(A/N): Hello everyone! This chapter took me much longer than I anticipated but here it is! Hope you all like it! It's got more characters coming in and as of now, the main cast is completed with a grand total of 14 survivors. Yes it's a huge main cast but two of my closest friends contributed characters and I just couldn't say no to them. But yes, the cast is complete.
Anyway I've delayed long enough! Have fun with the chapter guys!
Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil but I am proud to be the owner of this story and I'm sure you are all proud to have been an integral factor in its presentation!
Chapter Eleven: The Harsh Reality
"Is he going to be alright?" asked Jessica.
Sam rose to her feet before turning to her.
"He'll have one hell of a headache when he wakes up but apart from that he'll be just fine," she replied.
Jessica sighed in relief.
"Where's Berkley?" asked Jessica.
"I'm not sure...he stepped out with some of the survivors we found in the hotel," replied Sam.
Jessica looked down.
"Did he say what he was doing?" she asked.
"He said he needed to make some checks and he needed some extra help and since most of us were sleeping, they volunteered to go," she replied.
Jessica nodded in comprehension. Sam then left the room to seek something to eat. It was nearly two hours after the rescue at the hotel and Takeda still hadn't woken up. Jessica didn't leave his side for a moment and within fifteen minutes after Sam left, he opened his eyes.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Like a train hit me...twice," he groaned.
He sat up only for her to nearly tackle him back down with an embrace.
"Don't you dare go off alone again or I'll kill you myself," she sobbed into his shirt.
He felt his face soften as he put a single arm around her.
"I promise...I just didn't want to endanger anyone else...worst of all you," he said softly.
"I'm a big girl; I can handle myself," she replied sternly.
He smiled.
"Yes you are...I'm sorry for not trusting you," he said.
She silenced him with a deep kiss. He pulled away after several seconds which felt like minutes.
"Are...we going to tell the others?" she asked suddenly.
"I wouldn't advise it," he said in a suddenly serious tone.
Jessica felt her heart jump and for some reason she felt offended.
"It's not that I'm not happy...it's that I still don't trust Berkley," he said noticing her slightly changed face.
She sighed softly.
"What's wrong with him?" she asked.
"Don't you think it's a bit strange that all he does is sit in his room and do research all day? If he's not doing that he's hitting on all of the women in the group...most of all you," he said folding his arms.
Jessica raised an eyebrow before a grin appeared on her face.
"Are you...jealous?" she asked.
He turned to her and rolled his eyes.
"Nothing of the sort...I just don't trust him with any sort of sensitive information; I just get a bad feeling that he's up to no good," he said turning towards the window.
"You're jealous," she teased.
He sighed and she snickered when she noticed the tinge of pink on his cheeks.
"Ok...just a little," he said with a huff.
She laughed before kissing him again.
"He's not even going to ghost my mind in that train of thought...trust me," she said.
He seemed convinced before he pulled her back into a kiss.
In The Kitchen
"Dan? Can you pass me the orange juice?" asked Olivia.
"Sure thing," he said as he reached into the fridge before handing her the bottle.
She nodded at him before pouring herself a heaping cup.
"Anybody hungry?" asked Angela.
Olivia, Sera and Daniel looked at her and gave her an eager nod. Angela repeated the question to Warren and Shia who were in the entertainment room playing the PS3 and they approved her offer. Angela began to cook what seemed to be Shake'N'Bake Chicken and she steamed two pots of rice. Within an hour, she was done cooking and everyone sat down to a meal. Takeda and Jessica joined them shortly into it.
"Anybody seen Travis?" asked Jessica.
"Come to think of it...he didn't come back from the hotel," said Sera.
"You think he's?..." suggested Shia.
"I doubt it; he can handle himself very well," said Takeda as he took an absent-minded sip of his tea.
As if on cue, the door opened to reveal Berkley and Travis, both of them bloodstained. Shia gasped at the grotesque amount of blood on Travis.
"What the hell happened?" shouted Daniel almost angrily.
