Annette had never felt more distant from her own body.
Everything around her was becoming more and more blurry, so blurry that it was easier for her to just squeeze her eyes shut than to fight the waves of nausea that washed over her when they were open. She knew just enough to be aware of Sherry screaming back at Claire to hurry. Claire, the young woman carrying her now. Every so often, Annette felt hyper aware of her body limp against the young woman's muscular arms, only to feel separated and numbed from the acute pain in her side only a few seconds later. They only had ten minutes to get out of the labs, and her head was starting to pound so badly that Annette was almost sure that time had already passed. She couldn't tell much anymore. All she could hear anymore was the horrid ringing in her ears, the pounding of Claire's running footsteps, Sherry's distant yells for them to catch up, and the shrill cries of the alarm system. It was overwhelming, a complete attack on the senses, and nothing short of horrible.
It wasn't just Annette, either. Claire tightened her hold around her while she finally met Sherry outside of the laboratory building, the sirens of the alarm system still blaring and declaring that the building would destruct in just two minutes. Looking around, her entire body shaking, Claire immediately started towards an abandoned police car just a few feet away. She nearly tripped down the stairs of the laboratory building but only skidded, and she managed to get to the car with Sherry only a few feet behind her. With one hand, Claire ripped the master key Leon had stolen earlier and jammed it into the driver's door. Sherry pulled it open and started mashing the buttons to unlock the rest of the doors, all but diving into the back of the car and curling into herself just seconds after she buckled herself in. Claire rushed around to the other side and gently set Annette into the passenger seat, quickly pulling the seatbelt over her. Then, she darted back over to the driver's side, jammed the key into the ignition, and pulled out from the area quickly.
There was one hospital in the area still open, according to Leon, who had apparently gotten the word from Ada. Claire gritted her teeth. Ada was sketchy as hell, and Sherry had seemed terrified of her. If this weren't true and a trap to kill Annette, or her, or Sherry, Claire vowed that she would find her brother and use him to track down Ada and rip out her teeth (or worse). The day had already been shitty enough, and the idea of things getting any worse was too damn upsetting to even think about. She tried not to think too hard about how uncomfortable and pained Annette sounded, mumbling every so often to her or to Sherry. Claire quickly glanced at the speedometer. 95 MPH. She slowed down a little, seeing the hospital building begin to tower and materialise out from the shadows. The sky was only just beginning to become light, and it was very hazy. Claire could still smell the smoke and she was sure that the flames rising up increasingly far behind her were from the laboratory. Her hands tightened around the steering wheel when she sharply turned into the ER reception, not even bothering to care she was in the fire lane. Seeing the lights were on inside was enough for her to hope there would be someone there.
"Is my mom -" Sherry called after Claire when she jumped out of the car.
"Mommy's fine, Sherry," Annette mumbled, dark spots marring her vision. She began shaking when Claire began to pull her out of the car. "I love you, baby."
Claire resisted the urge to kick the door to the ER open and held it open just long enough for Sherry to run in ahead of her, yelling for anyone to come help her mother. Much to her shock, it wasn't long before a young woman in a medical coat and scrubs came running down the stairs, her face going pale when she saw Annette in Claire's arms and Sherry's state. Claire's chest began to rise and fall heavily, but it didn't take long for her to see that this woman wasn't infected. She followed quickly after her, letting her take over and lay Annette down on a hospital bed in the nearby ICU. Claire could barely believe how quickly the woman worked to hook Annette onto the machines and to get her on a ventilator and IV. Sherry sat down next to her mother, sobbing uncontrollably and rocking herself, the true seriousness of her mother's state setting in. Claire locked the doors into the ward, still terrified of any of the zombies from breaking in, and not entirely convinced that there weren't any in the hospital. She began to pace, though her limbs ached, and her mind was reeling, so much so that she didn't realise she was being spoken to.
"Claire Redfield, right?" The woman said, reading quickly over Annette's vitals. "Chris' little sister?"
