They followed the sounds of screams and tearing flesh cautiously with their backs to the marble walls as they made their way down unfamiliar halls until silence surrounded them once again. Sherry was uneasy as Jake opened another set of heavy doors, stepping inside with his gun raised to reveal a dark room illuminated with neon lights.
"Is this... a bar?" Sherry said incredulously.
"Looks like our kidnapper likes to lives in style. Imagine having access to this place for the last six months, would have made the time pass a whole lot easier." Jake replied, disdain thick in his voice.
"No kidding," Sherry lowered her gun as they cleared the room. "Just who has these kinds of resources-"
She was cut off by the sound of shattering glass and a roar that bounced off the walls. They turned in unison as the doors were thrown from their hinges and the bodies of two shredded J'avo were tossed toward them.
Crouching low they avoided being hit as one of the J'avo landed atop the piano on the stage behind them, mixing the jarring sound of splintering wood and bone with a cascade of off-note keys. They sprung upright just as Archer's oversized body stooped low to drag itself into the room, its claws digging deep into the wall as it bellowed. The eye on its shoulder swivelled manically as it moved over Jake, who was already taking aim, before it landed on Sherry.
The eye stilled, as did Archer, his body slumping forward halfway into the room.
Sherry could feel it again, the pull she couldn't explain.
"Put your gun down," Sherry instructed.
Jake would have looked at her like she was crazy if he'd dared take his eyes of the looming BOW blocking their only exit.
"What?" he hissed instead.
"Just trust me. Archer... he's still in there. Somewhere."
Jake had no idea what Sherry was talking about. Sure the patches of hair and the distorted face was undeniably still him, but he'd never heard of a BOW holding onto any of their humanity. Except for the woman at his side...
Against his better judgement Jake lowered the gun, "I hope you know what you're doing," he muttered as he felt his trigger finger twitch.
Secretly Sherry was hoping for the same as she slowly raised an open palm and took a step closer. She could feel Jake tense beside her as he resisted the urge to pull her back.
Sherry wasn't sure what she was doing, this feeling was completely alien to her. She was just following her instincts.
"You know it's too late to save you," she said gently, "the infection... it's too progressed. We can't help you."
"You sure that's the route you wanna take?" Jake asked apprehensively as Archer let out a low-throated growl in response.
"He already knows," Sherry replied shortly, as if Jake's input was bothersome. Her focus seemed to be directed at only the creature in front of her, "Doctor Archer... you need to fight it for as long as you can. But you know we can't let you leave here."
"Oh this is bad idea," Jake thought to himself. "Very bad."
His fingers twitched as he raised the gun just a little. The giant eye that apparently missed nothing swung to him as his clawed hand undug itself from the walls with a grinding crunch. It rose up, catching the low hanging ceiling as Jake took aim while he was shouting for Sherry to move aside.
She did. Just not in the way Jake had intended. Sherry jumped in front of him, between Jake's gun and Archer's falling claws. Jake saw it all as if in slow motion; those talons ripping through Sherry like paper. Could she survive an injury that severe?
Except Sherry was still standing there in front of him, unharmed and breathing hard as the very tips of Archers claws came to a halt directly in front of her face.
Jake didn't dare move.
The seconds stretched on. He could hear Archer's wet, laboured breathing as every muscle in his body told him to fight, or to run. Just to do something. But there was something in the way that Sherry was standing between them, her hands empty of any weapon to defend herself with, while Archer stared at them both that kept Jake still.
"He's mine," Sherry eventually said with a remarkable amount of calm, "Don't hurt him."
The whine that escaped Archer was like that of a dog that had just been kicked by its owner. Jake didn't know whether to laugh or be incredibly creeped out by the display of what seemed like... obedience? No. Submission.
To Sherry.
Jake had seen his fair share of the strange and unexplainable, some of it too messed up to even want to remember. But this was pretty high on the list of weird. Even more so because it seemed to be working.
"No sudden moves," Sherry told him over her shoulder, "If he thinks you're a threat he'll kill you."
Jake didn't like it. Not one bit. BOWs were for killing, not negotiating with. "What, you the BOW whisperer now?"
Ignoring his jibe Sherry kept looking forward, standing a little taller as she spoke with more confidence. "Go back to the cells. If you keep yourself somewhere secure you can't hurt anyone. We'll send help... maybe someone can figure out a way to..."
Jake could hear the way her voice faltered. Why try and offer false hope? Sherry had already admitted there was no reversing the mutation now that he was this far gone. Even he knew that. Archer was beginning to shift with agitation. It was almost as if he was gesturing something to Sherry.
