Venomous Foes and loyal Allies
Barry stepped quietly as he searched the small dinging room of the East side of the 2nd floor of the Spencer Mansion. A sudden groaning sound brought Barry to look down at his feet to find nothing but a crawling zombie trying to reach out and grab at his ankle. Barry was fast however, and crushed the zombie's tender skull with his heavy combat boot. The zombie went still as semi clotted blood began to ooze from it's ears and nostrils. The sight made Barry's stomach turn, making him wanting nothing more then to escape the creaky old dusty mansion. However, he had a job to do and that was to find Chris and the rest of the remaining members of the missing Bravo team. Barry stopped for a second at the thought. But that isn't truly the focus of this mission. Barry's jaw tightened at the recoiling thought his inner conscious decided to bring up.
His thoughts were suddenly brought back to reality as he began to hear gun shots from the next room down the hall. Worried it might be one of his team mates in trouble Barry gathered what ever ammo he could find and rushed out the door of the dining room. Even though he was under strict orders from captain Wesker. Barry wanted to be sure no harm came to any of his teammates. Especially in these terrifying events.
As Barry entered the hallway a zombie was standing in his way, so Barry used a spare knife he had picked up earlier and stabbed it into it's head which made the zombie fall limp immediately. Suddenly Barry's ears picked up the sound of something stumbling in the next room over which was followed by a moan or two. Barry braised himself by pulling his magnum out from his holster and brought the weapon at ready as he approached the door carefully. He took a long deep breath and entered the corridor. To his shock however it was not a zombie behind the door just a stair case that seem to lead up to what seemed to be the attic of the building, but at the bottom of the stairs laid the body of his fellow teammate, Jill Valentine.
"Jill!" Barry called as he holstered his gun and kneeled down at Jill's motionless body and quickly brought two fingers to her throat to check for a pulse. To his great relief he found that she was still alive.
"Jill, It's me Barry, can you hear me?" Jill slowly opened her eyes and was surprised to see Barry Burton kneeling beside her.
"Barry? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be?" Jill winced, her head was wet and feverish and it felt as though the world around her was spinning.
"we'll save question for later, first you have to tell me what happened."
Jill only let out a silent moan as she strained to concentrate on the reality around her.
Barry's eyebrows knitted with concern. He could tell she was very weak and her consciousness was fading in and out. It was then, that Barry suddenly notice a few drops of red liquid recede done the sleeve of Jill's torn shirt. Carefully, he lifted the blood stained sleeve and immediately discovered the cause to Jill sickness. A little below the shoulder was a sickening looking scratch of torn flesh, and the wound was starting to turn the outer skin a crimson purple like color.
"My god, Jill, what did this to you?"
"A snake, I- I've been poisoned. I need." Jill was tired, she could barely even finish her own sentence.
"Serum, I need to get you some serum. Alright I understand now." Barry needed to think quickly. If Jill was indeed poisoned by a venomous snake, then it was only a matter of time before the venom killed her. He then suddenly remembered seeing a medical storage room on the first floor of the the mansion. It was a gamble, but it was the best bet he had if he was going to have any chance of saving Jill's life.
"Jill I need to get you over to the medical room, its on the other side of the mansion. Can you still walk?" He asked Jill as he lifted her good arm around his shoulder for support. Jill was weak, but she managed a slow nod as she used all her energy to stand back up using Barry's supportive weight to help her balance.
The two S.T.A.R.S. members cautiously and quickly made their way over to the other side of the mansion. The trip felt long with Jill's weight becoming more and more limp by the minute, and Barry knew he was running out of time and he just couldn't afford to loose Jill's life.
For all he knew, Jill was probably the only remaining S.T.A.R.S member left that he could attempt to protect from Wesker's sickening plans to eliminate the remainder of the S.T.A.R.S team. Barry cringed at the horrifying thought, and had deep regrets as he had already failed to protect both Joseph and Chris from mutated dogs, and judging by the fact he hadn't spotted a single Bravo team member. He could only assume they had all ready been eliminated by now too.
By the time Barry was able to get Jill to the hallway of the balcony that would lead them down to were the medical storage room was. Jill's legs had completely given out. Leaving Barry to have no choice but to carry his partner the rest of the way. Once finally protected in the safety of the medicine room, Barry moved fast and carefully laid Jill on the bed that was placed in the far side of the room. Her eyes were strained shut from the painful effects of the toxic venom. Noticing this, Barry checked the wound on Jill's Shoulder once more, and found that the purplish bruise was indeed spreading. Seeing that the wound was worsening made him very worried for Jill's life.
Barry quickly diverted his attention to the shelves leaned against the wall on the other side of the room. The Shelves were fully stocked with all sort of medicines and medical supplies, and Barry wasted no time to search through the shelves for an anti-venom serum. Fortunately, he managed to stubble upon a shelf labeled poisonous creature antidotes. After reading each labeled bottle carefully, Barry finally found one that was labeled Snake anti-venom Serum. With the correct antidote selected, Barry took his first aid kit from his belt and pulled out an alcohol wipe and a sterile syringe. After preparing the needle he walked back over to Jill and gently wiped the inner side of her forearm with the alcohol. By this point Jill was barley conscious and her skin had become much paler then it was when he found her by the Attic.
"Just keep holding on Jill, I'm going to give you a shot now. Your going to make it." Barry encouraged while he administered the life saving serum into Jill's arm.
After he gave Jill the shot, the serum took its effect and caused her to fall into a deep sleep. Minutes ticked by, and Barry could only hope that he wasn't to late. He watched over her while he sat by her side in the rooms spare chair. He felt terrible that he didn't do a better job looking out for her. However, with Captain Wesker's threats on S.T.A.R.S, Barry was worried that his involvement would somehow up set Wesker enough, that he'd have Jill eliminated anyways. Or worst Jill would discover he was working with Wesker's evil plans all along and judge him as nothing but a coward and a traitor to his own team.
