Who's ready for a crazy train~! Not even going to lie I stopped writing chapter 27 halfway through, made a new document, and started on this one because I was so excited to write it that I couldn't wait for one more chapter. That being said. Fair warning for the stress-sensitive. This one is stressful. This one is not haha happy fun times. Be prepared. If chapter 7 with the break-in was an 11 out of 10 this is more like a 20 and we're going to be hovering in the 11 to 20 zone for a few chapters before calming back down. Again totally understandable if you skip the next few if you're stress-sensitive I'll try and make it so there's a bit of a recap once things calm down but with less theatrics so you can pick back up. We should be back to Gucci in the next 4 or 5 days.
Song Suggestion: Church by Fall Out Boy
[if you have the time, 1,000% recommend watching the animatic by toastyglow on youtube for this song. I think it's like the 4th option down]
Disclaimer: I own nothing~ my ideas are fan creations and not in any way connected to CapCom or the Resident Evil/ Biohazard IP. love you, please don't sue.
July went by like a blur. Wolf Squad was sent to a few more stateside outbreaks but each time they couldn't find what triggered the reaction. there didn't seem to be a pattern in the locations either. They could be in the middle of nowhere one time and a sprawling metropolis the next in any state. Before Chris knew it, it was mid August and he was once more standing in the Director's office once more.
"Director," Chris says in greeting.
"Take a seat." he replies and Chris does as he's told "You have a new assignment," he states as he slides over a folder. "Effective immediately you'll be in charge of a combination of Wolf, Silver Colt, and Panther Hog squad. it seems the lab in the local high rise that we've been keeping an eye on is currently in the middle of an outbreak that needs to be contained," he explains "You'll be heading out effective immediately using the armored vehicles. we need to be as discrete as possible about this, incident. the outbreak was reported on the 13th floor so the public doesn't know what's going on just yet." He explains before leaning back in his chair. "If we're lucky the cover story will write itself." the director says pinching the bridge of his nose.
They wouldn't need a cover-up if they had handled this when they first found out about it... Chris gets up and the director waits, fully expecting another outburst. "Where is the team?" he asks instead. Arguing could wait, he needed to get this contained first...
"They're waiting in the debrief room for your orders," the Director says and Chris nods before turning to head out but stops as the director speaks again "And Chris. Try and keep this one under the radar." he rolls his eyes at this and heads out, he'd do what was needed to keep the virus contained. they didn't have the luxury of waiting for nightfall, he thought as he walked past a clock in the hallway. 1 pm. He walks into the room of fellow BSAA Operatives.
"Attention" he calls and gets a unified answer in response "We've got an incident report of active Bioweapons. This isn't our usual shut down for a lab the virus is already active and spreading If you've received the vaccine for the Glenn Arias strain of the virus in the last three years you should be fine. If you have not, make sure that you get it before we leave. This is a variant so it won't keep them from attacking but it will keep you from turning if you get bit." Chris says with a slight frown, they should have reported this variant by now for testing... "Well be dividing into three teams, Ground support will stay by the vehicles parked 3 blocks down from the target site to make sure the infection does not spread and civilians do not enter the area." Chris states "The next will be the sweeper team, you'll be in charge of going from the ground floor up to make sure we catch anything before it gets out, the report is for the 13th floor but by the time we get there it may have made it's way down." He explains further "the Striker team will go with me to the 13th floor and work up from there to target the problem at its source." with that he pauses to look at the group "Any questions"
"No sir!" they all answer in unison.
"Then gear up and move out to the Armored unit bay. I want to be out of here by Fourteen hundred hours if not sooner." Chris says and they all stand.
"Sir yes sir!" they stay and the process began. Extra armor, helmets, weapons, communication devices, and storage bags with additional bullets and Med packs were dawned by everyone including Chris.
