Her blood was almost at boiling point, it was like he had leaked his infection over her. Her flesh seemed to crawl as she clung to herself a little tighter, and then her jaw then began to ache. Every tooth seemed to shift, squeak and squeal in her mouth, she could taste the blood as she slackened her jaw letting her mouth hang open. It felt like her mouth was now far too full.
Siliva mixed with the blood dripped from her bottom lip, she spat to the ground and as soon as the pain had started it seemed to subside. Her mouth still ached dully as she probed a finger into her mouth to feel what had happened.
"Are you okay?"
Bertha approached seeing Bellas lips tainted with blood, Bella looked upto her, her attention broken as she nodded.
"Doo yooo haff a miwwor?" She slurred her words, her mouth still feeling too full to clench her teeth comfortably. She spat onto the floor again, a hand on her face massaging her cheek.
Bertha struggled to think of something she could use before pulling the combat knife from its holster on her calf and handed it cautiously over to Bella.
Bella looked apprehensively at the knife before taking it. She brought the weapon upto lip level before grinning into the reflective sheen of the deadly weapon.
Her teeth were stained pink from her bleeding gums, her top and bottom canines had been pushed up and seemed over sized. As she clenched her teeth together they over lapped one another as they would in a predators maw. The teeth that should have been next to them had disappeared, absorbed back into her body to make room for the larger canines.
Panicking she dropped the knife to the ground and covered her mouth with her hands.
"Show me!" Bertha demanded.
Bella shook her head, terrified, the hands over her mouth were shaking.
Bertha un holstered her gun in full view of the team and aimed it directly at Bellas face. Bellas eyes widened looking down the barrel of the gun.
"Open your mouth, or ill make a hole for you!"
Bellas eyebrows narrowed as she glared at the medic. Slowly she lowered her hands from her mouth. Her eyes never left Berthas as she pulled her lips back in a growling grimace.
Bertha jumped back slightly alarmed at the change she saw, Bella took her opertunity to show Bertha once and for all she wasn't going to be pushed around anymore. This was the second time the women had threatened her with a weapon, it wasn't going to happen again.
Bella threw her left arm out to the right and took a hold of Berthas wrist, she continued to push it out to the side away from her face. Bertha pulled the trigger, popping off one shot over Bellas shoulder. Bellas head tilted as she looked at Bertha, she looked directly into those black orbs of the gasmask and shook her head gently.
"Tut tut tut..."
Bella then lifted her foot and kicked out, her foot landing on the medics stomach, with the wind knocked out of her she was disarmed once more and stumbled back into Beltaway who caught her under the arms as he stumbled back slightly with her weight.
Bella let the woman gather herself for a moment before she spoke.
"If you ever point a gun in my face again and threaten me AGAIN...you'll have more than the wind knocked out of you."
Hunk, Lupo and Vector all raised their weapons as they watched Bella examine the beretta in her hands, but they relaxed as she threw the weapon across to Bertha, it clattered on the floor by her feet. Bella sighed turning her back on the team and pulled the belt around her lab coat a little tighter and ran her fingers through her hair trying to calm herself down.
Bertha stood retrieving her weapon and holstered before looking to the team who were all staring at her, Bertha lost it.
"She's mutating! The bitch has infected herself with whatever she sucked up from that creature earlier!"
Vector approached Bella cautiously and put a hand on her shoulder, she turned to look at him startled and pulled herself away from his touch. He left his hand raised in a gesture for her to calm down.
"Is that true?"
Bella looked at Vector, she ran her tongue over her teeth tasting the blood still seeping from her gums and shrugged.
"I don't know..." She muttered, the elevator still had a long way to go and everyone eyes where burning into her.
Lupo came walking over and looked to her. Bella had had enough shit from the women of this team so far she didn't need anymore.
"You think you can keep your shit together till we get out of here?"
Bella nodded, before looking to Vector and the rest of the team.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what happened, I could see myself through that eye...it just...freaked me out." She grimaced.
