Resident Evil: Bloodlines

by DJPet

Zack has a lot to live up to. His parents are former anti bioterrorism operators and he even joined up with the American Branch of the BSAA when he was of age. Although he has recently fallen on hard times. His father is missing and no one has seen him for 3 months. One day, he receives a message from his father and sets off to go look for him only to find himself in deep trouble

1. File 1: The Buffalo, NY Incident

File #1

The Buffalo, NY Incident

The first thing that I noticed tonight was that it stopped raining but we were still about 100 or so feet off the ground in a helicopter...piloted by my sister. Oh yeah, I felt safe. She must have seen my face and remembered how air travel made me queasy and banked the chopper from side to side a few times causing me to fall into the chair next to one of my squadmates.

"Hey Banshee, while it's always fun to take the piss out of Zacky boy here, we'd all like to get there in one piece," our squad leader, Reaper, said to my sister. I liked this guy. He was Scottish and his dry sense of humor was usually a source of entertainment.

"Sorry Reaper. Couldn't resist" my sister said. I could totally tell she was grinning under her mask. That's my sister Jenna for ya. Don't get me wrong, I loved her but sometimes she forgets that she is the second lowest rank on our squad next to the rookie. There's 5 of us on it. Myself, Jenna, Reaper, Oni and the rookie, Jester. We were known as Spectre Squad, a paramilitary force under the command of the B.S.A.A. The squad was usually dispatched in various parts of the US to handle bioterrorists and various BOWs. I've only seen a handful of BOWs during my service with the B.S.A.A., mainly zombies and what's known as Cerberus dogs. We mainly handle the bioterrorists. My older relatives have told me they have seen some fucked up shit in their lifetimes. Jester helped me adjust myself after I fell into the seat next to her.

"Easy there, cutie," she said under her breath so only I could hear her. There it was again. I had noticed her calling me this a multitude of times over the past few months. She must have a crush on me or something. In fact 2 nights ago, she and I had spent the better part of the evening chatting in my apartment.

I do recall meeting her for the first time. It was almost a year ago at this point. Before dad disappeared. She was fresh off basic training for the B.S.A.A. and had apparently gotten a degree in biochemistry and medicine at a relatively young age. I was busy reading some report an agent had given me when Reaper had messaged me to come down to one of the conference rooms. I did so and was greeted by my other squadmates. It was always a bit jarring to see them without their masks on. Reaper was a little older than the rest of us, late 30's I think. The rest of us were in our mid-late 20s. Reaper had short red hair and a handlebar moustache. Oni stood next to him, leaning up against the wall. He was a Japanese man with shoulder length hair which he usually kept in a ponytail. He also sported facial hair in the Japanese Van Dyke style. I had recognized my sister, the slender woman with her backwards blue baseball cap and light brown hair. She was standing next to someone that I would soon find out would be the rookie. I myself was a muscular man with short spiky hair, a chin goatee and orange tinted sunglasses perched on my head. People tell me that I looked exactly like my father, statements I took with immense pride. My dad was a former respected anti bioterrorism operator. My mom was as well. Both of them supported us when Jenna and I said we wanted to join the B.S.A.A. when we turned 18...although Mom was a little reluctant with me after the incident that happened when I was 17 and after what she, Dad and my aunt and uncle had seen, it made sense as to why.

"Alright lads and lassie. I called you here so you could meet our new squadmate. Miss Laura Chambers. Some of you might know her mother, Professor Rebecca Chambers. She's been assigned to our squad as our medic just in case any of us get shot because Zacky boy over there missed some hostile," Reaper said.

"Dude, that happened one time!" I said resentfully.