Claire almost fell over when she turned on her heel towards her. "How would you know that?" She blurted out. "Did I -"
"No, don't worry, you didn't say anything," The woman sighed heavily and looked to Sherry. "Do you have the same blood type as her, by chance? This ID," She gestured to the ID card still attached to Annette's lab coat. "It's exceedingly rare, and -"
"She does," Annette croaked out, her voice almost no more than a faint whisper. "She's my daughter."
The woman nodded and turned back to Sherry. "May I take some blood from you to transfuse? She desperately needs it."
Sherry nodded immediately, her eyes puffy from the tears, but Claire cut in.
"She had the G-Virus," She told the woman. "What if she gave it to -"
"She was clear," Annette barely got out. "Clear...back in the...lab."
The woman stood up quickly and ran over to the medical cart on the other side of the room, prepping the blood bag and needles while she walked back over, pushing the cart with her. Within a few minutes, she sterilized the needles and took Sherry's arm. As quickly and gently as she could, the woman cleaned the area around the vein, steadying her hands and holding the young girl's arm still. Then, slowly, she began to draw blood from her and the bag quickly started to fill. The woman tensed upon seeing Annette's vitals start to waver again but maintained her training, waiting until it was safe to pull the needle out of Sherry's arm and bandage it up. Then, she stood up again, walked around to the other side of Annette, sterilised the secondary IV needle, numbed and cleaned the area near her vein, and then quickly pushed the needle into her. Annette groaned, her entire body in terrible pain. She winced when the woman pushed the sides of her coat away from her and pulled up her shirt to where she had been stabbed in the side by William, letting out another pained cry when the woman applied rubbing alcohol and prepared to start stitching it up.
"This may hurt a little," The woman warned her, speaking softly. "I'm so sorry. Luckily, though, this appears to be your worst injury….the others should be more manageable once you're a little more stable."
"Is mommy going to be okay?" Sherry sniffed.
"Yes," Claire kindly told her, setting a hand reassuringly to her shoulder.
"I am doing my best," The woman told her. "I hope so."
Claire watched her begin the stitches, grimacing a little when she saw the pained look that flashed over Annette's face every so often. She told herself that it wasn't weird for this woman to know her name, yet something in her mind persisted. Did she know her, by chance? It sounded like she at least might have known Chris at some point. Claire swallowed hard, looking at her closely and then her eyes went wide in stunned recognition. Sherry sniffled again and looked up at her when she felt Claire's hand tighten around her shoulder, her nails digging into her shoulder. Her stomach was starting to rumble and the blood being taken from her only made her feel a lot more dizzy. She reached into the pocket of Claire's jacket, her pulling out a small bag of trail mix. Claire gave her a small smile and opened them for her. She was hungry too, but she was almost certain she would be able to find something edible (and safe) in the hospital somewhere. Besides, she reminded herself, Sherry had been through enough already for one night.
"You're Rebecca Chambers?" Claire finally snapped back to her train of thought. The woman briefly looked up from stitching to nod shortly. "I thought everyone from STARS had left the city. Chris -"
"Chris left yesterday night after getting into a fight with Chief Irons," Rebecca told her, pausing to refocus and keep stitching up Annette's wound. "I'm pretty sure that I'm the only member of Bravo Team to have survived the shit that went down at the mansion…..as for Alpha Team, I think all of them but Brad survived. Jill went to DC, last I heard, Barry went back to Texas to be safe with his family, and I don't know about Wesker. Frankly, I hope he's dead."
"I do...too," Annette groaned, quietly swearing when Rebecca continued her stitches.
"What'd he do?" Claire's brow furrowed, and she glanced uncomfortably between Annette and Rebecca. "Chris seemed pretty annoyed with him when we last talked before I came into the city, but -"
"He was involved in creating several Bio-Organic Weapons, including the T-Virus," Rebecca coldly told her, eyes narrowing at her handiwork. "Those BOWs are exactly why we're in this situation now, and if you don't want to kill him, I'm sure your brother and the rest of STARS will be more than willing to do it for you. Believe me, he has more than earned it."
Claire bit her lip. "Great," She muttered. "But -"
"For the time being, if you don't mind, could you allow me to finish this before I try and explain anything else?" Rebecca let out a heavy sigh and looked back to Annette's vitals, a flash of relief flooding over her to see that they were slowly beginning to stabilise. "I need to focus."
