Claire took a moment to breathe as she exiled herself in her tent after a long meeting with the engineers about reconfiguring the barracks and a portion of the wall. They were well over capacity with their new arrivals and they needed to make place for bigger structures and living quarters. They would have to open the wall to make the modifications, which meant a heck of a lot of preparation, extra guard shifts, and a damn big headache for Claire since she had to coordinate it all.
She sat down on the edge of her bed and leaned forward, rubbing either side of her temple - ugh, I wonder what's Alice doing? She was itching for a good massage from the doctor; Claire had recently discovered that Alice was exceptionally good at removing the knots in her back and shoulders.
Though she knew exactly what Alice was doing, when Claire passed by the Clinic this morning there were at least 10 people waiting outside to see the doctor. She then decided that she would be the one to treat her to a massage tonight.
Claire was pulled away from her pleasant thoughts when her brother's voice came through the second radio she kept on her bed-side table for that exact purpose. "Claire, are you there?"
She picked it up asked, quickly, "is everything alright?"
"Yeah, I just," he sighed, "wanted to hear your voice."
Claire rolled her eyes as she let herself fall back onto the bed. "You were always the sentimental one," but she smiled nonetheless; she missed his presence here.
"How's...everything?" He asked awkwardly even though they both knew where the tension came from.
"Good," it didn't exactly some up their last few days but she didn't want to worry him. Besides, he deserved some rest. "How are you?" Claire asked just as awkwardly. This is even more embarrassing than the time he went and asked a girl I had a crush on in high school if she liked me - when I was right beside him.
"Good," he echoed Claire's previous answer.
"Claire-"
"Chris-"
Chris chuckled to himself before activating the radio's microphone, "I acted like a dick."
"I know," Claire replied sternly.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions so quickly."
Alice's arrival in Arcadia had helped the settlement greatly and Claire was beginning to think that his grudge against her was nothing more than petty jealousy - that and he probably bust a nut somewhere in between. "No you shouldn't have and next time you're halfway to crazy town, come talk to me okay? I'm here for you."
"Guess I needed a reminder," Chris replied playfully, though there was a hint of regret in his soft tone.
"How's a kick in the ass for a reminder?"
"I'd deserve it," he replied but his mind was elsewhere. He remained quiet for a moment before the radio crackled to life with his voice once more: "Listen Claire, I've been scouting the prison and there's some really weird shit going on here. We need to-"
"What? Alone? Are you-" Claire pinched the bridge of her nose as she growled under her breath and attempted to calm herself down. Alice's training paid off, she thought. "Chris, we don't know their numbers or what they want with us."
"That's what I'm here to find out," he supplied like it was the most obvious answer of them all.
"Seriously? I will kick your damned ass to hell and back if you don't get the fuck out of there, Chris, I'll -"
Thankfully, Chris had a legitimate reason for interrupting his sister's angry rant. "Someone's coming, talk later."
Nothing but radio silence after that. "Idiot!" Claire slammed her radio back down onto the table it previously sat on and started pacing around the tent, venting her frustrations very loudly: "Fucking hell! You can't just get mad at me for going solo James Bond when you fucking turn around and do the same goddamn thing!"
Jill walked into the tent when Claire was just about midway through her monologue that could also be considered a psychotic break - she'd have to ask Alice later to confirm this. She stopped moving and rose an eyebrow at her friend as her eyes followed Claire's frantic movements around the small area, "Did you smoke a doobie by yourself?"
"Chris is scouting the prison - alone ."
Jill rose an eyebrow, unsure how this even qualified as something the redhead should get worked up over. "I know I've been helping him," Jill shrugged, "and besides he has special ops training. Why are you so worried?"
Claire's answer was a loud frustrated growl and Jill was absolutely sure the vein on the redhead's forehead would burst and coat them both with her blood. "You two are fucking impossible, you know that?"
"Woah, relax Red," Jill brought her hand up as she went to find something she had stuffed into her pockets. "I have something for you," she demonstrated by lifting up the rolled joint like she had found the answer to everlasting peace, and in retrospect, that wasn't too far from the truth.
"Why didn't you say so in the first place? I would have left out the kicking your fucking ass part for not letting me know what you two incredible morons have been doing without so much as advising me first." Claire replied in a way that was undoubtedly sarcastic and a little too aggressive to even be considered passive, Jill thought. Claire sighed and dismissed her friend with her hand, "really not in the mood, Jill."
