Extra 14 (Chapter 4)
Moira sighed as she looked out the window. The cold morning fog had frosted up the windows, making it annoyingly hard to get a look outside. She had managed to find one that was near the loading bay, and was fairly clear.
She had honestly hoped it would be a better day than this. She had managed to find out that the truck would be coming early in the morning, far too early for her liking. She had woken up early in an attempt to make herself presentable for the arrival, though she honestly felt like she still looked like a mess. The only thing saving her was the fact that even as she nodded off, her face touched the cold glass, waking her back up.
Rubbing her eyes, she peered out the window, trying to spot anything in the fog. Leon had not been kidding when he had mentioned the weather was pretty glum around here. In the distance, she could see the faint lights of the road that went passed their facility, the people mindlessly driving by. None of them looked even remotely like the kind of car she was looking for.
Huffing, she leaned against the head of the couch, irritated by the wait. She almost wished she had accepted Claire's offer to accompany her, if only to have someone to talk to while she waited. Claire had been hard at work, having already returned to her duties as a TerraSave member. While she still didn't go abroad yet, Moira had seen her hard at work on her laptop, or dealing with reports. Some nights, Moira wondered if she got any sleep.
Ultimately, she had decided to let Claire get some rest last night. It meant Moira would be a bit more bored than usual, but she couldn't bring herself to draw upon Claire any more than she already had.
Idly, she checked her phone, making sure she hadn't missed anything. No real news in the world, she noted. She wondered if there were ever bits of news she had missed before that would have pointed to the things that had happened, and would happen. Was there some report on strange vehicles leaving the facility that would point to Rachael's departure? Were her and Claire watched after their experiences?
The thought left a bad taste in her mouth, and she closed her phone quickly, deciding against looking. Chris had been adamant about keeping their lives undercover and away from anyone that might pry too much, and for that, she was thankful. She had not seen much about the older Redfield, but from what Claire had told her, he was devoted to destroying the virus.
Moira smiled to herself as she thought about it. Everything made more sense, now that the veil had been pulled away. Her family's relocation to Canada had always been something she had never questioned, but with the revelation of the Weskers, she could honestly say she understood why. She had never met Albert, but if he was anything like Alexia, that was to be feared. From what she had heard, Albert had actually been worse.
Other things made more sense as well. Claire's constantly absent brother, the strange family friend she now knew as Leon, and even the scare surrounding the President a few years ago all made sense. It felt odd to be in the loop now; no, if anything she was part of the loop. Her own story was now hidden away from the world, under carefully crafted layers of half-truth.
Looking down at her hands, Moira felt a strange mix of emotions as she flexed her fingers. She didn't feel any different, but she had seen the footage of herself on the shooting range the other day. The was no way she could have done that before the incident. Had she experienced the effects of the virus right after it all, she might have been more scared, but after seeing Manuela and Sherry, she wasn't sure what to feel. She almost felt...excited.
And yet, still fear tugged at the edges of her mind. She had seen what Alex had become, that darkened, maddened figure, and heard what it had done to others. Her teammates own fathers were evidence of that, becoming monsters that sought only their own deaths.
And Rachael. She still didn't know what to think of the scarce evidence she had heard about the final member of the team. She was stable, that was for certain, but she more than suspected her body had been forever changed. Moira knew she wouldn't be able to cope with that. The image of what Alex had turned into forever haunted her, and while the doctors assured her the Phobos was dormant in her, she couldn't help but feel concerned.
The sound of tires approaching snapped her to attention, and her eyes widened as she saw an armoured car moving down the road towards the loading bay garage. Immediately, she shot off the couch, letting the blanket she had wrapped about her fly away messily. She cringed slightly at the noise she created as she opened the stairwell door, taking the steps two at a time.
Through the wall, she could hear the sound of the gates opening, and she hustled quickly, mentally counting down the floors until she reached the garage, pausing just before the door. Taking a deep breath, she slowly opened it.
The first thing that greeted her eyes was the small security detail that had collected in the garage. While roaming the base, she had seen them, and even had some good times joking with them, but the sight of them in full armour was slightly unnerving.
None of them seemed to react to her presence, even as they glanced at her approach, so she stepped out of the doorway, closing it behind her. The garage door opened, and for once, she was thankful for the fog, as it dulled the light that came in, making it easily tolerable.
Still, she squinted slightly as the truck backed in, the red lights much easier on her eyes than the ones she was used to seeing. As the truck backed up, she got a much better look at it. The whole thing was reinforced heavily, and had quite a bit of room. She noticed the vents on top, pouring out clouds of warm air that were easily visible in the cold air.
