The first sight that greeted agent Redfield's eyes was the dimness of the new environment that he and his younger partner reached after traversing two floors down from their previous position. The shadowy chamber was larger than most of the rooms in this place, and contained dozens of cylinders, each of them full of nonhuman creatures who appeared to have drowned within it. Those grizzly sights were enough to put the young marksman on edge, even to the point where he momentarily stopped paying attention to see if officer Chambers was staying close to him. But the Alpha agent soon spotted a lone figure. This new person seemed to take no heed of their arrival, constantly having his back to the pair. So even if he did not like it, the officer decided to do his best to ignore every other item in this area. It didn't take long for Redfield to quickly jog in that third individual's direction, all the while keeping the Magnum revolver in his right hand.
Unknown to him, the STARS medic remained only a few steps behind, having kept her eyes on her older partner and opting to dash after him once he bolted towards the unknown person. Keeping both her hands tightly wrapped around the handle of the Beretta, whitening her knuckles and keeping the weapon pointed towards the floor despite the tension in her arms, the young woman didn't ask what Redfield's intentions were, as the solitary factor she cared about was keeping by his side.
It was only a few seconds later that the pair reached their desired destination, and stopped their sprint as it became apparent that the third person there was none other than their commanding officer, captain Albert Wesker.
"Wesker?", Redfield spoke up first, addressing his superior from behind since the STARS leader still didn't turn around, seemingly too busy while typing at a keyboard that was resting on a desk in front of him, "How did you wind up here after those creatures attacked?".
The marksman's face quickly fell into a pool of indignation.
"You fucking coward. You ran off and just left us because you were trying to save your own neck! You made me lose Jill. We don't even know where she is as a result, or even if she's alive!".
As he finished speaking, the marksman casually rested his arms by his sides, pointing the Magnum towards the floor.
"I think you misunderstand me, Chris", Wesker replied in a more relaxed tone of voice, still without turning around to face his subordinates, "Everything is going exactly according to plan".
"Plan?", Chambers stated out loud, "What... What plan?".
The RPD captain remained soundless as he spun around, moving almost too fast to be seen with the naked eye, before aiming his Desert Eagle parallel to the floor with his right arm, pointing the weapon into Redfield's surprised face. In an instinctive reaction to the move, the marksman used his free left arm to pull agent Chambers behind himself, ignoring her yelp as she verbally responded to the new threat.
"Even if you made it thus far, you're not so smart after all, are you, Christopher Redfield?", the older man in the shades mentioned in a condescending fashion, "It's somewhat disappointing that the person with the most intelligence in either team, transpired to be was my dear old friend. Unfortunately, if you're expecting your Bravo captain to rush in here with a rescue, I'm afraid you'll find Marini to be a grave man. That specific thorn in my side has been taken care of"
"What?", Redfield appeared as surprised as he sounded, calculating his chances of being able to raise the Magnum that was pointed towards the floor without getting shot, and chastising himself for letting down his guard while around his suspicious supervisor.
"You killed Enrico!", Chambers growled, trying to move past Redfield's personal shield, but being restrained by the marksman's left arm, who partially returned her to a position behind his back.
"MONSTER!", she screamed from behind her taller partner despite his left hand that still gripped her arm, looking past Redfield's shoulder and scowling at the man in the sunglasses.
"Yes, dear, like this", Wesker replied in a calmer fashion, obviously unstirred by her temper.
The STARS captain shifted the direction of the Desert Eagle, hastily pointing it towards Chambers' head with his intention to decapitate her where she stood. There was one small problem with the Umbrella employee's plan. There was Shakahnna Warren as the teenager stood, resolutely vengeful, several feet behind Rebecca Chambers. From the look of it, it didn't appear that Warren was visible to either agents Redfield or Chambers, as the teenager's hair was made out of lava burning hotter than the fires of hell, matched only by her eyes, which consisted of scornful green emeralds with no sign of the iris or retina, and large wings were curved near her upper back. Warren angrily glared at him before lifting her left arm and pointing at Wesker in an accusing fashion with her index finger.
The distraction was enough to cause the momentarily-surprised STARS captain to miss his intended target, and Wesker ended up pulling the trigger and striking Chambers in the torso that was visible behind Redfield's frame, rather than shooting her in the face as he intended. The force of the bullet caused the medic to scream as she was hurled backwards before she landed hard on her side and didn't move after coming to a stop on the floor. Her crumpled form landed near a table that was covered with machinery, about five yards behind the marksman. The Beretta pistol flew out of her hand and in the direction of the vertical cylinders as Redfield turned his face towards where his colleague crashed on the hard floor, screaming out her first name before turning his attention back towards his antagonist.
From his viewpoint Wesker scanned the spot where he had seen Warren's spectre a moment ago, only to see that the teenager's wrath-filled figure had now vanished. So whatever meaning that apparition came to convey, it did not have any baring on the current situation and, after all, he still had agent Redfield's presence to consider.
"She's surplus to requirement, Chris", the captain explained, "A decanzian spread of characters is unnecessary in this instance. Her lack of physical prowess rendered her virtually useless for my tests from now on, and if you were to act as her garrison, it may jeopardise any results which could be obtained from yourself".
It was the last statement Wesker got to utter before he spotted Redfield's furious face twitch, indicating that the younger man was about to raise the Magnum that he held regardless of the risks due to him staring down the barrel of the Desert Eagle. Not wishing to pull the trigger and eliminating the marksman before his scheduled fight against future creatures, the STARS captain aimed his right hand in a reversed fist punch aimed for the young man's temple. As the handle of Wesker's firearm was swung in the direction of Redfield's head, the marksman obstructed that strike by using his forearm. But Wesker followed up that blocked effort as he twisted to his own left and planted the bottom of his right foot into Redfield's stomach, which was an attempt that connected exactly as he wished against the target.
