Chapter 12

"Brian's Booster"

July 2nd 1988

As Jay and Brian headed out of the female subject's room, a little girl ran giggling between Brian's legs, causing him to almost fall over. He reached down and grabbed her shoulder gently enough to not hurt her, but hard enough to stop her from running any further.

"Hey squirt, where's the fire?" Brian asked with a smile.

The little girl looked up at him, cocking her head slightly to the side, "What fire, Mr. Jackson?"

Brian's face turned ugly, though it was just for show, "'Mr. Jackson'?"

The little girl grinned and giggled, "Sorry, Uncle Brian."

"It's okay, Sherrie. Now, where you runnin' off to? It's past midnight, shouldn't you be in bed?" Brian asked with a smile.

"Yeah, but, they just got some new candy bars in that room down there and I wanted one," Sherrie told him while pointing down the hall.

"Want a little sugar rush before you go to bed?" Brian asked.

Sherrie smiled and nodded vigorously.

Jay spoke up for the first time since meeting Sherrie, "How old are you?"

"I'm two," Sherrie told him, and held up three fingers for visual reference.

Jay only nodded as Brian squatted down and pushed one of Sherrie's fingers down so she held up the correct number, "Okay, go on. But if your mom or dad asks, you never saw us."

Sherrie's eyes lit up as she hugged him, "Thanks, Uncle Brian, thanks Uncle…" she squinted at Jay's nametag, "Uncle Dallas."

"My first name's Jay," He told her.

Sherrie giggled and hugged his leg, "Thanks Uncle Jay, thanks Uncle Brian."

They watched as she ran off down the hall, then Jay asked; "Uncle Brian?"

"She just started calling me that one day, and frankly, I like it a whole lot more than 'Mr. Jackson'. Besides, I am like an Uncle to her. Neither Burkin, or his wife Annett are exactly the parenting type."

"That's true. Annett Burkin, god, I was hoping there wouldn't be anymore Burkins."

"Hey, Sherrie ain't bad."

"I wasn't talking about Sherrie."

"Oh."

A group of people rounded the corner. One guy was pushing a dolly-cart on which rested a package and both Albert Wesker and William Burkin flanked him and they were making a beeline for the room Brian and Jay had just exited.

"Hey, where you guys going?" Brian asked as they passed.

"To test this," Wesker stated briskly as they entered the female subject's room.

Brian and Jay followed them back into the small room and Jay asked, "What is that?"

"It's the Nemesis Prototype," Burkin told him as he opened the package and pulled out a long tube. Inside the tube was a thing that looked somewhat like a small pink octopus.

Jay grimaced, "Icky."

Another man walked in with equipment that would monitor the Nemesis as it entered the female subject. When Burkin opened the container that held the Nemesis Parasite and let the thing out onto the female subject's chest, Brian had to look away. He didn't want to watch what happened next.

He heard the female subject struggle against her chains as she tried to back away from the thing on her chest. When she let out a blood-curdling scream of shear terror, Brian quickly left the room and shut the door behind him.

Outside, Sherrie Burkin saw him and quickly gave him a hug, "What's wrong, Uncle Brian?"

"I just got too scared in there, that's all," Brian said, recovering from the shakes that had attacked him and wiped a smudge of chocolate from the little girl's cheek, "Go on to bed."

As Sherrie ran off down the hall, Brian got up and headed back inside the room once the screaming stopped. Everyone inside was looking on in shocked silence.

"The Nemesis," Wesker uttered after a long time, "It's gone."