First Resident Evil fanfic, not exactly sure where exactly this is going to go but I just had an urge to write something. Slow burn Wesker/Claire.
Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil or any of its characters.
Caught in the Middle Chapter One: Infiltration
4 months after the events at Rockfort Island and the Umbrella Antarctic Facility
Another Umbrella laboratory, another country, and hopefully, not another dead end.
Since narrowly escaping from the Antarctic with Chris, Claire had committed herself to finding Steve. Steve, who had been through so much, who did not deserve the fate that monsters like Umbrella, Alexia and Wesker had given him. Claire wasn't sure if she would have survived mentally without Steve in the duration of their time on Rockfort, and however short-lived, their time together in the Antarctic.
She didn't love him, there was nowhere near enough time for feelings such as those to develop. But, there was a bond between them, similar to one that she had with Leon. One that comes from surviving a horribly traumatic experience together, and blindly trusting each other to escape alive, together. Except that with Steve, only one of them had made it. And Claire felt guilty for that even though she knew that there was nothing that she could have done to prevent Alexia from infecting him, as Chris constantly reminded her.
Still, Claire thought that she should have fought against Wesker more for taking his body, even though she knew that Wesker was abnormally powerful, and she most likely would have been killed, but at least she would have done something.
She was trying to make up for that lapse of action ever since. So here she was, somewhere in Europe, without Chris, or anyone, trying to do something. But as she hid from another security guard, she lamented that perhaps she should have gone in here with a bit more support than just herself. There was no time to dwell on that at the time, however; as soon as she'd received the information that it was quite possible that Steve was at this research laboratory, she'd gotten ready for action. She had already cased the place for a few weeks, and managed to get Leon to weasel information from some of his connections. She wasn't going to go in there all guns blazing, that was more of her older brother's style. Claire liked to keep a clear head, especially where Umbrella was involved. She knew that the Steve that she had known was long gone by this stage, but she didn't want to leave him in Umbrella's hands any longer. She would destroy what was left of Steve and anything that they had taken from him, and pray to get out alive.
As security passed, Claire stealthily moved down the corridor. She had managed to acquire a lab coat which was currently hiding the numerous weapons she had hidden on her body, and an I.D. lanyard, but she still did not want to risk the possibility of being identified.
'Only a few more corridors…' Claire recalled the route that she had laid out before entering the facility, figuring from the skeleton plans she had acquired, that anything to do with Steve or Alexia's virus was going to be held in one of the bigger laboratories, located deep within the building's depths. The only problem with the plans was that they were not the refined version, meaning that the floors, rooms and corridors where labelled differently. A pain in the neck, but Claire had managed to figure out a way of finding where she needed to go, having identified a key scientist that she knew had links with some of the research. Eavesdropping on a conversation he had been having, she had figured that she was just a few levels away from where she needed to be. She kept her head down as she passed a group of scientists, and reflected that it was probably best that she had decided to make this trip alone, as Chris was far to jumpy to remain undercover. He had gone off with Jill in an attempt to bring down Umbrella, and Claire hoped that everyone would be so focussed on the problems that ex-S.T.A.R.S. where causing, that no one would pay much attention to her. Just a few weeks ago, Chris had sent contact to Leon to inform him that they had managed to take out an Umbrella Facility in Belgium, and from what Claire could tell, quite a number of Umbrella top dogs had gone out there to cover up and salvage what they could. Which meant that this facility was a little less occupied than it would usually be. She'd have to thank Chris for that, although after this was all over, as he was currently under the illusion that she was at home, where he had told her to stay safe.
'There!' Claire was suddenly pulled from her thoughts when she saw the entrance to the lab. She was just scoping the inside of the lab to see how many staff where inside, when a shrill alarm pierced the otherwise calm silence of the facility, and the hallway was plunged into darkness before being relit with emergency lighting and flashing red lights.
'Shit, shit, shit!' Claire swore under her breath, 'Please just be a fire drill, please, please.'
The intercom system crackled to life, 'Level 3 biohazard breach in sector B7, all staff to relocate to sector H1 for sterilisation and immediate evacuation.'
Suddenly, the hallway came to life, and Claire had just enough time to move out of the way and recede into a small alcove before the lab door was wrenched open and scientists came running out, headed for the lifts. When Claire was certain that the coast was clear, she moved back into the hallway, and was just walking past the door, towards escape, when something caught her eye. She turned, and cautiously entered the room, peering around large suspension tanks just in case anyone remained. The lab was far larger than what she had presumed, and some areas where in darkness, but Claire focussed on what had caught her eye. Vials and vials of a purple hued virus. 'Alexia.' Claire ground her teeth together. She lifted one up, examining it in the light from the computer screen, and noticed that the computer was still logged in. In the scientist's haste to exit the building, they had left everything unlocked. Claire grinned to herself.
Placing the vial back on the rack, she sat down and opened the file search engine. Typing in Alexia Ashford, she hit enter and anxiously watched as files appeared. She skimmed through them, and just as she felt she was getting lost and confused in the biological jargon, Rockfort caught her eye. Focussing, she started to read;
'Alexia-Virus specimen, a prisoner from Rockfort Island, S. Burnside, mutated not long after exposure, body could not withstand virus, although body returned to 'normal' state a short time after. Virus samples taken from blood by , and currently undergoing refinement. Studies reveal that it is far more potent than original T-Virus. Remains of specimen S. Burnside destroyed…' Claire stopped reading, and felt the back of her eyes prick with tears. Although she knew that he was no longer Steve exactly, she had hoped that he was still here, so that she could put him out of his misery herself, not so that Umbrella could destroy him when they found him to be useless for their sick experimentation. All that was left for Claire to do was to destroy the virus samples from Steve's body. If it was more potent than the T-Virus, there was no way she could let that get out.
She stood from the computer, lifting the vials, when she got a sudden wave of unease. The piercing alarm invaded her ears once again, as she had blocked out the noise when she had been accessing the computer, but that was not the only noise that she had been ignoring. She scanned the lab again, and was trying to remember where exactly she was in the facility, when she heard something that made her blood run cold. Somewhere in the deep recesses of the lab, she could hear a dull thumping noise, like that of a heavy object against bulletproof glass. She heard it shatter, and her stomach knotted with dread when she heard the click-clack sound of claws approaching her. The flashing security lights lit up the sign on the wall, just as the intercom sounded again 'Level 3 biohazard breach in sector B7, all staff to relocate to sector H1 for sterilisation and immediate evacuation.'
Sector B7, exactly where she was right now. Claire turned in panic just as hunter leaped at her from the shadows, and managed to drop to the floor under it's reach, but her foot slid on the tank slime that it had dropped, and her arm came smashing down on the virus as it tumbled from her grip.