While the marksman bent down and gasped for air due to the kick, Wesker continued with a roundhouse kick to his head, causing Redfield to lose the grip on his Magnum as he fell down on his own back. The STARS captain took advantage of his position by standing in an L-stance over the younger man and pointing the Desert Eagle closer to his face.
"You prick! You FUCKING prick! I should have put you down like the fucking DOG that you are!", the marksman spat out as he was looking up from his horizontal position, "What are you waiting for!".
"There's a further part for you to play in this game, Chris", his superior informed him, "That is what makes you a much more precious commodity than poor Rebecca there. In case your remaining friends should expire before I can collect what I require of them, I requisite you remain healthy to engage in a controlled exercise against my star pupil".
"What are you talking about! What is this goddamn hold that Umbrella has on you?", Redfield barked.
"I think you're confused, Chris", the older man grimaced, always staring down at the younger person via the barrel of the firearm, "I've always been with Umbrella. STARS were Umbrella's, or rather I should say, my little piggies. And when the Tyrant virus leaked, I was forced to give up my lovely members of STARS. But for now, I wouldn't dream of being a discourteous host and, as such, have provided a suitable accommodation for you while you wait your turn to play your part".
Not understanding what his enemy was talking about, and not caring at the time, Redfield made a last-ditch attempt to grab the barrel of the Desert Eagle which was a short distance from his face. But as soon as his left fingers curled around the metal cylinder, Wesker stepped on the marksman's left upper arm, causing Redfield's entire arm to flatten against the floor and thus forcing the young man's hand to let go of the weapon. Reacting to the situation, Wesker moved in a counter-clockwise motion and switched to a T-stance a short distance away from where he previously stood.
"I'm a fair man, Chris, so we'll have plenty of time for show and tell later", the older man grinned, "But for now, get up".
"Fuck you, Wesker! You'll PAY for killing Becca, you son of a bitch!", the subordinate officer countered, not readying to move at all.
"Redfield, you may either walk to your holding cell or be carried there", the older man sighed for the first time, "I will leave the decision entirely in your hands".
Chris Redfield sighed in his own turn, feeling that his despairing situation simply wasn't getting any better, since he had failed against his antagonist. Having failed to protect agent Chambers, and there was nothing to indicate that Valentine, Burton or any other STARS survivors would now fare better.
"Suit yourself, Chris", was Wesker's final statement before he swung the Desert Eagle in a downward arch as if he was striking a nail with a hammer.
The blow struck Redfield in the side of the head, causing a ringing tune to be heard in his ears as pain overwhelmed his skull and he knew he was passing out. His last thought was that he had let down Rebecca Chambers, and he then realized that it was the first time he had the young medic on his mind instead of officer Valentine. Redfield would've thought that was odd if he hadn't been unconscious immediately afterwards.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was upon his return from placing officer Redfield's prone figure within the holding cell that captain Wesker gazed around this particular laboratory. He first retrieved the 9mm Beretta pistol that the uncongenial agent Chambers had dropped while in the process of dying, casually placing the weapon next to one of the many screens that enabled him to recon the remaining rooms of the mansion. He planned to remove the medic's remains to a more convenient spot within the lab, as it was unnecessary to have the corpse littering his domicile while he attended the last few remaining chores. But before doing so, his attention was distracted with two of the screens which contained a pictorial account of people he recognized. The first was that of agent Aitken as the Bravo agent was entertaining himself via the massacre of a small group of hunters with the use of an unrecognized automatic firearm. Wesker briefly reflected where the equally aggravating communications expert happened to come across the sophisticated weapon, but that was an issue for another time. After all, this was to be spire of this evenings festivities. The second image, contrarily, was that of agent Redfield as the marksman had painfully arisen inside his detainment cell and was groggily checking his surroundings, and quickly learning that he couldn't get out of that box without Wesker's permission.
Still requiring to move Chambers' remains, the leader of both STARS teams then heard more commotion from behind him, and turned around in time to see officers Burton and Valentine approaching his position, with the female agent appearing more distracted with her surroundings than the older weapons expert was. That meant that it was time for the main event.
"Wesker?", officer Valentine questioned as she was limping towards him, and doing a substandard job of attempting to hide her disability, while cautiously placing the grenade launcher on the nearest available table in an effort to alleviate the pressure that the large weapon caused her back, "What's going on? What are those tubes? Is that a person in there?".
Despite her placing the most destructive item within the mansion down, she maintained the grip on the shotgun, the result of which meant that she was still a dangerous character to reckon with. So Wesker locked eyes with officer Burton, knowing that the weapons expert had to do what the captain nonverbally demanded of him.
In response to the command, Burton raised the Colt Python and aimed the barrel just a few inches away from Valentine's head, prompting the young woman to stop in her tracks as she rolled her eyes in the direction that Burton was standing.
"Thank you, Barry", the STARS captain mentioned with his usually calm demeanour.
"Well, what do you know!", Valentine hissed, the mixture of worry and confusion being obvious on her facial expression as she remained still, stressed about what may happen if she tried to outmanoeuvre two more experienced agents.
"Oh, don't blame Barry for everything", Wesker turned his back to the pair, having more typing to do on his own, "I hear his better half and two lovely daughters would be in considerable peril if he were to choose to deviate from the orders which he is requested to follow".