"Hai, and I still got the scar to prove it" Oni responded but I knew he was kidding. He and I were old friends. Laura meanwhile was staring at me with a small smile on her face. I did know her mother Rebecca. My parents mentioned something about her a few times when I was a kid. I even met her a few times when I was like 3 but never knew she had a daughter. Granted, Jenna and I were still really little when we met her so I don't really remember. If I recall correctly she was some kind of biochemist prodigy or something. Laura looked very similar to her mother but with a few differences. For one, I think Laura was taller and her hairstyle was different. It was shoulder length, light brown and tied back into a single sports ponytail. She was dressed in standard B.S.A.A. field op gear. Dark gray combat fatigues, black tactical gloves, combat boots and a bulletproof vest. As we were an elite squad, we were allowed to personalize ourselves and we all did that in the form of masks. Laura seemed to have picked out a tactical looking mask with a wicked looking grin on it (which is why we named her Jester) along with a pair of standard issue goggles. Reaper wore a standard half face mask with a skull pattern and goggles. You can probably guess what Oni wore. It was a modified tactical variation of a classic Japanese mempo mask colored black and red. My sister, Jenna, typically wore her blue baseball cap backwards, white tinted combat goggles and a full balaclava. Like I mentioned earlier, I wore sunglasses but these weren't your typical pair of sunglasses. My uncle helped me develop them. These could switch between night vision, low light, thermal vision and infrared vision. I could switch between modes by tapping the side of the frames. They could also glow orange if I wanted to scare the crap out of some unsuspecting terrorist...which I did quite often. I could wear these indoors, but I'm not a supreme douche so I don't typically do that.

"Laura, this is my brother Zack. You might know him as Scarecrow," Jenna said, putting her hand on my shoulder. Laura's expression became even more amused if that was possible.

"You're the one most of the bioterrorists are afraid of right?" she asked me. Her voice was soft and friendly.

"I mean I guess. I don't usually go up to them and ask if I scared them, do I?" I responded. She smiled back. She was extremely pretty now that I thought about it.

"That's the mask right? On your belt? I've read some of your reports and studied your combat techniques. Where did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. Jenna and Oni were currently talking with Reaper about something he had just received on his phone.

"My parents taught me when I was growing up. I refined it over the years. Also yes, this is my mask. It protects me from most gas and hides my identity from those I do not wish to reveal it to," I said, patting my scarecrow half-mask.

"Jenna tells me that you're also quite the marksman. What she didn't tell me was how cute you were," Laura said.

"Parents taught me that too. Longest shot I hit was from about a couple hundred yards," I began but Oni cut me off.

"Yes, I do remember that. Routine bioterrorism threat on a farm of all places. The guy nearly shit himself when he noticed that the scarecrow in the nearby field was actually Zack. Zack was posing as a scarecrow to gather intel but one of the guards noticed him. He tried to get away but like Zack said, he got him in one shot. The other guys that were there were beyond terrified as Zack kept moving in and out of the shadows, picking them off one by one," he said, smiling at me. I smiled back.

"Oh yeah, that was truly a sight to behold. We were on standby for backup but we weren't needed. The laddie handled it all himself," Reaper said.

"I also recall them screaming 'the scarecrow moves!' over and over again" Jenna added. She may like to tease me often but she's still my twin sister so I took that statement as a compliment. Laura was still looking at me with admiration. I opened my mouth to talk with her again but Reaper suddenly spoke

"Spectre Team, we are needed in the briefing room. Command said something about a zombie outbreak in rural Vermont. Move out!" We all went to follow him out. That turned out to be a fairly easy assignment. I'll give you a quick summary. Gas turned a small community of Vermonters into zombies and we had to clear them out. Laura had frozen in absolute horror when she witnessed a pack of zombie dogs devouring some poor civilian. I happened to be closeby on perimeter control and it turned out to be a good place to be. One of the dogs charged her and she went to back away, tripped and fell. The dog pounced but I killed it and his buddies with well placed shots. I helped her to her feet and we ran off to regroup with the squad as more zombie dogs were approaching our position. Good news, we were able to contain that outbreak but Laura was still in shock after what she had seen. She started to stick to me like glue after that and I even started to train her in marksmanship after that mission.

