Chapter 11

"They got us pinned down!"

Parker cursed as the wall near his head cracked under the impact of rifle fire. It seemed the Guns had recovered from the initial surprise rather quickly. Already they were reorganizing and cutting off escape routes. The fact that the BSAA forces were outnumbered didn't help. By the comm's chatter, it would take the siege team some time to break through the outside guard. Even so, the siege force was helping draw some focus off the teams inside, so Parker was grateful for that much.

"Any progress?" After the initial fight broke out, Parker had dispatched a pair of his men to trying to find a way out, either through another room or through a wall if need be. So far, all alternative routes had been cut off by fighting, and it seemed that the Guns' mercenaries were professionals when it came to hold-the-line tactics.

"No joy. We don't have high enough grade explosives to blow through any of these walls. They're all reinforced on the inside as well, so we can't just knock them down," one of the men replied. "Even if we could, we'd have to get some space to detonate it and that would mean pushing through the enemy."

"Alright, keep looking, we'll see what we-"

"Parker," Raymond interrupted, reloading his weapon. "I think we can get Rachael out of here without having to go through them. Remember back on the Zenobia? How did she chase you?"

"Through the vents, why...I see. You think that you might be able to lead her through the vents?" Raymond nodded. "Alright. The siege team has taken the western halls, so if you can drop out there, do so. Be careful. They know we're here now, so they're more likely to notice you."

"Understood," Raymond confirmed. He turned to Rachael, controlling his tone despite the situation. "Are you ready?"

"I think so...ready when you are." Rachael pushed herself to a stand, shaking slightly as she tried to balance her body. Carefully, she made sure her gun was strapped tightly to her suit and that her knife wouldn't stab her in the process of crawling through the vents.

"See you outside," Parker shouted as the pair quickly crossed the corridor, barreling into the hallway leading to where Rachael had been kept.


Raymond tried his best to ignore the slithering sound behind him as Rachael climbed into the vent. Despite how much larger she was than him now, and how many bony parts she had, she fit in rather easily and quietly. Had he not been directly in front of her, he doubted he would have even heard it. Carefully, he looked over his shoulder to make sure she was alright. "Can you follow me in here? I know it's a bit dark."

"I'll be fine...I can sense you," she replied cryptically. Raymond didn't spare a second thought to how she managed that. Instead, he began crawling forward, carefully navigating to avoid noise. Once again he was glad for the ear plugs, as they made the gunfire that was echoing through the vents much easier to ignore.

As he crawled, his thoughts naturally drifted to the Rachael, and all the things he wanted to ask her. How she'd survived, how she was dealing with the change, and if she would ever forgive him. Keeping his gaze forward, he remembered the gut emotion he'd felt when looking at her, and even now, the image of her in his head made him feel disgust, primarily at himself. He wasn't going to sugarcoat it; she looked monstrous. He doubted that she would ever have anything even close to a normal life.

Raymond refocused as he turned a corner and found himself staring down a long stretch of vent. Supposedly, this vent would lead them to where they needed to go, but even from the distance he was at, he could see the stray bullets that made their way into the passage. It seemed the fighting hadn't been put down in all the western halls. While he could risk it, a stray bullet would be all it took to leave him dead. It wasn't worth the risk. "We have to head back and take the other passage. This one's too risky."

Rachael nodded, sliding backwards. Raymond began retreating, trying to ignore the slimy feeling beneath his hands as he followed after her. Looking up, he focused on the map in his mind, already planning his path. Soon, it came to the intersection and he was never more glad to feel smooth, cold metal under his hands in his life. Crawling ahead, he was relieved to see none of the signs of struggle in this direction. Cautiously, he snuck over a grate, peering through quickly just to check it. Inside he could see stacks of crates, brimming with weapons.

"Hey Parker, one of these storage rooms has a bunch of weapons caches. I don't think they've been tampered with yet, so we might be able to track them back to their provider."