By 2 pm everyone was packed into their vehicle and hurrying down the highway into the main city past familiar streets and businesses. This was getting closer and closer to home... upon arriving for drop off they find a couple of dozen black SUVs surrounded by Armored up individuals all marked with bold white letters spelling out CIA. Great. Chris gets out of the car.
"This area is under BSAA jurisdiction. I'm going to need you to move out" Chris says as he walks over to the group followed by 7 other BSAA agents.
"Bull shit it is." The CIA agent replies as they lock eyes with Chris.
"Did I stutter," Chris says with a sneer "take your men and clear out. you're not supposed to be here" at the very least no one told him there would be state operatives.
"Who do you think called in the tip," The CIA agent says as the staredown continues.
"Fine, If you called in the tip, then you wanted us to be here that means you listen to me," Chris says not breaking eye contact. "Work with the Ground team and clear out the area to a 3 block perimeter I want every Civilian out of the area."
the stare down continued for a short while longer before Chris spoke again "Move!" he says annoyed that this guy was wasting valuable time, and the guy eventually stands down "Alright men, you hear him, we're on evac duty" he did seem thrilled about it but he co-operated all the same.
Finally good god. Chris shakes his head. "you to you're with me," Chris says pointing to two of the silver colt members. "you five start a full scrub. nothing in, nothing out. use your communicators, if anything gets past you let the ground team know immediately. we'll do the same for you and let you know what we find on our way up."
"Yes sir" they all shout. and get into formation and start making their way up the stairs.
"First floor is clear, no contact," Chris hears in his communicator as he makes his way up the 5th flight of stairs.
"Good, move on to the second," He says in response as he kept moving, 8 flights to go.
"Yes sir" he hears in response. a groaning could be heard echoing in the stairwell and screaming resounded the closer they got to the 13th floor.
Before long they came in contact with their first Bioweapon, what appeared to be an unfortunate scientist who got their arm bit.
"Made contact with a Hostile Bioweapon," Chris announced to his communicator before shooting it down and continuing on his way. "Found it on the 8th-floor stairwell. 8th floor and up are potential hot spots, control the spread."
"Rodger that," says another voice in return. a second speaks after.
"Second floor is clear, moving on to the 3rd" they announce.
"Take your time. New orders are to bunker in clear the 3rd floor then bunker in place at all access points. keep them from moving dow" Chris stops short as he hears Metal grinding against metal and a loud booming Thud below. the elevator. "New plan! get back to the first floor make sure nothing got out and bunker in place. Striker team will sweep the building top-down after we cut off the source."
"Understood, Sweeper team out," says another voice.
Each flight of stairs they went up there were more bioweapons to be found and the screaming seemed to lessen.
11th floor, 12th floor...they slow their pace as they cautiously make their way up the final set of stairs Smoke was pouring through the cracks in the doors.
The group breached the door, through the smoke they could see various shadows of shuffling bodies and others slumped over on the ground, the open floor plan of the building meant it would be difficult to be surprised and ambushed, but it also meant there was very little place to hide and take cover. "Stay close, the last thing we need is friendly fire," Chris says and the other two stay by his side as they start trying to clear anything that moved. It was unfortunate but they couldn't take risks. Chris's shoulder's dropped as what he thought was a pillar started to move towards them at breakneck speed. "Move!" Chris says as he jumps out of the way of the creature's warpath and it crashes through a support beam.
'*'*'*'*'
Emma stretched as she made her way to the break room, it was almost 3, a bit late for lunch but oh well, late lunches happen when you're being pulled between two projects. She managed to convince the CMO to let her stay on her album project with the punk rockers so long as she could keep up with it and Veronica's next release. It was certainly a pain but it's what she had to do... Huh? Emma thought confused only to find a crowd had started to gather in the break room. "What's going on?" She asks as she made her way in, everyone was watching the TV.
"Something about a building fire" One employee says then sips at their coffee.
