9
Claire slammed her hands onto the table
"So are we going now or what!" She growled angrily at her brother
"Soon" was all Chris replied as he checked over his gun again and nodded to his team, who stood at the ready "and 'we' are not going anywhere, you are staying here!"
"Over my dead body!" Claire boomed
"CLAIRE!" Chris stood and shouted "I've just risked my neck getting you out of there, so I'll be damned if I'm letting you within an inch of that place! Or within an inch of Albert Wesker"
"You can't stop me!" Claire challenged
"I can and I will" Chris seethed at his younger sibling, he then nodded again to his team. Claire suddenly felt hands pulling her back into a small room of the house the team had decided to hide out in. They pushed her roughly in and she heard the door lock behind her. Claire turned and furiously pounded the door with her fists
"Chris! Let me out, you bastard!"
Chris looked at the two that had wrestled Claire into the room
"Under no circumstances does she leave that room" he warned
"You got it boss" they nodded back
"Watch the windows" Chris called as he turned away to leave with his team, almost on cue a loud smash was heard
"For the love of..." Chris scowled as he ran for the exit
Claire pushed on through the snow when she suddenly felt a grip on her arm
"Claire! Wait..."
She spun around to face her brother
"I'm not going back!" She growled
"Alright" Chris agreed
Claire suddenly lost her scowl and replaced it with a questioning look
"I can't afford the distraction of wondering if you're safe here or not, not when I know you're so goddamn determined to get out, so if you're joining us then you stick to the rules, got it?"
Claire nodded as he passed her a pistol
"You stay with the group! No solo, running off bullshit! Got it?"
"Okay" Claire answered
"Promise me Claire!"
Chris knew from their close childhood that Claire viewed a promise as something almost sacred, and she would strive to keep it. It was like a pact that the pair had shared as they grew up. He kept his promises to her and she to him. Even when looking back at how silly some of those promises were when they were children, Chris realised that they had helped the pair through some tough times
"I promise" she finally replied
The trek through the wilderness had been tough, but Claire pushed on, fully determined to see her mission through. At least the weather had cleared, she thought, when Chris suddenly rose a fist and the group halted. He dropped to a knee and brought a pair of binoculars up to his face. Claire came up to his side quietly.
"We're back at the sight"
"Are you sure?" Claire questioned
"You can see the tattered remains of the outer boundary fences" he pointed "Just down there. That big open space was where the complex stood, but the snowstorm has covered it completely"
"How are we going to find a way in?" Claire questioned anxiously
Chris pulled the binoculars away from his eyes
"When we escaped, Wesker sent teams out after the building would have submerged..."
"There's another way in!" Claire surmised
Chris passed her the binoculars and pointed again
"Can you see the rock face at the back of the site? I'm guessing there could be a cave system that leads underground"
"Yeah, I see several cave entrances down there!" Claire agreed as she looked on. Hopefully you're right"
"Only one way to find out" Chris stated as he stood and signalled his team onward.
The team approached the caves cautiously, checking each when they came upon one with an eerie howling as the cold wind gusted through the entrance
"Somethings pulling the air through..." Claire said quietly as she place a hand on the wall
"This could be the one" Chris nodded his agreement and they made their way steadily into the darkness below.
Albert Wesker placed his elbows onto the large desk, nestling his head onto the back of his hands. He watched his monitor with interest as it streamed the feed from the caves hidden cameras.
"Like a moth drawn back to the flame" Wesker said smiling, then he turned to a brunette woman standing just behind. "its time to begin the game..."
Leon sat in the corner of his cell, staring at the palms of his hands as they rested over his knees. He didn't want to lift his head and look at the nightmare come true lying in the middle of the cell.
He suddenly dropped his hands to the side. What did he expect? Things always ended up turning to shit, no matter how hard he fought to stop it.
He silently wished the darkness would return.
That wouldn't help with the smell, but at least he could pretend it was something other than his friends body slowly rotting away.
Leon suddenly realised he truly had lost everything.
No more DSO. Nobody close after his workload had pushed most away. No more Ada.
He hadn't seen her since Lanshiang and considering she'd appear on and off just for a bit of 'no strings attached' fun, he figured she was probably dead too.
And now Claire.
Why continue the fight when he had lost everything he cared about?
Everything he loved...
