CHAPTER 6
Despite All
"Bud, you haven't cracked a smile all night, here have another drink."
Carlos caught the glass that his friend, Rick Lasbury, had slid down the counter to him.
He had only left Jill and the others two weeks ago, but already the guilt had consumed him. Jealousy and anger had got the better of his righteousness and moral standards. And as much as he tried to forget them they just wouldn't go away.
Carlos had caught up with some old buddies of his from before the whole Umbrella ordeal. They still all worked for Umbrella as mercenaries, none of them knowing Carlos' actions from the previous months, he preferred it that way. It was hard enough to give up his previous way of life; he didn't want to loose all his friends while he was at it.
Still whenever they became really drunk, and all other conversation seemed to be lost, Carlos' disappearance seemed to always come up.
"Man no one performs a vanishing act quite like you do, Carlos my man." Rick teased him then took another slug of beer from his mug.
"Yeah where the hell have you been that took the smile right from you?" His other friend Damian asked.
'Hell,' Carlos thought to himself, but he decided to remain silent.
"You've been working for the C.I.A haven't you?" Rick teased.
"No, no he was taken by Umbrella like those others they been askin us to take." Damian joked to Rick, but Carlos' interest immediately increased by the words.
"So what have you fella's been doin lately?" He asked.
"That I'm afraid, my Hispanic friend, is classified information." Rick slurred.
"Of course it is." Carlos said and immediately purchased another round of drinks for his two friends.
Three rounds later his friends finally spilled.
"Carlos, man," Damian slurred. "They've been running us around the country taking people for god knows why."
"Where do you take them?" Carlos asked trying sound uninterested.
"Usually some place in Nevada." Rick informed him.
"Could you be a little more specific?"
It turned out he could be. It wasn't long before Carlos had the exact location written down on a piece of paper. Once that piece of paper was firmly in his hand Carlos turned to his friends and quickly said to them.
"I gotta go."
Half way across the bar he hears Rick yell at him.
"Where are you going?"
"I forgot I have to help the CIA with a secret underground mission." He yelled back, and before either of the Umbrella Mercenaries knew it, Carlos was gone.
* * *
Two weeks had come and gone since Barry and Carlos left their lonely
old apartment, and their search for Chris. Still Claire didn't give up
hope that one or both of them would return. Call her crazy, but after all
that Umbrella had done to her Claire still had hope, and she clung to it
with every fiber of her being.
One day while Jill was busy vegetating in their room Claire and Leon
finally got a chance to talk about the most innocent Umbrella victim of
them all. The common link between Leon and herself, they talked one
special girl named Sherry Birkin.
After their escape from Raccoon she and Leon brought Sherry to the
safe haven of her aunts, a top prosecutor for the state of California.
And there she's stayed; away from the craziness, away from the tragedy,
away from the horror that Umbrella had brought upon them all.
Sherry's parents; William and Annette Birkin were some of the top
minds in Umbrella's evil schemes. They had died that day in Raccoon, as
far as Sherry knew more victims of the virus. She didn't know the little
lies that fed into her parent's death, and Claire attended to keep it
that way, at least until Sherry was ready for the sorrow that the
knowledge would bring. Until then Claire had every attention of keeping
Sherry's life as normal and terror free as possible.
"Yeah, she's just starting middle school," Leon told her, who had been
in a great deal more contact with the girl then she had. "She says she
really likes it there, and has made a good number of friends too."
Claire smiled. It brought her an unbelievable amount of joy knowing
that Sherry was doing well. A joy of such grandeur that it was
indescribable.
"She said thank you for the card by the way." Leon mentioned off
handedly.
"I wanted to do more." Claire told him. "But under the current
circumstances."
"Sherry understands Claire, Sherry understands better then you think."
Claire frowned at that. She was a thirteen year old girl; she
shouldn't have to understand the complications of an ongoing war with the
world's most dangerous company. Even in her head the words sounded
ludicrous.
Leon, who must have been sensing her thoughts, took her hand and said.
"When all this is over, and Chris is safe and warm in his bed we'll go
visit Sherry. We'll go visit her together."
