Free Resident Evil: Underworld by S. D. Perry Page B

that he wouldn’t be needing them.
    He hurried through the door, deciding that he could berate himself for forgetting the keys later, wondering how things had gone so out of control in such a short period of time. Only ten minutes ago he’d been sipping brandy, relaxing—
    —and ten minutes from now, you could be dead. Reston hurried.
    * * *
    The elevator was big, at least ten feet across and twelve deep. John squinted as it rose into view, the harsh light from a naked bulb in the ceiling nearly blinding after their long stint in darkness.
    At least it’s empty. Now all we gotta do is avoid getting ambushed and murdered when we hit the bottom .
    The elevator came to a smooth stop. The latch on the mesh gate unlocked and the gate slid into the wall. John was closest. He glanced at David, who nodded a go-ahead.
    “First floor, shoes, menswear, Umbrella assholes,” John said, not particularly bothered that he didn’t get a laugh. Everyone had their own preferred method for dealing with tension. Besides, his sense of humor was more fully developed.
    Right over their heads, he thought, scanning the walls of the elevator car for anything unusual. Well, maybe not over their heads; it was more that they just didn’t appreciate his fine wit. He kept himself amused, that was the important thing, it kept him from freezing up or turning into a basket case.
    The elevator looked okay, dusty but solid. John stepped carefully inside, Leon right behind—
    —then John heard a noise, just as a red light started to blink on the lift’s control panel.
    “Be still,” John hissed, holding his hand up, not wanting anyone else to get on until he saw what the light was for—
    —and the mesh gate closed behind him, the latch snapping shut. He spun, saw that Leon was on board, saw Claire and Rebecca lunging for the gate from the other side and David running for the keypad.
    There was a rasping click from overhead and Leon, closer to the front, shouted at Claire and Rebecca—
    “Get back!”
    —because the wall panel was coming down, slamming down, and the girls were stumbling back. John caught a final glimpse of their shocked and pale faces in the gloom—
    —and the door had closed, and although he hadn’t touched a thing, the elevator was going down. John crouched by the controls, punching at the buttons, and saw what the flashing red light was for.
    “Manual override,” he said, and stood up, looking at the young cop, not sure what to say. Their simple plan had just been totally screwed.
    “Shit,” Leon said, and John nodded, thinking he’d summed it up perfectly.

EIGHT
    “Shit ,” Claire hissed, feeling helpless and afraid, wanting to beat against the wall panel until it released the two men.
    Trap, it was a trap, a setup —
    “Listen… it’s going down,” Rebecca said, and Claire heard it, too. She turned, saw David tapping the keypad with one hand, flashlight in the other, his face grim.
    “David,” Claire started, and stopped as David spared her a pointed glance, a look that told her to wait. He barely paused in his number punching, returning his entire attention back to the controls.
    She turned to Rebecca, saw that Rebecca was chewing at her lip nervously, watching David.
    “He must be trying all the codes,” she whispered to Claire, and Claire nodded, feeling sick with worry, wanting to talk action but realizing that David needed to concentrate. She compromised, leaning in to whisper back to Rebecca; if she just stood there quietly in the freezing dark, she’d lose her mind.
    “Think it was Trent?”
    Rebecca frowned, then shook her head. “No. I think we hit a silent alarm or something. I saw a light flashing in the elevator before the gate closed.”
    Rebecca sounded just as scared as she was, just as terrified, and Claire thought about how close she and John must have gotten. As close as Leon and herself, maybe. Claire instinctively reached for her hand and Rebecca took it, squeezing it tightly, both