Destiny
The room was bare. A grey concrete shell, which once housed a brilliant mind, and a good soul. There were no personal possessions, no furniture in the room but a desk and a bookcase. A single painting hung on the wall, the only piece of decorum available for the eyes to enjoy. There was a light switch next to her. She flicked it on, illuminating the room; the light from the corridor outside no longer the only source.
She closed the door behind her and walked over to the wall on which the painting hung. Her heels clacked loudly around the stone walls, which made her tread softer, walking on the balls of her feet slightly. The picture, it was the Garden of Eden; a serpent hung from a tree, Adam lay in the grass, Eve stood with a large red apple in her hand. It was simple and tasteful, much to her liking, although it stuck out like a sore thumb.
Why would this be the only thing he left behind?
She wandered over to the tiny sink, staring at herself in the mirror. Her hair was askew and drops of blood and sweat stained her clothes. She had looked into this mirror not three weeks ago and applied deep red lipstick before sharing a kiss with the man she loved and bidding farewell. If what she feared had indeed happened, then she couldn't say she was surprised, but given that, she still kept her mind open to the possibilities. Any number of things could have happened here, he is a scientist after all, and if she knew him as well as she hoped she did, he wouldn't have given up without a fight.
Or a clue to leave behind, a letter, a recording, a code, anything…
She noticed the desk tucked into the far corner on her left had been cleared out entirely except for a few scraps of paper and what looked like his old diary. She delicately stepped across to it, rifling through the random papers, notes to himself, list of things to do, research tasks to be done, orders for the week… nothing of any meaning that she could interpret. She picked up the leather bound diary and opened its pages slowly; the worn leather spine cracking with the weight of the paper. It was almost entirely blank, the only few pages that remained contained awkward ramblings about his workload and his superiors demands on him taking their toll, the perks and highlights of his day. Not a single page contained any information about his work or what his job actually entailed, meaning what she had feared was seeming more and more likely to be the truth. The last entry that hadn't been visibly ripped out was June, either the tenth or the sixth; it had been written in such a hurry she could barely make it out. There was nothing of interest, but she knew he updated his diary fairly regularly, near enough every day. It was now July twenty-fourth, which may be some cause for concern.
She flipped to the back page, hoping to find something tucked in the back, which was something of a bad habit as he used to lose his loose notes and random scribbling frequently. Nothing. She noticed though, that the paper cover on the book itself was worn on the inside edge. She gently worked her fingernails underneath and came up with a small folded letter. She threw the diary back on the desk, discarded the envelope and sat on the small office chair's backrest.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she opened it, hoping it may be addressed to her. It was.
June 8, 1998
Dear Ada,
Ada, by the time you read this I'll be something... different. Today's test turned out to be positive, just as I had expected. I feel crazy when I think about becoming one of them. Ada, you're not infected and I hope you never will be. In case you're the only one left, take the material to the Visual Data Room and go to the Power room to operate the Triggering System before you escape. Make all this public through the media. If everything is in order, all the locks can be opened by the security system. You can access the system if you log in with my name, from the terminal in the small lab and enter the password.
The password is your name.
To unlock the door at 132 where the Visual Data Room is located, you'll need to access with our names first then enter another password.
I've written the code below, I'm sure you'll understand it easily.
And this is my last hope - if you find me completely changed please kill me yourself.
Yours, John.
John…Ada…
She stared at the letter with solemnity, the paper light in her fingers. Her worst fear had been confirmed; John was infected. How was she to escape knowing there was a large chance the next time she encountered she may have to put an end to his life? It was true she would be putting him at peace, rather than forcing him to exist only as a mindless, rotting corpse. But Ada seriously doubted she would have the capability to shoot her own boyfriend. He wanted her to escape – what if the very creature that denied her freedom from the cold infected walls of the underground laboratories was the man she had grown to love?
Love is a very strong word though isn't it Ada… perhaps too big a word for you to use…
She had known him for almost a year, on the pretence that she was also a researcher and was being transferred to Raccoon on the same basis as him. She forced herself to feel things for him, but she had never loved anybody in her life; maybe this was love she felt for him?
Or maybe you're just scared because you cared about him enough to come looking for him when he went missing…
She sighed heavily and shook away the voice in her head. She did care about him, but since she had no experience of the sort, how was she to know she wasn't in love with him? It was true she had forced her feelings for him upon herself, but just because she believed her own lies doesn't mean she was actually attracted to him.
Let's face it Ada, did you really see yourself settling down for this guy? Getting married and having kids and driving a minivan to soccer practice? It's obvious you like him a lot, he was intellectual and witty and charming. You had some good times with him, and for that you're grateful to him, but you don't love him.
Ada had always figured when – if she fell in love, it would hit her like a ton of bricks. Some divine happiness would fill her heart and she would have to suffer the pain and loneliness she burdened herself with everyday no longer. Yet here she stood, still clutching a letter from her missing and infected boyfriend, who may at this very moment be dead or dying, and she hadn't shed a single tear. It wasn't love she had for him, but respect, and sorrow at the act she may never see him again.
She lay the letter down on the desk top in plain view and stepped backwards, almost unable to look away from the last words John Howe may have ever written. She looked at the symbols at the bottom of the letter, those strange characters that almost jumped out of the paper. Then the realisation suddenly hit her, the symbols were the code on the picture… and when she figured out the code almost instantly, she felt a twinge of fear in her heart.
Mole
He knew… John knew the one secret that would tear them apart. It was too weird to be a coincidence. How did he find out? She was always so careful… It was a message, his final message to her, letting her know that he knew all along whom she really was, and he didn't care. His password were both their names, he left his final wishes up to her… to destroy the lab and take all the research to the media. He trusted her, and he loved her, even now he was infected…
Ada made for the door and stopped; her fingertips still on the cold steel of the handle.
I promise John, I'm gonna get out of here, and when I do, I will look for you, and I will find you.
No matter what it took, Ada knew she had to find him. No doubt Umbrella would want her to pursue him anyway, track him down and see how much he knew about the virus, and probably exterminate him. She couldn't let that happen; she would find a cure for him and together they would blow White Umbrella wide open.
But what if it's too late? What if he' already dead? What if you don't make it out? What if Umbrella finds out you were double crossing them all along?
"I'll find a way"
With that, she swung the door open and stepped out into the corridor, mapping the path in her head to the computer labs, then the visual data room upstairs, and finally the helipad. It wouldn't be easy, what with the random appearance of the S.T.A.R.S members – she had almost run straight into one of the more 'stocky' guys in the underground tunnels, although she had no idea which one he was. She would have to escape undetected, if she was to maintain her cover. She crept towards the computer lab, where she and John had shared many sleepless nights pondering over the T-virus that now invaded his body. She was going to escape, and she was going to find John, and nobody, not Umbrella, not the S.T.A.R.S, not even herself would stand in the way.
I'll save you John…
And the first place she was headed once she got out of here was Raccoon City…