They finally made it to the top floor and onto an open loading bay. Since the confrontation they had traveled in near silence which Bella didn't mind, it gave her time to reflect on what was happening. Her mood had suddenly hit an all time low though, she couldn't give a shit about anything anymore it was just too fucked up to explain. The only good thing about making it to the surface was the fresh air which she breathed in slowly trying to relax.
Hunk whispered into his radio, and from not so far away she could already hear the turning blades of a helicopter. Looking around the loading bay it was filled with lorries and an ambulance, there must have been a building above them as well as the mile of labs below them.
It was her only chance to get away before the helicopter arrived, but before she could even contemplate on running she heard a click, a faint hiss of air and a sharp pain in her neck.
She reached up, knocking the dart slightly with her hand before pulling it out with a wince and looking at it as it lay in her hand. She looked to Hunk with a blank stare.
"Why?..."
She turned to look at the team but she could already feel her body becoming numb as her legs gave way beneath her.
The team all looked at the girl laid before them and then looked to Hunk, Vector felt a pang of guilt about the whole situation, handing her back over to Umbrella felt wrong even if it was his orders.
The wind from the rota blades began to whip the air beyond the building, debris flew out wards away from the landing sight and into the loading bay. Hunk proceeded to walk over to Bella and slipped his arms under her back and her knees and pulled her up to carry her to the chopper as he could see no one else would volunteer.
His team followed as he walked out of the loading bay, the spotlight from the chopper which shined upon the stretcher, which was now lowered for the girl, was almost blinding. The the dark red orbs placed in the gasmask tinted the light nicely, making it easier to work. Laying her down upon it he strapped her in, her eyes constantly moved, looking round and then at him. She just stared at him as he pulled over the cage and locked it into place, this was the last piece of restraint the stretcher had, he then stood and motioned to the chopper to pull up.
As the stretcher began to rise there was a peppering of bullets sprayed from street level.
"Spec Ops!"
Lupo growled and all the team dove into cover.
The helicopter pilot was concentrating, struggling to rise between the buildings with his cargo when a spray of bullets hit the windscreen of his chopper. It left little splintered holes in the glass and in his surprise he had pulled back on the stick, tilting the helicopter upwards and the tail of helicopter hit the side of a neighbouring building blowing out the the back rota.
"Where going down!"
Hunk heard the scream over the radio, looking upwards he watched the helicopter spin uncontrolled across the sky dragging the stretcher and the girl with it. As the helicopter crashed in the street the rota blades screeched as they each in turn hit the concreate and shattered. The stretcher flew out of sight.
Hunk looked over the car he was crouched behind trying to get a better look at the crash site, Spec Ops where swarmed around it already pulling the injured pilot out of the cockpit.
Bella lay within the stretcher covered in rubble, the cage fitted over her had protected her from the majority of the rubble which had fallen upon her, her heart was pounding in her chest the crash itself was terrifying. Unable to move thinking she was about to die reminded her too much from being in that cryo tube again. She could feel she was tilted but she was unable to see as a car front of her blocked her vision.
Numerous people where moaning or groaning around her, as they were being grabbed and pulled away the rescuers ignored her. They probably through she was dead as she made no noise and couldn't move. She willed herself to move, to make some sort of noise, anything to get there attention.
As another soldier came forward and began to search the rubble next to her she twitched. The woman seemed to jump out of her skin seeing the body in the stretcher come to life, she aimed her rifle down at her.
"Blink twice if your human."
Bella replied by blinking twice. The women immediately swung her SMG over her shoulder and lent over the stretcher un clipping the straps which connected her to the helicopter before dragging the stretcher out of the rubble by the cage. As she pulled the stretcher into a clearing she knelt down looking to the woman once more.
"Okay blink once for No and twice for Yes...can you move?" As she question she was already raising the cage from around the stretcher and removing the straps tying her down.
Bella blinked once.
"Are you paralysed?"
Bella hesitated looking to the woman and then blinked once.
"Incapacitated?"
Bella blinked twice.
The woman asked this to see if it was possible to move her, as soon as she affirmed this she ran off screaming.
"Harley!"