Claire nodded wiping a few tears away. 'When all this is over.' 'When'
always seemed to be the operative word. 'When' we find Chris, 'when' we
defeat Umbrella, Claire was beginning to hate 'when's', all she wanted
was now's.
Leon was still holding her hand when someone came barging through
their apartment door. Leon instinctively grabbed his gun from his hoister
immediately aiming it at the intruder.
Once the shock wore off Claire immediately realized who it was.
"Carlos, you're back."
Carlos, who seemed to be out of breath was bent over, between deep
breathes Carlos said to them.
"Guys.I know."
"Know what?" Leon asked while helping Carlos to the nearest chair.
"You know where Chris is," answered Jill, who had suddenly come out of
her room.
Carlos nodded and eagerly took the cup of water that Claire handed
him. After a few large sips from the cup Carlos regained his composure
and told everyone his story.
"So he's in a facility in Nevada?" Jill asked eagerly.
"Yeah I have the exact location right here," Carlos handed Jill a
napkin with an address and a small map on it.
"My god, this could be where Chris is!" Jill said excitingly.
She starts running around the apartment chaotically while yelling at
everyone else.
"Come on you guys were leaving in ten minutes," but before she did
anything else she stops in front of Carlos and gives him a kiss on the
cheek.
"Thank you so much." She told him sincerely.
Brushing it off Carlos says to her. "Don't mention it," and then
starts to get ready.
As Jill had demanded everyone was ready within ten minutes. They were
all just about to leave when another figure came barging through the
door.
"Barry!" She exclaimed wrapping her arms around her brother's oldest
friend.
After a cheerful chuckle Barry asked them. "Where you guys off to?"
"We know where Chris is." Jill answered hastily.
"Well then I'm glad I'm already packed. Let's get going already."
"What about your family?" Claire asked him.
"Well I was able to see my family, spend some quality time with them,
but now it's time to help out my other family."
"But Barry," Claire tried to argue, but Barry wouldn't hear it. In a
loud voice that faded away Claire's own Barry said to them.
"Are we going to find Chris or not?"
No one answered they just set off, now more determined then ever to
find her brother.
* * *
Hot, sticky sweat covered every surface of his body. Chris' body was
shivering all over, but he couldn't figure if it was from being too hot
or too cold. Chris couldn't tell anything anymore.
He had been locked in the same old cell longer then he could remember
now. The same small, dingy cell, with nothing more then a rock hard cot
for company.
For days on end Chris banged against the steel door that imprisoned
him. He shouted down the endless corridors for help, help which of course
never came.
It wasn't long after he stopped yelling for futile help that the
changes started.
Everything began in his head. Voices, thousands of them would all
start talking at once. Chris couldn't decipher anything that they were
saying, they were just always there. His thoughts could never stay focus;
they would always waver from what he wanted to think about, and would
always arrive at how hungry he was.
Of course his mind wasn't always like that, sometimes he could think
as clear as day, however, during the worst of times he wished he
couldn't. Everything became so much more unbearable when he knew what was
happening, especially so when his body started to change.
Nothing would ever freak him out more then when he first looked down
at his hands, and discovered that they had transformed.
No longer were they the five fingered, cream colored hands that Chris
had before taken for granted. They were now claw shaped, and the color of
a light blue. It was then that Chris knew for certain that something was
defiantly wrong with him.
From that point it didn't take Chris three guesses to figure out what
happened to him. Wesker and those bastard scientists had injected him
with one of the forms of the virus.
Once that realization came everything became simpler, because now he
knew there was a bottom line that he couldn't escape.
He was as good as dead.
The process was painstakingly slow. Some days were worse then others, but
slowly yet surely his whole body turned into one of the monsters that he
and his comrades had fought not so long ago. As for his mind it came and
went, but one thing was for sure, he was losing his sanity. It came to
the point where it was only a matter of time before he had none at all.
On one of his better days Chris laid on the cot contemplating what virus
he was injected with, he had come to the realization that whatever it was
that was in him had to be special because nothing he had seen before had
worked this slowly, when the sirens began to go off.