"I can't stay," Sherry said firmly, "I have a mission. You know what Jake's blood can do and you know what the C-Virus has done to this city. They've used it in an attack back home too, in a place called Tall Oaks-"
Jake couldn't possibly have known why those words had Archer rearing back and crying out with a howl that sounded both painfully human and frighteningly not. Of course neither of them could had known how the faux-Ada had forced Archer to listen to the plan set out by Derek Simmons and The Family. Archer's last moments as a human had been spent being torn apart by the knowledge that they would release the very virus he had helped develop on so many innocent souls, including his own daughter who had joined the Tall Oaks University that very year. She had laughed as his body twisted and mutated, informing him that his only child would meet a similar fate in just a matter of hours.
The cry shook the walls, sending the bottles that had been so neatly lined on the shelves tumbling the ground where they shattered.
"That's enough of this shit," Jake yelled as he grabbed Sherry tight and pulled her behind him.
This angered Archer even further. He lunged at Jake, missing only because his enormous form left him off-balance as he tumbled over a table sporting a roulette wheel in its middle. He could feel Sherry pulling at his arm before she began pushing him toward the door. Unwilling to trust her not to try something noble and stupid Jake took hold of her hand and dragged her along behind him, heading back to the foyer.
"Why did you do that? I was getting through to him!" Sherry cried as she pulled her hand from his grip. She kept running, for which Jake was thankful since he could feel the footsteps that made the ground tremble close behind.
"No way was he just going to sit like a good little puppy and wait for help he knows isn't coming!" Jake retorted.
"You don't understand. That was grief-"
"Who cares!"
Jake didn't have the capacity nor the time to even contemplate how Sherry could have possibly known what a BOW was feeling. It was crazy to think it could feel anything at all. They leapt down the last of the stairs just as Archer exploded through the doors above them. They could try the main exit, but it would risk Archer escaping the compound once he was outside. Jake took the room in quickly, assessing the best course of escape. At the top of the staircase to his left was another door, but it was blocked-
"Erm, Jake..." he heard Sherry gasp just as he began to feel it too. The ground's rumbling was not from Archer alone. The chandelier above them began to shake as did everything around them. Jake heard the sound of a metallic grinding and grabbed Sherry by the arm, pulling her to the side where they took cover behind one of the enormous pillars.
Archer leapt from the balcony just as the wall was blown inward. Jake's eyes could barely believe what he saw as Archer reared back on legs that began to bulge and shift before snatching up the front of the tank that had just blasted its way inside the building.
"This is insane!" he spat out.
Sherry didn't reply. She was watching in horror as the main gun on the tank swung from side to side. "If that tank fires inside-"
"Oh I'm way ahead of you," Jake stated dryly as he eyed the crumbling exit. There was space to slip out behind the tank and make a break for it. Of course nothing could ever be that simple.
"But if we leave Archer will follow us..."
Jakes resisted the urge to grind his teeth in frustration. Just once he'd like a nice, simple plan, "You sure do make some interesting friends," he snarked.
Sherry ignored him, her eyes still transfixed on the battle in front of them. The tank was trying to reverse but Archer was holding on tight, lifting the front clean off the floor as if he meant to flip it over. Sherry battled with herself. She knew he was already lost, he'd be lucky to have more than a few hours to hold onto the last shreds of his humanity. But when he had screamed in anguish before Jake attacked, Sherry had felt his pain wash over her. It was overwhelming. Unbearable. She knew something had happened beyond Archer's forced transformation, it was the very thing keeping him from losing that last piece of himself and also what threatened to push him over the edge.
She wanted to help. To save him like he had tried to save her.
She also knew that, just like her father, it was too late.
"We're gonna have to help that tank. Aim for his arms, force him to drop the tank so it can get him its sights."
"And then?"
"We run like hell."
It wasn't a great plan, but it was all they had. Jake fixed Sherry with a hard look that told Sherry in no uncertain terms that if she argued he would drag her ass out of there whether she wanted him to or not. With shaking fingers she reloaded her gun and forced herself to think of nothing but the mission she still had to complete.
With a nod they stepped out from the cover of the pillar as they opened fire. Archer whined and howled, the eye on its shoulder swirling and landing on them both almost accusingly.
"Wait..." Sherry cried out, stopping her assault and reaching out to forcefully push Jake's gun to the side. He swore loudly as he finished unloading the clip into the side of the tank, flinching as the bullets ricocheted.
"He's helping us." Sherry explained as Jake ferociously questioned her sanity.
She couldn't explain how she knew these things. As Archer's body began to buckle Sherry realised he was buying them time. Time to make their escape from the hole in the wall created by the very thing trying to kill him.