"I come all the way out here to spend time with you and you refuse to smoke drugs with me? Who are you? " The woman was stressed and she clearly needed something to take the edge off, weed was the obvious answer here. "Doctor's orders, really ," Jill pressed further. She began warming up to Alice the more time she spent with her and honestly, any doctor who suggested weed as a stress relief couldn't have an evil bone in their body.
"Well when you say it like that," Claire chuckled and sat back down on the edge of the bed. She ran a hand through her red locks and decided to tie her mane back into a ponytail. She turned her gaze to Jill and apologized to her silently as she patted the empty space beside her. "Sit," she said with a more relaxed smile.
Why did that feel like I just tamed a wild animal? Crocodile hunter got nothing on me. "She rolled it up for you and everything. The chick's clearly in love." Jill took the offered seat and fished out her lighter and rolled the joint between her fingers as the flame licked and seared the end of the paper.
Jill winked at her friend as she brought the end of the joint that held the makeshift cutter between her lips. She took a gigantic hit and then passed it along into Claire's waiting fingers. Usually, she would have teased Claire about the love-sick smile on her face at the mention of the l-word, but Jill was starting to understand that these two made a great team.
"It's been awhile since we did this together," Claire had realized sadly as she mirrored Jill's action and took a hit that LJ would be proud of. She coughed a few times, and she could confirm Alice had rolled it by the sole fact that her throat wasn't burning like hell (the doctor rolled it with tobacco to smooth it out). The familiar smell filled her senses and soon eased her mind; she already felt its smooth calming effects.
Jill might talk trash most of the time, but she took care of Claire like an older sister would: constant insults with a side of 'will defend you to the death if anyone so much looks at you the wrong way'. It was kind of confusing most of the time and well there wasn't a lot that confused her right now - maybe only the fact that they didn't have coconut pie did though. Fuck I'm hungry.
They both took a second hit before Claire put it out by flicking her index and then stowed it away for later.
"Well you have been busy," Jill drawled as she bumped her shoulder against Claire's.
"I know and I'm sorry Jill, I-"
"Fuck no," Jill cut her off quickly, "don't ever be sorry for that."
"You mean that?" Claire asked as she let her head fall against Jill's taut shoulder, the grin on her face was only partially natural.
"Like a heart attack."
Claire let out a loud laugh, "I think you got that saying wrong."
Jill rose an eyebrow as she defended her statement, but barely kept her laughter at bay: "A heart attack is serious, and I'm serious about meaning what I said."
Both women burst out laughing and both fell back onto the bed, making sounds like dying animals because they were severely out of breath and couldn't really control their laughter anymore.
Claire tried to speak between laughs, but only indistinguishable squeaks came out which only made them lose their shit again. It took them a long while, but they finally settled down after a half-hearted attempt at wrestling each other. They ended up cuddling instead because who the hell had energy to do that? Besides, they were both feeling relaxed enough to sleep for days.
Jill wrapped herself around Claire's back and sighed into the back of the woman's head. She crinkled her nose and moved it from side to side as Claire's hair tickled her. Ew, it's in my mouth, Jill thought as she craned her head down to settle against Claire's shoulder instead.
"You miss him don't you, you big sap?" Claire said with a yawn.
"Ugh don't say that," Jill immediately defended like Claire had thrown the worse insult at her, "I'm not a fucking sap." She dismissed the false claims made against her and actually pouted, though she was glad that Claire couldn't see her face.
"Says the one spooned against my back," she shot back with a chuckle.
"Fine," Jill relented, "I miss that look he gives me when he's in a good mood, I miss his stupid stubble that's always there even if he shaves everyday. I miss his eyes. they look like yours though so that's okay, and I miss his big-"
Claire sharply turned into Jill's arms and slapped her hand onto her mouth, a horrified look in her emerald eyes. "Don't you dare finish that sentence, I will throw you out." And probably throw up, Claire thought.
"I was going to say muscles," Jill chuckled behind her hand. Clearly it was a lie.
Sure. "Sleep," Claire ordered sternly and turned around once more and settled back against her friend.
"Mhm," Jill mumbled almost incoherently just as she fell asleep.