Back to the current mission, this one was also going to be pretty easy if you ask me. A new bioterrorism cell called "The Disciples of Azrael" was gaining some ground and the B.S.A.A. had uncovered an apparent location of one of their HQs near Buffalo, New York. I felt a tad uneasy about this as well. The info was given to us by Evan Xander, a B.S.A.A. officer that was leading the "search" for my dad. He wasn't doing fuck all to find him. Dad's been missing for like 3 months at this point and this motherfucking bastard sits in his office all day most likely twiddling his dick. Mom's been worried sick as well as Jenna. I get daily texts from Mom asking about the search for dad and it pains me to have to tell her that they're getting nowhere. Just the thought of her sitting in the living room of her house alone, missing his company is enough to make me want to deck Xander in the face so hard that I decapitate him. Laura must have noticed that I was thinking about Xander and placed her hand on my shoulder in an effort to console me.

"Still no word on your dad?" she asked apprehensively. I shook my head and punched the side of the chopper.

"Whoa laddy, save it for the bad guys will ya?" Reaper told me. I had noticed Jenna's eyes narrow with rage as well. She was "Daddy's Little Girl." Don't get me wrong, I love my dad and he loves me but I'm clearly a momma's boy. We sat in silence for a few more minutes before Reaper leaned in to go over the plan again.

"Alright guys, this is potentially a simple intel gathering operation. These guys should have no idea we are coming. Here's the plan, Scarecrow and Jester will be on perimeter control as usual. Make sure no one is able to get in or out. We're coming up on the LZ shortly. The rest of us will breach and clear and grab whatever intel we can. Silencers on, weapons hot."

"Yessir!" the rest of us said. I attached my mask to the bottom of my face and put my sunglasses on and activated the built in lowlight/night-vision feature. I looked at the rookie who had just pulled up her own half face mask.

"Together again eh Jester? You watch my back and I'll watch yours" I said and grabbed my M21 rifle and my M9 sidearm from the onboard weapons rack. My knives were already secured on my tactical vest where I could easily grab them in a pinch. Jester was checking her extra mags as well as the sight on her MP5. She looked back at me.

"You got it handsome. I'll do my best," she responded and patted my shoulder. Jenna looked at me for some reason and then began her descent and I saw the lit up complex of what looked like our target building about a klick or 2 to the north. The good thing about living in 2037 is that the helicopters are equipped with a lot more stealth tech than they used to be. No one had fired any kind of shot at us. Jenna turned off the helicopter's engine and grabbed her own equipment as Jester and I jumped out of the hold.

"Watch my brother for me Jester, he owes me 50 bucks!" she called to our backs as Jester and I made our way towards the facility, keeping to the outside perimeter.

It was quiet. Like eerily quiet. I expected at least 2-3 guards patrolling the place, but the place looked empty even though the lights were on. Jester and I kept our distance from the building as I watched the other 3 start to make their way to the front door to breach. Literally no guards anywhere. What the fuck? I turned to Jester to ask her about this whole thing (and tell her that I do not owe my sister 50 bucks) when I noticed a small little shed like building behind her.

"Yes, cutie?" Jester asked me. I pointed to the building behind her.

"That looks suspicious, what say we go check it out," I answered and touched my earpiece to call Reaper.

"Scarecrow to Reaper," I said into the mic.

"Aye, go laddie," Reaper answered.

"There's what looks like an abandoned shed off to the side of the building. Jester and I are going to check it out," I said as Jester leveled her MP5 towards the shed.

"Roger, we'll let you know if we find anything," Reaper responded. I turned back to Jester and gave the command to move up and cover my 6. Jester nodded once and started to walk backwards behind me as I made my way towards the shed. Every twig I snapped underneath my boots felt like it was going to be followed by a gunshot by an unseen hostile. I even switched to thermal vision and still couldn't find anything.

"Banshee, Oni, report. Do you guys see anything?" Jester asked in her own earpiece.

"Negative. Place looks deserted," Jenna answered.

"This is bizarre, I expected at least a couple of guards," Oni answered.

"Keep the chatter to a minimum," Reaper said.

"Copy," Jester responded before addressing just me. "Well, it's just you and me handsome,"

"Seems so," I said as I reached the door and tried the handle. Locked. Typical.

