Clock Tower

Two lickers are on the walls of the hallway. The closest one is on the ceiling. It lunges at them, Claire and Leon jumping to opposite sides of the hallway, not slowing down. As the first one flies past them, the second one, which is on the wall on Leon's side, starts to rear its head back. Claire grabs the knife from her belt, and throws at it, the dagger plunging into its shoulder and causing it to fall to the ground. Leon leaps over it and they turn the corner. They run down and enter the small room behind the operations room. The door to the records room is to their left, a heart symbol on it. Claire fumbles through her belt pouch, grabbing the heart key and unlocking the door.

Entering the room, they spot a lever with a bright yellow block at the bottom on a table directly to their right. Leon grabs it and they run back out, through the small room and back out into the hall. The two lickers from before are turning the corner. They quickly dive to the side as both lickers lash their tongues out. As they get up, Leon draws his shotgun. They head for the door to the right leading to the west office, Leon blasting one of the lickers as they try to slash them with its claw. They run through the office, no idea how close or far the tyrant may be, and hurry into the main hall.

Running up the stairs and down the walkway, they finally take a breather once they enter the library. Both of them stand their for a solid few seconds as they catch their breath. Once they recover, Claire and Leon head over to the bookshelves on wheels, Leon reattaching the lever and lowering the car jack. The bookshelf comes down with a heavy thud. Leon moves the car jack away from the bookshelf and grabs onto the shelf handle.

"I'll get this one," Claire says as she grabs the bookshelf next to Leon's. Leon moves his shelf over, Claire quickly following. The three shelves line up perfectly, making a bridge for the walkway up above. They head back to the other side of the room, Claire grabbing the gear and the two of them walking up the stairs. They make their way across to the other side, carefully walking across the shelves to the door leading to the third floor of the main hall. They open the door and step out into a thin walkway. Nothing but a stone fence and pillars preventing them from falling down into the main hall below. The first floor looks a lot farther down from way up here.

The lights down below can't reach all the way up to the third floor, nothing but moonlight coming in from windows in the roof lighting the way. They walk down the path, their footsteps lightly echoing above. The whole place is silent. Not even the wind nor rain can reach them here. Walking down to the end of the hall, a door sits in the right corner. Leon checks the doorknob, it's unlocked. They enter a large room made claustrophobic from all the machiner in it. Some scaffolding has been placed around and under a massive bell hanging from the ceiling. The air is filled with dust, and the room is even dimmer than the hallway. The sounds of moving gears comes from a machine on the other side of the scaffolding. On the scaffolding just below the bell, is a bright orange box.

"That must be it," Leon says as he points to it. It's too high up for them to reach.

They walk over to the other side of the scaffolding. seeing a large machine standing a few feet tall, going along most of the width of the room. It's connected to gears and parts that go up to an upper floor in the room.

There's a glass panel on the side, opened up to reveal some smaller gears sitting on the left and right side, an empty slot to put a gear in the middle. The gear on the right is turning while the right one is stationary. Their gear is way too big to fit in the slot. Walking to the right of the machine, they spot some stairs that are being held up out of reach. Underneath, back towards the entrance, is a machine connected to it. They head over, and find a much large empty slot for a gear.

Claire sets the gear into the slot, and presses a button. The gears turn, the stairs suddenly shifting down a few inches before slowly coming down. The gears stop turning as her and Leon head for the stairs. They head up, walking on thinner paths, and see a large clock made of stained glass. It's connected to the machine downstairs. The minute hand is stopped right before the three.

The box is too far away for them to be able to reach it.

"How the hell are we suppose to get it now?" Claire asks as they look around. Leon glances at the clock.

"If we make the bell ring, maybe it'll push it off,"

"That might damage the part,"

"True...but, does it look like we have any other choice?"

"...Alright, let's, get this clock working again,"

Walking over to the clock machine, a smaller gear that's too small for the slot is placed on it.

Leon takes the gear out and they head back downstairs, placing the small gear into the slot. It connects the other gears, causing several more pieces of the machine to start moving, the machinery becoming much louder.

"We need to find that other gear, quick, before that thing figures out where we are," Leon states.

"Hopefully it's in this room," Claire responds. They start looking the lower section, not finding anything, until Claire realizes that the large gear would fit perfectly in the missing lost upstairs.

"Found it," She states as she pulls the gear out. They head upstairs, and put the gear in the slot. It starts to rotate, the clock suddenly coming to life, the minute hand finally reaching its destination. The bell suddenly starts to swing back and forth, ringing throughout the whole room. Claire and Leon cover their ears. The swinging makes the bell break off its supports, falling onto the scaffolding and sending it all crashing down to the floor below with a loud bang.

"Shit," They both mutter before they hurry downstairs. The box wasn't crushed luckily and sits away from the bell. Leon picks it up and opens the box, it looks practically empty aside from a small little square thing. He reaches in and pulls it out, it's perfectly fine.

"That big box for such a tiny little part?" Claire comments as they look at the electronic piece, "At least it's alright," She shrugs. They both freeze when they hear distant footsteps stomping towards them. They're coming from the hall, and they'll reach the door very soon. Leon and Claire frantically look around, spotting a door on the other side of the room. They sprint for it, running through into a hallway. They hurry down it, turning the corner, only to reach a barricade. Before they can go back to the clock tower, they hear a distant door slam open. They go as far down the hall as possible, their backs against the barricade as they ready their guns.

They hear distant footsteps creak the wood flooring. There's a loud boom as the door to the hallway opens up. There's slow, heavy footsteps making their way towards the corner. The footsteps suddenly stop, leaving nothing but dead silence in the building. Their heartbeats pound in their ears as they stand there, frozen. The footsteps start moving again, back towards the clock tower. They jump a bit when the door slams open again. They stand there for a bit, before peeking over the corner. It's gone, it's footsteps growing more and more distant. After waiting some more, they head to the door, checking to see if it's in the clock tower. It's empty.

Heading inside they head to the door leading to the hallway. Leon checks first, peeking his head out. He freezes when he sees the silhouette of the tyrant down the hall to the left. He's relieved when he realizes its going through the door back into the library. They step out into the hallway, and go to the other side, to the door leading to the east upper storage room.