Author's Note: Another update, finally! And the first one of the year! Oh, speaking of which, happy New Year, people! I hope everything's alright and that you start the year off the right foot! I certainly have, after having been sick the whole day, but 'tis alright. Okay, I leave you with another chapter of this story; don't fret, this still has a good way to go. It might possibly reach the twenty if I do it correctly. I hope you like this one, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil or any of its characters, only my OCs


12

Attempt

He had been in the dark for only God knew how long and he hadn't moved a single inch, his head limp and gaze blank. He had racked his brains to find out a way to escape, a secret passage, a diversion, everything… but nothing would've worked, nothing at all. He even had fallen asleep for a few minutes, which had served him to alleviate his aching head and to calm himself. Being in the dark, literally and figuratively, was horrible.

Since he had arrived there and had been locked up, he had received no news from either Annette or Sherry, although he didn't expect Sherry was safe. If these people wanted Sherry, it was for a reason and one reason only: Gene. The G-virus in her body was a very treasured jewel and even though this company wasn't Umbrella, it didn't matter: they were the same selfish bastards as Spencer's company, from the first to the last one of them.

Surprisingly, Wesker had visited him a scant number of times, only to drop hints William still couldn't understand. Wesker hadn't entered, instead staying outside, but the conversations had somehow kept William from going mad. Not that much, but still being here is killing me, he thought, giving less importance to the matter. It was true though: being alone, secluded from the rest of the world and having been beaten more than a few times weren't exactly positive things.

Raking both hands through his hair, he sighed, trying to shake off some numbness from his limbs. In the process, he heard steps closing in and his head perked up, relieved and in dread at the same time. He caught a glimpse of a blonde person, most likely a woman, and then another one by her side, this time a male. The hunch William had next was huge.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked softly and in spite of the low tone of her voice, William could recognize it, trepidation and hope coursing his body.

It's her, it's Annette! Then, the other one is…

Slowly, William stood up, nervous, and then both people entered his cell. In disbelief, the Birkin stared at his companions. One of them was Annette, who didn't hesitate to fling her arms around William's neck when she saw him. Good news.

"Thank God you're alright!" she exclaimed. With a smile that he erased, William didn't respond but fixed his gaze upon the other person who had entered. Annette also looked at him, watching them stare at each other serenely.

"Wesker… Why?" he then asked, his brow creasing. Wesker's expression remained impassive and he was as silent as a tomb. "You're not going to breathe out a single word? I think I deserve--"

"We both deserve an explanation; I need yours." Wesker interrupted, not brusquely. "For the moment, let's focus our attention on what we have a hand, shall we? Follow my instructions and you'll get out of here, safely, along with your daughter."

"How is she?" asked Annette, giving one step forward.

"With all honesty, she's not faring so well." He replied firmly. "The scientists have focused entirely on developing a serum that, when injected, it makes the virus multiply and spread throughout the body in less than a minute." William was floored.

"How many doses has she been injected so far?" he asked urgently.

"Three. She'll be taking the fourth within the next twenty minutes." Wesker replied, deadpan.

"Goddamit, they're going to kill her if they keep that up! Those ignorant fools…" William cursed, lowering his head.

"I guarantee that won't happen. After all, I didn't bring Annette here for nothing, did I now?" The Birkins stared at Wesker, who approached them with a map in hand. When they examined it, they noticed it showed the main floor of the facility. "Right now, we're in the subbasement, two floors under this main floor. The eastern stairs lead directly to the basement and then to the uppermost floor, next to the conference room, and these western stairs lead to the other wing of the containment area. You're going to take the eastern way and you'll wait for me in the basement; if you see anybody coming, hide in the first door on the left: it's full of boxes, so you won't have any problems hiding. In any case, you can lock in from the inside."

"What about you?" asked William, and Wesker pointed at the western stairs.

"I'll take that way and bring Sherry with me." He explained carefully. "This mightn't be necessary but if I haven't returned in seven minutes, go to the room I indicated and don't leave your position. If you do, this will be all for nothing, understood?"

"It's a worst-case scenario though…" William muttered, dropping a hint Wesker immediately caught.

"You certainly don't want to tempt luck. I suggest we start moving." He shot back. William frowned and stopped him.

"Wait, isn't there a security system here? The cameras won't leave us out of their sight and there must be somebody in the control room."

"Of course there is somebody in that room, a certain person which has taken care of everything for me, so our escapade is safe." Wesker explained matter-of-factly. "Trent isn't here for the moment but he'll return soon, so we have limited time to do this. Let's go."

