Chapter 2: Detached

"We fear what we do not understand and try to destroy what we fear." ~Unknown

It took over twelve hours for the storm to let up. There was flooding in the forest and lightning strikes were lighting the large but quick fires all over the place. Quentin and Ed were stuck in the base that whole time, they actually began to be worried about the man-creature thing they had seen earlier. Could they truly still call this one even in a sense, a traditional B.O.W.? There was more than just random J'avo out there for that thing to worry about, would the man freeze to death? That one in itself was doubtful but still possible as the night went on. Could he drown? Maybe, there was a lot of flooding but the caves seemed to be getting hit harder than anything else, but would there really be that much rain? Then there were the trees that they were still confused about, what they had seen while following its trail, the mashed trees and the dried blood even though it was in the middle of a storm, would it be dead, was it trying to kill itself?

As the sun started to come up Chris got Quentin and Ed together so they could take him to their *friend*. Quentin half hoped that Chris would have forgotten about what they said but it was obvious that Quentin would have to give Chris' memory more credit in the future even though he was much older. They headed out of the gate at eight thirty in the morning, but not after Chris had ordered them to come well-armed and stocked with supplies. When Chris left them to get his own supplies Quentin told Ed to only bring a pistol, so they didn't freak the thing out too badly. Ed agreed, but Quentin had a nagging suspicion it would take a lot more than what they could bring to stop the thing if it went on a rampage.

The ground was still a mess from the storm the second they stepped outside. Chris had noticed that Quentin and Ed were barely armed, nothing but a pistol, but he just gave them a questioning look and nothing more, he had learned to trust his men more over the years. Chris motioned for Quentin and Ed to lean on, which they did, although Chris could tell Ed was still pretty nervous, although not nearly as much as he was yesterday.

It took them quite a while to get back to where their initial fight had been and Chris could see a lot of sent shells on the ground around one location, almost as if they had aimed at a single person. Chris started to dig around in the mud around where he saw large groups of shells and found dozens maybe even hundreds more just mere centimeters into the mud. Chris was actually surprised at the sheer number of the shells and took to look at Quentin and Ed.

"How many J'avo did you guys say there was?" Chris was eyeing them suspiciously now.

"About three dozen or more, Captain." Quentin cleared his throat before responding to Chris, and when Chris looked from Quentin to Ed he just got a nod of affirmation that Quentin was not lying.

Looking around a little bit more Chris also saw what appeared to be dried blood, but was amazed that it was still here after the storm. Chris pulled out a Q-tip and a tube to collect some of the blood for testing, he knew there was something strange going on, because he had never seen blood from any person or B.O.W. that didn't wash away with water, especially with that crazy storm they had.

Chris kept on searching through the mud for anything that looked odd, and he noticed something that had him stopping dead in his movement. He found an extremely deep footprint in the mud, the initials *P.N.* were visible. Chris' brow furrowed in thought, he recognized the impression of the boot but couldn't let himself hope to believe what he thought this meant. Even though the thoughts of the boot impression disturbed him, Chris remembered when Piers had come up with the idea of having everyone's initials engraved into the bottom of their boots, in case the body of a soldier could not be identified, that way they always had some hidden way of being able to find out who it was.

Chris was still in thought but was snapped out of it when Quentin kneeled down next to him, putting one hand on his Captain's shoulder and the other pointing off a short distance away.

"This is where the fight was, we were over there near the trees, I convinced Ed to help me pick the J'avo off." Quentin nodded toward Ed who smiled at the acknowledgement.

Quentin continued pointing to an area in the tress about thirty feet or more away. Chris followed them both over to their previously mentioned hiding spot once he was done with his inspection in the mud, and yet again, Chris saw dried blood, but this time on the trees. The blood was still very unnerving to Chris to say the least, because blood would normally wash away from anything, but this blood however, seemed to have a different consistency to it, which almost frightened Alpha's leader.

Chris collected some of the blood that was on the tree with a Q-tip and placed it into another separate tube from the one had had done earlier. Chris had about five tubes left to use from the collection supplies he had grabbed before leaving the base, in case he had found something that should be studied.

Quentin and Ed motioned to Chris when they saw that he was done collecting a sample. When Chris looked over at them Quentin nodded at the path they would be following. The rest of the trees along the *path* were smashed and charred, most likely from the lightning that the storm had created. Yet again, Chris saw more blood, it was unnerving him more and more, but this time it looked completely different from the other two he had found. The blood on the trees further into the forest looked almost untouched even though the rest of the tree would be smashed and charred, when Chris went up and touched some of the blood, it almost felt like tree sap, sticky and slow to move.