One of the men flashed a hand signal, and the truck stopped in place as the garage door closed, sealing the room in. Moira jumped a little as the climate control kicked on, pouring warm air in, while also dousing her with a blast of it. Stepping away from the vent, she felt a shiver crawl up her body as she adjusted to the sudden change in temperature.
"All sealed!" one of the men called, his voice and face obscured by a gas mask. Moira felt a certain fear rise over her as she wondered if she should be wearing one as well, but had no time to react before the back of the truck opened with a hiss. Red-light spilled out as the doors slid apart, and Moira drew in a breath as she saw Rachael for the first time.
The mysterious member of their team unfurled their limbs from where they had been crouching, easily growing several times in size. Her long limbs snaked ahead of her as she navigated her way out of the back. As she stepped down, her long, talon like toes curled in mid-air before lying against the back of her lower leg, forming a strange bony knob for a foot. Two hands gripped the door frame on one side, while a single grabbed the other side. Her head was tilted down, obscuring her face, though Moira could see what looked like hair plastered across most of it.
As she set her other foot down, she seemed to regain her bearings, standing up straighter. It was almost horrifically fascinating to watch, as the muscles in her body seemed to twitch bonelessly as she straightened herself up. It was a bit like when a balloon figure got inflated, with the bottom straightening up before the top did.
When her head finally straightened, Moira got her first look at Rachael's face. Most of it had been obscured by what she now realized was a massive bone-like replacement for her hair, and the only eye she could see was pale, and barely looked functional. An eye that settled squarely on her.
Moira felt her voice catch as Rachael took a step towards her, practically sliding along the floor. As her gaze tilted up, she realized just how much taller Rachael was than her. Finally, she paused in front of her, and offered her more human-like left hand.
"You must be Moira," she greeted, her voice testingly neutral.
"And you must be Rachael," she managed in return, gripping the offered hand. She felt a shudder go through her at the slightly slimy quality of her hand, but she suppressed it. After all, she had been exposed to worse things.
"Leon mentioned you to me. He told me a few things about you." Moira felt a little bit of her concern fade away as the conversation carried on, and Rachael seemed fairly in control, if not a little too creepily passive. Slowly, she let go of the handshake.
"Same here actually. I was kind of hoping we could talk?" Moira explained, suddenly feeling very conscientious of the fact that Rachael had just returned from abroad, and the first thing that happened was she was going to be bombarded with questions by someone she didn't know. "If you don't want to that's cool-"
"It's alright," Rachael assured, motioning for Moira to follow. "Let's go somewhere else. I need to sit down."
Moira followed as Rachael walked with surprising speed from the garage, leaving the security team behind. For a moment, she worried they were breaking protocol or something, but none of the crew seemed to mind, instead focusing on getting the vehicle parked and stowing the security devices.
"So...what were you doing?" Moira tried.
"Mission in Bangladesh. Some t-abyss got released into the mangrove forests, and we had to go take out the infected materials."
Moira held back a whistle. She could only imagine the effort it took to clear away that much infected material. She would have to ask Claire about it later. "Seems like it would take a lot of people. When I worked with TerraSave, we always had to bring in other organizations to bolster the manpower for projects like that."
"TerraSave...you were one of the organizations that came out after Umbrella."
"I only recently joined though, so I wouldn't exactly count myself as a full-fledged member or anything. If I ever go back to work with them. Who were you working for?"
Moira regretted her question as she saw Rachael tense slightly. "I worked for the FBC."
That name rang a bell. Moira had heard it from day one of her job training. The biohazard organization no one wanted to talk about. Being responsible for the decimation of a city would do that. "Oh Jesus, uh, sorry?"
"They got what was coming to them," Rachael commented with a light growl. "Here we are."
Rachael tapped a button on the wall, opening the door to one of the living rooms. Stepping inside, she patiently allowed Rachael to guide the way, watching as she sat on one of the strange couches she'd seen around the facility. At the time, she had just wondered if they were a strange design choice, but as she saw the various knobs and edges on Rachael's body attempt to pierce the material, she understood why. She couldn't help her gaze as she sat down herself, watching as Rachael seemed to almost reflexively curl up, looking a bit like a barnacle stuck to a ship.
Taking a deep breath, Moira composed herself, trying to figure out how best to ask what she wanted to know. She had given so much thought to this moment, but all of it had flown away the moment she had seen the mutated woman. Deciding the bite the bullet, she looked up, meeting the single eyes that peered out at her. "So...how did you end up here?"