Claire wouldn't let herself be vulnerable with anyone else, except for Alice of course. The relationship she and Jill had wasn't as intimate as what she and Alice shared. It felt similar, it had the same intensity but still there was a clear distinction between the two. Though, Claire wouldn't be able to put it into words if asked to explain it and perhaps some of our feelings were meant to do just that. To be felt and not spoken aloud where interpretations could twist the weight of their actual meaning.
I could be a damn poet, Claire mused as she attempted to make her words rhyme but her newly found passion was soon forgotten as her body and mind succumbed to some well-deserved rest.
Claire was in the garage, hand deep inside her Triumph's engine; pieces scattered all around her as she had taken it all apart for some TLC maintenance. She had grease up to her elbows and it would probably have dirtied her skin farther up if it wasn't for the rolled up sleeves of the overalls she was wearing. Her red hair was fixed into a bun up on her head as a ponytail would have just gotten in her way.
When Claire was stressed out, or just needed some space to get away from everything, she would come here and work on her 2015 Thunderbird Commander. The bike was a beauty, and was a gift from her father upon completing military boot camp.
Instead of the usual chrome the exhaust, most of the engine, the handle bars, and other accessories were painted matte black. The fuel tank was painted with a dark red with a metallic finish. There was an old school drawing of a pin-up girl with angel wings holding a bomb on top of it. The words 'Made in Heaven' had been delicately written on either side of the tank with wings underneath.
It wasn't exactly a comfortable two-seater, but it did the trick for short trips. She didn't take it out often, though, as it spent gas they needed for more useful trips and made a hell of a lot of noise. Which is why Claire had used it to lead one of the hordes away from the settlement once, though Chris hadn't been exactly enchanted by her ballsy move.
A cleared throat distracted Claire from her work, "sorry to bother you, but where do you want us to put the guns the recon team found today?"
"In the armory with the rest," she replied simply as she inspected the fuel injectors for faults or wear and tear.
The man cleared his throat nervously, and Claire wasn't sure why some of them acted like this around her. I mean, she wasn't a ruthless warlord who cut off her soldier's heads because they failed her (even if she really wanted to sometimes).
"Yeah, uhm, the armory's over capacity ma'am," he explained.
"Put them into the empty ammo crates we have," Claire said as she cleaned the area around the crank shaft with a dirty towel. "Put a latch and a lock on them for now."
"We don't have anymore of those."
Claire nodded, "I'll weld some later." She glanced at him over her shoulder, "anything else?"
"That's all."
"Good work," she saluted him and turned back to the motorcycle's engine. She pulled out a brand new oil seal out of its packaging and worked on replacing it with the old one when another voice broke her concentration.
"Miss Redfield?"
She sighed deeply before she answered: "Yeah?"
"Rachel sprained her knee out there today, doc says she can't walk on it for a few days at least. Who's going to replace her?"
Claire replaced the engine's head gasket as well, an oil leak was never good especially not in this climate. "Ask Valentine, she's the one in charge of your teams."
"I couldn't find her."
"Radio her," Claire answered calmly as she examined the combustion chamber and made her way down to the pistons and push rods; each passing her inspection.
"Roger that ma'am," he said just before he left her alone again - thank God .
She could hear him call out Jill on the radio and thought her friend was either was still asleep in her tent or at the mess hall stuffing her face. Claire continued to work with a smile on her face, until footsteps behind her alerted her of someone's presence - though she didn't recognize them by sound.
"Nice bike."
Claire recognized the accented voice, though. "Thanks," she said absent-minded, distracted as she thought about how she could easily weld the garage's door shut. Is a little peace and quiet to much to ask for? Fucking hell.
"Yeah," Abby smiled fondly at the vehicle. Even if it was missing its engine, it looked like it was taken straight out of an Octane magazine. "I knew how to ride a bike before I ever got into a car," and she couldn't say she enjoyed cars as much as she did motorcycles.
Abby moved closer and peaked at what Claire was doing to the engine. She noticed the tuning module sitting on the table next to all the bolts and nuts that previously held the engine into its designed space. "Are you going to tune the injectors?" Abby asked with sudden interest.
A grin suddenly lit up Claire's face, "you're familiar with this?" When the girl nodded, she surprised herself (and Abby) with her offer: "Wanna give me a hand?" Claire wanted peace and quiet but sharing her passion was something she could never pass up. Plus, the girl seemed to know what she was talking about and she wanted to see if she could walk the walk.