Valentine only sighed in response, finally understanding who it was that Burton had been talking about earlier.
"Wesker, you're pathetic", she finally sneered, rubbing her eyes with a free hand, and trying to not seem panicked at having to wonder if that'd be the last action she would take in this life before Burton pulled the trigger and ended her existence.
"You needn't concern yourself with Barry's personal trials, dear", the captain went on.
"Why eliminate STARS?", the machines expert demanded, partly out of curiosity since she remembered overhearing Burton talk about that earlier, and partly because she hoped it'd buy her some time.
"Believe it or not, that's just Umbrella's intention", the older man commented with his back still turned to her.
"You're just a slave to Umbrella!", Valentine growled.
"Smart girl", Wesker's tone implied the agent was anything but that. He countered while first looking over his shoulder and then turning around, "But those aren't my intentions. All those things you've witnessed? I'll burn them along with everything you see here".
It was the last partially friendly statement he made before raising the Desert Eagle with his right hand until the barrel was pointed into the young woman's face, and his usually cold tone returned as he took a step closer towards her.
"Barry, go up on the ground and wait there", he gave an order for the weapons expert to follow without looking at the larger man.
Without saying anything, Burton lowered the weapon as he turned away from the two individuals and began walking away from them, his eyes fixed at a slightly lowered angle towards the floor.
"Barry!", Valentine called out as she turned her head towards him, causing the burly man to stop for a handful of seconds before Burton's face lowered even further towards the floor and he then continued walking further away from her.
"I'M SURE GLAD I GAVE YOU YOUR GUN BACK!", she raised her voice to be heard by him as he continued leaving, before turning back in Wesker's direction and lowering it to its usual tone, "Glad to see my trust in you wasn't misplaced, you asshole. So you gonna take the credit for everything? I mean, the fact that there was ammo left JUST before all the bigger creatures, and not to mention that convenient fact that the closer we got to your little lair here, the tougher our enemies got. That was too much just to be a coincidence. And since everyone else is dead, that leaves… you! And I thought it was Barry who was up to something".
"You gotta love Barry", the RPD captain smirked for the first time, "He must really be afraid of Umbrella. Of course he had, prior to the event, been aware of the deliberate tampering with our communications. Surely you cannot argue that his performance of feigned surprise at the broken radios was sublime".
"You and Umbrella took his family!", Valentine yelled back, her anger and frustration quickly forgetting about Burton's forced betrayal and finding their mark on the person who deserved it much more, "I can't believe I stuck up for you! You bastard!".
She couldn't tell whether he was truly offended or merely a sadist, but her supervisor moved faster than her eyes could follow as he reached forth with the same right arm that he was using to hold his firearm and punched her in the face with a straight jab. The blow sent Valentine sprawling on the floor as she tried to reach for her 9mm sidearm in the process, but found that the older leader was standing over her the entire time, the Desert Eagle constantly aimed down at her head.
"Umbrella?", Wesker continued talking, leading her to suspect that he enjoyed hearing the sound of his own voice, "Well, I used some carrots and sticks to cow him into submission, but it had nothing to do with Umbrella".
"What! What're you planning?", the younger agent asked.
"There is only a single way to demonstrate, isn't there?", the RPD captain went on as he kept his weapon trained on her while partially turning to type some more commands into his keyboard with the left hand.
Upon finishing the typed orders, his attention was drawn to an area that was to his upper left, so Valentine's attention was diverted in that direction, and her eyes widened at the sight of the 9-foot tall monster that rested in an unusually large, liquid-filled cylinder. The unconscious creature's left hand contained five giant claws and its beating heart was on the outside of its body, while its sleeping face appeared to be a gross parody of a human's.
"Isn't it magnificent?", Wesker commented after having admired the specimen for several seconds, more so to himself than to her.
"For the sake of that thing?", Valentine uttered as she climbed back to her feet.
"You know, I hate goodbyes", her commander stated as he approached her while the Desert Eagle was still extended in her direction.
Valentine gasped as she had expected him to pull the trigger, and then jumped as she heard a gunshot, but then realized that she hadn't been the one to be struck since it was Wesker who screamed in pain as a splatter of blood appeared on his right shoulder. The man in the shades staggered away as he pressed his left palm against the bullet wound that had incapacitated his right arm, which prompted Valentine to look in the direction that agent Burton had previously exited. A smile broadened on her face when she called out Burton's first name since she spotted the weapons expert standing there as both his hands were wrapped around the handle of his Colt Python.
"Forgive me", Burton uttered while approaching her.
"It's not your fault", Valentine gladly shook her hand, "Umbrella's to blame".
"I just...", the older man mentioned as he came nearer, "I couldn't stand to leave my friends. Not again".
Both their attentions were drawn to the sight of an injured captain Wesker as the team leader proceeded on his hands and knees until he reached the control panel and pressed the Return key into the keyboard there.
"What the HELL did you do, Wesker?", Burton marched towards the smaller man while the RPD captain was struggling to climb back up to his feet, reflexively pressing his left palm on the wound that bled from his right shoulder.
"Answer the question, Wesk...!", the weapons expert ordered while pointing his Colt Python towards his supervisor.
Both his and Valentine's attention were drawn away from the injured Umbrella scientist, as Burton was interrupted by sound that emanated from the large cylinder which contained the clawed, inhuman monster within it. Temporarily forgetting to even watch over where Wesker stood, both agents turned to look inside the vertical container and saw that the liquid which the creature was floating in was slowly draining into the floor beneath it.