"Breaking news from the Accunews helicopter. A fire appears to have started in the newly constructed high rise between Ace Avenue and Bravo Boulevard, according to inside reports Locals near the building were being evacuated well before the smoke was seen. It's believed to be the result of faulty electrical work." The TV showed the building in question with smoke pouring out of broken windows as flames licked the outside of the building.
"Oh my gosh..." Emma says quietly as a feeling of dread built up. thank heavens she wasn't home... she quickly pulls out her phone.
[Emma] are you watching the news?
[Chelsea] yeah that's nuts. This is why you pay up and get a good electrician.
"The building manager has reported that the building should be empty as they had not leased out any of the space just yet," the anchor continued which caught Emma's attention... but. wait. no? that wasn't right... That was the building that they were leasing the top three... floors. of... the 3 floors that were on fire.
"Well thank heavens for small miracles Jim. If I was that building owner though I wouldn't hold my breath on getting a check from the insurance company" says the co-host.
"Haha you said it Jackie," Jim replied with a rather staged laugh.
Emma looked around as the other workers seemed unusually calm about the building fire. More so gathering out of morbid curiosity and an excuse to not work. It took her a moment to realize that there was a good chance that the new lease and project were on a need-to-know basis. Senior employee perks... no need to cause a panic by telling them but holy hell that's really unfortunate... maybe the building owner said it was empty because they didn't move in yet?
"Back to the Accunews helicopter feed, we're receiving reports of movement from inside the building?" the anchor says clearly confused since that conflicted with what they just said a few minutes earlier. Sure enough, everyone turns to look at the TV with renewed interest as the feed shows shadows moving in the smoky building only for a body to be hurled out of a window onto the outdoor deck of the floor, Tumble and slam through the glass panel of the railing only to hang on by one hand.
"Mama! Mama, uncle Chris is on the TV!" Summer announces as she's a bit confused. she didn't realize he was in a movie.
"What?" Chelsea asks as she quickly walks back into the room.
"CHRIS!" Emma shouts horrified as the helicopter's feed Zooms in on the dangling figure.
"Wait you know them?" A co-worker asks looking between Emma who was now pale as a ghost and the TV.
"Someone, get her a chair," Said another as the group started to worry a bit more about the situation since it was now directly affecting one of them.
Chris tossed the gun he was holding to try and get it onto the deck before reaching up to hold on with both hands. Shit, shit, shit, fuck, shit. he could feel the deck shaking as that THING was getting closer.
"What the hell is that?" the reporter asks as they drop their 'radio voice' and speak with genuine horror. What could only be described as a fleshy version of the stay puft marshmallow man on steroids, was shown walking through the wall, making its own path through the wall.
"... Shut it down... I want a total blackout," The director says with a tired sigh.
"Sir, launching an EMP in this dense of an area would affect the power grid and the gear of our own team... any electronics within a mile will be fried for at least an hour and it will blackout every building in a 30-mile radius until they fix the grid. Hospitals, emergency services."
"Just do it," he says annoyed. before looking back at the tv as the news showed the bio-weapon making its way onto the deck.
"... Yes sir," they reply and walk out.
The director grumbles and turns off the TV. "I told you to be subtle..."
Chris managed to pull himself up from the ledge just in time to duck and roll to the side as the BOW had long tendril-like extensions of its flesh whip forward before shaping their arm to the side in an attempt to keep up with his movement. instead they continued past as impacted the side of the building with a resounding thud and shattering of glass. Groaning could be heard as the building had started to give way from the damage it was taking. To his horror the walls shifted as the top 3 floors of the building twisted and broke free, falling to the ground below.
"Prepare for impact!" Chris shouts into his communicator as he ran towards the main building past the BOW as he started feeling the ground shift under him as the ground and building shook. The patio fell away and the floor of the 13th level gave way, dropping him, the two other team members, and the large bioweapon into the 12th floor before the building finally settled.
He was about to call in for support when a quiet electric hum was heard and anything electronic powered down.
everyone looked around the breakroom confused as the building appears to have lost power. Emma was already in tears but stopped to look around as well as the sinking feeling in her chest got worse.