"I worked for the FBC during the Zenobia Incident. I was sent as part of a two-man team to ascertain what had happened on the ship. It was suspicious at the time, but it was just marked down as a lack of personnel. In actuality, I was expendable. They just wanted to use my partner to draw my boss, Morgan Lansdale for his involvement in the Terragrigia Incident."
"Not long after arriving aboard the ship, we were separated, and I encountered one of the Ooze. I managed to flee for a time, but I was eventually cornered and...killed."
Moira could feel her blood run cold as Rachael continued, her words ringing deep within Moira's own memories. "All I could feel was the pain, and the fading. Even when Jill was fighting them, I could just barely hear it. By the time she reached me, I was gone."
"When I woke up, all I could feel was anger. They had all betrayed me, and hurt me. It hurt so much...I couldn't feel anything but that hatred and pain."
"How did you get here?" Moira asked, feeling like there was still a large portion of the story missing.
"I had some help...I...don't want to talk about that."
Moira nodded, understanding completely. "I know a little bit how you felt. When Claire and I were escaping the Overseer, I ended up telling her to leave me behind. Right after she jumped, the tower collapsed, and I was covered by rubble. It hurt, really badly. I could feel them crushing me, and choking my breath with dust. Through the small gaps, I could see the ocean, disappearing as the dust settled, packing into the crevices. I thought I was going to die. When I awoke, I had only survived because an old man from the island had found me."
"He took care of me for a while...but I betrayed him. I didn't mean to, but I just wanted to get home. I nearly died again that night, and almost got him killed too. In my selfishness, I almost killed the man who saved me."
Silence hung over the pair for a minute, and neither made eye contact, lost in their thoughts. Moira looked up slightly. "Does it still hurt?"
"Only on bad days. I think it is the memory more than anything actually going on," Rachael confirmed before meeting Moira's eyes. "You?"
"Sometimes. Mostly when things get too close to me. Being trapped under a falling building is a great way to develop claustrophobia," Moira pointed out sarcastically. As her laugh died off, she raised a hand, inspecting it. "The thing that scares me the most is knowing that it could come back. The Phobos reacted to fear, and I worry that it will come back and change me into one of them."
Rachael was silent for a moment. Slowly, she unfurled herself, leaning forward slightly. With a careful gentleness, she took Moira's hand in her own. To Moira's surprise, it was quite warm; something she had blamed on the garage's temperature. Whenever she had touched one of the Afflicted, they had always been slimy and cold, like they had been rotting away in a sewer (as many actually had). The closest they got to feeling warm was the Vulcan Blubber, and that was only because of its incendiary weapon.
When Moira touched Rachael's hand, it was like a human's. A bit more muscular, and a bit wetter, but human nonetheless. She smiled gently with a sigh of relief, gently letting go. Rachael, seeing she had got her point across, leaned back, though she did not curl up as usual.
"So...um...I did have something else to tell you, though I am not sure you'll like it," Moira admitted. Rachael's eye narrowed slightly, though it looked more tired than suspicious. "When I heard your last name I wasn't sure, but I looked into it a bit. Your sister was one of my co-workers. She uh...she was killed on the island. I'm sorry."
"I thought something must have happened to her…" Rachael admitted quietly. "I only got in contact with her a while ago, and when the messages stopped right after the attack on TerraSave HQ, I figured it out pretty quickly. It's good to hear it as a fact though. Did she..?"
"As best as I could tell, she died of wounds, not infection. She died human," Moira assured, though it did not feel like much of one. There was no good way out.
Rachael nodded to herself slightly. "We both wanted to help people, but she was always better about it. She joined TerraSave because it would allow her to more directly assist people, even if it wasn't the safest line of work. I chose the FBC because I was afraid, and I always thought they would send someone else. She died doing what she believed in."
Moira was silent, pondering her words. The only thing she was sure of was that she was happy Rachael had taken the news relatively well. "Do you have anyone else?"
"Not really. She was the last connection to my old life."
"What are you going to do now?"
"Keep doing what I have been doing," Rachael answered simply. Moira nodded, understanding the unspoken reasons that lay behind it. Standing, Moira could feel a sense of determination filling her.
"We should continue this some other time. You have to be tired. I've decided to stick around a while. See you around." Moira waved to Rachael as she left, and Rachael waved back, her exhaustion evident. Closing the door behind her, Moira felt like she had just closed the page on a chapter in her life.
Later, she would talk to Leon about some training. While she wasn't sure she wanted to be an agent still, she wasn't going to stand by any longer. If that is what it took to help people, she would do it without a second thought.