The Ghost Survivors: Last Escape Chapter 1: Prologue: Out Of The Frying Pan, a resident evil fanfic

Hello old friends and new, curious arrivals. This story is an interquel/concurrent tale set in the same universe as my other story Their Last Escape that runs at the same time as it, another perspective on the escape from Raccoon City. It's a much shorter and more focused story than Their Last Escape, but not without its advantages. I had a hell of an easier time writing this short story than I did Their Last Escape, using all the lessons I learned from that one. Practice always helps. It's essentially the final act of two characters from Resident Evil 2 in Raccoon City, instead of the entire epic journey or most of it like Their Last Escape. I suggest having played or watched Leon's Scenario in Resident Evil 2 and its remake, along with Ada's scenario Death's Door in Umbrella Chronicles, and GHOST's minigame in the RE 2 remake's Ghost Survivors. Not mandatory, but highly suggested. Like my other story I'll be coming back to this one periodically and editing it a bit as I go along, as well as afterwards.

Without further ado, here you are, dropped right in the middle of the adventure. Hope you all enjoy what I have in mind for this story.

September 30th, 1998, 8:47 AM

Cable Car Platform, Entrance Of Umbrella's Underground NEST Facility, Downtown, Raccoon City

"Attention! Self destruct sequence initiated! Repeat! The self destruct sequence has been initiated! This sequence may not be aborted! All employees proceed to the central elevator to evacuate immediately to the bottom level emergency train platform!"

The RED QUEEN's posh, Scottish accented voice blared out the ringing warning amid the alarms for the thousandth time, it seemed. But it was the furthest thing from his mind, just now. He already had his escape route charted and in front of him... and all it would take from him now was one final hurtle for him to get there. Compared to what had come before, it was relatively straight forward, at least, though not much more pleasant. Peering intently through the MP5's infrared scope, he targeted the last of the zombified facility staff and former security personnel in sight along the platform in front of the train. All of them lit up by the swivel headed flashlight connected to his body armor, along with the flashing warning lights around the platform walls. Casting his and their shadows all about the platform. Breathing slowly and remaining as calm as he could, not wanting to waste a single shot of the tracer rounds lighting up the area as well. Blowing heads apart with the single shot option, weapon roaring and echoing, shell casings flying... and targeting areas on the infected security personnel their frustrating A-gear body armor didn't cover, bloodily tearing through limbs, dropping legs out from under them. Cursing under his breath through the mask every time he missed a shot or struck the armor, and trying again. Old man Spencer had spared no expense for the NEST... was getting his money's worth, wherever he was. The facility's security had been fitted with top of the line gear... though for all the good it had done them in the end, with the outbreak. He had no doubt there were none left alive, anywhere in the vast facility. Even if there were, it would be a moot point within a matter of minutes. He had some magazines with armor piercing and incendiary rounds that could surely tear through and light up their armor, but sure as hell wasn't about to waste them on the common infected, armored up or not. He was saving them for any further mutations... new types of T-Virus abominations that almost certainly lie ahead.

And with his luck, they would prove even worse than what already lurked through the corridors of NEST.

Mercifully, there was no sign of the mutations or lab experiments among the current freaks present at the train platform... at least not yet. While he doubted his luck would remain, he hoped at least that he'd left the worst of it behind to burn with the rest of NEST. Where they belonged. The submachine gun settled over each of the zombies advancing inexorably in his direction, before shifting rapidly to the next target, working to clear the path ahead. Keep them at bay. They died all over again moaning and screeching, snarling, collapsing along the area in broken heaps. Slamming into the metal deck, pouring blood through separated flesh, shells punctured through them, flowing freely over their bodies courtesy of the hail of lead. The ones that collapsed without a head shot, he was sure to target them again through the scope and put a round through their head while they were down. When he finally downed and finished off the last of them, his magazine went dry, the spent shell casings rolling every which way on the concrete at his boots. Breathing slowly, working to keep control, he took the time to reload, dropping the spent magazine, clattering on the deck and popping in a fresh one... but he didn't dare to lower his submachine gun. Instead, the moment he finished reloading he looked back down the corridor leading towards the three opened containment doors to the NEST's primary reception area, one of them damaged, sparking, and open only half way. More of the rotting facility personnel were coming from there, spilling out of the aptly named facility, giving pursuit after he had rushed past them... but they were quite a ways off. There was no need to be wasting ammunition on them... nothing the meltdown wouldn't take care of before long. Even if he had managed to gather a good amount of ammunition, for his submachine gun and sidearm alike, he knew he was going to need every round for the journey to come... the sewers and city waiting high above, closer to the surface. As bad as ground zero was... it was about to be cleansed, and by now it had to be even worse up there. It must have spread beyond NEST.

