The shrill self-destruct countdown echoed through the dark underground passage.
Red warning lights flashed continuously, painting the metal walls blood-colored.
Wesker strode over grated flooring in his signature black leather tactical gear.
His combat boots struck a steady, muted rhythm.
Just before he rounded a corner, the custom communicator on his left wrist lit and began beeping urgently.
Wesker stopped and raised the wrist to open the channel.
His brow tightened slightly, eyes hidden completely behind dark glasses.
“Albert, we have a problem!” William Birkin shouted through the communicator, accompanied by the noise of papers being thrown around.
“Calm down, William.
What happened?” Wesker asked evenly.
“T-001’s containment tank was unlocked!
I don’t know whether that damned Marcus did it or those two police officers, but the defective prototype has broken loose!” William typed rapidly on the other end.
“The system says it’s heading toward your evacuation route.
It is completely uncontrollable.
Avoid it immediately!” Heavy impacts were already sounding deeper in the corridor, making the metal walls tremble.
Wesker showed no alarm.
He adjusted the black-framed glasses with one finger and let a cold smile touch his mouth.
“Understood.” He spoke into the communicator.
“Convenient.
I have a ‘new friend’ for it to meet.” Ignoring William’s confused questions, Wesker cut the channel.
He walked to the end of the passage and stopped at a heavy pneumatic blast door.
His hand rose and entered a code on the keypad with practiced ease.
Hsssss— The blast door slid apart under a release of air pressure, revealing dark stairs descending toward the drainage zone.
Without looking through the doorway, Wesker turned and stepped into the dedicated evacuation elevator on the opposite side.
The instant he pressed the control, a heavy isolation door at the far end of the corridor exploded outward with a BANG.
A gigantic humanoid more than two and a half meters tall charged through, roaring.
Its skin was severely ulcerated, exposing diseased purple-red musculature directly to the air.
It was T-001, an early Tyrant prototype.
Its right hand had completely mutated.
Bone had broken through flesh and grown into a massive blade.
It sprinted in long strides, the deformed weapon scraping showers of sparks from the metal wall.
The defective creature suffered frequent full-body spasms, yet kept its gaze locked on Wesker at the end of the passage.
The elevator doors began to close.
Wesker stood inside with both hands in the pockets of his leather coat.
As the gap narrowed, he watched the charging Tyrant coldly.
“Go.
Help me test the limits of that black suit of iron.” The doors sealed and the elevator began to rise.
T-001 missed him.
It roared in fury and smashed its bone blade into the wall beside the elevator, leaving a deep crater.
There was little intelligence in it, but as the wall broke, the scent of living flesh drifted from the open blast door nearby.
The Tyrant whipped its malformed head around, drove off with both thick legs, and charged through the open door into the drainage sector.
At the edge of the underground factory’s wastewater area, the roar of water concealed many smaller sounds.
Rebecca edged along a narrow corridor, water still dripping from her green ballistic vest.
Only moments ago she had run into three zombies wearing blue work clothes at this corner.
She had not panicked and fired.
The shotgun was low on ammunition, and every shell had to matter.
Watching the zombies stagger toward her, Rebecca had noticed a leaking steam pipe overhead.
Just before the first corpse reached her, she slipped aside and fired one handgun round into the valve.
Steam at hundreds of degrees erupted instantly.
The lead zombies were scalded until flesh curled away and they lost track of Rebecca.
Using the opening, she cleanly slid under a low gap beneath the pipe and broke through their line.
She stood and brushed wastewater from her pants.
Following the edge of a main channel, Rebecca searched between crossing steel frameworks and dark water for one tall black figure.
“Where did that damned lunatic fall…” she muttered, frowning.
Then—the maintenance catwalk above her suddenly screamed as metal tore.
BOOM!
Rusted angle iron and grating collapsed.
Amid falling scrap and dust, a massive body struck the passage less than five meters in front of Rebecca.
The floor shook hard and standing water sprayed outward.
T-001 slowly rose from the wreckage.
It released a muddy roar.
Its right arm had become the giant bone blade, while the muscle over the right side of its chest was completely missing.
