"Make sure not to feed him too much, a bowl in the morning and a bowl in the evening should suffice, i don't want him to be fat when i get back Muller." Sherry warned.
Jake rolled his eyes, "Yeah yeah, i know how to take care of a dog Sherry, you told me everything yesterday." Sherry was kneeling down, stroking her puppies soft ears and smiling, "I know i know, i just wanted to see Oreo one last time, and remind you of everything." Sherry did want to see Oreo one last time in all honesty, but she also wanted to see Jake too, she wasn't sure how long this mission would really be, so she wanted to soak up as much time with them as possible. "And you promise to walk him as often as you can?" she asked, Jake groaned and nodded, "Yes Sherry, we've been over this."
Sherry gave her puppy one final scratch on his ear before releasing him back into Jake's apartment to play with his toys, it smelled of paint but the smell was faint enough. "Thank's for this Jake, i really appreciate it." she smiled and hugged him. Jake gently stroked her back and nodded, "Of course, now go and save the world Supergirl, we'll be waiting here, and i swear to god if you don't bring me back a shirt." Sherry laughed and gently broke their hug to look over to Oreo. He was happily playing with a duck chew toy, one Jake had bought him a few weeks ago.
"I'll text you when i get over and keep you updated, i still don't know your reason behind wanting to stay so updated with me though." she smirked at him, "Will you be worried?" Jake walked over to fetch Oreo's water bowl and filled it with some milk. He found Oreo liked it more than water oddly enough. "Sure i will, you're my best friend."
Sherry was generally surprised, Jake had never referred to Sherry as his best friend privately before. She blushed and smiled at his warm words, "Well I'm glad, I better be heading off though, my flight won't wait for me sadly."
"Why aren't the DSO having one of their private copters flying the agent's over by the way?" Sherry shrugged, "Just in case the mission is compromised in anyway - like if the guy running all this happen's to spot the copter and shoot's it down, if all the agent's travel by public transportation, theirs less suspicion."
"Makes sense." he stated, busying himself with Oreo's bowl that was well filled by now, he tried to make it look like it was taking a while to fill so he didn't have to meet Sherry's stare.
Sherry checked her watch, "Okay, now i really have to go. Be good Jake, I'll see you soon, and wish me luck!" she smiled and gave him one last hug, "Good luck, you'll do great," he assured her, then walked over to Jake's door and just like that, she was gone. They had had the big teary-eyed - or as close to one - good bye the previous night, so Sherry wasn't about to cry.
Jake stood still for a few minutes, awaiting the clink of Sherry's high heeled boots to trail off into nothing but a muffled sound down the hall. Once he was sure Sherry was gone, he practically ran to his room to grab his phone and a laptop Sherry had given him to keep, she had a much better laptop so Jake was given a quite old model. The thing was terribly slow, but it ran and was free, so beggar's can't really be choosers.
He opened his laptop to see the Airline's page was still open thankfully, and instantly dialed the number that was at the top of the web page. He waited for the beeping of the phone to stop for what seemed like hour's, but eventually, heard a soft "Hello, American Airlines, how can i help you?"
"I need a ticket to Nigeria, when's the next flight?" Jake heard typing on the other end, then the woman's reply, "There is a flight leaving in an hour sir." that's the one Sherry's on. "No good, what's next?" he asked, more typing on the other end. "Tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM." she replied.
Jake sat still, thinking. Jesus she could be miles away by then, its gonna have to do i guess. He sighed, "Alright, that sound's good, thanks." without awaiting for the woman's reply he hung up. He didn't really care if it came off as rude or not, he had Sherry to worry about and Sherry took priority over proper telephone etiquette. Jake went to the Airlines website and wearily ordered his ticket's, he preferred to buy them over the phone but since he was still getting used to using email and all that, he wanted do this by himself. Jesus, between my flight and my mom's after this mission, i'll be fucking broke paying this airline for tickets.
Jake had left his mother a short text, something along the lines of 'Something came up with the DSO, we're going to have to post-pone the visit, will let you know soon.' that morning, so that was one obligation taken care of. The second was the little black puppy chewing on a rubber duck beside his foot. "Maybe.. Claire." he thought aloud. Jake had found he got along with Claire and Jill very well, and girls love puppies, so it should be perfect. He left Claire a text and once it was sent, he shoved the phone into his pocket and went to his room to pack a small ruck-sack of some clothes, money, and a small knife and gun.