There was no telling how far it was, with as long as the outbreak had had to develop. The sewers at least he was certain... though he hoped there was a quarantine in effect up there, by now. That Umbrella had sent in the cavalry to contain this insanity.

"Yeah, yeah. I heard you the first thousand times. Give me a goddamn break, lady. Fucking Monday morning quarterback... this shithole deserves to be fried. Should have done it myself..."

U.S.S. Special Agent GHOST muttered under his breath as the accented artificial voice of the RED QUEEN returned him to the grim reality of the present, and looked ahead to the platform... cluttered with rotting, mutilated corpses, gore smears, shell casings, equipment and crates. Above all he looked to the only cable car present on this particular platform out of the NEST... escape... it was just in sight now... the cable line stretching up into the darkness of the tunnel away from the facility, and back to the sewers. He had considered obeying the facility AI, heading to the bottom level emergency train platform, but it had been too far away, across the facility... and this route back to the entrance had been closer and known to him, guaranteed, instead of running blind deeper into the hell that was NEST. Besides, even if he'd managed to make it there, who was to say that whoever the hell that had activated the self destruct sequence hadn't already made it there and was far away by now? Boy would GHOST have looked stupid standing on that empty train platform. He was here at last, but all the same... GHOST didn't dare to breath easier just yet. He might have been new at all this, but he was superstitious enough to know the final steps of a mission were always the most dangerous. That tended to be the exact moment when the rug was pulled out from under a man. To say nothing of the most frightening.

The ringing sirens of the facility warning of the impending self destruction continued to blare in his ears... the flashing lights in his eyes. Particularly through the right broken lens. The horrific moans of the zombies and worse from the mutations... the fucked up experiments Birkin had been working on and had unleashed in his insanity. Especially the scientists infected with some... T-Virus plant mutation, their awful croaking, vines writhing around their bodies, with revolting split heads with jagged teeth running down the front of their bodies like something out of The Thing. The shit nightmares were made out of. It had been a hellish final slog through smoke, fire, blaring sirens, flashing red warning monitors, a glimpse at the facility's core in meltdown on his way up on the central elevator... and death. Nothing but death. Corpses being feasted upon and torn apart by infected staff unable to realize or care that they were all soon to be incinerated. Nothing would deter them from their last meal, even his close proximity, they had not risen and lunged at him. The clawed, skinless freaks with the long tongues had been crawling through the ventilation shafts as well, hissing and screaming as he raced past. Running all the way to the marathon's finish line... to say nothing of all the hellish days down here preceding this final one. All of it more than enough encouragement to fly through NEST like the goddamn wind and never look back.

He wanted nothing more than to forget it all, put it behind him... but it kept creeping back, a bit at a time. A great deal of it was still a blur to him, even now. Maybe it would come back to him... when he had some time to sit down and think... maybe it wouldn't. Maybe that would be a blessing, forgetting most of what had happened during this operation. What he did remember was that somehow he had survived Birkin's assault... but had been injured and forced to flee. Separated from the others. In the chaos he had damaged both his helmet camera and radio... and was unable to get through to anyone. Worse still, the maps had been submerged in sewer water and lost. He had been running blind for days trying to find a way out... and had ended up in NEST again, battling his way through the infected staff and B.O.W.'s... having to find places to hold up and hide. Gathering weapons and ammunition, assorted supplies. To plan his next move. At least there had been a good deal of munitions owned by the NEST's security forces. He might not have made it otherwise. It was a pure fluke of good fortune he had found a sample of the G-Virus when and where he had, in the chambers below the main shaft, its familiar glow standing out in the shadows down there.

Of course his good luck couldn't possibly last... someone had set off the facility's self destruction sequence around the same time... he wasn't sure how much time was left, but he could imagine it was less than he'd have liked. Still... if he could get the G-Virus out of the facility and back to the company... maybe he could get off the hook for fucking everything else up royally. He remembered HUNK's anger over his quick reaction to Birkin's threat... felt some shame for it... especially with how it had turned out. Still... he couldn't bring back the dead, his team... the T-Virus had already done that anyways... but he could make sure the mission wasn't all for nothing. He looked up and down the platform several times rapidly, deeming it secure, and looked back one more time towards the doors to the NEST. The snarling, moaning infected pursuing him had gotten closer, but still a good distance off. They were slow... but relentless. There were others among them advancing his way... one of the clawed things scaling along a wall far back inside of NEST, and several of the croaking, plant-like infected marching with the common infected... the glowing pod-like growths on them shining bio-luminescent light. Not for the first time he wondered what that sick bastard Birkin had been working on down here even before the outbreak he had caused. Besides the G-Virus, of course. Producing horrors like that. Fucking mad scientists... seemed to be all Umbrella had on the company payroll. Virologist. Genius, yet crazy, sick bastards with delusions of grandeur. Old man Spencer seriously needed to consider thinning the herd after this outbreak. Or maybe those were exactly the qualities he was looking for in his virologists. In which case, it was a wonder this shit hadn't happened to the company sooner.

