Rock992: HUNK isn't officially a soldier, has fought in wars but never served a country, has no official dog tags, and is affiliated/serving only for Umbrella. He is exactly what he told Jill he was at the apartment when he was healing her, it wasn't a joke, even if it sounded like one to her. He's a vastly overqualified security guard. A private Special Forces Agent... who had a mentor/'friend' in a very, very high place. Among other 'friends' he has in the Umbrella Inner Circle. Through being War's protege, and what turned out to be unrivaled talent, a legend grew around him, Death, and in a way he is the 'poster boy', 'golden boy' of the U.S.S., as War's top student. Especially now that she is no longer with the U.S.S. He is favored and stands out, is their best agent... but he does not have true power within the company. His power is derived from those he works for, benefactors, who act as they see fit 'in his best interests'. He lives in a gilded cage outside the battlefield, as you will see in due time. There's how HUNK sees himself, and there's how everyone else around him at Umbrella sees him. And then there's how Jill sees him, which is rejuvenating to him. Treating him like a human being, not a legend, or something to be used or exploited, hated and feared or fawned over. Jill is contact with the real world beyond his Umbrella prison, freedom. Which frightens and tempts him. He's been stuck for many years with Umbrella, it's all he has really known, and freedom is terrifying to someone who has become used to a way of life or indoctrinated a certain way.
Akira-Hayama: Figuring out who HUNK is was a hell of a challenge, as a mostly blank slate badass in the games, having to explain things about him. But it was a challenge I accepted and enjoyed, and a worthy one. Especially opposite of a simpler but compelling character like Jill. Obviously my version isn't going to match everyone else's of a mysterious character who is open to interpretation, but it's the version that came most naturally to me, and felt like who he was. If people don't like it, there's always the games lol, they are not going anywhere.
I appreciate that a great deal, Nikolai does make for a gift of a character, one more Capcom has wasted over the years. One I've enjoyed writing, getting inside that unpleasant head, though from here out he will be depicted from the outside, just like the Nemesis.
Including the Outbreak cast, if for a little bit, was definitely important to me, not only because of my love for the games and characters. It helped at the same time by telling it from Nikolai's POV, further defining his character and setting up the next conflict into motion. Along with expanding the universe further, making Raccoon City a bigger world, I like playing with all the lore at my disposal, and intend to make use of it where it works. There are other survivors than Jill, HUNK and Carlos, other stories taking place at the same time for them, and I wanted to establish that more solidly. It can be a bit restricting when it's mostly the three heroes and Nikolai and Nemesis, allows for a good focus but I wanted to expand further during a breathing room intermission chapter. But the journey shall resume now, with the three at the center of the story.
I definitely wanted the support team to play a role in HUNK's story, expand his character and theirs, instead of him being on his own completely. A supporting cast is vital to a main character, HUNK is not a lone wolf (that codename belonged to NIGHTHAWK already lol) even if he's capable of being when he must. I didn't want him doing everything alone. I wanted to give NIGHTHAWK more of his due that we never got, and definitely wanted that for Carla Radames, who was woefully underdeveloped on screen in Resident Evil 6, sadly, when she had huge potential as a character and villain. Making her a more overtly tragic, conflicted, albeit destructive Anti Villain instead of a straight up megalomaniac like Wesker would have served her better for her game. I wish I had more for QUARTERMASTER to do in this story, but his tech role isn't so important for straight forward evacuation mission, at least on the comlink. I suspect he was more helpful to HUNK and Alpha Team during the infiltration of the NEST facility itself, and since this story takes place awhile after that, I had less for him to do. Still he factors in as an overall important member of the support team, as the one handling the gear and weapons, supplying it, and he'll show up for a bit later with a role, of course.
No Alice Abernathy/Marcus/Clone/Whatever of the movies in the story, don't worry about it lol. The name usage was chosen for a reference to her, because certain (non Mary Sue) details to her were among the many inspirations I found when putting together the Bella character. I'm also quite kind towards the Resident Evil movies compared to how I used to be... but don't take that to mean slow mo super powered Alice is turning up at any point xD. HUNK thinking of Sherry and this story's Alice because it ties into another plot thread of his Umbrella backstory, one that you will learn in due time. Oh, and 'Bella' is not the Chainsaw Sisters xD (if HUNK ever crosses them and finds out their names he'll raise a brow... before snapping their necks), Bella comes from a fictional report in the viral marketing campaign for Operation: Raccoon City. A psychiatrist at Umbrella is trying to interview HUNK, noting he doesn't have much humanity left, and notes the only emotional resonance he displays is at the mention of the name 'Bella'. That tiny creative grain was all I needed to turn her into someone gradually, along with other inspirations, and define my version of HUNK, his character and backstory, in the process. Though it's flattering you thought her a canon character, and want to know the story to her. I assure you that you will, soon enough ;).
Absolutely, Netflix ruining things with that abysmal generic fan fiction plot, Capcom starting to fumble their remakes already. Not remaking the Outbreaks games (or making another) or Code Veronica and skipping straight to 4. Ugh. Someone needs to take over Capcom and start kicking asses into gear, it makes no sense how they can create so much material and just forget it all exists. Alas. Just leaves it for me to do what they won't.
evolution-500: That she is, coming into contact with someone like her who represents reality is quite an experience for him. Exhilarating and frightening at the same time. Thanks for the heads up on the year thing lol I always get the tiniest detail wrong. Glad you are enjoying how it is developing though, and hope you continue to.
Nightroad816: All the Mr X type T-103's Vladimir delivered personally to look for the G-Virus are dead at this point in the story. Leon, Claire and Sherry escaped from Raccoon City before HUNK and Jill woke up in the chapel, Mr X died in NEST, the five others died at the Dead Factory. Thanatos meanwhile was not programmed to seek the virus out, and is a rogue problem for the Outbreak survivors to contend with. Same thing applies to the rogue Tyrant-R, which is far away from HUNK's path. As for the Ivans, Vladimir's bodyguard sons, they remain aboard the Leviathan locked down in stasis, are not currently with the Colonel, who canonically in Umbrella Chronicles takes his Hind gunship to Raccoon City to recover the data core U.M.F.-013/RED QUEEN accompanied only by a nameless Umbrella executive. The G-Virus is HUNK's overall mission, U.M.F.-013/RED QUEEN is Colonel Vladimir's, but Colonel Vladimir is trying to have his cake and eat it too by sending in T-103's to look for the G-Virus, along with his role in the Nemesis... he wanted to both see his Tyrant children in action as well as impress Lord Spencer by accomplishing all of the objectives himself, while trying to undermine HUNK and U.S.S. in the process.
I think you are mistaking the Arklay Incident for the Raccoon City one, Vladimir took the Ivans with him to the Arklay Mountains to recover the T-011 TALOS prototype and U.M.F.-013/Red Queen. Which happened months before this story. He then moved U.M.F.-013/RED QUEEN to a facility in Raccoon City after the Arklay Incident, and later had to come back and move it again before the city was nuked, in his gunship. As for the Nemesis, it is programmed to go after Jill, not look for the G-Virus.
I think that about covers the Tyrants in Raccoon City, and that particular convoluted headache of a plot lol.
Arkham Knight: That he is, won't be the same man after Raccoon City, however the story ends for him and Jill. HUNK has mostly been into blondes all his life, because Bella is. But I think he's going to be coming around on brunettes, before all is said and done ;).
Guest: The survivors were the main cast of the classic Resident Evil: Outbreak games. Yoko, Kevin, Alyssa, Mark, Cindy, George, Jim and David. Highly recommend the games, looking into them at least. Capcom needs to do a remaster/remake, but of course they won't.
Degurechaff Gintoki: Gracias.
Jinero: Much appreciated ;), pacing is tricky to get right.
Guest: Thank you kindly :) I very much look forward to completing this story, will be bittersweet, but it's still a bit off, at least. Hope you enjoy it.
117: Not a fan of the Jake Muller character to be perfectly honest. Felt like an unnecessary tacked on posthumous addition to Wesker's finished story, cashing in on his popularity, seems out of character for a megalomaniac supervillain with a God Complex to form a sexual/romantic relationship with another. Wesker only cares about Wesker at the end of the day. Uroboros was to be his true legacy, not a child. Just like "Wesker's Daughters" in the Netflix show coming up is an even more ridiculous concept. Haven't decided Jake's status in my Resident Evil universe at this point. Will probably never get around to him considering how far down the line he is anyways, but that said I like playing with canon, even aspects of it I don't like, experimenting with it. We'll see if I can come up with something creative or interesting. Wesker having a son could parallel well with an idea I have for my HUNK.
Thank you all for the reviews as ever, I'm glad you like what I'm doing with the story. Back to the journey, and HUNK not the POV for awhile, can't dwell in that complicated head forever, or I'll drown lol. And I love portraying him from outside eyes. On that note, hope you continue to enjoy:
October 1st 1998, 1:32 AM
Chapel, Saint Michael Clock Tower, Northern Raccoon City
The powerful echo of an explosion rippled through the chapel in a hammering noise that pounded on her eardrums, jolting Jill back to attention. She rose up off the alter she'd been sitting on, dog tags on her necklace jangling, both sidearms raised towards the battered, near shredded entrance down the aisle, her move instinctive from her training. Ignoring the pain that jolted through her leg. Yet nothing came stumbling through the door, for all her concern. Nothing ripped the door off its hinges... and the only sounds of the monsters she heard were the same muffled moans outside the walls of the clock tower. She had thought for a split second it had returned... their Pursuer, changed as she had been told. She had been trying to imagine what it looked like now... how it had mutated... but it had been too grisly to contemplate long. All those purple tentacles. She remembered it as it had been the last time, when it had dragged itself away from her, escaping and collapsing into the fires. A hollow victory for her... but a victory all the same. It was only now that she thought it out she realized the explosion had come from somewhere far outside. Off in the distance of the city, it gradually faded away, replaced once more by the muffled rain and moaning of the sea of living dead beyond that had preceded it.
Her pulse continued to race even as the initial shock wore off... dread and concern lining her expression, coiling in her stomach. One prevailing thought took over... fear, not for the two of them still safe inside, but for the one out there risking his neck so they could be in here, in warmth and security. Her eyes narrowed intently... but before she could set off down the aisle and go outside to check on him, she remembered his firm instructions. She'd packed up everything as soon as she got back... even distracted as she had been by the memory of their embrace, his strong touch... his taste... but there was one other task that she was carrying out, and would have to continue to until relieved. She had to remain here, with Carlos, and protect him. The young man had helped save her, and now was time to return the favor to both of them. Her and the U.S.S. Agent both had their duties. She intended to carry hers out to the letter. Because they were good duties... not because she felt she had to do what he said. He could handle himself out there, she knew... even if she wanted to go out there to make sure. He'd been doing this for quite some time, he had revealed... survived so much. He would be ok. He would come to them through those doors.
There was some bumping and audible noise as Carlos swore with surprise and shifted on the spot where he lay back on his pew, sprawled out, nearly falling over on the floor. The rumbling noise of the explosion had at last woken him from his deep sleep and snoring and he sat up suddenly with a start, fumbling for his nearby rifle and almost dropping it. Jill turned his way as he rose, but she remained standing in front of the alter, at the ready. Her grip tightened on both the Samurai Edge and Matilda, ignoring the throbbing in her hands as ever. She was starting to wonder if it would ever stop... certainly not anytime soon. She was going to have too damn many scars, when this was over... First Aid Spray and herbs or not. Still... the pain gave her focus... clarity. Somehow, even with the soreness and pain wracking her body... she was no longer tired, or exhausted. She would take enduring pain over being tired any day. Her mind remained sharp, focused and clear... not foggy. The same could not be said for the Corporal, who was the best off of them physically now, but seemed all but dead on his feet from exhaustion.
"What... the hell was that?", Carlos's accented tone groaned out tiredly, shaking his sore head from side to side, quickly clutching it with his fingerless gloved hand. He bowed his head forward, breathing and blinking through his dancing vision. The grogginess was near overwhelming, and it was all he could do to focus. Between it and the pain still emanating through his midsection, courtesy of shooting himself, he was in no condition yet to rise and return to the rest of the world. But that wasn't about to stop him from complaining about it. "Worst alarm clock ever... how long was I out? That wasn't the nuclear bomb, was it?"
"You've been sleeping for an hour and a half... not too long.", Jill's steady tone informed him calmly, glancing away from his near slumping form and back ahead to the doors. Her blue eyes hardened on it as she tried to hold back the waves of dread expanding and threatening to overtake her. She focused on putting her effort into speaking, keeping her tone steady and firm. "I don't know what the hell that was... but if it was the missile, I'm pretty sure we'd be atoms floating in the air right now. This was something else."
"An hour and a half? Damn... if they wanted to wake me to a heart attack, there are easier ways to accomplish it. This is worse than a hangover right now.", Carlos replied wearily from where he sat, still rubbing his face. Nevertheless, blinking through the light, things started to get better slowly but surely. It would be a little while though, regardless. He sighed under his breath, visibly attempting to gather himself. "Where's HUNK supposed to be at anyways? Still outside catching a cold?"
"He'll be here."
She murmured quietly, more to herself than to him. It was something she had to tell herself, speak aloud... so she wouldn't march out that door looking for him. She had to follow his wish of her, and maintain her discipline. No matter what had happened, what had been exchanged between them... she needed to stay strong. Not let her feelings dictate all of her actions now. Not this close to the end, with everything counting on them. This close to escape. There could be no weak links in the chain, from any of them. They all needed to do their part, now more than ever... and she was determined not to disappoint them after what had transpired. She needed to make it up to them, show them that for all the injuries she had taken, she didn't need to be carried to the finish line. She had been knocked down for a long time... too long. That didn't mean she was out. All the same... she wasn't about to forget her feelings. Or his. Or what they had shared out there.
"He always is. You should get up and get ready. It'll be time to move out, soon."
"Need a few more winks, Supercop. We don't all run on law and order..."
Carlos waved his hand noncommittally to what she had to say, muttering curses to himself as he continued trying to ignore the throbbing in his temple. Clearly he was more distracted by his senses than he was by the possible implications of the explosion. Finally he gave up and leaned back in the pew seat, rifle resting across his lap. He closed his eyes again, as if trying to go back to sleep... but sleep was the last thing on Jill's mind. What was waiting for them out there stood out on the forefront of her thoughts. Its mutilated, grotesque features... combined with the unknown of what it had mutated into. That grinning face that followed her through her nightmares... its voice sending terror through her in her most vulnerable moments. She couldn't let it get to her any more than it already had. She couldn't let it slow her down... she had to be ready for it, at any time.
She remembered what Carlos had said about it, about it being feral and less controlled... it would render it even less predictable than it already was. Regardless of being devoid of its rocket launcher, it had more than the means to compensate. The minutes passed like hours as she delved into her thoughts, almost overwhelmed by how many there were of them... how pressing they were. She tried to focus on checking her things... running a list, making sure she had it all. Checking Rebecca's medical bag, her sidepacks, pouches, shoulder straps, bandolier, sheathed dagger knife, canteen, handcuffs, swivel headed flashlight and Mikhail's radio. Checked her equipment and ammunition. She made sure everything was adjusted, secured, and where it should be. Considering Matilda again, turning the modified machine pistol over in her hand... not merely taken by how impressive the weapon was... but the mystery behind it... and its mysterious owner for entrusting something so important to him with her. When she was done trying to figure it out, she remained there like that a few minutes, minutes that felt far longer than they were. Worrying silently. Waiting. Fortunately she was shaken from her worried thoughts and brought back when the battered door burst open loudly, slamming against the wall and a tall, dark, armored figure emerged through it, the echo carrying through the entire chapel.
Jill instinctively aimed her Samurai Edge and Matilda again ahead... but held her fire, heart quickening as her eyes adjusted to the familiar shape moving steadily down the aisle towards them. The light reflecting off his burning red intact and cracked lenses and battle scarred helmet, the red laser sight of his modified MP5 passing over the area. Body armor and under suit uniform rain soaked and battered, tattered in some places, elbow and knee pads heavily scratched up. Dripping water all over the floor around it, dark combat boots squishing in it. Moving in the manner she had become accustomed to seeing. Machine-like... purposeful. Indomitable. Not a hint of the pain or exhaustion he surely must have been feeling on display. No... he was no machine... he was as flesh and blood as they were... but he knew how and when to move and behave as one. Everything calculated. Resilient. She envied nobody who had made an enemy of him, or would in the future. Her lips parted on their own accord as she recognized him, feeling spreading, warm relief within, lowering her and his weapons. Although she had been startled again by his sudden arrival, it effected Carlos even more. And differently, for that matter. He finally jolted awake seconds after he nearly dozed off again, jumping to his feet with his rifle in both hands and taking aim as she had. And like her his startled eyes accumulated to the presence of the familiar other... and the low, commanding muffled voice washed over them as his shadow befell them. Echoing through the chapel.
"Valentine. Oliveira. We are leaving."
"Christ man! Do you really have to do that?", Carlos muttered with irritation, hand trembling slightly on the rifle as he lowered it with some relief. HUNK stepped over closer to them but came to a stop. "I mean one second it's World War Three out there with things blowing up, the next you're kicking the door in. I thought that big son of a bitch was back... looks like I was half way right there, at least."
"Looks like you needed a wake up call. Get it together, Oliveira.", Returned HUNK's grim, unamused voice to the young man at once. "You're welcome to stay here and go back to sleep, if you want. The rest of us are moving out. 6 AM deadline. Or did you forget?"
"What happened out there, Hunk?", Jill spoke up to him quietly as Carlos tried and failed to come up with a retort to that. HUNK stood tall in front of her, heavily modified submachine gun at the ready but kept low, and she took a couple steps closer to him. Concern shining through in her eyes beneath the chapel light. "What was that explosion? I thought that...-"
She trailed off slightly... again kicking herself silently for her fears. Foolish ones to have, especially now. He'd survived everything so far... he'd come through it all, shocked her with his capabilities. So why should she feel such a deep concern for him? She didn't know entirely, but she did. All she knew was that the moment he'd returned, she'd felt the relief overpower each of her concerns. She felt even more protective over his well being than before... and if it could be helped, she didn't want him out of her sight again. Or her to be out of his. Especially now... after everything. They'd been separated long enough, by unconsciousness, and her injuries.