If airport security even tried to stop him with the weapon's, he could simply pull the provisional DSO badge Hunnigan gave him a week or 2 ago out, and sweet talk his way out of the situation. It said agent-in-training on the front but Jake managed to scratch the In-training part off, he was sure if Hunnigan had to see that, Jake would get a mighty scolding.
After a few awkward strokes of the Keyboard key's and a click or two, Jake had his tickets ordered. All he had to do was print his tickets next. He groaned loudly upon realizing Sherry hadn't given him a printer of any sort, and the site sadly required him to print them, so he decided to use Sherry's apartment key to borrow the use of hers, not like she'd care or be there to even catch him. Jake was about to walk out the door when his phone chimed its received message tone, a simple 'No problem, I'll collect him from you later.' from Claire.
He raised an eyebrow at the reply. No 'where are you going'? No 'Why can't you take care of him yourself'? that's weird, Sherry had always said Claire picked up on everything and anything almost immediately.. Jake awkwardly shifted in place for a moment trying to think. Maybe she's not as clever as Sherry makes her out to be. He silently joked with himself, but it didn't quench his curiosity.
Jake walked up to Sherry's apartment and opened the door. He was greeted with the fresh scent of Vanilla, the whole apartment smelled exactly like her - it was a smell he loved and couldn't get enough of, he had missed it when he moved out.
It was a little messy, but it was the same old apartment. Sherry's small kitchen with colorful fruits in a bowl on her table, the calming blue color on the walls that went well with Sherry's White work-top's, the vase at the end of the small hall with the fake roses that always smelled gorgeous as Sherry would spray perfume on them, the large DVD collection in the small sitting room that Jake probably new better than Sherry, the comfy couch where Jake and Sherry had slept one night, and her bedroom..
Jake loved Sherry's bedroom the most. It held an assortment of photos on the wall, and he loved going through them and asking Sherry about them, which she loved. All of the photo's were of Claire, Jill, Chris or Leon. Their was one picture that Jake loved more than the rest though, a picture of Sherry, Claire and Leon when Sherry was only 13 or so. She had a red hair band in her hair, and was in a white and red dress. Jake always smiled at the picture when he saw it, she looked adorable in it.
Completely forgetting the printer, and wanting to see the picture, Jake made a beeline straight for Sherry's room. When he walked in he discovered it was even more messy than the rest of the apartment - there were clothes littered all over the floor, her wardrobe was wide open and a box seemed toppled over, its contents spread around the floor. Weird, usually shes so neat and tidy.
Jake was about to walk straight to the back wall where the photo was, when he spied something on the ground, a picture of.. him?
He walked over and picked up what looked like a photo album. It was a neat photo album, with all glossy pictures, unbent and stuck onto the pages, but their was a crinkled newspaper article cut out on top of the perfect pages. Jake picked it up and stared at it for a moment, before smirking. It was a picture of him and Sherry, from a Chinese News paper. The headline read Lovers among the ruins. Jake admired Sherry in the picture, she looked concerned about something, while he looked frustrated. He let out a short laugh at the title, then immediately stopped. Wait, does Sherry know what this says? what if she does, what if thats why shes keeping it? does she...
Jake felt the vibration of his phone before he heard the phone call alert tone, and when he took it out of his pocket, he saw it was Claire. Sliding his finger on the screen to answer, he held it up to his ear. "Claire." Jake said.
"Jake, I'll be there in 10 minutes, sorry it took me so long to get going, Chris was heading out to Africa and i went over to wish him luck." Claire sounded a little out of breath, Jake heard close together steps in the background guessed she was running down the steps of her apartment building or running out to her bike, running at the least. "Yeah no problem, see you then." and with that, hung up.
Jake gently set down the album and newspaper article as he had found it, and went out to Sherry's main sitting area to find her cute silver macbook, their was a hell of a comparison with Jake's clunky black and extremely old Toshiba laptop. He quickly printed off his tickets and was out the door, not forgetting to lock it.
By the time Jake got back down to his apartment, he saw Claire checking her phone with her back to his door, she looked up when the door's to the elevator opened and Jake stepped out. "Jake, where'd you go? I was about to call you" she asked, locking her iPhone and putting it away.
"Left something at Sherry's yesterday." he stated. Claire looked at the laptop and paper Jake had a hold of under his right arm. She couldn't really see anything as Jake had the paper folded, but she could barely make out the word 'Airlines' and made the connection that he was flying off somewhere, but decided to not say anything, not until she baited him to tell her.