"Who am I kidding, I couldn't even be there for Joseph or Chris. I might as well call myself a failure. I'm so sorry you had to get wrapped up in all this Jill. You and everyone else in S.T.A.R.S don't deserve any of this torture. I just only wish I knew how to stop it all." He reached out and held her hand and gently rubbed the side of her wrist for support.
"I just hope that we get through this, and when its all over, I hope you will be able to forgive me."
Barry's thought was cut short when he heard a sudden gun shot coming from out side the room. Barry immediately wondered who the gunshot belonged to. Maybe it was a bravo team member or even Chris Redfield for that matter. After all Chris was only separated from the Alpha team, meaning he could have found another way into the mansion alive. Barry quietly stood from his chair to investigate, but took one last glance at Jill's still body as she peacefully slept. Her forehead was still damped from the fever, but the color in her skin was slowly returning. All good signs that she was going to be ok.
"Don't you worry Jill. I'm going to check the perimeter outside."
With Jill still sleeping, Barry didn't get a reply back, but he could still imagine her saying something on the lines of. "Just promise to not get eaten by some monster."
Barry grinned at the thought, but sadden knowing far well that the possibility of dying by a monster was indeed a reality.
"I promise I'll be ok, you just rest and recover, I'll be back soon."
And without another word Barry left Jill alone in the storage room.
Barry stepped quietly to try and pin point any signs of a moving person in the near by area. Fortunately, Barry didn't need to wait long as another gunshot was shot. With hope burning in his chest Barry rushed down the hallway to the source of the sound. Barry's stomach suddenly jerked as he saw who was down the hallway. There standing with gun in hand was non other then Captain Wesker himself.
"Wesker, what are you doing on this side of the mansion? I thought you were investigating the gardens?"
"I was, I did, and now I'm here. I decided I'd come and check on your progress and see how well things are going here." Wesker said in a monotone voice.
"Things here are going according to plan. The zombies are a pain but their slow enough to get by. Rabid dogs are still fast, but so long as you stay clear of their path they are manageable."
"Is that all you've encounter so far?"
"Yes." Barry noticed the curve of Wesker's lips frown from that answer, but the captain still continued his questions in a professional manner.
"Have there been any signs of the Bravo team or Chris?"
"I'm afraid that's a negative Wesker. Other then the zombies and monster dogs, that's all I've seen since we've arrived at the mansion." Wesker was silent.
"And what about Jill?" This question made Barry very nervous.
"What about her Wesker?" Barry asked as clueless as he could pretend. Wesker arched an eyebrow, his glasses glazed over as he noticed Barry's ton of voice change.
"All I'd like to know is, how is miss Valentine holding up in all this?"
"I don't know Wesker. We split up some time after the dining room encounter with the first zombie. For all I know she could be on the second floor right now." Wesker took a step forward. His expression tensed and serious, as he gazed at the older S.T.A.R.S. member.
"Sorry if I have disappointed you Wesker. But you know how Jill is. She's probably still looking for Chris and the others.
"Your med pack is missing." Wesker interrupted.
Barry quickly looked down and noticed the absence of his first aid kit pouch from his belt. Which made Barry realize he had left the kit back in the storage room were he left Jill in.
"Have you been injured at all tonight, Mr. Burton?" Wesker asked in a serious ton of interest.
"Me, oh no no, I just placed it in one of the storage boxes for now so that I wouldn't have to lug the extra weight around. You know the less weight the more agile you are." Barry lied.
Wesker nodded his head and started to turn back away from Barry.
"You're a terrible liar Barry, do remember were your loyalties lie. If I find out you've been helping miss Valentine this whole time, you may just have to change your motives. After all your family's lives are still on the line. Don't ever underestimate my power over you. Other wise you may just join the fates of your fellow teammates."
An aching sharp pain swelled in Barry's chest from Weskers comment.
"I-I understand Wesker, I promise to keep that in mind." Wesker nodded and started to head down the hallway.
"I'll be heading over to the second mansion now. Meet me down there in an hour to report. And Barry, the next time you see Jill. Be sure you don't tell her we've had this conversation. We can't have her getting suspicious."
"Understood Wesker, I'll head upstairs then to investigate." Barry replied as he watched his captain take his leave down the hall.
Once Wesker was completely out of sight Barry turned back and glanced one last time towards the medical storage room door. With Wesker so near by, Barry knew he couldn't go back inside and risk exposing Jill's vulnerable stat to his psychotic captain. It may not be the easiest thing for Barry to do, but it was the best he could do to leave her there alone.
"Please forgive me Jill, but I can't risk Wesker finding you."
Barry whispered under his breath before heading back up stairs.
Back in the storage room, Jill finally woke up from her nap. She sat up from the bed to get a view of her surroundings. What am I doing in the medical room? I thought I was in the attic. She thought as she brought her hand to her head to sooth down the groggy sleep from her conscious. She winced as she felt your shoulder painfully tense from the sudden gesture. It was then that everything started to come back to her. The giant snake, the bite scratch, her sickness, Barry finding her.
Barry, where is Barry? she suddenly wondered.
"Barry?" she called, looking around the room for any signs of the older officer.
Realizing there was no sign of Barry. Jill simply had no choice but to keep searching the mansion. So she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and restocked her belt with supplies and set back out to the monster infested mansion in search of her fellow teammates. Keeping in mind that she would have to thank Barry once more for saving her life again.