It wasn't long before all the watery substance had emptied, which left the giant standing on his feet as it twitched, most likely because the nutrition feed had been taken away from it. Its eyes snapped open in response to that stimulus, causing Valentine and Burton to gasp in their own turn, before the monster lifted it regular right hand and drove that fist into the glass ahead of him.
Neither STARS agents saw that Wesker was shaking his head as he let go of his injured shoulder and grasped his face instead, as if suffering from a headache which made the bullet wound pale in comparison. That's because they were still concentrated on the view of the juggernaut who punched the inside of the cylinder two more times, spreading the crack within the glass further with each strike. And with a fourth punch, the glass broke into dozens of pieces and the monster casually stepped out of its previous prison, eyeing the three individuals in front of it.
From his point of view, captain Wesker opened his eyes for the first time since having seen Shakahnna Warren's body floating in her vertical container. The leader of both STARS teams woke up and felt that he was in a place which he didn't want to be at, and it was only afterwards that he felt the sharp pain in his shoulder, not understanding what caused the stinging ache there. But he couldn't examine the injured body part because he witnessed the personification of evil barrelling down on him from a few feet away, which caused him to widen his eyes and mouth in reaction to the horror there. The monster was more than two feet taller and much wider than him at the shoulders, controlling a body that would've dwarfed a hunter when compared to it, with silvery blue skin that were covered with veins and claws on its left hand. Its gruesome face indicated the same type of brutal experimentation that the female creature had undergone before it found its mother's remains.
Regardless of what pain the creature's background showed, and the current injury which ravaged his upper body, the RPD captain had a much more urgent problem. That came in the form of this monster stepping closer to him while it raised its left arm in an indication that it was about to strike. Unable to properly use his preferred right arm, Wesker rushed to withdraw his Desert Eagle via his left hand, only to find an empty waist holster. He had less than a second to search the floor around him and spotted his weapon lying several feet away from where he stood. But it was the last thought he had before he felt the monster's left claws impaling him through the stomach before it lifted him into the air via the use of its left arm alone. Wesker managed one short scream before blood gushed out of his mouth and made him choke on the red liquid before shock set in.
Unknown to him, the giant creature withdrew its left arm out of his stomach, causing his body to slump lifelessly on the floor in a pool of his own blood. It was then that agent Valentine yelled to get Burton's attention. Once the weapons expert turned his face to see her, the female officer single-handedly threw her shotgun in his direction, which Burton caught before Valentine bolted towards the area where the grenade launcher rested. Hoping that it worked properly and wishing that she had tested the weapon earlier, the machines expert closed her fingers around the launcher even while she heard Burton firing three times with his Colt Python. Raising the massive weapon and taking aim, she turned in the monster's direction and saw the older man as he emptied the rest of his firearm into its torso. Two of Burton's rounds found their mark against the creature's external heart, but caused it no visible damage as it didn't even flinch from what should've been a fatal wound.
Agent Valentine didn't have time to consider the reasons behind the impossibility, but this monstrosity seemed to carry the same indestructible qualities as the female creature that she and Burton had pushed down from a high position. And unfortunately for them both, this particular animal was much bigger than their previous opponent. So taking aim with the grenade launcher and hoping for better results, she yelled an instruction for her colleague to distance himself from the target, which Burton swiftly did.
The machines specialist pulled the trigger and recoiled from the force as a grenade shot out of the barrel, but unfortunately missed the creature's torso by a few inches. Instead, the grenade smacked into the broken and empty container that was several yards to its rear before it bathed that area in fire. Valentine yelled a scream of frustration as she heard Burton swearing to himself while the older man holstered the empty Colt Python and opened fire with the shotgun. But she quickly learned from her experience, taking careful aim and pulling the trigger again.
The second grenade burst out of the weapon with a wet sound and collided with her antagonist's torso, and thankfully caused it to stagger backwards before coming into contact with the wall behind it. Amid bursts of gunfire from the shotgun, which it easily brushed off, the monster pushed itself back to a fully standing position and concentrated its attention on her, almost as if it recognized the greater threat that the female officer presented.
"Jesus fucking Christ! Kevlar skin!", an exasperated machines expert exclaimed to herself as it came closer.
Valentine realized its current state as it stalked her while proceeding past Burton as if the male agent wasn't even there, which caused her to turn around and bolt away from the beast. Without a plan in her head, she ran in between two rows of cylinders, no longer paying attention to the comatose creatures who were inside them. And from the sound of heavy footsteps and gunfire which followed her, she could tell that the monster was in pursuit. So she stopped dashing away and turned around while standing halfway between the row of cylinders, taking aim with the grenade launcher as she caught sight of the juggernaut turning the corner, even as it ignored the gunfire that Burton sprayed it with from several yards behind its back. The monster slightly crouched down and bolted towards her, aiming for a collision course with the much smaller human, its bloodied left claws raised with a clear intention to decimate her.
Holding her breath and wishing she could close her eyes, Valentine pulled the trigger again.
Her action set forth a third grenade which exited the weapon and crashed into the creature's torso when it was nearly upon her, enveloping it in fire as its forward dash was stopped in its tracks before it was thrown backwards, but not before it had blindly swung both its arms in midair. The tip of one of its left claws came into light contact with her right shoulder before the monster's body went backward, having reached the beginning of the row of cryogenic tubes. That caused a deep gash to open just over Valentine's upper arm, which in turn prompted the young woman to instinctively brush the blood off with her left fingers. Flicking her hand so as to remove as much of the excess liquid as possible, Valentine shook her fingers away, nonchalantly sending drops of the red substance on the surface of several cylinders, one of which contained Shakahnna Warren, unbeknownst to her.
