William Birkin

Claire lands on the ground with a hard thud, her back landing on the grate, and her legs landing on the concrete. The flooring underneath the thing gives way and it comes crashing down in front of her, stumbling, but managing to catch himself with its left arm. As Claire scrambles up to her feet the thing starts to shake. The exposed muscle starts to convulse as the right arm grows slightly larger, the red staring directly at her.

"What the, fuck, are you?" She asks through winded breath as she grabs her gun and starts backing away. She quickly finds herself up against a wall.

"H-Help, me!" The guy cries as he starts stumbling towards her. There's a way around the machinery to her right and she quickly runs that way. The path is short and narrow, within a few steps she's already reached the end, coming across a fork in the road. A longer path going to the right, or continue straight in a small makeshift tunnel.

"Claire!" She hears Sherry cry from above. She looks up to see Sherry standing on a walkway on the other side of the room, "T-There's a ladder here, I'm going to lower it!"

"Don't!" Claire shouts before Sherry can do anything.

What if this thing can climb ladders?

"Wait for my-ah!" Claire jumps out of the way as the guy comes charging at her, swinging the pipe at her. The pipe makes sparks as it scrapes against the concrete. The guy flails the pipe around, hitting everything around him. One of the machines is hit, being bent and causing steam to erupt and fog up the place. Claire runs through the tunnel, the other side leading to a small path going left and right. Directly in front of her is railing, and directly behind it is the abyss going to who knows where.

"Well isn't this just great?" Claire mutters to herself as she turns around. Through all the steam she can just barely see a large glowing orb moving through it. It must be that freakishly large eye. She brings up her gun, and shoots at it through the tunnel. She lands two hits on it, the third shot hitting near the eye. The glowing orb disappears as a groan of pain can be heard.

"Thank god for that blatant weakness," Claire mutters as she quickly reaches into her pocket and grabs some ammo. As she reloads, the man roars in pain. She hears rapid footsteps, and the guy come charging out of the dissipating steam at her. She quickly runs to the right. It swings the pipe, breaking off a piece of the railing.

"Holy shit!" Claire mutters as she runs down the path. There's another split in the path. The left goes right back to where she fell, and the right leads to a large room. It loops around. She quickly runs to the left as the guy charges at her once more. She runs back to the path leading to the tunnel and looks at broken railing. Maybe, just maybe. She runs through the tunnel again, the man still on her tail. She makes a right again and quickly turns around, bringing up her gun.

The man is right behind her, and grabs her with his left arm, lifting her up by the throat. She brings up her gun and shoots the large eye. He let's go of her as he stumbles back a bit, almost in front of the railing.

She unloads all her bullets into the eye, causing the guy to stumble back as he groans in pain. He falls to one knee, the muscle around the eye going over it as his right arm shrinks a bit. The man sits there, holding his left hand over his right shoulder. Claire runs back around to the other side of the tunnel. As she reaches the tunnel, the man starts rising to his feet. Claire puts her pistol away and grabs her grenade launcher. She shoots at the man. He catches the flame grenade with his right hand, which absorbs the explosion. His right arm starts to convulse and grow bigger again, the eye opening back up.

"No fucking way!" Claire exclaims as she quickly reloads. She shoots at him again, the man too slow to react. The explosion hits him, causing him to stumble back, but not enough to fall into the abyss, "Just fall!" Claire shouts as she grabs her last incendiary round and loads it into the launcher. She shoots it, and lands another direct hit. He stumbles back more, his feet starting to slip off the edge, but he catches himself, grabbing onto the railing with his right hand.

"Sh-Sherry..!" The man cries out.

"Claire, catch!" Sherry cries out. Claire turns and looks up to see Sherry drop down a grenade.

"Thanks!" She calls out as she turns back to the man. She pulls the pin and aims, "Eat this you son of a bitch!" She throws the grenade. It flies through the air, spinning towards him. As he starts to pull himself up, the grenade flies into his face. The grenade goes off, blowing up in his face and pushing him over the edge. His wailing quickly fades away as he disappears into the abyss below, the darkness swallowing him up.

"Alright, it's all clear now," Claire says as she catches her breath. Sherry unlocks the ladder which extends down to the lower floor. Claire climbs up the ladder, reuniting with Sherry.

"Are you ok?" Sherry asks.

"I'm fine, thanks to you," She replies as she rubs the top of Sherry's head, "Did you have that grenade on you the whole time?"

"I found it," Sherry replies, holding her hands behind her back. Claire looks back at the broken walkway that leads to where they came from.

"Looks like we have to keep going forward," Claire states, "Come on," The two of them walk down the walkway, making a right and up a short flight of stairs into a control room. A control panel with several buttons and a lever sits in front of them, the wall behind the panel made of glass, overlooking the lower floor. A part of the path has been disconnected, stopping them from being able to continue going forward. Claire walks up to the control panel and starts looking at all the various buttons.