"Any ideas?" Jester responded but I was way ahead of her. Not only was I a fantastic marksman and hand-to-hand combatant, I also happened to be a decent lock picker. I took out my portable lockpicking kit and went to work.

"Cover me," I told Jester as I inserted my tools into the lock. It was an easy deadbolt lock. It was just a matter of keeping the pins in the lock up with my tension wrench as I pushed them up one by one. Eventually, the deadbolt clicked open and I removed my tools while smirking under my mask.

"Got it, ok Jester, ladies first" I said and held the door open for her. It was pitch black inside.

"On second thought, nevermind. I'll check it out. You stand guard out here," I said and turned on full night vision mode. The whole inside of the shed was now bathed in green.

"Copy," Jester responded and leveled her MP5. I unholstered my pistol with my right hand and unsheathed my combat knife with my left. I then quietly pushed the door open. It was a pretty small building, mainly filled with what looked like tools and spare car parts. I decided to do a thorough search and walked into the building and started to look around, checking corners and various other angles. I took about 4 steps into the building when I spotted something standing in the corner. It was a man standing facing the wall and breathing deeply. Now that I had noticed him, I could hear his raspy breathing.

"Sir," I said to the man. He didn't respond. I tried again while moving forward.

"Sir, I'm with the B.S.A.A.. What's going on?" I asked. Again the man didn't respond. He just stood there, breathing. In and out. In and out. Over and over again. I wasn't even sure he knew I was there. I got up right behind him and put my hand on his shoulder and went to turn him around to face me. As soon as I placed my hand on his shoulder, the man turned his head towards me and I nearly fell over in shock.

"Dad?!" I said. But no. This guy wasn't actually my dad. He was much too skinny. I didn't really have time to process that when the full brunt of the situation hit me. This guy's face was like...fused with what looked like my father's face. The man's face contorted with rage and he let out an ear splitting scream that caused me to clutch my ears in pain.

"Laddie, what the bloody hell was that?! Oh shit, contact! Open fire!" Reaper said into my earpiece. Didn't really have time to answer as the man that screamed charged me, tackled me and clasped his hands around my throat and went to take a bite out of my neck. I jerked my head to the side to avoid the bite and used my left hand to slam the blade of my knife into the man's temple. The man screamed again but then went limp and fell against me. I had to shove him off me and double tapped him as I got to my feet. 2 more snarling zombies, a male and a female, came at me from the shadows and lunged. I dodged the male but the female grabbed my shoulder and I got a good look at her face. Again, it looked as though the woman's face was fused with another more masculine face. It looked as though the entire head was about to melt into a pool of blood and gore. Luckily the woman grabbed my non-dominant side and I was able to drop her in about 3 shots and dropped her male "friend" with 2. For some reason, I didn't hear Jester outside nor did she come to my aid.

"Reaper, the fuck's going on?!" I said into my comlink.

"We're under attack by BOWs! About 15 or 20!" Reaper shouted back. Then I heard Jenna's voice. I figured I knew exactly what she was going to say

"Zack...these things...these things look like…"

"I know! I just killed 3 of them in the shed. That scream you heard a few minutes ago? Yeah, it was those things. Jester and I will make our way to you guys," I responded and exited the shed. Bad news, I now saw a small horde of zombies making their way to the building. Worse news, Jester was missing. I did see a man lying on the ground clearly shot in the stomach. I ran over to him, unsheathed my knife and kicked him onto his back. This guy was human but in bad shape. He had the facial tattoo of a Disciples of Azrael member. A religious cross that went from his forehead down past his mouth and over his eyes.

"Where is she?" I snarled in his face and pressed the blade of my knife to his neck. The dying man let out a wheezy laugh.

"Dead by the time you find her. You lose hero," the man took one final breath and went limp.

"Fuck! Reaper, Jester's been grabbed by the enemy. I'm going to find her. I'll rendezvous with you outside" I said into my comlink and removed my blade from the dead man's neck.