At first Chris didn't know what to make of them; it was a sound he had
never heard before in his lonely cell. The thought that it may be his
friends came to him, but it was gone as quickly as it came. Hope now
eluded him.
It wasn't until several minutes had passed that Chris became extremely
curious to what was going on.
He moved to the steel door of the cell, and listened carefully for
anything that might go by. Imagine his surprise when he heard a familiar
voice calling out his name.
It was soft at first, but within no time it became stronger. It had
become so strong, in fact, that Chris could no longer deny who it was.
Feverishly he yelled from inside his cell.
"Claire?!"
"Chris, my god Chris is that you?!"
The sound of his sister's voice was a godsend. Joy that he hadn't felt in
a long time was starting to race all along his body.
"Claire, I'm here, can you here me?"
His sister's footsteps could be heard rushing towards his cell till at
last he heard her banging against his cell door.
"Are you there Chris?" Claire asked her voice small and shaky.
"I'm here Claire." Chris told her as a flood of warmth washed over him
just from hearing his sister's voice being so close to him.
"Are you alright? Jesus, we've been looking all over for you. How can we
get you out of here?"
The questions were fast and plentiful, but there only one thing that
Chris wanted to know at that moment, one thing that he needed to know.
"Where's Jill, Claire? Is she with you?"
In a saddened voice Claire answered. "No, we split up she's with Barry
and Carlos, I'm with Leon Kennedy."
Chris didn't say anything, the disappointment was too great. Instead
Claire resumed the conversation.
"But you'll be with her in a jiff Chris," his sister added quickly. "Once
Leon and I figure out a way to get you out of here we'll be out of this
hell whole faster then you can say zombie."
That sounded wonderful, only there was one problem.
"Claire, I can't go with you."
"What?!" Claire shouted at him incredulously.
"Claire, listen they did something to me. I'm not myself it wouldn't be
safe to let me out of this cell."
"Did.did they inject you with the G or T virus?" Claire asked, Chris
could tell she was on the verge of tears.
"Neither," he answered. "I think it's another form of the Veronica virus,
my mind it comes and goes. It really is a mind numbingly slow process."
"Damnit Chris, you're talking about it so lightly."
"I've come to terms with it Claire. I'm.I'm no longer the brother you
once knew."
"That's not true!" Claire shouted, this time defiantly in tears "Were
going to get you out of here!"
Just then distant gunshots could be heard; suddenly things had become
hasty, and Chris was not going to waste anymore time.
"Claire, you've got to get out of here!"
"Not without you Chris!" His sister cried.
"I'm a lost cause Claire. Go while you still can."
Chris could sense his sister desperate hesitation. Luckily enough another
voice of reason had spoken from out side his cell; Chris assumed it was
Leon Kennedy's.
"Come on Claire."
"I'm not leaving my brother!"
"You've got to Claire," Chris said firmly, but as if his efforts were
useless.
"Claire, you've got to live today to fight tomorrow. Chris will hold
strong, but we have to get out of here so we can find a cure, a cure that
can save him once and for all."
Although Chris resented being talked about as if he wasn't there it was
pretty clear that Leon's words were getting through to his sister.
"Your right Leon," Claire said to her friend before turning her voice
back to him. "Chris I love you, and I promise we'll be back for you in no
time."
Chris listened as his sister and Leon's footsteps as they ran away,
suddenly a thought hit him. As loud as he could he yelled out to Claire.
"Claire, please tell Jill that it's okay."
Chris wasn't expecting a response, but in a Claire fashion she defiantly
gave him one.
"She loves you Chris, and she's fighting for you. We all are."
With that all sounds of Claire and Leon were gone.
Chris stumbled back to his cot. He had talked to his sister again,
something that just ten minutes ago he dreamed would never happen. Maybe,
despite everything, there was hope after all.
AUTHORS NOTE:
I like the thought of hope. It's a nice feeling. I just thought I
mention it since I weaved it through this whole chapter. Thank you again
to anyone who's reading this.
