Title: Finding Evil: Part Four.

Author: quew

See part one for disclaimers, classification and archiving info.

Rating: Nc-17 overall, although parts will vary.

Warnings: Please do not read if easily offended by scenes of blood, gore etc, etc.

Notes: I should really start planning ahead instead of just winging it like I do.

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'Move, move, move!' Kathryn screamed as they broke for the lift. The zombies were making their way into the hallway, reaching out blindly for the pair as they ran. The monster behind them, seeing that the zombies were not going to stop them reaching the lift, let out an outraged screeched and launched itself down the corridor.

Kathryn took the lead, shouldering zombies out of the way as Hanson followed in her wake. She felt cold hands reaching out, brushing against her body and tangling in her hair, and she let out a dry sob as she recognised some of the dead faces surrounding them.

They were only about six feet from the lift when she heard a scream behind her and turned to see Hanson caught in the deathly strong grip of two zombies. The men were about to lunge forward and sink their teeth into her flesh when a fire extinguisher slammed into the side of one their heads. The man fell backwards, moaning slightly as he lost balance, and Kathryn ripped Hanson from the second ones grasp.

The hold-up had cost them, and zombies littered the path ahead. Behind them, the monster was closing fast, his every breath punctuated by an angry snarl as he struggled to keep his playthings from escaping. Thinking quickly, Kathryn sprayed a thick white cloud from the extinguisher behind them, masking them from the monster, and then used the heavy canister to beat a path to the lift.

Throwing the other petrified woman into the small space, she frantically pushed the button to make the doors close as her smoke screen disappeared. The monster saw what was happening and tried to reach them, but his plan had backfired - the zombies he'd hoped would slow them down were slowing him down instead, walking blindly into him even as he ripped them apart in frustration.

Too slowly, the doors started to close. Hanson screamed as an arm, mottled and dead, thrust itself between the doors. Programmed to open if an obstruction came between them, the doors reversed direction.

'No! God, no!' Kathryn screamed. She threw the fire extinguisher at the zombie trying to force its way in and the arm disappeared. Thumping the button as hard as she could, she watched in relief as the doors finally closed.

#

One hand clamped across the gushing claw marks on her arm and the other wielding the 'saw, the woman peered down the next dark hallway. It had only one door in it, and that was placed squarely in the middle of the wall instead of at the other end. Glancing behind her she closed the door and crept forward. The door looked like any other, except for the strange lock on the wall next to it.

She pulled her lighter from her pocket with her blood-covered hand and lit it, examining the keypad. She leaned forward, listening. What was that noise? It sounded like machinery, moving behind the door. What the hell was going on? Why was high-tech technology in an old country house?

Shaking her head and sighing, she realised that she couldn't open the door without knowing the code. She lifted the 'saw, preparing to cut a hole through the door, when suddenly the keypad lit up and beeped. She took a step back in surprise and her foot slipped in something on the thin carpet. Regaining her balance, she bent down to examine the substance carefully. It looked thick and sticky, and as she reached out her hand to feel it she was relieved to see that it wasn't blood as, in the moonlight, the liquid was a pale cream. Her relief lasted all of three seconds though, because as soon as her fingers touched the pool, they started to burn, the faint hissing of acid reaching her ears. She leapt upright and yowled, fighting down the urge to suck on her burning fingers as the skin crinkled and was eaten away.

She realised the acid had eaten partway through the carpet, and she ran to a clean part, trying to wipe off the burning substance on the rough material. The friction just made it worse, and tears of pain started to run down her cheeks.

Suddenly, something dropped onto the floor by her foot. She leaned closer and saw another small blob of acid start to eat through the thin weave. She leapt sideways as another pale drop fell, and then another. Standing slowly, she looked up.

#

'Can you hear that?' Hanson asked, standing slowly as the lift approached their stop.

Kathryn held her breath for a moment and sure enough, heard noises start to filter through the walls of the elevator. 'Someone's shouting,' she said.

They listened harder, and the shouting got louder. It was wordless, horrified shouting, and it was accompanied by the growling bass sound of something with a motor. As the lift stopped, the noises continued, and as the doors opened slowly they became deafeningly loud. A normal looking door barred their way into the house, and Hanson quickly rifled through her pockets, looking for and finding a keycard, which she slipped into the reader by the side of the door. They heard some beeping that indicated that the electronic lock had been deactivated, and Kathryn carefully opened the door.