"Alright, we'll keep an eye out for it when we sweep the place afterwards." Raymond nodded to himself as he continued onwards, silently passing over another grate. Ahead of him, he could see the bend in the vent that would lead to the western part of the base. Turning around, he checked to make sure Rachael was still following behind him.

Suddenly, a loud bang filled his hearing and blinding pain engulfed him as his side blossomed in heat. His muscles tightening from the sudden pain, he caused the grate beneath him to give out, making him crash down hard on the floor below, hitting his head hard. For a few desperate moments, Raymond tried to breathe and figure out what had happened before he registered the blood leaking from around his fingers that clutched his side. Forcibly, someone pushed him onto his back, pushing their knee onto his chest.

"Рекао сам да сам нешто чуо!1" Raymond could hear the sound of a knife being drawn and saw the glint as his attacker held it close to his face. "Ви ће платити за ово…"

Raymond prepared himself for the worst when he heard a familiar shrieking. The man pinning him fell to the side, his scream being cut short in a spray of blood. Through the fog, Raymond could see Rachael's claw pierced straight through his throat. The other men in the room reacted quickly, raising their weapons. Rachael curled her right arm, holding it closely in front of her. The bony segments across it deflected some of the bullets while her left hand grabbed the gun from her pocket. Raising it, she downed the men in a few sprays. A few still struggled, clutching their wounds. They didn't do so for long.

Powerlessly, Raymond could only watch as Rachael bent over them, proboscis draining them of their vital fluids. The sound of her feasting rang loudly in his ears, despite the earplugs he was wearing. As she finished the last, his breathing stopped, looking deep into the maw that was her face as she slowly turned towards him, blood running down like tear tracks across the segments of face he could still recognize...


"Ah, good to see you're still alive!"

Raymond groaned in pain as he received a light punch to the arm. He recognized the hearty laugh that accompanied it and smiled as he cracked his eyes open.

"Please tell me I didn't die and this is my eternal punishment."

"I wouldn't imagine this is Dante's image of eternal punishment, but I'll try to make it so," Parker countered, smiling brightly. Now that he was more aware, Raymond was able to take in the room around him. He was in a hospital room. It was obvious he hadn't yet left the country, as the signs were in Serbian.

"How'd the mission go? What happened after I was out? Is Rachael okay?" he asked, propping himself up with a groan. He spared a quick glance at the wound in his side, spotting the obvious bandages wrapping what he could only presume would be a nasty scar.

"Slow down. You need to rest. Once you lay back I'll tell you everything," Parker assured, pushing the man back down onto the bed. Raymond complied, settling onto the soft cushioning.

"Rachael's fine. It took a while to find out what happened, but eventually she explained that you were shot crawling through the vent. She was able to save you before they could kill you. She was a little...indiscriminate with the bodies, but given her condition, it was overlooked. After she regained her strength, she climbed back into the vent and dragged you with her. She was able to reach the siege team and they got you out before we finished it off."

Raymond sighed, relieved that the mission had succeeded despite his failure. "So what happens now?"

"Well, both you and CIPHER will be placed in custody until the BSAA figures out what to do with you both. Technically, you're both considered biological terrorists, and they'd be well within their rights to have both of you executed, but considering the help you both were in the mission, I'm willing to bet they're willing to avoid that."

"I figured as much. What happens to Rachael now?"

"She's currently being shipped back to BSAA's North American division. They've got a contact they're hoping to borrow from the US government to help with her situation while they work on creating an anti-abyss vaccine. Once it's done, TerraSave can begin distributing the vaccine to prevent anything like Terragrigia from happening again."

"I'm glad to hear it." Raymond took in a deep breath, closing his eyes. Despite the grim future ahead for himself, he felt a weight lift off his shoulders. "Did we find out who employed the Guns?"

"Unfortunately not. Just as you suspected, they covered their tracks exceptionally well. Intelligence suggests it was one of the local governments, but we have no solid evidence to accuse any of them. The best we can do is monitor the area for further developments and try to establish a pattern. Still, it's more than we had before. I doubt we've heard the last of whoever hired them. But more importantly, can you tell me who you worked for?"

