Disclaimer: OK, one more time. Resident Evil belongs to Capcom. This story belongs to me.
Resident Evil: Armageddon
Part I- Prelude to Destruction
Chapter 9- Contact
Written by: Striker
"CHRIS! GET UP NOW!"
Chris literally jumped out of bed, almost tripping on the covers. He stood panting in a pair of flannel shorts he always slept in. "What the hell was that for?" He asked as Claire stood next to his bed in her nightgown, desperately trying not to laugh at him.
"Sorry bro, but I had to. You know your a heavy sleeper. I swear, it could be World War III out there and you'd still sleep through it."
She did have a point. He could sleep through anything. With him, only a loud noise could wake him. He had to get an alarm clock that sounded like an air raid siren just to get up for work when he was with the S.T.A.R.S. He had, however, no problem waking up while he was in the Air Force because they DID wake everyone up with a siren.
"So, how long did you try to get me up before resorting to blowing out my eardrum?" Chris still had a ringing in his left ear from Claire's high pitched voice.
"Oh, I tried to get you up by tapping on your arm. Then I started smacking you, and then started shoving, finally I just lost my patience and..."
"How long?" Chris said, obviously starting to lose his patience.
"Five minutes." Claire replied sheepishly.
Chris rolled his eyes. "Now that you have me up, what do you want."
"This." Claire led Chris into the living room and to the laptop. Claire opened the E-mail. "I found this message when I checked the mail this morning." It was a letter from Leon. It said.
Chris. By the time you read this, we'll be on our way to Barry's. He has a base in Atlanta. This is his number, 555-6194. Call him and he'll tell you where to meet. Good luck, Leon.
"So he did get it, just not as soon as we hoped." Chris said as he read it quickly.
"Get this, according to the date he must have read it last night. We received this at 11:30. If we had just waited another half hour, we could have sent him another one right back. We could have sent him an IM too."
"Think Claire, it's a five or six hour difference between us and him. He probably thought we were asleep. Besides, I don't have an IM program on my computer, and I doubt he has one too. At least we know five things, Barry's alive, he has a place we can meet, we know his number so we can reach him, Leon's alive, and he's traveling with either Jill or Rebecca."
"What makes you so sure of that?"
"For starters, he said "we" are heading for Barry's. That means he has a group with him."
"Yeah, but he could mean Sherry. She is staying with him."
"So how did they get Barry's number. There's only one person who could possibly know Barry's number, and that's his wife. On top of that, only three other people know where his wife is. Those people are Jill, Rebecca, and me. My best bet is Rebecca."
"Why Rebecca? Why not Jill?"
"Because, Jill's probably somewhere over here looking for me."
"Aw, isn't that sweet." Claire said in a mocking tone. Chris shot her a look that made her cringe. "Sorry Chris. I shouldn't have said that." She should have known better. Jill was a sensitive subject with Chris. She kind of had an idea there was something between the two. At least, that's what it sounded like to her when Chris would ever talk about Jill.
Chris looked back to the computer. "From what this says, Leon and his little party have left wherever they were staying by now. What time is it?"
"It's quarter after ten."
"That would make it quarter after four or five. They have to be either driving to Atlanta or driving to the nearest airport to get an early flight."
"Why would they just leave right away and not wait for us to reply to their message?"
"It may be a long drive. They may have left early this morning or even last night. Anyway, they gave us Barry's number. It's better to call him to see where he wants to meet us. Chances are, he'll want to meet at the airport."
"Are you going to call him now?" Claire asked.
Chris shook his head. "No, it's too early. He might still be sleeping. I really don't feel like waking him up."
Claire was intrigued. "What's he like when you wake him?"
"Let's just say it isn't pretty. It's like poking a bulldog with a sharp stick."
"So what are we going to do for a couple of hours? I'm going to be bored as hell."
"We can check to see when any flights leave for Atlanta. Try to find one that leaves today or tomorrow. I want to be out of here ASAP."