"You can't know that," Jake snapped back, "Sherry, we have to kill him. He can't make it out of here."
The groaning grind of the tank attempting to break free of Archer's grip couldn't drown out the voice in her head. The one that told her there was just enough to Archer left that he knew there was only one fate left for him...
"He won't..." Sherry breathed, her chest tightening until she could barely speak. "But we have to go, now."
She didn't him a chance to argue. Sherry tore her eyes from Archer and ran, heading into the gardens without looking back. She knew Jake would follow even if he didn't understand what she was doing. She could explain her actions later; if she could even find the words.
"Christ Sherry, I hope you know what you're doing," he told her as he fell into step beside her.
The gardens were immaculate, lined with beautifully crafted statues and paintings around a large fountain that almost resembled a small lake.
"There," Jake grabbed Sherry's arm to slow her down, "we can climb over that wall-"
He was unable to finish his sentence since a blast from behind them knocked them both from their feet, sending debris crashing over their hands and into the water. Sherry hit the ground with such force the air was pushed from her lungs. Jake was beside her, scrambling for her as he tried to pull himself to his feet.
From the smouldering wreckage behind them came the smell of smoke and something else. Burning metal and wood mixed with the scent of charred flesh. Sherry didn't need to look to know... she could feel it like a hole inside her own chest.
"The tank... it must have..."
Sherry didn't want to imagine what had been left of Archer once the tank had fired at such a close range. The building began to crumble, but not before another sound reached them.
"Fuck, here it comes!" Jake cried out, finally pulling Sherry to her feet. She let him pull her along toward the wall as she tried to shake some sense back into herself. It was done. Archer was dead and they were so close to freedom. She had to think about the mission.
They stopped beside the concrete wall. Jake knelt, cupping his hands together as he nodded for Sherry to make the first jump. With surprising strength he was able to lift her with ease and almost threw her clear over the top. Sherry managed to hold on and twist herself round, her hand reaching for him as she saw the gun of the tank begin to rise.
Jake took a step back before leaping, somehow managing to run the first few steps up the wall until he caught Sherry's arm. She pulled as he gave himself one last push.
They fell backwards, landing on soft grass and rolling as far from the wall as they could. Once again Sherry felt Jake's heat and weight upon her. This time he'd thrown himself on her while she faced him so there was barely an inch of separation between them. Her heart stopped as she opened her mouth in surprise until another ear-splitting blast had her tucking her face into the space between his chin and chest.
The wall exploded toward them. Jake's hands covered her ears but she could still hear the cacophony of creative cursing he released, some of it she was sure wasn't even in a language she recognised.
As the dust settled Jake lifted himself onto his knees as Sherry gasped loudly, catching her breath while he twisted on the grass. The tank wasn't moving but he could still hear the sound of something approaching them as the ringing in his ears subsided.
It was Sherry who spotted it first, the helicopter flying above them. She pointed upward as Jake leapt to his feet, recognising the face smirking at him from the open door. She rose two fingers to her head in a mock salute before raising an eyebrow and pointing behind him, her mouth sounding out what looked to Jake to be a sarcastic "good luck" before the helicopter tore away, heading toward the city skyline.
Sherry took his arm and tugged to gain his attention, she had been distracted by something else headed their way. The tank wasn't moving because what looked like a small army of J'avo were clamouring over the ruined wall with guns and knives held aloft as their wet, breathless grunts echoed toward them.
Fighting was not an option. They didn't even need to look at each other before they began to run down the grassy bank toward a much smaller building. In the moonlight Sherry could see large windows, but it was Jake that spotted what was inside first. He laughed, earning himself a look from Sherry that asked if he'd gone mad. He didn't answer as he aimed his gun and fired at the glass, knocking out one of the large windows. It was as the glass tumbled and shattered that Sherry saw it too.
"Can you drive this thing?" Sherry asked, eyeing the bike before peering over her shoulder at the J'avo who were closing in fast.
Jake had swung his leg over the vehicle with a wave of relief and excitement as he spotted the keys already in the ignition. "Like we have any other option, just get on!"
Sherry did as instructed as Jake kicked the bike to life. She barely had time to wrap herself around him before they were flying through the broken window and away from their pursuers. The path they followed led toward lights and what looked like a highway. Sherry craned her neck to see if they were being followed, barely able to believe that they had made it. Once she realised the J'avo were fading into the distance without appearing to be giving chase she felt herself relax against Jake's back.
"You okay back there?" Jake called over his shoulder.
"I think so," came Sherry's reply. Really she needed a moment to stop, to catch her breath and gather her senses, but if the ringing coming from her pocket was anything to go by she knew there was no such chance.