The agent turned back towards the cable car and limped up the platform as fast as he could, ignoring the pain in his midsection, the ache in all his limbs, his exhaustion, gasping and breathing heavily through his mask, passing over all the bodies along the way. Being careful to move around them out of arm's reach, in case one of them wasn't as dead as it looked and grabbed him. He'd learned that lesson the hard way, days ago that felt years ago. At least he hadn't learned a worse way... there were always worse ways ways of learning lessons. The RED QUEEN's familiar accented voice washed over him the moment he moved up the train platform's stairs and reached the door to the locked down cable car, impeding him, as expected.

"Access to primary cable car is denied. Please present identification for scanning. Failure to present identification will result in notification of facility security."

"What facility security you gonna call on me? Those shambling freaks? I am the security."

GHOST muttered again under his breath, and at long last, he held up his left arm and pulling down the sleeve of his uniform a bit, exposing the stolen, glowing green ID Wristband in front of the automatic reader device. Hoping that it would shut her up. He'd lifted it off one of the zombies awhile back, a former scientist, he remembered, with a burnt right hand for some reason... soaked in blood from the jagged slash wounds of Hunters. One who certainly hadn't needed it any longer... it had been necessary to retrieve, given the aggravating nature of the NEST's security devices. How seriously RED QUEEN took it. Half of him had expected lasers to come out of the walls or floor at some point, cut him and the others of Alpha Team to pieces... but he reckoned even old man Spencer wasn't that crazy, or stupid, certainly not enough to make homicidal AI's. Last thing the company needed was a HAL 9000. This viral outbreak was bad enough. On the other hand those lasers would have been useful against the freaks, come the outbreak. Especially for Birkin. RED QUEEN had clearly irritated HUNK as well, GHOST remembered, the Alpha Team leader's terse exchanges with her, upon their infiltration into NEST. It had been evident even in his mask, muffled voice unpleasant. More so than usual. After the outbreak, GHOST had tried to locate an access card for the higher levels of the facility, but had been unable to. Still, he'd had enough access to the place... and likely in not finding those higher access cards he had saved himself a heaping load of trouble. It was probably somehow even worse in those sections of the facility than it was here. His tired, miserable voice continued to escape his lungs and mask as though of its own volition, thoughts coming to life.

"That's right... come to daddy. Open the goddamn door already, you red scot bitch... I'm ready to punch out and call it a work day. Would say I've fucking earned it."

"Scanning for identification... please stand by, and remain still."

"Hurry the fuck up! Welcome committee's coming and they sure as shit ain't remaining still!"

The device... the RED QUEEN, really, watching and recording through the security cameras on the platform, as it did through the many around NEST, scanned the green wristband steadily, a red holographic light washing over him. Taking its sweet ass time. For one terrible moment, holding his breath amid the sirens and distant but approaching echoing moans of the horde, he was sure it wouldn't work, that the train would keep him locked out... force him to try running down the tunnel to escape on foot... to almost certain doom. He kept glancing back to the distant corner of the train platform on the far end of it, leading to the NEST, where the screams and moans were coming from... the shuffling of dead feet drawing closer. He couldn't see them passing around the corner, but it was just a matter of time. Instead, with a beep of recognition, the red lights turning green, the AI's voice poured from the device once more.

"Identification confirmed. Tram clearance level granted for departure. Farewell, Doctor Frost. Have a very safe day."

"Gee, thanks lady. Been a regular fucking safety seminar down here lately. Open up already! I've had enough of this monkey farm shit!"

The accented voice did not respond to that, nor to the fist GHOST banged on the door... though the door of the cable car did unlock and open at last. As soon as it did, he grunted and rushed forward, swept inside, submachine gun at the ready, checking within... finding it mercifully secure, no freaks lying in wait to burst out at him. Drawing a low, muffled breath of relief through the damaged mask... he navigated up the car's steps and towards the control panel facing the tunnel above. Reaching it, he breathed again painfully... a satisfaction flitting over him. Now he could breath just a little easier. Once he escaped and got back to the Leviathan... he could set everything right with the sample. Could explain himself. Might even get a promotion for it, for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, instead of a firing squad led by that stone cold motherfucker SENTINEL. A firing squad if he was lucky in failure, at least... a final return to Rockfort Island was the chilling alternative. To the freak and his attendants who ran the concentration camp, prison and asylum in one there. Memory of the place returned to him, the screams he heard from the barracks... the screams from the beaches and the rifle shots as the island's Commander laughed himself silly from his balcony... and he had to stow them away again at once, repressing a shudder. GHOST had left behind the footage days before after his camera broke... there had been no reason to bring back incriminating evidence on himself. It would be buried in the destruction of NEST, incinerated like everything and everyone else who had resided down here. He could claim to have simply lost the tape during his escape. Make up any story he wanted to. They would have no alternative but to believe it... who among them could contradict it? The U.S.S. Agent smiled grimly beneath the mask at the thought. If they knew what he'd done, he'd be finished with the company even if he brought them the G-Virus on a silver platter. Be fitted with a pair of cement shoes and heaved off the Leviathan.