"Aye laddy, we're holding out just fine," Reaper responded. What the shit dicking fuck just happened?! NOW the place has a million hostiles?! I started to make my way toward the building but then I heard what sounded like a female scream off to my right into the trees followed by a grunt of pain. I ran off in that direction, I wasn't going to let Jester die. Not like this.

I came up on a clearing in the forest where I found Jester engaged in hand to hand combat with another bioterrorist. Laura's MP5 was on the ground nearby but she couldn't make a lunge for it lest she get shot at herself. His 3 buddies were cheering him on saying things like "Oh, I like them fiery!" and "Come on Frank, she's just a little girl!" Little did they know that Jester was given quite a lot of hand to hand combat lessons by myself and Jenna. She did like to be close to me rather than Jenna during those lessons though. Weird. Anyway, I saw Jester parry her opponent's strike and countered with a knee to his face. She looked in my direction and must have spotted me because I saw her expression change. I think she was smiling. I pointed at the 3 other guys and then to myself saying, with no words, "I'll handle those bozos, you keep your opponent distracted." I saw her give the smallest nod before engaging her opponent full on again. The other 3 guys were spread out pretty evenly all armed with guns and grenades. Fuckin CAKE bud. I could take all 4 by myself if I wanted to but it was always good to have backup. I pulled out my scythe shaped karambit knife and some heavy duty string from one of my pouches and tied one end of it to the handle of the knife. I had just made a makeshift Japanese kama. I then hid in the shadows of the trees and threw my knife side armed at the neck of one of the terrorists. As usual my aim was true and it pierced his neck with a squelching sound. He gasped and grabbed at the blade protruding from the other side of his neck now drenched in blood and chunks of skin. I yanked on the string and pulled the most likely dead man to the ground where he twitched for a few seconds before going limp. I got another view of Jester's fight with Frank. She was still winning. Good.

"Yo, Karl? Are you good?" his comrade asked before walking over and yelling at the other guy.

"Yuri! Karl's dead! What's that in his neck...is that a scythe? With a string on it?" the first guy said and followed the string with his eyes. Karl looked at Yuri's body and then to Jester.

"So, you have little friend nearby, little suka? Well, let's see if he can bear to watch me kick your face in!" Yuri snarled at Jester and flexed his rather huge muscles. Dude was Russian too. I think he also just called Jester a "bitch." Uncool. I saw Jester's eyes widen in fear. Just hold on a few more seconds Laura. I need it to be a fair fight.

"Walt, see if you can find her little friend," Yuri added. As expected by dipshit bad guys, Walt followed the string tied to my scythe. As he got within 4 feet of me, I activated the glowing eyes on my glasses and simply said one word,

"Boo." I'm sure that Walt shit himself immediately. Never got a chance to find out. I barely noticed his bullet ridden body hit the ground as I ran by to help Jester. Good news, Frank was lying on the ground with what looked like a gunshot wound in his head. The DoA members must have forgotten about Jester's side arm. Bad news, Jester was being lifted in the air by Yuri and gasping for breath. She reached her hand towards me and Yuri turned.

"So, you are her little friend? Watch as I squeeze the life out of- Wait...we pa- GAHH!" Yuri screamed in pain as I threw my combat knife at him and it impaled him in the shoulder causing him to release Jester. She fell to the ground gasping but Yuri kicked her square in the face and she went limp. That triggered my inner fury. No one sucker kicks my teammates and gets away with it. I launched into a barrage of CQC moves that Yuri had a very hard time dodging or blocking. Blow after blow hit his chest, face and neck. I dodged a hasty haymaker and kicked him in the knee cap with all my strength. I could feel his bones break under my boot and I even saw his leg bend in the wrong direction. Yuri fell to the ground screaming in agony. I pulled out my knife again and stabbed him in both shoulders and, for good measure, the other kneecap so I could interrogate him without risk of getting smacked.

"W-we paid you to release it." Yuri managed to say through the pain.

"Come again?!" I snarled.

"The v-virus. It was y-your idea to test on this community," Yuri said, coughing profusely. Dude was on death's door but I still needed info.

"Fuckin, WHAT?!" I yelled.