"It's ok. Just a message from the enemy. One of them, at least.", He replied calmly, peering back at her alone, meeting her gaze and not paying Carlos the slightest attention. He slowly inclined his helmeted head to her, offering a measure of veiled reassurance. His tone was a shade lower, and unless she was mistaken, gentler, when he spoke to her, as it hadn't been with the Corporal. "He wired Raccoon University with C4 charges and just detonated it. Brought it down. Like he did with the hospital."
"Nikolai... again? Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Shit... what the hell is that guy getting out of bombing buildings?"
Carlos snapped suddenly, visibly aggravated by the unwelcome news. The destruction of the hospital still weighed heavily on his mind, and the clear attempt to kill them. Moreover, he was still angry at himself for jumping in between HUNK and the Sergeant when he had, and getting a pistol jammed in his face for his troubles. HUNK could have dropped him right then and there and saved them all another headache... but he had tried to place peace maker with an obvious nutjob. It had taken some time to realize he hadn't really known Nikolai, known the man he had fought beside defending Central Street Station. The fact he was still running around out there blowing things up, probably killing more people was his own damn fault. A mistake he was starting to want to remedy himself. And what he'd done to Murphy... to Tyrell... whether his old friend had been a Monitor himself or not. Carlos's accented tone continued, as he unconsciously gripped his rifle tighter.
"They're all going down soon enough. He's got to be out of his damn mind. He should have left the city by now. Why the hell is he still here?"
"It doesn't matter. I'm taking the hint. What matters is that we are behind schedule. We are moving out to Raccoon Park and then on to the Dead Factory. The Umbrella helicopter is still there on its helipad. We're going to be on it when it takes off. I will pilot it myself to the Arklay Mountains. Well outside the blast radius. Understood?"
"Perfectly."
Jill spoke up quietly with a nod his way. She peered up into the reflecting lenses again, watching herself speaking to him. The man that had a face, a voice and a personality beneath the stolid, introverted exterior. Although he remained as stoic a presence as before, dominant and in charge running things... she found she couldn't look at him the same way any longer. As though progressively over the time they'd spent together, another man had emerged, wearing the mask of the old one. More than ever before, she was starting to understand the way he moved, the way he carried himself. The faceless identity he had grasped to so tightly, he'd almost fooled her into thinking that was him. There was far more to him than the coldness. But the coldness was his professional shield... one he held tightly to do what had to be done. Things had changed between them, they both silently knew that... felt the tension in the air... but necessity had to take priority, right now... not their feelings.
"We can't stay here. We've been trapped here too long. If we don't move now, we never will. I want to get back into it. Back to escaping."
"Crystal clear, sir.", Came Carlos's own agreeable response after hers, snapping off a lazy salute the agent's way. He stood back where he was, off to the side away from them, in front of the pew. He began to stretch his limbs and tilt his head to each side, popping the muscles in them, moaning with each ache. "We're better off with you doing the driving. I'm too damn tired to fly straight anyways."
"You know how to pilot a helicopter?", Jill asked him incredulously, eyes widening a bit at the thought of him in the cockpit, stifling a laugh at the image of him behind the wheel of one. "You? Really?"
"Try not to act so astonished, Supercop. I have my hidden talents. I'm no expert, but I could get us out of the city. I think. Glad your boyfriend's here though. I'll be dozing off in the back seat as soon as we get to it. Doubt the nuke'll wake me up."
"Thermobaric strike."
"Whatever, man. Just give me a minute... I barely got any sleep, and then I'm back on my feet all over again."
"Nothing further physical exertion can't solve. Valentine, load him up with the weapons and gear.", HUNK gestured to the backpack she had taken the time to stuff full of the supplies and ammunition, along with weapons that had been scattered about. It lay down in front of the bloodied alter, complete with all the old stained bandages and a couple empty First Aid Spray containers on the floor. They still had what was hopefully enough medical supplies, she'd taken one of their remaining sprays and tucked it into her side packs. She had no intention of getting wounded again, but then she hadn't been intending to be every other time. And look how well that had turned out for them. "Give him something to focus on. It'll help wake him up. Before the infected do. It's your job to be alert, and ready. No matter what. An hour and a half's sleep was far more than sufficient in a combat zone. And you were resting in the safety of this chapel. Try sleeping in the ventilation shafts of NEST... or the sewers, for that matter."
"I'd... rather not. My hardcoreness only extends so far. The sewers are all yours. I'm awake now."
"That's what I thought."
Jill, smirking a little to herself at his orders, holstered her weapons and walked back over to the bloodied alter, reaching down and hefting the bag. A couple of the weapons, like the emptied Mine Thrower and the Grenade Launcher wouldn't fit into the bag, and would have to be slung... she opted to take at least the cumbersome nature of the Mine Thrower off Carlos's hands, slinging it over her own shoulders carefully to avoid her injuries. She could more than handle the weight, even now. It might have been empty, but its owner had gotten ammunition from somewhere... and besides which, it had saved her life in the courtyard. If need be, she would discard it... but intended to keep it if she didn't. She had to handle the heavy bag with obvious effort. As she'd been packing it earlier, she couldn't say she envied who'd be carrying it. Still, he had set himself up for it in the first place, as good as an idea as it was to have it, there would be drawback. She brought it back over towards them, stepping up to Carlos and holding it out in both hands to him. Still wearing her smile, she rose a brow his way.
"You heard the man and you know the drill. Here, just for you big guy. I know how much you were missing this part."
"Laugh it up, Jill. Didn't know you cared.", Carlos muttered sarcastically, shaking his head and reluctantly taking the heavy backpack from her. He hefted it with one hand, nearly dropping it in the process. "Damn. If I weren't my team's heavy weapon's guy, this might be a problem. I'd rather be carrying around the team's fifty cal and explosives again... at least that was fun. When I wasn't almost pissing my pants after the drop. You know how many zombies I blew apart?"
"Better you than me. Besides, you came up with the bright idea of hefting that thing around. Probably for a chance to get away from us now and again on those supply runs."
"You had to remind me. Punished for having some forethought, and loaded up like the team pack mule. Figured that was coming.", Carlos smirked with some amusement, setting aside his rifle on the pew and slipping his arms through the straps of the bag. He fastened them securely into place, before picking up the rifle again in one hand. As he did this, Jill fastened the strap of the Grenade Launcher over Carlos's shoulder, securing it helpfully into place. "Just thought I'd give you love birds some one on one time. Hoisted on my own petard. That's what I get."
"Suck it up, buttercup. Or I'll make you carry the Mine Thrower too."
"If it gets you off my case, you got it, lady. So... all three of us again, huh?"
Carlos pointed out from where he stood off to the side. He glanced between the others for a moment. He had to admit, he had missed this. All three of them working together. Look how far it had gotten them already. Somehow they'd made it, even after the disaster at the clock tower... somehow they had saved her. Kept the group intact. Maybe he was getting ahead of himself, but he wouldn't have it any other way. He'd thought after steadily losing his U.B.C.S. team, all his friends, that he was on his own. Then these two had shown up. Maybe they were friends, maybe they weren't. Most of the important developments seemed to be happening between the two of them... but it's not like they'd left him to die. Here he was with them, fighting the good fight. And he trusted them, above all else. Now they could make some proper headway. And get the hell out of the war zone.
"Guess we're finally putting the band of rag tag misfits back together. Still, we've lasted this long. Not bad for probably the most random team that came together in this city."
"Yes.", Jill couldn't help but agree to that. She stepped away from the pew, taking her place again in front of HUNK. She looked between the two of them and nodded. "We are. Not bad at all."
"Never a dull moment. I mean, I'd rather be a thousand miles from here, no offence to you two... but it hasn't been boring. I know, ever the optimist."
Jill's face took on a distant expression as Carlos spoke, and it all came back to her. What she'd been told by HUNK, what she'd been told about the team he had been leading into Raccoon City. It felt like ages ago... another life. In some ways, it was. Then she remembered what Carlos had told her about his own unit's designation. She smiled a little wryly at the thought as it dawned on her. Realization. She laughed slightly, shaking her head. Life was full of its coincidences, big and small. HUNK's low, muffled tone was the first to acknowledge her sudden sounds.
"What is it, Valentine?
"I just thought of something. It's nothing."
"Go on."
"I didn't realize it until right now. Way back I didn't have much time to consider it, with everything happening... but here we all are.", Jill waved a gloved hand slightly. Seeing Carlos's curiosity, and certain HUNK had his fair share, she elaborated for them. "We're all apart of three different Alpha Teams. I'm with S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team, Carlos is with the U.B.C.S Alpha Squad... you're with the U.S.S. Alpha Team."
Carlos looked back at her blankly for a moment, considering it... then he turned HUNK's way, exchanging a look with the man. There was another momentary silence between them all as they thought about it. Then the silence of the chapel was broken by Carlos's own laugh. It rose high, echoing through the enclosed location.
"Damn, I never even thought about that.", Carlos found himself laughing at the sheer absurdity of it. More and more he was starting to believe it had been fate. They'd been brought together for a reason. God or destiny, it was something. He was through believing in coincidences... he'd given them up long ago, the more signs like this kept appearing. Still, he didn't want to bore the others with such talk... preferring to keep his beliefs to himself, unless asked about them. "I didn't know. What are the odds of that happening?"
"Improbable. Like everything else in this city thus far."
"Yet here we are."
Jill found her smile deepening slightly. She was not superstitious, nor especially religious like Carlos... but for some reason it was a strangely comforting coincidence. One somebody could almost think was destiny. Or meant to happen. Against all odds, they had come together. She'd found a new team. A family she trusted. She wouldn't have wanted it any other way. If circumstance had been the three of them didn't all meet, who knows what would have transpired. This team, this unit had come together as remaining pieces of other ones, bringing all their experiences and talents with them. And look what they'd accomplished so far in the middle of the nightmare of the city.
"It's probably a bit stupid of me to bring it up, it isn't relevant to what's happening."
"No. It isn't stupid. It is curious."
"Here's to us then, Alpha Team.", Carlos agreed with bemusement, removing his canteen from his body armor and raising it in mock toast. He took a drink and tucked it back away, taking up his rifle in both hands. Looking to the others, he smiled freely. "Wish this were booze. We pass any liquor stores on the way, we're going looting. Meantime, let's go kick some ass on our way out. Remind those rotting bastards why we're still alive... even if nearly everyone else isn't."
"This is still a military operation, Oliveira. As I shouldn't have to remind you.", HUNK's low, cool tone spoke up to him at once. It was serious and leveled firmly at the young man... and yet Jill noted, and Carlos noted for that matter, that it was not as cold or unpleasant as it had been in the past when his attention was directed towards the was still a lecturing tone to it, but little bite. "There is a chain of command that you belong to, under my authority. We will not engage anything that isn't necessary. The thermobaric weapon will clean up this mess... our task now is extraction. Nothing more. We will engage our targets along the way... as necessary, but this is not a game. We almost failed here... all of us. Now we have the chance to do it right. And it shall be done. Am I understood?"
"There's the tough bastard calling the shots, instead of making lovey eyes at Sleeping Beauty here. I was wondering when he'd come back."
"A simple 'affirmative' would have been sufficient, Oliveira."
Carlos pretended to tug at his collar in a cartoonish fashion, forcing himself to chuckle as the agent's cool tone came forth over them. He continued to joke, even knowing by now he should just stop. It was pure reflex, like shooting a gun, even in his exhaustion. He knew the man was right... and after the way he had taken charge of their escape, and what he had gone through trying to keep them alive... he knew now his prior mistrust of HUNK was mistaken. He'd follow the man to hell and back. Or in this case, he'd gladly follow him out of hell. He knew what HUNK had to be... the consummate professional, because he was one. He could only be himself. As tough as HUNK could be, Carlos had long ago realized there was no man better to be leading them through something like this. They had been fortunate, all of them, to cross paths. His eyes swiveled between the bandaged up Jill and battered armor wearing HUNK. As much as he wanted to ask both of them about earlier... whatever the hell had transpired in the courtyard, he knew the wisest course was keeping it to himself. He could guess probably with reasonable accuracy. It wasn't his business. For now, anyways.
"Hey, you just give the orders boss man, point it out and I'll shoot it. Or run away from it and to the extraction point screaming like a girl. One or the other. That work for you?"
"Good enough. Let's get moving. You're on point again, Oliveira."
"Put the pack mule in the most danger. After making him a bigger target. That's command level thinking right there. Probably why you call the shots and I'm just a grunt. ", Carlos smiled a little bitterly, though following his orders. In truth, tired as he was, he didn't mind, and enjoyed getting back into the action... but he also liked giving the U.S.S. Agent a hard time. Two birds with one stone. He'd always liked to multi task. He stepped past HUNK and Jill, offering him another mock salute and her another wink and flashing grin, before taking point, raising his rifle to his shoulder and aiming it down at the open, near broken metal door. He said a final silent farewell to the chapel, and another thank you to God for how it had all went down... the fact they still had a chance, and were emerging from all this. Alive, if not uninjured. Then he spoke up again to the others wryly. "I'm on it then, Secret Agent Man. You two kids play nice back there, and watch my six. Couldn't blame either of you for looking at my six, actually."
"Don't flatter yourself, Carlos."
"Hey, if I don't, who will?"
As he passed by, Jill visibly rolled her eyes at his amused words. Some things never changed, even now after everything that had transpired. The difference was that by now, after all of it, she was glad to hear him joking. Even if everything had changed, it at least felt good to be reminded of better time. Though the fact they had been better times than now was something of a bleak one. She looked back up to HUNK while Carlos strolled quickly down the aisle to the metal door, taking point. The U.S.S. Agent met her gaze another time, before slowly inclining his head, and gesturing for her to go next. Evidently he was going to be taking over the position of rear guard for the team. Ordinarily, Jill would have objected to this... but in her current state, was in no position to object, nor especially wanted to. If anything was ordinary about this, the agent wouldn't be taking her position to begin with. He was taking the reigns for her, in the meantime... watching her back and looking out for her. Protective... in his subtle way. Peering back at her reflections in the red lenses, she lay a gentle, appreciative hand on his arm, smiled and nodded, before obeying his wish. No words were needed... they understood each other well enough. Had come to a place of understanding. Something more than they had been... far from where they had began in the R.P.D.
With one final wistful glance around the chapel she had nearly died in, her eyes grew a bit distant and wary, especially on the bloody alter. Her makeshift operating table... and near coffin. After everything she'd suffered, what a place to end up. And to be drawn back into the land of the living within. Born again. No, she couldn't say she was especially religious... but circumstances like these made her wonder. Gave her hope. Faith. She was merely a bit weary about it... afraid to end up looking like a fool placing her trust in a higher power. In another. But then... look who she had been able to come to trust... despite everything he was and had been. Perhaps accepting God was not so difficult after all. He was said to move in mysterious ways... and a walking mystery walked with her. Had saved her. Revealed more inside him to her than he had anyone else. Protected her... cared for her... as she did him. Yes... she was glad she had woken here of all places after all, instead of a hospital. It was especially fitting, and poignant. Romantic. She would not forget this place, what had happened here. With who. Finally she turned away from it all. She limped past him, sliding both her Samurai Edge and his Matilda from her twin holsters, and moving carefully down the aisle, finding a bearable moving pace. It hurt badly, to be sure, but the pain was manageable somehow. She wondered if it was all the First Aid Spray and herbs... or the vaccine. She wondered what it might have done to her, beyond curing her. She could hear his boots moving slowly behind her, sense and glimpse the red laser sight hovering around her in a circle protectively... and where once he had frightened her, she felt all the more safe now under his watchful gaze. Reaching Carlos at the end of the chapel, she nodded to the young, disheveled yet alert man, who opened the nearly broken, creaking metal doors and sweeping through, rifle checking every corner, ever at the ready.
The three of them continued on through, not bothering to close the door behind them. Not looking back again, but silently bidding the place farewell, Jill's hands remained tight on the sidearms. But she did not yet raise them... rather, she simply observed all the destruction they passed, in unison with contemplation of her own thoughts. The fire, smoke and stench of death... the moans in the distance, the shredded bodies of creatures and mutations. It was the world of Raccoon City now. Every step took her to another room, more devastation greeted her. It wasn't just the gore and brass streaked floors of the piano room... the ruined dining room they moved into next was no less a scene of horror, the table over turned, the leaking bodies of mutations like those she'd fought Downtown. She had to hold her breath now and again, passing among the rot, and putrid green fluid that pooled beneath the mutations. She heard Carlos muttering something about the stench, pulling his balaclava over his mouth and nose and securing it tightly. Every time she blinked, a new scene of carnage and destruction greeted her. She had to mind her feet, to make sure she didn't trip over all the debris, or broken bits of splintered doors. It all moved so slowly, like a languid, unending nightmare... and upon reaching the vast main hall of the clock tower once more, glimpsing the devastation the helicopter crash had wrought... she was reminded of the Central Street Station. All the fire that had raged through it. The war zone it had become in her absence, and what had been left when she'd seen it again.
Two days in and out on unconsciousness... and all this had happened since. It wasn't just the helicopter crash that had done damage, she noted, examining a trail of familiar purple fluid... there were puddles of the stuff all over the ground. How easily the world moved on in her absence, for the better and the worse... as she had fallen apart, so had the clock tower... even durable and old stone was no match for the hell everything in the city had become. A great deal of the main staircase had been devastated. Entire sections of the ceiling high above had been broken off and crumbled to the floor below they all resided upon. There was rubble all over the place, piles of it. Broken pillars. Heavy rain poured down from above where these sections were missing, a steady stream like a waterfall pattering against the floor, and the coldness of the night's air rushed in and filled the vast space as though they were already outside, the goosebumps on her arms rising all over again.