"We had no choice...the others that we found were all infected," said Berkley with his eyes pasted to the floor.
"All six of them were infected?" exclaimed Jessica in disbelief.
"Yes...every last one of them were infected because they all had bite marks on some part of their body," said Travis.
"So you..." said Olivia.
Berkley coldly walked away from them and into his room. Travis folded his arms and went upstairs to wash off the blood.
"I'm going to go to sleep...I'm pretty tired," said Shia.
She walked over to the entertainment room and lay on the couch before promptly falling asleep. Everyone at the table followed shortly after except Warren who was staring out of the large window to the streets below. Warren suddenly heard a loud yell and when no one else awoke to it, he decided to go downstairs to check the source of the noise. He quickly made his way to the streets to find a man running as fast as his legs could carry him away from chasing dogs. From the grotesque look of the dogs, they were infected. The man didn't look like he was infected and Warren sprang into action. He took out his pistol before shooting at the dogs which distracted them.
"What're you doing you fucking idiot! They'll tear you apart!" he screamed.
"Get inside here and leave them to me," said Warren.
The man didn't hesitate and quickly sprinted into the penthouse while Warren dealt with the dogs. They sprang at him and he quickly punched one hard in the snout, snapping it like a twig before spinning and kicking the other dog. It was simply stunned as it rose and charged again, growling loudly. It managed to tackle Warren but he grabbed the head with both hands before yanking it sideways, snapping it's neck. (A/N: Cookie for whoever recognizes this moment). After dealing with them dogs, he moved back inside to see the man panting heavily.
"Whoever you are...thanks a lot kid," he said.
The accent in his voice was exotic and Warren couldn't identify it.
"What's your name?" asked Warren.
"Jonah Barrah," he replied.
"Warren Stern," said Warren as he shook he man's hand.
The man had a grin on his face.
"I don't know what I would've done if you didn't hear me...so thanks," he said.
"Do you have a place to stay?" asked Warren.
The man looked down.
"I just got here...first someone was shooting at me and I ran...then those things appeared," he said.
"Stay here," said Warren.
The man again had a grin on his face.
"Thanks a lot kid...you have no idea how much I appreciate this," he said as he walked to the couch and lay down.
Warren sighed deeply; he had no idea how he was going to explain this to the others but at least he saved his life. With another sigh, he walked to the entertainment room and sat in the recliner. He looked at Shia's sleeping figure before a smile crept onto his face. He was glad that he saved her though he hoped she would keep his secret. With a tired sigh, he allowed himself to drift into sleep.
The Next Morning
"So Warren saved you?" asked Jessica as she folded her arms.
"Yeah...I'm sorry for barging in but I had no idea where else I could go," said Jonah sighing.
Jessica shook her head but turned to Warren and smiled at him. He gave a nod in response.
"Did you see anyone else around before you got here?" she asked.
Jonah shook his head. Jessica nodded slowly before changing the subject, knowing full well that he likely had bad memories.
"Where are you from Jonah?" she asked.
"Jamaica," he replied.
She smiled; that completely explained his exotic accent.
"Alright well you go ahead and get some rest; you still look very tired," she said.
Jonah nodded before going back to the couch he was sleeping on. Jessica rubbed her eyes before returning to bed; after a day as long as yesterday, she wanted to sleep longer than just to 6 AM. She returned to see Takeda sat up looking towards the door. His eyes were red from exhaustion.
"Why did you wake up so early?" she asked.
A tinge of pink appeared on his cheeks.
"It got...much colder when you weren't in my arms," he said softly.
She blushed profusely at his words but rejoined him in the bed before allowing him to encircle his arms around her. He was still hesitating to touch her, which puzzled her.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
He was silent for a few moments before she heard him take a heavy breath.
"Should we keep this a secret?" he asked.
Jessica looked at him with a thoughtful expression.
"I'm sure your sister wouldn't mind as well as the majority of the group...apart from Sam," said Jessica.
Takeda raised his eyebrow.
"Why would she be against it?" he asked.
