Lights Out

As Derek runs to the back of the upper main lab, the elevator reaches the upper floor, Ada stepping out to see Derek heading through the door on the other side of the room into the chemical mixing lab. Derek enters a room a little smaller than the sub lab, a large black counter in the middle of the table with various scientific instruments, most of the vials are empty but some have liquids of different colors. A corpse in a hazmat suit lays up against the wall on the other side of the room, near an empty dumbwaiter sitting in the wall a couple feet above.

"You find the email too?" Ada asks as she enters the room.

"Yeah, I have the instructions right here," Derek replies as he holds up the instructions.

"Warning, power plant in critical condition. Four minutes until meltdown. All personnel evacuate the facility-"

The automated voice is suddenly cut off and all the lights go out. Ada turns on a flashlight on her belt, a cone of light shining on Derek and the counters which reflect it back. Thanks to the counters being so reflective, most of the room is dimly lit, allowing them to just be able to make out where things are.

"I hope that's what he meant to do," Ada mutters as her and Derek look up at the lights in the ceiling. The lack of light in the room gives it an even more menacing feeling than when the red lights were on, one that would make you want to stand near someone so you know you're not alone, but neither one wants to do that.

"How are we suppose to make this stuff now?" Derek asks as he looks down at the instructions in his hands

"Hey, you guys alright?" Jacob's voice asks through the radio, "I'm restarting the power plant so it'll be a minute or two before it comes back on,"

"We're fine, just caught a bit off guard from the lights turning off,"

"Were you guys able to find anything?"

"I found this thing in an email called Phoenix, it's what Luther used to bring me back from the dead,"

"Perfect. Do you guys know if they had any at the lab?"

"Luther sent a vial to this lab, but that was months ago according to the email," Ada states, "So that one's out of the question...but, they do have two storage rooms and a cryo chamber, maybe they'll have one there, but if they don't we have the instructions on how to make it,"

"Let me know if you find it. Once the power plant is back in working order I'll come meet you guys back in the lab,"

"Alright," Derek replies before putting the radio on his pocket.

"So, where do-"

"I'll check the cryo-chamber," Ada interrupts, already having the map open on her phone, "You can check the storage rooms below," She turns her phone screen to Derek, showing him the map, "The first storage room is connected to the upper west wing, which is connected to this room. The second one is connected to the lower west wing and with the power out, using an elevator is out of the question. The fastest way down is using a ladder in the garden room, here," She grabs the small flashlight off her handgun and hands it to him, "Be, careful," She states firmly as Derek takes the flashlight from her hand, "There's a lot more than just zombies in here with us. I saw, something, back in the break room, it looked like G,"

"Thanks," Derek replies with a slight nod, "You too," And with that the two of them split up once more. Ada goes back to the main lab while Derek walks to the other side of the room, going through a door on the left side. He enters a large open room, shining his flashlight around. On the other side of the room is an elevator, the doors on both sides of it open, the flashlight not strong enough to show him what's on the other side of it. The rest of the room's empty except for a single corpse laying against the wall in the corner of the room. He moves his flashlight away from it, letting it sleep undisturbed once more, before illuminating a door to his right. He walks through the room, his light footsteps echoing through. As he walks through the darkness he starts to feel the air growing colder as there's nothing to regulate the place's temperature now.

As he treks through the dark room he starts to feel like something is over his shoulder, but he knows nothing is there. The feeling causes something inside him to reawaken. He can feel the virus pulsating inside him, the blind rage, the mindless aggression starting to heat up and boil. He tries to shake it off as he opens the door to the storage room. Nothing but boxes on shelves fill the room. As he closes the door, the soft click of it closing awakens the zombie in the corner. He turns around to hear it's moans of death as it slowly rises to its feet, the blood on its lab coat glistening in the light.

Derek hurries over to the elevator, as he enters it his light is able to shine into the garden room, various plants inside a large glass dome. Entering the room he sees it's as massive as the main lab, only it's in a circular shape with the dome taking up most of the space. A grated walkway lies the outside of the dome, making up the second floor of the room. In the far back of the room to Derek's right is a sign on a wall with an arrow pointing down, that must be where the ladder is. As he walks along on the walkways the grating beneath his feet echoed through the large empty room. With how much bigger this room is compared to the west wing, it seems like the darkness is much denser and his field of vision much smaller.

As he nears the ladder a pain in his head comes out of nowhere, like someone is banging a hammer on the inside of his skull. He stops in his tracks as he places a hand on his head, unable to soothe the growing pain. He can feel his body start to heat up, and the feelings inside boil up again.

"No-" He mutters to himself as he tries to fight back, "I won't...I, can't…lose control..." His legs start to feel heavy as hunches forward, the pain starting to become unbearable. He drops his flashlight as he falls to his knees, feeling his heart beating in his chest as everything starts to become stained in a blood red hue. The lights suddenly come on, the sudden brightness hurting his eyes. He falls onto his side, rolling onto his back as he covers his eyes to protect them from the lights. As his eyes start to adjust, the pain slowly goes away. Soon he's laying on the grating, catching his breath as his arms lay at his sides, the red hue fading away.

I don't have much time...I need to find Phoenix, before it's too late.