The seemingly unstoppable beast recovered from the second grenade blast by that time, rearing its body in a position to prepare for another rush in her direction, even while Burton had run out of ammunition in his shotgun and simply tossed the empty weapon at its head. Running after the creature, even as it bolted for the immobile machines specialist who remained in the middle of the two rows of glass containers, Burton yelled at Valentine to shoot it again, though the young woman hadn't heard him at the time as she was too concentrated on the task at hand. With the 9-foot tall monster being merely yards away and Burton hurriedly reloading his Colt Python as he sprinted himself, Valentine pulled the trigger again and fired a fourth grenade into its stomach.
The latest blow stopped the creature's forward run before its body crashed into the same set of cryogenic tubes that Valentine's blood was sprayed on, cracking many of their surfaces, including the one that held the most recognizably human subject, though none of the containers were knocked down. Thankfully, it didn't quickly resume its attack this time, appearing dazed for the moment, so Valentine pressed her advantage by marching towards it as she fired yet again, another grenade enveloping the monster in fire before it finally dropped on the floor in an eerie resemblance of how a human would fall down. And this time, it did not get back up.
The reverberation that followed the large body slamming against the floor caused the web-like cracks in the cylinders to spread wider as the young woman noticed that the beast's external heart had stopped beating, which convinced her that it was truly dead. Loud noise having suddenly given way to silence, Valentine felt the adrenaline leaving her body and shook uncontrollably for an instant before regaining her composure as Burton was nearing her position, the older man's sidearm constantly pointed down at the creature's head.
"Are you OK, Jill?", the weapons expert asked the obvious question, paying close attention to the wound in her shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah, I mean...", Valentine's grip loosened around the handle of the grenade launcher, letting the heavy weapon land on the floor by her feet with a heavy thud, even though she remembered that it still had one active round inside, "Let's just... um... get out of here, OK?".
The young woman walked past her giant pursuer's corpse, absent-mindedly passing Burton on the way, but still feeling too shaky from her experience to acknowledge him being there.
"Here, use this, Jill", Burton followed her back to the spot where Wesker remained lying in a pool of his own blood as the weapons expert first spotted and then grabbed an unused white lab coat off a coat hanger that was resting on the wall.
"Huh? For what?", a confused Valentine stared back at him, not realizing the reason he was handing her the lab coat, and without remembering the wound on her shoulder that still dripped blood down her torso as she walked.
"Just hold still, OK?", the larger man holstered his Colt Python and reached forth before gently wrapping the lab coat around her right shoulder, and then tying it in a tight knot in an effort to cease the flow of blood.
"Uh, thanks, Barry", the less experienced agent gave a tired smile as she withdrew her Beretta pistol, feeling more pain than that simple task should've made her experience, "Really, for everything, and... thanks".
"You're welcome", the taller man gave a warm and genuine smile, "So how do you propose we get out of...".
He stopped talking when he realized she was looking past him, so he turned around and took notice that she was staring at a group of television screens that were near the keyboard, where their deceased supervisor was previously typing on. Valentine slowly approached that workstation, so Burton followed her as he withdrew the Colt, just to be on the safe side. It was only when they both neared the monitors that Burton noticed what had captivated her gaze a few seconds ago, as two of the screens showed silent moving images of agents Redfield and Aitken, the former angrily punching and kicking a door that he couldn't knock down while the latter was busy toe punting the head of a hunter that he had already shot to death.
"I don't recognize where either one of them are, Barry", Valentine sighed as she looked over both screens, and quickly examined the others to see that none of them showed anything of interest, "Do you?".
"No, I'm afraid not", he shook his head before looking away from the many television monitors and visually scanning the rest of the workstation.
It was several moments of examination where he overheard his younger colleague addressing agent Redfield even though he knew the marksman couldn't hear her, but he then found something that may have warranted Valentine's attention.
"Jill, check this out!", the older man patted her on the right shoulder, and only then grimaced in embarrassment when he remembered the injury that was there, even though Valentine didn't seem to register any new pain there as she looked at the area that he was pointing.
"What do you got, Barry?", the machines expert asked in a lower tone of voice than was normal for her.
"General Unlock", Burton read the inscription above the button that he pointed at with his left index finger, "It may prove to be as much of a godsend as it sounds".
"In that case, let god do his stuff", Valentine approved of his idea by reaching forth and pressing the button.
In an automatic response to her action, the doors that previously led them into this monstrous laboratory clicked, leading the pair of officers to suspect that the entryways would've now been unlocked if someone had intentionally placed a locking mechanism on them earlier. Also as a result, the two agents saw that Redfield was given an indication that the door which held him prisoner in the mysterious room had unlocked also, because the marksman warily tested the door itself, and was taken aback when he felt it opening as a result of his effort. But upon seeing no one on the other side of the open doorway, the young man cautiously rushed out of the holding cell, leaving the empty room behind him.
"Hopefully he's coming here, right?", the young woman anxiously turned to ask Burton as she locked eyes with him, "I mean, who put him in that room in the first place? Wesker?".
The mention of her former superior prompted her to momentarily look over in his direction, and she winced as she noticed that the man in the shades was still laying in the middle of a red pool.
"I don't know, Jill. But possibly", Burton wished he could tell for sure, "But Chris did seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere specific. Let's see if we can see him in one of these screens here. Don't worry about Wesker, Jill. He's not worth it".
The older man returned his attention back to the monitors, intentionally drawing her eyes away from the Umbrella employee's remains, both to try to find Redfield's current position and to distract her from becoming upset.
