Disclaimer: You know the score. I don't own Resident Evil. Capcom owns it. Capcom doesn't own this story. I own it. Of coarse everyone knows that by now.
Written by: Striker
"Rise and shine buddy."
Chris opened his eyes to see Leon tapping his face. "I'm going to rise, but I'm not shining." Chris sat up groggily and rubbed his eyes. "You're up early." He said.
"I couldn't sleep." Leon said. "Between the fear of something crawling into bed with me besides Claire and Jess' snoring, I had a rough night."
"What about the others?" Chris scanned the barracks. Just about all the guys were up. Only Jess, Barry, and Rott were asleep. Jess was snoring loudly.
"How the hell did you manage to sleep through his snoring?" Leon pointed to Jess. "It's like sleeping next to a chainsaw."
Chris smiled. "I'm a heavy sleeper. According to my sister said I could sleep through WWIII and never know it."
"You're lucky." Ark said. "Not only did I have to put up with Jess, but I also had to deal with Carlos' blabbering."
"What blabbering?" Carlos asked. "I don't talk in my sleep."
"Yeah right." Max said. "All I can say is next time you have one of your dreams, take me with you. You sounded like you had a hell of a time."
Carlos groaned and threw of his covers. He, like the other guys, had slept in his clothes. "I'm going to take a shower."
"No running water." Chris said. "You're going to have to find a lake."
"Son of a bitch." Carlos muttered.
"Time to wake up Barry." Chris said. "Leon, hand me the broom."
"Why?" Leon asked.
"You'll see." Chris put on his shoes and took the broom. He stood a short distance from Barry and poked him in the stomach. After a few seconds Barry woke up, swatting at the broom and cursing. His eyes fell on Chris, who was smiling and holding the broom.
"What are you doing?" Barry asked.
"Waking you up," Chris said, "And giving myself a head start."
Barry growled and got out of bed. He looked at his watch. It read eight. Meanwhile James was putting on his boots. He looked over at Jess. Jess was still snoring away. He had kept James up half the night. James looked over at Max and Rick. "Can you guys wake him up?" Rick grinned and pinched Jess' nose closed. Jess gasped and sprang up. Rick jumped back and chuckled.
"Sleeping people are fun to wake up." He said.
"Hey, let's see if the ladies are up." Max said. Rick nodded and both men bounded out of the barracks.
"What are they doing to do?" Chris dreaded the answer.
James looked over at him. "Do you really want to know?"
Jill slowly opened her eyes. Rays of light struggled to poke through the dirty windows. For just a second, Jill thought she was back at the mansion. She bolted upright and looked at her surroundings.
"Bad memories?" Claire asked. "For a minute I thought I was back a Rockfort."
Jill turned towards Claire. "Old memories die hard, don't they?"
"They never do." Ada said. "Only good thing is that we still have a whole lifetime to replace them with happy ones." Ada had been up for a while. Now she was feeling her scar. Most of the women had chosen to sleep in their underwear. Only a few had slept with their clothes on. "We better get dresses before…"
"WAKE UP CALL LADIES!" Max shouted as the two men barged in.
"UP AND…DAMN!" Rick replied went he saw the women. The women in turn began to scream and cover themselves up. Janet leapt from her bed. She had on her sweats and was absolutely fuming. She grabbed a broom and prepared to strike.
""That's it you perverts. I'm going to cream your collective asses." She growled.
"Shit." Max said.
"It was his idea." Rick said, pointing at Max. Max gave him a weird look. "Hey, if I'm going down I'm taking you with me." Rick said.
Max thought fast and pointed outside. "Chris sent us to wake you up."
"LIKE HELL I DID!" Came Chris' voice from outside. "IF YOU'RE GOING TO POUND THEM, DON'T HERT ANYTHING VITAL."
"I intend to sent them to intensive care." Janet snapped back. "Now who should I take out first?"
"Please don't hurt them." Rebecca squeaked. Her eyes were the size of saucers. "There's really no reason."
Janet turned to Becky. "I'll be the judge of that." Max and Rick took advantage of the distraction to escape. "Dammit." Janet threw down the broom and continued to fume.
"I take it it's time to get up." Kelly said.