As Derek gets up he hears the zombie from the west wing making its way into the garden room. He grabs his flashlight and gets up, going to the ladder. Looking down he sees the door leading into the large dome, nothing seems to be at the bottom of the ladder. The zombie a good couple yards away, Derek makes his way down the ladder, the area still unsettling quiet with his footsteps on the ladder echoing through the whole place.

Making his way around the dome to the elevator shaft, he sees lots of green things on the other side of the dome, the glass distorting them and making them look all wavy. Some bright shades or red, orange, pink, yellow, and blue can be seen inside. Making his way to the elevator shaft the doors he sees they're closed. Walking up to them, he presses a button to the right of them which lights up. He can hear the machinery inside start to move as the elevator makes its way down. There's a bit of a loud thud off in the distance, but it must be some other machinery somewhere else turning on. As the elevator nears the bottom he hears the sound of something screeching in pain as the machinery struggles to go down a bit. Then there's a bit of a loud thud as the unnatural noises stop and the elevator reaches the bottom. The doors on both sides open up, showing a bit of an indent near the middle of the elevator floor.

Derek cautiously enters, staying away from the middle of the elevator as he makes his way to the lower west wing. The room looks exactly like the upper west wing except there's only three doors instead of four, no door to his left. Nothing appears to be in the general area, except whatever got crushed by the elevator. The door to the chemical mixing lab looks to have been clawed by something large. Entering the room, a large counter sits in the middle, more claw marks clearly visible. The door to the right has also been heavily damaged, already on the verge of falling off its hinges.

Cabinets line the walls of the room, filled with vials full of various liquids. Some of them have been damaged like some large animal had been jumping around all over the place. As Derek starts to walk around the room, looking for anything labeled "Phoenix", he hears something scraping against metal behind him. He turns to the elevator to see a large indent in the floor. Suddenly a large claw emerges, breaking through the metal, then another one. Soon the head of some creature comes crawling out. It looks like one of the creatures he had read about, a Licker. It's brain has swollen to a large size, covering its eyes and nose, if it even has one.

It's mouth sits right under where its brain ends, filled with rows of sharp teeth that look almost as deadly as it's massive claws that it used to break through the metal. Any skin the creature once had is now gone showing its highly developed muscles that give it immense strength. Its lower body seems to still be stuck under the elevator as it tries to pull itself through the hole. It lets out an inhuman roar of agony as it suddenly lurches forward, the sounds of bones breaking and muscle being torn apart fills the air. Derek can see it's upper torso is actually tearing apart from the rest of its body, nothing but a long thick spine of sorts keeping them connected. The spine looks like a centipede, being very bumpy and having several tiny legs along the side all wiggling, sending a shiver down Derek's spine.

This is not a normal Licker, Luther's mutated it with something else, and I'm not sticking around to find out.

Derek quickly turns around, running through the chemical storage room and through the heavily damaged door which breaks off as Derek flings it open and runs into a large room filled with more of those giant test tubes. A nearby one is broken, the liquid inside spilled all over the floor, guess that's where it came from. He runs to the other side of the room, finding another elevator. He presses the button several times as he constantly glances at the door to the chemical storage for any sign of the thing. He hears a door burst open on the other side of the room, unable to see through the walls of tubes.

As his eyes dart from side to side, trying to get any hint of where the Licker might be he starts to feel the pain in is head come back. The pain grows much faster this time, somehow becoming even more painful, forcing him to lean back against a wall to keep himself up. Everything starts becoming red and his vision starts to become impaired. He falls backwards as the elevator door opens up behind him. He's barely able to make out a large blobby thing moving towards him. He pushes himself up, pressing any button he can, the elevator doors closing right before the thing can enter. He sits back down against the wall of the elevator as the pain in his head starts to go through the rest of his body.

He can feel his body heating up as he starts to lose control, the virus overtaking him.

…

Jacob enters the upper main lab. As he walks up to the center of the room he hears a door to his left open up. He sees Ada walk through.

"Any luck?" Jacob asks as he meets Ada halfway.

"No," She replies as they stand a couple feet away from each other.

"Where's Derek?"

"He went to check the other storage-" They stop at the sound of something breaking down below. They soon hear another noise coming from the elevator shaft, like something being thrown into the elevator. They soon hear it start coming up. As the two cautiously approach the elevator shaft, weapons at the ready, Ada notices something.

"Um, I think you're gums are bleeding," Ada states.

Jacob wipes his teeth against his sleeve, seeing some blood smear on it, "Guess I missed a spot," He replies, Ada glancing over at him before looking back to the elevator. As the elevator reaches the upper floor, the doors open up, Derek sitting on the ground. When he looks up at sees them his expression fills with hatred as he glares at them. He slowly rises to his feet before he starts to walk toward them, Ada and Jacob starting to back up.

"Ada, you have the instructions to make Phoenix right?" Jacob asks..

"Y-Yeah," She replies.

"Go make it, I'll keep him distracted,"

"What?"

"Just go!"

Ada quickly takes off towards the chemical mixing lab, Derek turning to her and walking in her direction. Jacob runs up to Derek punching him in the side of the head, causing him to stumble sideways into the wall.

"You're not going anywhere, not until we get that shit out of you," Jacob states as Derek recovers from the blow, turning his attention to him, "Until then, you're stuck with me,"