"Hell yeah," Abby quickly replied. There was something her white t-shirt was missing and that was a little grease, it had been a while since she's worked on a beauty like that. She had found an old tin can of a bike a year back, but Mary would never let her work on it. This beauty is nothing like the bodgy piece of shit I found.
"Check the camshaft for me," Claire said as she observed the young woman work with scrutiny in her gaze. She wiped away some of the grease off her hands before she unzipped the front of her overalls, pulled her arms out of the sleeves, and tied them around her waist. Even without the sun beating down on them the heat was still very much an unforgiving bitch.
"How are you settling in?" Claire asked as she watched Abby's apt hands move in a familiar way around her Triumph's engine.
"Good, everyone's here now and people are pretty friendly." She couldn't have asked for a better turn of events, heck, even living in a dump would be better than having to continue doing what they did for Mary. Abby wished she would have just left, but she didn't and it's a decision she would regret every damn day she woke up, every time she would stare in the mirror at her reflection and remember their faces.
Right now though, Abby wasn't going to let these thoughts pull her away from this moment. She was content to work on a the bike and perhaps even get to know Arcadia's leader a little better. "Did you check the crankshaft's oil seals?"
Alright, test passed. The kid knows her stuff. "Yep, changed them." Claire demonstrated by holding up the old and dirty ones in front of the girl's face. She threw them back onto the work table and leaned back against it.
"You seem pretty close with K-mart. She talks about you a lot," Abby didn't want to come off as straight forward, but the way K-mart had explained it to her, Claire was practically her parent so if she wanted to get anywhere near her she'd need to do some good old-fashioned buttering up.
However, she had recognized early on that Claire probably wouldn't be too receptive to those kinds of games, so showing her what that she was a capable mechanic was her second and only other option.
"Right," Claire replied cautiously. She narrowed her eyes slightly as Abby stopped working on the engine and turned towards her. She noticed the girl's hand was on the work table, nervously playing around with one of the bolts.
"Does she, I mean, is she-" Fuck! Start by making a full sentence maybe? You bloody oaf. "Does she have someone?"
Claire didn't answer her right away as she busied herself with inspecting the rest of the engine before she and Abby started to silently put it back together. The redhead was happy that for once she didn't to give out any instructions. "She has lots of people," if this kid wanted to get close to K-mart then she'd have to pass the Claire test, or as K-mart loved to call it, the 'daddy test'.
"I meant a boyfriend or a girlfriend," Abby spoke more confidently this time as she used a ratchet to secure both parts of the engine Claire was holding together for her.
There much better, use your words. "Aren't you two a little young for that?" Claire didn't view K-mart that way, she was a capable kid soon to be a woman, but she wanted to see how Abby stacked up against a little adult opposition.
"We've held more guns and killed more times than we've been kissed by someone we're interested in. I hardly think age matters anymore, maturity might though." Your mind grows far quicker than your body when you're thrown into shitty situations, and their lives were a gigantic shitty situation.
Claire chuckled as she brought the engine towards the bike and gently lowered it into place with Abby's help. "I get it, it's not like you can hide and kiss in school yards anymore right?"
"Something like that," Abby met Claire's green eyes and she saw a hint of understanding in them. Her grin mirrored Claire's and she figured she would easily grow fond of this woman. Bonus points for being nothing like the old twat-bag.
"The drill's over there," Claire nodded her head at the tool as she held the engine into it's slot. When Abby came back with the drill she had even placed the right sized box onto it. Alright, I'm adopting her. Claire raised her voice to make herself heard over the loud powertool, "so you're...interested in her?" Trying to make someone talk about their emotions is fucking worse than speaking about mine. This is so not my thing.
"I don't know, maybe?" Abby replied, uncertainty in her voice as she tightened the bolts that secured the engine to the motorcycle's frame. Truthfully, her childhood had never been that great, except for bikes, and then the outbreak quickly forced her to grow up. Abby never experienced love like a normal teenager and she probably never will - everything was different now - and she had nothing to go on, nothing to compare to.
"You should probably figure that out then," there was no way Claire was going to let some undecided kid mess with K-mart. She saw the way they looked at each other, the way K-mart's eyes lit up when Abby appeared - she had a crush and that was clear. Claire didn't want to see it as trouble, everyone had the right to enjoy intimacy, but the protective parent part of her reared it's ugly head every time K-mart was involved.
