Pandemic: Resident Evil VI

Chapter Twenty Five: Stressful Rest

It wasn't very comfortable to sit against the wooden wall, on the floor of what was maybe an old mining cabin, but at least now Jake was able to catch his breath for the first time since getting onboard the BSAA helicopter. The sun had gone down, and with it the temperature, but even though there was only the dim light and poor heat of an old oil lamp that hung from the ceiling, at least he and Sherry were getting a break from the wind and snow outside. Even if the young man hadn't gotten all turned around after the crash, traveling on foot in a storm like this was not a good idea, and… and the blonde wasn't exactly ready to go anywhere.

After magically regenerating from a wound that would have killed probably anything else, Sherry had passed out, and was now sleeping against the wall opposite from him. Her breaths were deep and slow, not snoring or anything, but completely unable to defend herself if any more J'avo attacked, and it was a good thing their rescuer had shown up out of nowhere, because with as sore and dazed as Jake had been, the infected mercenaries probably would have won if it came down to another fight.

The young man hated to admit whenever he was afraid, but after what this guy did to a dozen J'avo by himself, and those creepy glowing eyes, Jake had felt more than a little fear faced down by him. Fortunately, Tobias, as he came to be known, had apparently come to rescue Sherry, since he tossed the blonde over his shoulder like she was weightless, and then simply told the young man to come along before leading them to this old cabin. Well, it was more of a shack, really, and pretty run down, but… but way better than nothing.

Once everyone was inside, the yellow eyed man closed and bolted the door behind them, but when he lit the oil lamp, his eyes didn't seem to be yellow or glowing anymore. Oh well, whatever this guy's deal was, if he had come there to kill them, he probably would've done so already, but… there was just something about him that Jake didn't like. Tobias's actions were that of a friend; leading them to shelter, and taking off his jacket to put over Sherry once she had been set down, but everything about him just felt wrong. That… and once his jacket was off, the numbers P-001 were clearly visible on his upper arm the same way they had been on the blonde's back.

"Don't worry, kid, she'll be fine." Tobias said, sitting down against the corner of the wall. "Believe it or not, she's been through worse."

Worse than what, getting impaled by a helicopter rotor? Now that was a little hard to believe, but then again… so was a pretty girl like Sherry having superpowers. Now that all of the excitement and fear had died down from the day's events, and obviously no one was going anywhere until the blonde woke up, Jake figured that this was a pretty good time to get some of his own questions answered, beginning with when it came to Sherry, well… what the fuck? How did she know that he had antibodies for this C-Virus thing? What was that tattoo on her back? And most importantly, how in the hell had the yellow eyed man found them on the mountain in the middle of a snowstorm?

"The tattoos are an old Umbrella classification system." He explained while lighting up a cigarette. "G-002 means that Sherry is the second specimen to successfully be infected by the G-Virus, but when Claire Redfield gave her the vaccine, the results were… odd."

As for how he had managed to find them, Tobias explained that he formulated a search pattern based on the last known position of the helicopter when the distress call went out, and then he said that the rest was easy, compared to tracking the President's daughter halfway around the world. Basically, the yellow eyed man had been asked to locate the two of them, and then escort them the rest of the way to the extraction point, a revelation that Jake found pretty suspicious, since Sherry's supervisor had ordered her not to make contact with anyone, and even talking to the BSAA was a violation.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" The young man asked, trying to stretch and sit up more to fight off the soreness. "Sherry's not the only one with a tattoo, and I've already had one Tyrant come after me, today."

"Kid, you have a funny way of saying thank you, you know that?" Tobias replied, blowing out a slow stream of smoke. "To be fair, I guess anyone could know her orders, and why she's after that special blood of yours… but, if I wasn't here to help Sherry, then how would I know where the extraction point is?"

That was a… good point, Jake had to admit, but he still didn't like this guy. The yellow eyed man just sat there, staring at him in a way that wasn't exactly aggressive, but definitely made the young man feel as though he was in danger. Thankfully it was Sherry that interrupted the tension of the moment, moaning a bit as she started to move around, and now Tobias's attention of diverted away from Jake as if he really did care for her. The blonde didn't seem to share this sentiment, however, since after a few moments of rubbing her eyes and trying to figure out where she was, Sherry jumped a little before reflexively scooting away from him.

