Surviving Raccoon City

The Greenhouse

Unlike the North Wing that was completely dark, the East wing was lite up like a Christmas tree. Now that I could see more than five feet ahead of me I wasn't as nervous. If something is here at least I can see it. Come get me now assholes.We kept walking, going through lobbies after lobbies making me wonder just how large this facility is, and how on earth no one noticed it being built. We finally entered a lab, a large bay window giving us a look inside the greenhouse. A scientist in a hazard suit was plastered to the cracked glass, a large plant trapping him. What the hell were they doing down here?He was clearly dead, from the amount of blood soaking him and the glass having been cracked by how hard his impact was. In his hand was a flashing purple light, the senior staff chip we needed. "Oh god. That's terrible" Leon commented brushing his hand against the cracked glass. I didn't feel sorry though, these were the same people who created this horrid virus. Call me horrible or insensitive all you want, they killed my friend. Fuck them. A door to my left tried to open as I neared, stray vines tired to keep the door closed but it didn't work, the vines gave way giving me access to the halls. Somehow the plant from inside the greenhouse room had expanded into the hallway, vines hanging from the ceiling and covering the walls like a jungle. "Be careful" Leon reminded as we headed in, the vines blocking most of the light in the halls making it quite dark. A body hung from the ceiling, being held by the strong vines, I nudged Leon, letting him know it was there. A weird noise came from ahead, it was hard to even describe how it sounded. It was like a serious of clicks. "You here that?" Leon asked holding out his hand to stop my advances. "Yeah," I answered as he aimed the flashlight up ahead. A plant-like humanoid slowly rose from the ground, its chest area beating yellow as it rose its arms towards us, wiggling like snakes. Leon shot at it, making it stumble back, more strange clicking noises emitted from the new creature as it staggered towards us.His bullets did nothing to deter it as it moved towards us. Leon forced me back when an idea popped into my head. "Stand back" I ordered, coming out from behind him pulling out the flamethrower and igniting the bastard. "Fire beats plant asshole" I yelled as it thrashed in pain, the flames burning its entire body to a crisp. The yellow part of its chest exploded, and it fell over finally dead, the flames slowly dying out. "Nice" Leon commented heading over to the plant thing and nudging it with his boot, making sure it was dead. Its arm broke off as he did so, making him jump back. I snorted, stepping around him "Nice" I teased patting him on the back as he scoffed. The next room held a large map on the wall, asking for an input code, what for I wasn't sure. Behind me, Leon pressed a few buttons on one of the terminals, a loud warning beep when off startling me. "What did you do!" I hissed as he desperately tried to silence the loud noise, pressing all the buttons. "I'm sorry!" he yelled as the AI spoke. "Dispensing solution now," she informed. The beeping turned off as the glass room began to rain as the solution covered the plants. A vial popped out from the same terminal and Leon took it as I waited to see what said solution did. Nothing seemed to happened though and Leon began heading into the green room. "Wait!" I yelled grabbing his arm and pulling him back. "What?" "That scientist was wearing a hazard suit, what if some type of toxic gas was in there?" I warned as he shook his head in disbelief."You're thinking too much," He said shrugging me off and heading inside. "Someone here has too," I muttered bitterly watching him walk inside.He stopped about halfway through when he gripped his chest his face twisted in pain. I froze as he turned around, struggling to breathe as he reached an arm out, before collapsing. "LEON!" I yelled bolting over to him. I slide over to him, my knees getting soaked from the solution as I checked him over trying not to breathe the air as tears prickled at my eyes thinking the worst has happened to Leon.I rolled him onto his back, looking him over as his face twitched. Confused I watched as he struggled to hold back a laugh. That jerk.I slapped him in the face, not hard but not too soft either as I wiped the tears off my face. "You Asshole!" I yelled as he laughed, coming to stand up but I pushed him back down storming away. "I'm sorry!" he called out still laughing as I headed over to the purple light, our at least tired too but the foliage was too thick to reach the man. Wonder what would happen if I torched the place, no that would be too dangerous. I heard Leon walk up beside me, still laughing as he rested a hand on my shoulder. I grabbed it and turned around, twisting his arm in the process with enough pressure to know I was still mad. "Ow, ow, ow. Why would you do that!" he groaned dropping to the floor as I held his arm, twisting his body to try and relieve the pressure. "Serves you right" I growled, trying to stop myself from laughing as well from hearing him complain about his cheek and arm when I released him."Hey look over there," he said getting serious as he pointed towards a hidden hatch. It had the same markings as the map panel did. "How do we open it?" Leon wondered allowed as I memorized the symbols. "I got it, stay here," I said running back to the room and punching in the right keys. The map pinged as I headed back over to Leon who was looking through the now open hatch. "Good job" he praised before heading down first. "Clear" he called up, giving me the go-ahead to come down. Heading through one of those heavy pushes to open doors, we were back to wondering more dark hallways. At the end of the corridor, the room opened to a waiting room. Dead bodies littering the floor, we shot each one in the head, making sure they were all permanently dead. A panel on the wall flashed red gaining my attention. Thinking it might be important I headed over to check it out while Leon examined a trophy. I wasn't able to do anything with the panel so I left it alone turning to Leon who was waving the trophy around when I looked over at him. "What?" I asked confused as to why he was doing that. "Found another passcode" he answered breaking off the top part of the trophy so he could pocket the part with the passcode. "What made you check the trophy in the first place," I asked amazed at the luck he seemed to have. He shrugged. "Guess I'm just to smart for these sneaky scientists" he bragged, Dork.Leaving the bloodied lobby we headed down another hallway, Leon trailing behind me-CRASH. Something crashed through the ceiling panels ahead of me causing me to cry out in fright. The familiar screech of a Licker echoed throughout the halls.I barely had time to react as an arm wrapped around my waist, yanking me to the side as the Licker dove to where I used to be. I crashed against Leon, his hand covering my mouth as he pressed his back to the wall, squeezing my trembling form against himself. My eyes were wide with fear as we watched the Licker wave its tongue around trying to find us. Its head turned towards us and I felt Leon stiffen as I held my breath. Achingly slow, it edged closer to us, its tongue inches from my face. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head waiting for my impending doom as I felt Leon move suddenly. A clang rang out from down the hall- Leon must've thrown something. The licker took off running giving Leon and I the chance to escape into the dark stairwell. I bent over, my hands resting on my knees as I composed myself. It was scary how quickly I was able to calm down, It was as if I was slowly getting used to this hell hole. "Jesus Christ those things are the worst" Leon complained, shaking his head as he calmed down. My shoulder started to burn, recalling my first run-in with one earlier this evening, or was that yesterday? "Don't need to tell me that" I joked, massaging the area near the deep laceration embedded into my shoulder blade. "I ran out of bullets when we cleared that room," he explained, scratching the back of his head."Should've said something, I got ammo in my bag" I informed turning around to give him access. "Main pocket" I informed as he tugged open my back accidentally jolting me back every time he moved something. "You're like my personal inventory" he joked, marveling at all the shit I was caring. "I'm the person you wanna get stuck somewhere with" I joked remembering all the times my friends would joke about how I always had what they needed in my bag. "Duly noted for next time," he said laughing as he zipped closed the bag. "No offenses but I don't think I want there to be a next time." I joked, hoping to god the virus didn't spread to other cities. "Ouch, I thought we were slowly becoming friends" he teased, reloading his shotgun. I hummed in thought before shaking my head. "Nah, more like acquaintances" He shook his head with a laugh as I began our ascent up the stairs. "Really? Acquaintances?"