Code Veronica: Resident Evil IIIS

Chapter Thirty Four: Rockfort Island

Getting a last minute flight had been more expensive than he had hoped, as had renting a boat a few hours later when the harbor master clearly had a low opinion of American Tourists, but Chris Redfield was finally on his way to save his sister… as long as that Kennedy guy's information was good. The former STARS member didn't know how long Claire had actually been in Umbrella's custody, but even an hour with those monsters was too long, and the sun was just coming up when the island came into view.

The whole thing was up on top of what looked like a high plateau, with no visible way to dock a boat, at least not on anything resembling a shoreline, so how the hell was he supposed to get up there? As his boat got closer, Chris began to see smoke rising from the buildings on top of the plateau, and in some places the flickering light of fire, so… what exactly had happened up there? If the whole place was in that kind of condition, then there was no time for him to circle the island looking for a place to dock, leaving only one option.

Getting up to the island was easy enough, as was tying off the boat to one of the larger rocks that were sticking up above the water, but now it looked like he was going to have to climb up the side of the mountain itself. Back in the Air Force, things like climbing up the face of a rock wall without any climbing equipment was a normal part of training, and… although it had been a while, he was pretty sure that it could still be done. So putting on the backpack he brought along, and carefully stepping over the rocks to reach what looked like the best start point, the former STARS member began to climb.

Learning his lesson from what happened with the mission last summer at the Spencer Estate, Chris had no intention of entering another Umbrella facility unprepared, especially when the safety of his sister was concerned. That being said, before renting the boat, the former STARS member paid a little visit to one of his contacts in this part of the world, putting together all of the weapons and equipment that he was likely needed for such a rescue operation. Things like a silenced machine pistol, a satellite phone to call for extraction, and even some small explosives that could…

About halfway up the rock wall, already struggling to find and hold onto any parts that stuck out far enough to be used as grips, a piece of rock came loose, nearly causing him to fall. His fingers burning with the effort of holding on with one hand as his body spun around, Chris bounced a little against the wall, trying to brace with his feet while turning around… and then he heard something rip at about the same time he felt a little lighter. Turns out this was because the backpack got caught on a sharp piece of rock during this effort, and suddenly he was no longer wearing it.

"Aw, shit." The former STARS member said, looking down just in time to see the backpack vanish into the water. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

Okay, with the sudden loss of his backpack, which held almost everything useful that he brought to the island, Chris was now left with pretty much only the knife in his boot, and the 9mm pistol in his hip holster with which to carry out this whole rescue mission. No, wait, there was a compass in his other pouch, so that was something… oh, God fucking damn it! Striking the wall with the bottom of his fist, he took a few deep breaths to calm down… this wasn't the time to lose his temper, not when Claire was in danger… he had survived the Spencer Estate with less, so it was okay… it was okay.

"Keep going, Chris." He said to himself, looking up to see how far he still had to go. "It's not too far… Claire needs you."

So the struggle continued, with Chris grunting and groaning a lot more than he had done the last time such a climb had been attempted, but after what felt like hours… hell, it probably was hours, the former STARS member sighed with relief when he felt his hand grab onto the edge of the plateau. Grunting even louder while bringing one leg up over the edge, he dragged himself up onto flat land at last, and what was waiting there was… not what he had expected of a secret Umbrella prison.

It looked like the area he was in had once contained several small buildings, most of which had been destroyed by what looked like a bombing raid from planes, judging by the pattern of the blast craters, but there weren't any bodies around. Maybe everyone on this part of the island had gotten away through the destroyed sections of fence that might have once created a perimeter a short distance away. The sections that remained were actually pretty impressive, tall with barbed wire at the top as if it was meant to keep people… hey, was that a guard tower over there?

After having to climb up the side of a cliff freehand, and then losing most of his equipment, it was nice to think that his luck had changed enough to have climbed right up into the island's prison complex, which was actually the most likely place to find Claire. Oh God, please let her have been somewhere else besides those blown up shacks or whatever the smaller buildings were. Except for the distant guard tower, and a single intact building that had no windows, nothing else remained standing after… whatever had happened to this place, and Chris needed to start somewhere, so the windowless building it was.