"Y-y-your i-idea. We paid you and you killed us? Some ally you are," were his final words before he succumbed to his injuries. Dammit. The hell did he mean by "my idea?" I had never been to this place before tonight. Jester groaned as I fired a bullet into Yuri's head to make sure he was dead. I ran over to her and held her head in my arms as I saw her eyes open. She looked alright but there were a few scratches all across her face.

"Laura, are you alright?" I asked.

"Zack...I'm so sorry" she responded.

"It's ok," I said and helped her stand. She looked at me as if she had just failed a test in high school. "I got him. Don't worry about me. C'mon, we gotta meet with the others" I added as she still looked dejected. "Coming from the CQC guy, those were some pretty nice moves. I see you've added your own style to what I taught you," I said to her attempting to cheer her up. This worked as I could tell she was smiling warmly at me through her mask.

"Reaper, I've secured Jester and dispatched 4 hostiles. They look like Disciples of Azrael members,"

"Aye, good work laddie. HQ's given us the order to blow the place. Banshee just finished setting charges." Reaper said. I hesitated before responding

"One of them said it was my idea to test a virus on this community," Reaper remained silent for a few seconds as if processing this information. Jester looked concerned too.

"That's...strange. That was all he said?"

"Yeah...No idea why...Get a good look at those zombie things?" I asked him as Jester and I started to make our way back to the chopper.

"Aye, Banshee was a bit shaken up about it. Said they looked a tad like your old man. We got a picture and a tissue sample to bring to the guys in the lab," Reaper added.

"Copy. See you at the chopper," I said and started to jog alongside Jester, who still hadn't said anything since apologizing to me, but I noticed that she couldn't keep her eyes off me.

Jester and I beat the rest of the squad to the chopper. We saw them jogging toward us about 10 minutes later. The 5 of us boarded the chopper and took to the air. We were several yards away before the explosion. It made the chopper sway for a few seconds before Jenna regained total control. Jester sat next to me, took off her mask and started to massage her bruised body. I turned to Reaper in the co-pilot seat

"Get anything else sir?"

"No, just the sample from one of the zombies and the picture on my phone. No files. It'll have to do." Reaper answered. Well, at least it wasn't a total waste. It was about an hour and a half flight to HQ so I took some time to process what I had seen. Those zombies looked like my dad. My dad who had been missing for 3 months. It was the first piece of info about this situation since he disappeared. I'll be sure to shove this in Xander's face later. I leaned up against the back of my seat and then felt someone fall against my right shoulder. I looked over to see Jester fast asleep, resting against me quite contently. I didn't shove her off, it actually felt kind of nice. It had been a while since a woman had wanted to be anywhere near me since my last "girlfriend" nearly ruined my life. Oni had noticed this and turned to Jenna.

"Oi, Jenna. Let me take the controls. You need a break. Zack needs a lesson on women," he said and got up from his seat as I frowned. I know how to talk to women. Jerk. Jenna reluctantly got up and allowed Oni to take the controls. She took one look at me and smiled. Jenna had been there for me during that awful time in my life. See, that "girlfriend" I just mentioned? Technically she was never really my girlfriend. I was around 17 when it happened so the following story also explains why my Mom was hesitant to let me join the B.S.A.A. That girl turned out to be a complete psycho. She had emotionally abused the hell out of me. She used me for her own purposes, mainly giving her rides to and from work (where we met) even though her place was on the other side of town from mine. I often got home at 11pm after getting off work at 10. She also liked to manipulate me into doing so even though I had told her multiple times that I wouldn't after what happened next. She had used me as a rebound as her original boyfriend left town but came back about a week later begging her to take her back and she did and threw me to the side. I was crushed. She wouldn't have sex with me but that guy? Literally all the time and even bragged about it to me. In front of other people too. The trauma I endured got to the point where I had taken my dad's old gun out of its case and almost killed myself with it. My aunt and uncle and cousins were visiting that holiday weekend. I didn't realize that my family was home either so that kinda made it worse for everyone. My aunt, who had been passing by my room, must have heard the gun mag click and slide and proceeded to bang on the locked door to my bedroom, screaming my name. I remember shouting at her to go away and that I intended to end my internal pain. It would only take one shot, one...but I couldn't do it. The actual worst part was hearing Mom screaming my name over and over again as I heard my aunt go find dad, who had been outside by the pool with my uncle, Jenna and my 2 cousins. I still couldn't bring myself to open the door or shoot myself. 5 minutes later, my dad blasted the door to pieces with one kick and it had scared me so much, I fired a shot that missed my head by millimeters and I fell over. That pretty much did it for Mom, Jenna, my cousins and aunt as they thought the shot had blown a hole in my head. They were going into hysterics as my uncle attempted to calm them all down. My dad rushed over to me, grabbed the gun, unloaded it and threw it towards my uncle who caught it. Mom had run over and I will never, NEVER forget the pain in her voice as she said my name over and over. Dad had also been yelling "NO!" repeatedly as he examined me lying on the ground. He had noticed that I was still alive but in very bad shape mentally. I looked at my father's face as he helped me sit up. It was the first time I had ever seen him so scared and relieved at the same time. I remember him embracing me and telling me in a shaky voice,