Always,
Leah
Despite All
"Bud, you haven't cracked a smile all night, here have another drink."
Carlos caught the glass that his friend, Rick Lasbury, had slid down the counter to him.
He had only left Jill and the others two weeks ago, but already the guilt had consumed him. Jealousy and anger had got the better of his righteousness and moral standards. And as much as he tried to forget them they just wouldn't go away.
Carlos had caught up with some old buddies of his from before the whole Umbrella ordeal. They still all worked for Umbrella as mercenaries, none of them knowing Carlos' actions from the previous months, he preferred it that way. It was hard enough to give up his previous way of life; he didn't want to loose all his friends while he was at it.
Still whenever they became really drunk, and all other conversation seemed to be lost, Carlos' disappearance seemed to always come up.
"Man no one performs a vanishing act quite like you do, Carlos my man." Rick teased him then took another slug of beer from his mug.
"Yeah where the hell have you been that took the smile right from you?" His other friend Damian asked.
'Hell,' Carlos thought to himself, but he decided to remain silent.
"You've been working for the C.I.A haven't you?" Rick teased.
"No, no he was taken by Umbrella like those others they been askin us to take." Damian joked to Rick, but Carlos' interest immediately increased by the words.
"So what have you fella's been doin lately?" He asked.
"That I'm afraid, my Hispanic friend, is classified information." Rick slurred.
"Of course it is." Carlos said and immediately purchased another round of drinks for his two friends.
Three rounds later his friends finally spilled.
"Carlos, man," Damian slurred. "They've been running us around the country taking people for god knows why."
"Where do you take them?" Carlos asked trying sound uninterested.
"Usually some place in Nevada." Rick informed him.
"Could you be a little more specific?"
It turned out he could be. It wasn't long before Carlos had the exact location written down on a piece of paper. Once that piece of paper was firmly in his hand Carlos turned to his friends and quickly said to them.
"I gotta go."
Half way across the bar he hears Rick yell at him.
"Where are you going?"
"I forgot I have to help the CIA with a secret underground mission." He yelled back, and before either of the Umbrella Mercenaries knew it, Carlos was gone.
* * *
Two weeks had come and gone since Barry and Carlos left their lonely
old apartment, and their search for Chris. Still Claire didn't give up
hope that one or both of them would return. Call her crazy, but after all
that Umbrella had done to her Claire still had hope, and she clung to it
with every fiber of her being.
One day while Jill was busy vegetating in their room Claire and Leon
finally got a chance to talk about the most innocent Umbrella victim of
them all. The common link between Leon and herself, they talked one
special girl named Sherry Birkin.
After their escape from Raccoon she and Leon brought Sherry to the
safe haven of her aunts, a top prosecutor for the state of California.
And there she's stayed; away from the craziness, away from the tragedy,
away from the horror that Umbrella had brought upon them all.
Sherry's parents; William and Annette Birkin were some of the top
minds in Umbrella's evil schemes. They had died that day in Raccoon, as
far as Sherry knew more victims of the virus. She didn't know the little
lies that fed into her parent's death, and Claire attended to keep it
that way, at least until Sherry was ready for the sorrow that the
knowledge would bring. Until then Claire had every attention of keeping
Sherry's life as normal and terror free as possible.
"Yeah, she's just starting middle school," Leon told her, who had been
in a great deal more contact with the girl then she had. "She says she
really likes it there, and has made a good number of friends too."
Claire smiled. It brought her an unbelievable amount of joy knowing
that Sherry was doing well. A joy of such grandeur that it was
indescribable.
"She said thank you for the card by the way." Leon mentioned off
handedly.
"I wanted to do more." Claire told him. "But under the current
circumstances."
"Sherry understands Claire, Sherry understands better then you think."
Claire frowned at that. She was a thirteen year old girl; she
shouldn't have to understand the complications of an ongoing war with the
world's most dangerous company. Even in her head the words sounded
ludicrous.
Leon, who must have been sensing her thoughts, took her hand and said.
"When all this is over, and Chris is safe and warm in his bed we'll go
visit Sherry. We'll go visit her together."