"I'm not sure how," Abby confessed.
Claire remained silent as they finished bolting the engine and wired what needed to be wired; her knees screamed at her for not putting something between them and the hard concrete underneath. She moved one of her legs so that she rested her weight on her foot instead of the knee that remained pressed into the ground. With a sigh Claire stopped working and turned to Abby, "look kid, I'm really not the best person to be having this conversation with."
Abby frowned as she thought that had to be the biggest lie she's ever head. She's seen her and the blonde doctor together, they seemed to have figured it out well enough. "You're with Alice, right? How did you know?"
Are we really doing this? Ugh, fine. It's really hard to act all tough when hopeful, puppy dog eyes are sent your way, Claire thought. "She makes me feel calm. Even when I didn't know her that well, I know it sounds improbable and it probably is, but I felt comfortable with her from the start. When some things don't make sense I know that what I felt for her does, and I think that's what grounds me. I never thought about it too much, you know," Claire let out a chuckle as she shook her head, "it feels like I've known her for years but at the same time it feels brand new every day." Claire watched as Abby fetched the injector tuning module, though the teen intently listened to every word she spoke.
"You said you weren't the right person for this kind of talk," Abby teased as she sat on the ground cross-legged and worked on plugging the tuning module to the engine.
Claire chuckled and rolled her eyes, the girl remind Claire of herself so much it was kind of scary. "If I told you I had everything figured out I know it would be a straight out lie because I won't ever have that luxury, none of us will. Still, I went with my gut even if it scared the shit out of me. And there's no magical formula for it, you either go for it or you don't."
Abby snorted, "I hate that feeling of uncertainty and being afraid, it's so…"
"Weak? Yeah, I know," Claire smiled softly. She understood the girl's feeling, though with experience she came to understand fear was just an obstacle you faced when you needed to grow. If you didn't want to face it, or let it control you, then you'd remain stuck in the same state of mind.
"It's ready," Abby moved her bangs from her eyes and leaned back as she watched Claire input the desired settings into the module. For a moment, she even let herself feel happiness. It was obvious that Claire wasn't unconfident about talking about love for lack of understanding, she was just insecure about her own emotions. Kind of like me , Abby thought. Vulnerability is hard to share, and harder to convince yourself that it's okay to have.
Claire tuned the injectors for fuel economy, she really wanted to take Alice on a ride soon. Once she made all her desired modifications, she and Abby started clearing up the work area of the mess they had made. Once everything was cleaned, sort of, they shared a high five for a job well done. "Well Abby, if you were looking for a job you've got one now."
"Shit, you're for real?"
Claire grinned and nodded at the girl, "you know how to weld, right?"
"With both eyes closed and one hand behind my back," Abby replied with a smirk.
"Welcome aboard," Claire shook hands with the girl and if she had any doubts about her before they had all disappeared now. Though, she'd keep a close eye on her and K-mart, just to make sure, not because she's being overprotective and hovering too close. Right? Right.
"Thanks Claire, you won't regret it."
And I've got just the job for you, "we need latches for locks made. There's some scrap metal in the back, take what you need."
Abby nodded and moved towards the racks of sorted metal. Iron angles were stacked together with similarly shaped pieces while bigger items were stacked on top of each other; there were a lot of car hoods and other car parts stacked into another rack, Abby noticed. There was a rack for electrical parts as well. This has gotta be heaven.
"And Abby," Claire waited for the girl to turn around and face her. She offered a small smile as she said: "K-mart doesn't have a girlfriend."
This was clearly Claire's way of giving Abby her blessing and the teen couldn't stop the grin that spread on her face. She then realized she also couldn't control the way her heart was beating out of her chest.
If love was a sickness she'd understand her body's response to it, but the young girl was still unaware why emotions could so easily mess with her head. She usually possessed laser focus, but all she can seem to think about is K-mart's hazel eyes, and her pretty blonde hair, and her soft-looking lips.
Abby cursed herself for her wandering mind , Latches, right. Fuck. She heard Claire's hearty laugh and wondered if she had said that outloud. I'm going bloody insane.
When Jill woke up her stomach grumbled and it felt like she hadn't eaten anything in days. She decided that maybe she'd rummage through her junk food reserves because she seriously itched for some chips right now and sour candies too...at the same time. That sounds fucking God-like.