He brought his eyes painfully back to the body in the centre of room. Would Claire tell him to give up the fight when everything seemed lost?
No. She damn well wouldn't.
Her fierce determination was one of the things that had attracted him to her in the first place. He'd had a thing for Ada, sure, but when it came to Claire the things he felt for her -especially recently- had made him too afraid to even attempt to push the friendship further, lest it turn to shit like everything else in his life.
He sighed to himself, figuring it didn't matter anymore...
Leon was disturbed from his brooding thoughts when the cell door opened and a brunette woman in a lab coat entered with two burly guards. Leon instantly sensed there was something not quite right about the brutish pair as they stared blankly forward and had an odd gait to their walk. Leon stood unsteadily and put his back into the corner of the cell as the trio approached.
The woman tipped her glasses and looked over at Claire's body, she snapped her fingers at one of the vacant men standing by her side
"You! Get that body to my lab for a sample, then incinerate it"
"Haven't you bastards done enough to her..." Leon quietly growled
The woman looked back with a smug smile
"Mr. Kennedy" she announced as she threw a bundle of clothes towards him "Mr. Wesker has requested that you get changed for your reunion"
"Isn't he going to buy me a drink first?" Leon quipped, he then kicked away the clothing on the floor, but when he recognised the dark blue outfit he felt his anger rebuilding at whatever mind games Wesker continued to play
"My apologies Mr. Kennedy" she smirked "forgive my wording. It's not a request, it's an order"
"Fuck your orders!" Leon seethed "I'm not playing his games"
The brunette sighed heavily "Have it your way then" she turned to the other brute and snapped her fingers again "restrain our guest, if you please"
Leon threw a punch at the brute when he approached, but he showed no reaction when Leon felt the bone in the vacant man's nose snap. Leon threw another, but this time the vacant brute did react, he quickly grabbed Leon's fist and pulled it painfully behind the ex agents back, whilst simultaneously restraining Leon with his other big arm around his throat
"Much better" the woman stated when she picked the clothing up from the floor and approached the ex agent as he struggled in the big man's unrelenting hold.
Leon fumed Inwardly at his inability to get free, and silently cursed his waning energy levels. The brunette started to unbuckle the belt around Leon's waist with a raised eyebrow
"So, you need mind controlled slaves to get a man into the sack?" Leon spat as he continued his struggle
"Do you like them?" she smiled as she pulled the belt free from his cargo jeans and tossed it aside "I believe you are somewhat familiar with what inspired their creation" she then pulled a pair of scissors from her lab coat and started to cut vertically up his thermal t-shirt "Las plagas ring a bell?" she smiled
"You people never learn!" Leon growled as the woman continued to destroy his clothing
"Oh but we do" she continued "and you will help with that process, Mr. Kennedy, once Mr. Wesker has played his game that is" she dragged the scissors lightly along his bare chest "I can't wait to harvest this flesh and see what the after effects of being a host to the Las plagas did to your cells. Especially after all this time. It is most intriguing"
"Go fuck yourself!" Leon hissed as he struggled
"Language!" The woman tutted as she tried to shake the creases from the dark blue shirt she held "if you stop with this ridiculous resistance, then I'll bring something for you to eat. You must be hungry"
He was.
The dripping tap at the sink had supplied him with water but his waning strength was a constant reminder of his need for food. Leon decided he needed to push aside his pride if he had any hope of getting out of this situation alive, but, he still found he couldn't hold onto his flippant tongue
"Wouldn't want your pet project to starve I'm guessing!?"
"Or developing an infection..." The woman responded as she frowned at the bite on top of his shoulder. The woman pulled a syringe from her pocket and her grin returned upon seeing Leon's renewed struggle against the mindless brute.
"Calm down Mr. Kennedy. It's just a small dose of antibiotics... luckily for you, those particular creations of mine don't carry a transmittable virus"
Leon suddenly felt a small glimmer of hope at the woman's choice of words, but was pulled quickly from his silent wishes when he felt her hand run over the sensitive area just above his hip bone
"It doesn't matter either way" the woman responded coldly as she thrust the needle in just above his hip "I'll harvest this flesh regardless of if you're dead or alive, it's just more fun if you can feel it" she said with a cruel smile after noticing the pain she had just inflicted "but come now Mr. Kennedy" the brunette smiled as she took a step back and threw the shirt at him again "the quicker we get this done the better for all"