Claire nodded wiping a few tears away. 'When all this is over.' 'When'
always seemed to be the operative word. 'When' we find Chris, 'when' we
defeat Umbrella, Claire was beginning to hate 'when's', all she wanted
was now's.
Leon was still holding her hand when someone came barging through
their apartment door. Leon instinctively grabbed his gun from his hoister
immediately aiming it at the intruder.
Once the shock wore off Claire immediately realized who it was.
"Carlos, you're back."
Carlos, who seemed to be out of breath was bent over, between deep
breathes Carlos said to them.
"Guys.I know."
"Know what?" Leon asked while helping Carlos to the nearest chair.
"You know where Chris is," answered Jill, who had suddenly come out of
her room.
Carlos nodded and eagerly took the cup of water that Claire handed
him. After a few large sips from the cup Carlos regained his composure
and told everyone his story.
"So he's in a facility in Nevada?" Jill asked eagerly.
"Yeah I have the exact location right here," Carlos handed Jill a
napkin with an address and a small map on it.
"My god, this could be where Chris is!" Jill said excitingly.
She starts running around the apartment chaotically while yelling at
everyone else.
"Come on you guys were leaving in ten minutes," but before she did
anything else she stops in front of Carlos and gives him a kiss on the
cheek.
"Thank you so much." She told him sincerely.
Brushing it off Carlos says to her. "Don't mention it," and then
starts to get ready.
As Jill had demanded everyone was ready within ten minutes. They were
all just about to leave when another figure came barging through the
door.
"Barry!" She exclaimed wrapping her arms around her brother's oldest
friend.
After a cheerful chuckle Barry asked them. "Where you guys off to?"
"We know where Chris is." Jill answered hastily.
"Well then I'm glad I'm already packed. Let's get going already."
"What about your family?" Claire asked him.
"Well I was able to see my family, spend some quality time with them,
but now it's time to help out my other family."
"But Barry," Claire tried to argue, but Barry wouldn't hear it. In a
loud voice that faded away Claire's own Barry said to them.
"Are we going to find Chris or not?"
No one answered they just set off, now more determined then ever to
find her brother.
* * *
Hot, sticky sweat covered every surface of his body. Chris' body was
shivering all over, but he couldn't figure if it was from being too hot
or too cold. Chris couldn't tell anything anymore.
He had been locked in the same old cell longer then he could remember
now. The same small, dingy cell, with nothing more then a rock hard cot
for company.
For days on end Chris banged against the steel door that imprisoned
him. He shouted down the endless corridors for help, help which of course
never came.
It wasn't long after he stopped yelling for futile help that the
changes started.
Everything began in his head. Voices, thousands of them would all
start talking at once. Chris couldn't decipher anything that they were
saying, they were just always there. His thoughts could never stay focus;
they would always waver from what he wanted to think about, and would
always arrive at how hungry he was.
Of course his mind wasn't always like that, sometimes he could think
as clear as day, however, during the worst of times he wished he
couldn't. Everything became so much more unbearable when he knew what was
happening, especially so when his body started to change.
Nothing would ever freak him out more then when he first looked down
at his hands, and discovered that they had transformed.
No longer were they the five fingered, cream colored hands that Chris
had before taken for granted. They were now claw shaped, and the color of
a light blue. It was then that Chris knew for certain that something was
defiantly wrong with him.
From that point it didn't take Chris three guesses to figure out what
happened to him. Wesker and those bastard scientists had injected him
with one of the forms of the virus.
Once that realization came everything became simpler, because now he
knew there was a bottom line that he couldn't escape.
He was as good as dead.
The process was painstakingly slow. Some days were worse then others, but
slowly yet surely his whole body turned into one of the monsters that he
and his comrades had fought not so long ago. As for his mind it came and
went, but one thing was for sure, he was losing his sanity. It came to
the point where it was only a matter of time before he had none at all.
On one of his better days Chris laid on the cot contemplating what virus
he was injected with, he had come to the realization that whatever it was
that was in him had to be special because nothing he had seen before had
worked this slowly, when the sirens began to go off.
