10. FAMILIAR FACES

'Please… that's enough. I can walk on my own' Tomoe asked kindly.

The stranger didn't respond.

'It is against the path of honor to ignore your captive's wishes!' Tomoe noted.

'Dr. Tachibana…' the stranger finally spoke. 'I strayed from the path of honor a long time ago'

'It's never too late to go back on track, Mr. Wesker' she smiled.

The man smirked, then stopped running and carefully put Tomoe down.

'Dr. Tachibana, I trust that you will not escape once given the chance'

'Of course not. A captive must know her place. That's what the path of honor says'

'Please, do not consider yourself my captive' the man looked at her. 'I am merely in need of your services'

'What do you mean?'

Wesker pointed at a seemingly abandoned building.

'In here, please'

Tomoe followed him as he entered and looked around.

Inside the building was a soldier with a machine gun.

'Boss!' he saluted.

Wesker nodded and lead Tomoe deeper inside.

After walking the corridors for about a minute, Wesker suddenly made a sharp turn and opened a door, then entered, with Dr. Tachibana following him.

Inside, there was another soldier.

His muscular body and handsome face made him look like the stereotypical action hero from movies.

'Boss!' he jumped from his chair. 'Is this her? Is this the doctor?'

'That's right. Matthew, I want you to meet Dr. Tomoe Tachibana, from Resurgam'

'Doctor' Matthew smiled.

'The pleasure is all mine' Tomoe bowed.

'Please, you have to help him!'

'What's wrong?'

Wesker pointed to a bed in the back of the room.

On it, another soldier was lying.

He was much younger than the other two, apparently barely old enough to qualify being in the military. He had brown hair and blue eyes, and was also pretty tall for his age. But what caught Tomoe's attention was the bandaged wound on right hand.

'Mr. Wesker!' he smiled. 'You're back!'

'I brought you someone for the wound. Dr. Tachibana, this is Connor, my youngest subordinate. Earlier we were attacked by infected people. We managed to fend them off, but one of them bit him'

'Really? Can I see?'

'Sure!' the soldier smiled.

Tomoe smiled back and quickly undid the bandage.

What she saw underneath shocked her.

'Necrosis…'

'Every member of my squad is trained in basic first aid. However, when we saw that it was much worse than we thought… I decided to find a specialist'

'This is not good… How're you feeling, Connor? Fever? Exhaustion?'

'All of the above' he responded.

Tomoe stood up and looked at Wesker, then quietly whispered in his ear:

'He's infected'

'I suspected as much. Can you do anything?'

'I don't think so. He needs the cure for the virus, and fast'

'We don't have the cure!' Matthew yelled. 'Can't you do anything for him without it?'

The doctor sadly shook her head.

'With the proper medication, I can treat the symptoms, but… Without the cure, he's going to lose his mind in less than 24 hours'

'That's good enough for now. What do you need?'

'Hmm…' Tomoe thought, then listed a few medications and supplies. 'Can you find them for me?'

'Of course. Me and Krauser will go to the village'

'What?' Matthew jumped. 'It's full of infected in there!'

'Both of us are immune to any forms of the T-Virus' Wesker noted. 'We should be back soon. You stay here and protect Connor and Dr. Tachibana'

'With my life, sir!' Matthew smiled.