Her gaze was distant and sad, knowing that in spite of it all, the clock tower could have survived, if not for the cleansing fire headed its way, come the morning. All the monuments of time, though none greater than the clock tower, evaporated, as though none of it had existed as it had for so long. She'd lived in the city for years... had grown so used to most of the things here it had become common place, and she'd never placed much value upon any of it. She'd never seen it from such a fresh set of eyes, as she did now at the end of the city's life. Brought back from the dead and given a second chance at life. And found herself wishing she had cared long ago, before it had been too late. All this probably meant little to nothing to HUNK and Carlos... this wasn't their city... nor their home, but to her, a part of her would die with Raccoon City, as part of her died in the Spencer Mansion. Someone else would be born, if she survived here... as someone new had been born as the mansion had self destructed. She wasn't sure what it was, or if she should trust or fear it... what she was becoming... only the future would be able to answer that question for her.
Even after the seeming... cure, she'd been given... she felt unclean, like her blood was tainted. Violated and unsafe. Whatever the virus had done to her in all that time it had had to mutate. How close had she been to dying, and rising again as one of those... things outside? Or something else, far worse, mutated by their Pursuer's blood? What if the vaccine had only been temporary? What if she could turn at any moment? The fear of that lingered with her. The idea of becoming misshapen... growing appendages, changing, brought the mutated fleas to her thoughts again... in addition to some of their bodies and the puddles of foul smelling green gore they had passed along the way. She thought of the power of the T-Virus, what she knew it had done to something as small as a worm. The thought made her wince, and she did her best to ignore the trembling that formed. The pain wasn't leaving her body entirely, wouldn't for a long time she was sure. But the more occupied her mind was, she found, in spite of the fear, the concern, the stress, the worry... most of the pain was kept at bay. Still, she felt the weakness, sluggishness, and the dull ache of healing wounds and burns all over. As they moved along, she took a final look at the marvel that had been the clock tower. She wished she had visited it more... appreciated it when she could have.
Her last sight of the place, looking back past HUNK... was of Campbell's body, laying off to the side of a pillar, laying face down and still. And she remembered what he had gone through to try to escape, like the soldier upstairs had tried with the teenage girl he had failed to save. Though Campbell had given up on the others as the man upstairs hadn't... the dead required remembrance, most of all, and she would take them with her in memory. To say nothing of his Mine Thrower... that had saved her and the agent's lives. Ahead of her she heard Carlos open the door, and her gaze followed suit, stepping after him into the library she had last been in what had seemed ages ago. Nothing here had changed, at least. Memory returned to her as her gaze examined the area... flashes of it all coming back, pausing her for a moment. She looked over to the chair she had settled HUNK into when he'd been unconscious from the train crash. It had been here she'd... almost taken the G-Virus from him. Had wanted to destroy its glowing purple contents... throw it into the closest fire. Only to return it instead where she had found it. Even now, in spite of what had happened between them... perhaps more so now because of that, she felt uneasy thinking about it. How close a call it had been. Him nearly catching her red handed, waking from his slumber not long afterwards. What would he think of her if he had known what she'd done... had seen it? He had said she had good character... gave her a deeply flattering assessment in the courtyard... had been watching her for a long time figuring out who she was. Was insightful. What would be his assessment of her character if he knew she was no better than his employers? Betraying everything she was and believed in, betraying her fallen friends and humanity... to the benefit of Umbrella. The very ones who had ruined her life and were trying to kill her... as this Umbrella Agent was not.
Choosing him over the world.
She didn't know what he would think of it... but she found she hated the idea of disappointing him. Not living up to what he somehow saw in her. Being no better than those he had to work for... the evil he had been surrounded by most of his life, he had said. She wanted to mean something different to him. Something better than the bleak world he knew.
With a low breath, her mind drifted on from that uncomfortable thought and memory, remembering instead his gentle touch as he'd worked on her burnt hands... burnt saving him from the wreckage. She could still hear the horde the train had attracted, that had pursued them, beyond the library and living room, moaning and banging on the door. One of the alien-like Pale Things out there still perhaps, clutching the assault rifle it had stolen from her. It had been days before that she and HUNK had stumbled out of fire, wreckage and the horde's grasp in the nick of time... and still they tried to get in through the door they could not break. Just as they still tried breaching the main gates of the clock tower's courtyard. The old librarian's rotten body still lay where it was in a puddle of drying blood on the carpet, dead from Jill's own dagger knife, thrown expertly by the agent. It had all happened so quickly... she had been so distracted, caught up in her thoughts at the time and listening, that somehow the creature had crept up upon them. She remembered the knife slashing towards her... had thought he was going to kill her... and had merciful been wrong. But she remembered the fear she had felt towards him, for that instant. And she wondered how many others he had frightened since joining Umbrella. Becoming the agent that he was.
Suddenly she felt his familiar grip again, on her arm, firm but gentle, bringing her back to the present with a quick shock of surprise... and looking his way, she caught his red lenses staring beside her. She had forgotten again how quiet and quick he was. That and she had been too far away. History repeated itself. Her quickened heartbeat from the surprise gradually balanced out, and she realized Carlos had been waiting for her to continue following him, into the corridor beyond the library. HUNK's grip was steadying, welcome... and she knew what he was doing. She had taken care of him, now he was taking care of her. Looking out for her. Wanting her to remain focused. Smiling faintly at him, he nodded, and his grip retracted slowly, and Jill refocused her attention, stepping past the book shelves after the Corporal who stepped through the open, busted door. Resuming their movements, they passed down the corridor, Jill eyeing what greeted her sights with some apprehension... it was a heavily cobwebbed corridor, with webbing on the walls, floor and ceiling that only the mutated spiders could create.
Sure enough, holding her breath, she looked past Carlos... to glimpse a former man's body wrapped up in the webbing against the wall in the corner... drained it looked of most of his fluids, emaciated and gaunt. The red laser sight behind her passed over the corpse's head and the webbing. A bullet hole standing out on the center of its head and through the back. Whether it had been a zombie when it had happened or not, Jill couldn't tell... and didn't really want to know. Turning the next corner, before long she saw what was left of the mutated spider's bodies along the way. The corridor was lined with webbing, gore, broken glass from a couple windows and glinting shell casings. Dozens of smaller baby spider bodies lay close to the remnant, dripping parts of their long legged mutated mothers. The worsening scent of rot almost stung her eyes, as she continued holding her breath, moving quicker after Carlos, and taking in as few of the sights here as necessary.
She got the general idea of what had happened... and was in no mood to inquire further, or ask questions of the men, what had happened here. As numb as she felt to it all, and the distraction of her pain, it never got easier, the sights along the way. All she could do was keep going... but it all stayed with her. She kicked aside a few parts of the spiders along the way and stepped on them with an audible crunching, as the three of them moved down the long hall. She followed the dried stains of boots and shell casings that moved in both directions, while tracking fresh stains all over again. At last they passed the chaotic surroundings and reached the subsequent door beyond, moving out of the grimy corridor and into the more spacious back room of the clock tower. When Carlos stepped out of her sights, she glanced over the room slowly... not having ventured back here in her time in the clock tower, she took in the immediate view quickly. It was a storage room of some sorts... for tools, furniture and marble statues, among other things, including a suit of knight's armor.
Like most of the other rooms in the place, it was fancy, well furnished. She glanced from the left hand wall to a trio of clocks on the wall, in the center of three separate portraits. The one in the center was open, revealing a hollow, empty space in its middle. The others remained intact, ticking away. The art on the portraits looked Renaissance era to her... like the one's that had been in the cobwebbed hallway. She wasn't sure why the center one was open, but glancing between the three clocks and the three marble statues of women in the corner, each made of a different material, amber, obsidian and crystal from the looks of it... she had the strangest feeling. The same one she got whenever a puzzle turned up for them to solve. Apparently, if there even was one here, and she wasn't just being paranoid, somebody else had seen to it for them. She didn't envy their task, whatever it had been. Despite the fancy surroundings, the scent of rot remained in the room as it had in the hallway, courtesy of four blood soaked corpses laying on the floor and carpet ahead, in front of the statues.
For his part, Carlos looked down with some disgust at the bodies and kicking one in the head, passed them right by, tracking his boots through the puddle and vanishing in the back room ahead beyond the storage room. Jill remained where she was a little longer, studying the bodies, sensing all the while HUNK's silent presence watching over her as she considered the bodies. Three of them had been shot through the head, pieces of their skull and brains on the floor beneath them... and were in a worse state of decomposition than the fourth one. Looking at their faces, it was clear why. They'd been dead long before they'd been shot. The fourth body had been an unfortunate young woman, torn open and fed upon by the three infected... who themselves had been women once, clad in tattered dresses. Her blood was still stained on their mouths and teeth, drying in place as blank, empty eyes stared forever at the cracked ceiling above. The young woman had been torn apart beyond all recognition and beyond reanimation by the T-Virus. She hoped it had been as quick a death as possible... that the girl's throat had been torn out and she hadn't felt it for long.
Her tired expression grew grim and she looked back over her shoulder at HUNK again, catching him nod almost imperceptibly her way. Sharing her understanding. No words were necessary. They often didn't seem to be, together. Looking slowly back ahead, Jill tightened her jaw a little and looked away from the bloodied bodies, continuing ahead, following Carlos's bloody boot prints after him to the back room, and leaving the scene of carnage behind. Passing the trio of statues in the corner, she stepped into the back room to find Carlos waiting by the heavy, open door out back. The cold, fresh air and sounds of pouring rain and distant moaning greeting her and HUNK as they caught back up with him. The back room was even more cluttered than the one before it. There were a bunch of boxes of tools piled up, some of which occupied the entirety of a shelf and a work table. There was, of all things, a large heavy spare metal bell for the clock tower in the corner... and she couldn't find it in herself to envy whoever had moved it there.
Still standing by the open door, Carlos slid down his balaclava at last, breathing in the fresh air with satisfaction... and with a faint smile their way, raising his rifle he stepped out through the door and into the alley outside, continuing to lead the way. Jill followed suit, stepping out into the rain, which washed over her at once, the coldness shocking her awake, any exhaustion starting to vanish and bringing her back to the present. Her hair, having mostly dried in the clock tower, was soaked again in moments. The back alley in question, she knew, led out to Park Street, the road holding, quite obviously, its namesake... as well as Raccoon General Hospital and the clock tower. Park Street saw its fair share of traffic flow, in better times, given its linking proximity to three of the most important places in Raccoon City. Glancing down the left side of the alley, it was a dead end, cluttered by boards and assorted junk. She looked back ahead off to the right after Carlos, watching him emerge away from the mouth of the alley and step right out into the middle of the street, splashing through the puddles. The Corporal turned and looked down in the direction of the hospital.
A series of loud moans greeted him, and Jill watched as he rose his assault rifle, aiming down the scope and firing a burst of rounds, readjusting his aim and firing another. The moans cut off... but there was another from behind him and Jill watched a rotting man... two of them, step into view from around the corner, shambling down the road to try and take Carlos unaware. Before the young man could turn and deal with the threats, or Jill could instinctively raise her sidearms, the red laser sight appeared over her shoulder, shining on the side of the lead zombie's head, and fired once. There was a loud echoing click in her ear, partially muffling the shot, in contrast to the roar of Carlos's rifle... and she remembered the silencer. This was not a Hollywood movie. Silencers didn't mute any weapon. The noise carried in the night, hurt her ears slightly... though far less so than it might have otherwise. The moment the trigger was squeezed, the creature's brains were blown out the opposite side of its head... armor piercing rounds... and incendiary, for that matter. Its hair went up in spreading flames, surrounding its rotting, burning flesh as it collapsed to the ground behind Carlos, smoking and bleeding.
Jill, heart beating quickly, watched the laser sight adjust again, shifting over to the second creature, and repeat the same action, dropping it in a spray of grey matter, blood, bone and hair, leaking into the puddles of the street. Its flame illuminated, burning body collapsed head first, what remained of it, on to the familiar sight of a metal manhole covering for the sewer below, scarlet liquid covering it in moments. The shots had been precise, avoiding an ominous red barrel with explosive markings sitting on the side of the road... one not dissimilar from that which Captain Mikhail had used defending the train station in their absence. The thought poured some disquiet into her, no less than the cold rain did, remembering the Captain. The way she had failed him on that train. What he had sacrificed for them. Carlos studied the bodies down at his feet for a moment, then glanced down their way and flashed them a faint grin and an appreciative thumb's up. Jill glanced sideways to HUNK, and finally breathed, unaware she had even been holding it. The agent lowered the heavily modified weapon calmly, but his stance remained alert. At last Carlos, lowering his rifle, rose a hand up over his eyes like a visor to discern the surroundings ahead of him. A moment later, he lowered it, a powerful, impressed whistle emerging from his lungs and echoing through the night.
"Jill? You might want to come take a look for yourself at what you missed. While you were auditioning for Sleeping Beauty. And we were on our scavenger hunt."
His tone was tiredly amused, that of someone far older than his usual brand of humor. His smile was morbid and unpleasant as he gestured her over. Jill, curiosity arisen, stepped out of the alley after him and joined him out on the road, standing by his side while HUNK stood close beside hers, her pistols slowly lowering to her sides. The road was cluttered with traffic cones and other road equipment. She noted the pair of bodies ahead that Carlos had taken care of... both dead creatures had been set on fire, and were even now burning away freely. She looked away from their scorched forms and blinked rapidly through the rain, attempting to clear her vision for a moment and get a focus on what she was supposed to be looking at. Together, the three of them, rain soaked on the road, peered as one in the direction of Raccoon General Hospital.
Or what was left of it.
"Holy shit."
There was only one appropriate response to it, and she uttered it freely, lips remaining parted, the rain dripping off them. He'd told her what had happened, back in the chapel... but she hadn't stopped for even a moment to think about what it must have looked like. Or what she would feel watching the burning remains of an important landmark in her city. The vast hospital she'd known and visited through her life... the very hospital she had been delivered in... had later lost her mother in... had been obliterated. Utterly so. It almost made her wonder if the thermobaric missile had struck it. It looked as though most of it had simply collapsed, piling on top of the road and blocking it off in a giant insurmountable barrier of rubble, from the moaning hordes to the west of the city beyond it. Among all the rubble was the twisted metal of flaming cars, upturned and broken, their wheels laying among the heap and misshapen parts. Even with the hours of rain since, it was an inferno, fire rising high into the night, and a vast smoke cloud rising above it.
It wouldn't be going out anytime soon, and between the height of the stone and concrete rubble, the tall cast iron fence of Raccoon Park close by, nothing beyond would be getting past it and on to Park Street. The hospital was as much apart of her as any other place in her city, she'd visited it more than a few times, for various reasons. The last time she'd been had been after the Arklay Mountains, to be checked up on for injuries with the others. And as it had been with the helicopter crashing into the clock tower, the view of it burning disturbed her more than she wished to let on. Body parts, some on fire, others rotting and gore streaked, poked out of the rubble at various points... and all she could do was hope they had already been dead. Some of them twitched and moved... infected and sealed away under the rubble. Buried, but not quite dead. The rest of the horde down the street was visible over the rubble and fencing of Raccoon Park. Illuminated in the firelight... the common infected, the ones with glowing eyes, and the tall, emaciated Pale Things alike. The moans of the dead a wailing chorus calling down to them... but unable to pass the obstacles of the hospital's mountain of rubble. Slowly shaking her head, she turned away from the devastation and from Carlos and met HUNK's red lenses, aware they had been watching her, gazing into them distantly for a moment, collecting her thoughts. When she had them, her low, hollow tone emerged at last over the distant moans and the crackling of the fires.
"Nikolai did this?"
"Yes."
"How much explosives does he have?"
"Enough at least for this and the university. I have little doubt there were others by his hand, in the course of the outbreak. And with more occupants at the time. I was below the city for most of it, so I can't yet prove it. What I do know is that he has more explosive material. There's always another bomb."
"He's insane."
"Possible. Or merely a dedicated professional when it comes to what he does. Perhaps both. Hard to tell with him. He is whatever is required of him. Whatever it takes to get the job done."
"Sounds almost like someone else we know.", Carlos piped up with a wry smile their way, before looking back ahead to the destroyed hospital. The fire danced in his dark eyes, as the rain washed over them and his stubble lined jaw. He rubbed it thoughtfully with his exposed fingers slowly, in some manner of contemplation. "Though a little less heavy handed with the explosives, at least. A little."
"He's nothing like Nikolai, Carlos.", Jill snapped instinctively, shooting the young mercenary a hard glare. Feeling a pulse of anger at the casual comparison of the two men. Mouth tightening tersely. "This is something more like the Tyrant would do. Destruction. Hatred."
"Fair enough, spent enough time up close to both of em' myself... closer than I wanted. Hold your fire though, lady. Didn't mean to insult your boyfriend."
"You know him better than we do.", Jill continued speaking to HUNK as though the amused Corporal had not interrupted. She looked back the silent agent's way and drew a slow, steadying breath of the cold air. Though the smoke remained in her nose. "This is what you were trying to warn me about him, back at the train station, wasn't it?"
"Some of it. I know who he is. What he can do, when necessary. This is only a little of it. He makes a formidable opponent. The best of Colonel Vladimir's Monitors. In his own way, as single minded in his goals as our Pursuer. With a more creative and unpredictable mind. Though I can guess fairly accurately the things he will do, especially where my presence is concerned. I first saw what he is in Croatia and Bosnia. We performed missions there together."
As he spoke, Jill looked past him slowly, listening carefully over the patter of rain splashing in puddles and moans. She simultaneously noted the opposite side of the street that led down past the park office and towards the walkway and main gate of the park. Like the way to the hospital, it was cut off to the horde beyond. Though unlike the other path, it had nothing to do with the road being destroyed, or a mountain of fiery building debris. There was a car pile up cutting off the road, making access impossible to the shambling dead beyond, the closest car being a vibrant yellow taxi. She could glimpse them beyond, even where she stood. They were apart of the same rotting horde plaguing the main gates of the clock tower, just a segment that had broken apart from the others.