Raymond shook his head. "I always worked for intermediaries. All I know is that it was some corporation. Someone with an interest in biological warfare."

"Alright. If you think of anything else, I'm sure the BSAA will be happy to listen," Parker assured, standing up.

"Where are you going?"

"There's someone who wants to speak to you. I figured it'd be a third wheel," Parker joked with a smile, leaving the room. Raymond wracked his brain for who it might be who would visit him. Rachael was en route to America, so she couldn't be the one. Who would…

Raymond found himself meeting the gaze of a visor in place of eyes. A sense of confusion spread through him as CIPHER stepped into the room, silently closing the door as he sat down beside Raymond's bed. The man was once again in his uniform.

"What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk," CIPHER explained flatly. "You were Rachael's partner, correct?"

"A pretty terrible one, but yes I was. Why do you-?"

"Why did you help the BSAA?"

"Because it was the right thing to do. I needed to make up for the things I'd done."

CIPHER regarded him quietly, and Raymond wished he could see the man's face to read his expressions. He decided to take the questioning into his own hands. "Why did you help them?"

"It was the best of a bad situation," CIPHER offered, not sounding entirely convinced.

"So why did you inject Rachael with the anti-t?"

CIPHER didn't seem to have an answer for that, and the silence dragged on as Raymond waited for an answer. Finally, CIPHER began to speak. "I once worked for Umbrella you know."

"So I heard."

"I was part of their internal security division. It was my job to kill things the company wanted dead, whether that was people or creatures. I did my job well."

Raymond listened intently as CIPHER continued. "Back then, the experiments were simple. The test subjects were often criminals or fellow scientists. Not much of a difference between the two now that I think about it. Made killing them rather easy in the end. After Umbrella was outed, I figured it'd be a good idea to get out of dodge before guys like you came after me."

"For a while, I bounced around this area, doing odd jobs for anyone who needed a hired gun. A lot of times, it was whacking some rich guy who upset the locales with their affluence. Really easy jobs. Hell, I even did some jobs helping bring Umbrella down. Didn't use my real name for those. It was kind of nice to tear down the corporation once it was the enemy."

"In these past years, I'd become sort of an anti-B.O.W. expert. People hired me when they needed B.O.W. dealt with. Sometimes that meant working for people who used them and wanted to control them. Other times, I helped organizations like TerraSave kill infected so that they could save people." CIPHER leaned back in his chair. "You notice things about the people you work with. Whenever I worked with TerraSave, folks were trusting, probably too much, and driven. You should have seen some of the nutjobs I worked with on the other side. Quite a few of them ended up dying by my work."

"Turns out when you're in the business of murder, the people you work with don't tend to be all that friendly. More than once, I was almost whacked by someone who didn't want me cutting in on their business. I kind of prefer not having that happen."

"All in the name of safety huh?" Raymond summarized flatly. CIPHER met Raymond's gaze as the two men tried to make the other blink.

"You're one to lecture."

"But I redeemed myself. And so did you." CIPHER fell silent once again, regarding his opponent.

"I suppose you're right," CIPHER admitted. "Feels kind of weird being the good guy after so long. But then again, we're not the good guys yet, are we?"

"Not yet. I don't know everything you've done, but it's not going to be forgotten anytime soon. But today was a start. We just have to change who we are one day at a time."

"I couldn't have phrased it better myself. You better heal quickly. I almost look forward to working with you. After we get finished serving time that is," CIPHER chuckled, standing up. Raymond laughed, watching the man go. Lying alone with his thoughts, he could only come to the realization that his life was about to become very different.

What allayed his fears was the realization that, just as he had told CIPHER, he had at last made up for his actions on the Zenobia. The last thing bothering him was knowing that somewhere out there, the organization that he had defected to was still at large, and if Jessica was any proof, they were able to get inside any organization. Even with how much he'd done for them, he'd never gotten close to their inner sanctum, only their proxies.