Quentin and Ed were yet again leading Chris along the *path*, almost effortlessly, as if they had taken this way every day of their lives. They reached the cave they had seen the creature run into and turned on their lights before going in. The mouth of the cave was slightly eerie in nature, it seemed to form the shape of a giant jaw, pointed rocks hanging at the entrance like teeth. Inside the cave was another story however, it seemed almost peaceful, dark and damp, but peaceful, there wasn't a single sound to be heard. Unfortunately though, the further they went into the cave, the more flooded it became, they were soon walking in about an inch and a half of water. They traveled even further into the cave and the terrain just kept on getting worse from the water, there were extremely dangerous rocks under the water, almost like pit falls, because one step would send you plunging down right onto one of those rocks and they were sharper than a newly sharpened chainsaw.

After about ten minutes of searching through the god forsaken cave and almost drowning in pits once or twice, the group stumbled upon a tiny makeshift camp. The only visible thing they could find to mark this as a camp was the dying fire, Quentin and Ed began to wonder if water even reached this far into the cave because of how dry the area was. There was almost no sign of how recent someone had been here aside from the dying fire, Quentin figured they may have left within the last five minutes or so, possibly to go and find more wood to burn. The three men looked to each other and had a silent agreement to wait for whoever it was that was using this area as a camp but then suddenly they heard pained noises and banging deeper in the cave.

The three men looked at each other nervously, Ed more so than the other two, and slowly they began to inch their way over in the direction of the noises. They had to duck between narrow walls and suffer through more water and nearly falling into a few pits a couple more times, but they knew they were going to make it because the sounds only continued to get louder. As they were getting ever closer to the sound of the noise they started hearing things being yelled, like someone was talking to their self.

"Break off already you damn thing!"

Quentin and Ed saw Chris pause in front of them at the sound of that voice. Quentin didn't fail to see how Chris almost dropped everything he was carrying, a look of pure shock ridden across his face. His eyes were wide open and his face had paled almost like he had seen a ghost. Ed put his hand on their Captain's shoulder and Chris almost jumped straight up at the sudden contact, looking back at them he silently mouthed the words *I know that voice.* Ed and Quentin both nodded at Chris and they continued on into the cave.

When they got to the source of the noise Chris motioned for Ed and Quentin to be as silent as possible. They were crouched behind a low wall of rock watching the B.O.W. smash its arm into the rocks and walls over and over again, noticing how it seemed to never be harmed but they could also visibly see the B.O.W. slowing down from all the swinging. They continued to watch it swing viciously time and time again, but when the creature seemed to be so tired that it was about to faint Ed accidentally kicked a rock that went flying down into the water, the creature turned around towards the sound and it was now obvious that it could not see them, or at least not see them well enough to make out any details. It croaked out only one simple question.

"W-who's there?" then the B.O.W. fell face first into the water, before it fell Quentin could notice the sweat on its forehead, and he could hear its heavy breathing from exhaustion, then the three hurried out to grab it out because it had fallen into one of those areas that was a pit disguised by the water, and he was sinking fast.

~Piers

Piers awoke in the cave while some of the storm was still going and decided to try and explore. He noticed how a good portion of the cave was filled with up to two inches of freezing water, something that would not be a pleasure to have to sleep in. Piers walked around the cave until he found a dry spot and sat down to try and relax. He noticed some soak wet wood nearby and grabbed it. He put it into a small little pile in the middle of his so called camp grounds and charged up his arm a bit, he hated doing it, because it reminded him of something that could no longer work. It took him two tries to actually set the wood on fire, but the warmth and comfort it provided was a sweet relief to Piers.

After about ten minutes Piers started to hear voices and movement inside of the cave, they were not the sounds of J'avo or other B.O.W.s but rather of people, but Piers had no desire to actually be seen like this. He got up from his camp site and went running deeper into the cave, having scouted it out fairly well he could now tell where most of the pits were and how deep they were. Piers got to a somewhat secluded part of the cave and stopped running. He looked down at his arm with disgust, this was the reason he didn't want anyone to see him. He didn't want to be seen as the monster that the C-Virus had turned so many people into. It was his own fault though, he remembered being thrown against a wall, his arm mutilated by debris, and he had injected himself with it to save his Captain. Nobody had seen him do it other than Chris, and Chris had probably just told everyone that he had died down there. Piers doubt that Chris would have actually told them how he had died, that he had injected himself with the C-Virus, turned into a monster, and used the last of his remaining willpower to shove Chris into the escape pod and leave himself behind.

Piers started bashing his arm into the wall and rocks that he could find that seemed sharp enough to do damage. It was to no avail however, nothing worked enough that Piers could even feel anything; the arm just seemed to retaliate to him by becoming harder and harder, turning like it was almost solid metal when Piers tried to break it off of his body. When he was started to become extremely tired from the swinging he started to slow, that is when he noticed a sound. He turned around in the direction the sound had come from, there was a rock that had just fallen, and he could hear the shallow breathing of three other people in the cave.

