A Star's Descent

Chapter Twenty-One: New Direction

A Star's Descent

By evolution-500

Disclaimer: House of the Dead and Resident Evil are properties belonging to SEGA and Capcom respectively. I do not own any of these characters.

Chapter Twenty-One: New Direction

Rebecca shivered. "Did you guys feel that?" the medic asked.

"What do you mean?" Marini asked.

"I don't know," she said. "It's like...it's like something's changed."

Coen nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I feel it too."

"Perhaps the wheel of fortune rolls in our favor," Marini suggested.

Star tilted his head in thought. "Perhaps..." he said as he glanced at the hole in floor.

Rebecca watched him as he fidgeted nervously.

She had never seem him so anxious.

Coen shook his head. "I don't know, fellas," he replied. "I'm still waiting for a million dollars, a cheeseburger, six-pack..." The convict then started to make a suggestive feature over his chest with his hands, "and a smoking hot babe with a huge-"

Rebecca cut the convict off with a look.

"Uh...smile!" He feigned innocence. "What? Why are you looking at me like that? That was totally what I was going to say!"

"Uh huh," Rebecca deadpanned. "Yeah. Right."

He shrugged. "Meh, whatever."

Looking away, the medic glanced around the room that they were in. It appeared to be some sort of laboratory. To her right were a pair of desks, one with a monitor at the end. Behind the desks were shelves with clusters of jars and test tubes, while to her left was some sort of cabinet, its shelves lined with fluid-filled jars. Once she finished casting her eyes around, Rebecca noticed a scrap of paper on a nearby chair. Picking it up, she studied it curiously.

"What's that?" Aiken asked.

"'Laboratory Manager's Diary,'" Rebecca read aloud. "'Today, under Director Marcus' orders, I changed the platform entry code. Later, I asked what the source of the entry code was. He told me it was based on something significant in his children's growth. But, the director's a loner; he isn't married, and he sure doesn't have any children...What did he mean?'"

Coen scoffed. "So the douchebag's a loner, what a surprise!" he muttered. "Who the hell would like this asshole, anyway? Hell, why would anyone like him, for that matter?"

"To feel good about themselves, perhaps?" Aiken shrugged.

"So, if he has no family... where does that youth in the white robe fit in?" Rebecca pondered.

"Assuming that he isn't Marcus' son, do you think he could have been a student?" Star asked. "His notes make fond mention of "William" and "Albert", after all."

She shook her head in doubt. "I don't think so," Rebecca replied. "Besides, why would he be dressed like that? A frilly robe isn't something a practicing doctor would wear."

"Gay lover, perhaps?" Coen shrugged. "It could explain his scintillating sense of fashion."

"Focus, people," Marini chastised. "We need to look around and see if there's a way out of here. Come on."

Turning around the corner of the desks, Rebecca followed the other survivors, then froze. Past the shelves were four enormous two or so meter tall glass tubes filled with some unidentified fluid, probably formaldehyde, each containing a human specimen. Rebecca suddenly recalled the vision she had back on the train, of that strange netherworld with the encased figures and the alien experience she felt, and paled.