Jessica made a sound that was half way between a laugh and a scoff.
"Haven't you seen the way she looks at you?" she asked.
"Why would I be looking at her when I have you?" he asked solemnly.
She was taken aback by his sudden compliment.
"But I know one reason why it would be a bad idea," he continued in a suddenly serious tone.
Her mood instantly shifted from flattered to curious.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Well two reasons: Berkley and our stalker," said Takeda.
"Stalker?" she asked.
"There's an assassin who makes his home here, he calls himself Loki," he explained.
"How do you know?" she asked.
"...I dueled him." he said looking toward his sword.
She looked at him in disbelief.
"Why would you do that?" she asked.
"If I didn't do it...he would've killed Sera and Olivia," he said.
Jessica looked down.
"Maybe it'd be better if we kept it under wraps then..." she said as she lay a hand on his cheek.
He looked at her with a blank expression but nodded.
"What do we do about Loki?" she asked.
"We can't do anything about him right now...we'll just have to move on," he said.
"Is he really that intimidating?" she asked.
"Believe me...if I didn't train for my entire life there's no way in hell I could've beat him and even with all the training, it took me fifteen minutes to win and I'm positive he was toying with me," explained Takeda.
She nodded before laying down on her back. He followed her but didn't put his arms around her. Noticing his state of mind, she crawled on top of him and lay her head on his chest.
"Go back to sleep...I'm right here," she whispered.
She kissed his cheek before he closed his eyes and slowly allowed himself to drift off.
In The Kitchen
"We need more drinking water," said Sera as she examined the stores.
"I can't believe that the one thing we didn't get in Publix was the thing we need most," said Shia with an annoyed tone in her voice.
"Alright let's go and make it quick because we need to get to work on a plan to move onto another location," said Daniel.
"Why not just stay here?" asked Olivia.
"Because I need a real laboratory to continue my research," said Berkley.
Olivia sighed deeply but nodded.
"We'll stay for another week before we move out but for now, we need to make sure that nothing bad happens before we move on," said Daniel with a now serious tone.
Berkley cleared his throat.
"At the rate this is going right now, I'll be able to decipher the files and gather what I need from them in about four days of dedicated work before I'll need more things from an Umbrella database," he explained.
"Where are we going to find more files?" asked Daniel.
Berkley pointed to a location on the map.
"There's a facility on the outskirts of this town and there's also a residential complex nearby so we can stay there until I get everything I need," he continued.
"Why didn't you get everything you need at the Destrite lab?" asked Shia.
"Umbrella spreads it's files between it's facilities but this one here is kind of like a master library so to speak so if there's one place I can find all of the files, it's that one," he finished.
Daniel ran his finger from their current location to the marked location before rolling his eyes up in a thoughtful expression.
"That flight will be about six hours, with a full tank of gas we can reach there no problems at the airport in town and we can drive the rest of the way," said Daniel.
"Wait a minute...isn't that Ventor Town?" asked Olivia.
Daniel nodded as he noticed the name on the map.
"I know my way around that place so we'll be fine," she said.
Daniel smiled before picking up the keys.
"Is Jess up yet?" he asked.
"Nope," said Angela as she walked downstairs.
"Well good morning sunshine," said Daniel with a smirk on his face.
Angela snorted before flicking him in the head.
"What's the plan today?" she asked.
"We need water so we have to make a trip to Publix," said Shia.
"Oh? Sounds like fun! I'm in!" said Angela.
Everyone rolled their eyes.
"Alright, let's go then," said Daniel.
Sera suddenly stepped up.
"Can I come as well?" she asked.
"Sure! The more the merrier!" he said.
The three of them walked out the door.
"So...who's up for a movie?" asked Olivia.
Everyone nodded at her suggestion as they walked to the room but Berkley declined.
"Gotta get back to work if I'm going to be on time for our departure," said Berkley.
With a mutual nod, he left the room but a wicked smile appeared on his face unknown to all of them.
"Things just keep getting better and better..." he thought to himself as he shut his door behind him.