The pathway that was free led to a stone staircase leading out of sight to the main gates of the park... but from the looks of it, there were no more infected on this secure side of the barricades. Nor any sign of mutated creatures on any of the nearby buildings, crawling along the sides. It was almost surreal, standing out here again, after having been so close to death. Feeling the pavement under her boots again, and the throbbing of pain... the water running along her flesh. It was almost a comforting sight, in a distant way. The madness of the burning, doomed city, for every horrific sight it offered, was more welcome than the grip of death that had tightened around her. Or something far worse... the consequences of whatever virus had seeped into her blood. At HUNK's last two sentences, the realization at the revelation washing over her like the very coldness over her flesh, she slowly looked back up into his lenses, staring back blankly at her own pale reflection in them.
"You fought in Croatia and Bosnia?", Jill asked with alarm, eyes widening slightly. Even Carlos, off to the side, looked at him again with some shock as well, as though seeing him for the first time. The two of them exchanged a look of astonishment. The young man looked on the verge of speech, but remained silent and still. She had heard tell of some of the things that had happened over there during the war... and she didn't want to begin to think of what mess he had been involved in. Nevertheless, her curiosity briefly overwhelmed her caution. "You were there? What were you doing there? Which side did you fight for? What happened? What did he do?"
His dented, battle scarred, helmeted head slowly turned in Jill and Carlos's directions as they looked back at him. Cracked and intact lenses shifting between them. For an instant she thought he wasn't going to say a word... that she had asked too personal of questions... but then he surprised her yet again.
"What those like us do, in wars. I... appreciate your sentiment... but Oliveira was correct to compare us. Umbrella and Shén Yā Pharmaceutical had covert research deals with the Serbian government. Biotech and viral investments. Part of the arrangement was us aiding them under the table in their conflict, when and where required. Do the dirty work. Espionage. Black ops. Plausible deniability for them was easier that way. And the war was ripe for Lord Spencer to take advantage of. Seize resources and data... protect investments, eliminate some of his eastern European rivals. Old fashioned corporate espionage, brought to a modern war zone. Umbrella Security Service was dispatched... along with Colonel Vladimir's top Monitors. Shén Yā Pharmaceutical had their own espionage and intelligence division as well that we cooperated with. You were right about the sort of work I've done for the company. Both of you. What I'm best at. I've done it all around the world."
The U.S.S. Agent's low, muffled, expressionless tone revealed slowly, seeming to consider his words. There was nothing proud or remorseful to his tone or words... he stated facts, with no attachment to them. He was silent for a moment or two, looking off to the side to the leaking bodies of the dead. Their corpses peered back blankly at her in the lenses, before taking command of the situation again and pushing aside their interest in the looked back at her firmly, the fire blazing in the rubble behind her dominating the red lenses and obscuring her reflection. Somehow, looking back at the agent... Jill knew he had never spoken of it to outsiders before. But he had to her anyways. Had entrusted her with another piece of his past. Then, as suddenly as he had revealed it all, he moved them right on again, leaving them startled.
"Its time to move out."
Jill started to speak again, but caught herself, sensing that in spite of her curiosity, it was not the wisest course of action to continue. He already had revealed a great deal... more than he would have when they first met. She knew all about both wars... or at least what had been on television at the time. It had been all over the news during high school, and in every newspaper. She couldn't imagine what he had been doing in Croatia and Bosnia in those years... and after what he had revealed, she really did not want to know. Umbrella had numerous facilities all over Europe, the world really... that much she knew... even if they had been on Serbia's side covertly, they had been on their own side, really. Out for their own interests. But still... the stories she'd heard not only on the news, but from her fellow soldiers when she had joined the Army for her Delta Force training had been troubling. A great number of war crimes and atrocities... as it was in every war. A morbid part of her wanted to ask a dozen more questions, about him, Umbrella, Shén Yā Pharmaceutical, the Chinese biotech rival of Umbrella's that seemed to have been allied with them... and Nikolai. Everything he revealed, however much or little, only left her with a dozen more questions. More importantly she wanted to assure him that he wasn't like Nikolai again... dig her heels in and argue. But she knew better than to pry or push the matter any further, just now.
He was right, now wasn't that time... if ever that time would come. They had an escape to make now. Slowly, with a little reluctance, she simply nodded in understanding. The U.S.S. Agent gestured simply for the two of them to follow him, turning back in the direction of the park's stairwell, down the southern side of the road, towards the taxi. She glanced back at Carlos again, who himself looked quite a bit more awake and aware than he had before, shrugging his shoulders with sympathy. She turned back ahead and began to move after him, but paused, glancing sideways to the park office just off to the side, next to tall metal fencing of the park. The windows were closed and the blinds were drawn, and the blue metal door closed tight. She tried the handle to find it locked, to her annoyance, but before Carlos or HUNK could keep moving, her voice addressed the situation.
"Wait a minute, guys.", Jill spoke up from in front of the door, looking back down to HUNK and to Carlos behind her. Both men stopped and looked her way. HUNK slowly moved back down towards the pair of them, joining them in front of the park office, and once they were all together, she continued. "I just thought of something."
"Valentine?"
"There could be some supplies stored in here. Medical or otherwise. A key for the main gate, which is probably locked up. I'd like to take a look before we move through the park. You never know."
"Supercop's got a point."
Carlos spoke his agreement, glancing over to the agent. He remembered what his task had been, in the days during the outbreak... and what he had been doing right before the two of them had almost been killed by the Tyrant in the courtyard. Searching for weapons, ammunition and supplies. Salvaging. He had always been so eager to run off alone and search, scavenge... that he'd almost gotten them killed, when they had needed them most. He would not make the same mistake, now that they were all together again. Still, that didn't mean the three of them couldn't scavenge together along the way. They were going to need everything they could get in this city.
"You saw the hospital lobby, all the dead soldiers. Same with the mercenaries at the clock tower. At some point this whole area was in use by the Army and U.B.C.S. We need to keep salvaging anything we can that they've left behind. Worked last time. We almost got blown up and everything, but still. We need to be prepared for whatever the hell is waiting at the Dead Factory. Isn't going to be a welcoming committee, that's for sure."
"Very well.", The U.S.S. Agent agreed without hesitation, raising his modified submachine gun carefully. Preparing to aim the laser sight in the direction of the door behind Jill. Inclining his head her way. "One side then, Valentine. I'll deal with the lock."
"Actually, if you don't mind, Hunk, I can handle this one.", Jill held up a hand and reached into her sidepacks, rummaging around for it, brushing past the sapphire in the process. All the while, the agent watched her closely, quietly, but agreeably lowered his weapon. Finding them among the rest of the equipment she was carrying, she slipped it out of her pack and stepped closer to the door. She knelt down in front of it, examining the door handle, before raising the metal device and slipping it into the lock on the door. "In my own way."
"What the hell is that?"
"My lockpicks, of course. Trusty old friends of mine.", Jill replied to Carlos absently from in her place in front of the door. She glanced backwards at the pair of contrasting figures standing behind her. She looked between them as she spoke, before looking back ahead to the door to focus on her work. "Kindly be quiet and let me concentrate. I need it. It's more difficult than it looks... but they don't call me the Master of Unlocking for nothing."
"...what?"
"They?"
"You've got me, man. Master of Unlocking. Quite a mouthful. Silliest nickname I've ever heard. And I've heard plenty."
"Heard far worse ones."
"Probably sillier than 'HUNK', and that's saying something. You guys spell your codenames in all capitals too, don't you? Was that Spencer's idea?"
"Shut up, Corporal."
"It's all capitalized?", Jill found herself pausing at the lock and looking back with some surprise at the revelation, filtering out the rest of the bickering of the two. Finding herself smiling a little incredulously. For his part, Carlos chuckled at both Jill and HUNK's expense, at their respective nicknames. "I thought it was just 'Hunk', like an ordinary name... not HUNK. You learn something new every day."
"Umbrella Security Service always was a damn weird branch of the company's paramilitaries. Their agents especially. Perfect place for the badass, scary special forces types. Like their poster boy here. Can't even spell their codenames normally. Never could figure any of you guys out myself... but at least you clearly get shit done, better than us hired guns."
"That's why you're U.B.C.S. mercenary and my direct subordinate, Corporal. I didn't come up with or choose the codename. Nor its manner of spelling."
"Ouch. Well. Someone did. With those rugged good looks, the lady must have been pretty sweet on you. Or was it Alfred Ashford over on Rockfort Island? Believe me, heard far more peculiar stories about that guy."
"That's enough, Oliveira."
"Sir, yes sir. Know better than to touch a sore spot. More than necessary, anyways. But my sympathies that you've had to work for him. Keep his company. If even half of what is said about him is true."
Carlos held up his hands defensively with an evident unapologetic smirk, the agent staring back at him silently and rigidly. Jill shot a faintly amused scowl their way to silence them both over their dispute, fortunately this time it worked. With that accomplished, Jill ignored them, getting back to work and focusing entirely on it. For a few moments she thought she might be getting a bit rusty at lock picking... until she found the first tumbler. Satisfaction passed over her expression... it was like riding a bike, once you learned how you never forgot. It was all about having the right tools. She wasn't about to forget her father's lessons. Even if he had paid the price for having them... and paid it for both of them. She clicked it into place and began to search for the rest, listening carefully over the rain, gradually rotating the lockpick, testing the lock. It was an impressive quality one, they tended to be for city property. She was reminded of the mansion, and all the times she'd had to make use of the device, and her hidden talent. It was an ability people tended to underestimate, and not expect of her. She'd used it before the mansion as well, back during her ordinary police days. It had been good for taking suspects unaware. She'd used a criminal talent for a lawful purpose... made something good out of what her father had taught her.
That was how she liked to play it, where possible, nice and quiet. HUNK could do quiet... quieter than her... but where locks were concerned he was clearly in no mood for subtle. He could shoot locks off doors all he wanted, or kick them in... she preferred doing it this way. It might have taken a bit longer, but it had its own advantages. All the same... she felt HUNK's eyes resting upon her throughout, glancing back once to confirm it. She found the rest of the tumblers with relative ease, clicking them into place and unlocking the door successfully with a muffled snap. A smile of satisfaction deepened on her lips, and she began to speak again, sliding the trusty lockpick back out of the door, she tucked it away into her sidepacks again, and tested the door handle. It responded to her touch at once, and she pushed open the door all the way.
"Ta da. Told you boys I could do it. S.T.A.R.S. B&E Specialist for a reason. Learned from the best."
"Who? When? Why?"
"Who doesn't matter right now. It was awhile ago. Another life, really. Not the only one carrying some secrets around, Secret Agent Man."
"I see. Fair enough. Impressive talent all the same."
"Damn, I'll say. Not bad at all, Supercop. How did you pull that off? How come we've never seen you try it before?"
"Guess I forgot. I've had a lot on my mind lately, if you couldn't tell.", Jill returned thoughtfully as she continued studying the unlocked door a bit longer. It felt good to be back to doing what she did best, before all this. To finally show them her skill. Something she could do that they couldn't. "Think we all have. Besides, wanted the chance to show off what I can do a bit. Every time there's a lock around, our resident Alexander the Great tends to cut...-"
Jill turned back around to face the two men with a warm smile, but froze, heart leaping into her throat, when she found Carlos the lone shape standing behind her. At some point in the last few moments, somehow HUNK had silently wandered off. Unbeknownst to either of them. Carlos followed her gaze, the amusement in his own expression dying almost at once. He jumped suddenly in surprise, nearly dropping his rifle on the pavement, but managing to keep a hold of it.
"Where the hell did he go? He was just there.", The Corporal asked with shock, turning around on the spot and looking back at the burning hospital, then to the alleyway, and back down towards the barricade of cars. Peering through the rain, to no avail he looked back at Jill. "Did something grab him? Did I piss him off again? Or is he just pulling the Batman routine again? I didn't hear a damn thing."
"We'd have heard if he were attacked, Carlos... none of the monsters in this city are quiet... and I don't think you could ever hurt his feelings.", Jill assured him, herself looking down towards the barricade of cars, and to the path and staircase leading to the park. She couldn't see him from where she stood... but she could deduce the likeliest scenario. In another time, she would have feared he had abandoned them... now she knew him better. Or at least well enough. Perhaps he needed a moment's solitude, to think, to plan. She turned back in Carlos's direction, gesturing absently to the door of the park office. "Don't worry about it. He's probably securing the gate of Raccoon Park, waiting for us to be done here. You know how he is. Let's get to it already. Sooner we're done here, the sooner we can get to the Dead Factory."
"Yeah, I guess.", Carlos agreed at last, shaking his head slowly and looking back to her as well. A wry smile touched his lips. Something knowing in his brown eyes. "Told you those U.S.S. guys were strange. Especially that one. Poster boy for more than one reason."
"I happen to like 'strange'. 'Strange' has gotten us this far, hasn't it?"
"I can tell that, by now. Should have been obvious the minute you showed up on his arm, actually."
"Wasn't the first time he's done that Batman routine anyways. He snuck up on me at the police department, you know. Grabbed me. Hell of an introduction."
"Guy has some romantic moves on him, I'll give him that much. Bet it was quite the first impression turn on for you. Ladies first then, 'Master of Unlocking'."
Jill rolled her eyes visibly at his wry observations and the reminder of Barry's nickname for her. Maybe telling them it had been a mistake after all. She expected she was going to end up regretting it, sooner rather than later. Ignoring him and turning back to the office, she strode inside, Samurai Edge and Matilda at the ready just in case. A couple of bright overhead lights greeted her entrance. Scanning the room as she stepped over a door mat and past an umbrella rack beside the door, Carlos followed her inside. As soon as she got inside she quickly noted it was clear of any of the monsters. Slowly she lowered her weapons, and took in the subsequent view. The office had a fair amount of space, and a good deal of things occupying it she took note of. To her immediate left hung a chalkboard on the wall with some writing on it, a calendar and various other things hung up on it.
Close by were a garbage can and a bucket and a mop next to a sink in the corner... while along the wall near the sink were a few closed metal lockers. Pulled up in the center of the room were a trio of wooden tables and some chairs, the surface of each relatively clear, save a few scattered items... and predominantly, a typewriter. Jill stepped further into the room, moving over between the lockers and the table with the typewriter. Further down that side of the room, against the wall was another storage container, like the one that had been in the church... among other places around the city. Between the storage containers and type writers, whoever had been selling them must have been making a killing before the outbreak. Next to the container was a spacious cabinet, with a blank television and a fan next to one another on a shelf, while the one below it was full of various books and binders all compacted tightly together. Most importantly of all, Jill glimpsed the key rack in the corner, holding various assorted, labelled key rings hanging from it. She crossed the room towards it at once, her eyes looking carefully over it. Back behind her, Carlos had slung his rifle and began to open up the lockers and was rummaging around through them.
The assorted key ring labels were each different colors, with the words stamped out on the front of them. It was helpful, at least, the last thing she'd want was to try out every key on every ring. Rather quickly she was able to locate what she was looking for, plucking the gate key off the ring and examining it slowly in the light. The moment she began to do so, there was a loud, carrying echo through the night behind them, through the open door, carrying over the muffled rain and moaning. She knew the sound at once, from when it had been fired close to her... the carrying echo of HUNK's silencer. Her heartbeat quickened, in spite of herself, with apprehension. From their respective places in the office, they looked up in the direction of the door, and looked back at one another. Carlos stopped rummaging around for a second, speaking up again.
"Must have run into one of them.", Carlos assured her at once, noticing the alarm and concern in her features. He smiled a bit humorously, trying to resolve the tension. He looked back to the open locker and continued looking through it. "Based on those zombies earlier, we must have missed a few of the bastards on the way back. They weren't caught in the explosion. Probably came out of one of the other alleys. If it were anything serious there would be more gunfire, and he would radio us."
"I found the key for the gate.", Jill replied calmly, attempting to ignore her concerns, stepping away from the rack of key rings and joining him by the locker and tables. He could take care of himself... but that didn't stop her from wanting to protect the agent. Even feeling foolish as she did. "We should get back out there and check on him anyways, just in case."
"He's a big guy, Jill, just hold up a minute. Can take care of himself. I found something you'll want to check out.", Came his accented reply, muffled with his head in the locker. At last he drew back out of the lockers with a box in both hands, setting it down on the table next to the type writer. With a flashing grin of white teeth, he tapped the box with a hand. "Voila. Now, does that look like it could be useful to you?"
Jill followed his eyes to the box, holstering her pistols and stepping closer to the desk, looking over it. There was an Umbrella logo on the top of it, and she popped it open, examining the carefully packed contents within. Her eyes widened gradually with recognition. In the box there were two separate packages, the lettering stamped out along it. Opening up the first box, she took note of the familiar contents. There were six of them in all, shaped in cylindrical shells. Evidently, experimental weapon or not, as HUNK had said, Carlos was also familiar with the weapon and ammunition in question. She supposed it made sense, as the heavy weapons operator of his unit he would be apprised of such things.
"Mine Thrower darts. Enhanced rounds. More powerful than the last ones you used, I bet. Greater yield and have a built in homing device in each round. Heat seekers. Talk about striking gold. Put them to good use, doubt there are many more, if any, just laying around."
"Guess we were right, then.", She replied quietly, picking up one of the explosive darts and looking it over slowly, turning it in the light. She could see the built in homing sensor the previous rounds she'd used had not possessed. She supposed it activated once charged into the weapon and released. "Umbrella had this area secured for awhile, during the outbreak. Left all their equipment behind."
"Lucky us, for a change. No sense letting anything go to waste."
Jill set the dart back down and opened the other small box, revealing altogether twelve rounds. The thing held six, she remembered. She remembered HUNK and QUARTERMASTER giving her a briefing of the weapon, back at the clock tower's main hall, standing over Campbell. HUNK had trusted her enough even then to share contact with a member of his covert support team. It was a thought that stayed with her, even now. Especially now. She reached back, unslinging the Mine Thrower and tilted it to the side, reexamining it. She hadn't bothered looking it over again, back at the church... but here and now, she did. Pressing the familiar button on the side, the large cylinder, not unlike a revolver, popped open with an automatic whirring, revealing the six empty slots within. She remembered emptying it into the Pursuer... and somehow, miraculously, managing to bluff it. Or maybe it had simply given up in the face of all its severe injuries, knowing she was already doomed from the infection. When their paths crossed again... she had the feeling the same trick would not miraculously work on it again. When it saw how she had recovered. With a nod to herself in understanding, sensing Carlos's watchful eye, she picked up the dart and slid it into place, before one by one doing the same with the rest of the rounds in the first pack. Grasping the cylinder with one hand, she pushed and secured it with a snap back into place, arming the Mine Thrower. Raising it to her shoulder, she peered down the sights, aiming the weapon... before lowering it back down, keeping the strap fixed to her shoulder. Carlos released an impressed whistle at the sight of it.