She moved off of the bed and slipped on the tactical vest she had discarded before she and Claire smoked took the luxury of taking a long nap. Jill wasn't surprised to find Claire had disappeared, but she was glad the redhead had let her sleep a little longer; she hadn't gotten the best sleep in the past few days.
She truly hated human intimacy, well, she hated needing it and missing it. The naked part was her favorite, you know, but there was something about feeling unhinged when someone you grew to depend on just left without a warning. Now that just seriously pissed her off. Why did God think it was a good idea to give us emotions anyway? Honestly! They make us dumb.
Jill decided she'd couldn't wait for Chris to come back so she could kick his stupid ass, then kiss it better, then kick it again for good measure. See what I mean? How does that even make sense?
"Ironside 6 for Hayley," the guard's voice fortunately interrupted thoughts Jill would rather not have in the first place.
Jill unclipped her radio's mic from her vest with one hand and ran her fingers through her hair with the other. "I'm not having a mental breakdown, what can I do for you sweetie?"
Hayley chuckled, "some arsehole is at the gate, on a horse, and he has people with him. Lots of them."
"Speak dirty to me, my sweet Irish lady, how many?"
Wow, she's in a good mood, Hayley thought as she replied to her supervisor: "Nothing we can't handle, ma'am."
Fucking finally, some action. "I'll prepare the teams, switch channels and wait for Red's go ahead."
"Roger that ma'am," the guard carried out Jill's orders and kept an eye on the intruders and signaled for the gate to be opened.
"Redfield!" Jill yelled through her microphone, adrenaline already rushing through her veins, "get your fingers out of the cookie jar, we got company."
After some fumbling around, Claire answered furiously: "Jill, I swear to God!"
"You can swear to Valentine, you know that," she didn't leave Claire any time to shoot back some empty death threats, "Let's get this show on the road people. All assigned teams report for duty at the front gate. Defensive formation, keep it tight boys and girls, just the way we like it!" Jill let out a laugh and clipped her mic back onto her vest.
She crossed Claire's threshold and marched to her quarters to recover her shotgun and two mags for her handgun. Boy, oh boy! Can't wait to shoot me some douchebags. She was glad no one had telepathic powers to hear the Mickey Mouse voice Jill had just used in her head.
After loading her weapons, Jill made her way to the gate,where her teams were already assembled and had placed themselves like she ordered. She crossed the rest of the way to the front gate and came face to face with the asshole that would soon ruin everyone's day. "Welcome to Arcadia, does your boyfriend dye your hair or do you do it all by yourself?"
A smirk lifted up the corner of his lip, blubbering fools. "Such a warm welcome, I hope you don't treat all your guests with such finesse?"
"You went and opened your mouth and made everything so much more worse," if there was one thing Jill truly hated with a passion, it was being condescended like a child. "The fuck you want, peroxide head?" She asked and took a moment to size up his army.
Jill rose an eyebrow as she took in their medieval-like armor, it heavily contrasted with their automatic weapons. Though one of them held a massive axe in both of his hands. What a tool, Jill snorted.
"I didn't introduce myself, didn't I? I'm Albert Wesker, or the Red Horseman if you prefer. And you are?"
"About to kick your ass if you don't answer my fucking question," Jill rested her shotgun on her shoulder, finger on the trigger.
"I wish to have a chat with a Miss Redfield."
"She's busy," Jill replied with a sweet smile that was nothing but.
"I can wait," he said with a grin that spread on his face.
Jill's nostrils flared as she watched the man's army stare her team down the sights of their guns. Arcadia had numbers on their side so this would be easy, but Claire would have her head if she didn't at least try to figure out what this prick wanted before she blew holes into him.
Jill saw Wesker's smile widen as he stared at something behind her, and when she turned she was thankful to see who it was.
"Claire Redfield," Albert greeted as he opened both of his arms in a way that would be inviting to most, but Claire could easily tell it was all for show. "So nice to finally meet you."
Claire, however, was in no mood for games, "why are you here?" She demanded and watched Alice approach them from the corner of her eye.
"I would like to propose a trade," he said as he eyed the blonde doctor.
"Food? Weapons?" The redhead asked. Maybe a cape to go with that holier-than-thou attitude?
Albert chuckled and stepped forward closer to the trio, his armor clanking together with each step he took. "Not quite, we wish to trade Doctor Abernathy for, let's say, not killing every last one of you?"
