Chapter 11: Men to Die For
The South African Branch of the B.S.A.A. was very beautiful, and Piers couldn't help but feel a bit jealous when he compared it to the branch headquarters he and Chris primarily worked out of. Their building - the original building the organization was born out of - was of moderate size and overall, it didn't look very impressive. That wasn't to say it wasn't one hell of a building, because it was. It served its purpose and was basically impregnable. The word 'basically' whispered sadistically through Piers' head as he cringed. That wasn't quite right anymore - Jill Valentine and Albert Wesker had seen to that. Piers shoved the thought away and continued to look through the glass walls of the conference room that hung high above the lobby below. The entire front of the building was glass windows from floor to ceiling - bulletproof and sturdy. The lobby area, towering with its arching ceiling and carved deep into the complex, was the only part of the building that seemed fragile. If any part of the base was insecure, it was here. But take one step in any direction past the lobby and an intruder would find themselves face to face with a complex series of retinal scanners, fingerprint identification pads, card keys, and various other security measures - each door more intricately locked than the last.
Leon whistled from his spot at the conference room window, catching Piers' attention from where the young man sat at the large, glossy table.
"This is the fifth most secure facility I've ever seen," he said as he looked around with an appreciative smile. "Minus the lobby. Glass? Really?"
Josh raised an amused eyebrow at him from his seat across the table. "Fifth?"
"What? I've been a lot of places."
"I don't doubt it," Josh said with a wry smirk. "I hear you Americans like to get around."
Leon shrugged and returned the man a smirk of his own in the reflection of the window. "Jealousy doesn't suit you, Stone."
Josh let out a booming laugh and his men chuckled lightly with him. Piers didn't.
The soft staccato of the young man's fingertips upon the tabletop of the conference room was ridiculously deafening in Leon's opinion. Try as he may, he could not ignore the steady canter of it as the young B.O.W. beat an anxious rhythm into room, interrupting the warm laughter with his uneasiness. Josh looked over at the flurry of fingers and gave Piers an apologetic look.
"I apologize again for the wait. Branch Commander Alomar was unexpectedly tied up with another matter. She'll be here shortly."
Suddenly torn from his brooding thoughts, Piers had the good grace to look slightly ashamed as he forcefully stilled his hand and let it slide silently into his lap. Leon smoothed the situation over easily.
"She's a busy woman, Josh. It's to be expected."
"I know, but… Please do not think for a moment that we are not taking this matter seriously." His eyes were directly on Piers as he said this, his face stern. "Chris Redfield is a good man. He's got a lot of enemies, but he's got a lot of friends, too. And a lot of people in his debt, myself included. We'll do everything within our power to help you find him."
Unwilling or unable to say anything in response, the young B.S.A.A. agent just gave the man a small nod of gratitude before looking out into the lobby, eyes keenly searching for any glimpse of Sheva Alomar. It wasn't long before his knee resumed where his fingers had left off and set his chair into a soft, steady squeak as the limb bobbed anxiously.
"Where are we off to after this, Leon?" Josh asked. Leon turned from the window to regard him.
"Not quite sure. Hunnigan is the one pulling our team roster together, so she'll let me know when we're done here. But if she's thinking what I think she's thinking, our next stop is going to be the Eastern Slav Republic. Barring any sudden developments, of course."
Piers frowned.
"Why there?"
"An expert on viral influence lives there. He's got firsthand experience that could really benefit us, if I can convince him to get off of his butt and out of the classroom. It's iffy."
"Why would we need-?"
Before Piers could finish his question, a small device in the middle of the conference room table began to beep and flash, drawing everyone's attention.
"That must be Sheva now," Josh said as he leaned across the table to activate the device. With a small touch of the flashing button, the circular device lit up and a small hologram began to hover just above it, displaying another B.S.A.A. agent's face from the African Branch. From the number of people passing by him in the background and what they were wearing, Piers assumed the man was somewhere in this very facility.
And he looked the way Piers felt. Anxious, out of time, and running low on options.
"Agent Barrow?" Josh asked and looked around as if the man were supposed to be among them. He then directed his question from the hologram to another agent within the room. "Why isn't he up here? He's a part of your squad, isn't he?"
The commanding officer of the squad took a step forward and gave the hologram a harsh frown. "Yes, sir, he's supposed to be up here."
"Co...Commander Stone," the agent said, his teeth rattling audibly. Josh frowned and leaned forward a little more. The agent's face was visibly perspiring, small rivulets running down his jaw line and into the neck of his uniform. He blinked rapidly whenever his sweat found its way into his eyes. "I- I managed to ignore the-aaah," he groaned.
"Agent Barrow, what's going on?"
At the mention of his name, the man in the hologram flinched, his face torn as he bit hard on his cheek. A few passersby were beginning to take notice of him now, some even going so far as to stop to look at him, their concerned hands outstretched. The agent waved them off agitatedly. Piers studied the man's face closely.