Exiting the cell and making sure nobody was around there, the trio parted ways, ready to make their escape. As he and Annette ran east, William looked back, only to find Wesker disappearing down the hall in the opposite direction. A wave of relief, adrenaline and nervousness washed over him as Albert took a right and got out of their sights.

"William?" called Annette, concerned. Knowing he had to keep moving, he reacted and continued to run alongside his wife.

I just hope he's serious about this.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They had gone through hell, quite literally, to keep their heads on their shoulders.

Upon the team's arrival to Plaza Azul, a day and a half ago, they had found themselves surrounded by T-virus infected zombies and creatures which hadn't hesitated to kill them. The reek of rotten and decayed flesh was heavy in the air and the wails and moans of the zombies were only heartbreaking and fear-inducing songs of death constantly ringing in their ears. Seemingly, there was no-one who had escaped the virus's deadly reach: everyone was as good as dead.

In spite of having faced the same thing only a month ago, Leon was having a terrible time fighting them off. In Raccoon City, the number was 100,000 but this time, it was a hundred thousand more. Hordes of zombies were constant and terribly persistent, and they had caused almost all of them to waste more bullets than expected; in fact, Alan and Ashton had left their M16s dry and they were only using guns. Ashton's grenades had helped quite a lot with the hungry hordes but they were all in a precarious situation, despite Leon's constant advice. Shooting them in the head didn't always work when you had another dozen around you and trying to claw at your face to kill you.

Miraculously, nobody was dead. They were screwed, as Ashton had said, but not dead. They had found shelter in an old shack on the outskirts of the dead village, relatively safe from zombie attacks and rampages. Jason was currently keeping watch next to the door, awake as an owl in the middle of the night, ready for a hunt. He looked over the team and found Hugh and Ashton ready to fall asleep, and Alan had already done so. Jason had in mind Alan was known for his light sleep, so it only took a whisper of the wind to wake him up; about Hugh and Ashton, he wasn't so sure.

Surprisingly enough for him, Leon was the only one with his eyes still open. Jason could tell it was tension and anxiety what kept him awake, constantly going over Hugh's map to find a route that would lead them to Oliveira.

No, they still hadn't found him.

And they were alone.

They had everything figured out. Why would Jackson abandon them to their luck? Why wouldn't he respond to their calls for support? Somebody had had something to do with that mission, because it was all a ruse, it was a lie. They were almost sure Oliveira had nothing to do with that virus outbreak, that he was only a scapegoat for Umbrella's failure to contain whatever viral agents they had there. For now, only the T-virus had shown up.

"I can't figure anything out…" Jason heard Leon mutter under his breath. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, and left the map aside, frustrated.

"Maybe there's nothing to figure out." Intervened Jason, shaking his head. "Maybe we already have all the pieces we need, but we're unable to piece them together… yet."

"You might be right…" Leon nodded, turning his grey gaze away. The next change in his demeanour was something Jason caught immediately and switching to a more comfortable position, he asked him about it.

"There's something else that's bothering you, correct?"

"There is." Leon replied. Jason smirked.

"I knew it, and I have a slight idea of what that is." He said with a shrug.

"Oh, really? Since when?" Leon asked, somehow amused.

"Since all of this started." Jason stated simply. "I've noticed how everything within this team has changed. In the beginning, Alan was the foundations of this team -so to speak- and we came afterwards. It's all like a building's structure but now that you've came along, it's all spun around. We're all expecting that you can help us get out of here, and we're strongly relying on you. You've faced this kind of thing before so there's nothing much you can do about it."

"You're right." Leon agreed. "And I have the feeling I'm doing a shitty job helping you guys out."

"You're not the Jonah of the boat, let me tell you that." Jason sighed. "It's happened to all of us, and I've seen a lot."

"How long have you been with Alan?" asked Leon.

"Hm… probably since the very beginning." Jason replied after thinking for a few seconds. "Ashton and Hugh came later, even if Ash had been working with the government since he was young. His parents also worked with the government, US SOCOM and Secret Service… and no, it wasn't his father who was in the SO Command."

"It was his mother?"

"Yeah, surprising, eh?" Jason smiled faintly. "Well, I'm not one to talk about him; he should tell you about himself. Tell me, what's your story? You've never said anything about it."

"There's not much to tell; you already know a huge part of it." Leon shrugged, tucking his legs in. "But if you're interested, I might as well tell you. After graduating from university, I applied to the police academy and became an officer of the SPF, the 'Select Police Force'."

"Sounds like you were elite." Jason remarked, amused.

"I was, but that didn't help me to make my way out of Raccoon City on September." Leon said bitterly. "It was my first and only day as a police officer, and it was pure chance that I wasn't in the city when the zombies overtook the city."