"Jake, stay away from him!" She exclaimed, reaching for the pistol that wasn't there. "My gun… shoot him! Jake, shoot him right now!"

"You're both unarmed, Sherry." Tobias replied, seemingly unaffected by her outburst. "I'm not here to hurt you, but I'll take my jacket back now if you're done with it."

The yellow eyed man held out his hand, but then the blonde gasped before reaching into one of the jacket's pockets, and pulled out a small metal object. Scrambling to her feet, the shack was suddenly illuminated by flickering blue light as the object extended into a baton, and now Sherry held the electrical weapon up in a defensive posture while motioning for Jake to come over toward her. The young man didn't understand what was happening here, but if she didn't trust this guy, that was good enough for him.

"We're leaving, Tobias; don't try and stop us." The blonde warned, motioning with the baton for him to move away from the door. "You just keep your distance, you hear me? Stay away!"

"I have no intention of coming over there, Sherry." The yellow eyes man replied casually as if nothing was wrong. "Attacking you would be an insult to all the fond memories I have of your mother."

When Jake saw the slight smirk on Tobias's face, he knew what the yellow eyed man was trying to do, but it was too late. Gritting her teeth and letting out a shriek of rage, the blonde rushed toward him while swinging the weapon, only to have Tobias turn his body just enough to avoid the crackling energy as it went past him. The young man rushed forward a second later, attempting to intervein as the yellow eyed man grabbed Sherry and spun her around into a sleeper hold, but Tobias used his other hand to reclaim the electrical weapon and toss it at him.

One second Jake was rushing forward getting ready to attack, but then the flying weapon hit him in the chest, and the young man had never in his life felt such a sensation. It was like all five of his senses scrambled at once, leaving him aware of nothing except a crippling pain that was traveling across every inch of his body, not even the fact that he had fallen over onto the floor until a few seconds later. All at once the young man's senses returned, but that only made the pain worse to the point where as soon as he was able to move, Jake cried out in pain while his body twitched.

"Oh, stop it, before you hurt yourself." Tobias said, lifting Sherry onto her tiptoes so that his arm was choking her more. "I'm not here to fight you, Sherry; my job is to get both of you to the extraction point. So you can either walk willingly, or I can break your legs and drag you… choose now."

Releasing his grip on the blonde, the yellow eyed man pushed Sherry forward before reaching down and reclaiming his electrical weapon, but at this point Jake was still struggling to get up. She helped him get to his feet, and the young man briefly considered trying to make another attack, only to stop when Tobias blinked, causing his eyes to start glowing yellow again. Sherry held up her arm to stop Jake from advancing, not that she had to, but at least now it didn't look like he was backing off on his own.

"All right, we'll go with you, just don't hurt Jake." The blonde replied, moving in between them as if she was protecting him. "You know damn well that he's the only one on Earth who can give us a vaccine for the C-Virus… are you even still human enough to care about that?"

"Don't worry, Sherry, your boyfriend's important to me, too." Tobias said, deactivating the weapon and putting it away. "But I swear to Christ, if either one of you makes an aggressive move on me again, I'll rip his face off with my bare hands, and then staple it to his ass… do you understand me, little girl?"

"Hey, she said we'll go with you, all right?" Jake added with growing anger in his voice. "I've got a lot riding on this mission, and I'll play nice for Sherry's sake, but I promise you… this, here… this isn't over. And if you harm even one hair on her head, I'll…

Suddenly the yellow eyed man interrupted his words, not by speaking, but by quickly reaching forward, and making the blonde gasp when he plucked a single hair from on top of her head. Tobias then held it up where the young man could see, and pulled the hair in half, before letting both pieces fall to the floor. Anger was now welling up inside Jake's body to the point where it was almost uncontrollable, but no matter how infuriating and straight up disrespectful this… creature was, there was nothing he could do… for now.

"You were saying?" The yellow eyed man asked. "All right, then, I'm glad that's settled. Forget waiting for the storm to end, we're heading out right now, so dress warm, kids… there's quite a walk ahead of us."