Disclaimers: I don't own Resident Evil or its characters, nor do I make any money off them. Also this is my first fanfic.
Jill
For a while the only thing Jill Valentine could hear was the beating of her own heart in her ears. It wasn't until another round of thunder and lightning from the storm outside that Jill snapped out of her panic, forcing herself to slow her breathing and not take as deep of breathes.
That was too close.
Slowly she started to take stock of the situation. Her ribs hurt badly from when Wesker had punched her and sent her flying through the air into one of the library's book shelves, deep breathes were causing her sharp pains. My back and neck don't feel so hot either, I'll have some good bruises for a while. Jill had heard more than once Chris' story about fighting Wesker on Rockfort Island, about their former captain's new abilities, and still she was no where near prepared for the reality of it. Wesker had been so fast she had emptied all of her ammunition at him and didn't manage as much as grazing him. And strong too. Chris was 200 lbs of muscle these days and might have well been a rag doll for all the good it did him.
Jill's back was against the wall, near the window that almost claimed her life. She knew she would eventually have to get a bit of medical attention, but she was ok for now. Her injuries were not life threatening. She could feel Chris's shoulder next to her own, so she gave him a little nudge to let him know she was alright.
"Chris, the next time we come to Europe its on vacation and you can be the one hanging out the window. I lost my best hat," she joked in an attempt to act light-hearted.
Silence.
Jill's head snap to her left, eyes taking in her partner at once. His eyes were closed and head tilted down to the side away from her. He was pale, too pale. Her hand flew without an conscious thought to his neck feeling for a pulse. She saw then the blood that coated her fingers. Her eyes shot down to where her hand had been and she saw the source. A small pool of blood had collected where her hand had been and laid near Chris' right arm. His arm was a mess. Multiple shards of glass had been embedded into it and it looked as though others had been dragged across his forearm leaving deep cuts. A hiss escaped from between her teeth and the fear she had just fought off returned with renewed vigor.
There! I felt it. A pulse. It wasn't very strong but it was enough.
Quickly she took off her jacket, then started to remove the shards and clean the wound as well as she could. She pulled her first aid spray and emptied the cartridge over his arm. The spray would help disinfect the wound and help knit some of the skin back together. Taking her jacket she tied it around the arm to provide pressure and help slow the bleeding. Finally she gave him a quick injection. A concoction of the BSAA labs, the injection was part pain killer, part adrenaline designed to keep the wounded on their feet. She had seen soldiers that one moment were unresponsive go to alert and hyperactive. It was strong stuff, needless to say having felt its effect herself before.
"You better be staying with me Redfield. I'm not explaining this to Claire," she told him. Jill knew she was saying it more to hide her nerves than any expectation Chris could hear her.
"Afraid I'd leave you with all the paper work?" responded a weak voice.
He was coming around. Good. She couldn't help but smile at him. His eyes were now open but glazed. He looked like any second he could pass out again. Jill would have to make sure he stayed awake just in case.
"Thank you," she said. She tried to express in those two little words how scared she was for him, tried to relay the gut-wrenching terror she felt when she saw Wesker standing over him readying the killing blow. She tried to put in how thankful she was for what he had done and why he had to stay around even if she wasn't ready to admit even to herself her reasons. Predictably she failed.
"Didn't want to owe you one," came his own response as he moved his head to make eye contact.
His words forced the smile back onto her face. It was something of an old joke between them that stretched back to their time as partners in Raccoon City, before their lives had exploded violently in the Arklay Mountains that horrible July all those years ago. They had been working a kidnapping case and had found the perp's hideout. Jill had quickly found the place booby-trapped and had to disarm a pressure plated mine Chris had inadvertently stepped on. After they had made the arrest the perp had managed somehow to pick his cuffs and pulled Jill's weapon from her holster. Jill had hardly any time to figure out what was going on, but when she had she knew she was as good as dead. Chris though drew his Beretta with a speed Jill didn't know he possessed and ended the matter before it went anywhere else. When she tried to thank him those words were all he said. Ever since those words were spoken more often then not whenever they had returned a favor by saving one another.
"Chris," her voice was soft but firm as see met his eyes. "Chris, I need you to stay awake for me so I can go outside and try to get reception and call for an Evac. Can you do that for me?"
He seemed to hesitate a second before nodding. When she didn't move he finally said. "I'll be fine Jill. Just arm yourself, we don't know if Spencer has any other surprises for guests."
Sound advice, besides Chris would need more medical attention that Jill's basic first aid training could offer so she had to go. Jill crossed the room and collected her Beretta and knife she had lost in the quick skirmish versus Wesker. She reloaded both her Beretta and Chris' before returning it to him and heading out of the library. Moving as fast as she comfortably could she crossed the estate and exited into the pouring rain. She spent a minute fiddling with dials on the radio attached to her belt and harness.
"Attention this BSAA agent Jill Valentine, requesting emergency evac. I have an agent down and positive ids on terrorists Ozwell Spencer and Albert Wesker, over."
There was a long pause before her radio answered.
"Valentine, did I hear you right?" a thick eastern European accent answered her.
Jill sighed with relief. "You did. I need a medic up here ASAP, plus whatever big guns you got to sweep the area for Wesker."
"Copy, send your coordinates."