"I- I'm so sorry, sir," the man managed to ground out through his teeth as his neck twitched to the side unnaturally again. "I managed to ignore the order to follow you up there, but - nngh - I can't... It hurts."
He lifted one horribly shaking hand up to wipe at his brow. Piers found himself also leaning closer to the hologram as his sharp eyes caught a glimmer of movement in the pained agent's face. He squinted, unsure if he saw what he thought he saw, but sure enough, something small wiggled and glided underneath the skin of the man's face just a second later. The young B.O.W. reared back, eyes wide. No one else noticed.
"What's wrong?" Josh tried again as he rose to a full stand. "Answer me, Barrow!"
The young man let out a shuttering gasp. "Please, just- seal the door. D-don't come outside."
"What-?"
"Just promise me," the agent said, throat ragged as he jerkily lifted his other hand towards his neck as if his arm were hundreds of pounds heavier than it actually was. And in Agent Barrow's hand, a small, wickedly familiar ball of glittering needles waited patiently for its owner to strike. A few people in the background let out shouts as they recognized the little weapon, hands outstretched as they raced forward. Piers felt the world tip obscenely beneath his feet, his heart shuddering in his chest.
"Not again…"
Flashes of memory whispered sadistically into his ear. A steel gate sliding down between him and his squad like a guillotine's blade. Finn's large eyes. The men's bravery as they started searching for a way out. The innocent way the little ball had arced into the room as delicate, feminine fingers tossed it at his companions. The way it shot out hundreds of needles in a second. The melting bodies, hands grasping, lungs screaming as they died. He leapt up from his seat to the window, unaware of the B.S.A.A. agents beside him that ran for a control panel beside the lush conference room door.
In the lobby below, he could see Agent Barrow. There, in the middle of a hundred boiled bodies and running innocents - lab coats flailing, visitors screaming, soldiers taking aim - the African agent lifted his sun darkened hand into the air and pressed a small button. Seeing the needles disperse from just a few feet away had been horrifying. Watching them deploy from high up in an observation room made it feel downright surreal, Piers thought as he watched tiny little slivers of light dart out of the man's palm, some striking nothing, but most of them hitting solid flesh.
Leon slammed his fist against the window, face snarling wordless fragments of rage, but Piers' couldn't hear it. The action, the raw suddenness of it, actually made him flinch. He looked at the government agent with wide eyes, everything moving slowly around him as he turned to see the lights in the conference room begin to flash red and a fine mist of clean air spurt out of the creases of the door. They were sealing the room.
A hand on his shoulder shook him for just a second before a yelp pierced his ears and brought all the sound in the area rushing back through his head in a wave. He had shocked Leon.
The man in question was gently holding his hand, eying him cautiously as he spoke to him like a spooked horse. Piers noted that the man did not try to touch him again. "Piers, you need to snap out of it!"
"I-" He returned his gaze back down to the floor below. Bodies writhed in agony, flesh burning and melting into sloppy piles as the resultant goop trapped its victims within. Finn's smile was seared into the backs of his eyes. His options were to watch these people die or be reminded of his face if he tried to hide behind his eyelids. Both burned to look at.
"Piers!" Something was shoved into his chest. He tore his gaze away to see Leon wrap his dazed hands forcefully around a gasmask. "Put this on!"
He watched as Leon put on his own mask before Piers numbly followed the agent's movements and put on his as well. The mask was heavy and smothering. He immediately desired to remove it, but Leon grabbed his wrist before he could.
"I don't care what sort of B.O.W. you are, you are not removing this mask. Understood?" the older man growled, and then he was gone - hand pulling out the magnum from his thigh holster as he addressed the rest of the room. "Does everyone have a mask on?"
"Yes, we're ready to go," Josh responded as he motioned for one of his squad members to send in a report over the radio. With another quick flick of his wrist, he motioned for the agents by the window to wait, and then he looked at Leon. "You sure about this?"
"We're kind of running short on options, if you haven't noticed," Leon said as he took two large steps to the window - gun raised - and pulled the trigger. But the glass was bullet proof, trapping the shot in a neat network of spider-web cracks. "Alright, kid. Show time," he said and pointed to the cracks, "Show us what you've got, Sparks."
Piers blinked at him, caught between what the hell did you just call me and you don't understand, it's happening again. These thoughts marched a wave of terror and numbness through his mind until what Leon said finally bled through the icy terror of Edonia. He had been given an order.
Orders were to be obeyed.
"Right," Piers said, collecting himself as he stepped forward. "Everyone get ready."
And this, for as much as he hated to admit it - this he knew how to do. Fist clenched, the young B.O.W. opened the flood gates of every negative trigger emotion that he had been bottling since the B.S.A.A. had been betrayed by Jill on that rooftop. Since that gelatinous creature had dared to clench its substance-less fingers around the Captain back under the sea. Since Edonia. Since Finn.