"One of the these must move-" Sherry walks up to the panel and pulls on the lever. The path piece starts moving back into place, "Look at you, miss mechanic," Claire comments. Sherry giggles a bit.

They exit the room through the other dorway, walking along a path made of thick metal hanging from the ceiling by sturdy supports. They walk over the side of the lower floor and the abyss.

…

"You escaped me once before, but not this time," A man mutters to himself as he sits at his desk, watching Claire and Sherry walk along the walkway. He gets up from his chair, and opens up a secret exit.

...

Claire reloads her gun as she and Sherry continue along the path as it turns to the right, leading into a small closed off room. The room has a large machine in it, splitting it into two thin halls. Walking around the machine, the other side of the room is slightly longer, a ladder leading up somewhere.

"I'll go first," Claire says as she holsters her gun. She climbs up the ladder going into a thin vertical tunnel, reaching a manhole covering. She pushes up it on, slowly sliding it off. She climbs up into a well lit parking garage, police cars scattered around. A large exit stands a few meters before her, a gate made of bars blocking the path. A single police car sits behind it, it's lights shining into the garage. She scans the area, not seeing anyone or anything around.

"Alright, you can come on up," Claire calls down to Sherry. Sherry climbs up and the two of them head over to the exit.

"I remember this place," Sherry says. She runs over to the gate, "My mom would take me through here, to the orphanage!"

"The orphanage?"

"Yeah, she'd take me to her work through there,"

"Oh-kay, well let's head there then," A card scanner sits by the gate, "Of course," Claire mutters, "You, didn't happen to find a keycard too did ya?" She asks Sherry. Sherry shakes her head, "Alright, well," She walks up to the gate, "Maybe we can lift it up," Claire squats down as Sherry walks over to the gate. They grab it and try to pull it up. It barely moves up, then refuses to go any higher, "Looks we're-"

"Sherry," A man's voice calls out from the right. They turn to see a large man in a button-up shirt and vest walking up to them, "I thought you're mother told you to wait at the police station," Sherry quickly darts behind Claire.

"Who are-" Claire goes to speak, but the man draws a gun on her.

"On the ground, hands behind your head.

"What? You can't be-" The man shoots past her, hitting a brake light on one of the cars.

"On the ground. Now," He commands. Claire hesitantly lifts her hands up in the air, going down onto her knees, "Sherry, tie her hands," He states as he tosses a zip-tie at her feet. Sherry steps away from the zip tie.

"Do it now, or she dies" The man threatens as he walks up to Claire, pointing the gun at her head. Sherry grabs the tie and walks over to Claire, pulling her hands behind her and putting the zip-tie around her wrists.

"Make sure it's tight," The man orders.

"O-Okay," Sherry replies nervously.

"Good, now come on," The man grabs Sherry by the wrists and pulls her over to the car reader.

"Let her go you piece of shit!" Claire shouts as the man puts a card into the machine, the gate coming up.

"Oh, don't worry," The man says, rubbing the barrel of the gun against her cheek, "I'll come back for you once I finish my other masterpiece,"

"If you hurt her I'm gonna-"

"Quiet!" The man interrupts, slapping her with the back of his hand, making her fall to the ground. As she's about to get up, she spots some broken pieces of glass on the ground.

"Let me go!" Sherry cries out as she tries to break free of the man's grip.

"Come, on! Sherry! You're mother is waiting for you!" The man states as he jerks her towards him. As they exit the garage and start heading up the ramped street the gate starts coming back down. Claire moves over to the glass and grabs a piece, using it to cut the zip-tie off. She quickly gets up, running at the gate, but it's too late, it's already back down.

"Sherry!" She calls out as she grabs the gate.

"Claire!"

"I'm going to get you back, I promise!" Sherry and the man quickly disappear out of sight, "That bastard! When I get my hands on him!" She bangs a fist on the gate. As she takes a step back, her foot brushes against something. She looks down and sees a silver pendant. A symbol of a triangle with two snakes intertwining and a circle in the center is engraved on it. She holds it tightly in her hand before putting it in her pocket.

"Gotta find a keycard…" She glances over in the direction the man came from and spots an open door, then heads over to it.

…

Leon wakes up in a weird room, a piece of paper on him. A massive headache fills his head. He pulls off the gauze and pad as he sits up. He grabs the paper and reads it.

"Me and Sherry went on ahead to find a way out. If we're not back by the time you wake up, call me on the radio. There's some handgun and shotgun ammo on the desk,"

Leon gets up, and grabs his radio.

"Claire, you there?" Leon asks into it. There's nothing but static, "Claire?" Nothing but static, "Shit, that can't be good," He mutters as he puts his radio back on his belt. He grabs the ammo on the desk, putting it into an ammo pouch, and heads down the hallway. Turning the corner, an empty elevator shaft stands before him. He presses a button and hears a machine turn on. After a few seconds, an old elevator rises up into view. He steps inside and presses the down button, descending into the concrete stairwell.