"Where are you going?" Claire asked as Chris headed to the bedrooms. "I thought you're going to help me look for a plane out of here?"
"I have to pack for the trip. I'll help you as soon as I'm done."
"Fine." Claire began to check the schedules for the surrounding airports, hoping to find one that left soon. "I'm coming Sherry, don't worry."
Barry paced back and forth in front of the kitchen phone. He hadn't been able to sleep at all last night. He was anxious for Chris to call. He glanced at the clock, nine. "Shit Chris, why the hell couldn't you just give Rebecca your damn number." Barry always cursed when he was upset. It was one of those habits he just couldn't break. "Hell, Chris beat his fucking smoking habit. Why the hell can't I get rid of mine?" Suddenly, the phone rang. Barry was on it before the second ring ever had a chance.
"CHRIS, IS THIS YOU?" He practically screamed into the phone.
"Good to hear you too." came a sarcastic, but familiar voice.
"Where the hell have you been? Trying to find you is like following a ping pong ball. Jill and Carlos have been hunting you down for the past three and a half months. She's worried sick about you."
"You mean Carlos Oliveira"
"Yeah. You know about him?"
"I know Umbrella's after him. I found a list with our names and some others on it. It's part of some operations order for some plan to kill us. So who is he?"
Chris' tone sounded a little concerned, like this guy may be a threat to his relationship with Jill. Barry knew if Chris wasn't pleased with the fact that Jill was traveling with another man, he sure as hell wasn't going to like this. "Well, he's an Umbrella soldier."
"WHAT!? YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT JILL IS GOD KNOWS WERE WITH SOMEONE FROM UMBRELLA! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Chris screamed into the cell phone he had just bought an hour ago. His reaction sent Claire ducking for cover behind the couch.
'Damn,' she thought, looking fearfully at her brother, 'if he's this upset over that, I'd hate to see what he'd do to anyone I sleep with.'
Barry tried to explain. "Chris, he's an Umbrella soldier who switched sides. He was stabbed in the back just like we were. In fact, he wanted to go after the bastard that betrayed him. I think the name was Nicholai..."
"Ginovaef."
"How did you know? Did you run into him somewhere?"
"No, he's the man in charge of hunting us down." Chris' voice still had an angry edge to it.
"Great, Carlos is gonna love this. Anyway, Jill told me he saved her life. I don't trust him myself, but he sounds like a good man. He wants to help us bring down Umbrella. He might even prove useful in breaking into some of Umbrella's plants."
"He just better make sure nothing happens to Jill."
Barry could sense Chris' concern. "I'm sure they're both fine. I talked to them two days ago. They're in Paris. I'll give them a call to tell them where to find you. By the way, where exactly are you?"
"I'm in London with my sister, Claire. Listen, don't tell them to come here, Umbrella knows where we are. We have to get out of the city. Where and when do you want to meet?"
"The Atlanta International Airport. Get a flight that will arrive at ten tomorrow morning. I just got a call from Becky a few minutes ago. She said that they're driving down. They left at three this morning and just entered Maryland. They plan to spend the night at some inn and get here around ten-thirty. I'll call Jill and tell her to get a similar flight. That way we can get together at around the same time."
Chris looked at the laptop. "I can do you one better. There's a flight that gets in at nine. It leaves tonight at eleven. It's flight 629." Chris had settled down. He still didn't like the fact Jill was with this Carlos guy. Him being ex-Umbrella wasn't the problem, it was the fact that he could be making moves on Jill. Chris decided to try to focus on getting out of London. He had eight and a half hours before the plane was to leave. "My sister and I will be on it. You just call Jill and tell her I'm OK. The sooner she gets out of Paris the better."
Barry understood. Umbrella's HQ was in Paris. Hopefully Umbrella hadn't of caught on to the fact she and Carlos were there. "I'll call her right away. I tell you, it'll be so good to be back together again."