And then another thought, realization, struck him, his bitter smile vanishing. All that was assuming of course the Grim Reaper hadn't already escaped, and with a sample of his own. GHOST was inclined to believe he had completed the mission already, for better or worse. If even half of what was said about him was true... the things he had done and survived, it was all but guaranteed. He survived everything.

They had all laughed and joked about it before the start of the mission... as NIGHTHAWK had flown them to the city on the 20th... how little they had known how right they would be. In the chaos of Birkin's attack, GHOST had lost track of the Alpha Team leader... hadn't found him in the days afterwards either... but both the NEST and sewers were sprawling... it would be easy to miss the other. He'd gotten lost, and ended up right back in NEST, despite his best attempts to locate an exit in the sewers. If GHOST had made it this far, HUNK, on the very likely chance he hadn't died... must have reached NIGHTHAWK and evacuated the city by now. Kicking his feet up on the medical deck of the Leviathan, QUARTERMASTER giving him a hard time, Sir Maxwell praising another success, Doctor Radames doting on him for any and every cut and bruise. Kissing them better. Among other things, no doubt. Ready to sail back to Loire Village and deliver a sample and something more to that scary, sexy blonde French Countess of his, waiting on him in her castle. Lucky bastard. Some guys just had all the good fortune... didn't even come down to training or skills most of the time. The man had it made, had from the start of his career... money, fame and status in the company. GHOST supposed all the perks came with being a company legend... if an enigmatic one.

The rest of the grunts in the rank and file tended not to be so fortunate... the continued blaring sounds of the sirens outside surrounding him driving that point home.

Maybe the Alpha Team leader would cover for GHOST again as he had after the incident with U.S.S. Command... though he doubted that. HUNK was a professional first and foremost... obsessed with the rules... loyal to the core... he would never lie in his final report. Company man, through and through... though a soldier as well... above them and one of them at the same time. Before this mission, they would have followed him to hell and back. Well... now they had been through hell. And most of them would be missing out on the 'back' half of the sentiment. Still... however it would turn out when he got back to the Leviathan, it was finally over. Or at least... the beginning of the end. He could worry about all that later, the fallout and repercussions. What mattered now was what was in front of him. Not far away. The next obstacles to surmount. Hopefully he was leaving the worst of it behind back at the facility. He looked through the window and up into the darkness of the tunnel above... darkness he knew led on to freedom. To safety. His gloved hands reached for the door control as well as the activation button of the cable car, feeling the anticipation of excitement, pulse quickening. He finally dared to laugh to himself through the mask, nearly breathless with relief... the first time he had since the start of the mission. Trying to gather his wits.

And then his hands and everything else froze the moment he heard the weapon cocking behind him. Felt it press against the back of his helmet. Heard a stranger's voice.

"Leaving so soon?"

Of course. So much for that.

"Well?"

A woman's cool, yet wry voice spoke to him again... and he felt the barrel lower and press against the back of his neck, this time. He closed his eyes for a long, terrible moment, remaining quiet, silently saying his prayers, heart beating quicker... waiting for the rapport he wouldn't hear. For a darkness he couldn't lift by opening his eyes. Waiting for the ringing of the facility's alarms and the droning of the RED QUEEN to vanish. For silence. But none came. Instead he felt her prod him again with the weapon, and he opened his eyes, seeing a reflection, faint outline of a figure clad in red against the window of the cable car. Too blurry to discern. He must have been so distracted by the sounds of the facility, his own thoughts and mirth to be escaping, that he hadn't even heard her footsteps. Or had he not checked the car properly? Either way... he knew he had made a fatal error and would pay for it. At the worst possible moment for it to happen. Proven right in his fears... feeling the rug tugged out from beneath him. So close to escape... but too damn far. Finally, he spoke back to the voice with annoyance and apprehension in one, unable to believe his rotten luck, after what he had survived. For it to end this way.

"Well... the entire facility is only about to blow the fuck up. Cave in on our heads. So I'm in a bit of a hurry, if you hadn't noticed."