"Damn. Never get tired of seeing the high tech shit. Wish QUARTERMASTER let us U.B.C.S. guys see his labs aboard the Leviathan... access is only for Umbrella Security Service, sadly. You get all the cool weapons, huh? Sure seem to know your way around this one, anyways."
"I had a good instructor.", Jill replied agreeably, turning her attention to the second box. Retrieving the rounds from within it, she turned her attention to the empty bandolier Carlos had spared her awhile back. She'd made use of it when she'd had the SPAS-12, but in light of the Mine Thrower, she wondered if she could make use of it again. She slid one of the darts into a slot across her chest, pleased to find it fit snugly. She did the same of the rest of the darts, emptying the box of its six. When she was finished, she activated the Mine Thrower's safety, the green light on it turning red with a beep as it locked up with an automated sound, before slinging it back securely behind her shoulder and looking up at Carlos. "Not bad at all. Let's get the hell out of here. He's waiting for us."
"Ma'am, yes ma'am. Just starting to wonder if you prefer I call you Officer Rambo or Supercop at this point."
Carlos snapped off a wry salute and closed the lockers, stepping away from them and walking back over to the open door, taking back up his rifle. Jill chuckled under her breath at his words and started to move after him, but paused, catching sight of something that had been on the desk. It lay next to the type writer, some ink ribbons and the empty dart packages. Her eyes narrowed closely on it... a photograph. Her gloved hands took it up gently, peering at it hard in the light... to find three rotting zombies lurching towards her... towards the camera. Attacking whoever was holding it. Part of her couldn't imagine someone stupid enough to get this close, and snap the photograph... it certainly didn't look like a zoom shot, but for the photographer's sake, she hoped it had been. She wouldn't put it past the hotshot field reporters of The Raccoon Press or The Raccoon Times to risk being devoured for a Pulitzer prize. Probably Alyssa's work during the outbreak, recalling how much she had wanted her big scoop when they had worked together, along with Ben. She'd lost track of them both, in the madness... and feared for their chances, even with their own talents. It was a miracle already she had managed to get this far. Alyssa might have covered wars before, as she had been fond of reminding Jill at every opportunity... but there was a human war zone, and there was what Raccoon City had become.
Still, it was something. She had no idea what it was doing in here, but she never was one to look a gift horse in the mouth. It might be useful, or worth something, after all this. She'd already gathered a good deal, and intended to take everything she could with her. If... when she survived, her work would only be getting started. A faint smile touched her lips at the thought that formed. Especially when the government and Umbrella tried their respective cover up. There would be no possible cover up that would work. Someone would blow the lid off this mess... and she intended to play a part in that. Help in any way she could. She would see them burn for it, as they were burning her home to ashes. She tucked away the photograph carefully with the rest of the items and evidence she had found into her sidepacks, closing the pouch back up. Finally she looked to Carlos and nodded, moving over to the door behind him, and gesturing for him to take the lead again. He stepped back outsider, rifle at the ready, aiming down both sides of the road to be sure it was clear.
Well, of infected, anyways.
Jill didn't draw her sidearms, she knew Carlos could handle anything at the moment, and she was a fast draw anyways. She absently studied the key as she moved back out into the cold wind and the rain, her long boots splashing through the blood soaked puddles near the smoldering infected corpses the agent had dropped earlier. Stepping backwards for a few paces after Carlos down the side of the street towards the taxi and car barricade, Jill stole one more look at the raging inferno that had been the hospital. She wished she had been conscious, at the time, and capable of retrieving the vaccination with them. Being of some help. She hadn't been able to stay conscious long after they had left, though, she remembered. She couldn't imagine what they might have seen in there, and gone through escaping. All of it for her... with no guarantees they would even succeed, or find what they were looking for. Narrowly avoiding the monsters that had undoubtedly been inside along with a madman's bombs. All she could do now was return the favor as best she could, and fight through her own pain at the same time. She turned away from the smoking ruin and horde beyond one last time, and moved faster after Carlos.
The young mercenary waited for her a few steps ahead beside the taxi, standing on a manhole cover at the bottom of stairs up to the park. Her boots tapped audibly over the pavement and splashing through the puddles, and as she closed in she glanced past the barricade of cars. The horde beyond it by now had noticed them, and was stirring, moaning hungrily, trying in vein to reach them, pushing up against the barricade. It was no use, the cars held fast, even under the weight of the pressing bodies. It wasn't the entirety of the horde that way... but it was a good few hundred at least. The Pale Things scattered among them like the other section of the horde. Watching them without eyes... leering, or pacing about, the common infected staying out of their way. Infected crows cawing and pecking at some of the corpses... both the ones laying down and shambling. She saw one perched on a former police officer's shoulder, pecking out one of his eyes... with the creature not even feeling it. Part of her wished even now they had the means to put every single one of them to rest, without a nuke... that there were military forces capable of putting down the hordes, mutations and B.O.W.'s. Hell, maybe there were... but it would be too little too late now. Maybe when all this was over, there would be a military unit formed and properly trained to take the threat of a biohazard infestation like this more seriously.
In the early days if the U.S. Military and National Guard had done more than a Quarantine Zone, had rode in force and armed with the information she and the rest of the mansion survivors had tried to give everyone... Jill still believed and always would, that they could have stopped it from spreading. From enveloping the city in rotting death and chaos and fire. They could have turned the tide. Maybe even if Carlos's U.B.C.S. platoons had been given proper information on what had happened, the threat they were dealing with, they could have lasted longer, bought more time, evacuated more people. But like the U.S. Government, Umbrella didn't like to keep their military adequately informed. Secrets were worth more to them than lives. And by the time Carlos and his friends had been dropped in, it had already been too late anyways. They had been fodder, nothing more. She knew it did no good to torture herself with the endless for want of a nail scenarios... she'd known that for years, and especially after the mansion. She couldn't help herself there. She always wondered about that which was beyond her grasp. Despised feeling so damn helpless... as she had when the city had ignored her, no matter what she had said and done.
All she could do was feel it, hold it close and keep pushing forward. There was no alternative. At least none that was acceptable... she had to live, to keep the investigation going... and so her companions efforts for her had not been in vein.
Reaching the taxi, she stepped past Carlos with a nod, and peered up over the staircase to the top... to the tall cast iron gate. And to the looming, familiar, dark figure waiting patiently beside it for the two of them. His mask's red lenses were reflected by the shining light post overhead, as well as one on the twin columns between the gate. He stood beside the gate and the bronze plaque on the spiked iron fence next to him. Raccoon Park. Jill climbed over the stairs carefully, ignoring the increased pain doing so caused, reaching the top in moments and standing before him. Her quick eyes moved to the gate... previously chained and padlocked closed, evidently. The chain and impressive industrial lock lay on the ground broken and slightly melted and smoking from the obvious incendiary round... while the gate door itself was slightly ajar, beckoning them. Almost forgetting it was in the palm of her hand, Jill opened it, showing him the key and offering a faintly exasperated and amused look while Carlos ascended the stairs behind them.
"I found the key, you know. If you'd just been a little more patient.", Jill assured him, turning it over in the light before tucking it back into her pouch. She put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow, as if in mock scolding towards the masked man. "And had a lockpick, for that matter. You trying to put me out of a job by shooting off every lock you see? I ought write you a ticket for property destruction, vandalism. "
"You're already out of a job anyways. You have your methods, I have mine."
"So I've noticed. Still have a pair of handcuffs though, if not a badge. Might have to slap them on us yet. Keep you nice and close to me, Secret Agent Man."
"Hmm. Not sure if I'd mind that, Mistress of Unlocking."
"I bet. Never going to let me forget that name, are you?", Jill asked with a more visible smile and a slight shake of her head. Unless she was sorely mistaken, she could hear some faint measure of amusement and appreciation in his low, muffled tone. Returning her manner. She didn't think she was imagining it. It warmed her up a bit, even in the freezing rain. "Give me a break. But, at least your variation is a bit more precise than Barry's."
"I think I like 'Master' better.", Carlos piped up from the sideline with a wink, shaking his head exasperatedly at the scarcely veiled flirtation, keeping his rifle at the ready. He looked away from the pair of them, faintly exasperated, and ahead, beyond the gates of the park. He couldn't glimpse much from where he stood, but he wasn't about to be taken off guard. There were no sounds of creatures beyond... at least none he could hear over the moans of the barricaded horde behind them. "Better ring to it. Just don't ask about any of the nicknames I got back home in Brazil. They make yours sound normal. I'm on point again, I take it? I'll need your help guiding us through this park, Jill. I don't know it any better than I do the rest of this city."
"You're damn right you'll need me, limp and all.", Jill merely smirked a bit at his words. She gestured to the gate for him to continue on, glancing back between him and HUNK. "We've got you covered, kid. Don't worry about it. I'll play tour guide, you just try not to go for the action hero routine again, ok? We've gotten this far without that act, I'd like it to stay that way."
"No promises there, Officer. I've been known to surprise when someone least expects it. I could tell you plenty of stories of the last few days at the train station. And speaking of action hero routines, you should have seen your boyfriend back at the hospital... the fight between him and the horde."
"You took on the horde?", Jill spoke up with confusion, eyes looking between the two men. Feeling her curiosity deepening and stirring. Especially in regards to the agent. Wishing again she had seen what had transpired at the hospital. "What the hell happened in there?"
"What didn't happen? They never stood a chance against this pyromaniac. Almost feel sorry for them. Almost."
"That'll do. This isn't story time. Move out, Corporal."
"But I was only getting to the good stuff." Carlos complained, yet at HUNK's continued silent stare, the Corporal acquiesced with a mock salute. "Fine, man. You can tell her all about it later. Do some bragging during further sweet talk. Sir yes sir, moving out."
With a tired bur satisfied grin, the Corporal made for the gate, grasping it by the handle and pulling it open all the way. The gate's metal squeaked in response on its hinges, and in a moment Carlos was through, scanning the area ahead with his rifle. Offering HUNK a smile of her own, despite her puzzlement and curiosity, her wish to ask the agent about the hospital further, Jill drew her sidearms again and went in next, raising the pistols at the ready. HUNK followed behind her, raising his own modified weapon, also sweeping the area with his laser sight protectively, as before. Jill stepped through the gate, standing at Carlos's side and pausing while HUNK closed the gate behind them and drew up to her other side. She took the time to look over the park with familiarity... a pang of bittersweet memory. Years passed. It had been some time since she'd ever come here, but it all returned as though it were yesterday.
There was no sign of any creatures, from what she could quickly discern... neither mutations or the living dead. In this section of the park, anyways. Recognizing this, she slowly lowered her sidearms again, but kept a firm grip on them. There were tall trees in two separate rows on opposite sides of the park's spacious front plaza, with bushes and flowers around their bases, adding greenery to the sights. Close by each of the garden sections were a row of pairs of joined wooden park benches. Cast iron light fixtures and posts were scattered about the area, and there were a series of walkways and stone paths and stairs with railings around the front, illuminated by them. A man made pool of murky water lay directly ahead of them, deep from the rain, each droplet reverberating on the surface.
The pool stretched further down the area out of sight, beneath a small bridge that a couple staircases led to, directly over the center of the area. Further beyond the bridge was an overlooking section at the top of a taller stone staircase, that oversaw the entire plaza. It branched off to another staircase leading to the west side of the plaza, specifically to the gate that led to the park's fountain, and the other sections of the park beyond it. That section to the west, leading deeper into the park, wasn't where they needed to travel... rather their destination would be the forest pathway close by. She didn't want to think about what might be lurking there, but they would be finding out soon enough anyways. The night offered all manner of surprises. Beside her, Carlos piped up, drawing her focus off the familiar surroundings. Bringing her back to the present.
"Where to then, Supercop?"
"Over there.", Jill pointed Matilda to the right hand side of the stone pathway, with Carlos's eyes following. Taking the lead for a moment, she stepped past Carlos and the pool, gesturing for the two men to follow her past the benches. "There's a forest path to the east leading down to the pond, and out towards the suspension bridge over the Circular River to the Dead Factory... near the northern edge of the city. Come on."
"Now that's more like it. A nice and straight forward path for a change. No more backtracking either. I thought for a minute there this was going to be complic-..."
He broke off all at once at a sudden noise close by interrupting them. There was a loud splash from the murky pool, and Jill's eyes snapped over that way. Something with a long, snake-like shape traveled quickly over the surface of the water towards them, and emerged, jumping out of the pool with ease in the direction of the survivors. Jill's gaze widened on the mutated worm that sprang forth... its flesh and form like swollen, sticky green cords of rope. It was thick with muscle, more like a serpent's body at first glance than a worm's... at least a meter long. Thick, tough flesh as well. It squirmed quickly and noisily in HUNK's direction, mandible mouth not unlike its mother's massive maw parting and snapping hungrily... complete with four separate fangs, one in each corner. Hissing.
Before the agent could raise his weapon to fire, Jill's Samurai Edge snapped off a shot and hit it in the middle, the impact knocking it into the ground. It squealed loudly upon the impact, spraying flesh, muscle and sickly dark green fluids all over the rain soaked stone pathway, still squirming helplessly on the spot. HUNK brought his boot down on the spot where its head should be, crushing it under his heel. It continued squirming weakly below, but began to slow and stop altogether. This would have been the end of it, but it wasn't alone. All along the pool there were ripples and splashes, as on several sides its brethren burst forth out of the water, intent on attacking the group of survivors all at once. By now prepared, the three opened fire as soon as the sliding worms lunged at them. A couple were shot out of the air, mid lunge, by HUNK and Carlos... the rest had to be dodged, before they could be dealt with. One was too close to Jill for her to get a bead, as HUNK had done she brought her boot down on its head with all she had and crushed it, gore leaking from underneath.
As she crushed it to death, she shot the head off another one as it tried to squirm its way out of the murky pool. It slumped over the side of the basin, heavily leaking the putrid green contents of its body. Despite how quick they were, and their shapes, their bulk worked against them, leaving plenty of surface to be shot. Further down, HUNK had set a couple of them on fire with his incendiary rounds, while Carlos was opening up with his assault rifle's bursts, three round strikes on every one he could hit... with another burst once they were on the ground, a coup de grace, just to be sure. Each burst split them into separate, oozing severed parts, which themselves moved in their death throes., and it rained shell casings. One lunged close, almost enough to bite his arm, before Carlos stuck his combat knife through its head, killing it almost instantly as he retracted the blade.
When the gunfire died down, and the squirming, messy remains had gone still, Jill counted over a dozen of them in all. They had been lurking down beneath the surface of the fountain all together, either in wait of prey to drain... or because it was their nature as worms to be attracted to water. She thought back and remembered her high school science classes... worms couldn't drown as humans and most other land beings could. They could survive several days submerged underwater. To say nothing of what T-Virus mutated worms might be capable of. If there were anymore down there... they weren't emerging. Regardless, she instinctively drew back with the others, keeping well away from the pool in case any more surprises decided to make themselves known. Her eyes rose again, surveying the entirety of the plaza... and the area beyond the western gate. She could imagine if the sliding worms had reached here, there were far more of them out there in the park. There was a cemetery out that way, and worms did so love the dirt. And decomposing bodies for that matter. Although she lowered her pistols, she remained entirely on her guard, jolted to life by the sudden shock of the attack, her pains all but forgotten for the moment, adrenaline surging.
"Oh God...", Carlos muttered aloud at last, very slowly lowering his rifle, running a gloved hand through his soaked hair. He crouched down and wiped off his green gore stained combat knife in a nearby puddle, before putting it back in its sheath. He lowered his own rifle with reluctance, studying the scattered, putrid remains of the mutated flesh illuminated beneath the tall cast iron light posts. "Not these things again..."
"Again? You encountered them before?"
"In the hospital, when we were looking for your cure.", Carlos replied darkly, trading a knowing looking with the masked agent at his side. They hadn't been green and sleek, last time... rather red, soaked from their recent feeding, and from emerging from the stomach lining if a zombified hospital patient, intestines bursting out. Dragging the blood all over the floor... so slick his boots had almost slipped in it, before he'd mowed them all down. "It's a long, nauseating story that I don't want to get into right now. Think Aliens. Let's just say when we get out of here, worms and leeches are permanently on my phobia list."
"T-Virus infected leeches again? You guys found mutated leeches in there too?"
"They found us."
"You could say that. In the form of a Leech Man. An infected... covered in them. A whole swarm... directing it like a puppet."
Carlos replied quietly, not bothering to again look up at the man who had saved him from the creature and his own mistake. He could feel the silent agent's eyes on the back of his head anyways, as the images returned of the burning, screaming Leech Man. It running for the fire alarm, fleeing before HUNK. Even as he studied the dead sliding worms, he saw it again... moving to trap him inside the elevator, reaching its writhing limb towards him. Behaving with unnerving intelligence for something like it. Then again... he hadn't seen anything quite like it before, and probably never would. The Pale Heads were another thing altogether, to him. Although Jill watched him with evident curiosity, Carlos moved on quickly, pushing it aside as best he could.
"Never mind. I'm just surprised it took so long for us to run into these worms again... they're probably all over the city by now. And HUNK told me the two of you ran into their mother, didn't you?"
"Yes. Just our rotten luck, I suppose. Apparently they primarily dwell in the sewers and underground. Warm places. Attacked us at Central Street Station."