"We better get dresses before we have any other visitors." Claire said sarcastically. "Next thing you know it'll be Carlos in his Hawaiian shorts. Those things are tackier than that hat I got Leon."
"Why, I think he looks cute in them." Rebecca said.
"Becky, you'd fine Carlos cute in anything." Jill said. "Come on. I fear what those guys are thinking out there."
The women emerged from the barracks. The rest of the guys were standing around trying to avoid eye contact. Rick and Max were nowhere to be seen.
"I see you girls are up." Chris said, staring at the ground and trying to keep a straight face. The other guys covered their mouths laughing sporadically. Chris looked up at Jill. "Honestly, it wasn't my idea. I do not condone or approve of what they did." He said pleadingly. "But it was funny." Chris started laughing.
"Don't worry," Claire said, "We don't blame you, we blame him." She pointed at James.
"Why is this my fault?" James asked.
"Because they are your men." Claire replied. "Maybe you should pay more attention to their actions. For all you know, we could have been naked." She suddenly found herself confronted by the smirking faces of nine men. "Shit." She muttered.
"By the way, where are those two pricks now?" Janet asked.
"Probably cowering from you." Jeff replied. "The last time I saw them they were heading for the van. I don't think they'll be back for a while."
"If we're done with all this bullshit, I would like to get on to what we do today. We have to find another safehouse. Two parties will drive around and find out if there are any large buildings around here. The other two parties will fly around and get an aerial view of the surrounding country. How are we for fuel?"
"Well," Jeff said, "If you want to fly my copter you'll need to siphon so fuel from the other copter. Either that or some of us can go look for fuel. If there were helicopters here, there should be some fuel trucks around here."
"Alright, we can do that." Chris looked around. "Who wants to go for a drive?"
Suddenly, Max and Rick came running towards the others. Max caught his breath first and spoke. "We think someone else is here."
"Are you certain?" James asked. "No one knows we're here except us. Are you sure you didn't bang your head or something?"
"He's not kidding." Rick said. "We were heading down the road we came in on and saw some people run behind one of the buildings. They looked like they were dressed in camouflage gear. I don't think they saw us."
Chris looked around the area. He drew his Berretta and spoke softly. "Move to the copter and get the weapons. They're probably watching us right now."
Jill nodded. "We better make it look like we're getting stuff. We used to do this all the time in Delta. Sometimes we would wait for hours before we moved in."
"This could get ugly." Barry said. "I just didn't think that Umbrella would find us so fast."
"Someone had to tip them off." Ada said.
"Then let's give them an unfriendly welcome." Chris slowly started towards the copters. Then he heard it. The sound of several helicopters coming in. No sooner had it started; the sky was filled with six black copters. Barry and James began for the van and truck. Two copters opened fire with their chainguns, filling the van and Explorer with holes.
"Umbrella will pay for that." Ark said. "That was a military vehicle."
Those who were heading for the copter were cut off by fire from two other copters. The copters landed on the field and men in black uniforms jumped out. They approached the S.T.A.R.S. team with weapons drawn.
Max leaned over to Barry. "Those aren't the men Rick and I saw earlier."
Barry looked at Max, then back to the Umbrella soldiers. Chris stood next to Jill, a dark look on his face. The soldiers' leader stepped forward with his weapon aimed at Chris' chest. The man spoke forcefully. "Christopher Redfield, drop your weapon now." Chris threw his Berretta aside. "Now all of you line up and prepare to be executed."
"I never thought it would end like this." Jill said.
Chris wrapped his arm around her waist protectively. "At least we fought Umbrella." The others had lined up on Chris. They looked at each other as if to say goodbye. Chris closed his eyes as the Umbrella troops to aim.
"HALT!"
Chris opened his eyes to see soldiers come from every direction. The Umbrella troops dropped their weapons and were thrown to the ground. Helicopters came from behind the trees and military vehicles roared down the roads. The whole scene was like out of a war move in where the enemy had been ambushed by the good guys. Everyone looked around in bewilderment except Ark, who had a big grin on his face. Chris was confused, not knowing what to make of this chain of events. First he was planning what the team would do, then they were attacked by Umbrella, and now this. It was almost as if these soldiers had been waiting for Umbrella to come.