At first Chris didn't know what to make of them; it was a sound he had
never heard before in his lonely cell. The thought that it may be his
friends came to him, but it was gone as quickly as it came. Hope now
eluded him.
It wasn't until several minutes had passed that Chris became extremely
curious to what was going on.
He moved to the steel door of the cell, and listened carefully for
anything that might go by. Imagine his surprise when he heard a familiar
voice calling out his name.
It was soft at first, but within no time it became stronger. It had
become so strong, in fact, that Chris could no longer deny who it was.
Feverishly he yelled from inside his cell.
"Claire?!"
"Chris, my god Chris is that you?!"
The sound of his sister's voice was a godsend. Joy that he hadn't felt in
a long time was starting to race all along his body.
"Claire, I'm here, can you here me?"
His sister's footsteps could be heard rushing towards his cell till at
last he heard her banging against his cell door.
"Are you there Chris?" Claire asked her voice small and shaky.
"I'm here Claire." Chris told her as a flood of warmth washed over him
just from hearing his sister's voice being so close to him.
"Are you alright? Jesus, we've been looking all over for you. How can we
get you out of here?"
The questions were fast and plentiful, but there only one thing that
Chris wanted to know at that moment, one thing that he needed to know.
"Where's Jill, Claire? Is she with you?"
In a saddened voice Claire answered. "No, we split up she's with Barry
and Carlos, I'm with Leon Kennedy."
Chris didn't say anything, the disappointment was too great. Instead
Claire resumed the conversation.
"But you'll be with her in a jiff Chris," his sister added quickly. "Once
Leon and I figure out a way to get you out of here we'll be out of this
hell whole faster then you can say zombie."
That sounded wonderful, only there was one problem.
"Claire, I can't go with you."
"What?!" Claire shouted at him incredulously.
"Claire, listen they did something to me. I'm not myself it wouldn't be
safe to let me out of this cell."
"Did.did they inject you with the G or T virus?" Claire asked, Chris
could tell she was on the verge of tears.
"Neither," he answered. "I think it's another form of the Veronica virus,
my mind it comes and goes. It really is a mind numbingly slow process."
"Damnit Chris, you're talking about it so lightly."
"I've come to terms with it Claire. I'm.I'm no longer the brother you
once knew."
"That's not true!" Claire shouted, this time defiantly in tears "Were
going to get you out of here!"
Just then distant gunshots could be heard; suddenly things had become
hasty, and Chris was not going to waste anymore time.
"Claire, you've got to get out of here!"
"Not without you Chris!" His sister cried.
"I'm a lost cause Claire. Go while you still can."
Chris could sense his sister desperate hesitation. Luckily enough another
voice of reason had spoken from out side his cell; Chris assumed it was
Leon Kennedy's.
"Come on Claire."
"I'm not leaving my brother!"
"You've got to Claire," Chris said firmly, but as if his efforts were
useless.
"Claire, you've got to live today to fight tomorrow. Chris will hold
strong, but we have to get out of here so we can find a cure, a cure that
can save him once and for all."
Although Chris resented being talked about as if he wasn't there it was
pretty clear that Leon's words were getting through to his sister.
"Your right Leon," Claire said to her friend before turning her voice
back to him. "Chris I love you, and I promise we'll be back for you in no
time."
Chris listened as his sister and Leon's footsteps as they ran away,
suddenly a thought hit him. As loud as he could he yelled out to Claire.
"Claire, please tell Jill that it's okay."
Chris wasn't expecting a response, but in a Claire fashion she defiantly
gave him one.
"She loves you Chris, and she's fighting for you. We all are."
With that all sounds of Claire and Leon were gone.
Chris stumbled back to his cot. He had talked to his sister again,
something that just ten minutes ago he dreamed would never happen. Maybe,
despite everything, there was hope after all.
AUTHORS NOTE:
I like the thought of hope. It's a nice feeling. I just thought I
mention it since I weaved it through this whole chapter. Thank you again
to anyone who's reading this.
Always,
Leah