"What happened?" To Jason's surprise, Leon smiled.

"I overslept." He said funnily.

"You're kiddin'." Jason shook his head, blinking a few times before digesting Leon's words. "And here I thought you were the early-riser type. I don't enjoy disappointment."

"Believe me, it's all true." Leon spread his hands. "That's how I ended here; after surviving, I was offered a position in this team and here I am… trying to make myself useful." He looked at Jason. "Now it's your turn."

"Mind if I skip a few details? There are some things I don't want to remember."

"I'm not forcing you to tell me everything." Replied Leon in defence.

"Well, I--"

Jason couldn't continue speaking.

Something came crashing down the roof with a deafening sound and in the middle of the cloud of dust and wood pieces, Jason could see what the crashing object -the crashing person was. The others woke up immediately, only to find themselves staring at it with nothing else than fear in their faces.

Then, a chilling yell in pain, a human yell. It had been Leon.

A horribly big foot was stepping cruelly on his right shoulder, which Jason could see it had been completely dislocated. And then, it started bleeding.

"Leon!!" shouted Hugh. His instincts told him to shoot the monster's head, and so he did: picking up his shotgun, he fired, and it actually made the monster turn around and notice them, leaving Leon trying to cope with the pain on the floor. Jason immediately went to his aid, only to find gashes on his injured shoulder: the fragmented bones had pierced through his flesh.

"Alan, Leon's injured! You have to take that thing out of here!!"

"Are you out of your mind?!" he shouted back. "We can't kill this thing, it's huge!"

"Then… then run away!" Leon intervened this time, attempting to sit up. "You have to run, go!"

"We can't leave you here!!" exclaimed Ashton, but his words were drowned by the deathly sound of the wood above their heads being slashed into tiny pieces.

"Then decide already, for chrissake, but do it quickly!!" said Jason as he quickly took care of Leon. "Fuck it, this is too precarious to treat it here."

"I can… I can hold on, Jason." Leon was panting, his hand full of blood as he tried to keep the wound from bleeding. "We… we have to go." Immediately, Jason helped him up, swinging Leon's good arm over his shoulders, and then made a tourniquet around his injured shoulder with the string of his rifle.

"Come on." Jason, as they followed the others, was about to break down. "What the hell is that?!" For once, Jason lost his usual cool and his face contorted with fear. Leon wasted no time on explanations; their lives were depending on their legs and how well and how much they would use them.

"I'll explain later, get a move on! Leg it, Jason, hurry! We have to find the others!"

Boom!

They turned their heads in the explosion's direction, and they found Ashton and Alan running towards them as fast as they could, completely disarmed save for Ashton's grenades.

"People, we have to hide or we're dead!" exclaimed Alan, speaking as coherently as he was able to.

"What the hell's going on, Leon?!" inquired Ashton, hysteric.

"Where's Hugh?" asked Jason, butting in.

"He's dead, goddamit! This freak killed him in just a goddamed blow!" Ashton replied, his voice quivering. Then, his face went white when he gazed up to the roof of the house in front of them. "It's here!"

Everyone turned around, only to discover a Tyrant of massive height gazing down at them, its claws gleaming with killing intent and Hugh's blood. The group, who was new to that kind of enemies, was floored and left in utter shock, trepidation and genuine fear coursing through their veins. To make matters worse, they didn't have much to kill it.

"For fuck's sake, what's going on here?!" cursed Ashton. "Why would they release such a monster like this one here?! It's freaking unbelievable!"

"Be careful, keep your distance!" shouted Alan. The team backed away from the Tyrant, which looked down, identifying them one by one. "Don't move or run or we're done for!" With the creature standing over eight feet in height, nobody could keep their fear from showing. In this, Ashton took the prize.

"Then what do we do?! Do we say hello?!" he exclaimed, his voice quaking. "If you have a death wish, go ahead!"

Then, the Tyrant finally stopped its gaze on Leon, who felt everything piecing itself together.

God, now I know who this one looks like! It's like the one in Raccoon City!

The Tyrant growled and dashed towards him, talons high and ready to strike.

"Move!" he shouted. Everyone quickly did as he told and the Tyrant missed for a few inches, but it soon counter-attacked and kept sweeping its claws at Leon and, by extension, Jason.

"We have to run! We don't stand a chance against a thing like this!"

"Let's not waste any more time! Leg it, people, come on!" ordered Alan, agreeing. The team retreated, sheltering themselves as they went through the backstreets. Even though they were narrow, Leon knew that wouldn't stop the Tyrant from coming; its jumps were inhuman and it could very well avoid the buildings with just a thrust of its legs.