"Same here. See you tomorrow. Bye."
"Bye." Barry hung up. He quickly got to his computer. He searched the flights for every airport in Paris. He found one out of Charles de Gaulle Airport. It was flight 499 and was to arrive in Atlanta at ten fifteen. That would give Chris over an hour head start on both parties. It was the best he could do at the present. At least they would have the reunion here instead if in the airport. The last thing they needed was to create a scene and draw attention to themselves. He grabbed his cell phone and dialed Jill's number.
Jill walked down to Carlos' room. She had on a white T-shirt like the ones Chris wore, and a pair of tan dress pants. He said it was urgent and involved a certain someone. He didn't say who. He also said to bring her phone. She really wasn't into games. She had got up at noon and was still tired. They had been up all night yesterday trying to guess where Chris could have gone. It would have been easier if they still had their computer. They were forced to leave it when they were almost caught by Belgium police in Brussels. They had been identified by someone and reported in. Jill and Carlos barely managed to get out of the apartment before the police showed up. Jill found it lucky that they had found out about Chris the day before. Anyway, they had spent all morning out around the city. They had gone to the Umbrella HQ to stake it out. They noticed a lot more guards patrolling the grounds, due to the break-in that had happened weeks before. That night, they tried to pinpoint just where Chris could be. By the time they were done, the map they were using looked like a pin cushion. Jill had retired around eleven, while Carlos decided to stay up a bit longer. She was surprised at how well Carlos was dealing with the boundaries of their relationship. In fact, he was back to his skirt-chasing ways as they walked down the streets. She had felt like buying him a leash. She stood thinking about yesterday in front of his door. She snapped out of her daze and knocked.
"It's open."
Jill stepped inside to see Carlos sitting on his bed, remote in hand. He had on a white tank top and his combat pants. He turned to Jill and smiled.
"Make this good Carlos, I don't feel like fooling around." Jill was always sort of cranky when she got up in the morning. Of coarse, so was everyone else she knew.
"Let's just say this will make you feel all better." He pushed play on the remote for the VCR. He had bought some blank tapes the other day so he could tape the news. He hoped that something big would happen. It did. "I taped this last night after you left. I found it interesting."
It was a report from London. It told about a wild car chase that ended in a horrible crash. The two cars were a black BMW and a black Sedan.
Carlos hit stop and turned to Jill. "It looks like someone decided to play bumper cars through downtown London. It was the Sedan that lost. I'll give you one guess who was driving the BMW."
"Chris."
"That's what I thought. Only problem is that it means Umbrella's on to Chris. He may split anytime now. I think we should call Barry to tell him. Then we should go find Chris before he's gone."
"Your right Carlos. I'll call him right now."
At that moment, her phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Jill, it's Barry. I got some great news."
"So do I Barry. We think we found Chris. He may be in London."
"That's what I called about. He called me a few minutes ago. He's coming here with his sister."
"His sister? He doesn't have a sister. He would have told us if he did."
"Well, the man has secrets. He's leaving tonight. Listen, it's time you two came back here. There's no point in you staying there anymore. I got a flight for you. It's flight 499 out of Charles de Gaulle Airport. It leaves at eleven forty-five tonight and will arrive in Atlanta at ten fifteen tomorrow morning. Be on it."
"I guess this means we can finally get down to business."
"That's right. I also got a call from Becky. She's bringing some reinforcements."
"Finally, I was getting worried about her for a second. Will she be there tomorrow?"
"Yep. It's gonna be a big family reunion. This has been coming for a long time."
Jill smiled at his comment. "It's been to long if you ask me. I just hope all of us can do something. We may all be together, but it's not going to be easy."
"No one said it would be Jill. Anyway, you better get packing, you have a long flight ahead of you. Bye."
"Bye." Jill turned off her phone. She looked at Carlos, who had an inquisitive look.
"Who's she."