"I noticed. We have a bit of time yet. I'm never late... I always endeavor to be...-"

"Yeah? I don't think the self destruction sequence and melting core give a shit.", GHOST spoke up at once, muffled voice cutting her off abruptly, with deepening irritation. Jaw tightening a bit within the mask as the anticipation built. The artificial voice of the RED QUEEN outside continuing to warn them of NEST's imminent destruction. "Because it's getting closer right now, or don't you hear it?"

"I hear her... but this is a one woman show. Manners, agent. One must never interrupt a lady. It could have severe consequences."

"A lady? Where is she? Let me know when she gets here."

"Touche.", The woman's voice uttered a short, sharp sound that might have been a laugh, then, as though it had slipped out. Quickly stifling it again with effort. Moving on as though it hadn't happened. "I wouldn't call you a gentleman... though. I noticed you have something that's mine. I dropped it, down in the main shaft... you stole it. That wasn't very nice."

"Uh... finders keepers?"

"Cute. But you forgot 'losers, weepers'. That's you, I'm afraid. Now is the part where you kindly return it."

"No kidding? If I'm the loser, then why did you drop it in the first place?"

"I'm not in the mood for games, agent. Or arguments. Besides... I've already been through too much shit all night and this morning over that thing... just to hand it over to your dumb ass. Turn the Golgotha sample over. Now."

GHOST felt the weapon nudge into his neck again... and knew he was out of options. Getting nowhere fast. This wasn't a debate, and she wasn't negotiating. There was a sudden ice in her demand, the playfulness and amusement in her tone vanishing, and he knew she meant the words she spoke. Believed her. She would do it without hesitation, squeeze the trigger, and take it from his corpse anyways. In the time it took to whirl around and try to fight her, she would probably but a bullet through his mask as well. His choice was all too clear, much to his irritation... the only one where he might still have a chance to talk his way out of this. Or do something.

"When you put it like that..."

Breathing through the gas mask, he reached down into the pouch containing it, producing the titanium container of the bioweapon. He looked at the ominously glowing purple contents in the clear section of the canister... before slowly, reluctantly, raising it up and off to the side. He saw and felt a small, pale, blood stained hand brush against his larger gloved one, trailing over his fingers deliberately, before plucking the container away. Leaving scarlet stains on his gloves fingers... and he lowered his hand again... looking straight ahead through the front window of the cable car, at the blurry red form that had moved closer, though remained only partially reflected, and the tunnel ahead to the surface. The past days... everything he'd done to survive them... to locate another G-Virus sample, his lifeline, insurance... disappeared before his very eyes. All for nothing. For the second time in the mission. He closed his eyes and resigned himself for the inevitable, breathing deeply. Maybe it would be quick... and he wouldn't know he was dead. Maybe he already was. But again he heard no roar of a pistol. Felt no sense of nothingness. No darkness enveloping him. He still heard a woman's slight, pained breaths behind him... his own muffled ones... the blaring sirens outside and the AI's voice with its warnings... along with the moans of the dead, steadily closer than they had been before. He felt the pain and exhaustion of the past days as well, keeping him grounded. Instead of a round going through him, he was surprised by her all over again.

"Thank you.", The woman's silky, assured voice spoke again with what seemed genuine gratitude. Or at least a good imitation of it. The ice was gone again as quickly as it had appeared. He couldn't quite place the accent of hers... but then, there were more pressing concerns. She was silent a moment, then breathed again quietly, painfully, closer to him. Taking charge of the situation again. "Now... be a dear. Press the button to close and lock the train door. No sense in being interrupted by the rude, uninvited guests out there. Next, set all your weapons down on the control panel and raise your hands. Then turn around slowly and face me. No sudden moves. Nod if you understand."

GHOST understood the orders alright, helmeted head nodding... even while he didn't understand. Why the hell hadn't she killed him yet? Why hadn't she done so the moment she stepped on to the train behind him? She had him, dead to rights. There was no point to this. He'd blown it. Death was the reward for failure... he'd known that much getting involved in the U.S.S. Still... he wasn't about to raise any objections on that front. Curiosity and survival skills piqued, he obeyed that command as well... tapping the button her index finger gestured to. Maybe he could still try to talk his way out of this shit. Had a chance. Yeah... right. And maybe he was a Chinese jet pilot. Behind them the automated cable car doors clanged shut and locked, sealed them safely inside. Shut out whatever was coming, the moans and sirens, the accented voice of the RED QUEEN was growing mercifully muffled, though not vanishing altogether. When he had done that, he reluctantly began unslinging the scoped MP5 submachine gun and modified GM 79 Grenade Launcher and setting both aside next to the control panel. He unholstered his MUP pistol and removed his combat knife from its sheath, doing the same with them. He felt like a damn fool setting aside such heavy hardware... for all his training and weaponry, QUARTERMASTER's tech and armor, all it had taken was some stealthy girl with a pistol sneaking up on him. Getting the jump on him. Further humiliation to the rest of it he'd put up with, of late. The Drill Instructors back on Rockfort Island would never let him hear the end of it if they knew. Saw this. He'd be laughed right out of Umbrella Security Service... if not outright executed for it.

