What's this? A new chapter within this year? Well I can't take the credit. My awesome, beautiful, and creative friend Xaori wrote this chapter, but I still edited it myself! You'll notice that the quality has increased by 5,000% because of her writing though. Anyway, please enjoy reading the chapter, and afterwards, go read Xaori's stuff. (It's dirty!) Otherwise I'll shank you. Just kidding. For now...
Watching the guards was more complicated than he had thought. Some of the men had followed them into the hall; the rest was standing outside in small groups, getting ready for their mission to find and capture living infected. Jake had discreetly approached the group, offering water to an uninjured soldier who was sitting next to the door while he kept an eye on the guards outside.
He had expected to catch some movements, maybe even bits of conversation, from where he was, but not only were the masked men quiet, but they stood completely still in front of the building; almost unnaturally perfect and disciplined.
He frowned and turned his head to the people in the hall. Chris was checking the ammunition with some of the B.S.A.A. soldiers. Claire and Leon were sitting on the ground next to each other, not paying attention to anything other than themselves. Sherry though… Sherry was nowhere to be found
The president's council, Agostinho Sousa, appeared in the hall, followed by the two guards from before and walked directly out of the building towards the waiting masked men. Jake kept his position as his eyes followed the man outside. When he reached the masked men, the guards gathered around him, making it impossible for Jake to read the council's lips. He could hear them, though. If he concentrated, he would be able to understand some words as well.
"Você já conhece as ordens," he heard the council say something about them already knowing the orders. "Vá para o leste, onde você encontra o-"
"Thanks man." The soldier next to Jake had finished his water bottle and squeezed the plastic, keeping Jake from overhearing the important instructions. Before he would miss any other detail, like what they would find exactly in the east, the mercenary pushed his hand onto the soldier's mouth to shut him.
"I'll explain later," he whispered as he kept focusing on the conversation.
"Traga-os para a entrada sudoeste," the council said before dismissing the masked men and turning back to the door.
"So, there's an entrance on the south-east side. The question is whether he was talking about the City Hall building or not." Jake mumbled to himself before Mr. Sousa could enter the building again. He gave the soldier a smirk before he uncovered his mouth. "Sorry."
"I'm going to see if they need any more help with the injured." Claire smiled at Leon and got onto her feet. "See you later Mister Kennedy." With a wink, she turned away from him and left Leon alone with his thoughts; thoughts about Claire and her curves, mostly. Leon smiled as he watched her walk away.
Once his redhead was gone, he had a look around the entrance hall. Chris was busy with the ammunition and discussing the next moves with some of his men as many other soldiers were still resting in random corners of the room. Leon decided he'd make himself useful and got up to ask Jake if he had found out anything yet. Once on his feet, though, he noticed that Jake wasn't around anymore. Remembering he had last seen him next to the entrance when Agostinho had shown up, Leon walked towards the soldier on the floor. The man looked up as soon as he spotted him.
"He mumbled something about a southeast entrance. That's all I know," he hissed even before Leon could ask questions. The agent lifted his eyebrows at the man's reaction. "He sprinted out of the door as soon as the council was gone."
Leon rolled his eyes. He admired Jake's courage, but given that he had run into danger so mindlessly proved to Leon that the young mercenary was a very hot-headed fighter. It kinda reminded him of himself. The agent chuckled, turned around and walked to Chris' group.
"Captain Redfield," he called as he pulled his friend aside and whispered to him. "I think Wesker Junior is after something."
"Is he in trouble?" Chris grimaced. A lost companion was the last thing they needed. Fortunately, Leon shook his head.
"I don't think so," he replied. "But we might need to check his location anyway."
However, before the two men could make a decision, destiny in the shape of Claire intervened to make things more complicated. The redhead approached the two men gasping.
"Have you seen Sherry?" She asked in concern. "She hasn't been seen in a while."
Chris and Leon exchanged dark looks.
"Shit."
So, that was the Southeastern Entrance. Jake stared at the gates on the other side of the building and the two masked guards that had been placed in front of them. It was comforting to see that there were only a couple of men keeping the gates, but even so, he didn't want to catch any unwanted attention. He pulled out an apple and bit it as he sat next to the building, thinking which the easiest way inside was. As he chewed the fruit, he watched the horizon, spotting a dark shadow on the thin line between the ground and the almost nocturnal sky.
He smirked as he saw how the stain turned into a Pickup truck."Idiots," he whispered. "There goes Redfield's good advice about avoiding attention." However, he was glad they approached them in a vehicle. As the truck came to stop in front of the gate and the guards were distracted, Jake used the shadows provided by the night to run towards the truck, lifted the cover and jumped onto the bed.