"Rebecca. Rebecca Chambers. She's the S.T.A.R.S. member who disappeared after the Spencer Estate."
Carlos broke out in a big grin. "Is she single?"
Jill rolled her eyes. "We have to get packing to catch a flight to Atlanta so we can team up with the others and take out Umbrella, and you wonder if some girl is available."
Carlos' grin got bigger. "Hey, I just wanted to know."
Jill threw up her hands. "Why do I even bother. I need to get ready. See you later."
Carlos waited till Jill closed the door. "Damn senorita, you ARE cranky when you get up in the morning. I just hope Chris knows this, or he's in trouble."
Spencer sat at his desk. He was looking at the progress reports from the labs. The specimens were coming along nicely. Soon the S.T.A.R.S. would face their doom. These creatures were to be not only unstoppable, but also controllable. He would have whole armies of new super soldiers that every military power would be begging for. Umbrella would lead the world into a new age of bio-warfare, and soon the only ones that could stop this would be dead. He was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Come in." He said in annoyance.
A man walked in and saluted. "Sir, I have a report about the Redfields."
"What about them?"
"Our men followed their car. It was Chris Redfield and he was alone. They tried to kill him so they would have no trouble killing Claire Redfield. There's only one slight problem."
"And what is this slight problem?"
"Chris managed to get away. He killed the two agents in the process. We, however, are sending a small group to their apartments to eliminate them tonight."
Spencer had a look of disdain. "Just be sure those men do their job RIGHT. I don't need any slip-ups. Understand?"
"Yes Sir. We also have news of the Chambers girl. We lost track of her two days ago. She was last spotted in upstate New York."
"She is unimportant at the moment. Of them all, she is the weakest one. I want those Redfields, however, KILLED. They pose the greatest threat. Now leave me, I need time to think."
The man saluted and left the room. Spencer looked back at the report. "Those pesky survivors may have an easy time with those sorry excuses for soldiers, but you won't fail me. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha."
Nicholai sat in his car. He had gotten in Atlanta around five last night. He had deployed his men at key areas of the city. No one from the S.T.A.R.S. would be able to come or go without him knowing. Now it was three and he was waiting for news of the S.T.A.R.S. arrival.
"Very soon I will eliminate you. Then I can leave this hell."
He didn't like the climate at all. The heat wasn't bad, but the humidity was horrible.
'I just hope you fools suffer in this weather as much as I am.' He thought as he pulled at his clothes. 'For soon I will take my fury out on you.'
Chris had made a final check of the bags. He also had dug out the gun permits for his firearms. The last thing he needed was to be arrested on weapons charges. He had given a Berretta to Claire and kept one on himself. Hers was one he had bought from a gun shop in Germany. His was the one he had brought with him from Raccoon City. He also had a RemingtonM870 shotgun he had also brought along and a Colt Python Barry had given him in a duffel bag. In another duffel bag he had all the ammunition he could need. He put his Berretta in his holster and strapped that on. It felt familiar, like when he was getting ready for an important mission with the other S.T.A.R.S. He looked himself in the mirror. He was wearing one of the shirts Claire got him. It was a red and blue striped polo shirt. He also had on a pair of blue jeans. He walked into the living room and saw Claire at the kitchen. She had her Rocky Road ice cream on the counter and was proceeding to devour it as fast as she could.
"Don't eat that too fast. You'll get yourself a headache." He said with a smirk.
Claire looked up, ice cream all over her mouth. "It's eight Chris. I only have three hours to eat this, so don't waste my time." She went back to shoveling in the ice cream. Chris had booked the flight in advanced, using a new Visa card he kept for emergencies. Now they didn't have to stand in line waiting to buy tickets.
Chris shook his head. "Why don't you at least come up for air. You'll suffocate on that stuff."
"Well, at least I'll die happy."
"I can just see the coroners report know. White female. Twenty. Cause of death. Let's see. Oh, I got it. Gluttony."