Claire nodded at him, and he opened his apartment for them. Oreo ran into Claire's leg and Jake heard her squeal that girl's often did over puppies, kittens or hot actors. "Hey cutie!" Claire squealed out, scooping Oreo in her arms and stroking his back. Jake had gotten a bag and was filling it with toys and food. "Here's all his food and shit, bed's over there." he gestured to a small brown pillow that resided beside his couch without taking his eyes away from the cupboard he was taking Oreo's food from.
Claire nodded, "So, why can't you take care of him? big date tonight or something?" she teased. "No." Jake replied instantly. Claire had to smile and how sudden his defensive reply was.
He set down the bag on the table and looked at Claire dead in the eye, "I'm going to Africa, i need to keep an eye on Sherry. The DSO wont let me over until i finish this dumb ass fucking training and i can't just let her go by herself."
Claire smiled, "You really care about her, don't you?" Jake's face slightly reddened and suddenly pretended to be extremely interested in the content's of the bag. "I dunno, i guess." he sheepishly replied.
Claire giggled and took the bag, "Cute. When you guys gets back, you should tell her."
"Tell her what?" Jake asked, pretending he hadn't a clue what she was talking about. "That you like her, its so obvious to everyone that it physically hurts." she stated, taking the bag and gently rocking Oreo, he seemed to be dozing off.
Jake shrugged. He guessed it was a little obvious, so there was no use in denying it. "Whatever." he mumbled, walking over to his door to open for Claire, who was having a hard time opening it, her hands were full. "Are you on your bike, or..?"
She shook her head, "Nah, Jill drove me over, want to come down and say hey?" Jake glanced over to his ruck sack, then shook his head, "Sorry Claire, i have to come up with a cover for the DSO and get a few thing's sorted." Claire nodded and smirked, "You need an alibi?"
Jake shrugged, "Yeah, i guess. Don't need the DSO getting all suspicious when i suddenly need a few weeks off." Jake leaned against the door frame. he couldn't blow his chance of getting in good with the DSO, but he needed to keep an eye on Sherry no matter what.
"Did Sherry ever tell you the story of group vacation? you know, with me, Chris, Jill, her and Leon, over in England?" She asked, smiling wide at the memory she was reflecting on. Jake nodded, she had told him the day they had lost electricity and were eating popcorn. "Yeah, what about it?"
"The DSO wouldn't let Sherry off for those 2 week's, so Jill was able to get her off the hook, apparently Jill and Hunnigan go way back so Jill has got some pull."
Jake raised an eyebrow, "What are you saying?" he asked, a little skeptical. Claire shook her head smiling, "Relax Jake, consider your alibi taken care of, Jill will come up with something. Just watch out for Sherry, she's yours to take care of now."
Jake nodded in understanding, Claire was giving him his blessing. He gently pulled Claire into a hug. "Thanks Claire, for everything."
Claire giggled, "You make it sound like you're going off to die. I swear if you don't keep an eye out for Sherry or die, both me and Leon will go find your corpse and kick it for a while until it disintegrates." she stated
Jake laughed and nodded, "Don't worry, i don't really plan on biting a bullet as a way to go." Claire sighed softly and nodded, "Alright well, Jill's waiting for me. Take care of yourself Jake, you and her, watch each others backs, who the hell knows what sick bastard is behind all this."
"Thanks Claire, will do." he waved at her and she walked out the door and gently closed to door when she walked away. Alright, that's everything then. Jake sighed, looking around his apartment, the first ever home he'd ever had by himself. Their were times when Jake wished he could of lived alone when he was 19 or so, when he saw an improvement in his mother's health, but never had the money to do it.
Now he was living alone, but he now badly wanted to be stretched out on a certain blondes couch, reading her surprisingly interesting books and listening to her sweet voice. The minute he finally had the lone wolf independent life he'd always wanted, he wanted nothing more than to be with Sherry. She had changed him drastically, she made him feel safe and worthy, not some piece of shit gun for hire.
Yeah, I'll tell her everything when were back. The mission wont be the right place to tell her something so important, and if i do she may even play it off as a joke, so it'll have to wait.
Jake checked the time, it wasn't even 12 yet, so he decided to throw on some old sweats and go for a run. He brought an old iPod that Sherry had, once again gave him. All Sherry had time to put on it was an AC/DC album, but that was fine with him. Though, the whole run, Jake's mind went a million miles a minute trying to figure out how he'd tell Sherry how he felt. When he ran passed one of Sherry's favorite restaurants, he decided he'd take her there and tell her everything.