For a moment all the scientists could see were moonlit windows and then the normal door was ripped from its hinges by something they couldn't see. The shouting became louder and Hanson darted forward, slamming a finger down on the button to close the doors with a frightened gasp. Just as they started to close a person barrelled into their space, reversing the doors direction and slamming them into the wall as they pushed inside. For a moment Kathryn panicked, raising her hands to push the body back out, thinking zombie! Zombie! But then the person started slamming their hand down on the elevator buttons at random, desperately trying to get the doors to close. The lift became filled with the roaring of a chainsaw and the smell of blood and petrol.

Suddenly Hanson screamed as a giant shape filled the doorway, monstrously real in the light cast from the small overhead light of the lift. Multiple eyes glimmered as the giant spider tried to force its oversized body into their space, its mandibles snapping and acid dripping from its jaws. The stranger revved the chainsaw and shouted something intelligible, thrusting the vibrating machine directly into the monsters mouth.

The thing screeched as its face was ripped apart, blood and acid spraying across the hallway as the teeth of the saw cut through its skin. It screamed as its own acid dripped onto its legs, eating through the thick limbs. Just as the doors started to close, she pulled it back quickly, switching it off entirely as the elevator moved once again.

She turned, dropping the 'saw from shocked fingers and slumping down against the wall. Kathryn could see the war of emotions battling on the new woman's face, and could guess at the thoughts producing them - What is going on? Why is it happening to me? What was that? Is this all a dream?

She shrugged off her once white lab coat and ripping off a length along the bottom. Slowly, she knelt down to the stranger's level and used the rag to clean a nasty claw wound on the woman's arm. The woman flinched but didn't try to move, and when she was done, Kathryn ripped another section off and bound the wound, tying it tightly.

'Thank you,' the newcomer whispered.

'No problem,' Kathryn whispered back, looking across into frightened blue-green eyes.

#

'What's that?' Sam asked, peering over Torres's shoulder. The shorter woman started in surprise and thrust the letter back into her pack, making sure it was under several other things.

'Nothing. Orders,' she said, standing and hefting her pack onto her back. Before Sam could question her further she called, 'Ready?'

The rest of Delta team nodded and they moved toward the door. They had traversed thwo hallways, turning on lights as they went, before anything untoward happened. They were trying to find stairs to take them back up to the floor with the main doors when Paris called them to stop and cocked his head to one side.

'Can you hear-'

#

'-that?' Kathryn asked. The others listened carefully. The lift had stopped but they'd kept the doors closed, overly cautious after what had happened last time they had attempted to leave the small space.

Sure enough, a moaning could be heard, permeating the air. 'It's them,' the stranger said. 'They're everywhere.'

Kathryn glanced over her, wondering how many of them the woman had had to kill to stay alive. She couldn't begin to think what the woman had been through - at least Hanson and herself known something was going wrong, but for everyone else it had just happened.

Hanson must have had similar thoughts, because she reached out and placed a comforting hand on the other woman's shoulder. 'They're…zombies,' she explained, aware that it wasn't the most comforting thing she could say.

'Zombies,' the woman repeated, her voice flat. 'You're kidding, right?'

'No…What did you think they were?' Kathryn asked, keeping her voice low and soft.

'I…I didn't think,' the woman admitted. 'I mean…I recognised some of them…tried to talk to them, but they just…I had to…' She hung her head, a few tears escaping her eyes as she screwed them shut.

'We'll get out of here,' Hanson said, 'we're going to make it.'

Buoyed by the words, the woman nodded. She opened her mouth to respond but the sharp rat-tat-tat of gunshots made her shut her mouth with a snap.

The three of them shared a look. Gunshots meant people.

#

'Paris!' Torres screeched, ducking under the arms of a zombie and blowing its head off. The medic was struggling with another dead man as it tried to sink its teeth into his shoulder. He managed to break free, turning and firing his rifle. The gun stuck though, and he panicked, lashing out with the weapon and knocking zombies down.

Wildman backed up against the other woman, loosing a shell at an on-coming zombie as she yelled, 'We're surrounded!'

'Where did they come from?!' Chapman yelled, smacking a female zombie in the face with the butt of his rifle and then firing as it fell. He had to pause before continuing, sweat pouring from his face and his breathing shallow.

'This way!' Torres called, pointing to a door on their left. A zombie lurched into her path as they fought forward, but she quickly dispatched it and the team bundled into the room.

#

'Are you ready?' Kathryn asked.

'As I'll ever be,' the woman replied. She started the chainsaw and Hanson raised the hatchet she'd been given.

Keycard in one hand, axe in the other, Kathryn reached out for the door.

#

'Guys!' Paris yelled, pointing to a door in the back of the sparse room.

'Quiet!' Torres said, tossing him her shotgun and pulling both their pistols from their holsters. Suddenly the door was thrust open and a person quickly exited, a moving target of blonde and white.

Torres pulled the trigger.

#