Jill relayed the information and was felt her anxiety begin to lessen when the voice told her that was less than a 20 minute helicopter flight from a small BSAA outpost in the area. Signing off, she ran out of the storm and back into the estate towards her partner.
----
Redfield, boy are you going to owe me after this. Jill felt her thoughts were an understatement.
They had been evacuated by the local BSAA forces. Two helicopters had arrived on the mountain. In each, a full of a squad armed to the teeth. The resident head honcho a somewhat thick Italian man by the name of Rizzo. Slightly balding and with a bushy brown mustache, Captain Rizzo had been helpful enough initially. His men had secured the estate and a medic immediately had both Chris and Spencer's corpse moved to a helicopter to return to a medical facility. When she described the details of the fight with Wesker and how he had fallen down to the chasm below he seemed to lose all need for expediency. Rizzo seemed to think no one could have survived that fall and collecting another corpse wasn't necessary. Chris had nearly leaped out of the helicopter when he had heard that. Jill had to intervene and explain the Wesker was no normal BOW and until they had a body Wesker should be considered alive.
Actually I should have rephrased that, we saw a body in the Arklay mansion.
Reluctantly Rizzo had agreed and sent his teams to comb the floor for any sign of the former S.T.A.R.S captain. He had then accompanied the two BSAA agents back to the local compound. Jill had gotten off easier than she expected with only a cracked rib. Considering the force Wesker had used against her she knew she was lucky. Jill had just finished being treated by the physician, giving the mandatory BSAA bloodwork to confirm no infectous agents when Rizzo had come in wanting the whole story. Apparently he had checked the BSAA database and learned they weren't here in an official BSAA capacity. When she had told him of the tip they had received the man had grown furious it had not been reported and he had not been alerted to the fact that a most wanted bioterriorist was living in his backyard. The man's voice had not been at a bearable decibel since. First he had threatened to arrest her, then later have her and Chris thrown out of the BSAA. In fact he had put in a call to General James Howard, the BSAA's senior officer just to that effect.
So now Jill was standing in the compound's Comm Ops waiting to see if Howard would pick up and how he would react. The rest of the personal of the Communication Operations Center had their faces buried into whatever they were doing as if they knew it would be in their best interests to appear busy.
Rizzo must have quite the temper.
Finally Howard's face came onto the video feed. The man looked as though he had just woken up and was sporting a heavy frown. Ah the fun of different time zones. General Howard was an old soldier. In his late 50's he had risen through the ranks of the U.S. Army before he had decided to transfer into what would become the BSAA. He had salt and pepper hair and more age lines than a man his age should have. It was a great deal of effort to get the large number of international branches of the BSAA to work smoothly. Like Jill and Chris he was one of the original founders, and like many of those in the North American Branch he joined because of Raccoon City. Howard's wife and son had been lost when Raccoon City fell, and since that day confessed he would never have a decent nights sleep until those responsible were brought to justice. Jill understood that perfectly.
Howard wasted no time with formalities, "Captain Rizzo tells me you've had an interesting night Jill."
Jill quickly realized Howard was not going quite as harsh in this as she had feared. "That's right General."
"And the intel you received," he responded.
"Was from a reliable source and obviously correct given what we found," she said evenly.
Rizzo took that as his cue to step in. "General, why was I not informed of this? I swore to protect my people from bioterrorism but when one of the most dangerous men in the world is right next door I was denied the information solely on the basis of Agents Valentine and Redfield's discretion. How can I be expected to do my job under these circumstances." The last bit obviously wasn't a question.
Jill realized she need to take charge of the conversation if she wanted to minimize the consequences of her and Chris' decision. "General, no disrespect was intended to any branch of the agency, but Agent Redfield and I have spoken to you before on the matter of potential leaks. The information was too volatile to risk letting anyone know about it. Spencer has managed more than once to slip through our fingers. When Agent Redfield and I received the intelligence we decided we had to take the risk and act under the radar."
Howard sighed, "Well it seems to have paid off somewhat. Spencer is confirmed DOA and Wesker?"
"That was luck we ran into him at all. We had no intel on his whereabouts," Jill confirmed
"Wesker is being searched for by my men as we speak General," Rizzo didn't hesitate to add.
"And how is Chris?"
Jill couldn't help the ghost of a smile that formed on her lips, "He's in pretty good spirits considering he lost a lot of blood. Though the morphine and stabbing Wesker might have something to do with it."
The General almost appeared to lose his frown for a moment and the ends of his mouth moved slightly upwards.
Suddenly a young man jumped from his seat. "Captain, Lieutenant Gallo reports his squad just engaged Wesker."
Rizzo practically flashed over to the man's station. "And?"
The younger man's face seemed to get more animated, "He is claiming the American's story fleshes out. Gallo and his men found the target trying to move out of the chasm. Gallo said Wesker tried to engage them but seemed wounded. Gallo's men laid down suppressing fire and Sergeant Bianchi repeatedly hit him with his grenade launcher and the target's skin started to bubble and decompose itself completely. He's reporting a confirmed kill."
Jill's eyes could not have gotten any wider.
After all this time could it really be over?
Howard's face seemed to lose all the weight that had been in it only moments before and geniuine grin appeared. "Captain Rizzo. Agent Valentine. It appears you both just became part of the most successful day in the BSAA's history."
Next: Chapter 3 -Return to the US of A.