Jill answered grimly, moving her own eyes HUNK's way as the Corporal had done. The masked man met and held her gaze for a time. They had both shared separate experiences with him that they would never forget, Jill realized. Whatever they had been forced to deal with at the hospital was their own grim story... while what had happened in the sewers, among other places, was hers and his. In the middle of the infested city, his presence alone had been the difference between life and death. She wondered about those infected leeches... remembering what Rebecca had told her about her own experiences with them in the Arklay Mountains. The way they had brought James Marcus back to... life. If it could be called that. What she'd been forced to survive on her own with no backup. Jill wasn't sure which of the monstrosities were worse... all she knew was that she wanted nothing to do with either of them, that the sooner they left the park behind the better.
"That's where I... we, met their mother. And managed to fight her off. I didn't meet any of her children until now."
"Yeah... I know they dwell in warm places alright. Still... that sounds like a story and a half. I only got the trimmed down version from Secret Agent Man."
"Never mind, Carlos.", Jill shook her head slowly, the rain dripping down her face, her gaze finally moving off into thin air. She could still feel HUNK watching her, watching both of them... and she appreciated it more than she could say. The protective eye he kept on her. "I'd rather forget all about it myself. Most of it, anyways. Let's just get the hell out of here. If we get out of here I'll tell you about it if you tell me about this 'Leech Man' you boys ran into. In the meantime, I'm taking point this time... or are there any objections... before I do it anyways?"
"None from me, Supercop. It's your city. Do your thing."
"Very well, Valentine. For now. Remain close. Tread carefully."
"I haven't been so far?"
Jill asked him with a slight, tired smile on her bruised features, gesturing to the state of her variously injured body. Carlos uttered a grim chuckle at that, while HUNK merely shook his rain soaked, battle scarred helmet slowly, remaining silent. The three survivors returned to a mostly quiet state in the midst of the noisy night. Jill, taking the lead at last, moved quickly down past the pool, its bridge and the park benches to the eastern side of the park, with both men following closely. HUNK's laser sight hovered ahead of her, watching the corners and area just in case. Passing one of the cast iron light posts and the trees of the garden, Jill reached the top of the winding stairwell lowering out of sight to the pond passage. Without a second thought, she began to descend down past the light fixtures and around and down the stairs. The further they traveled, the fainter the moans of the dead became... mercifully. But they never went away. There were just too many of them. She'd made this walk before, and often, as a little girl with her parents, grand parents... and more than a few times as a teenager. She'd loved this park, the whole of it, had come here with her gossiping, much louder and more talkative friends. Sometimes she'd done her homework here... she'd come in the winter and the summer irrespective of the weather. Now here she walked again, fully grown, and visiting one last time with two people she'd never thought to find herself in the company of. Much less fond of. In spite of everything, it touched a tiny smile to her lips, hearing them walking behind her.
Where HUNK was silent as the grave, focused, Carlos was muttering, cursing and grunting painfully under his breath as they descended together. It summed up everything about their many differences. Even then, they had worked together to save her life. This was the least she could do for them, now, taking the lead. At last they reached the final set of stairs, and walking down it, Jill surveyed the area ahead. She could glimpse the boardwalk already... a long wooden jetty pathway stretching out as a bridge through the pond and around the left corner, in the direction of the forest path beyond. The wooden jetty, along with the base of the stairs, was illuminated entirely along the way, by tall posts with an orb-like light, each on a respective tiny concrete island base beside the boardwalk. She could see the forest pathway in the distance, the thick concentration of trees and greenery. The forest of the park. The heavy rains had risen the murky water more than usual, she could tell... there was plant life everywhere, bushes, shrubs, lily pads in the water. There was a white marble statue, on a column in the water off to the right, of a bird with its wings spread. The forests saw all manner of birds, and in better weather ducks and their babies would swarm the ponds... she had fed them bread every time she could. Now they had mostly flown south for the gradually approaching winter. For the best, really... pretty soon their spot here would be evaporated anyways. They would need a new home. Most of the birds that remained in the city were out in the streets, now... fed on flesh... like the rest of the monsters.
The sounds of the forest and pond, buzzing of insects, distant bird noises in the night... a living and breathing environment. It occupied her ears, more so than the moans did. She welcomed it. She welcomed all of it. The peaceful sights and sounds were a change from the hellish concrete cityscape of the rest of the dead city. No fires burned here... not yet. It might well have been as it had before the outbreak. There was a second white marble statue ahead, also of a bird... this one of a falcon or hawk, carrying away a fish it had plucked from the pond. On the opposite side of the jetty, in the pond to the left was a third statue, this one of a cougar watching its prey. Each of the statues had been there for years. As long as she could remember. She stood at the bottom of the staircase, the mercenary and agent on either side of her, themselves getting the lay of the land, before she started forward again, walking on to the wooden jetty, her footsteps echoing in the night. They followed her, lagging a little ways behind her... but she had taken no more than a few more steps when something burst forth from the water, jumping high into the air, landing its bulk on to the jetty in the space between her and the men.
Carlos shouted a curse instinctively, and even Jill yelled out with alarm, spinning around on the spot, heart racing, to find a Hunter... a B.O.W type she had never seen before. It was not entirely different from the reptilian types she had killed numerous of... but instead of being lizard-like, it was, quite fittingly close to the pond, clearly amphibian. Where reptilian cells were mixed with human ones and the T-Virus, it was rather clear this thing had been mixed with a frog... among other things. Its giant maw opened and closed, its bulky, muscled flesh was tinted a sickly blue tone, with some purple for the veins popping out of its flesh, and the flesh on the surface of its belly. It stood up on two legs, with big webbed feet... to say nothing of the large webbed hands at the end of a pair of long arms. It had no eyes... but it had slits for a nose, and could clearly sense all of them, by their movement and sounds... as much a predator as the reptilian variants, but a different manner of Hunter. Although short, around five feet tall, it was stocky, and built powerfully. It let out a hiss... maw of teeth parting in four sections like a flower to reveal its long, thick prehensile tongue within its gullet. More tendril than tongue... reminding her at once of the Tyrant.
Before either she could level her pistols at it, or it could lunge at her, the Corporal instinctively rushed forward and fired a burst into the side of its head with his assault rifle. It uttered a scream of pain as the rounds struck it, blood burst forth from the tears in its flesh, maw snapping closed protectively and whirled around on him, clumsily swiping towards the rifle in his hands. Carlos managed to bash it in the head with the butt before a wild swipe with great strength knocked it loose from his grip. It clattered down by his feet on the surface of the wooden jetty, and he swore again, drawing his SIG Pro from its holster in a hurry. The moment he did, the Hunter barreled forward and wrapped its hands around him in a bear hug and started to pull him down over the side of the jetty, into the pond. It all happened so fast, that there was an instant splash as their bodies hit the pond, spraying everywhere all over the wooden walkway. The two were not submerged, managed to mostly keep their footing... the water, although higher than usual, wasn't high enough for that where they scrambled upright and stood in its midst.
"CARLOS!"
As Jill and HUNK reacted, aiming their weapons over the side together, they were unable to get a bead on the Hunter beneath the Corporal, the two struggling too intensely to safely fire. Carlos standing in their way. At the same time HUNK and her shouted at him to get clear, but lost in the adrenaline of the fight for his life he didn't hear them. Grunting and cursing loudly, fighting the injured Hunter's strength as it attempted to pull him under, Carlos rose his SIG Pro a few more inches, pressed it against its muscled flesh and managed to squeeze the trigger. The effect was instantaneous, at point blank range. It screamed and buzzed beneath him in the water, while Carlos fired several more times, shooting it in the head and stomach... everywhere he could get it. Simultaneously, adrenaline by now coursing through his veins in the fight for his life, he drew his combat knife and began to stab it in the smooth surface of its stomach, over and over, ripping and tearing its intestines out, ripping and tearing over and over. Its tight hold retracted from him as a gout of its deep red, orange tinted blood filled the water. But that wasn't good enough for the mercenary who by now had gone berserk, a flurry of movement and cursing, continuing to stab it. He emptied his magazine in the thing, popped out the spent magazine, injected another, and stood up, still firing rounds into it and stabbing it everywhere he could get at it. The water was nearly up to his chest, and everything in the young man's face was ancient and furious. The Hunter was in its death throes, still shaking, seizing and moving as it began dying, webbed hands trying in vain to grab at him again. By now, the glowing red laser sight of the MP5 lowered, and Jill's pistols copied the action instinctively, the young man having it well in hand... and visibly needing an outlet. All the same... Jill watched on with disquieted concern.
The steadily dismembered Hunter died before the second half of Carlos's magazine was spent, giant mouth agape, revealing its maw and long tongue again... its organs and limbs being shot and cut apart... Carlos fired them all anyways. He fired until the SIG Pro clicked over and over again, emptied a second time. He still aimed the pistol... only slowly easing up on the trigger... and gradually lowering it to his side, breathing hard. Even slower did he retract the dripping knife from its guts, and with both hands he pushed its body away, watching it float on the water, drifting back from him. He breathed raggedly throughout, still numbed by the shock, and waiting for it to abate, the rain pouring down his disheveled, bruised yet entirely awake features. Muscles still tensed as he held the knife and pistol in a death grip. Silence lowered between the survivors, Jill not taking her eyes off the Corporal... tension high in the air, over the patter of rain around them on the surface of the pond. The moans beyond and forest sounds. A minute or two passed, and at last Carlos turned around, in their direction, and looked up at them on top of the wooden jetty above. He said nothing... but his eyes were wide and baffled by the ambush... by just what the hell had happened as the rest of them. Or as startled as Jill, at least. Beside her though, a muffled tone emerged from a mask again, unperturbed by what had just taken place.
"Think it might be dead, Corporal."
Jill's eyes widened, aghast at the unexpected and inappropriate response from the masked man. She looked over at him... meeting his cracked and intact lenses. He merely looked back at her and down to the mercenary in the pond... she opened her mouth to speak, but was startled when laughter began to pour out of it. She started to laugh, against herself, knowing full well that she shouldn't be. But she couldn't help herself. She struggled to keep it in, shaking slightly, but it all came bursting out at once, echoing through the forest. The terror of the last moments inexplicably turned into mirth, and took over, her eyes filling with tears. She didn't mean it in a cruel fashion, and she hoped the mercenary understood that... he just looked... ridiculous, in full military garb, standing in the pond soaking wet next to the horrifically mutilated Hunter steadily floating away on a slight current. For a moment, Carlos merely glowered at the two... but slowly, his mouth twitched into a crooked smile himself. Finally, after a few moments, he joined Jill in laughter, lowering his head. The insane response to an insane situation, she was sure. The sheer absurdity of it all. If it wasn't tears of laughter, it would be more tears of fear or sorrow, at how close it had been. Over her and Carlos's far louder laughter, she heard it again, that hard, sharp sound from his mask that might have... that almost certainly was a laugh. But it was the first of the three of them to fall silent again, and rather quickly.
"I noticed too... somewhere along the line. And this ain't as much fun as it looks either, Secret Agent Man. You two are welcome in though. Water's fine.", Carlos managed at last when he caught his breath and found his voice, when the laughter had died down between the three of them. He let the second spent magazine drop from the SIG Pro and loaded a fresh one in, tucking it back into its holster. He cleaned off the blade of his knife in the pond, and sheathed it again. At last, he reached a fingerless gloved hand up in their direction, his eyes all of a sudden looking very weary once more. "Now, help me up. I know we've been through a lot together... but I'd rather not spend the rest of this night stuck in this fucking swamp."
"It's a pond, Carlos, not a swamp."
"Couple of goddamn comedians this evening, aren't you? Just my luck. It's bad enough the thing tried mating with me, I don't want to be frog food next."
"Keep it together.", HUNK's muffled tone spoke again, and he leaned forward, pressing the safety on his MP5 and slinging it. He lowered his gloved hand down in the direction of the soaking wet mercenary, over the railing. HUNK's gloved hand clasped with Carlos's fingerless one, grasping it firmly. "We hear you, Corporal. The entire park does. Probably headed this way."
"Lucky me. Don't mind being the dinner bell. Suddenly in a monster killing mood. Someone do me a favor and help check me for leeches."
"There aren't any in this pond."
"Just like there weren't any giant mutated frogs?"
"Point taken."
Holstering her sidearms, Jill stepped back, clearing some room for them, while HUNK easily pulled the young man, armor, gear and all, back up off his boots and on to the boardwalk, setting him down on it. Carlos's midsection was covered in the floating Hunter's blood... but he retracted his grip from HUNK and stood beneath the rain, looking up into the darkness of the sky. The heavy downpour began to, almost at once, wash the fresh blood off his uniform like a shower, washing it all to the wood beneath his feet. Jill took the time to move closer and look him over, as best he could, for any of the parasites he was so worried about lately. After a few moments, Carlos began to take off his boots and empty them out, water pouring out in a torrent as he tipped them over. Jill, satisfied, drew back from him, and closer beside HUNK, who overlooked the scene with his arms folded, unusually at ease in his stance, Jill noted. Without a weapon drawn or at the ready. He silently deferred to her with her Samurai Edge and Matilda to look out for the group while they reorganized themselves. Since she had met him he had been a hundred percent alert and focused... hell, he probably still was... but all the same... he wasn't holding one of his weapons, in an infected park.
Even with his weapons unequipped though... he stood like a man without fear... comfortably... and she felt his strength. A silent, stolid strength... unnatural confidence radiating off him in the middle of this hell that had encouraged her since they met. Felt his eyes under the mask watching over her in return, as she saw her twin red reflections staring back at herself. War was his home... she recognized. In a way it never had been to her, even being an official member of an army, as he was not. He was a soldier through and through, even if he couldn't see it... or denied it... even lacking tags or a technicality to prove it. A natural born soldier and leader, when placed on the battlefield. Taught by Umbrella or not... there was something more to it, within him. Something none of their lessons could have accomplished with another man. Whoever had found him, brought him into the fold... had probably abandoned him from his vague words on the matter... had found someone unique. And had been a fool to leave him. He was special... and not just to her. Or maybe she was just being a sappy romantic again... a high school girl towards a bad boy, at the worst possible time to be one. An impulse that had only been growing the longer she spent around him, the more she learned. The closer they grew. And more so since the courtyard... since his lips, his touch... his warmth.
"Jill! Stop drooling a minute and help me out here!"
With a start Jill returned from her contemplation, looking back around at the voice. To find Carlos looking himself over for any leeches nearby. At last, willing herself to concentrate, feeling the agent's gaze throughout, she continued to help examine Carlos, even knowing the answer that inevitably touched her lips as she met his eyes again.
"You're good for leeches, tough guy. You weren't in there long enough anyways, even if there were any."
"Good news for once. Imagine that."
Carlos grumbled and muttered to himself as he tried his best to wring out all the water he could from his uniform and pants. To little avail. He was already soaked before his plunge into the pond... and the rain wasn't going anywhere. Slowly shaking her head, she met HUNK's lenses again, looking into the reflections, and turned her gaze down to the pond. He followed her eyes to the dead, floating B.O.W, drifting off gradually, lazily. It could very well have been sleeping on the pond water... if not for the state of it, of course.
"Do you know what kind of Hunter that was, HUNK? I haven't run into them before.", Jill admitted, breaking the silence between them at last. Gesturing a hand in its direction, before turning her eyes sideways to his mask. Releasing a quiet breath, the warmth misting slightly on the cold air. "Just the Hunter Alphas. They were all over the mansion and grounds. Fresh off the assembly line, I take it?"
"I'd say so. It's a Gamma. Umbrella Europe thought they'd try their hand at it, compete with Birkin. That was the result. Some lunatic was working on them. There were a couple in the hospital's laboratory, in stasis tanks... probably a variant. They looked a bit different from those I am familiar with. And there were some Hunter Betas lurking around the hospital as well."
"Hunters must be a favored model of Umbrella's clients, from how many were made. And if they're getting copycats now within the company. One of their successes."
"Yes. Birkin created another series known as Hunter R's in his laboratory beneath the city. They were released in the chaos at NEST. Another reptile type, like the Alpha, but different. I killed the ones I encountered, but there were many released. Escaped the underground."
"Someone else's problem. We have enough on our plate. Great... starting to sound like you now."
"Flattery will get you everywhere, Valentine."
"Haven't I got there already?"
"Not in the slightest. Haven't had anything yet."
"I just bet. So... you can pilot a helicopter? Good to know. Any other hidden secret talents I should know about?"
"My training was extensive. Was taught to handle weapons and military vehicles of all all manner. High tech. Million dollar equipment. Umbrella Security Service only accepts the best for agents. The basic training is grueling. Comparable to Delta Force or S.A.S. The advanced training on Rockfort Island is far more so. Often lethal. As for flying helicopters... it was gunships usually. Learned from the best pilot I know. Nowhere near the best at it myself, but I can get the job done, if need be."
"Mmm. Good to know. Can fly us to the closest hotel. For some rest and recovery, of course."
"Of course."
"What the hell kind of sweet nothings are you two whispering over there?", Carlos spoke up with morbid amusement from the sidelines. At last he had finished wringing out his clothing, and was reaching down to the ground of the wooden walkway, recovering his fallen M4 and examining it, making sure it hadn't been damaged. Once he was satisfied, he drew it close to his chest, slinging it securely, clearly intent on not dropping it again. Adjusting his cross necklace and dog tags at his collar. Looking their way again with a risen brow. "All I know is I'm soaked in swamp water and frog guts, freezing my ass off, have a huge fucking headache, every joint is aching and I almost got my ass kicked by a giant Frogger. Then I went Doomguy on him. Can you two skip the foreplay, and we call it a day?"
"Just be glad it didn't have claws, like the others, Corporal. And that you had the claw here. Or you'd be the one floating down there in that pond. Or swallowed whole. Seen what the Gammas can do to a person."
"Comforting thought, but I get the picture. No more wrestling with B.O.W.'s."
"Smarter than you look. Let's move out. Nearly there."
"Way ahead of you, man. Both of you."
