"Hello? Hello? Hello? Fuck!"
Lear shouted into the radio in his hand a few times, then cursed.
"Shit, the radio's dead. I think they said something just now, but I didn't catch it."
Clutching the silent radio, he shook his head helplessly at Ada.
Ada was bent over, focused on counting her remaining bullets. She didn't look up at Lear's words, her fingertips brushing against the cold casings as she replied.
"Not many bullets left either, and they don't have enough stopping power. Shooting that thing with a handgun is probably about as effective as tickling it."
"No big deal. They should have already activated the self-destruct system. We don't have much time anyway, so we can't go toe-to-toe with that thing."
Lear sidestepped past Ada and walked slowly over to Friday to check on his condition.
He had to admit, a B.O.W.'s regenerative ability was incredible. Friday, who had been barely clinging to life just a moment ago, was now breathing steadily and deeply, his condition visibly improving.
"Lear... what happened?"
A still-weak voice entered Lear's mind. Friday had been inside the room the whole time and didn't know what was happening outside. He slowly straightened up, leaning back against the cold wall as he looked curiously at Lear and Ada.
"That giant monster that was chasing me before has already tracked me here."
Lear replied casually as he observed Friday's condition.
Watching him, Ada smoothly holstered her handgun, raised an eyebrow, and looked at his calm demeanor. "You don't seem very worried about that big guy outside."
"Would worrying help? It wouldn't solve anything. Besides, we don't need to fight it head-on," Lear said, spraying Friday with another dose of First Aid Spray. Then he looked up at Ada with a slight smirk. "The base's self-destruct system has already been activated. We just need to take the subway and get out of here. As for that monster... in the end, it will only be destroyed along with the entire NEST."
Ada gave a noncommittal smile. "You sure are confident, Officer Lear. The thing is, what makes you think that thing... is going to just let us through?"
As she spoke, Ada pointed toward the ruined door. Lear followed her gaze.
Through the gap in the now-twisted iron door, clumps of black, viscous, sludge-like matter were squeezing and spreading inward.
Before Lear could say anything, a clump of sludge slipped through the gap into the West Laboratory's corridor, landing on the ground with a splat.
The moment it landed, the sticky black sludge writhed violently, twisting and deforming.
Before their stunned eyes, it quickly coalesced into a bizarre humanoid monster and charged straight at them.
The monster's form was grotesque, eerily reminiscent of a Humanity phantom from Dark Souls: an oval, bloated body; two faint points of light serving as eyes; a massive maw in the center of its torso, constantly opening and closing as it shrieked; and long, slender legs that seemed fused together like a serpent's body, giving off an overwhelming sense of wrongness and ferocity.
Fortunately, the two were prepared. They dodged the monster's lunge in a flash, then kept firing.
But the bullets seemed to sink into a quagmire, slowly vanishing into the monster's body without causing any damage whatsoever.
For a moment, the two were at a loss. To make matters worse, more and more black sludge poured in through the gap in the iron door, coalescing into an endless stream of bizarre monsters that piled up and blocked the passage entirely.
During a quick sidestep, Officer Lear's sharp eyes suddenly caught a faint white light flickering in the monster's chest.
Without a moment's hesitation, he raised his hand and fired a precise shot, hitting the glowing spot dead on.
"Bang!"
The moment its core was struck, the monster's body trembled violently, abruptly swelled, and then exploded with a bang. Black sludge splattered everywhere, leaving only a strange, pale, elongated body on the ground. It twitched weakly a few times before going still.
"Ada, shoot the glowing spots. That's the core!"
Ada, who was also dodging constantly, wove through the attacking monsters.
At the sound of Lear's voice, she immediately locked onto the cores of the monsters in front of her. With a series of precise shots, the surrounding monsters burst apart one after another. Soon, the passage was left with nothing but sticky black sludge and several strange, pale, elongated corpses.
Although these monsters were numerous and highly resistant to physical damage, once the core was found, Lear and Ada eliminated them quickly.
The monsters outside seemed to sense something and stopped funneling more sludge inside.
For a while, the West Laboratory fell into an eerie silence. Lear took the opportunity to examine the elongated corpse.
"A G-Embryo? Has this thing already fused with William?"
Lear said, his expression grave.
Ada stepped forward slowly, looking down at the deformed embryo on the ground with a cold expression.
Compared to its original form, this thing had become far more terrifying. Aside from its size, nothing about it was the same.
The once smooth head had transformed into a sharp, wasp-like maw and densely packed compound eyes. Its body was covered in slender, sharp claws. Even in death, it still twitched faintly by reflex, grotesque and horrifying.
"We have to leave. Now." Lear's face darkened, his heart filled with unease. "No one knows what other twisted variants this thing could spawn."
With that, he bent down to help the now-steadier Friday to his feet and headed toward the vertical security door deep in the P-4 Lab.
This escape route was the emergency path Annette had specifically told them about earlier.
She had shared all the routes leading to the underground train station with the group, so they could escape quickly in case of an "accident."
This security door led straight to the subway station, but it required passing beneath the massive plant in the East Area Laboratory. After the virus outbreak, the area below had become filled with plant roots and vines, and it had since been abandoned.
But now, according to Lear's speculation, there shouldn't be much left blocking the way.
Claire and the others should have already sprayed the Herbicide on the plant, and the roots clogging the area were likely withered and decayed. All that remained were probably some zombified test subjects.
The entrance to the security door was not hidden, and the two quickly made their way down to the escape route.
The passage was a slightly curved, downward slope. It was pitch black inside, with no lights at all. There might once have been lights, but the rampant plant roots had shattered them. The corridor was narrow and cramped, allowing at most two people to walk side by side, and even Friday had difficulty navigating it on his own.
As Lear carefully stepped forward, he couldn't help muttering under his breath:
"Umbrella spent a fortune building NEST, every part of it expansive and meticulously engineered, and yet this emergency escape route is so cramped and suffocating?"
But soon enough, he would understand why Umbrella had designed the escape route this way.
(Translated by yourtl.app)