"Those guys were like the ones we saw a few minutes ago." Rick said.
"If anyone has any clue as to what the fuck is going on, they better speck up." Barry said.
"Maybe I can help you with that." A soldier approached Chris and held out his hand. "Sergeant Eric Monroe, U.S. Army. It's a pleasure to finally meet one of the best pilots the USAF every had."
Chris shook Monroe's hand. "Can you tell me what's going on?"
"Simple," Monroe said, "We're saving your lives. You're too valuable to us to get killed. In case you haven't figured it out, Umbrella knew were you were. We were waiting for them to attack. To be honest, we were getting bored."
"Umbrella couldn't have known unless one of us called them." Kelly said.
Eliza looked at Ark. "Last night I found Ark behind one of the buildings. He told me he was going to the bathroom. And just the other night he said he had to get something from the copter."
Leon looked at his old friend. "Did you call them?"
"He called someone, but it wasn't Umbrella." Everyone turned to see a man with black hair and wearing a black suit approach them. "He called me, and I in turn told these guys were you were. I believe Mr. Kennedy and I have already met. For the rest of you, my name is Carl Simmons. I'm an investigator for the U.S. Army and Ark's friends."
"You mean Ark was spying for you." Chris gave Carl an icy stare.
"In a word, yes." Carl began to pace in front of the S.T.A.R.S. members. "When Ark escaped from Sheena Island, he reported to me. The similarities between Sheena and what Mr. Kennedy had told us about Raccoon City were disturbing. We knew that we had to act fast and find the rest of you. When we got Ark out of Spain, we had given him a mission. He was to inform us where you were and your current situation. We had been tracking Mr. Kennedy, but lost him. Fortunately Ark got back in contact with Mr. Kennedy. During that time we found out that Miss Chambers was with the group and the location of the Redfields. We have also known that Miss Valentine and Mr. Oliveria were both in France. In turn, we knew that Mr. Burton was traveling between Alberta and Atlanta. When you reunited, Ark told me. I also knew when you got some former Umbrella soldiers on your team. Finally, last night he called to tell me that you were here. We knew that Umbrella would follow so last night we mobilized and deployed our forces. Good thing for you we were waiting."
"Then how did Umbrella know where we were?" James asked. "How did they find us?"
"I think I should leave that to someone who knows more about it than me." Carl nodded to Monroe. Monroe walked up to the leader of the Umbrella troops and removed what appeared to be a small TV set. Carl turned towards the S.T.A.R.S.' copters. "SIR, IT'S YOUR TURN." He called.
A man walked towards them, carrying the bag that contained Chris' laptop computer. From what Jill could tell from the man's uniform, he was a Major. He walked up to Monroe and retrieved the device. He then walked up to Chris. "Christopher Redfield, I'm pleased to meet you." The man offered his hand. Chris hesitantly shook it.
"You're a Major." Jill said.
A smile broke out on his face. "Jill Valentine, one of Delta's best. It was a big disappointment to have you leave. At least you still know your ranks. I am a Major. Major Scott Peterson. Now I believe you have a question as to how Umbrella knew where you were hiding. Mr. Redfield, if you would look at this."
"Call me Chris." Chris said. "I hate formal titles."
"OK then Chris, look at this." Peterson switched on the device. A blue map was brought up with flashing dots. "Let me fix this." Peterson zoomed the distance to twenty meters. There was a flashing green dot in the center. There were two yellow dots to the top and left of the green dot.
"What do those dots stand for?" Chris asked.
Peterson pointed at the screen. "The green dot is you. Now walk towards your copters."
Chris nodded and started walking towards the copters. He noticed that the yellow dots were above the green dot and getting closer. As soon as he got to the copters he looked at the screen. The green dot was on top of the yellow dots. Chris looked up and dropped the device. It broke as it hit the ground. "Son of a bitch. They followed the copters." Chris sprinted back to the group. "Umbrella tracked the damn copters. That's how they found Barry's cabin."
"Exactly." Peterson said. "Umbrella has a tracking device on all their copters. Most military vehicles have them. You led them straight to this base. When Mr. Thompson told us that you had stolen Umbrella copters, we knew Umbrella would find you."