Unfortunately, the only screen that still showed movement only contained Aitken as the young man withdrew a handgun and gleefullly fired an extra bullet into the skull of a hunter who was already dead on the floor, but there were no further signs of where Redfield was.
But it was only a few moments of silence later, where the only sound heard was the one of the two agents breathing heavily, that the door to this large laboratory was used from outside as loud footsteps rushed in their direction. Both officers pointed their sidearm in the area of the entryway before the door was opened and Chris Redfield came running towards them. The young man slowed down his forward rush and began walking quickly when he noticed his two colleagues standing in front of the television screens, and his face relaxed only somewhat when he then caught sight of Wesker's carcass near them.
"Jill, you alright?", the marksman blurted out as he came closer.
"Chris!", the broad smile on Valentine's face indicated to him that she was fine as she dashed past Burton to meet the young man halfway.
The two agents hugged each other as she retained her right grip on the Beretta handle, before he passionately kissed her on the lips for several seconds, and only afterwards pulled his upper body away from their embrace.
"Oh, god! Becca!", the STARS agent blurted out, panic returning to his facial expression.
"Rebecca?", the machines expert asked with genuine concern and curiosity, "I didn't see her, Chris. Did you lose track of her after that door closed behind me?".
She turned her face back to where Burton stood, not noticing his slightly uncomfortable body language due to the show of affection between her and Redfield.
"Did you see Rebecca Chambers anywhere, Barry?", the young woman asked him from several yards away.
"No!", Redfield answered first, becoming more agitated, "That motherfucker Wesker, he shot her down. Killed her right where I stood here! After he killed Enrico! After I told her to take her kevlar off since it was useless against these animals and it was making it hard for her to breathe!".
"What? Oh my god!", Valentine covered her mouth with her left palm at the update, "But where, Chris? Where did he shoot her?".
The young man's head spun from one corner of the dark laboratory to another, failing to see where agent Chambers had fallen a short time ago. Copying his movement, Valentine and Burton visually combed the area also, and it was a few seconds later that Redfield spotted the medic's body lying on the floor, in the shadow of a massive table.
"There!", he pointed in the specific direction with his right index finger as he patted Valentine's shoulder with his left hand.
"OK, guys, I'm placing pressure on her entry and exit wounds", the young woman from Alpha team quickly spoke up with a tone of voice that was back to her normal one as she marched towards the spot where Chambers remained immobile, all the while holstering her Beretta, "Chris, you do mouth-to-mouth. Barry, you take the heart".
Valentine squatted next to Chambers' prone figure as she carefully rolled the medic on her back, while both men anxiously stood nearby, quietly looking on her progress. The first action the machines specialist took was to place her left index and middle fingers on the side of the medic's neck.
"She's got a strong, steady pulse", Valentine announced to her two colleagues without looking up, "And she's breathing on her own, too, which is good".
It took her an instant to realize what she was looking at.
"Actually, it's surprisingly good", the female officer from Alpha team added, "For someone who got shot by a Desert Eagle, I mean. And where's all the blood?".
She hastily placed both her palms on Chambers' torso, starting at the teenager's stomach and moving up to her solar plexus. She then looked up at where Redfield stood, extending her left hand at the anxious young man who was biting his own lower lip while he sporadically pulled at the hair at the top of his own head.
"Can I have your knife, please, Chris?", Valentine asked in a mood that was too polite for someone nursing a patient who should've been close to death.
The marksman rushed to withdraw his 9-inch Bowie hunting knife and held it by the blade so as to hand the weapon's handle to her, which Valentine accepted. Working as quickly and carefully as she could manage while contending with physical and mental exhaustion, combined with the pain in her ankle and shoulder, the older woman used the sharp blade to cut Chambers' shirt open, starting with the collar and moving down to her stomach. Valentine quietly apologized to Chambers under her breath before placing her hands underneath the teenager's torn shirt, and the Alpha agent's eyes lit up with delight when she felt a cracked kevlar vest covering the medic's skin.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Valentine spread the two vertical halves of Chambers' shirt further apart. That made it possible for both men to see the white-coloured body armour that had a black patch in its centre, but was still intact as it remained wrapped around the medic's entire upper body, from the shoulders down to the waistline. Redfield recognized it to be the same one that she had taken off and discarded while he was talking to the teenager earlier that day, or at least one that was identical to it. The young man didn't understand how the teenager came to have the armour back on, but he currently didn't care. Instead, he covered his eyes with both hands and aimlessly walked away from his three comrades, repeating "Oh god! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…", as the other two members of Alpha team continued tending to the unconscious youngster.
"Rebecca?", Valentine gently slapped the younger woman on the cheek in an effort to wake her up, "Come on, sweetie. You need to open your eyes for me, OK?".
She slapped her again a few more times, careful to not increase the force she was using with each strike, and then stopped when agent Chambers just didn't stir except for the constant breathing that was visible when her chest rose and sank on a regular basis.
"Here, use this", Burton got the machine expert's attention by handing down something while he remained standing straight.
Looking up from her squatted position, Valentine recognized the full bottle of water that the older man was offering. She accepted the item with a smile aimed upwards into his eyes, guessing that he must've had it within his uniform the entire time, and then returned her attention to the patient as she unscrewed the bottle top. Reacting more out of instinct than premeditation, Valentine took a long sip from the open bottle of water before she splashed the rest of its content on Chambers' face. The result was that the teenager gasped and waved her arms as she tried to sit up. The medic received a sharp pain in the chest for her effort, which prompted her to lie back down on the floor as she passed her right hand over the dark spot on the kevlar vest, before then holding her forehead with the left hand.