"Hey, is everyone okay," Veronica asks as she walks into the breakroom to find the crowd of people.
"We're fine," says one of the workers before gesturing to Emma "there's a building fire in town and Emma knows someone that was in the building."
"Oh Emmy you poor thing," Veronica says pulling Emma into a one-sided hug. "Pack up your stuff, work from home for the next few days okay sweetie?"
Work? How was she supposed to focus or do anything? How was she going to drive like this? All the same, Emma nods.
"You know what. Everyone pack up and head home early, the power is out anyways," she adds and the others look between each other before nodding. One of the older ladies of the office walked with Emma to her desk to make sure she didn't collapse, while repeating how it was going to be okay, before going on her way to pack up her own things.
Emma packed up her laptop bag, she felt like she was going to puke. Why was this happening again? A few tissues and deep breaths later she started to make her way out of the office and to her car. She had to pull over multiple times to stop and breathe for a bit and clear her eyes, what was normally a 30-minute drive took 50 minutes because of this. She parked, dragging her feet as she entered her apartment and closed the door behind her. she looked over to the island counter and the small metal house that had been untouched for the more of the year. After pausing for a moment she put down her laptop bag by the door and walked over to it, grabbing a slip of paper and a pen to write a small message. again she paused while writing as tears got in the way. Eventually, the message was written and placed into the metal house with a match.
I think he's dead.
She sat there in silence as she watched the paper burn.
'*'*'*'*'
5 pm. Chris made his way down the last flight of stairs alongside two others. They were tired, they were bleeding, beaten, and bruised but they were alive and the building was cleared of bioweapons. All that was left was for the cleanup squad to clear out the bodies. he reached up to tap at his communicator only to hear a high pitch whine as it came back online. "Well now it works..." he says crankily as he slowly walks over a group of BSAA vehicles. "Get to your transport..." Chris says quietly and the other two nod, breaking off to get into the Vehicles they arrived in. Chris gets into the back of one where Night Howl and Canine were waiting for him.
"Good to see you Boss, we thought we lost you there for a bit" Canine admits getting a tired grunt in response as he closes the door.
"What the hell happened..." Chris says as he leans into his chair, were they always this comfortable? he did not want to move.
"Higher-ups called in an EMP, The news caught wind of the event and started reporting on it..." Night Howl explains "We didn't know until after the blast went off."
Chris slams the side of his fist into the metal door. That. was a mistake holy hell that hurt in more ways than he could count. "How many casualties?" He asks through gritted teeth, he needed to stop punching stuff.
"3 BSAA two on the sweeper team and one on the ground team... no civilians though" Night Howl answers and starts driving.
"Alpha, this is HQ. do you copy?" says a voice through the communicator.
he bit his tongue to keep from saying anything stupid. last time they ran their mouth to this chick she reported it to the director. "I copy."
"Good work controlling the outbreak, we've confirmed minimal casualties despite the high property damage. Overall the mission has been marked as a success," they reply in a congratulatory tone. it didn't feel like a success.
"Return to HQ for medical attention and quarantine. you'll be released in a week." the voice adds.
"... understood" Chris replies. "Wolf Squad out." He closes his eyes to rest on the way back... this was going to be a mess.
10 minutes later the voice returns. "Wolf Squad confirm your co-ordinance. Your GPS shows you've gone off track."
What? Chris opens his eyes to see Nighthowl pulling the vehicle into the parking garage by his apartment.
"HQ this is Night Howl," he says into his communicators "The Navigation system has been acting up ever since the EMP. Same with the communicators..." he says as he parks. "I've pulled into a local parking garage to stay out of sight. Give me ten minutes and we'll be back online. Until then, we're going dark... awaiting approval."
the voice was silent for a moment. "Blackout approved. Let us know when you're back online."