A huge heart webbed with veins was exposed directly to the air, hammering violently with every breath.
The Tyrant locked onto the human in the green vest.
Muscles swelled through both legs and launched it several meters in a single leap.
The two-and-a-half-meter mass of rotten flesh came down toward Rebecca with its enormous mutant claw raised overhead.
Rebecca threw herself into the wastewater trench on her right and rolled awkwardly.
SHRK—CRACK!
The bone blade cut just behind her back, carving a deep trench through the metal grating where she had stood and the concrete beneath it.
Sparks and stone fragments struck her legs.
“What the hell is that?!” Rebecca shouted.
She rolled through the water into a one-knee firing position, leveled the Remington in both hands, and locked the stock into her shoulder.
The Tyrant twisted its massive body after the missed strike and swept the bone claw horizontally.
Rebecca did not dodge again.
She slid back just enough to open distance, eyes fixed on the exposed heart in the right chest cavity.
The obvious killing point.
The instant her sights covered the red mass, she pulled the trigger calmly.
BOOM—!
At this range, twelve-gauge buckshot struck with terrifying force.
A broad load of lead erupted across the surface of the Tyrant’s heart.
Chunks of dark-red tissue flew and filthy blood splashed Rebecca’s cheek.
There was no time to cycle the pump.
She drew the handgun from her thigh holster and fired three rapid shots into the ruined heart.
Pop!
Pop!
Pop!
Its degraded intelligence never taught the prototype to protect the organ with its arms.
Every bullet disappeared precisely into the destroyed tissue.
The devastating damage tore a shrill scream from T-001.
Its huge body froze in motion, then toppled backward.
It hit a shallow pool beside the passage with a heavy crash, throwing dirty water everywhere.
The Tyrant’s thick limbs convulsed several times in the water and went still.
Rebecca backed away two steps without lowering the muzzle.
She gasped for air, seized the pump with her left hand, and cycled it with a clack, ejecting the hot shell and chambering another.
Looking at the body in the pool, some of the tension finally left her.
“Looks terrifying…” She wiped cold sweat from her forehead.
“At least the weak point is obvious.” She eased the stock from her shoulder and let the muzzle lower slightly.
As she began to turn, the apparently dead Tyrant made a wet gurgling sound from the water.
Rebecca snapped back around.
The destroyed mass in its right chest was visibly growing and writhing.
Fine dark-red tissue strands knotted together, and within seconds they rebuilt a heart that beat even more violently than before.
T-001 rose from the water without a sound.
It did not roar this time.
It silently raised the mutated arm toward Rebecca.
Then— “Down, medic!” The shout cut through the industrial fans.
Trust took over before thought; Rebecca covered her head and dropped into a crouch.
One second later—a heavy iron door beside her exploded outward under a tremendous impact from the other side.
The panel flew through stone chips and broken concrete.
Amid dust and spray, Leon burst from the dark passage like a black beast, dragging the greatsword behind him in one hand.
Green sewer algae and water still clung to his black plate.
The heavy point carved a deep sparking groove through the concrete as it dragged behind him with a shriek.
Leon never slowed.
The edge of his vision fixed on the Tyrant raising its claw.
At the peak of his momentum, he dropped his left shoulder.
Waist and lats fired together, loading his right arm to its limit.
Using the charge, Leon swept the dragging Doorstop upward one-handed in a savage rising cut.
BANG—!!!
The broad black-steel point struck the joint of the Tyrant’s descending right arm like a battering ram.
Bone shattered with a deafening crack and the giant creature was physically lifted off both feet, thrown backward.
Its huge bone blade rotated half a turn in the air before the monster crashed into distant wastewater and flattened a row of steel supports.
Leon stopped, rolled his wrist, and planted the greatsword heavily into the concrete.
His tall black body stood between Rebecca and the creature as she rose.
“Sorry I’m late,” came his hard voice beneath the helmet.
“Sewer security was stricter than expected.” “Careful, Leon!” Rebecca leaned past one shoulder.
“It won’t stay dead.
It can regenerate!” Leon tightened his hands on the heavy hilt.
“Regenerate?” He snorted.
“Then I’ll turn it into paste and see what it regenerates from.”