Claire laughed, "you do realize you have sniper rifles aimed at your head, right? You're in no position to make any demands."
"Oh but I am," Wesker smirked sardonically. He laughed as he watched Jill lurch forward, only to be stopped by Claire. He lifted a fist up, telling his army to stand down. There was no need for bloodshed, yet.
Condescending prick . "What do you want with her?" There was no way Claire would let Alice leave with them, and if that meant killing each and everyone of these assholes then so be it.
"Doctor Isaacs, whom you know as the White Horseman, requires her help."
"For what?" Alice asked with a raised eyebrow. She stood beside Claire, one hand on the handle of her kukri.
"She speaks!" Albert exclaimed with another laugh, "Well, dear friend, that isn't important right now. What's important, however, is the two choices I'm going to give you: you come with us willingly and no harm will come to your friends, or you decline and we tear this place apart, take you and kill everyone else. including your loved ones." He moved a gloved finger towards Jill and shook his head then stopped it in front of Claire. "It's this one, am I correct? Yes, I see it," he stepped closer towards the woman and the fire in her eyes made him inexplicably joyful. "Romantic entanglements are a very dangerous affair, so to speak."
"Christ, are you going to break into song? Your outfits-" Jill's gaze moved to each one of his men and turned back to him with a smirk "they're cute, but I'm not sure it's what you'd call good protection, so to speak ."
Wesker lifted one of the plates off his chest to reveal the bulletproof vests underneath.
Jill didn't need to stare at this face to see there was a smirk firmly planted there.
"If Doctor Isaacs wants to speak with me, he can come and find me," she turned to gaze at Claire for a moment and it was all the permission she needed. "We're done here."
Just as they started to leave Wesker called out: "bring him out!" He smirked as the tactic effectively stopped them in their tracks. A man with a bag over his head and bound hands was pushed to the front so they could all see him. They removed the bag and pushed a gun against the back of his head.
Jill snarled as she met Chris' eyes. She marched up to Wesker and cocked her shotgun against his head. "I have a choice for you: you take your pack of tin cans and get the fuck out of here and I won't blow your fucking brains out."
"Jill!" Claire yelled when the woman didn't move every gun was suddenly trained on her. "Jill, calm down."
If anything, she pressed the barrel of her gun harder against his forehead. "Are you fucking serious? Let me kill the prick and we can go on with our lives."
"You shoot him, we're all dead." She approached the woman slowly, and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'll fix this I promise," Claire whispered to her friend. She took a mental note to tell Jill they were spectacular actors later when this was over.
After a few tense minutes, Jill finally relented and took a step back but kept her glare firmly onto Wesker's smirking face.
It was all the distraction they needed for their teams to move into place as Claire had discreetly signaled Hayley at the top of her tower. The gate closed and gun fire rained down on them like hell fire.
Jill had made a beeline towards Chris, covered by their sniper's gunfire pinning their enemies down, and blew off his chains. They fell at her feet and set him free. "Damsel in distress runs in the family, huh?"
Chris smiled brightly as he stared up into her bright green eyes, "I missed you."
"I know. Come on," Jill grabbed him by the bicep as she brought them both to cover behind one of their sandbag trenches. Once protected from the gunfire around them, Jill threw Chris her handgun, which he caught. "How'd you get captured, you moron?"
Chris pulled the hammer back and listened to the satisfying sound it made as it cocked. He dodged Jill's question because it didn't really matter how it happened, "Wesker might look like a douchebag, and he is, but he has strength like I've never seen before," he warned.
"Well, you probably should tell your sister that," Jill nodded at Claire who had just charged him and ended up on her ass. Though Alice was there to even up the odds, Jill wasn't too worried. "Even if he's juiced up on steroids-"
"I don't think it was steroids, Jill. They were up to some shady experimenting there. They caught me before I could really dig, but what I found wasn't anything that would put them on Santa's 'good' list."
"Then let's waste the fuckers quick, I'm fucking hungry." Jill moved from cover and shot buckshot at one of Wesker's men. She laughed as the force of the impact blew him backwards. AH! Asshole.
Chris chuckled as they fired on their enemies from behind cover. Should have never left.
Their teams fired relentlessly on the intruders; when the first lines needed to reload, the defensives lines behind them moved in front to cover them. The teams with the fresh mags would then move back up and let the previous frontline take time to reload.