"Still...if we can track them down, we might be able to get them…" Raymond thought aloud. Nodding, he made up his mind. He would make it his number one priority to remember as many contacts as he could. If he couldn't dismantle his former employer, he could cripple them by taking out their connections. A wave of sleepiness hit him shortly after making the decision, and he decided it would be best to rest. It would be better to have a clear mind.


Rachael wondered if she might have been able to be diagnosed with a mild case of claustrophobia. The plane she was on felt entirely too small, especially given her more jagged frame. It didn't help that the barren metal walls reminded her too much of the room where he life had come to an end. The BSAA had apologized profusely for having to transport her in such a way, but it would be the quickest method at hand. She had just been eager to get to wherever it was she was needed.

Maybe a bit too eager.

She didn't actually know too much about where she was going. As far as she understood, she was headed to meet some contact within the US who would be able to help her. Rachael hadn't been able to get more than that, but she supposed it made sense to keep information to a minimum. Besides, she was preoccupied with questions about this contact.

Who were they? How could they help her? Her first thought was a doctor, but she quickly remembered that her particular strain had not yet been cured. What would they do if not cure her? Would it involve surgery? The thought of being cut up on a table did not sit well with her. She didn't think the BSAA would do that, especially after risking so much to bring her in alive. If they had wanted to autopsy her, they could easily have done so without that.

Try as she might, she couldn't come up with any answer to who she could be seeing. The only people she knew anymore in the world were either back in Serbia taking care of the mess her existence had caused, or in the BSAA. She supposed maybe it was someone from the organization, but she doubted it. The implication was that the contact was someone outside the BSAA. Rachael could only wait nervously as the plane flew across the expanse of ocean. It was odd to think that several hundred feet below her was the ocean; the same dark chasm that had claimed her. They might have even passed over the ship's resting place without realizing it.

The flight was fairly boring, but the few personnel assigned to watch over her did their best to make it not so unpleasant. She took the time to get the full run-down on everything that had occurred since the Zenobia. Her guards were more than willing to catch her up to speed and she found herself surprised at the amount of things that had happened. Particularly with regards to the events of Harvardville.

As the plane began setting down, Rachael could feel her stomach, or whatever organ existed in its place, rising with anxiety. Part of her wasn't yet convinced she was safe, and that these people still wanted to exploit her. Even if they did, though, she couldn't do anything now.

"We've arrived," the pilot announced over the intercom, and the door on the back of the craft hissed as its locks released. With the first crack of the door, light streamed in, enticing Rachael forward. Though she couldn't see the sun, she could feel it. It had been so long since she'd felt the sun on her skin…

She was halfway down the ramp before she realized that there were people watching. Turning with a startle, she sensed her present company. A ring of men, all armed but at ease encompassed the craft. Standing just a bit in front of her were two people, a man and a woman by the shape of them.

"You must be Rachael," the woman greeted. "It's nice to meet you."

"I am...who are you?"

"My name is Manuela Hidalgo, and this is my partner Leon. We're here to help you." Rachael "looked" over both quickly. The man was strong and fit, but otherwise normal…

But the woman was different. Something about her felt different. It was a sensation she had never felt before, and something about it put her at ease. It was familiar somehow. She spoke directly to the woman. "How are you going to help me?"

The woman raised a hand towards Rachael before drawing a combat knife. Rachael hissed defensively, and the man started reflexively, but the woman blocked him. Slowly, he drew the blade across her hand, and Rachael could smell the blood as it rose. She wasn't prepared for when heat sprung from the wound in what she recognized as flame, even without her sight. A hiss of surprise escaped her as she regarded the shorter woman. The woman clenched her hand, and Rachael could sense the deliberate, controlled motions of her body as she sealed the wound. "We want to help you. Will you come with us?"


I told you I heard something!

You are going to pay for this...