She answered the call to a familiar voice while holding onto Jake with one hand.
"Sherry, my dear. I've just been informed of your predicament. Are you still with Mr Muller?"
"Yes," Sherry said breathlessly. She'd almost forgotten the effect the man who had been her legal guardian throughout her teen years could have on her. As soon as she became an adult he had then become her employer. Derek Simmons was a well-spoken, intelligent man with a thin smile and cold eyes. But he had always been kind to Sherry... at least that had always been what her younger self had believed.
"Good, good. That is a relief... I'm sending you co-ordinates for where our team is taking refuge. The city is in dire peril my dear, you must get to us without a moment to lose!"
"Of course sir, I-"
"And Sherry, it is imperative that you have no contact with anyone until you reach me personally, do you understand?"
"Yes sir."
The line was cut before Sherry could finish speaking. She placed it securely in her pocket, the conversation leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. Jake, who had been watching her in the side mirror, wasn't sure what to make of the tension that was emanating from her.
"That your boss? What did he say?" he asked as Sherry placed her arm around his middle once again. Jake tried not to think too much about the fact that he could feel her pressed so closely against his back as he focussed on driving on the empty roads.
"He's sending us his location," came her reply. Jake didn't like the edge to her voice. He wasn't sure if it was the conversation on the phone that was the cause or the fact that they were about to drive into hell if the smoke and fire-filled skyline was any indication of the mayhem that awaited them.
"You okay?" he asked tentatively. He could still see the frown on Sherry's face reflected in the mirror. She saw his worried look and tried to smile back but her eyes remained clouded. With a jerk he turned the bike toward a sideroad which led to an unlit path surrounded by overgrown trees.
"Jake, what are you doing? You're going the wrong way!"
The bike came to a halt as he switched off the engine, ignoring Sherry's pleas for him to turn around and head for the city. He stepped from the bike and turned to take Sherry by the shoulders before leaning down so they were eye-to-eye as the look on his face silenced her protests.
Sherry wasn't sure if the shiver that ran up her spine was from the slight breeze in the smoky air or the way Jake's eyes travelled over her face. They'd been this close many times before, he'd even seen her half-naked only an hour ago, yet he was somehow making her feel completely exposed with the way he examined her now.
Sherry forced herself to drop her gaze. Only seconds had passed but she felt the air in her lungs begin to burn as she forgot how to breathe while the urge to either push him away or throw herself into his arms became overwhelming.
"You wanna tell me what's going on?" he asked so gently Sherry felt like she was being held steady by a completely different person than the man she'd escaped Edonia with all those months ago.
She tried to shrug off his concern but his grip refused to loosen. They don't have time for this was what she wanted to tell him. Instead she took a slow, shuddering breath and looked up at him once more.
"I don't know," she began honestly, "Everything just feels... wrong."
Jake nodded and continued to watch her as his grip lightened just a little, "Are you talking about your boss... or what happened back there with Archer?"
Sherry didn't know. Both, she supposed. Her time in captivity had given her space to think without his influence on her. His voice had brought back so many horrible memories...
The first experiments had been straight-forward. Sample of her DNA taken in every form they could think of. Scans and X-rays, her weight and height monitored everyday along with her vital signs. Even going to the bathroom... everything was watched closely to understand the phenomenon occurring within her body. She remembered when she was sixteen and transferred to a new unit. Simmons had accompanied her as he opened the door to her new room. It hadn't been clinical and cold like before. There were soft rugs and flower-covered sheets on her bed. There was even a television on the wall and a shelf filled with books.
She could have anything she wanted, he'd said, all she had to do was agree to a few more tests...
It was obvious to her now that Derek's firm but fair 'fatherly' approach had been a tool to manipulate her with. She'd been missing for months and he hadn't even asked if she was okay, only if Jake was still with her.
Which made her think about Jake's accusations before, that she didn't care what happened to him as long as she fulfilled her mission and got what was needed to create the C-Virus vaccine. Had she been twisted into the same single-mindedness of the men and woman who hadn't even flinched when they repeatedly tore the fingernails from a screaming sixteen year old girl, just to see how many times they would grow back? Had she too been brainwashed into believing it was all worth it for the greater good?
And what had happened with Archer... the connection she didn't understand but could still feel the loss of in her veins... perhaps she was less human than she'd thought.
Jake watched silently as Sherry seemed to struggle to find the words to speak. He didn't know what she'd been through, but he could see clear as day that whatever was going through her mind was threatening to push her over the edge. He let go of her shoulders and stood up, towering over Sherry as she remained slumped with exhaustion on the bike's seat. He needed to do something to pull her back, there was no way they would make it through the hellscape they'd found themselves in if she was distracted like this.