They could hear it coming; its footsteps were loud, as if it was walking right beside them, like drums against their ears. Try as they might, they encountered the Tyrant a few times during their escapade, only to turn and retrace their steps.

"It's trying to corner us! Sooner or later it's going to kill us!" exclaimed Jason, pitching his voice as low as he could. Leon knew they were relying on him and not Alan this time, since it was him who had faced that kind of monster before. Jason was almost scrutinizing him, begging for an answer with just his gaze.

Good God, what to do now? We're at a complete disadvantage here; we don't have enough to make it even flinch! I have to think quickly, there must be something we can use, around here or something we have…

Leon calmed down, his brain working slowly but surely.

"Wait, I can't hear anything…" whispered Alan.

Then, a powerful boom, a roar and the sound of something heavy falling to the ground.

The agents were mute and still in their spot, until a series of flashlights were pointed at them. Blinded by the light, they protected their eyes, Ashton being the first to recover from the burst of light. When he looked in front of them, his eyes widened.

"It can't be!"

The others also looked at their saviour, and they recognized him instantly. It was the person they'd been looking for.

Carlos Oliveira.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Samantha, are you there?"

Wesker had almost arrived to Sherry's cell, finding himself less than thirty metres away from it. He stopped to ask Samantha about the state of things, lest he was discovered, and that wouldn't prove helpful.

"Yeah, I'm here. What is it?" she replied, her voice tired on the other side of the radio.

"What's the situation?"

"Nothing's changed yet; you're doing fine. Trent still hasn't returned, so you still have time. I can see the Birkins in their place, nothing wrong with them." Then, he heard her gasp. "Things are getting bad, Wesker! The doctors are coming to get Sherry! You have less than five minutes to get out of there, hurry up!"

Wesker wasted no time. He hurried down the hall, this time running as fast as he could, only for a realization to harshly dawn upon him as he looked inside the cell.

Sherry was gone.

Then, he heard the whoosh of something coming down on him and Wesker quickly moved aside. It was Sherry, who was wielding an iron pipe as a weapon. She stumbled to the floor, almost about to attack again, but Wesker knocked the pipe out of her hands and hauled her to her feet.

"What do you want now?" asked Sherry, upset.

"Wesker, come on! They'll be there at any minute!" warned Samantha.

"I'm getting you out of here. Now let's go; we're short on time." He said succinctly. Sherry was left wide-eyed, but there was no time to be surprised. Catching the order he gave her with one of his glances, she followed after him, clutching the pipe more firmly than before.

Too bad they walked into the doctors, who immediately figured out their intentions.

"They're trying to escape!" one of them exclaimed. Sherry gasped, almost terrified at the sight of the syringes, and Wesker's brow creased ever so slightly. At a breakneck speed, he took out his concealed gun and fired, disposing of the trio of scientists with only a single bullet to their heads. It didn't matter: dead or not, witnesses or not, Trent would indeed figure out eventually… if he didn't know yet.

That's why Wesker had already made plans to leave. And this was his last time he'd step foot into that building or would ever hear about Trent.

With the scientists killed, he and Sherry were on the move again, going past William's cell and taking the same way he had. Sherry couldn't help voicing out a question that half-caught Wesker unawares.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you saving me when it was you who kidnapped me in the first place?" Her voice, although still a child's, was strong and demanding, and Wesker knew that if no answer was given, she'd continue insisting.

"I'll let you figure it out when we reach William."

Sherry's eyes lightened up. "Dad? He's okay?!" Even though she received no response, she felt her energies renewed. They went up the set of stairs up to the basement and there, in the landing of the staircase, Sherry found William and Annette.

"Sherry?!" Annette exclaimed once she noticed her.

"Mom, you're okay!" her daughter said, running towards her parents. "Dad, you're safe too!"

"Sherry, thank goodness you're alright!" Annette hugged her daughter, lifting her up in her arms. Sherry couldn't be happier and she took William's hand with strength. She made him smile.

"I'm sorry to ruin the moment, but I believe your place is here."

Behind his shades, Wesker's eyes widened and he was inadvertently startled. He knew that voice, and he turned around, only to find a gun's muzzle centimetres away from his head and another one trained on the Birkins. The stranger had an impassive expression in spite of his words.

Trent, otherwise known as Victor Darius, was holding them at gunpoint.


A/N: Uh-oh, things aren't looking too good. This is why I told you it'd take me a little longer to finish this story; there are still more things coming. In the next chapter, as a small preview, you'll be learning of Jason's past and, finally, why he keps his surname a secret to Leon. Stay tuned! Chapter Thirteen coming up next week!

Reviews are appreciated!^^