead.
"Too late," Richard says.
A metallic scraping. Something scrambles up the walls. Leaping. Claws.
And then, they see it.
A simian creature, muscular, its patchy skin smeared with dried blood. Its eyes blank, its snout twisted in a rictus of pure violence. The Eliminator fixes its gaze on them and, without hesitation, charges forward on all fours.
"Back off!" Richard screams, firing.
The creature dodges like lightning. It leaps off the wall and lands on Rebecca. She screams, struggling. The monster's teeth graze her shoulder. Richard fires at point-blank range, sending it flying backward, its chest torn to shreds.
Old Server Room – Unknown Sublevel
The door seals behind them with a rusty creak. Richard secures the safety bar as Rebecca slowly lets herself drop against the wall, panting. Her skin is paler than usual. Drops of sweat roll down her neck as if she had just broken a fever.
"Are you sure it wasn't a bite?" Richard asks quietly.
Rebecca looks away.
"No... it wasn't deep. It just grazed me."
"That's not what I asked you."
She stays quiet. She examines her arm. The wound is superficial, but something inside her isn't feeling right. The cold. The dizziness. That sense that something is wrong in her veins.
"I can't turn, Richard," she finally whispers. "No... I can't end up like them."
He crouches before her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"You're not going to," he says.
"You don't know that. You've seen what the infected do. If I turn... if I lose control..." She swallows, her voice breaking. "I won't want to hurt you. Promise me you won't let that happen."
He doesn't answer right away. He just looks at her. For the first time since everything started, Rebecca doesn't look like the determined young woman of Bravo Team. Now she's just someone afraid of herself.
"I'm not going to leave you alone in this. And I'm not going to kill you. Not as long as there's another option."
She lowers her gaze. A faint sigh escapes her lips. The veins in her neck stand out for a moment. Richard frowns but says nothing.
"I'm going to leave you here," he finally says. "This room is secure. The lock can't be opened from the outside. No one will come in unless you want them to. I'm going to look for a solution. An antidote, anything."
"And what if you don't come back?"
"Then you'll know what to do."
Rebecca bites her lip, holding back a mix of anger and pain. But eventually she nods.
"Just promise me one thing, Richard..."
"Tell me."
"If I come back, let me still be me."
He looks at her for a moment. Then he stands up.
"I'll bring back something that keeps you as you are. I promise."
He hands her his pistol and loads a round into the chamber.
"Just in case."
Rebecca watches him until he disappears through the metal hatch.
Exterior Corridor – Forgotten Records Area
Richard advances through a low corridor, rife with dampness and shadows. The echo of his footsteps bounces off the vaulted ceiling, where rusted pipes creak as if they were breathing.
He passes by a room with shattered glass. Inside, empty medical capsules and scattered documents. On one of the tables, a damp note taped with a rusty syringe:
"MEDICAL RECORD – COMPOUND 'D'"
"Serum D shows a reduction in viral effects in subjects infected in early stages. It is not a cure. But it delays the process, preserving the host's consciousness for days, even weeks."
"Stored in: Containment Unit – Sublevel ALPHA."
Richard grips the paper tightly. It has an address. An opportunity.
He turns to go back... but then he hears it.
A wet sound. Like heavy flesh sliding over metal.
And then...
A thud.
The wall to his right explodes inward. From the rubble emerges a gigantic silhouette.
He is taller than a man, with a chest exposed by the incomplete mutation, an eyelidless eye, and a metal arm that looks like a living weapon. His breathing is ragged, like a hellish locomotive.
Richard steps back and takes aim.
He fires.
The creature doesn't even flinch. It charges forward, breaking pipes in its path. He fires again. It ricochets off the armor of its mutated arm.
Richard takes off running.
The corridor vibrates with each step the creature takes. He turns into a narrow intersection. Another crash. The Prototyrant rips through part of the wall with its arm, almost grazing his back.
He leaps over a railing to a lower level, knees screaming in pain. He turns right. An emergency light blinks.
He approaches a heavy door—it's open!
He runs inside and pulls the lever.
CLANK!
The hatch slams shut just as the creature's arm crashes into the metal. A massive dent remains as evidence of its force.
Silence.
Richard leans against the wall, breathing hard. Blood drips from his arm.
"Shit..."
He slowly stands up. The room is completely dark, but in the distance... a glowing sign.
"Sublevel ALPHA – Restricted Medical Laboratory."
He can barely manage a smile. Exhausted. Tense.
"I'm close, Rebecca... hang on."
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