"Ow!", Chambers finally uttered as she turned her face to the side, experiencing a headache in her skull and a pain that was at least as bad in her solar plexus.
"Becca?", Redfield had returned to stand near Burton by that time as he eagerly looked down at his dazed, but otherwise very fortunate, colleague, "Say something, Becca. Do you remember where you are?".
"Chris?", the medic rolled her head back so she was staring up towards the dim lights in the ceiling before she recognized the three friendly faces who were surrounding her, "Oh… OH!… Wesker!".
She became more agitated, suddenly remembering the last event that had taken place before she was shot and rendered unconscious. But Valentine was ready for the reaction this time as the older woman placed her firm left hand on the surface of the body armor to keep Chambers from sitting up again, since the Alpha agent was certain that Chambers would try to do so in a hurry for the second time and pay the price for it again.
"Eeeeaaaasy", Valentine advised as she then held the back of the medic's head with her right hand, "The vest stopped the bullet from going straight through you, but you may still have some cracked ribs. Only time will tell that. Plus I'm pretty sure you hit your head when you fell down, so you sit up slowly, OK?".
The teenager nodded before the older agent helped her sit up on the floor. Chambers felt healthy enough to not remain where she was, though, so she extended both her arms over the level of her own head, looking up at Redfield and Burton as she did so. Obliging, the two men took a hold of an arm each and helped her stand on her own feet as Valentine rose to a fully vertical position also.
"I'm so glad you're OK", Redfield spoke up first, giving her a broad smile as he approached her once she was clearly used to standing up again.
"Hey, I'm kinda glad I'm OK too", she grinned back as they embraced.
"One thing I gotta understand, though", he added as they separated and he casually pointed at the body armor that doubled as her outfit now, "You didn't have two of those, right?".
"Nooo!", the youngster shook her head with a smile as she intentionally broke eye contact and partially looked down at the floor, "I just went back and got it from where I dropped it on the ground after we split up and I just couldn't find you anywhere. I know what you said about them only being animals and it being useless against teeth and claws and so on, but it just made me feel safer. So I put it on underneath the shirt instead of over it since I thought you'd be mad at me for wasting my time by going back for it, that's all".
"Oh, please!", the young man brushed off the topic with a wave of his left hand, "Never, Becca".
"But what happened to the captain?", the youngest member of STARS asked as she locked eyes with her other two colleagues.
"He's gone", Valentine commented by bending her left arm and pointing behind herself with that thumb, indication the area where the Wesker's body lay, "He tried to sic his pet against us, but it wasted him before we dropped it like the bad habit that it was. Raving lunatic that he was".
"Oh, Jesus!", Chambers covered her mouth with her own left hand at seeing Wesker's current condition, feeling a mixture of shock and sadness at his fate despite her recent experiences with the older man.
"Serves that asshole right", Redfield commented with more disdain as he patted the medic on the upper arm, walking past her to visually inspect the body of the 9-foot tall giant who remained crumbled between the rows of damaged cryogenic cylinders.
"Well, yeah...", Chambers added as she looked first at him from a distance, and then at Valentine and Burton who remained closer, while the weapons expert was paying attention to the array of television screens, "I mean… I just… I believed him when he said he was innocent when we showed him the picture. I really thought he was on our side. And then, this".
"Don't sweat it", Valentine remarked as she proceeded to pick up the discarded shotgun and reloaded it full of fresh shells from within her uniform, "He had us all fooled. Except for Chris, that is".
She intentionally left out Burton's forced involvement with the corrupt RPD captain as she looked over to where the marksman was returning from inspecting the dead Tyrant, and made sure to give him one of her patented smiles where she hoped he should understand what she meant by it.
"Yeah, Chris", Chambers chuckled in a more nervous fashion as she hugged herself around the torn uniform while the young man returned to the group, "Feel free to say 'I told you so' now".
"That's not my style, Becca", Redfield replied as he took a hold of his Magnum and Beretta pistol and holstered the latter, "I'm just glad the four of us are still alive and he's the one who's dead. He cost enough good officers their lives for me to…".
He was interrupted by what sounded like an air-raid siren that blared throughout the laboratory.
"The self-destruct sequence has been activated", an automated female voice that the young marksman was familiar with informed them, "Staff members have 25 minutes to de-activate it or reach minimum safe distance".
"What!", Burton raised his face away from the surveillance monitors he was watching while the automated warning repeated in the background.
"What the hell was that?", Redfield blurted out, no longer as relaxed as he had been for the last several minutes, "What does that mean?".
"Must've been Wesker who did this before he let sasquatch loose on us!", Valentine sighed with contempt as she marched over to the control panel and inspected the many keys, buttons and screens there.
"Maybe I can de-activate it", Chambers volunteered as she followed the machines expert, "Let's see".
The medic eagerly examined the technology that was in front of her, but her facial expression soon made it obvious that she didn't know how to manipulate these machines.
"You don't know how to de-activate it, do you?", Redfield broke the silence after a full minute had elapsed.
The teenager quickly shook her head as her grim expression locked eyes with him alone.
"OK, here's the plan, boys and girls", the marksman announced to everyone, "We gather whatever weapons and ammo we have and we hightail it out of this shithole. It should be after dawn outside already, so I say we take our chances with whatever mutts are running around the forest and take out every one of them as soon as we see them while we're making our way back to the city. Agreed?".
"What about Richard!", a concerned agent Burton dissented, "He's the last of us! Everyone else from STARS is dead. We can't just leave him behind".
"Fuck!", Redfield punched the air in front of his face in agitation, "I totally forgot about him! Shit!".