"W-Who's there?" Piers called out before finally falling forward from exhaustion.

~General View

The three men only watched for a split second as the B.O.W. slumped forward from exhaustion falling into the water. Chris was the first to react, springing from his spot and diving straight down into the water. Quentin and Ed were still frozen in place, but almost immediately after Chris hit the water they were shaken out of there shocked states and ran down to the water's edge. Quentin and Ed reached the edge of the water just as Chris came up, gasping for air and pulling the B.O.W. up with him. Quentin and Chris hurriedly performed CPR on the B.O.W., Chris pumping his chest and Quentin blowing air into his mouth. After about thirty seconds they heard pained and almost silent groans from the B.O.W. indicating he was alive but it remained unconscious.

Quentin and Ed watched as Chris was hurriedly trying to wake the B.O.W. up. They weren't sure what to say but it was obvious to at least Quentin that this was the man that got left behind in China. Quentin put his hand on Chris' shoulder, earning a flinch from the older soldier but when he turned and looked at them both Chris started to calm down.

"Help me get him out of here?"

It was somewhat of a question and an order at the same time, Chris being unsure as to how to phrase it. Quentin and Ed both nodded in understanding. Quentin helped Chris get the B.O.W. up and they both began walking with it, one of its arms slung around each of their shoulders, and Ed led the way out of the cave. To say that the trip into the cave was easy would be an understatement compared to going out, the entire time they took to get out of the cave was spent with Quentin and Chris half dragging half helping the B.O.W. move. The short amount of time spent coming in when they had to walk single file was now spent with two people walking sideways and one being half dragged half carried through the cave. It took them almost an hour to get out of the cave and almost another two just to get back to base.

The second they got back to base Quentin and Ed were aware of the questioning and suspicious looks from everybody else. Chris however, seemed oblivious, only focusing on the man that they were half dragging through the place. Chris and Quentin headed for the office Chris used during off-duty hours or when he needed to fill out paperwork, and once inside they sat Piers down on the couch, earning a somewhat content sigh from the man in his sleep. Chris hurriedly pulled out his phone to try and call Jill to get her take on the situation; it rang three times before she picked up.

"This is Jill Valentine. Who am I speaking to?"

"C'mon Jill, you mean to tell me you don't check before answering?"

Jill perked up a bit from the terrible day she had been having with paperwork at the sound of Chris' voice, "Hey Chris! Wait… you said you would call if something happened… ugh what did you do this time Bearfield?"

Chris chuckled at hearing the old name Jill had given him years ago, "Well… something did happen and I'm not really sure how to say it but…"

Jill sighed and stopped Chris where he was, "Just tell me what you need Chris, you don't even have to explain it to me."

"Well, a helicopter, hospital, and the best C-Virus experts we have."

"Done, the helicopter will be there in five minutes, so you better be ready, and good luck with whatever this is Chris. I'll stop by the hospital to check on how things are going; the pilot will already know the directions."

Chris breathed a sigh of relief; maybe something would finally go his way today. When Ed shot Chris a questioning look he explained to them both that there would be a helicopter here within five minutes to pick them up and get their *friend* to a hospital. Ed and Quentin each took one of Piers' arms and let Chris lead the way, hoping to give him a little bit of a break. Ed, even though he tended to be the most nervous out of everyone, actually took the mutated arm, which Quentin was glad for; he would definitely feel strange with that thing over the back of his head, feeling the electricity arcing through it. On the way to the helipad the members of Alpha once again got questioning looks from everyone else on base, but luckily the rest of Alpha had heard about what was going on. Ares, Jack, and Andy were all waiting at the helicopter for the rest of their team, and once they saw them walking towards it they rushed out to help get the man into the helicopter as well.

They could all finally relax once they got the man situated into the helicopter along with the rest of the team, although he was still unconscious. Chris looked to the three members of Alpha that were not with them when they had gone into the forest earlier that day, and all he got back from them was a nod in agreement and a thumbs up, indicating that they would be along for the ride.

The helicopter set down after about fifteen minutes in the air and the entirety of Alpha Team was met by a team of doctors and scientists who, against Chris' protests, stayed determined in the fact that they should take Piers along while the rest of the team waited. The team sat in the waiting room of the hospital for what seemed like days, even though it had only been about six hours but Alpha Team was starting to doze off into sleep, Chris was the only one who remained awake almost vigilantly. Then, as it was nearing midnight, the doctor from earlier came out into the waiting room looking around for them, and when she saw them she walked over. She looked at Chris and said one thing to him.

"I have something to tell you, and it is about that arm of his."