Night Howl smiled as his plan works "Over and out" he says flipping a few switches to shut down their communication devices, the car, and navigation system.
once he was sure that the communication system was shut down Chris takes off his helmet and headset. "... you know I could report you for insubordination..."
"Yeah, you could" Night Howl replies with a short chuckle. "you get 10 minutes... They televised that nonsense. If you disappear for a week after news of a building falling apart gets out, she's going to think you're dead."
"That or she'll kill you when she finds out you're not," Canine adds figuring he'd lighten the mood a bit with a joke. Chris shakes his head but does end up chuckling slightly.
he clicks at a few buttons on his watch to set a timer "...5 minutes" He says and gets out of the car.
Was the walk to the apartment always this far? each step felt heavy like his feet were made of led. 4 minutes. He made his way up the stairs and knocked at Emma's door. it takes a moment but it eventually opens to show a puffy-eyed Emma.
"Chris?!" She says stunned and horrified by the battered and bruised bleeding face in front of her. she opens the door the rest of the way and he walks in closing it behind him. He was alive. 3 minutes.
He moved to hold her but put more of his weight on her than he intended causing her knees to give out and both of them kneeled while holding each other and Emma peppered him in kisses before sniffles and hiccups announced the return of tears much to Emma's dismay. She hated this... "I thought I lost you..." She squeaked out as she clung to him. Duke was about to head over to check out what was going on but upon recognizing the scent of blood he instead when to hide.
Chris winces slightly as her clinging pressed into an injury but says nothing and instead just continued to hold her and give her a kiss on the top of her head. "Everything's going to be okay." 2 minutes.
"No, it's not," Emma replies shaking her head before looking up "What the HELL was that thing?" she asks terrified. This is what he was doing when he was 'working'? Fighting monsters like THAT?
"It was w-"
"Don't. tell me it was work, Chris." Emma says at her wit's end. She was glad he was alive but, good god he just showed up at her door covered in blood and she needed answers. 'It was work', wasn't going to cut it anymore... 1 minute
He took a deep breath and thought it over. "That was a B.O.W., A BioWeapon... BSAA stands for Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance. My job is to neutralize threats as they arise."
That was a lot to process in just one sentence. Bioweapon... Bioterrorism? but those were the floors her company rented ou- Oh gosh she was going to puke. The sound of a timer going off snapped her out of her thoughts.
Chris gave a tired sigh. "I've got to head back... Night Howl was only able to buy me so much time..." he says as he attempts to get back up.
"Like hell you are, I'm not letting you out of my sight," Emma says though all the same, she helps steady him as he stands and gets up with him.
"Emma," he replies in a quiet warning tone which causes her to force a neutral expression and look away.
"...Promise me you're coming back?" She requests quietly.
"I promise... It's just a week for quarantine and recovery..." He replies.
"No more monsters?" She says to be sure as she slowly allows herself to look at him again.
"For now..." he agrees quietly. "Emma, you can't tell anyone... Okay?"
It takes her a moment but she nods. "Okay."
Chris paused once more as he looked at the door and shakes his head before looking back to Emma and holds the side of her face in one hand to give her a kiss. "I love you"
"...I love you too" She replies with a weak smile before shaking her head and giving him a half-hearted attempt at a nudge fearing anything more than that would hurt him. "Now get out of here, you're going to stain the floor," She says giving a flimsy excuse for wanting him to leave when she in all honestly wanted him to stay.
He chuckles a bit at that and nods "I'll be back soon," with that, he heads back to the door to leave.
"I'll be here." She says in return and the door closes behind him.
Chris makes his way back to the Vehicle, takes his seat, and closes the door.
"You're late..." Night Howl says "just a minute or two though... I can think of an excuse..."
"Thanks," Chris replies as he puts his headset and helmet back on. "Let's get moving."
Well, this was fun lmao. How are you guys doing? Holding up okay? The next chapter should be a bit more chill than this. no buildings falling apart or bioweapons but definitely drama. Thanks for sticking with me this long and see you next chapter.