He could see the writhing masses below as lightning and electricity began to leap into a steady dance around his arm. At the core of the infected horde, he could see what remained of Agent Barrow. He was screaming the loudest, skin sopping off of him in large, squishy pieces as huge protruding lumps began to form all over his body.
Piers had died so that this wouldn't happen; infected himself to protect the world from this very thing. And now, arm raised and voice howling bitterly through his torn up throat, Piers released several B.S.A.A. building sections worth of electricity from the facility into a clean, narrow arc at the glass. It shattered immediately, the heat of the attack even going so far as to melt large sections of it and sent molten droplets to fall on the creatures below. It gored several of them.
When the power surge in his body finally ceased, it felt like the recoil of a gun much larger than he had ever handled - sending him scuttling back several steps to regain his balance. Although he could not see the carnage he had unleashed right away, he did see the explosive flash across his eyelids and heard the screams of several of the creatures below - mindlessly panicked and a great many fatally wounded. Panting, Piers opened his eyes to see Josh and the others rush forward, guns at the ready as they began to snipe the infected from above. It felt like centuries since he had been a part of a team, and now - standing behind these loyal B.S.A.A. men as they worked with him and did not fear his abilities - he felt a sense of freedom that had been stripped from him the moment he had willingly entered quarantine after surviving China.
"Nice work, Piers!" Leon howled over the gun fire, his voice distorted by his gasmask. "Josh, you and your men stay up here and cover us."
"You can't seriously plan to go down there," Josh said, looking up a moment to focus on the American agent.
Leon moved to stand beside him and pointed at the creature that Barrow had become - all sagging, pussy skin and large, deformed sacs oozing out a steady stream of toxic gas onto the innocents around it. "You see that thing? If we don't get down there and kill it before it gets out of the lobby, you won't just have a small sector breach on your hands. You'll have a full on infection that'll spread across Africa faster than the B.S.A.A. can cope with it."
"How do you know that?"
"What the hell do you think happened to China? The gas from that bomb was likely harvested from that very creature," he said, then grabbed Josh's forearm. "I need you to trust me. I've handled this thing before. Twice."
With a determined grimace, Josh quickly reloaded his gun and said, "If you think you're going down there alone to protect my country, you're mistaken, friend."
Leon grinned. "Then you better keep up."
"Carver, keep the men here and cover us," Josh ordered one of his men, "We're going down. Keep trying to get in contact with Sheva. Let me know when you've got her on the line, understood?"
"Yes, sir!" Carver bellowed between spurts of gunfire, and Piers could hear the agonized moan of another felled creature from below.
"I'm going to blow the airlock," Leon said, "Everyone secure your masks!"
"Clear!"
The gunshot that followed was as derisive as it was final, Piers thought as the bullet pierced the airlock and created a large blossom of hissing cracks in the glass. Another bullet, then another - but still the glass held strong.
"Sparks," Leon said, drawing Piers' attention. "How about an encore?"
Piers snorted and took a step forward.
"That name better not become permanent," he growled.
Calling up the lighting was harder this time since his previous shot had absorbed a lot of the energy nearby. He had to draw from himself and his willpower to accumulate a shot with enough oomph to do the job, but with one well placed arc of electricity, the glass came falling down in a cascade of jagged edges and shattered pieces. A hand clapped him on the soldier and gave him a comradely shake. Static curled around the owner's fingers, but Josh ignored it.
"Quite an arm you've got there," Josh said. "Glad you're on our side. Now let's move!"
As the three men stormed out of the room, gas welling up at their ankles, Piers felt a sense of acceptance fill him. Although he had sensed some hesitation in Josh's words, his willingness to trust Piers was still there. Maybe because Piers was one of Chris' or maybe because Leon was personally vouching for him - but actually being seen as the B.S.A.A. agent he had died as and not the creature that had brought him back to life filled Piers with a breath of life in his lungs he hadn't realized was missing. He stormed after Josh and Leon with a new found vigor, hand outstretched as he casually allowed his body to absorb energy from various pieces of technology along the way. Without the heavy lettered word of monster hanging around his neck like a noose, he followed his commanding officers to the stairwell and down into the fray.
If he was going to be a monster, he'd be a monster for them. He'd be damned if he was going to lose another team. The captain included.
"So you better hang in there, captain," Piers whispered beneath his breath as they tore down the stairs and dove head long into the fight. "I'm going to hold you to your promise."
Gunfire played a fiery concerto for their entrance as the men above covered them - mowing down a line of sharp teeth and needy hands before the creatures could even get close. These men, they were men to die for.
Mentally exhausted - so no responses to comments this time. I'm going to make a point of answering them individually as they come in from now on, though. Because I do love you all and value your support and feedback. Thank you all so much!