He found several in sheets wrapped bundles on the truck and expected them to be the zombies they had been after. They moved and grunted under the covers and nearly caused Jake to shiver. Once they were inside, the guards would surely waste no time to get their load off the truck. He would have to disappear very quickly. Jake kept quiet as the engine roared and the vehicle began to move into the building.
'Weird,' he thought. 'They haven't spoken a word to each other.'
And the guards kept silent, not speaking a word even when they drove farther into the building. Jake moved the cover up carefully and peaked out. Blue neon lights illuminated the halls and the red-haired man noticed the stinging stench of chemicals.
"If we're not close to the lab, I'll eat my hat," he whispered as he lifted the cover a little more. The long hall they were driving through seemed to be empty, besides some barrels and crates; Jake recognized a chance when he saw one. When the zombies in the sheets behind him moved more violently, he ripped the cover up and jumped off the bed, searching for cover behind the wooden containers as the truck kept rolling farther into the building.
Once everything was quiet, he scanned the area for any more guards or, even worse, cameras. But the hall seemed to be clean. He put a hand on his gun and searched his pockets for a magazine. He sighed.
"Should have brought more ammo." He started thinking if he could find some ammunition in the barrels next to him, but it was probably better if he didn't catch the men's attention unnecessarily. Jake took another look around before he ran after the truck. It was probably the most intelligent move for him to make.
"Everything is fine, sir," Chris called out. "My men are not used to sitting around and waiting for hostages to get ready for departure.
Agostinho chuckled as his view drove over the crowd.
"Don't get me wrong, Captain Redfield, but we can't be called hostages," Mr. Sousa told him in a chiding voice. "The people here are a team of scientists working on a cure. You're not here to save them, but to protect them and their work."
Chris had to take a deep breath to avoid rolling his eyes. "Of course, sir," he sighed. "But for my men, that makes no difference. Target is target and hostages need protection, too."
Sousa kept looking angrily at the people in the room. "Weren't there more people with you before?"
Claire stood only some feet away from her brother and overheard their conversation perfectly. 'Oh yeah,' she thought. 'There was a young blonde you might have abducted, you asshole.' Leon watched her, nearly seeing how her blood boiled. His hand reached intuitively for Claire's and squeezed it. She closed her eyes and breathed.
The older Redfield, still facing the council, forced a smile and shook his head. "Everyone is where they belong, Mr. Sousa."
The response was improvised and challenging, but the council seemed to be satisfied with it as he didn't ask further questions. "Please let me know if you need anything." With that, he disappeared behind one of the doors again.
Chris sighed in relief and turned to Claire and Leon. "That guy is a sharp one," he said. "He'll notice if anyone else goes missing."
Claire grimaced as she heard her brother speak. It meant no more people running mindlessly into danger – by people, naturally, he meant his sister. The moment they had noticed Sherry was missing, Chris, Claire and Leon had agreed to see if Jake's hint was leading to something and check if there was actually something like an entrance on the southeast side of the building. However, before they could gather weapons and ammunition, the council had appeared in the hall and had started asking questions. No wonder; the soldiers were getting loud as they ran out of patience. Everything was ready for departure, except for the scientists they were supposed to rescue.
"We definitely can't go all together. Chris," Leon said as he turned to the older Redfield. "You need to stay here in case Sousa comes back. If you're missing he will notice for sure and we can't risk to get caught by that guy."
Chris nodded and handed Leon some magazines. "I guess that means you're going."
The agent nodded as he took the ammo and patted him on the shoulder before turning to Claire, who gave him an encouraging nod. "I'm going too."
Leon took a breath, before he could speak, though, Chris did that for him. "Claire, don't be reckless. Leon can handle it alone."
She grimaced at her brother before she threw a begging glance at Leon. The man smiled at her and gave her a wink, hidden from Chris' eyes.
"I know you want to get Sherry back," he said. "But your brother is right. One person is enough to check if there's really an entrance out there. Also, we need all eyes and ears in this hall."
She bit her lip and nodded reluctantly. When Chris turned away shortly, she gave Leon a pleading look. "Please be careful."
"I will." He winked again and started walking towards the front door as discreetly as possible.
Claire watched him as he disappeared into the darkness, when she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look into Chris' eyes.
"I think you're tired, Claire. I know you are good friends, but you're acting like the two of you are married." He said through a small fit of laughter and turned away. "And I really hope my sister has better taste in men."
She rolled her eyes. "You're such an ass."
So how'd you all like it? It'd be better if you said that you loved it. Like I said before, my good friend Xaori is the one who wrote this chapter so please go read her stuff (I edited her fic Just Friends). She's actually the one who convinced me to publish this fic so you should support her because reasons and stuff. Anyway, until next time. GO READ XAORI'S STUFF NOW!