"Hold on, hold on!", the medic interjected as she hurriedly returned her attention back to the workstation, "I think I may have a solution. You guys get the guns, OK?".
As the marksman and machines expert pooled the sidearms in one place and Valentine opted to leave the heavy grenade launcher behind, the better to move quickly, Chambers and Burton returned their attention on the screen where Aitken had ceased dismembering the bodies of hunters.
Recalling a gadget she had seen while trying to understand the way to de-activate the mansion's self-destruct mechanism, the youngest member of STARS pressed a sequence of buttons and then grabbed a movable microphone that was resting within an arm's reach of the keyboard. The thin device had been almost invisible as it was the same colour as the workstation itself, but Chambers' close scrutiny found it without a problem. Placing the device a few inches in front of her mouth, she cleared her throat, which resulted in her voice being temporarily projected throughout the laboratory over the automated warning. And from the content of the television monitor, it seemed that agent Aitken heard her, as the communications specialist spun around, most likely to find the source of the unexplained noise.
"Richard? This is Becca Chambers", the medic announced, speaking slowly and clearly while doing her best to ignore the echo of her own voice which reverberated through the lab, "Can you hear me?".
Within the screen, she saw her well-armed colleague from Bravo team saying something back, but there was no sound to be heard from her current position.
"I can't hear you, Richard", she continued, "Nod your head if you can understand me, OK?".
Officer Aitken proudly raised his extended left arm before thrusting out the middle finger, while grinning to himself.
"Richard!", the teenager admonished, "We can see you, you know".
That caused the young man in the screen to laugh to himself as he was proud of his accomplishment.
"Now listen", Chambers continued as the other three officers gathered nearby and watched her progress with the Bravo agent, their task finished, "This place is set to blow in just over twenty minutes. That's the warning you were hearing".
The smile disappeared from Aitken's face, the gravity of the situation being made apparent. Although that didn't stop him from continually looking around his surroundings in an effort to find out where cameras were located so he'd know how he was being watched, but always finding none.
"Do you know where the lab is?", the teenager added, "Can you come and meet us here bef…".
"That'll take too long, Becca", Redfield interrupted as he gripped the microphone by wrapping his hand over Chambers' fingers and bringing the contraption closer to his own face, "Have you seen a helipad in this place, Richard? I think there's only one anyway, but it had a giant white H in a circle on the ground".
Three of the agents saw Aitken anxiously nodding an affirmative answer, not having noticed that officer Chambers let go of the microphone while Redfield continued with the electronic conversation, and the youngster drifted away from the rest of her colleagues.
"Then take whatever weapons you can easily carry and meet us there now", the marksman declared, "Once we meet up, we'll go for the forest. And remember – if you can't jog with it, then leave it behind".
Redfield, Valentine and Burton saw the heavily-armed Bravo officer nodding again before he turned away from the screen and ran off in an area that wasn't covered by a camera. The last sight they observed was the young communications expert still gripping his automatic weapon while the assault shotgun rested at his back.
"OK, good", Redfield let go of the microphone and turned back to his associates, "The helipad isn't far from here if we move fast. We each carry a piece and…".
He finally noticed that agent Chambers was away from their small group as she was busy squatting over Wesker's bloodied figure. Valentine and Burton noticed his stare and turned their attention towards her also.
"Becca? Wadda you doing?", the marksman asked, feeling more curious than anything else.
"He's alive!", a restless officer Chambers exclaimed as she stood back up and turned in their direction, "His pulse is weak and he's still bleeding heavily, but he's not dead, Chris!".
"Really? That's a surprise", Redfield approached her position, feeling much less passionate than she did, "So, what do you want us four to do about it?".
"Well, we can't just leave him!", the youngster countered.
"Sure we can", the older man replied, standing between her and the other two agents, "Fuck him. Let him burn with his precious monsters".
"Chris! He's a human being!", the medic shot back, her tone of voice rising considerably, "We can't just…".
"Becca", Redfield came closer still and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, "Even if I didn't want him dead, which I do, I doubt we can move him without speeding up his blood loss. And afterwards, how are we supposed to carry his sorry ass on our backs when we're running to the helipad and then into the forest to keep from getting blow up here?".
"But…", Chambers' shoulders slumped when she didn't have a reply.
"Look, if it had been any one of our friends, then yeah, we'd carry him and take our chances", the young man continued while slowly leading her away from the captain's mortally wounded body, hoping she didn't notice that he was steadily causing her to leave Wesker, "But I'm not willing to risk our escape on the off-chance that we can save his life, Becca".
"He's right, sweetie", Valentine added when he finished bringing Chambers back into the group, "Come on, let's just go".
"Yeah, and you got your Beretta, correct?", Redfield intentionally changed the subject once the four of them were together.
The medic nodded unhappily.
"Good, you should get it out in case we run into any freaks on our run to the helipad", the young man advised while locking eyes with Burton and Valentine, "Barry's got the Colt, Jill the shotgun, the Magnum's with me. Figured we'd leave that prick's Desert Eagle here. I don't want to touch his items with a pole".
"So, we start running on the count of 3?", Burton asked out loud.
"Fuck that. I know where the helipad is for sure, so I'll take the head", Redfield volunteered, "Jill, you're behind me. Becca, you're behind Jill. And Barry's the tail. Everyone cool with that?".
Several affirmative nods by officers Burton and Valentine before Chambers joined in with a less enthusiastic fashion.
"Good. Hard and fast guys, hard and fast", were Redfield's last words before he turned away and jogged towards the laboratory exit.