"I've lost so many friends over the years, I will not lose my son. Understand me?" I nodded and Mom, who had noticed that I was fine, immediately grabbed me and started sobbing. She proceeded to hold me for hours while I told her everything that girl had done to me. I don't think she was fully listening to be honest, she was just beyond happy that I was still alive. I had to go to therapy for a while after that and my psych evaluation for the B.S.A.A. took a bit longer than Jenna's to process. I think Dad may have stepped in though as he still worked there but wasn't a field agent any more. I wasn't immediately on field agent duty but rather worked in the same room as Dad, most likely he could keep an eye on me and eventually assign me to a squad when he deemed I was ready. Meanwhile, Jenna had been beyond pissed at that girl and from that point on she had started to "screen" the girls that approached me in high school. It was futile to be honest. There was no way I was ready to get involved with someone so soon afterwards. I went on a few dates in college and had a few one night stands but nothing serious. Also, a lot of girls (well, THOTs mainly) tried to get with me because of my dashing good looks but Jenna informed me to stay away from them. She turned out to be right in the end afterwards. Speaking of Jenna, she must have guessed that I was thinking about that suicide attempt.

"Hey, you ok?" she asked. I nodded kinda halfheartedly and looked at the M9 pistol holstered at my side.

"Bro, stop thinking about that. It was like 10 years ago. Don't let what that bitch did haunt you forever. I still hate that she did that to you. You've changed so much since then. Mom and Dad are proud of you. Mom especially. She tells everyone she can about you. I'm also proud of my baby brother," she said.

"Hey, just because you're 5 minutes older doesn't make me your baby brother. We still have the same birthday you know," I responded hastily. Laura shifted in her sleep and her hand grabbed my other shoulder. I tensed a little bit. Jenna smiled at the pair of us as she went to lay across the seats.

"Laura passed my test. She clearly likes you, Zack. We've been chatting for the past year. I told her why you never responded to her advances and to just continue calling you 'cutie' or 'handsome.' I didn't tell her about that day. I left that decision up to you. Ever notice how she's always with you on missions and hanging with you afterwards? Or how she wants you, not me, to train her in hand to hand combat? Or how I was busy the other night where she and I were supposed to hang out with you at your place? Hmm? What'd you talk about Zacky?" Jenna said.

"Wait...that was a set up? Boy, I'm clueless. As to what happened we...uh...talked a bit about Mom and Dad and their missions, some personal details about each other..." I said as the night's events came back to me in full and my eyes widened. I think I might have done something that basically netted me all of Laura's affection. Jenna noticed my hesitation.

"What else?" Jenna said smugly.

"Nothing," I responded, trying to lie. Terribly I might add.