Jake was sure he was tired, but he just kept running, he needed to think of a strategy, of everything before he went home. In all, Jake had gone on a 2-3 hour run and had planned out everything. He decided the best course of measure was to track Sherry's phone, Jake had requested she text him religiously to keep him updated, so regular texts and or calls should give him a decent way to track her - that is, if luck was on his side this time around.
"And for you ma'am?" a hostess asked Sherry, "Tea please, with milk and a spoon of sugar." she replied sweetly, flashing the hostess a smile and returning to her daydreaming out the airplanes window. Sherry was about 7 hours into her flight, and had gone over her mission's strategy plan about three times out of boredom, so she could safely say she could recite the whole thing if asked.
She was more than prepared, she was known for how quickly she was able to adapt to quick changing situations, she just hoped the situation wouldn't be too changeable. The sky was starting to get dark and Sherry had a few hours to go before she'd arrive, the brief said it'd be about 2 in the morning there when they arrived, so they could travel with the cover of night giving them better cover.
Sherry looked up to see the hostess, who was preparing her tea, and took it graciously from her. She took one long sip, letting the sweet liquid go down her throat and warm her up. She shivered from how nice the sudden heat felt on her throat, and smiled when she let her head rest on the Airplane's window once again. Sherry thought about texting Jake, but she'd only been gone for a few hours, and she didn't want to come off as needy, plus, it was probably late back in New York, Jake wouldn't appreciate being woken up over a silly How are you? from her
She decided to take out her phone anyway and text Claire instead via Skype instead, she was feeling a little nervous over landing and Claire was always good for calming her nerves.
Hey Claire, should be landing soon. beyond nervous. She gently tapped the send button and watched the sending progress bar eagerly. Sending.. Sending... Her phone popped an alert message up Sending Failed - No internet Connection, message has been saved to drafts. It read. Sherry was confused, the plane she was on offered WiFi, it was the specific reason she had even chose it, so why wasn't her phone co-operating?
Sherry was pulled from her own little world when she heard mild chatting behind her turn to a very loud discussion. "Excuse me but i paid a lot to have WiFi on this plane, i have to email a report to my boss before i land!" one man yelled. "We understand sir, we're currently working to resolve the situation." a nervous sounding hostess replied.
"Attention Passengers." the Pilot said over the overhead intercom. "We apologize that the WiFi is currently down, it sometimes goes down when we fly over land, rest assured our staff are currently working to resolve the issue, we thank you for being patient and hope the rest of your flight is comfortable."
Sherry shrugged slightly and put away her phone, she figured it would be working again in a little while, so she decided to forget about it and drink her tea, enjoying the view out of her window. Underneath the thick clouds she could see nothing but sea, and a large grey-ish shadow off in the distance, she assumed that was the land, but it wasn't Africa.
Hunnigan had to book her a flight that stopped in Paris, France, in order to pick up her partner for the mission - an Adrian Brent. She knew the man to see him, but she wasn't particularly good friends with him. He was always polite and sweet to her, always holding open doors or saying hello to her in the mornings, but she wouldn't of really considered him a particularly good friend, more an acquaintance. Hunnigan was very sweet though, and made sure the flight had WiFi though, but so far she wasn't really experiencing it.
When the Plane touched down to let off passenger's and take on new ones, the staff seemed to suddenly descend into chaos - running around, trying to sort the WiFi problem. The flight had cost an addition 70 dollars in order for the use of WiFi, so she wasn't at all surprised that the staff were on edge trying to sort it in order to keep them from complaining and possibly bringing down the reputation of the flight.
Sherry hadn't noticed but a man had taken the vacant seat beside her where she had kept her laptop bag, the man was now holding it in his lap along with his own. "Man, they're really upset over the whole WiFi thing huh?" Sherry recognized Agent Brent's voice anywhere, it had a distinct Canadian accent that she found positively charming. He had slightly long brown hair and was fairly tall. Claire had always said he was handsome but he was a married man, so Sherry never delved too far into thinking about him, not that she ever really thought about him in that sense.
"How'd you hear about that Adrian? and hey." she smiled warmly at him. "Paris lost power about 2 hours ago, gave my kids a good scare. The power came back on but all communication is down apparently, just assumed the same could be said for the plane, seems i'm right, and hey yourself." he returned her smile and handed her her laptop bag, which she settled between her feet on the ground.
Adrian had been in Paris, in Disneyland with his wife and 3 daughters on a vacation, but it was interrupted when Hunnigan called him late on Monday, and to compensate for taking him away from his family vacation, the DSO paid for his family to stay in the resort for 2 more days and their flights rescheduled, but why go through all that trouble just for one agent? there were available, ready and willing agent's back at the DSO who were ready to be shipped out at a moments notice, why take a man who was on vacation?