Way off in the distance, the former STARS member could hear the rumble of machinery, probably large scale generators for the island's power system, but also the unmistakable sound of airplane engines, which made sense because if the base couldn't be accessed by water, then there had to be an airfield. Clearly this place had been attacked, anyone could see that, but the question was by who, and where were they? If the mysterious invaders were using the airfield as base, then right there in the prison was the most logical place for Umbrella forces to gather, but there was absolutely no one around.

Squeak… the hinges on the metal door made a soft, drawn out noise when he carefully pulled the door open, but there was nothing but darkness inside, and even less when he listened for any sounds of movement. There was so much wind outside that it was impossible to tell whether or not anything was there, so Chris stepped inside and allowed the door to quietly shut again behind him. Hmm, still wasn't much to hear now that the wind was blocked, but wait a second, what was that? It looked like the dim flickering of orange light… like a fire, maybe?

Carefully drawing his pistol so as not to make any new noise of his own, the former STARS member began stealthily moving toward the source of the light, but nearly tripping over something metal after only going a few meters. Thankfully not a lot of sound had been made from this, but Chris was surprised to find that it was a wall made of metal bars as he moved along it. Being that this place was most likely a prison, the presence of a large cage shouldn't have bothered him, but then he rounded the corner to see that the light was coming from a zippo lighter that had been left sitting on a desk… and what did bother him was the sound of a hammer being pulled back when a gun barrel touched the back of his head.

"Do the smart thing and drop it." A voice said from behind. "You're not one of my men, and you're not dressed like those HCF assholes… but you don't look like a prisoner, either… so you've got till I finish talking to identify yourself."

"All right, just don't shoot." The former STARS member answered, bending down to put his pistol on the floor. "I don't know what HCF is, and I'm not a prisoner… I'm here looking for a girl… maybe you've seen her."

As soon as the pistol was down, Chris took advantage of the low light levels to slip the knife out of his boot, and then slicing it across his attacker's leg to put him off balance. At the same time, the former STARS member grabbed the man's weapon as he stood up straight, and with a hard boot to the chest the fight was over. His attacker was down, so Chris picked up his own pistol, now pointing both of them at this stranger, and feeling more than ready to start shooting if he didn't like what was said next.

"Okay, asshole, let's start again." He said while his attacker groaned in pain. "Claire Redfield, where is she? I know she's a prisoner here, and I swear to God if you people have done anything to hurt her, I'm gonna…

"She's gone." The stranger interrupted, trying to sit up. "You did say Claire Redfield, right? Holy shit… I'm guessing that makes you Chris… boy, you gotta have balls of solid rock coming here with the price the company's got on you."

As much as Chris was enjoying this friendly conversation now that he wasn't in danger of getting shot in the back of the head, so he reminded the stranger, who was clearly with Umbrella, to stay on topic. In response, his would be attacker explained that Claire had escaped from custody right after the bombing started… and had even gotten him medicine for his gunshot wound, even though he was the one who captured her back in Paris. It really made him think about things, and that was great, but right now all the former STARS member wanted to know was where his sister had gone to.

"A bunch of planes took off last night." The stranger continued, propping himself up against the wall, and trying to stand. "I know Claire and a couple other prisoners were heading to the airfield, but after that I don't know… you'd have to go to the airfield and check the takeoff logs in the tower; the computer there tracks the course of everything leaving, if it still works."

"This tower… if I help you walk, can you take me there?" Chris asked, lowering the weapons. "If you do that, then you can use the communications to call for help, I'll go after Claire, and then we can forget we ever saw each other."

For a second the stranger just looked at him, before laughing a bit, and explaining that it wasn't as easy to get around the island as it was for his sister anymore. The attack must have broken something in the lab out back, because the dead weren't staying that way, and they were hungry for human flesh. What he was describing sounded a lot like the T-Virus infected zombies inside the Spencer Estate, and if something like that had happened there on this island, then… yeah, things weren't going to be so easy… but there wasn't much choice.