"And your other weapon?"

"What other weapon?"

"Come on. Don't bullshit me, agent. You are running... out of time. There's always another weapon. I know... how the U.S.S. operates..."

Her voice was slow and deliberate... focused... but it seemed to take effort out of her to do so. He felt the pistol press harder against the back of his head, making her point even better than her words could. Well... she had him there. Just his luck... he was dealing with a professional... a professional something. He rose up his right leg, raising up his undersuit a bit and reaching towards his combat boot. Retrieving the Gerber TAC boot knife from the concealed sheath within. Setting it aside next to the other weapons with a grimace within his mask. So much for that last resort option... she had him exactly where she wanted him to be, now. The pistol against the back of his head finally relented, drawing back, and her satisfied voice spoke to him again.

"Very good. Didn't need that... finding its way into my back. In... rough enough shape as it is. Now... turn around."

Finally he held up both hands and slowly turned around to face the red figure behind him. Startled by what he saw, eyes widening in the mask and jaw dropping. No fucking way... he must have been seeing things. He had to close his eyes tightly and open them again just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

He wasn't.

A young, gorgeous Asian woman in a revealing, grime and blood stained crimson red dress, with long legs clad in tattered black stockings and black stiletto high heels stood before him. Her full lips had red lipstick applied to them... her face was pale, save the spots stained with blood and a number of swelling bruises... on her face and along the exposed portions of her flesh. Further up she had a nasty cut over her forehead and some towards her right eye, blood trickling from each... her right eye was hidden away beneath her hair, while the left, dark eye looked thoroughly amused. Framed by her parted black hair, in a short bob style cut. She wore a dark choker at her neck as well with a glinting metal clasp set upon it, around a single, jewel-like pendant crafted in the shape of a red and black butterfly. There was an even worse open wound in her right shoulder... and if he had to hazard a guess from where he was standing, she had been shot. She wore a pair of leather straps over her shoulders and one around the waist of her dress with a few pouches on them for ammunition and items, with a hand held radio visibly clipped to it, another backup strap around her right bicep, and an empty holster for her drawn pistol. The weapon drawn from it that she pointed at him in her right black, fingerless leather glove clad hand was a small, dark Broom Hc, a Chinese pistol with a burst mode, along with an extended magazine visible beneath it, while in the bare, visibly cut up, bleeding left hand she slowly shook the glowing G-Virus sample back and forth at him teasingly. She wore a watch on her bruised, scraped up left wrist along with a glowing green ID Wristband like the one he wore... as well as some bracelets on each... while down at her right leg were some blood stained bandages wrapped around her thigh. She had a long, large bleeding gash on her right side, slightly ripping the fabric of the dress there. And cuts and wounds on her right ankle, and on her left wrist and that bicep as well, none of these latter wounds bandaged or treated as her thigh had been. She didn't stand on the injured leg easily, but, in spite of it all... somehow she was still standing upright, on heels no less, breathing slowly, the gun trained on him coolly... and she was still startlingly attractive while doing it in her state.

Her red lipped smile deepened, eye looking him over as carefully as he looked at her with surprise. Her low, smooth voice punctuated the silence between them... and when she spoke he found the RED QUEEN and the muffled sirens of the NEST seemed even more distant. Holding his attention. Tone remaining silky, despite the pain she was quite obviously in.

"My my. Just look at you. What's the matter? Cat got your tongue? And I thought I was in a a sorry state..."

"You are. Would have mistaken you for a zombie if I saw you limping down a corridor."

"An infected. And fair enough... can't exactly argue with that assessment... ", She corrected him and released another very slight, sharp sound that might have been a laugh. A titter. Again she moved on from it quickly, lips pursing as she grew thoughtful. "You're with Umbrella Security Service. 1st U.S.S. Unit. Alpha Team. Special Agent HUNK's boys and girls. How the hell are you still alive? Isn't it usually just him... after suicide missions like this?"

"You know about HUNK?", GHOST asked her incredulously, almost as startled by that as her sudden arrival and appearance. Damn near everything about the man was an enigma wrapped inside a mystery. Top secret. He didn't know anyone outside of the company knew about him. "How?"

"Met in another life. You came in to clean out Birkin's viral stock, before he could deliver it to the U.S. Government. Take him with you... to Spencer... no doubt. The old bastard at the top carries and nurses his many grudges. Birkin is not the first rival or ambitious traitor he's had eliminated..."

"Yeah... something like that. Don't know all the details. It's my first mission."

