Hilton Hotel
4 Miles From Barton
Leon and Claire were the resident halfway computer geeks on the premesis, so the job of scouring the Net for possible labs fell to them.
"For a really good cyber-time, blah blah blah." Claire turned to Leon.
"You know smut is pretty much the only thing on websites with even a smidgen of suggestive nature in their URL?" she said to him.
"Duh." he said, and quickly got out of the browser he was using. They went back to work.
"Well, well, well." Leon said.
"What?" asked.
"Look like our friend Silver Scythe is at work again in his message board." Leon told her.
"He's the one against Umbrella and knows Daffan is a cover, right?" Claire asked again, not quite remembering the persona.
"Yup, this guy's pretty smart. You know he and Carlos were the ones that dropped enough hints to tell us that Daffan was really Umbrella?"
"Nope, don't honestly care. But will you look at those replies." she said, looking at the gargantuan number of angry replies to Silver Scythe's latest message. Things like 'I'm gonna hunt you down and rip each and every one of you people's eyeballs out.' were the general summary of these replies. Scythe was talking about the incident at Raccoon, and how towns had mysteriously been having explosions all over the country. Suddenly, an MSN Instant Messenger Talk Box popped up. Leon almost jumped back in his seat.
"Claire. Get into a conversation box with me on MSN Messenger. Quick." Leon commanded.
"Ooohhh, Leon, I love it when you get all big and manly." She said, following his orders. Her smirk quickly faded. She stared at the screen the same way Leon was doing at that moment.
"Oh my God." she said.
"Get the others." Leon breathed. On the screen were the words 'Silver Scythe wishes to chat.'
BBBRRRRRIIINNNG!
"Fuck!" Chris exclaimed as he got up at about 4 A.M. He picked up the phone.
"You have five seconds to improve my mood." he said gruffly into the phone.
"Well, I'm not that good, ask Jill if you want to feel better. But you need to come to the computer room, Silver Scythe is on MSN Messenger. Chris woke up. He jumped up and alerted the others by phone and woke up Jill, proceeding to put on some clothes and walking to the room. He knocked on the door and he got in.
"How is that possible?" he said as he saw the computer screen.
"He must be real, and not just a bunch of different people." Claire said, looking at the screen with great pride, as if she'd just created a cure for cancer. Everyone else came in, and Barry closed the door.
"So who's this Silver Scythe guy supposed to be, anyway?" Barry asked.
"Silver Scythe is one of the most rumored characters in the Umbrella informant world. After Raccoon City and the "controversial 20/20 report", it was the talk of the U.S. and Europe. People came out on message boards devoted to these topics to talk. Not for or against, just to speculate and listen. Not that far down the line, people jumped out and claimed they had actual information on what happened, and elsewhere." Claire began.
"For a price, I take it." Jill said.
"Right. People started paying each other to get a tidbit of the things happening. Later people started to make false information just to make a quick buck. Mostly these buttheads were found and cut out of the system completely. Eventually all the gossip began to die down, as anyone who had real data on Umbrella were fired or went into hiding. And that's when Silver Scythe came in." Leon explained further, as Claire's mouth was worn out.
"Silver Scythe came out with information that all made sense about what was happening, like he/she could seamlessly create a world and make everyone who read what he/she said believe him/her. People tried different ways to see who he/she was, but they never found out. Scythe's encryption system was seamless as well. The thing is, he knew exactly what happened at Raccoon. He was right in every way, even filling in some spots I never found out. Then, people started to speculate about Scythe. Again, after awhile, people started to lose interest. And Scythe still supplied people with information, not seeming to get paid in any way. Then, he said that Daffan was Umbrella under a cover. People started to detest him and not listen. Interest grew again, but in hate, not awe and wonderment. Scythe is believed by the masses to be a group of informants, somewhat like Shakespeare, a bunch of people committed to one task. I don't think so, personally, but I have no idea else what he possibly could be." T
"So why does he want to talk to you guys, other than the fact that you both survived Raccoon?" Barry asked.
"I don't know, but I wouldn't put it past him to know about us. His events about Raccoon were always far away from us, except from the Lab, I swear we were rooms apart." They both turned back to the computer and the watchers split up into two groups by both computers so everyone could get a good look at the conversation.
SlyGirl4= Claire Tech22= Leon
SlyGirl4: Is this the Silver Scythe from the Umbrella B.O.W. Message Board?
Silver Scythe: You got one right so far.
Tech22: Why do you want to talk to us?
Silver Scythe: What do you mean by us?
Tech22: Well, just two random identities on the Internet? Is this like a contest or something?
SilverScythe: Come on, you don't think I know that you're Claire Redfield and Leon Scott Kennedy? I thought you people knew I was smart.
SlyGirl4: Is this box secure?
Silver Scythe: Yes.
Tech22: So, if you know our real identities, what do you want to talk to us about?
Silver Scythe: The last lab in the U.S.
Tech22 & SlyGirl4: We're listening.
Silver Scythe: Turn on your TV, find a news station. I know you've been on the road for awhile, so this breaking story may surprise you. It's been on 24/7.
"Somebody turn on the tube." Leon said, ignoring Silver Scythe for the moment. Rebecca turned on the TV to show a horrified reporter in front of the camera. There was a caption below her.
"Barton, Illinois." Rebecca read. Chris's eyes widened in realization. He nearly dived over the couch to get to the road map and nearly ripped it in his haste to unwrinkle it. His finger mapped their position and started moving outwards in various directions. Everyone turned their attention to him. He stopped.
"Barton Illinois is four miles from here." Chris said, and everyone went to the TV.
The reporter was talking, but the camera was following the action. The reporter tried to say something, but a mumble was all she could manage. You could see the camera shake even more as two zombies, a licker, and a hunter advanced on the few remaining soldiers. One pulled out a rocket launcher and blew the hunter apart, only to have his head ripped off by the licker from behind. It quickly started to eat up the officer, while another soldier broke off formation and emptied the rest of his last clip into the licker. It pumped about six bullets before running dry. The soldier wasted no motion and pulled out a combat knife, running forward. He stuck it right through the licker's eye and it fell dead. The soldier pulled the knife out and was knocked down by the horde of soldier/zombies and was completely devoured within a minute. You could hear the reporter.
"FUCK THIS, GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!" she screamed, and the camera was set down on a rock, and more feet joined the running. The remaining soldiers fell to the same fate as the licker-killer. The zombies then went in the direction the way the reporter had run.
"Well, let's go at daylight. I'm too tired for this shit." Chris said.
"Wait a minute, what about Silver Scythe?" Jill reminded them, and Claire and Leon jumped back to their computers. They looked at who was in the conversation. SlyGirl4 and Tech22.
"Silver Scythe's gone!" Claire cried, before looking at what he had written before logging off. Leon read it out to the group.
"Don't worry about Silver Scorpion. He's mine."
Note: 'Box' is the Messenger box. Claire asked if it was encrypted so as not to be monitored by anyone wanting to watch, not join in, espionage and all that 007-type stuff.