Chapter 2: Departure

Chris finally removed all the rumble that had toppled on top of his legs and staggered a little while rubbing his knees, forcing his injured body to move in order to find out what happened to Claire and Steve.

'What was taking Steve so long in finding Claire and bringing her back to him?' Chris asked himself as he looked down at his watch and he noted that Steve had been gone for over ten minutes now.

Getting more and more worried as the minutes rolled on, Chris discovered a passageway that led to another set of stairs and he almost tripped up in his haste to reach his darling sister. After sprinting down the corridor that Steve had darted through only fifteen minutes ago Chris couldn't shake the feeling that something had gone horribly wrong and only hoped that he arrived in time to help. When he finally reached the end of the corridor that just seemed to go on forever, he could faintly hear someone crying, it was definitely a guy that was crying. Walking up cautiously up to solid metal door that by the looks of it was electronically locked, Chris pressed his face on the cool, metal surface and called through. "Hello, Steve is that you? Did you find Claire?"

He heard the crying stop just long enough to speak through sobs. "Claire's… she's… Claire…" Steve forced out and then began to cry again. "No, Claire… please… come… back…" He heard shuffling on the other side of the door and just pictured Steve cradling a lifeless Claire in his arms.

Chris placed one shaking hand on the doorframe; everything around him just seemed to stop. He knew exactly what Steve was trying to say, he'd done the exact same thing to Claire when their grandparents had finally passed away. But still that didn't make the pain go away. 'Claire can't be dead, she just can't! No I failed her… my little sister…' Snapping out of his sorrow, Chris realized that his sister wouldn't have wanted him and Steve to die over their grief for her loss. She would want them to get out of this place and take down Umbrella and insured the safety of everyone on the entire planet, before even considering mourning her death.

"Steve can you open this door?" Chris asked as he looked around and concluded that there was no way for him to open the door on his end.

A few seconds later Steve's quiet reply came through the door. "No." He paused as he sniffed and held back the tears. "You'll have to activate the self destruct to disable all the locks on the doors. It's the only way it'll open. Plus we can't leave this facility intact."

Chris knew exactly where to go. He had seen something that resembled a control room and he betted that was where he'd be able to activate the self-destruct. He wasted no time running down the corridor and into the control room, seeing the only computer that was still active he approached it and read on the screen 'insert password'.

After typing in the password that also served as the command code 'Code-Veronica' the lights dimmed and turned red. "This facility will self-destruct in five minutes. All doors have been unlocked to allow proper evacuation procedures." The female computer voice kept repeating over and over again.

Chris headed back to where he left Steve. Opening the door he saw the boy cradling his sister, it was a shock to his system to see her lifeless body with his own eyes. He closed his eyes and clenched his fist; he couldn't get the overwhelming feeling of defeat and failure to shake off. But he knew that she'd want them to live, continue the fight and finish what Umbrella started, and to do that they had to get off this ice block.

Chris yanked Steve to his feet and when the computer announced the time limit they had they ran without a second's hesitation, when they reached the platform that led to the lift that would take them to the plane, Alexia stood blocking their way. In front of them she transformed into a huge green gigantic bug thing. Slime and other mucus covered her, that and many more vines. Her eyes were as white as paper and she stunk of something dead and rotten.

Chris and Steve teamed up and fired most of their rounds into her. Green acidic blood sprayed everywhere, Chris and Steve were lucky that none of it touched them. They unlocked the huge gun thing where someone had input the self destruct system. Chris had a fairly good feeling that he knew who would have done it too.

He handed the gun to Steve that's when Alexia left her spider like body and being a flying insect. Steve aimed at her chest and scored a direct hit. Alexia fell to the ground causing the platform to shake. "Two minutes remaining."

Chris and Steve pegged it through the ice room, where Steve had shot Alfred Ashford and him and Claire used the digger to break through the wall. But stood in there way now was none other than:

"Wesker, how I hate what you've done." Chris said as Steve looked from one to the other utterly confused.

"Not as much as I hate you. But we don't have time for chit chats now do we? You see I want you to activate the self-destruct, hoping it would take you down. Permanently."

"Sorry Wesker but Alexia is dead, Steve shot her down and we have no intention of dying here." Chris said calmly waving his hand in front of Steve, who eyed Wesker with a death glare.

"I see, so this is Mr. Burnside's lad? Ah but you see Chris I don't need Alexia anymore I have something much better than that lame excuse of a specimen." Wesker paused as he saw the two men in front him look utterly and completely confused. He was going to enjoy this. "Why don't tell me you've forgotten about Claire already? She'll make a wonderful prize for me and my people to work on."

"You sick and twisted man you leave her alone! Don't you dare touch her!" Steve shouted at the top of his lungs and stepped forwards towards Wesker but Chris placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks.

"Too late for that my boy, my men have already taken her to our new headquarters. But maybe she'll come back alive just like I did, and bring you to me Chris, and maybe she'll come back for you Steve, who knows? Or maybe I'll use her for my very own purposes." Wesker emphasised the last sentence purposefully knowing that it would strike a nerve in the other two men and with that he turned and ran away using his superhuman speed and left them.

Steve and Chris were stunned at Wesker's last words before he departed but they had no time to contemplate on them. They both physically shook themselves back into reality and ran towards the hangar; they had to fight their ways past dozens of zombies but the adrenaline coursing through their veins made it easy for them.

Chris piloted the aircraft out of the hangar just in the nick of time as the facility exploded in the background barely a minute after they departed.

Steve stared out at the ocean below and tried not to think about Claire's last moments alive with him. They had only just met and yet they had somehow formed a deep bond between them so quickly. He wouldn't nor couldn't forget a girl like Claire.

'I vow that if you're alive Claire, we shall meet again and travel to Hawaii. I promise.'

A/N: So sorry for the incredibly long delay, don't honestly know what happened. Hope you liked it and please let me know what you think as it's appreciated. Once again sorry for taking so long.