Carlos took point again without hesitation, raising his rifle to his shoulder and turning on the boardwalk, aiming down it. He switched on his shoulder mounted flashlight and began to scan the surface of the pond, the areas the light posts didn't reach. Waiting for something, anything to emerge, from either the deeper waters of the pond, or the forest beyond. When nothing did, he drew a low breath, resolving himself. He moved into a slower, methodical pace... the movements of a soldier as he walked ahead to the bend in the jetty. Entirely alert and at the ready. Jill followed after him, raising the Samurai Edge and Matilda and keeping her eyes sharp. As soon as Carlos turned the bend, drawing closer to the cougar statue close by, there was a muffled screech and another bursting of water as a second Hunter Gamma, drawn by their movements, jumped high out of the water, landing heavily on the boardwalk in front of them.
This one's tone was a bit different, Jill noted... darker, and sure enough it had a pair of razor sharp claws on each hand, as HUNK had said. A different variant of the same model. It hissed in their direction, but before it could lunge at them, claws outstretched, a powerful light caught it full in the face and the roar of Carlos's rifle greeted it, in several powerful bursts. Shell casings flying in a stream. The impacts blew apart its big head, spraying blood everywhere... and he took the time to shoot off its arms, just to be safe. Popping in a fresh magazine, keeping a slight distance, Carlos watched it die, eyes pleased. When it stopped moving, blood flowing down over the side of the jetty and pouring into the water, Carlos strode over to it. Drawing back his boot, he kicked it and its limbs back over the side of the walkway, where it landed with another splash, floating as the other one did. Only then did Carlos lower his rifle, flashlight moving between the puddle of blood stains being dissipated by the heavy rains, and its body. Spitting into the pond contemptuously.
"Not this time, asshole."
Satisfied, he turned his attention back ahead... and Jill took one more look at its floating form. It hadn't stood a chance against the quite justifiably pissed off mercenary. For all his joking manner, when Carlos set his mind to something, and got serious, he had talent. Tenacity. How else could he have survived where the rest of his friends and fellow mercenaries had died? They were, the three of them, a rather unique and fitting team, between their talents and personalities. She would never understand what had brought them all together, how they had managed to hold it together... but was grateful for it. This was the last chance... the last escape, for all of them. Jill looked on past him, to the end of the walkway they stood on. The gate lay beyond it, tall cast iron fencing with jagged spikes residing at the top. The gate in question led to the woodland pathway, moving deeper through the forests of the park. Jill double timed it down after Carlos, HUNK close by, and once the three stood before it, under a nearby spotlight, he gripped the handle, pushed the creaking gate open and burst through, aiming down the subsequent pathway.
Jill moved through after him, raising her weapons at the ready. The forest path had two fences, on either side of it, and a long dirt road. Beyond the fences on either side were the thick groves of trees, shrubs and bushes of the park, leading off into darkness out of sight... by contrast, a series of lights illuminated the pathway, as the boardwalk had been. Carlos started down the path, Jill following, and all of a sudden as she heard a loud, ravenous... and all too familiar barking and snarling. A powerful doberman, infected as they all seemed to be, bounded around the next bend in the path and down in the direction of the survivors. It slobbered mindlessly, rabid, feeling only a savage hunger like the other creatures. Before the others could kill it, Jill rose HUNK's high powered machine pistol, Matilda... she still wondered about the origin of the name... and shot the bloodied dog through the head. Dropping it down to the forest path bleeding instantaneously. She put another couple rounds into it just to be sure, with both Matilda and her Samurai Edge. It lie there twitching, bleeding out... gradually truly dying. All the same, she was tempted to flip the switch on the impressive modified machine pistol to burst or full auto and unleashing on it to be sure... but recognized the waste of rounds it would prove. Even with the extended magazines, one could be sprayed through in seconds.
The infected dogs were among the most difficult for her to kill, in the emotional sense, even knowing they were no longer truly dogs. She loved dogs... all kinds of them, especially big German Shepherd police dogs. She'd worked with them, little differently than she had her fellow officers. They had been her fellow officers. She was reminded of Ace again... the picture she had recovered of him at the department. One of the only keepsakes she had managed to bring along with her. What the T-Virus did to innocent creatures made her want to vomit. It was bad enough what it had done to people... but the T-Virus violated and hideously reshaped every form of life. She tightened her jaw grimly as they approached its body, which had stopped twitching by now. Still, she kept a slight distance from it to be safe. She'd spent enough time hovering over infected corpses to know better, to be careful. Moving around the same bend it had come down, they caught sight of another pair of infected hounds, so badly rotted and cut up that she couldn't tell what breed they were... big dogs, at least. With all the noise and commotion, and the scent of the survivors, the hounds, who had been feasting on a body further down the path, were instantly alerted.
Barking and snarling as the last one had, they bounded forward... this time when Jill raised HUNK's pistol, she was joined by Carlos, who skipped the canine quips this time and focused on killing the monster. The two of them shot down the dogs with ease, the roaring bursts of the rifle joining the staccato of rounds from each of her sidearms, ripping through the infected dogs, and making short work of them. They didn't stand a chance on the straight winding path... infected dogs were a far greater threat in the city, where they could weave around cars, jump over obstacles and barricades, pursue their victims to the bitter end. But on a solitary pathway, running straight at armed opposition, they were as simple to dispatch as the zombies. They let them twitch and go still, before pressing forward on the path. The three of them continued on, passing the rotting dog's bodies and moving down the path in the direction of the former man they had been feasting on. It lay close to a familiar red explosive oil barrel, along with a trash can. His uniform was recognizable at once... the same one Carlos was wearing, albeit in an even more shredded condition, and a beret affixed on his head... the same sort Mikhail had worn.
The figure's face was pressed down into the wet dirt... and the U.B.C.S. mercenary's throat had been torn out, a large puddle of blood and flesh beneath him. There were powerful bite marks all along his bloodied left arm as well... the hounds had had a good feast before the survivors had arrived. Jill paused before the body, as her gaze moved to the back of his head. Tucking away her pistols into their holsters, she knelt down to examine it. Grey matter, bone and blood were all over his neck, still dripping, oozing from a telltale hole in the back of his skull. She began searching it for any identification or items of interest. She couldn't find any dog tags around his neck, oddly... most of the U.B.C.S. bodies she came across had them in some form. Likely the ones shambling out there wore them as well. In the palm of his hand, however, she found a neatly folded letter... she retrieved it at once. She spotted another item of interest close to it, glinting from the light shining down overhead, laying next to his open hand in the wet dirt. A rather familiar item, a labelled park key, with a black grip on it. Carlos's impatient voice spoke from somewhere up overhead.
"Well? Anything?"
"I'm not sure how he died."
"Seems pretty obvious to me. It was chow time for the hounds."
"They certainly had their fill. But they didn't shoot him in the back of the head. There are no weapons on him either, or shell casings. From the look of him, it's a fairly fresh kill."
"What the hell..."
"Anything else?"
"No dog tags or identification, but there was a letter and a key on him."
"So in other words, nothing important?", Carlos replied with a wry smile, looking away from the pair of them and looking on down the last pathway of the forest. She followed his gaze, spotting what he did... the gate at the end of the park leading to the suspension bridge... and subsequently, to the Dead Factory beyond that bridge over the Circular River. To escape. Not to mention another body laying down there... also clad in the U.B.C.S. uniform. Carlos flashed the two of them a grin, and began to move away from them, down the path, looking pleased again, as if the incident in the pond hadn't happened. "Last one to the gate is buying the drinks when we get out of here."
Without waiting for an answer, he turned away entirely and bolted down the path, double timing it all the way, rifle at the ready though, just in case. Jill shook her head slightly with exasperation. Some things never changed, even now. At least he remained in sight down there and as soon as he got there he deemed the area near the gate secure and began to examine the other uniformed corpse as she had done. He seemed in slightly better spirits, or at least he was back to faking it well. She hoped it was genuine, with escape so close now, and time on their side. When she looked over to HUNK, she found he was not paying the slightest bit of attention to Carlos's antics. Rather, he stared hard at her, with an outstretched hand, her reflections looking back at her, his low, muffled voice speaking up again calmly.
"The letter, Valentine. Give it to me."
"Oh... so it's 'Valentine' again, is it? Even with Carlos out of earshot? And not even a please?"
"Would you kindly, Jill?"
"Better." Jill smiled cheekily, handing it off to the agent, gloved fingers rubbing against his deliberately. HUNK looked at their touching hands for a moment, then took the letter from her, pressing the safety and letting his MP5 hang from his shoulder on its sling. Holding the document close under the light. "So much for finders keepers. Is it official U.S.S. property now?"
"You can keep it. I just want to read it."
HUNK studied the document in silence for a time... not even bothering to read it out loud. As such, Jill stepped up close beside the man, gripping the other side of the document and lowering it a bit, so they could read it together. She moved her other hand comfortably to his shoulder, and kept it there. She enjoyed the closeness to him. While HUNK might have been silent, Jill read the contents out loud for him.
Monitor Operation: Watchdog
Mission Requirements: Bravo 16
1) Obtain and secure biological samples and data of all the information pertaining to this operation. Observe and record combat data on the U.B.C.S, B.O.W.'s and mutations.
2) Destroy all the evidence that cannot be recovered, including the medical facility that has the medical treatment data. Assassinate the designated targets and witnesses.
3) Keep tabs on the guinea pig's ability to accomplish the mission.
Once your mission is complete, evacuate the area to one of the designated extraction points. Remember that you must not help anyone who is not a Supervisor, nor bring anything back that might be traced to where it belongs. Failure to uphold protocols will be punishable by Article 12, to be carried out by the Captain of the Guard.
When she had finished, HUNK lowered his hand away from the letter, leaving it in her own. Jill studied the paper more closely, and her gaze fell down to the dead U.B.C.S. Monitor. What he and the other operative, further down the path, had been doing in the park Jill wasn't sure. Had they been fleeing to the Dead Factory with the same plan in mind that they had? Had it been one of the designated extraction points? Had they been headed there to gather more data? Regardless, it hadn't worked out for them. Something, or someone rather, had intervened instead.
"This man was one of Nikolai's type. A Supervisor, a Monitor. Same with his buddy down there, probably. What the hell does it all mean?"
"Nothing good. It never is with Monitors. Colonel Vladimir sent more of his people than usual on this operation. Wants to get the most for his money."
"Colonel Vladimir again, huh? I remember looking into him, high ranking man within Umbrella... but it's been awhile, and I didn't get much. Was focusing my investigation mostly on Raccoon City... but Chris and I did some research on the big players in Europe, before Chris took off. Gathered some names and basics at least. Could you give me another run down on the bastard? Probably know him much better."
"Colonel Sergei Vladimir. Former Soviet Army. Head of the Monitors, created them, internal surveillance and spies. Heavily involved in the Tyrant project. As in they use his rare genetic material for their experimentation. Founded the U.B.C.S. Lord Spencer's current right hand within the Inner Circle. Captain of the Guard. Rabid loyalist, him and his followers have an internal faction of Elites. Think Stalin's NKVD. Not that you'll catch his name on any Supervisor related documents. The man is always certain to place himself where the evidence isn't, and his expendable operatives where it is. Plausible deniability. High contempt for Umbrella Security Service, but can't do much about it. Its founder saw to that. And Lord Spencer himself. Thinks more like a politician, playing his chess games with people's lives, than a soldier these days. His former Communist masters taught him well. How to harm more people off than on the battlefield. Didn't take the end of the Cold War well, needed a new hobby. Umbrella was looking for talent... he felt right at home. For reasons I cannot fathom, Lord Spencer chose him. Welcomed him into his Inner Circle. Conflict ensued between him and U.S.S.'s founder."
"Quite a resume. Must be popular on the inside to be that deep in Spencer's pocket, for him to adopt the man. You don't sound like much of a fan."
"Nor him of me."
"Bad experience?"
"You could say that. Worked together before. Came down to a difference of opinions. And loyalties. Besides, fanatics don't make for reliable friends."
"The 'Guinea Pig'. Who do you think that is? The U.B.C.S men like Carlos they were using for B.O.W. combat data? The S.T.A.R.S? Our Pursuer? You? Me?"
HUNK stared back at her silently for a time... considering it visibly... before he slowly looked away, off to the side. Even though she couldn't read his expression... she didn't need to, she could read his body language. The rigid discomfort. Something troubled him. It told her a thousand things... regardless of having 'known' him for only a matter of days. Most of it she'd been blacked out. From the moment she'd met him he'd kept his guard up, reserved, he'd been unreadable. As time had gone on, between them... everything they had shared together, little by little it had slipped. It wasn't gone all the way... probably never would be... and would be back... but enough of it had slipped, and he didn't raise it back up again at once. As he surely would have in Carlos's proximity.
"Hey...", She spoke softly, raising a hand to the side of his mask, slowly tilting it back down her way. Redirecting his focus off his troubles. She peered up into her twin reflections in the crimson lenses, her expression gentle and sympathetic. Her fingers moved affectionately, comfortingly on his mask... although he couldn't feel it, she did it all the same on instinct. "Is everything ok, HUNK? Are you alright?"
"Yes." His muffled, expressionless voice returned to her at last. He rose taller, looking back at her for a moment. Then looked beyond her, nodding towards the path over her shoulder. "Continue on down to the gate and make sure it's secure. I'll be with you both in a moment. I just have a call to make."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Valentine. I must update my support team on my position. And inquire further with an intelligence source of mine about these Monitors. You keep an eye on the Corporal in the meantime. Someone has to."
"Hey, no arguments there... but who's going to keep an eye on you?"
"You will. I won't be out of your sight here. Go on. I'll get to the bottom of this. It's ok... Jill. Really. This is what I do. My world."
His voice became a touch quieter... gentler through the mask, and his gloved hand found out hers, and held it with tenderness, well aware of the throbbing burns there. She intertwined her fingers with his, ignoring the pain of the contact with ease. It filled her with more relief than it could pain. His tone was again the man from the courtyard... when he'd spoken her name without his mask. All the same... his words troubled her as much as the letter seemed to have bothered him. There was something more he was holding within... another weight added to all the many others he kept a secret. Still trying to hold most of them alone, even as he revealed more of them to her. A force of habit he was used to, being alone with his troubles.
"I know it is, HUNK. I think that's what frightens me."
"You have nothing to fear by me."
"Didn't say I was afraid of you. Haven't been in awhile. I'm afraid for you."
Her words were met with the silence of his gaze. Nothing more needed to be said between them... they simply looked back at each other and understood the other. Jill remained concerned, that wasn't going anywhere... but she obeyed his request for privacy, understanding. Slowly, with reluctance, Jill's hands left him, fingers trailing over his armored shoulder once, then she took a few steps backwards on the path, still watching him with a slight, grim smile on her lips. Then she turned on her boot heel and started down the final path, to the end, towards the gate, taking her time. Feeling his eyes on her rain soaked, bandaged back the entire time she departed. Before long, she made it down there. The second Monitor corpse was in the right hand corner of the fence beneath one of the tall light posts. The man, she could discern, was laying on his back, peering up into the light blankly. By the time she got there, Carlos had finished checking the body for spare bullets. He was tucking away some of what he had recovered into his backpack and sliding fresh ammunition magazines into his pouches. His head snapping back up in her direction as her shadow fell across him.
"Well?"
"Big time K.I.A. Shot in the back of the head, just like his buddy.", Carlos observed, standing back up and glancing casually at the corpse, before stepping away. "No dog tags either... no documents or a key. Just one more unfortunate son of a bitch. Who won't be needing his ammo anymore. Semper fi, bro."
"Semper fi. I gathered that. Recognize him at all?"
"Never saw him in my life. At least he ain't gonna rise on us. What's Bond up to down there?"
"Making a call. Take five."
"Calling up M, Q or his Doctor Moneypenny? He probably gets better coverage in a sewer with that thing than I do anywhere with my radio. You wouldn't believe some of the stations I picked up in the past few days during the outbreak. Cross talk. Some lunatic radio show host was screaming about how screwed everyone was, how it was all over. Regular Private Hudson the way he was going at it. Last I heard the zombies were storming into his studio. Doubt the poor bastard made it out."
"Yeah... so I gathered. Heard him too."
"Small world, huh?"
Jill looked away from his tired grin without answering, and away from the body, moving over to the tall fence, the crisscrossing metal of it and the gate. It was heavily padlocked by a thick yellow lock, with several chains draped over it reinforcing it. Peering through the bars, squinting, she could make out the shape of the suspension bridge, part of it anyways. Between the weather, nearby trees and darkness, she couldn't discern any details of the massive Dead Factory beyond... but it was out there. Their escape was close at hand. Close enough to reach out to. It was hard to believe, after all this time. She tried the key on the lock, twisting it... to no avail. Whatever the key was good for, it wasn't this lock. It didn't matter anyways. A mere gate and lock wasn't about to stop them. Tightening her grip on the key, she turned back in the direction of the path and leaned against the gate, folding her arms.
Off to the side, Carlos had moved over to a nearby blue park bench and was examining his rifle again, as well as the grenade launcher that had taken the plunge with him into the pond. Between that, he was adjusting the sights and the shoulder straps straps on each, in a world of his own, as she was in hers. Her eyes drifted on, from him and the body, back down the woodlands path... to the other survivor. He was, to her surprise, pacing back and forth on the spot as he spoke on the radio built into his combat uniform. Or perhaps it was his mask and helmet... or all three. It wasn't a movement or gesture she could recall seeing, him pacing. He always stood as still as a statue, when it wasn't time to move out. While he did pace and turn in a strict military fashion, it wasn't like him. He was probably talking to NIGHTHAWK again... or FLY GIRL, she remembered the codenames. Or perhaps one of his other contacts. His superiors? QUARTERMASTER? His enigmatic doctor? Lord Spencer for all she knew? Who was his intelligence contact?
She had no idea what his inner world was like and who was in it, his chain of command. Who he called his friends or allies, or his bosses. For once she felt like the outsider in the situation, far outside of him and his world. Her proximity was changing him. Though perhaps not as much as she thought. Or more likely, it had already been inside him... and she was just showing him the means of acknowledging it. All the same... he was letting her in. Had told her things... though her curiosity still burned. There was so much she didn't know... but was apprehensive about asking about. She'd already tried, in the courtyard... whatever it was had been a great weight he still carried on his shoulders. Painful. She understood... considering her own past. She had no expectations he would share it all with her... or that she would with him. It was enough for her that he was making an effort. Opening up gradually. Showing her the man under the ice. And... she was certain he was changing her just as much. Opening her eyes to possibilities she never would have imagined... thought possible.