He cleared his throat loudly before speaking.
"Hey what was that er, 'he's mine' stuff about?" he asked as he came to rest against the side of the bike. He hadn't thought anything of it at the time, occupied as he was by the threat that was looming before them, but looking back it had been a little... odd.
Sherry frowned slightly as she tried to work out what he meant until the memory came back clearly, making her shake her head as she thought about the way she'd been able to sense Archer's murderous intent toward Jake when he'd moved.
"It's hard to explain. It's like I just knew what Archer was thinking. He seemed caught between his old self and the virus' control... I guess it has something to do with the traces of the G-Virus that are still dormant within me..."
Jake 'hmm-ed' thoughtfully for a moment before tilting his head to the side as something occurred to him, "Sounds kind of primal... like you were the Alpha..."
"No," Sherry scoffed at the thought, "He could still remember me. The voice in the room, when they made me watch you two fight, it said Archer wanted to help me because I reminded him of his daughter. Deep down the instinct was still there."
"So you telling him that I'm yours wasn't some weird territorial thing?" Jake pushed, feeling the corners of his mouth pulling upward as Sherry fixed him with a weirded-out expression.
"...Isn't that like a pee thing?"
Jake laughed, "Oh we don't know each other that well." Sherry rolled her eyes, but Jake still managed to catch the slight reddening of her cheeks before she looked away, "Why do I get the feeling you're avoiding the question."
Sherry was mildly amused by Jake's observations, but she couldn't shake the deep sense of regret and failure that came with thinking about the man who had tried to help her. "Archer recognised me, yes. But he saw you as the threat that was thrown in that room to kill him. It was the only way to assure him you weren't there to hurt him."
Another thought occurred to Jake then. If Sherry knew what Archer was thinking, then that was why she'd so confidently told him to leave Archer with that tank. Had she known the BOW had been planning to let the tank take him out... so they wouldn't have to?
Without thinking he reached out and took Sherry's hand, taking himself by surprise as much as it did her. Sherry snapped her head round to look at him as Jake regarded her with a closed expression before speaking.
"It's not your fault, you know. None of it."
Sherry was already trying to break her hand free of his grip. She didn't want him to make excuses. People always told her she needed to be protected and perhaps they were right. Even as a BOW Archer had died to allow her to escape. Even her own father hadn't had the strength to do such a thing.
Sherry felt her hand tighten around Jake's. A man who had spent months studying her, submitting her to tests and experiments, who hadn't known anything about her except that she looked like his daughter cared more about her than her own father ever had. And that had gotten him killed.
It seemed everyone she touched suffered in some way.
Would Jake be the same?
Sherry almost wanted to warn him, to tell him to leave her behind before her curse ruined him too. But Jake would have no time for her self-pity. They were still hand in hand, eyes fixed on each other just like back in the security room when she had been the one stopping Jake from falling into despair. And now he was returning the favour. It didn't heal the raw wounds that would always be within her, but it gave her something. If he could find something hopeful to cling to among all the madness than surely she could to.
"If you're ready we should get going," he told her, his voice uncharacteristically gentle, "we've got a world to save after all, right?" he said with a final squeeze of her hand before letting go. Sherry nodded as he took his position back on the bike. The air was warm but she felt cold all over as she pressed her cheek against Jake's back. For now they had no choice but to head toward Simmons' location and hope it wasn't too late for Jake's blood could make a difference.
She wondered why, even after his six month taste of captivity at the hands of their enemies, Jake suddenly appeared unbothered by the notion that he could end up somewhere just like it at the hands of her own government.
Or perhaps he was still hoping for his fifty million.
Either way Sherry found herself grateful that he was still there with her.
And not just because he was the key to the vaccine.
Note: So Sherry's going through a little crisis. I was tempted to write in a kissing scene toward the end but, honestly, if you've just been through hell and are having a little PTSD episode and someone thinks its a great time to shove their tongue down your throat instead of trying to comfort you and offer you a little strength... that just says creep to me. And Jake is no creep.
Side note; I am a unwell at the moment. Not Covid related (I think!) but just a nasty cough that's left me a little burnt out and struggling to even think clearly sometimes! There was a lot to pack in here and I didn't want to draw out their escape for too long so I hope this chapter doesn't feel underwhelming or anything.
I've also gone back to re-read this fic and made a few minor edits to previous chapters. I feel like I'm writing completely different characters from when I began, but I suppose that is a good thing as it means they're changing and growing with the plot!
