ring, ring [Exemplary]

[Albert Wesker]

Down the hall, and then to the steps again. "Back down into this...sludge," he grumbled, as he sloshed into the deeper water. It rose back up, a sharp, icy jump with each of the two steps down into it, crawling up to his knees. In the flickering, unsteady lighting it looked completely black, and he couldn't see the bottom beneath it all. It was a nuisance that was doing little more than dragging things out.

Trudging through the cold, obscuring liquid, he went back to the intersection, pausing for a moment with his hand gripping the corner. He adjusted the grip on his samurai edge, bringing the pistol up and readying it. He had yet to encounter anything down here, but that didn't mean there wasn't anything down here to encounter. And he had a feeling, if there was anything to find here...

"It will be in the security offices...nothing ever goes completely smoothly."

With his gun at the ready, he pushed off and swung around the corner, moving down the new hallway. The lighting was blown out at the far end, casting it into darkness. The lights near to the actual security offices were still working, as much as anything down here was. But further down, the doors to the armory were a yawning void of pitch blackness. Standing wide open and smashed apart, like someone had taken the mother of all battering rams to them, and only the threshold of the room lit by the weak, flickering light from the hallway. "A shame...perhaps something in there could have been of use." With any luck, he might just be able to find a flashlight, to illuminate the area and do a quick search. Something in there might be able to help cajole open the stubbornly locked door in the living quarters. Lighting the way into that other room could prove useful, as well. He didn't know which one belonged to the head researcher, after all.

To the security offices, and predictably the door was shut. The handle turned easily, but there was resistance to opening the door. He ground his teeth together, baring them in a silent snarl as he threw his shoulder against it. With a monumental shove, he managed to force it open. Slowly but surely, dislodging and straining whatever was barring it, until suddenly there was a sharp, jarring crunch and the door flew open, sending Wesker to stumbling forward. Thanks to the murky water throwing off his balance, and hiding the obstacle, he tripped over...something.

He splashed down into the water face-first, seeing nothing but darkness for several seconds, and feeling nothing but cold.

He scrabbled about, getting his hands under him and shoving himself back upright, out of the water. Sputtering and coughing, he felt around blindly for something to support himself, and eventually caught on the door handle. It was a precarious, slippery thing, and not just because of its size. His effort to force the door open had busted the handle entirely, and it now listed at a crazy angle. Combined with the way he leaned on it as he tried to regain his feet, it ended up sending him sliding right off of it. He staggered blindly, drunkenly forward, until his questing hand caught hold of a chair. It was enough to stop him from falling into the water again, and let him regain his footing. A final cough and he spat out a mouthful of the foul water, standing upright again. "Barring the door...that means someone was alive, even after whatever disaster happened here."

He cast his eyes about in the dim lighting, as if searching for some sign of the survivor he expected to find. After several precious seconds of not finding any sign of one, however...he gave it up. Pointless. He turned his attention instead to scouring the room. There was an array of monitors and computers, presumably for monitoring the facility under normal operation. Many of them were blown out, though some still functioned. One or two were racked and flickering, but still in working order. One showed the emergency exit. Another showed the hall for the living area. Another showed that sealed door at the intersection. The last operable one seemed to show the armory. He peered at them for a moment, observing, before an idea occurred to him. He didn't have much time, but...

A little work and effort at it paid off in the end. The cameras were equipped with a night vision option. A quick study of the screen displaying the armory and he was able to spot something that just might be of some use to him in getting that stubborn door open. He'd have to make sure to duck in and grab it. But with that discovery, he turned aside to peruse the rest of the room for anything else of use. There was another side room, another office of some sort. Then a separate office, for the security chief. Typical...the one in charge always getting their private space. Knowing the type of groups who made these facilities, he was probably the highest ranking one here, and the office was more than likely sound-proofed.

He wasn't expecting it to be accessible, but he tried the handle anyway. Locked, of course. Just looking at the door told him it would be at least as sturdy as the last one, and not easy to force open. He dismissed it for now; another task for the item he had spotted in the armory. More out of simple curiosity than anything else, he ducked into the side office to check. There was a corpse there; one of the security officers here, from the looks of it. Riddled with gunfire, and sprawled backward on a partially collapsed table. Armor was ruined, blood was everywhere, but other equipment seemed intact. Among the various items, there it was, clipped to his vest (or what was left of it): a flashlight.

"Such a simple item...made so precious in these circumstances," Wesker mused under his breath as he retrieved the thing. It took a little doing to get it working, but in the end it did finally prove that it was operable. Batteries probably knocked loose in all the chaos, given the state of its owner. With it in hand, he turned back to head for the armory. Little pickup to make, before he continued on with his desperate searching.