Claire fell silent and looked away, feeling queasy just seeing the needle thread in and out of Annette's side. Sherry was still curled into herself, nibbling slowly on the trail mix. She was starting to feel a little better, and knowing she was safe now helped a lot. Still, she watched her mother and one of her hands was twined tightly in hers. Whenever Annette seemed upset, Sherry squeezed her mother's hand and tears pricked at her eyes when her mother squeezed hers weakly back. Claire brushed the tears away from her eyes with a tissue from Rebecca's medical cart, and she silently prayed for Annette to survive. She couldn't even remember the last time she had prayed for anything but, right now, she wanted her to survive more than she wanted to leave the city, yell at her brother, and never come back. Sherry had already lost her father. The last thing Claire wanted her to have to go through was losing her mother too. It was so strange how protective she felt of this child she had only just met thirteen hours ago, but she did. Claire rubbed at the side of her neck where it was starting to swell, deciding that, perhaps, it was just a maternal instinct, rushing up because of the circumstances.
"Alright," Rebecca tightly closed Annette's stitches and examined them closely before wrapping gauze dipped in rubbing alcohol tightly around her midsection to keep them secure. Annette let out a small yelp of pain from the movements but was able to finally keep her eyes open. The dark spots in her vision were still very much there, but she thought they were getting lesser. "Did that hurt?" Rebecca gently asked.
"A little," Annette told her, coughing a little, her hand tightening around her daughter's.
Rebecca frowned but looked back up at her vitals again. "You seem to be starting to stabilize," She told her. "I need to work quickly on you. All uninfected citizens have been ordered by the federal government and the state national guard to evacuate in two days time. After that, the governor has said he will declare martial law and, essentially, the military is going to come in to clean up the city and take samples of the viruses to the FBI. The last thing I want is for us to get into legal trouble for operating in a hospital in a condemned area."
"The feds are getting involved?" Claire exclaimed. "Are you fucking kidding?"
Rebecca shook her head. "I wish I were," She said, tiredly running a hand through her hair. "But I'm only still here because I had a few things I wanted to grab from the hospital before I left. Really, you're all incredibly lucky. Hopefully by this time tomorrow, she'll be in halfway decent enough shape to be moved to a different hospital. Chicago is only about an hour and a half away from here….and that's where I'm hoping to be able to transfer her to."
"But my mommy is going to be okay, right?" Sherry pressed, scooting her chair as close to her mother as she could and squeezing Annette's hand again. Annette shifted the little she could to give her daughter a small smile when she squeezed her hand back.
"Like I said, that's my hope," Rebecca set her hands to her hips and scanned over the room. "I think she has a decent chance because she was able to get some of your blood, but I'm not going to make any promises. That's just not how medicine works."
"For fuck's sake," Claire rubbed her temples, briefly closing her eyes. "Why did this have to happen? This wasn't what I had thought would happen when I decided I'd come visit my brother."
"It wasn't what anyone thought would happen, Claire," Rebecca told her, trying to keep the edge out of her voice. "I just hope we can handle this because this city is over. It just is."
"That's what I should have realised," Annette whispered, her voice cracking. "Do you have water?"
Rebecca nodded. "Of course. I'll go get you some and a bit of food. You need it."
Claire watched her leave, part of her wanting to go after her but staying beside Sherry and Annette instead. Her mind was still so foggy and reeling that nothing felt quite real. It didn't make sense. Nothing did, at least not in this moment. It was maddening.
"Mommy loves you, Sherry," Annette blinked back tears when Sherry stood up and kissed her cheek. "I really do, baby. You're always going to be my baby girl. Okay, Sherry-bean?"
Sherry set down her trail mix and embraced her mother the best she could.
"I love you too, mommy," Sherry mumbled. "Live. I need you to be here."
"I will," Annette told her. "I promise."
Claire smiled, an unusual sense of hope blooming in her chest.
"She will," Claire told Sherry, patting her shoulder. "She's strong….and Rebecca won't let her die."
She couldn't explain where the confidence came from, but she accepted it. She needed hope. They all did.