"Good guess. I'm sorry about your vacation by the way." Sherry said, attempting to bait him to give her information. He simply nodded and sighed, "Yeah, the girls were pretty upset about me leaving, but duty calls and all that. They need me because i went back-packing with a friend of mine through the remote area where the agent's were taken last year, so if anyone, I'll be the one to notice any changes i suppose." he ended his sentence with a lazy shrug, and sat back in his seat.
Sherry nodded in understanding, now it made sense. "Well that's good, you'll be more familiar with your surroundings then." He nodded, "Yeah, but i hear the guys in charge of this shit storm are crafty, and they cover their tracks pretty well. I'm willing to bet my house that not even a leaf will be out of place when we arrive."
Sherry knew he was most likely correct about that, but was trying to stay positive. "Who knows? maybe we'll happen to stumble upon something everyone's missing, we are the best of the best, right?" Sherry joked, attempting to defuse the tension and nerves they both clearly had, and to her surprise, she actually made Adrian laugh, "Of course, maybe we'll bust these assholes, have them all wrangled up and shut down before tomorrow afternoon." he joked right back, wearing a wide smile, Sherry laughed and smiled right back. "If we do, I'll buy us a steak dinner." Adrian laughed even more and stared at her with wide eyes, "Fantastic, now theirs motivation!" he choked out between laughs.
Once the plane took off, Adrian pulled out his BlackBerry to text his wife to let her know he was leaving and had met up with Sherry, but the WiFi was still down, in fact, it remained unresponsive throughout their whole journey.
When they touched down in Africa though, the airport was in a panic, for not only was the WiFi simply down, the power was completely shut off in the airport. Adrian and Sherry looked at each other with confusion. "Here too?" she practically yelled, she had to over the frantic shouting between staff and the frustrated and annoyed passengers fresh off the plane. Adrian shrugged, "I guess so, seem's a little suspicious though doesn't it?" he yelled back
Sherry stared at the security and how it was blocking every gate so nobody could get through, their was shouting and screaming and Sherry was sure a fight was almost imminent, it was utter chaos. "How so?" she asked. "Well, Paris lost all power for about 40 minutes, the entirety of Paris mind you, and then suddenly Abuja Airport loses power? seem's a little bit convenient doesn't it?"
Sherry shrugged, "It could just be a coincidence Adrian, we shouldn't jump to conclusions." she replied. The pair walked up to one of the Security staff and the 2 pulled out their DSO badges almost perfectly in sync, "Agent Brent, National Security, this is Agent Birkin, we've been dispatched here from the DSO HQ in United States for official National Security business, could you please let us through?"
The man stared at both of their badges and grunted, "Okay, but all cabs and bus' are down, so you won't be getting too far." the man opened the gate and gestured for them to get moving. The 2 were hurried across and the man quickly shut the gate, the loud groans coming from the passengers behind the gate was almost deafening.
The 2 agents walked out and found a van marked with the BSAA symbol. Sherry and Adrian were both told they would be escorted by the BSAA to the outbreak center that was currently undergoing heavy investigation, so they both hopped into the back of the van and were greeted by Chris Redfield. "Hello Agents, we hope your flight went smoothly, as for the whole Electricity situation, apparently the power cables were cut down this morning, but they're currently being taken care of, so we hope it'll be up and running again soon. We should be arriving at Wukari in about 2 hours, but it could vary depending on how crazy it is out there with the power down and such."
The pair nodded in unison and took turns shaking Chris' hand and the other soldiers - There were only 3 other soldiers in the van, that Sherry could see anyway. As they approached Wukari, the scenery went from calming with the occasional person along the dirt road, to absolutely deserted. The approached a small town and Sherry couldn't see a single person. "The hell?" Adrian proclaimed upon seeing the dusty and silent town.
"The people got spooked and left, its a complete ghost town now." A soldier beside Adrian said.
Chris turned to them as they sped away from the empty town and wore a frown. "And what's just about 5 minutes up the road, is the reason they left, this is where you'll be starting your investigation, but I'll just say now, what were about to show you isn't for the faint of heart."
Sherry swallowed a lump in her throat. Great, what the hell am i going to find out?
Phew, been working on this all week! I wanted to start writing about the actual Mission next chapter - just wait to see what i have planned for Jake kekekeke.
Thanks for reading, and as always - If you liked it, review! and have a nice Sunday! /runs back to her homework