"Was your first mission. I'd say it's over. Didn't turn out so well either, did it? As far as first assignments go?"

"You... could say that.", The U.S.S. Agent muttered evasively... the memory of opening up on Birkin and his later transformation returning. Pursuing them and unleashing hell on the facility... the outbreak. He doubted telling her the finer details would do his health any favors, so he didn't speak of all that. "All sort of went to hell very quickly..."

"It does that. Not quite what the hardasses on Rockfort Island prepared you for. There's being trained extensively... and then there's actual field experience. Still... it's impressive you made it this far, this long. What's your codename? I know all you agents have one... capitalized and everything. Lady Spencer alone knows why. Please tell me it's at least something halfway decent. I've heard some rather stupid and uncreative ones."

"GHOST."

"GHOST? With the way you blundered through here? Someone had a sense of humor. Hmm. Still. Not a terrible name... reminds me of myself, really.", The woman in red laughed a little bitterly, smiling in spite of it. Forcing herself to. The pain was there, written all over her injured face. "GHOST. Might have to use it, some day. Doesn't sound like the name a smitten teenage girl would choose for you either, at least. Pick it yourself?"

"Well, I-..."

"Rhetorical question. I don't really care if you did or why. Makes no difference."

GHOST held his tongue to keep from retorting... not ready to argue with the gun, and her suddenly cool dismissal, though was further irritated by it. The rapid swing in her mood. The strange woman in red stood there for a long moment considering him... thinking something over carefully. Glancing down at the watch on her wrist for a moment. Through it all GHOST heard the sirens of the NEST... and the facility AI calling warnings over the loudspeaker... and his heart racing faster. Feeling the perspiration beneath his mask. He could handle a great deal... but even he had his limits. He was not about to stand here on ceremony quietly while a potential crazy lady suffering from blood loss held him at gun point trying to decide what to do... as the NEST destroyed itself. She was probably half out of her mind by now... something was off about her alright. Someone with wits had to take over, here. He finally broke the silence, unable to help or restrain himself. The imminent destruction of the facility and her unnatural calmness about it all unnerving him more than the weapon in his face.

"Look... woman. Whoever the hell you are. I'm a reasonable guy, but I've just experienced some damn unreasonable things. You have the virus. You have me at gunpoint. You have the cable car. Assuming you don't bleed out first... what are you going to do with all that?"

"I'm leaving this facility, of course. This city. My employers sent me here for this thing... just like yours sent you. Time I... put this nightmare behind me..."

"How nice for you. And where exactly does that leave me in your plans?"

Her eye glanced backwards a moment, and her red lipped smile deepened at what she saw. He followed her gaze out the reinforced back and side windows of the cable car... to find a number of the infected scientists, maintenance workers and security had finally caught up with him at last. Several of the malformed, plant-like infected as well... razor sharp maws across their chests opening and closing excitedly... croaking hideously, vines shifting about like hideous tendrils. A horde... one growing steadily larger with each passing moment on the train platform. The freaks stared at the two of them inside the cable car hungrily, moaning and pressing against the side of the car and the windows up front, having stumbled on to the track... trying in vain to break inside the sealed compartment. Dead, rotting, filthy hands slamming uselessly against the side of the train and the sealed metal door. Staining it with their blood and the blood of their feedings, smearing the reinforced windows. Snarling and gnashing their teeth against the metal, the plant things pressing their blood soaked vines against the side as well, slamming against it tirelessly, relentlessly. The muffled thumping emanating through the interior like the moans. Swallowing nervously, he looked back to the injured young woman in red when she looked back his way again, and she continued with a trace of a knowing look.

"Yes. What about you? On one hand... I could throw you outside to them. They look hungry. Sure stirred them up on the way out here... didn't you?"

"And uh... on the other hand?"

"Well... you're most certainly not the rookie I would have liked to be leaving with...", She spoke slowly after a long pause of consideration, looking back at him carefully with that ghost of a thoughtful smile. In spite of the likely worsening pain, she was still managing to hold it at bay. Even as the blood dripped and ran freely from her. "But we can't get everything... everyone... we want. Maybe you're my consolation prize. Could be more useful to me than being Umbrella chow for those things out there."

"What do you-..."

"As far as anyone's concerned... you died down here with your team, GHOST. You are your codename, now. I know you aren't wearing tracking devices like your team leader does. You aren't important enough an asset to merit them. Either way... you aren't going back to the Leviathan. Best start getting used to that. Your choice where you go, now. You can stay down here in this smoldering, charnel pit, eaten alive and incinerated... perhaps shot by me if I'm feeling merciful... or you can rise to the surface, with me. Not much better up there... admittedly... but you'll have a chance. Though I cannot say how great of one. Now... make your choice."