"Liar. You played some music for her didn't you? Come on, which songs?" Jenna prodded. Meanwhile, I had taken up astronomy if you know what I mean. Also yes I dabbled in a few instruments. I've been told I'm a pretty good musician/singer and I took it up years before my suicide attempt. I stopped for a bit afterwards but got back to it. You should have seen how happy my mom was when she heard me playing guitar again. It was a sign that my depression was subsiding. Also it turned out that that day, my whole family and a few friends had arrived for some kind of party and heard me playing from the driveway because I had left my window open.

"Ooh, singing to the ladies. Classic move laddie" Reaper said from the co-pilot chair.

"Hey, you're not a bad singer Zack. Who knows, it might have sounded good even if you were buzzed" Oni added. I noticed Laura smile in her "sleep". It was no use lying. Jenna knew. She and Laura must have chatted about it. I racked my brain to remember and the memory came to me.

"The one from that movie we liked watching as kids, Mom's favorite song, and the one I covered for Mom and Dad's 20th Anniversary Party," I said. Jenna nodded. Reaper had given me the thumbs up.

"You should have seen how happy Laura was at the gym the next morning while you were still sleeping. It's why she's been so physical with you recently. I know you like her too. Just put the mission first ok? Like Mom and Dad," Jenna said. She was right. I was beginning to like Laura. Hence the songs I played. I was trying to ignore the fact that she was calling me "cutie" and "handsome" for the entire mission but everytime she had, it made me feel nice. I even risked my own life to save hers. Maybe I should give it a shot. Like Mom and Dad. They first met at work as well.

"Right," I said. I looked at Laura's face and how content she looked laying against me. Then I looked back to Jenna who had her head propped on her arm and gave me a look that said "go for it." I took a deep breath and took Laura's hand, the one that wasn't on my shoulder, in my own. Laura smiled then did something that surprised the fuck out of me. She leaned over and pecked me on the cheek.

"Mine," she muttered before squeezing my hand and my shoulder. Jenna was still looking at me extremely smugly.

"When you're right, you're right sis," I said and leaned my own head against Laura's and started to doze off as well.

We arrived back at the B.S.A.A. New York HQ about an hour later. The tail wind was in our favor. What was causing me some concern was a small group of people stationed on the helipad. 3 were B.S.A.A. and the others looked like civilians. I thought I had noticed a familiar red jacket from this distance

"That's odd. What's with the welcome party?" Jenna asked Reaper.

"Set her down gently, lass. Try not to kill any of our boys." Reaper said, looking apprehensive. Laura had woken up a couple of minutes ago and was looking out the window as we descended.

"Hey Zack, isn't that...?" she asked me and squeezed my shoulder.

"Xander," I snarled. Great, here I was with a potential new girlfriend that actually valued me as a person and this motherfucker and his douchey high and tight hairstyle and polarized wrap around sports shades had to be there to ruin it. This guy wore sunglasses indoors and at night because he actually was a douche. I also noticed that the civilians present were my Mom, my aunt and my uncle. Oh shit, this must be about dad. All 3 of them looked like they were yelling at Xander and his men about something. We touched down and Jenna killed the engine. Everyone else got off the chopper before I did as I was currently 1.) taking inventory of the stuff we brought minus the ammo and demo charges we used and 2.) trying to prevent myself from losing my shit at Xander. I started to hear a bit of a commotion outside. It all seemed to be directed at me for some reason. Confused, I went to investigate.

"Zack, WAIT!" I heard someone yell but it was too late. As I took one step off the chopper, I was immediately smacked in the head with the butt of someone's rifle. I stumbled forward and my head began to spin as another person kicked me in the stomach and I fell to my knees as I heard my Mom yelling obscenities at Xander. Boy was she mad lemme tell ya. Reaper, Jenna, Laura and Oni joined in with my other relatives who were still yelling at Xander. I caught phrases like "THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT!", "he didn't do anything!", "get away from him!", "YOU PIECE OF SHIT! THAT'S MY SON!" and "on what evidence?!" Xander bitch ass ignored them and walked over to me. He leaned in and said, very calmly,

"Zackary Christopher Redfield, you are under arrest for the suspicion of bioterrorism."