Chris glanced over his shoulder to see if his sister and Alice were able to gain the upper hand on the White Horseman's juiced up bodyguard, what he saw did nothing to soothe is nerves, though. Dammit, should have brought a rocket launcher.
Alice attempted to slice Wesker but he easily dodged her blade and kicked her in the stomach. She flew backwards into the sand, her body skidding to a halt a few feet away. How is he so strong? Alice coughed violently, but suppressed her pain the best she could as she stood up on shaky legs and charged at him again.
Claire threw a roundhouse at his head while Alice went for a leg sweep but he blocked Claire's foot with the back of his hand, jumped over Alice's foot and twister the redhead's leg, making her fall back down harshly. No one's that quick, Alice thought as she watched him move passed all of their strikes with ease.
Claire attempted to throw a punch at him but he deflected the hit and grabbed her neck instead. He lifted her up off the ground like she weighed nothing and slammed her down into the ground, his fingers still clutched around her throat.
Alice quickly kneed his exposed ribs, which hardly made him move an inch. She could feel her heartbeat in her throat as she frantically attacked him, if she didn't do something soon Wesker would choke her to death.
Spotting an opening in his armor plates, Alice plunged her kukri blade between them and into his shoulder, the blade cutting through his flesh like it was butter. He let out a yell as Alice used both of her hands to push the blade inside completely.
Wesker shrugged Alice off of him and stood up, laughing as he watched Claire's unmoving body under him. He stretched his neck as if he was trying to relieve pressure from a knot and pulled out the blade like it had been a toothpick. He groan and rolled his shoulder before dodging Alice's fists aimed at his head.
Wesker delivered a hard punch into Alice's stomach, her chest clenched tightly from the blow and caused her to bend over harshly just in time to see his knee moving up and knocked her out cold.
Claire felt the ground underneath her move, like it was shaking, and for a few seconds she thought it was an earthquake. When she opened her hazy eyes, the ringing in her head caused her to shut them once again. She heard voices, although distant, and couldn't quite focus on them.
When she finally came to, she first noticed that Jill and Chris were standing over her.
"She's awake," Chris said as relief flooded his features.
Claire rolled onto her side, groaning painfully. She pushed herself up slightly but started to cough violently as her bruised throat made it hard to swallow. She spit out blood from her mouth once the coughing subsided, and sat up with Jill's help.
"Where-did-" Claire croaked, her mouth felt incredibly dry.
"They're gone," Chris answered.
"Mostly dead," Jill explained further.
"Alice?" She wasn't sure why her brother and Jill were holding her down. "What are you-where's Alice?"
"Wesker took her," Chris explained and braced himself knowing what would come next.
Claire flared her nostrils as she violently thrashed against them, "Let me go, dammit, I have to go after them!"
"Claire, you've been out for hours. They're most likely back at the prison by now," he tried to reason as he and Jill struggled against to keep her down.
"I don't fucking care! If you don't let me go, I'll-" Claire started coughing again and blood filled up her mouth. She spat it, but when she attempted to move from the stretcher Chris and Jill only pushed her back down again. She let out a loud growl as she fought against them with all of her strength. When the ringing started in her ear again she felt a white hot flash of pain shoot through her whole body as everything started to fade away - but not the pain.
"Betty! Get your ass over here!" Jill yelled as she frantically watched her friend have a violent seizure. "The fuck is happening?"
"The lack of oxygen to her brain is causing a seizure," Betty slipped on a pair of latex gloves as she spoke. "We need to move her onto her side. On three: one, two, three," Betty gently rolled Claire towards her with Chris' help and then checked her mouth to make sure she wasn't choking on anything.
Betty moved back and watched as Jill held her Claire's hand tightly into hers, whispering something she couldn't quite catch. This is what made or broke a nurse, you either let it get to you, or you let it motivate you. Betty always chose the latter.
She stepped forward again and gently rubbed Jill's arm closest to her. "The only thing we can do now is let her ride it out. I'll have her hooked up on oxygen once it stops. She'll be alright," she assured confidently.
Betty was a nervous wreck inside, but she wouldn't let it show. The clinic was filled with patients bleeding from GSW's and Arcadia's leader was seizuring on the only stretcher they had. She had been here for less than a week and then this happens? She needed to step the hell up. No one's dying on my watch.
Welcome to Arcadia, yay! Betty thought sarcastically.