Bella lay there for a couple of minutes looking upto the sky before a large burly man came into her view. He had a beard and a tribal tattoo over his left eye, leaning down he picked her up and slung her over his shoulder in a firemans carry.
Bullets continued to fly around them as he jogged with her limp body around the rubble and behind a barricade before laying her down in the street. Apart from a few cuts and bruises from the fall she was fine.
Harley dabbed the affected cuts and grazes with alcohol before scratching his bald head unable to figure out why she was unable to move. Tilting her over onto her side he pressed her spine from the base of her back up to the top of her neck, palpitating the flesh as he did so trying to feel the bone. Once her had finished his examination he laid her back down before putting his hands gently under her neck moving her head from side to side and up and down slowly. That's when he noticed the bruising around a large puncture mark on her neck.
"She's been shot..."
He spoke to the woman behind him before pulling a small torch from his pocket shining it upon the area. He ran a latex gloved finger over the bruise where the large dart had entered her skin.
"With what?"
The woman asked rather shocked, and then Bella felt the top of her lab coat pulled up showing the white and red insignia stitched upon it.
"Umbrella, she must be a scientist..." The woman injected.
Harley looked down to the oversized shoes and belt tied around the waist and then he noticed there was nothing else under the coat.
"She doesn't look like one." Harley answered. " Hang on, I'll find something that will reverse the drug."
The medic then dove into his first aid bag looking through a group of small glass bottles.
Still in a fire fight, Party Girl, Tweed, Dee Ya and Shone where popping off shots at the U.S.S soldiers. Shone turned around, his scanner goggles down, if a person was bitten he could tell by seeing the green that glowed from the infection sight and would go round and administer anti viral spray. He turned to look towards Harley bent over the girl, she glowed bright green all over like one of the un dead.
He hurried over quickly just as Harley administered the antidote to the transquilizer.
"It's a fucking zombie! Your wasting drugs man!"
As Shone came closer he skidded to a halt as he noticed the expression on the girls face and the wounds on her which weeped blood gently, he flipped down his scanner again to look through the visor at the girl. He hadn't been wrong she was completely contaminated by the virus but unlike the others she was very much alive.
The antidote worked quickly and as it reached her arms and legs she wriggled her fingers and toes. Rolling over she pushed herself up. As she stood straight she stumbled, the dark haired woman placed a warm hand on her back to steady her.
The scars on Shones face crinkled and twisted in confusion. He lowered his visor for the third time just to clarify to himself he wasn't seeing things before lifting it again and nudging Harley.
"Harley, just take a look man I'm not making this up."
He pulled his googles from his head and handed them to the medic. Harley fumbled with them for a moment, it wasn't a piece of equipment he was used to dealing with before he sighed and brought them upto eye level looking to the girl.
"Jesus Christ!"
Harley quickly pulled his anti virus gun out of its holster, aimed and fired at the girls shoulder. Bella winced looking to the small dart annoyed and pulled it for her shoulder as Harley continued to look through the goggles. The area he had injected glowed blue.
Bella rubbed the area with a hand but as she removed it the blue spot had disappeared and had been replaced with the green hue she continued to emit.
"What the..." Harley lowered the goggles and watched as she girl stretched out her muscles and brushed herself off.
"It didn't work..."
Shone took the goggles back and looked through them at the spot Harley injected.
"How is this possible?"
They both seemed to be looking at her with an accusing glare but a shout from a soldier far off broke the two men's attention.
"Clear!"
The fight was over, a couple of the soldiers who had been fighting further down the street began to approach as well as some un uniformed characters.
Dee Ya a young man in charge of this particular spec ops team approached Shone, Harley and the young woman with the dark hair.
"They've retreated...Willow, whos this?" The young man looked to the woman with the dark hair before looking to herself. He examined her noting her poor apparel and over sized pumps.
"We don't know..." Willow answered.
Bella felt very uncomfortable again surrounded by soldiers she didn't know. Out of the frying pan and into the fire was the phrase she was thinking of.
"I'm Bella...thanks for, helping me out back there."
"Do you work for Umbrella." Shone pushed to the front of the group. Bella shook her head.
"No...look...it's a long story its hard to explain."