HUNK continued pacing back and forth... like a lion trapped in a cage, she noted... and it was apt, within Raccoon Park. It also made her wonder about Raccoon Zoo... what had happened there. What had become of the animals. But then... she probably didn't want to know the answer to that one. He turned again on the spot, in the distance, and turned his head in her direction at last, meeting her gaze from afar. He nodded almost imperceptibly... she returned it with a smile... and he resumed his pacing. In spite of the reassurance, it did nothing to abate her concern for him. But then, she doubted anything was going to do that. A few more minutes passed of her watching and he seemed to get off the line with his contact. He stopped pacing and stood by himself in silence for a moment, considering something, looking away in the direction the dead man down there. Then he turned back their way fully, unslinging the submachine gun and began to march down the the forest path towards them. When he stepped into sight of both of them, Jill remained where she was, studying his body language. He appeared as rigid and distant as he had before. It couldn't mean anything good. Carlos glanced up from his work and addressed the agent absently.
"Hey, look what the cat dragged in. Took you long enough."
"Corporal. Were there any documents on the dead man?"
"Not that I could find, sir. Just spare rifle magazines. And just in the nick of time, I was almost out."
"The key doesn't work. Probably for one of the other sections of the park.", Jill piped up with another smile, holding it up in the light and then tucking it away into her pouch. She stepped back away from the locked gate, the padlocks and chains and gestured to them, raising a brow. "Much as I like lockpicking, figured you'd have your patented solution for bypassing most obstacles. By all means."
"Yes."
Remaining where he was in front of her, HUNK rose his MP5 until the laser sight sought out and touched the chains. He pulled the trigger, the submachine gun kicked in his gloved hands, a powerful echoing click of the silencer passing through the night as the chain and padlock broke in response, falling apart with sparks flying and flame and smoke rising. Carlos let out a loud sound of approval from over on the park bench while the agent lowered his weapon and started forward. Grasping the remains of the broken chains on the door, he pulled each of them off, dropping them to the forest path. Then he roughly kicked the gate wide open for them, a grunt emitting from his mask, remaining where he was before it... getting a glimpse of the area beyond the gate. Then slowly looking back their way, gesturing in the gate's direction.
"Get moving. Both of you."
"Just a minute, man, I gotta get everything in order here."
"Now, Corporal. No wasting time. No more delays."
"What's the rush? I know, nuclear missile and all, but the Dead Factory is right over there. We're home free baby, with hours to spare. Until then, our ride out of here isn't going anywhere."
"Thermobaric missile. And I'm not coming with you. You'll need all the time possible."
Jill's heart spasmed as she comprehended his words, she froze in front of the door before stepping through it, slowly turning instead and staring blankly into his lenses. Carlos's grin evaporated instantly from where he was and he too was filled with visible shock. The atmosphere changed at once between them, and Jill became aware immediately just how cold it was out. Coldness that had nothing to do with the rain or early morning. When she spoke it was with a disquieted, startled tone.
"What?"
"What the hell are you talking about, man?"
"No arguments. You are both to proceed to the Dead Factory together. Secure it and the helicopter from the infected and we'll rendezvous there later. There's something I need to do here at Raccoon park. We'll be in radio contact in the meantime."
"Hold on a minute man, you think you can drop a bombshell like that and just carry on?", Carlos demanded with indignation, eyes darkening the agent's way. Looking thoroughly baffled. "What the hell are you thinking? What were you talking about back there on the radio? What are you doing?"
"There's no debate to be had with a subordinate, Corporal. Or explanation required. This isn't a democracy. There is a chain of command. You are still under my authority, officially. You will fall in line."
"HUNK, this is fucking ridiculous. You're pulling rank all of a sudden just because we want some answers?"
"End of discussion."
"But...-"
"I'm not."
Both men broke off from the argument and looked her way, Carlos a little startled, HUNK's posture not changing in the least. He remained difficult to read right now... but that didn't matter. She knew what needed to be done, what she needed to inform him of. He wouldn't be happy, but that was on him, not her. She could only be true to herself. Honest with herself. And he was part of her, now. Who she had to be honest with. She spoke again steadily once she had their attention.
"Under your authority, or Umbrella's. Carlos might be. I'm not."
Jill clarified and reminded him, staring only at the agent, the U.B.C.S. Corporal fading away from her sight, along with their surroundings. Yes... she knew him better now... but she had almost forgotten this other side to the agent. It had been absent for a time... and she had wanted to forget about it. The coldness. The harshness. How he had been when they met... how he had been towards Sherry. Now in hindsight, she couldn't, it was part of him... and she cared for all of him, even this him. There had to be an amount of cruelty within him, after all Umbrella had put him through... working for them in the capacity he was. Carrying around the G-Virus for them. His dismissal of the many who died in the city... necessary casualties he had called them. The ends justifying the means. His impulse to abandon her to the fire in that apartment... not intervening for Brad. They might have been similar in certain ways... but they were just as different as well. She had to try to stay rational about the situation between them... even with the feelings she had for him. How much she cared about him. She would be disrespecting him and herself if she was anything other than herself. If she ignored her conscience.
"I'm just a civilian, remember? You were fond of reminding me that a couple days ago. Not even a police official. I was fired. A 'washed up cop', I believe you called me. I'm not a soldier anymore either. I just happen to be a highly trained civilian, now. There is no chain of command for me. Carlos might have to follow your orders, a chain of command at Umbrella... but I don't. We started working together based on an understanding. An agreement we shook hands on. Now for some reason you're trying to break that understanding and send us off so you can be alone to deal with God knows what. You might have no need to explain anything to Carlos... but you sure as hell do to me. I've been with you the longest. We nearly died together more than one. We had a deal, and you made a promise. Promises."
"Hell yeah Jill, go girl! You tell him what's what!"
"Shut up, Carlos. This is between me and him."
Her calm voice returned without even glancing at Carlos. Surprisingly, the young man did so, jaw snapping shut audibly, remaining off to the side, watching the pair of them. He was wide eyed and leaning back against the bench, all that was missing was popcorn. HUNK didn't even glance in his direction, take those lenses off her. Jill stepped closer up to HUNK, again gazing deeply into his lenses. She didn't need to say anything further just yet... her stance and expression told all the story he needed. She wasn't going anywhere, unless it was with him. At last, his muffled tone returned to her, tightly kept neutral.
"This isn't the time for an explanation, Valentine. No, you aren't under my authority. You're just going to have to trust me again."
"This has nothing to do with my trust of you. It's you who doesn't seem to trust us. This has everything to do with your secrets. Whatever you are withholding from us now."
"They are not your burden to bear. I have more secrets than you'll ever know."
"Oh... I know that, by now. And the way I see it, you owe me an explanation on this, just like I would owe you one if I suddenly wanted to take off and abandon you. After everything that's happened... between us. You know something else? All of a sudden you are starting to sound and act the same man I met in the R.P.D. The one who looked like he was going to shoot me... or stab me through the heart. The one that genuinely scared me. Now... something happened after you read that document and made that call, something that quickly changed your tune. What was it?"
"You are as relentless as our Pursuer."
"No. As relentless as you. There is a difference. I've had a good role model, lately. Now... tell me. Please."
The U.S.S. Agent stared at her in stony silence for quite some time. Still as a statue once more. What he was thinking, she wished she knew... but all she knew was that he was thinking. She had gotten him to. To consider... to feel this. She felt her own pulse racing in her ears, over the sounds of rain and distant moans... but she forced her soaked, bruised features to remain calm. Resolved to her course of action. Until... somewhat to her surprise... he relented to her.
"Very well. It's Nikolai. He's been killing all the Monitors. Stealing their data."
"We already knew that. What's changed?"
"I just found out from my contact in intelligence that there's a Monitor outpost in this park. A cabin just beyond the graveyard. These men were more of his handiwork."
"No fucking way.", Carlos muttered at last, looking back down at the U.B.C.S. Monitor's corpse nearby. "Right under our noses, all this time. Just like they were camping out at the hospital, looking for files. Probably that cure too."
"I still fail to see the relevance.", Jill countered, puzzled, though nevertheless was intrigued by the revelation. Carlos was right. Between the hospital and the park, they had been surrounded by Monitor activity lately. Nikolai had been stalking them for God knew how long since they'd lost him, or thought they had... in addition to getting up to his own objectives. A slight stirring of paranoia passed over her, and she glanced off into the woods, half expecting to catch someone to be watching them through binoculars, before looking back at the agent. "Or what that has to do with you going off alone. It's not your operation anyways."
"Nikolai has likely been there and left his data behind. Stashed it there for safe keeping. His laptop, perhaps. Incriminating evidence I can recover. Evidence I can use to prove that he and his superior, Colonel Vladimir, have been acting deliberately against Umbrella Security Service. Against me, my mission and Lord Spencer's interests. Call it insurance."
Silence passed over them again... and Jill shared a silent look of understanding with HUNK. Her resentment faded all at once, as he pulled her once more into his world. His mission... she knew it well. Operation: NESTWRECKER. In her mind's eye the reinforced vial containing the G-Virus sample, its glowing purple, deadly mutagenic contents, appeared to her. She couldn't say anything to that... or speak of it. Acknowledge it openly. The reminder of the lives she was trading in favor of his alone. As he had traded theirs for hers. The reminder of her hypocrisy and lies of omission. It had been a struggle enough, deciding. It slowly dawned on her the significance of HUNK's words. The internal political strife in the company, of which he was very much involved in. She had thought if he returned to Umbrella empty handed he would be executed... nothing changed her mind on that safe assumption. She knew how the company operated. If one of Colonel Vladimir's people had been caught interfering with one of Spencer's interests, there would be hell to pay. To say nothing of how good it would reflect on HUNK and the U.S.S.'s record returning with not only the G-Virus, but a trove of gathered incriminating data, combat data, and biological samples. Damning evidence that could bury the company, if someone outside Umbrella got their hands on it. If HUNK got his hands on it all, any misgivings over the lateness of his arrival and the alterations and decisions he'd made during the mission would be overlooked, surely. Any questions raised about his loyalty would be forgotten. Nikolai's laptop could well be his shield, in a way even the virus wasn't. She understood why it had just become a priority for him to rival escape.
"Your mission... for Lord Spencer? That high up?", Carlos asked with confusion, breaking the spell of silence. He began to rise back up to his feet, hefting his backpack and slinging the grenade launcher. Gripping his rifle close in both hands, unable to disguise his curiosity any longer. "What the hell was your mission anyways, man? Why did the old bastard send you guys here? You never told us."
HUNK was silent, looking back at Jill, who met his steady gaze. Understanding passing between them. Guilt panged within her. Complicit in the knowledge of his mission for Umbrella's interests. Complicit in allowing it to continue. Complicit in hiding it from Carlos. She didn't say a damn thing... but he recovered quickly, looking back to the young mercenary. Tone colder and harder than before.
"Classified."
"Here we go again, his new favorite word of the day, huh Jill?", Carlos laughed with visible irritation prickling, shaking his head. "Back to square one, keeping us in the dark. It's always classified with you U.S.S. guys, isn't it?"
"Enough. I have a mission to complete. This is a part of it.", HUNK's low tone replied sharply, making a cutting gesture with his hand. Tone brooking no argument in the matter. His willpower resolved to his course of action, pointing in the direction of the suspension bridge. "I will not impede your progression. While I see it through, you both can clear the Dead Factory and secure the helicopter. You don't require me for that. On the outside chance I don't return in time, you both will be able to take off without me. Survival is your responsibility."
"You really think we can just go on without you.", Jill spoke quietly at last, coming to the realization slowly. A deep sadness passed through her, as she finally got what he was saying. In spite of everything that had happened between them, he had no other option than to try to cling to what he was used to. The notion of expendability. That he was just another cog in a machine, as he was with Umbrella. That his life did not matter. "That we can just drop out of sight and contact with you. Possibly never see you again. And you think we're supposed to be ok with that. Could live with that."
"You don't require me, Valentine. Neither of you do. You have performed well enough without my assistance."
"Yes. We do need you. We're not Umbrella. We need you and you should know that by now. What is it going to take for me to make you understand that? And you made me a promise. Promises."
"Which one?"
"Hmm. One comes to mind. What the hell do you think is going to happen if... no, when our Pursuer comes back... and you aren't around this time? Are you going to just let it finish the job you worked so hard to undo, while you're off collecting company data?"
Another chill passed through the air at the mention of the mutating Tyrant that had nothing to do with the wind. Carlos shuddered and HUNK's stance looked more uncomfortable than before. He had no response to that. No argument in him. Perhaps, being distracted by the complication in his mission he had forgotten for a moment all about it. There were times she tried to pretend she did as well. He had fought it off with her and with Carlos... it was probably more afraid of him, if it was capable of fear, than her or Carlos. But the mutating Tyrant wasn't going anywhere, least of all in her mind. In her thoughts, every breaking branch and movement in the forest was it. Every sound from out of her sight was the Pursuer. It was watching them everywhere they went. Now she knew why exactly she had been concerned about him for so long, she realized. His trauma's in the past days, the burden and stress he had been under... his mission, all of it was adding up and taking its toll. She could see it now, in his every word and gesture. There had been so many times through their journey she had thought him something other than human, with what he was capable of. She'd bought his discipline and steadiness. It was clear to her he was as pushed to the breaking point as the rest of them. He just couldn't afford to admit it to them. Or show it. And trying not to show it, he showed it all the same. Pressing her advantage home, she went on.
"If you're set on going through with this, we obviously can't change your mind... but you can't change ours. We're going with you. No matter what. We go together. Even if it slows us down getting the hell out of here. ", Jill continued resolutely, standing her ground, and standing her ground on the matter. She folded her arms and held fast in her defiance, in spite of the rapid beating of her heart. Carlos nodded with agreement at once, stepping away from the bench and over beside her at the gate as a show of support that heartened her. Gave her a boost. "You made me a promise. Call me greedy. Call me a clingy companion. I don't care what you call me. Your burdens are our burdens, now... we can share them together. I know this isn't you dumping us off so the Tyrant can come after us alone. You could have done that a long time ago. You are not a coward. This is just your way of trying to protect us... the way you know best. With distance. But who are you trying to protect us from? That thing, Nikolai, or you?"
The silence returned for a few moments. Birds crowed off in the distance. From where they stood, she couldn't even really hear the moans of the dead any longer. Just the steady patter of the rain around them as it fell harder. When the silence lingered, she went on, not backing down in the slightest.
"Your team is dead, HUNK. We aren't. We're your team now and you aren't alone anymore, like you were for a week down there in the sewers. Surrounded by death and monsters in the dark. I can imagine what you saw down there. Survived. I already know what you've been through here with me on the surface. All of it together would be enough to make anyone lose perspective on where they stand in the world, even you. Stop pushing us away. Stop playing the mysterious stranger and let us help you. It doesn't suit you anymore. We've been through enough together. You don't need to carry all the weight on your own anymore. So... here are your two choices. Kill us, or take us with you. Choose. You choose... not Umbrella."
HUNK stared at them hard for a good while... though his gaze mostly remained on her. She stared back unblinkingly, seeing the real him, the conflict inside him as though he were transparent. She understood him, truly. Despite the reminder of how he had been when they had first met... both sides of him were struggling, who he was for the company, and what he was becoming around her. The man she met at the R.P.D... and the man she had kissed in the courtyard. He was not used to defiance... his fellow agents followed orders, complied... but she was not one of them. He couldn't count on those methods around her. Time passed on as he mulled that fact over in front of them... and gradually, he at last came to the only possible conclusion that he could, after all that had happened. He leaned in closer towards her, his low voice again as sharp, hard and cold and as the serrated steel that he had dangled over her heart those days ago.
"Damn you, Valentine. Damn you both."
"If you go out there alone... you're damned too. Let's all go be damned together instead."
HUNK said nothing to that... his hand at his side curling tightly into a fist instead. Silent and still as a statue... but she knew he was incensed. Her heart beat faster with anticipation of his response, staring back at her reflections in his lenses... but she did not back down. On that final note on her part, her self assurance, standing her ground, his fist slowly relaxed again, a low, muffled breath escaping his mask. The U.S.S. Agent finally retracted away from the gate and he stepped back, taking up his submachine gun in both hands. With a final silent look between the two of them, he turned on the spot and set off. Back down the woodland path. He didn't look backwards at either of them again as he did so... and very slowly Jill and Carlos exchanged a look at last. The mercenary had been visibly holding his breath during the entire exchange... and he finally exhaled a big breath. Dared to breath. As Jill did as well. A slight, impressed grin rose itself upon the Corporal's face and he uttered an impressed whistle, and laugh as Jill spoke up with tired satisfaction.
"I didn't hear a no... and we aren't riddled full of armor piercing incendiaries. That's a start, at least."
"No thanks to your verbal ass kicking. Holy shit. Think I've got goosebumps. Didn't even need incendiaries to burn him. I've never seen somebody talk back to him like that and win. You do good work interrogating, police lady. Then again, he loves you, you get under his skin. Can't say I blame him."
"I do, don't I?"
Jill smiled at last reluctantly at Carlos's observation, taking some pride in the effect she was having on him, watching HUNK move on further down the path. She stepped forward leaving the gate ajar, and drawing her Samurai Edge and Matilda she started after him, gesturing to Carlos to follow suit. In the distance, HUNK stopped, just before he could step out of sight, bound for the next section of the park. He gave them a reluctant, impatient hand signal to catch up, not even peering down their way. Her smile deepened and remained in place, in spite of herself, heart beating faster. It was all she needed to see. Bitter or not, he'd gotten the message, loud and clear. Had acquiesced... lowered his guard further for them. For her. Was continuing to take a chance on her. She silently vowed she wouldn't make him regret it. And that she would nurture it... his trust in her. Trust someone had betrayed a long time ago.
"There's our cue. Chain of command my ass. He wants us around, he just can't admit it to himself. Yet. Trying to reconcile being a leader and agent with being a man. Let's go help him figure it out, before he wises up and changes his mind."