"So what do you want?" Barry asked.
"Help." Peterson replied. He tapped Chris' laptop. "What you have in here is very important to us. We need it to bring Umbrella down. We also searched your former hideout to see if you had anything there that might help. I'm happy to tell you that apart from a few broken windows and flaming wrecks everything is fine. Umbrella didn't bother to search the house. We did and loaded all your belongings into helicopters for safekeeping. We also salvaged the Jeep and Beatle as well as returning the rental cars and paying for everything."
"Why are you doing this?" Chris asked. "Why are you trying to be so nice to us? You think you doing this will get us to help you. You better do a hell of a lot better than that."
"I'm just getting started." Peterson said. "If you'll just come with me Chris we can get down to business. There's an officers' building over there. We can talk there."
"I'm going with Chris." Jill said.
"So am I." Claire added.
"Very well." Peterson said. "Monroe, get these prisoners rounded up and on the copters. Find out where that base is in Atlanta and shut it down."
"Yes sir." Monroe saluted and turned towards the other soldiers. "You heard the Major, get these scumbags loaded up and off to prison. Interrogate them a find me that base."
"I know where the base is." James said. "I can show you right where it is."
"Good." Peterson said. "Mr. Simmons, get some soldiers to help these people load their stuff onto the cargo trucks. When you're done giving the order, join us. I want the trucks loaded by the time I get back."
"Sir." Carl walked over to a small squad of soldiers. He began to speak to them, giving them orders.
"Shall we?" Peterson led Chris, Jill, and Claire away from the group.
After Chris and his group had left the others turned to Ark. Ark looked at the ground and then walked off towards his Explorer. Leon drew a breath and followed. He found Ark leaning against the Explorer.
Ark didn't even bother to look at his friend. "Don't give me that "how could you" speech. I did what I was told to do. I even tried several times to get you and the others to take that deal. I'm sorry it had to come to this, but don't give me any shit."
"I just came over to thank you." Leon said. "I don't know or care about what the others think or say, but I'm glad you called the Army. If you didn't our bodies would be in a pit by now and there would be no one to oppose Umbrella. I know you were doing your job. To tell you the truth, I was hoping that Chris and the others would take that deal. I was planning on accepting when everyone got together. I guess now we both get our wish."
"Thanks." Ark said. "I just hope the other feel the same way."
"You'll find out soon enough." Leon looked over the hood. "Here comes Eliza. Good luck buddy."
Ark laughed to himself as Leon left. Eliza made her way around the ruined truck to Ark. "I'm so sorry I told them." She said apologetically. "It's just that I was scared."
"We all were scared." Ark said, looking at her. "We almost died today. And I don't blame you. Rott did the same thing. He was scared of Vincent. You were probably scared of the others. You must have thought that if they found out that you knew what I did, they'd turn on you. It doesn't matter anymore. Now we have the military to protect us. We don't have to be scared anymore."
Eliza moved next to Ark and leaned on him. "Everything's so crazy. I've never had to do so much running in my life. I don't know what's going on anymore. At least I know I have you to protect me."
Ark put his arm around her waist. "And I always will."
The two stood there, oblivious to the actions going on around them. Even thou the past few days had been hectic, they knew that now everything would be all right.
Author's Comments: Curiouser and curiouser. This is really getting good. How about the white-knuckle suspense? If that wasn't thrilling, I don't know what is. And how about the tracking device? Seems the S.T.A.R.S. led Umbrella to themselves. And you thought Ark was the spy. At least I hope you thought Ark was the spy. Anyway, we also meet some new players. We met Carl, Ark's friend. We met Sergeant Monroe and Major Peterson. Also, the relationship between Ark and Eliza may have gotten deeper. Also, if you found the wakeup call scene in the women's barracks inappropriate, sorry. It just popped into my head and I couldn't resist putting it in. Oh boy.
What does Peterson what to talk to Chris about? (What do you think?) What will Chris' response be? Is Leon right, will the S.T.A.R.S. join forces with the military? What effect will this have on Spencer, Nicholai, and Wesker? Will the S.T.A.R.S. have to stay at that base? Wait and see in RE Armageddon: Part IV, Chapter 7- Proposal.