"Ho. Ho. Your so funny. OWE!" Claire grabbed her forehead, a horrible headache gripping her skull.
"Told ya." Chris said, enjoying the fact he was right.
Claire glared at him. "Oh drop dead."
Suddenly, the door flew open. Three men ran into the room, guns blazing. Chris bolted for the bedroom and Claire ducked behind the counter. A couple of bullets hit the ice cream container, knocking it off the counter. Claire watched as it hit the floor. "THAT'S IT!" She sprang up, pulling out her Berretta. She fired three shots, hitting one man square in the chest. Claire ducked back down as the man fell dead.
Chris had his own problems. He was pinned in the short hall. He waited until the two men still standing emptied their clips. As they reloaded, Chris whirled out and aimed. He fired a single shot that passed through the eye of one of the men. Chris quickly hid again as the other man reloaded and fired. Chris looked towards the kitchen to see Claire peeking at him. He motioned her to cause a distraction. Claire grabbed the salt shaker from the table. She sprinkled some on her hand. She then shot up.
"HEY YOU!"
The man turned just as she threw the salt into his eyes. The man dropped his gun and screamed as he dug at his eyes. Chris took the opportunity to shoot the man in the throat.
"Nice going Claire."
"Thanks Chris."
Just as they thought they had won, two more men stormed in. Claire reacted quickly and shot one in the head. The other man turned and fired at Claire. Chris saw as his sister dropped.
"CLAIRE!"
In a ruse of rage, Chris blitzed the guy. The man stood stunned as Chris sprang over the couch and kicked him right in the chest. The man's gun flew from his hand as he was pushed back into the door frame. Chris then began to pummel the guy with a punch to the stomach before pistol-whipping him in the face. The man punched back and sent Chris staggering. He tripped on one of the bodies and landed hard on his ass, his gun landing just out of reach. He could only watch as the man picked up another gun and aimed it at him.
"Say goodbye Mr. Redfield." The man said.
"Goodbye."
The man turned to see Claire pointing her Berretta right at his face. She squeezed the trigger, and the side of the man's face exploded. The body hit the ground in front of Chris, who was still in shock.
"Claire, I thought you were hurt."
"I was playing opossum. You should know that Chris, or didn't they teach you that in S.T.A.R.S."
"Fine Claire." Chris said as he got up. "Let's get what we can carry. I say we get out of here before we have any more surprise guests."
Author's Comments: What a way to end this chapter. A lot of questions were just answered. We found out that Nicholai is down in Georgia. To bad the weather doesn't agree with him. We found out it was Chris and Claire who were the targets. So what? They killed the guys. Umbrella knows where they live. Again, so what? They're leaving anyway. Jill and Carlos are getting along fine. I guess a man and a woman can be "just friends" these days. Besides, Carlos is a ladies man. You really think one woman can satisfy him. On second thought, forget I said that. People can change. We know that Leon and his crew are burning rubber heading down south. We also know that because of Claire's little stunt, it'll be a bitch to get into Umbrella's HQ now. Finally, we found out what Project X is. A group of "unstoppable killing machines". Big deal. They said that about the Nemesis, but Jill still made it her "bitch". However, with these answers we get new questions. The big one, can everyone just get along. There are a bunch of other ones, but they can wait for now. One more thing, I'm as much an expert on international flight as I am about the time zones, so bare with me. And if it confuses you, I'll give you the answer for just about every question involving Resident Evil. DON'T THINK ABOUT IT.
In the next chapter, we get underway.
It's the final chapter in part one, (yea.) Will Chris and Claire run into
anymore trouble on the way to the airport? Will anyone else run into
resistance? What will the plane ride be like? Hell, judging from the other
fanfics I've read, if it isn't flipping upside down or going into a nosedive,
it's crashing. Maybe the fates will be merciful on our heroes. Of coarse,
you'll also find out what everyone's thinking in RE Armageddon: Part 1, Chapter
10- Rally Point Set.