GHOST, holding his tongue after she cut him off, looked back at the strangely compelling, attractive, and frightening young woman... looked at her pistol aimed his way... and then to the zombies and mutations banging against the metal and Plexiglas out there. Snarling and roaring at the two of them within, appetites ravenous at being teased with the sight of them, but unable to reach them. Then down to all the flashing emergency lights around the entrance of the NEST. Hearing the sirens constant blare... the RED QUEEN's warnings that fell only on the ears of the dead and mutated remaining in the NEST. Knowing there was precious little time. More infected had arrived, a sizable mob moving over the corpses and filling the platform and station... and he saw more of the croaking, plant-like infected out there... the glowing growths on them and the biomass, organic material growing from them like vines... moving unnaturally. The maws that comprised their entire heads gnashing open and closed ravenously... hearing the muffled croaking out there as they joined the infected. He saw one or two of the pale, scrawny, eyeless freaks out there among them too, standing in the foreground like leaders of the assembled horde... mutated zombies. If they waited any longer, the long tongued freaks that climbed the walls would show up next, he was certain. And those he had the feeling could break inside the cable car, having seen what their claws could tear through. Sample or no sample... gun in his face or not... he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth... the salvation the woman was offering. Wasn't going back out there or being unceremoniously gunned down on this train under any circumstances. Even if he had the growing feeling the zombies were more honest than she was likely to prove.

Even if it ended up being a deal with the devil for his soul, he looked back to her... and had never made an easier decision in his life.

"Hell of a saleswoman, huh? Now that I think about it... you've convinced me, lady. I'll take that chance."

"Good boy. Hoped you'd see it my way. The smart ones always do. Might be smarter than you look after all. Better hold on tight then... 'GHOST'. You're in for quite a bumpy ride."

"I am?"

"You have no idea. But you will. Time to go."

With another rapid glance down at her watch, pistol still trained on him, she moved forward, and pushed him firmly out of her way and down into a nearby seat, taking him off guard with her quick movement. He landed into it heavily with a grunt through his gas mask, looking back up at her behind the controls of the train. Reaching down, she tapped the button on the control panel with the barrel of her pistol and activated the lever with her other bloody hand. The entire cable car blared to life, engine rumbling and lights flashing on the exterior. Beginning its departure... its ascent... pulling away from the corpse ridden metal platform and swarm of former personnel, mutations and experiments now occupying it. Occupying NEST as its new, short term denizens. They tried in vain to give pursuit, but fell over among themselves on the stairs or on to the tracks... while beyond them, some of the first explosions of the facility's melting down core began. GHOST looked out the rear window at the station they fled from, lips parting within the mask. He watched the fires licking up and down the entrance... tremors beginning to rip through the station, pieces of concrete and metal and ceiling collapsing, crashing into and crushing the zombies beneath them. The cable car ran over and crushed a few of the infected that were out on the tracks, T-Virus infected blood spraying upon the window in front of the control screen, earning a look of faint amusement from the woman. He saw flames of the growing, spreading inferno licking up a number of the infected and mutations out there, heard their muffled screams over the sirens and the blaring warnings of the RED QUEEN. Saw the freaks with the prehensile tongues arrive, crawling upon the walls with their jagged claws, screeching as well, a couple of them burning and collapsing on to the platform. Screaming as they burned. GHOST felt equal parts dread coiling in his stomach, and something like hope, triumph... or the wish to hope. Leaving it all behind at last... assuming they weren't engulfed in the fire as well. That they hadn't taken too long. It seemed too good to be true... and those sort of things usually were. He gripped on to the nearest railing with his gloved hands, holding on for dear life, attempting to keep his fear under control, his breathing steady as the world went to hell once more all around him, and him now helpless to do anything about it.

On and on the cable car sped, picking up speed and climbing down the tunnel as the blood stained woman in the red dress cranked up the power to the engine, putting more distance between them and NEST. All the while the woman watched their departure for a moment... then looked down to the purple glowing G-Virus sample in her other hand. Her expression was distant for a moment as she examined the bioweapon... faintly troubled... but it vanished quickly, replaced by that cool mask of unnatural confidence. Reaching up, she tucked it carefully into one of the pouches on her shoulder straps, hiding it away from sight.

Finally she looked back over her bloodied, mutilated shoulder to him, scarlet droplets dripping from it and down on to the control panel and floor beneath her, running down her flesh. Those full red lips smiling... remembering something and speaking as the sirens, AI and moans of the freaks below them grew ever more mercifully distant at last. The closer they drew towards the surface... to the sewers... to escape... together.

"Oh... and if you must... you can call me Ada. Ada Wong."

And thus a 'beautiful' partnership begins ;). More to come. Reviews are welcome and appreciated as ever.